America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 718 Beauty and the Beast

The first month of each year is usually a relatively slow season for movies. The biggest film released in January 2012 was "Lone Survivor," directed by Peter Berg, starring Mark Wahlberg, and based on a true story.

Although the film's production cost was only $4000 million, the project was driven by Martin Scorsese, and several screenings received unanimous praise. Disney Studios provided sufficient publicity and distribution resources.

There are nearly 3500 open-screen cinemas in North America.

On the day of the premiere, the production team invited many retired soldiers to watch the film, and the people who had saved Marcus back then also came to the premiere.

These are naturally necessary means of publicity.

On the second floor of the theater, Alan Horn invited Martin to the floor-to-ceiling windows to admire the red carpet below.

Martin looked around for a while and said, "This place has a commanding view; the perspective is quite unique."

Alan Horn laughed and said, "Doesn't it feel like you have everything under control?"

Martin nodded: "Indeed, it's easy to have that illusion, but film is a complex commercial art form. No matter how good the word-of-mouth is during test screenings or how high the professional ratings are, sometimes it's hard to avoid failure."

This reminded Alan Horn of his former employer: "It's said that Jon Berger liked to stand here when Warner Bros. films premiered."

Martin could tell that Alan Horn still harbored resentment towards Warner's ruthlessness.

Similar to ex-wives and ex-husbands, once they become enemies, they often hate each other to the extreme.

"At this nominees' luncheon, Warner Bros.' 'Moneyball' was a complete disaster," Alan Horn said, clearly in high spirits. "Our collaboration, 'The Martian,' was one of the winners."

Martin didn't mince words: "Alan, whether I can win Best Actor depends on Disney's support."

This is a bit of an exaggeration, because Disney Studios didn't actually do as much as Martin himself, but Alan Horn readily agreed: "Best Actor is Disney Studios' primary goal in this year's Oscar campaign."

An Oscar for Best Actor can bring in tens of millions of dollars more for a film, so it's worth it.

Alan Horn carefully studied the other nominees for Best Actor. Demian Beehill was a nobody, George Clooney's acting skills have never been recognized, Gary Oldman's film was not even released by a North American company, and Joel Edgerton, like Demian Beehill, was obviously just there to make up the numbers.

Although The Martian's genre is not its strong suit, Martin Scorsese stands out significantly among the cast of male actors.

The Oscars consider not only the winners themselves, but also their rivals.

Alan Horn asked, "How's your musical project going?"

Martin said, "It will probably take a while longer. I invited Taylor Swift to write the song."

Speaking of musicals, he remembered something. He had originally planned to take some time to talk to Alan Horn, but since he had nothing else to do at the moment, he simply said, "I have another idea for a musical. Our two companies could collaborate on it."

Like Megan Allison and Warner Bros.' Jon Berg, as well as other figures, Alan Horn also had high hopes for Martin's project.

If we don't believe in successful people, are we supposed to believe in failures?

Alan Horn asked, "What project?"

Davis Studios and Disney Studios are in a honeymoon period, and the project investment is too high. Fairy tale movies without Disney's endorsement will have huge inherent flaws.

Martin thought for a moment and said, "A live-action fairy tale phone call."

Alan Horn said, "Hollywood makes a lot of live-action fairy tale movies, and Disney also has 'Into the Woods'."

Martin has looked into it; it's a huge hodgepodge.

"What I mean is, Disney's past animated films." Even if Martin hadn't said it, Disney would have soon put it into practice: "Select the suitable ones and make them into live-action films."

He gave several examples: "For instance, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast."

Alan Horn laughed: "I didn't expect we'd thought of the same thing. I've considered it before. Which one do you think is most suitable?"

Martin said, "It's a live-action musical, like Beauty and the Beast."

"It's truly a classic." Alan Horn was slightly surprised: "Why didn't you plan it separately? It wouldn't have been difficult for you to raise over $1 million in investment."

Martin said, half-jokingly, "Because I've heard about the power of Disney's legal department. Although these are all public domain copyrights, I've heard that your legal experts analyze other companies' Disney animated films of the same name frame by frame, and they immediately take action if they find any similarities."

Alan Horn waved his hand: "That's a huge exaggeration." He seemed to be joking: "The Department of Justice analyzes things every second at most."

As he said this, Alan Horn considered it carefully. He realized that it would be difficult to adapt Disney's classic fairy tale movies into live-action versions without an investment of more than $1.5 million, and Disney would definitely invest in them.

However, there's no rush.

