Entertainment upstart

Chapter 752
Zhou Xia doesn't have detailed information about the release of North American movies in his memory, he mostly reads down domestic film and television news.

Of the many movies that Zhang Zhao mentioned just now, he basically has the impression that those movies have performed well in the global market, and almost all of them have been introduced and shown in China.

Among them, Julie's comeback magical masterpiece "Maleficent" did not perform as expected in North America and the mainland, with mixed reviews, which left a deep impression on Zhou Xia.

At that time, the domestic media also reported the film extensively.

"Maleficent" landed in 5 theaters in North America on Friday, May 30. The attendance rate on that day was as high as 3948 million US dollars at the box office, which once set off a movie-watching boom. It was released for three days in the first week and won 2424. Million dollars at the box office.

Therefore, the scale of "Maleficent" was once slightly increased by several theaters, breaking through 4001 theaters.

However, the film’s reputation is too poor, and it cannot last long after all. In the second week of its release, it only earned 940 million US dollars from Monday to Friday. Including the weekend box office, it dropped 65% compared with the same period of the previous week, and only earned 3260 million US dollars. broken.

Another love movie released by Fox, "The Fault in Our Stars", won the weekly box office champion after two days of release on weekends thanks to its strong reputation.

This high-quality love movie has a small size and a weak star lineup. Fox originally planned to try its luck in more than 3000 theaters, but it did not expect to achieve such impressive results, and became the first choice for North American summer screenings. A model of success.

Thinking of the information in his memory, Zhou Xia frowned, thinking hard about how to make "New Detective" break through in the North American market.

Although it is the North American market, in fact, as long as he has money and confidence in his own films, he can also learn from Fox.

But it is different from the mainland, in order to win more than [-] theaters, a certain deposit must be paid as a publicity fee.

This fee is quite high, generally between US$2000 million and US$4000 million.

With this deposit, the theater will make money without showing the movie, and only when it guarantees its own interests will it arrange movies for the movie.

Zhang Zhao is now reporting to Zhou Xia, in fact, asking him to make a choice, whether to spend such a high publicity fee, or whether to release it in the fiercely competitive North American summer.

If you invest 2000 million US dollars in operation, you have to at least double it, and the box office of 4000 million US dollars can recover the cost.

And if you choose the summer file, if the performance is not good, the word-of-mouth does not spread, and the first week is not stable, the new blockbuster movies released in the second and third weeks will continue to be compressed and arranged to attract fans. Wait a month When the schedule is over, the theater will no longer maintain a certain amount of filming for you.

After some consideration, Zhou Xia made a decision in his heart, and looked up at Zhang Zhao who was waiting quietly.

"Isn't the movie about to be released in Europe? Let's first look at the performance in European countries. It is also a Western audience, and the taste will not be too bad. If "New Detective" performs equally well in Europe, then no matter if it is 2000 dollars , or 4000 U.S. dollars, we can safely invest in this publicity fee.

Even if the risk is high, as our first film to land in North America and test the waters on a large scale, even if it loses money, it is worth paying tuition and learning lessons. "

"Today is already February 2th. If we wait for the results of the European market, then the release in March and April will be too late." Zhang Zhao looked at Zhou Xia and asked.

"Then forget about March and April, we're going to release Maleficent in the second week of release regardless of how the European market responds.

If the European market is doing well, we will invest more in publicity and distribution expenses to strive for more film arrangements, otherwise we will invest less. "Zhou Xia said decisively.

"Rookie Detective" came to North America to test the waters. If you don't participate in the North American summer program, if you don't face the difficulties, then the content of this touchstone will be greatly reduced.

In the future, "Sword of Heaven" and "Zhu Xian" with more Chinese characteristics will be shown in North America, so Xia Hua will have a reference and have more experience in operation.

And if it is chosen to be released in March and April, it will be similar to the choice of "Hero" at the beginning. Although the market is not hot, it can guarantee a high enough film schedule for a certain period of time.

If it is placed in the summer, the market is very hot and there are many people watching movies, but there are many blockbusters, and the pressure of competition is even greater. It is likely to be overwhelmed by many Hollywood blockbusters.

These two time periods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it mainly depends on the quality of the work and whether it can be liked by North American audiences.

Since the high-quality love movie "The Fault in Our Stars" was an upset and became a dark horse, Zhou Xia decided to fight for it when the time came.

Fox is not firm anyway, if they are scared away, then "New Detective" will grab the schedule, and maybe replicate this success.

Even if it didn't scare off, those two movies competed better than any other Hollywood blockbuster.

This is the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils.

"Okay, then I will go to negotiate and arrange as soon as possible. Boss, there is another good news about "Starting Line" participating in the Oscar." After Zhang Zhao agreed, he said to Zhou Xia again.

"Oh, why, is it really possible to win an Oscar?" Zhou Xia couldn't help laughing, the Oscars were less than 20 days away.

"It's really possible."

Zhang Zhao nodded and said with a smile: "Boss, didn't you leave it to me to operate it? I asked Harvey Weinstein, the owner of Miramax. I called and asked about it yesterday. He said that the current operation is very effective. , Many judges like our film very much and think that the possibility of winning the award is very high.”

"Hehe, is that so, how much did you spend?" Zhou Xia asked with a smile. Of course Harvey Weinstein knew.

Or he should be called Harvey Weinstein, anyway, it is a translation issue, not the point.

Before being ruined because of sex scandals and various harassment incidents, Harvey was known as a very influential figure in the film industry in the world today. The Miramax company he led produced and distributed a large number of classic films, which also won him The reputation of "the savior of modern cinema".

Two Oscar-winning works such as "Pulp Fiction" and "The English Patient", as well as films such as "Gangs of New York", "Infernal Affairs", "Chicago", "Kill Bill 1, 2", "Cold Mountain", etc. Announced by Harvey's Miramax.

In the short, big and tight "Xiao Shuo", Harvey is even called the "Hollywood Emperor" among some Xiangjiang film population.

In the eyes of many filmmakers in the mainland, Harvey is a good friend of Chinese filmmakers. Of course, this is before being deceived.

Later, after Xiaogangpao was cheated a few times, he publicly commented on Harvey as a liar on the forum, exposing Harvey's tricks, and it was very difficult for Harvey to deceive domestic filmmakers.

But in any case, Harvey does have a lot to do with Chinese films.

As early as 1995, he acquired many films by Li Lianjie, Zhou Runfa and Cheng Nong, and released them in North America. Later, he also released Zhou Xingxing's "Shaolin Soccer", Lao Mouzi's "Hero", and "House of Flying Daggers". Brother Kai "The Promise" and other movies.

In the past few years, as Chinese-language filmmakers have become more familiar with Hollywood, Chinese-language films can no longer make money in Hollywood, and Harvey seldom does Chinese-language film projects.

Zhou Xia was not surprised that Zhang Zhao found Harvey.

The Hollywood Oscar Awards has a special lobbying and public relations mechanism, and Harvey can be said to be the person who is best at operating the Oscar Awards.

If spending some money can really make it to the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, then these expenses are worth it.

Even if the film has already been screened in China and Asia, just because of the increased reputation of nominations and awards, and the newly added copyright sales in Europe and the United States, it will make a lot of money.

(End of this chapter)