Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 555: Global Competition of the Two Heroes (6k)

Robert Downey Jr. immediately expressed his opinion, "Chen, I respect China and the audience here from the bottom of my heart."

He said sincerely, "If I had known that these two scenes in the film might hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, I would have made suggestions to Mr. Feige."

Shane Black had a similar expression, "I'm sorry that I didn't understand the preferences of Chinese audiences well enough before."

The word "discrimination" cannot be used.

"But now the copies have been distributed to various theaters. It would be too drastic to make any last-minute changes..."

Chen Linfeng waved his hand, "This situation is just a reminder for you as a viewer. You have to decide for yourself."

"To be honest, we are still rivals now."

He smiled and said, "Just don't think I'm deliberately making trouble."

"Of course not."

Chen Linfeng didn't say anything more. The problems with "Iron Man 3" could be big or small.

The two people in front of him seemed to be apologizing sincerely, but he had no idea whether they really took it seriously.

After the premiere, Chen Linfeng was unable to stay for long. He just spent one night with his wife and flew back to London the next day to continue filming.

Shane Black did not take the two questions he raised lightly and sent an email to Kevin Feige that evening to inform them.

The next day, I received a reply:
"Maybe we should take action, but there's nothing we can do."

……

The battle between "Joker" and "Iron Man 3" during the May Day period has become the most talked-about topic in the domestic film and television circles.

Before the premiere, the media's biggest focus was on the conflict between the two films.

There is also the topic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe taking shape and sweeping Hollywood and the world.

“…As it swept across everything, a figure seemed to be emerging.

From "Taken" and "Infinite World" in the past two years, to "Inception" last year, and "Joker" this year...

Every time, there is Director Chen’s movie competing against it, and there are winners and losers.

"Inception" ranked among the top five in film history, but unfortunately lost to "The Avengers" and only took second place in the global box office that year.

Now Director Chen is taking on the challenge again with "Joker". Whether it can beat "Iron Man 3" has become a matter of concern to Hollywood."

"Marvel in Hollywood is so powerful that the only one who can resist is Director Chen. He seems to have become the hope of other Hollywood companies and filmmakers."

"This is a war between Director Chen and Marvel. Great, Director Chen!"

"..."

In fact, such a topic seems a bit too far away for the domestic film and television industry.

Is Marvel invincible? Is there only one dominant company in Hollywood?

What does this have to do with them?

But when Chen Linfeng suddenly appeared in the topic, the feeling became different.

Everyone felt that this matter was worth talking about and was very enthusiastic about discussing it.

Even this year's May Day period has a different flavor.

In the global box office battle between "Joker" and "Iron Man 3", the Chinese market is also an important battlefield.

On May 1st, the two films were officially released online.

There are many people traveling during the holidays, but because the two movies were promoted so widely, there are still many movie fans who choose to go to the cinema to watch movies.

Reporters from Entertainment Weekly stayed at the cinema to record the grand opening of the two films.

The core area of ​​the cinema is covered with posters of "Joker" and "Iron Man 3".

The domestic "Joker" poster is slightly different from the North American version.

The font of the words "Director Chen Linfeng" was enlarged, making it very eye-catching and easy to see at a glance.

In the camera lens, there was a crowded crowd buying tickets.

“A ticket for Joker.”

"Two copies of Iron Man 3, thanks."

“Two copies of Joker.”

"..."

At another place, audience members who had purchased tickets online were picking up their tickets at a self-service machine.

Judging from the general situation, the two films are currently evenly matched.

In terms of publicity, almost everyone has done their best.

The rest depends on the quality of the movie and the audience's preference.

On May 5, the box office figures for the first day of the May Day holiday were released.

"Iron Man 3" won the first-day box office battle, leading the market with an opening score of 1.16 million and setting a single-day box office record during the May Day holiday.

"Joker" was slightly lower, with a box office of 1.08 million.

The two films together pushed the market to the level of 2 million, far exceeding the level of the same period last year.

The media reported the failure of Joker with great fanfare.

The crew of "Shushan".

"Oh my, Director Chen didn't win."

"There are so many fans of the Iron Man series that it's normal that we can't win on the first day."

"Director Chen has a lot of fans, I thought he was going to win for sure."

"I guess everyone doesn't like to watch art films, so I guess you didn't watch it?"

"..."

Jing Tian and Liu Shishi were having a heated discussion, while Hu Ge and Shu Chang were listening on the side and would interject from time to time.

Liu Qianqian, who had just finished performing a scene, tilted her head as if she heard something.

She took two steps closer.

"Oh, Sister Sissi, you're done,"

When Jingtian saw her, he immediately extended his hand to greet her.