All of Hollywood has confidence in films starring Martin Scorsese, but he hasn't actually acted in any of them...

Davis Studios recently had two films produced by Martin Scorsese, but none of which starred him.

Alan Horn plans to wait until the release of "Lonely Survivor" and another film, "Napoleon's Beauty," to see how well they perform before making a decision.

He smiled and said, "We'll find a time to discuss this in more detail."

Martin wasn't in a hurry: "You can call me anytime."

The two arrived in the lobby before the premiere and sat in the third row.

During the pre-production and post-production editing of this film, Martin discussed with producer Akiva Goldsman many times to remove a lot of sensitive content and downplay its political implications. The focus of the plot was on the courage of Marcus and his fellow soldiers, as well as their camaraderie.

Under director Peter Berg's lens, Marcus and his four American soldiers are absolutely moral exemplars.

As for the actual situation, it doesn't matter when there are enough commercial interests involved.

In a sense, this is also a mainstream film that meets the needs of mainstream American society.

Following its premiere, "Lonely Survivor" was released in a wide range of theaters in North America, and the overall response was quite positive.

Marcus's memoir had already been published, which had laid a certain audience foundation for the film.

Although it attracted mostly male viewers over 30, it grossed $1687 million on its first day.

In its opening weekend in North America, Lonely Survivor grossed $4125 million, exceeding its production cost.

This almost guarantees the film's commercial success.

Of course, there are also many criticisms in the media and online, such as the endless stream of rumors targeting Marcus himself.

However, during the film's preparation period, Martin had specifically discussed the relevant matters with Marcus. Marcus had been involved in the production and filming of the "John Wick" series for several years and had some mental preparation for this, so it did not cause too much trouble.

The production investment for "Lone Survivor" mainly came from South Korea.

The film's success triggered a frenzy in South Korean media, who hailed it as a classic example of South Korean investment in Hollywood.

Some South Korean journalists based in Los Angeles also contacted Davis's studio, wanting to interview Martin and ask him why his collaboration with South Korea was so successful.

This time, the Koreans didn't pull any stunts like Martin Davis having Korean ancestry.

Considering the substantial sums of money that the South Korean conglomerates were willing to spend, Martin accepted a joint interview with several South Korean media outlets. During the interview, he casually praised the South Korean film industry and expressed his willingness to cooperate more with South Korea on film matters.

In other words, I want to borrow your chickens to lay my own eggs.

Hollywood today is constantly seeking investment from around the world. Those productions that easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars all have international funding in their budgets.

Lonely Survivor was relatively popular among male audiences aged 30 and over in North America, which ensured a relatively stable box office performance. After taking in $2356 million in its second weekend, the film's cumulative North American box office reached $8898 million.

It will easily gross over $100 million at the North American box office.

…………

Glendale, DreamWorks campus.

The company's post-production department was completely contracted out to the deep-pocketed Annapurna Films for the post-production of three of its big-budget films.

Seventh Son, Transcendence, and The Lone Ranger are all in the midst of intense post-production.

Megan Ellison was furious when she left the editing room for Transcendence and The Lone Ranger.

Wilson came up from behind and said, "President, Depp's refusal to participate in post-production is good for us. Post-production is progressing smoothly now. Some scenes that require him to re-dub are not critical. Jerry and I discussed it, and we'd rather give up those scenes than have Depp come here. Otherwise, both crews will be tormented by him..."

Megan Ellison raised her hand to interrupt him: "I understand." She asked directly, "Is there any difficulty?"

Wilson said, "Seventh Son wanted to increase its budget, but I rejected it."

Megan Ellison asked, "Why?"

Wilson thought for a moment and said, "The production cost is too high, and the risk is too great..."

"I only ask that the film production be of high quality; funding is not an issue." Megan Ellison once again demonstrated her wealth and influence: "I have increasing confidence in these three films."

Wilson didn't quite understand what she meant.

Megan Ellison simply stated, "We snatched all three projects from Martin Davis. He had high hopes for them, and recently, a movie he had his eye on but hadn't starred in failed at the box office, which made me waver."

She went to the newspaper rack, took out a copy of The Hollywood Reporter, and handed it to Wilson: "Look at the box office charts. Martin Davis's film, 'The Lonely Survivor,' which he started but didn't star in, is a huge success."

Wilson glanced at the box office numbers; "Lonely Survivor" had already grossed over $100 million in North America.

The production cost of this film was only $4000 million.

Megan Ellison said, "Does adding you and Jerry Bruckheimer make us less than adding Martin Davis and Akiva Goldsman?"

(End of this chapter)