Chapter 714: Allied Nations Surprised
In late March, the news that Farewell My Concubine won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 66th Academy Awards came like a typhoon, leaving a huge bombshell in the Chinese cultural community.
Media at all levels across the country reported almost all news about this year's Academy Awards, with various special articles sorting out, summarizing and reviewing the news published one after another.
Names closely related to movies, such as "Farewell My Concubine", Lin Weimin, Cheng Kaige, and Gong Li, frequently appear on television, newspapers, magazines and other media, tirelessly attracting the public's attention.
Everyone knows it!
"Farewell My Concubine" has set off a news craze in the country and is no less popular in the United States.
The novel "Farewell My Concubine" has been available in the United States for more than 10 years and has sold nearly 10 million copies. The drama version has been performed on Broadway for several years and has attracted more than 2 million viewers. With such a huge readership and audience base, it can be said to be a masterpiece.
Since the filming began, it has attracted the attention of countless readers, audiences and many production companies in the film industry.
At the end of last year, after winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Farewell My Concubine" entered the Hollywood awards season with great momentum.
In just one month, it won three of the four major American Film Critics Association Awards and became the talk of the town.
Next came the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which was unsurprisingly won by this film, aiming for the Academy Award.
At the 1994 Academy Awards, the biggest winner was undoubtedly "Schindler's List", which won seven awards including Best Director and Best Picture. Spielberg's film, which reflected the tragic experience of the Jews during World War II, has gone beyond the film itself and has become a political correctness.
Of course, the quality of Schindler's List itself deserves this honor.
Many of the films nominated this year seem to be overshadowed by the shining light of "Schindler's List", with only one exception.
That is "Farewell My Concubine".
Because it had not yet been released in the United States when it competed for the Academy Awards, "Farewell My Concubine" could only be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.
Xu Feng and Mike had two considerations for doing this. First, focusing on the Best Foreign Language Film Award can avoid distraction and ensure the greatest possibility of winning. Second, if the film was released in the United States early in order to compete for other major awards and did not achieve the maximum publicity effect, it would affect the box office after the release.
On the contrary, if it could be released with maximum media exposure after securing the Best Foreign Language Film award, it would definitely be a strong boost to the box office of Farewell My Concubine.
Obviously, Xu Feng and Mike's strategy was successful.
"Farewell My Concubine" not only successfully won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but also quickly made headlines in major American news media after winning the award. The level of attention it received was no less than "Schindler's List", which won seven awards. This level of attention is naturally inseparable from the folk foundation of the original novel of "Farewell My Concubine".
On the third day after winning the award, "Farewell My Concubine" officially landed in 1,400 theaters in North America.
Late March is usually a quiet period in the United States, but within three days of its opening, Farewell My Concubine, with the added bonus of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, grossed 52.43 million US dollars, making it the well-deserved box office champion of the North American film market that week.
This figure not only set a box office record for Chinese films in the United States, but also broke the box office record for foreign films released in the United States.
In the second week of its release, the scale of screenings of "Farewell My Concubine" was expanded again to 2,279 theaters. The highest single-day box office occurred on Friday, with a staggering $34.6 million.
In the next seven days, "Farewell My Concubine" earned an incredible box office of 125 million US dollars, once again winning the North American box office championship that week, with a cumulative box office of 177 million US dollars, approaching the 200 million US dollar mark.
Everyone knows that 200 million knives will not be the end of "Farewell My Concubine".
In 1993, "Mrs. Doubtfire" took 23 weeks to earn $219 million, in 1992, "Aladdin" took 22 weeks to earn $217 million, in 1990, "Ghost" took 30 weeks to earn $218 million, in 1988, "Rain Man" took 25 weeks to earn $173 million, and in 1986, "Top Gun" took 30 weeks to earn $177 million...
Looking at the North American film market, there are movies that have taken in 177 million at the box office in two weeks and ten days, but they can be counted on one hand, and almost all the movies that eventually broke 200 million US dollars at the box office almost all used the method of extended screening, which took more than half a year to achieve.
Compared to "Farewell My Concubine", which took ten years to prepare and wait for another ten years, these movies pale in comparison.
Ten days ago, "Farewell My Concubine" was just a movie that won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Academy Awards. There is one such movie every year, and most of them will not make any splash in the North American film market and no one is interested in them.
Ten days later, "Farewell My Concubine" announced to the American film industry with its incredible box office that this was its era!
Today, there are only a handful of rivals standing in the way of "Farewell My Concubine".
ET the Extraterrestrial cost 359 million dollars, Jurassic Park 1 cost 357 million dollars, Home Alone 1 cost 285 million dollars...
Every opponent it will challenge is a classic that has gone down in the history of North American films. While challenging these predecessors, the name of "Farewell My Concubine" will also be written in the history of North American and even world film.
A Chinese-language film has conquered the North American market and has no rivals.
Even after twenty years, this will still be the most dazzling legend of Chinese-language films!
The brilliant success of "Farewell My Concubine" is inseparable from all the moviegoers who supported it. A large number of these people are fans of the novel and the drama. The strong audience group formed by book fans and drama fans has made "Farewell My Concubine" explode with infinite box office potential and completely shocked the American film industry.
The North American film market has always been the backyard of Hollywood. Before "Farewell My Concubine", if you asked any American filmmaker, they would never have dreamed that a Chinese film could be so popular in the North American market.
So scary!
"How terrible!" Michael Phillips' tone was even a little horrified. "Lin, can you imagine? This is actually a Chinese-language movie, and a Chinese-language movie that I participated in the investment!"
