Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 185 Eat two fish for one fish

After the most prosperous Saturday,
Sunday's box office inevitably saw a decline.
But it still grossed $266 million in 268 cinemas, and the box office per theater remained above $10000.

The box office revenue for the first weekend successfully exceeded 800 million US dollars, ranking fourth that weekend!

Below are Tom Cruise’s Lion in the Lamb’s Mouth and Saw IV.

Above are North American gangsters, Bee Movie, and Christmas family movies.

Each of the films was shown in more than 3,000 cinemas. The quality of the films was excellent and the subject matter was suitable for the schedule. It was almost impossible for Summer to make a breakthrough.

but,

The box office of a single theater in the first weekend was $30000.
Still, Hollywood couldn't help but take notice of this young Palme d'Or-winning director.

After entering the working day, theater managers immediately contacted the distribution manager Ma Lin and asked for more screenings.

Fortunately, North American cinemas have now undergone digital transformation.
Otherwise, the distribution company would need to make film copies to add more films, but it would be too late to make as many copies as needed in a few days.

In comparison, digital copies are much simpler to create.

"Bruce, it has been confirmed that starting this Friday, the number of cinemas will increase to 2077."

Michael took the list from Marin and handed it to Gu Bei opposite him.

Gu Bei took it and looked at it.
Basically all the major commercial cinema chains are listed above.

AMC Cinemas, Imperial Cinemas...

Complete coverage of the popular theaters with the hottest box office in North America,

The number is certainly not comparable to those movies that have three or four thousand productions, but Summer's subject matter is not a very popular topic among the general public.

Audiences in the Midwest, for example, simply don't buy into light-hearted movies like Summer.

This is the film distribution on the North American side,

Cinema managers use their years of experience to squeeze every penny out of the audience's pockets.

Even the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, which was released on the same day as Summer, was only shown in 28 art-house theaters, with a single-theater box office of $43000 in its first weekend, and will still only be shown in 860 theaters the following week.

Because theater managers know that the week when No Country for Old Men has the highest box office is definitely the week when the Oscars are announced.

After reading it, Gu Bei returned it to Ma Lin: "There are 2077 stores this week, so can we maintain this number for Thanksgiving next week?"

"I am very sure of that!"

Marin said with a smile, "I ask all theaters that want to show Summer not to reduce our screening schedule before the Thanksgiving holiday is over!"

"Well done!"

Gu Bei nodded with satisfaction.

Summer and Titanic are box office successes.
There is a high probability that next week will be the week with the highest box office.
The Thanksgiving holiday next week can still support this schedule,
It's equivalent to earning millions of dollars in box office revenue for free.

After Marin left,

Michael looked at Gu Bei: "Bruce, what do you think about Summer's overseas distribution rights?"

Gu Bei smiled and said, "Eric from Summit Entertainment also asked me this question."

Michael suddenly felt a sense of crisis.

Summit Entertainment is also a long-established overseas distributor, and its collaboration with Gu Bei on the Twilight project makes it a good choice to take over overseas distribution rights.

He thought about it and raised the price in his mind: "I want to obtain the overseas distribution rights of Summer, $600 million."

Still more generous than Eric.

Gu Bei also wanted to sell the overseas distribution rights for Summer. Summer primarily reflects North American pop culture, and without any well-known overseas stars, the combined overseas box office might not even reach the North American market alone.

He thought for a moment and said, "One more point."

Michael hesitated and raised the offer by another 10%: "$660 million."

"make a deal!"

Gu Bei didn't hesitate either.

It just so happened that he needed money recently and wanted to quickly recover some cash flow.

This $660 million is just the first wave of earnings for Summer.
After two months, you can share the first month's box office revenue of Summer.

After a while, I can make some money by putting Summer on DVD and Blu-ray discs before it's released.
When the discs are almost sold out, they can be put on high-end on-demand services, just like Gu Bei and Liu Yifei watching The Ring at the ski resort.
There is also the broadcasting rights of cable TV stations, which is also a considerable income.

As for public TV viewers, they will have to wait two years before they can watch Summer for free.

At least in the next two to three years, "500 Days of Summer" will continue to bring considerable profits to Gu Bei and Liu Yifei.

The key is,

Summer's production costs were nominally invested in Twilight.

In fact, Gu Bei and Liu Yifei killed two birds with one stone.

Gu Bei and Michael talked about the artist's project again, and then left Sony Pictures Classics.

Time passed day by day,
On Thursday, Summer's first-week box office finally broke through $1000 million, finally settling at $1020 million, ranking fourth this week.

On Friday,
Summer has finally officially landed in 2077 cinemas.

The box office curve soared to the sky in a situation of trying to catch the moon from the bottom of the sea.
However, this was just the stimulation brought by large-scale screenings. The box office of a single theater inevitably plummeted and returned to the level of a normal movie.

In the end, Summer's second weekend grossed $1120 million, but this week's ranking dropped to seventh.

Because this week, in addition to the three movies that have been suppressing Summer last week,
Another new movie has entered the box office battle.

The epic film "Beowulf" and Disney's musical "Enchanted",
They all want to release it before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Domestic media also noticed Summer's box office performance.

Director Gu Bei's new film has surpassed $2000 million at the North American box office, and the theme song sung by Liu Yifei has topped the Billboard charts!

"$2140 million is equivalent to 1.66 million Chinese Yuan at today's exchange rate. Last year, only Curse of the Golden Flower could compare to it. No wonder all directors want to go to Hollywood. It's so lucrative!"

"Where's China Film Group? Hurry up and bring it in. I want to see this movie during the Lunar New Year holiday."

"Forget it. This movie only cost $700 million. I guess they didn't even consider importing it. I might as well look forward to Twilight, which was co-invested by Gu Bei and China Film. The female lead is really beautiful!"

Huayi.

"I rely on! I rely on!"

Feng Xiaogang slapped his thigh while looking at the newspaper, "Making movies in Hollywood is really profitable!
How about we go and give it a try too?"

"Let's talk about the promotion of Assembly first. We'll talk about Hollywood next time, next time!"

Wang Zhongjun suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
Don't you see what happened to Chinese directors who tried to enter Hollywood?

MGM was bankrupted by Wu Baige, and their Huayi, with its weak arms and legs, can’t withstand the torment!
Feng Xiaogang grinned.

He is just saying,

If he really goes to Hollywood to make a movie,

He really didn't know what to shoot.
It's impossible to make Feng-style comedies for foreigners, right?
Even southerners don’t like it very much, let alone foreigners!
(End of this chapter)