"Yesterday's box office data came out, and Joker's box office was a little lower than Iron Man's. What a pity."

Liu Qianqian was shocked and asked hurriedly, "Really? How much did Joker make at the box office? How much difference did it make?"

"1.08 million, about eight million less."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good."

It would be ugly if we lost too much on our own turf.

Liu Qianqian sat in her chair and Zhang Xin handed her a cup of water.

She waved her hand, not even bothering to drink water, and hurriedly asked about the details.

There isn't much difference between the two movies, it's just that one has a lot of media coverage and is hyped up a lot.

In fact, according to online reputation, Joker has much better reputation than its competitors.

"Iron Man 3" has a good reputation among passers-by, and the armor setting off fireworks is quite lively.

The special effects were also good and the audience was quite satisfied.

But fans of the series don’t like it very much and there are some critical voices.

A certain rating platform gave this film a score of 7.9, which is lower than the scores of the previous two films.

But overall, it is a qualified commercial film and an orthodox Hollywood blockbuster.

Liu Qianqian held her chin up, imitating Chen Linfeng's posture, and analyzed, "So, Iron Man 3 is just average, without too many surprises, but the quality is not bad, so the box office should be stable?"

Shu Chang nodded, "It should be."

"What a strong opponent." Everyone exclaimed.

Everyone unconsciously stood on Director Chen's side. After all, almost everyone present had some connection with the Qilin family.

And as a Chinese filmmaker, I tend to be more biased towards my own people.

"But there's no need to worry. Director Chen's movies have won so much word of mouth that maybe he'll make a push in the later stages," Hu Ge said.

Although the overall reputation of "Iron Man 3" is not bad, the series has enough influence.

But in contrast, the reputation and reviews of "Joker" are still much higher than it.

Looking at the reviews online, many viewers’ first reactions after watching the film were with words like “classic” and “art”.

Hu Ge paused and said, "Actually, after watching the whole thing, no one felt that it was boring, difficult to understand, or not good to watch, which are the common comments about art films."

Indeed, the film itself has received almost unanimous positive reviews online.

"No wonder it has such a high box office in North America. I really admire it."

"Chen Linfeng's directing and visual skills have improved visibly. This is a masterpiece."

"Leo can actually act so well. It completely breaks through my previous impression of him."

"..."

The only slightly different voice is the doubt that such a movie could have passed review and been released in the country.

Netizens’ comment on this was, “It’s just Chen Linfeng. If you change the director, don’t even think about appearing in China. Even your name will be censored.”

"How about we go to the movies together after we finish filming today?" Jingtian suggested.

"I've seen both movies, so I won't go." Liu Qianqian refused. She still had to video chat with Xiaofeng in the evening.

"Oh, you silly girl who only has eyes for your husband," Shu Chang glanced at her, "If she doesn't go, then we'll go."

Liu Qianqian glared back and asked, "Who told you not to find a boyfriend now?"

The next day, "Iron Man 3" had a domestic box office of 1.31 million yuan, and "Joker" had a domestic box office of 1.3 million yuan.

The gap between the two has further narrowed.

The two sides fought each other fiercely.

The media were completely excited. It was boring to have a one-sided fight. Only an intense fight would create topics.

"The battle between Joker and Iron Man was fierce, and on the second day, Joker still lost to Iron Man 3."

"The current situation is very tense, and the two sides are completely evenly matched opponents."

Many media outlets joined in and exaggerated the competition between the two heroes during the May Day period into the battle of the century.

The set of "Shushan".

Several people were discussing the war between the two movies again.

This time is different from yesterday. After watching both movies in one night, everyone’s confidence in "Joker" has greatly increased.

"The quality gap is too big. One is a popcorn movie that you forget after watching, and the other is a movie that will become a classic." Hu Ge made a confident judgment.

Liu Shishi nodded, "Indeed, Joker is a movie that feels very artistic at first glance."

Shu Chang and Jing Tian agreed.

Their views are consistent with the public's evaluation.

In two days, more than 5 people rated "Joker" on Baidu, and the current score has reached a high score of 9.3.

The score on v-station is similar, at 9.1 points.

Almost all movies with this score level are classics.

Only Liu Qianqian looked depressed.

Oh, it was almost there again. It feels so bad.

Even if she didn't have obsessive-compulsive disorder, she still couldn't help feeling overwhelmed when she saw the box office gap of just a decimal point.

……

Kevin Feige, who was far away in Hollywood, received the box office data from the Chinese region.

He breathed a sigh of relief, "It seems that what Chen said was not accurate. The situation he described did not happen." However, the turning point had already occurred.

Most of the people who watched the movie in the past two days were core movie fans, and the opinions of general audiences were often ignored by the mainstream public opinion.