"Calm down, Mike. I think it will be hard for Farewell My Concubine to break through 300 million US dollars at the box office," said Lin Weimin on the other end of the phone.
"Do you know what you are talking about? 300 million US dollars, in the North American movie box office, you can rank in the top five in history!" Michael Phillips said in surprise.
Don't blame the old man for being inexperienced. He was truly stunned by the incredible box office of "Farewell My Concubine" which grossed 177 million US dollars in two weeks.
Now it is the 1990s. The Titanic has not yet sailed, the hacker empire has not yet risen, and the Marvel universe has not yet exploded. A movie box office of over 100 million US dollars is already a big hit, and breaking 300 million is rare in a decade.
In a year with sluggish box office, 177 million dollars could even win the annual box office championship.
"Farewell My Concubine" had such a shocking box office performance that even Michael Phillips, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, has only seen it a handful of times, not to mention that this was a movie he invested in.
Michael Phillips was venting his emotions on the phone, about the movie box office, about the production company, about media coverage...
In short, the big sales of movies are a blessing in disguise. The world has opened its arms to "Farewell My Concubine". As one of the investors and producers of "Farewell My Concubine", Michael Phillips has naturally been warmly welcomed by Hollywood.
Michael Phillips is over 50 years old and has come back to prominence. He has become a frequent guest of major Hollywood production companies and was very proud of himself for a while.
He had enjoyed this kind of treatment twenty years ago. In 1974, "The Sting", which he produced, swept the Academy Awards that year, starting Michael Phillips' life journey as a well-known Hollywood producer.
In the past twenty years, Michael Phillips has experienced highs and lows. He has long been proficient in the tricks of Vanity Fair. He has a strong mind and knows how to enjoy life while he can, but he has no regrets at all.
Because he understood that all the applause and honor he received were due to holding on to the thigh.
"Lin, really, you should see the faces of these production companies. Now, whenever they meet me at a cocktail party, they will try their best to ask me for your contact information and ask me to help introduce their company to you.
They probably all forgot their arrogant faces when you asked for 5 million Mi Dao!"
Michael Phillips' words were full of pride, but Lin Weimin felt that this guy was just making trouble and sowing discord.
"Farewell My Concubine" is a big hit and is expected to rank among the top box office in North America. Lin Weimin, a famous screenwriter who has been neglected by Hollywood for several years, has once again returned to the vision of major production companies.
That year, "The Last Emperor" won nine Oscars and "The Intouchables" raked in 200 million US dollars at the global box office. Lin Weimin became a hot commodity in Hollywood and major production companies extended olive branches to him.
But Lin Weimin knew the nature of Hollywood very well, and he asked for a huge sum of money, asking for 5 million US dollars for a script, which immediately scared away countless production companies that wanted to take advantage of his popularity.
Because of this, Lin Weimin was labeled as "out of touch with the times" by Hollywood. Since then, few people have been interested in his works and he has been coldly received in Hollywood.
Now that "Farewell My Concubine" has been released in North America and the box office has exploded, no one will give the credit to the director Cheng Kaige.
Whether it is the audience or Hollywood, all they see is "Farewell My Concubine" and its creator Lin Weimin.
Such a dazzling achievement is hard to ignore even a proud city like Hollywood.
When doing business, don’t just look back at the grass you’ve just cut, you’ve got to eat the shit you’ve cut.
Michael Phillips certainly has to be wary of this situation.
It wasn't easy for him to get hold of Lin Weimin's thigh, and after so many years of managing it, he would not let it go easily.
Those little devils in Hollywood are really good at seducing people, and he absolutely cannot give them any chance to take advantage of them. He will take this opportunity to put some eye drops on them, and the chances of Lin being seduced will be lower.
Because Xu Feng and Michael Phillips' company both have relatively weak distribution capabilities in North America, the distribution of "Farewell My Concubine" was handed over to its old partner Columbia Pictures.
The film distribution model in the United States is different from that in China and is more market-oriented. There are generally three ways for producers and cinemas to cooperate: agreed minimum price, fixed price, and profit sharing. The profit sharing method for "Farewell My Concubine" is no minimum guarantee.
The profit-sharing method without a guaranteed minimum profit margin is a big test for producers and distributors. Most companies dare not sign it. Only producers and distributors who are extremely confident in their works dare to do so.
The calculation method for this profit-sharing method is more complicated. Generally speaking, the final box office share will be about 5:5 between the producer, distributor and theater chain.
The producers and distributors share the profits again. The ratio is usually 6:4 in Hollywood. If a weak producer works with a strong distributor, the ratio can even be as high as 5:5. The profit sharing ratio between the producers of "Farewell My Concubine" and Columbia Pictures is very normal, which is 6:4.
If we calculate based on the box office of 300 million US dollars, the theaters will get 150 million US dollars, the distributor Columbia will get another 60 million US dollars, and Xu Feng, Michael, and Lin Weimin, as producers, can get 90 million US dollars.
Michael Phillips took 35% of the box office revenue, which is $31.5 million.
This one movie grossed more in North America than Michael Phillips ever earned in most of his lifetime.
Not to mention Hollywood, even if White G came, Michael Phillips would not let go of this thigh.
In Michael Phillips' eyes, Lin Weimin now is a money-giving boy with golden light all over his body.
"That's all you've been talking about for so long?"
Michael Phillips was still chattering on the other end of the phone, and Lin Weimin interrupted him.
"Of course not, there is something very important."
Seeing Lin Weimin's impatient tone, Michael Phillips stopped talking nonsense and became serious.
"What's up?"
(End of this chapter)
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