Chapter 887: The Safest Plan
Undoubtedly, The Interview could not enter the theater market in many countries, but it has been further disseminated through the Internet. Although this film has been affected by online piracy, the number of pay-on-demand movies has repeatedly hit new highs, even compared with the one just released from North America. The online pay-per-view of The Dark Knight Rises at the bottom of the theater line is comparable.
The huge topicality has created the film Interview to a certain extent.
As Duke once said, in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, it is many times better to be talked about than not to be talked about.
Interview is still squeezing the final profits through offline methods such as TV broadcasting, online on-demand, and DVD. As far away as the Korean Peninsula in the Western Pacific, this film has become a political weapon.
Some organizations in South Korea launched the latest Warner Bros. discs into North Korea by means of hot air balloons, which triggered the most violent reaction from North Korea. With the sound of cannons, North Korea fired hundreds of shells at South Korea, and South Korea, not to be outdone, fired back nearly 80 shells. The situation on the Korean peninsula instantly became extremely tense.
It's just that these are not what Duke is concerned about. His role in this incident is just a businessman. Even if he does not stand on the standpoint of interests, he does not have any great internationalist feelings.
Having said that, what does the life and death of the two sides who fired the gun have anything to do with him?
Duke had no special affection for the so-called certain people who suffered.
Compared to North Korea and South Korea...
Sitting in the office of Warner Studios, Duke said to Tina Fey while drinking black tea, I am more concerned about the box office figures of The Dark Knight Rises.
The film has been officially released from North America, and the accurate statistics have just been faxed to Tina Fey by Warner Bros. She knows that Duke has no interest in watching it. Looking at the numbers on the fax document, he read directly, The North American box office is 596.75 million US dollars, and it will definitely win the North American box office champion this year.
Glancing at Duke, seeing that he didn't respond, Tina Fei said again. Although not all of them have been released overseas, there are not many countries and regions where The Dark Knight Rises is still released, and all of them have bought out the film's screening rights. The box office output has little to do with us.
Although The Dark Knight Rises was affected by various influences and ultimately did not meet the expectations of Warner Bros., Duke still nodded slightly. Warner Bros. believed that this would be a film of the same magnitude as The Avengers. But the facts have once again proved that the output of a single superhero cannot compete with the group spawning monsters.
Tina Fey didn't stop talking, and continued, Including the US$596.75 million in North America, so far, The Dark Knight Rises has earned a total of US$1,545.67 million in global theaters.
Compared with the worry when the film started, Tina Fey is very calm now. Such box office figures are enough to prove the success of The Dark Knight Rises.
Even after so many changes, The Dark Knight Rises still won the North American box office champion in 2013 with an unmatched momentum.
After listening to Tina Fey. Duke has temporarily put The Dark Knight Rises aside, and the peripheral profits of this film are also amazing. There are still many commercial points that can be explored in the future, and there is no rush at this time, and Warner Bros. also has dedicated personnel to handle this work.
Duke continued to look through the documents and signed each document that required his signature. Among them is a financial report submitted by Tina Fey for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.
For these two films, Duke, Marvel Pictures and Warner Bros. signed a basic salary plus revenue sharing method, excluding their respective basic compensation of 15 million US dollars and share dividends received from the two companies. After a share of 23.5 million US dollars arrived, Duke's pre-tax income on The Avengers reached 232.7 million US dollars, definitely one of the biggest winners.
Even if The Dark Knight Rises is only the first payment to the director, Duke has also received a huge sum of nearly $45 million.
Naturally, among all the actors and directors in Hollywood, Duke became the veritable No. 1 earner, and the remuneration paid to him was also the largest single expense among the projects he directed.
However, no one has questioned this, because Duke can create more value for investors as long as he wants, waiting for the projects he directed to line up from the Duke estate in Malibu to San Diego south of Los Angeles.
However, Duke has always kept a clear head, and he also knows that among a series of records and achievements in Hollywood, there is one person and one film standing firmly in front of him——James Cameron's Avatar.