But the problem still exists.

Discussions about the character of Mandarin in "Iron Man 3" are becoming increasingly heated.

In the film and television section of the v-station, many film and television up-loaders initially only evaluated the quality of the two films themselves.

Although the reviews are almost one-sided, people are more interested in watching the box office competition between the two films.

In the comment section of the video, naturally, someone mentioned the issue of "Mandarin".

Subsequently, more and more people posted in the comment section.

When it comes to national sentiment, many netizens are still sensitive.

At the same time, an up master released a video regarding this issue.

The story includes the problematic aspects of the character "Mandarin" and his origins in past Western history.

The video went viral instantly and was ranked as a trending topic on the same day.

When other up-loaders saw that this approach could bring in traffic, they quickly followed suit.

Various popular science videos emerge one after another.

At this time, public opinion could no longer be suppressed.

The box office data on the 4th showed that "Joker" overtook "Iron Man 1.2" with a box office of 1.1 million, surpassing the 3 million of "Iron Man ".

The media continued to report on the box office situation, and this time it became a back-and-forth situation.

Good, color~
In addition, the matter of China’s special supply was exposed by many media.

Two well-known stars, Fan Binbin and Wang Xueqin, were said to have starred in a Hollywood movie, but they only appeared for less than 5 minutes.

As a result, in the "international version" released worldwide, Fan Binbin did not even have a single shot, and Wang Xueqin only had about two seconds of shots.

So, this is still a polite way of describing it in China, it’s a “special edition”.

There was an uproar in the film and television circles.

A movie has to be divided into "international version" and "special edition"?
The people have also gained more knowledge.

But in contrast, the topic of "Mandarin" was obscured and the public's focus was diverted.

On the v site, some people are still posting videos, some are watching, and some are commenting, but when the entire Internet is talking about Fan Binbin and the special edition, there is obviously not enough attention paid to the former.

It was then that some netizens noticed that something seemed wrong.

Chen Linfeng, who was far away in London, noticed this scene.

He was sure that the V site was not affected by any external factors, but looking at the data, the topic of the "special edition" was still more popular.

The best way to cover up a hot spot is to create a bigger hot spot.

He recalled the news from his previous life, and it seemed that the "special edition" was the most popular news at first.

It was not until the end of the film's release that other problems were discovered and the video platform removed the film.

“You really have a knack for this.”

However, special supply is not a good thing after all.

It's just replacing the worst news with slightly worse news.

Since then, the box office of "Iron Man 3" has been obviously affected.

It was okay that it had no rivals in the previous life, but now that "Joker" is so powerful, it is difficult for it to maintain its position.

The single-day box office fell to less than 7 million, but "Joker" maintained a box office of over million for one more day.

This widened the gap.

Subsequently, theaters adjusted their screening schedules, and "Joker" took up a lot of the market share of "Iron Man 3", but still managed to maintain a level of more than 8 million.

In the first seven days of its first week, "Joker" grossed 7.3 million yuan at the box office, averaging just over million yuan per day.

"Iron Man 3" was a complete failure with a score of 6.1 million.

Domestic related institutions have given the final box office forecasts for the two films:
The former is expected to be around 14 billion, or about 2.24 million US dollars.

The latter is expected to have close to 11 billion, which is actually quite good, and is expected to become the third imported film to exceed 10 billion.

Domestic media were jubilant and released various related reports.

Director Chen is still amazing, with another movie that grossed over 10 billion in the country.

Moviegoers and fans were also overjoyed.

Liu Qianqian was in great shape while filming on the set, and she finally got her breath moving smoothly.

At the same time, "Joker" and "Iron Man 3" are competing fiercely in the entire global market.

In the North American market, "Joker" has been released for the third week. It has earned 4 million in box office in 3 weekdays and 3 million in 3500 weekend days.

The North American box office officially exceeded the 3 million watershed.

In the last ten days or so, I estimate that I can still get around 6 million.

Iron Man 3 was very popular right from the start, with box office revenue reaching 1.8 million US dollars in the first three days of its weekend.

In Europe, "Joker" is gradually being released in various countries, facing the film that won the Golden Bear in Berlin and created a box office miracle in North America.

There was a lot of noise in the media.

Most Europeans know the plot of the Batman movies or comics, so they are very interested in the "most unique Joker" reported in the media.

Therefore, in the European film market, the box office of "Joker" is extremely eye-catching, and it is hard to tell who is better than "Iron Man".

In the UK, the box office of the two films was not much different, both just over 2000 million US dollars.

In Italy, "Joker" earned $2000 million at the box office in just two weeks.

At the same time, in the Asian market, Japan, which is known as the graveyard of superhero movies, "Joker" has achieved rare popularity.

It topped the charts in the first week.

In just two weeks, it surpassed the previous record of 19.7 billion yen set by a similar movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."

It then continued to win the weekly championship, and the final box office is expected to exceed 60 billion yen, which is approximately 4 million US dollars.

The film also topped the charts in South Korea, with over a million viewers in three days and over two million in five days. The forecasting agency gave a final prediction of 3 billion Korean won.

That's another $2000 million.

"Joker" has blossomed all over the world.

Media from many countries are reporting on this grand event.

In comparison, "Iron Man 3" is also gaining ground in the global market.

This film had more concentrated releases, and its global box office has exploded since its overseas premiere in late April.

On May 5, 7 days after its release, the global box office reached 11 million US dollars.

The two films competed for the top spot in the box office in many countries, ranking either first or second.

Media in many countries are either hyping up the "Hollywood DC Marvel battle" or, like China, exclaiming "only Mr. Chen/Qilin can resist the Marvel tide."

At this point, one thing is clear to everyone: both "Joker" and "Iron Man 3" will probably gross more than $10 billion in the end.

These are two movies with a box office of over 10 billion, competing in the same schedule.

While the whole world is exclaiming "Hollywood is unstoppable" on a daily basis, it is also shocked by Chen's strength.

It's really scary that this person can make movies worth more than 10 billion US dollars in a row without relying on IP or previous works.

In mid-May, Chen Linfeng received another call from Pete.

"I said you've been contacting me a lot lately."

"Dear Chen, aren't we good friends?"

Pitt began to act aggrieved, but since his acting skills were not good enough, it sounded more like he was being pretentious and acting coquettish.

But it's disgusting for a man to act like a spoiled child.

Chen Linfeng was disgusted, "No, just tell me if you have something to say."

"Okay," Peter returned to normal, "I wanted to ask you when Now You See Me will be finished."

There was a hint of excitement in his voice. "Chen, will this movie also have a box office of $10 billion?"

"No, do you think 10 billion is that easy?"

"I don't think it's hard for you at all."

Chen Linfeng said unhappily, "A magic movie won't have such a high box office, and the post-production hasn't been completed yet, let's wait."

"Now You See Me" started post-production after the new year. The special effects are simple, and other post-production work can probably be completed before July.

The summer schedule is too rushed, so he intends to postpone it to the end of the year or even next year's Spring Festival.

"No," Pete said, "It's too late, and the ceiling will be higher only in the summer."

"What you said makes sense, but we can't sacrifice production quality for the sake of schedule."

Peter hesitated and could only agree, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

"In addition to asking about this, there is also the matter of Joker. I heard rumors in the industry that you are going to let that fat guy Harvey take care of the movie's Oscar campaign?"

Chen Linfeng frowned, "How is that possible? I rejected him when it premiered in Los Angeles."

“But now he’s saying, oh, I see, he wants to discourage other competitors?”

Pete took a deep breath, "He's totally crazy!"

Chen Linfeng laughed, "I guess he wants to threaten me. If I don't choose him, he will make trouble for me."

Although he was laughing, there was no smile in his eyes.

"This is crazier than offending other people."

With "Joker" about to reach $10 billion, Chen is the most unoffensive person in Hollywood.

What's more, there is Leonardo. Everyone knows his desire for the golden man.

Peter shook his head at the thought of blocking the two's way.

At this time, Chen Linfeng suddenly said, "Pitt, we worked very well together on Sunset. Now I want to let you take charge of Joker. Are you willing to take over?"

Pete was stunned. Is there such a good thing?
He didn't care about Harvey's threat at all. The Joker was not worthy of touching the project of "Joker".

"Of course, I'm happy to."

"Then it's settled."

Chen Linfeng was about to hang up the phone.

"Wait, there's still something else to do."

Peter quickly said, "Mr. Iger asked me to tell you that your cooperation with Warner Bros. makes him very sad. It's best if this happens only once, otherwise he will find it hard to accept."

"We're still going to work together on Now You See Me?"

"Mr. Egger said it hurts him more to think about it."

"I can't promise that. We are just doing business."

Chen Linfeng would never give a definite answer, it would be better if he just felt heartbroken.

People always like what they can't get.

Just hanging there like this, his position becomes more secure.

"I'm going to join the crew of Infinite World later, so this is also a collaboration. Tell Mr. Iger that there are still many opportunities for us to work together."

"Uh, well, hopefully he'll feel better." Pete thought that was probably bad enough.

The news always comes together.

It seems that a series of reactions caused by "Joker" have fermented together.

Then, Sister Mei told him a piece of news.

The original program plan to invite several international directors to sit together and chat has now actually been launched.

(End of this chapter)