Duke is a technological director, he never rejects any new technology, let alone pursue unnecessary on-site shooting, but compared with James Cameron's innovation of film technology, he knows that he can't even catch up with a sports car superior.
Before the appearance of The Avengers, outside public opinion believed that no one could compare with Duke in terms of the total box office of the film, but the director of a single film can surpass the box office of Titanic and Avatar, only James? Mellon himself.
Until the appearance of The Avengers.
It has to be said that the power of superhero groups to spawn monsters is still quite huge.
A single film has the highest box office in film history. This is just a title, but the reputation and influence of this title are absolutely unimaginable. Like a certain movie, why do you use all means, even if you have a lot of money? Want to grab the No. 1 box office in film history on the other side of Taiping?
It's not just about fame, it's about profit.
Since Terminator 2, James Cameron's movies are synonymous with well-made and box office bombs. Anyone who has studied the movie industry can easily find that the movies of the king of the world have never been creative , and even creativity can only be said to be a very ordinary level.
The most typical ones are Titanic and Avatar. The two films are probably not even average in terms of creativity.
The biggest feature of these two films is undoubtedly the technology.
Duke is obviously different from James Cameron. James Cameron can spend several years improving and experimenting with new technologies in order to shoot an Avatar. Basically, the speed of filming one film a year determines that it is impossible for him to devote himself to the research of new film technology like Cameron, and he will only apply the latest and most mature technology to his own production.
Want to surpass James? Cameron, in the use of new technology is simply not possible.
Duke is very aware of this point, unless he, like James Cameron, devotes a few years to pure film technology, otherwise it is impossible.
Dedicating several years to one film was clearly not an option for Duke.
Picking a creative screenplay? Not to mention the huge risk behind the so-called creativity, the type of big-budget film alone does not require too much creativity in the story of the film itself.
Of course, adaptation is also an option.
In the past few months, Duke has also paid attention to a lot of information on the Internet or popular books, and even won the film adaptation rights of an online novel called Fifty Shades of Grey. There are still no works that shine in front of my eyes.
Warner Greater China on the other side of the Pacific Ocean recommended a popular and influential hard science fiction novel to Duke, but Duke has no interest in directing it himself. He is an extremely rational person, the most irrational person in this life. Things only happened to the former idol Natalie Portman, who was still very clear-headed about that popular science fiction novel.
The most important film market in the world so far is the Western market headed by North America, especially the North American market that Hollywood relies on. The exclusivity of cultural products is definitely beyond the imagination of ordinary people. The film adapted from science fiction is the most suitable The current market is still on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and it is impossible to sell well in the Western market, especially the English-speaking region.
Without the English-speaking market, how can Duke's investment of more than 200 million US dollars be supported by only relying on the market on the other side of the Pacific Ocean as the main body?
As for thinking that filming that sci-fi novel can surpass the box office of Avatar, that can only be said to be overthinking...
That science fiction novel is excellent, but it is not suitable for the Western market. Duke is very sure of this, so Warner Greater China got the film adaptation rights of the novel, and cooperated with the most powerful film companies on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, striving to produce a A well-produced Chinese-language co-production blockbuster, and the target consumer group is Chinese audiences.
If a film wants to sell well, it must first have a clear enough positioning for itself.
Different from the adaptation film of this science fiction novel in my impression, in the plan submitted by Warner Greater China, this temporarily unnamed series of projects will have an investment of more than 100 million US dollars for the first part, and it will take at least three years to produce. It's not the kind of bad movie that makes money for the sake of making money.
Co-productions will also be a form in the future. Warner Greater China is also making more attempts. A film fund of Duke is also trying to enter the Chinese market, and Duke personally approved the participation in a story about goblins and Journey to the West adaptation animation investment plan.
Duke signed each document, which was taken away by Tina Fei and passed on to various relevant departments.
Finally, he turned over a script, which was a finished version of the script written by the screenwriting team hired by Lucasfilm based on his outline and character settings. The script had a catchy name——Star Wars: The Original Force Awakens!
This is undoubtedly the safest plan when no suitable subject and genre can be found. (to be continued ^)
PS: Ask for monthly and recommendation tickets!