Chapter 436 Annual Box Office Ranking
After finalizing the Lord of the Rings project, Link began filming the new movie.
After more than a month of selection, the main cast of "007" has been confirmed. Pierce Brosnan will still play 007 James Bond, Michelle Yeoh will play the heroine Lin Hui, and Diane Lane will play the second female role of Bond's lover. The other characters are basically unchanged.
As for the selection of the leading female role, he originally wanted to let Brigitte Lin and Joey Wong try out the role of Lin Hui, but the two had never acted in Hollywood, and their acting styles did not match those of European and American actors, so they did not perform well in the audition.
Although Gong Li and Maggie Cheung are good, they have never filmed action scenes, and they are not very good when they do.
In the end, he could only respect the originality and give the role to Michelle Yeoh.
After the casting was completed, Link brought the crew to London, England to shoot the indoor scenes. The outdoor part will not be shot until the sets in China, Japan and other places are completed.
When "007" started filming, "Zheng Chenggong" began to be released in North America. It was screened in 12 theaters in the first week and earned 215,100 US dollars, which was better than expected.
In its second week, it grossed $1.38 million in 87 theaters, which is still a remarkable result.
Due to the good box office data of the preview, the theater chain increased the number of screenings. In the third week, it was released in 774 theaters and earned 6.39 million US dollars.
The film is expected to gross around 40 million U.S. dollars in North America.
In addition, "Zheng Chenggong" has been released in China for two months, and its current box office has accumulated 67.36 million US dollars, of which mainland theaters contributed 382 million yuan, making it the first mainland movie to reach a box office of 300 million yuan.
Outside of China and North America, "Zheng Chenggong" was released in 38 countries and regions for 1 to 6 weeks, with a cumulative revenue of 12.14 million US dollars.
The current total box office of "Zheng Chenggong" has reached 87.49 million US dollars, which is about 636 million yuan in RMB, and is also the highest-grossing Chinese film at present.
Based on the current box office growth trend, the global box office of "Zheng Chenggong" is expected to be no less than 150 million US dollars.
"150 million US dollars? Is this number too exaggerated?"
Director Zhang Yimou frowned as he looked at the newspaper, his thin face full of surprise.
150 million US dollars is equivalent to nearly 1.1 billion yuan in RMB.
Last year, the total domestic film box office was only 1.12 billion yuan.
The box office revenue of the movie "Zheng Chenggong" alone is comparable to the box office revenue of all domestic movies last year.
This is amazing.
“It’s not an exaggeration.”
Producer Zhang Weiping said, "Guess What Pictures has good distribution capabilities and has distribution agents all over the world. Moreover, Guess What Pictures is very willing to spend money on publicity when distributing movies. It is said that when Zheng Chenggong was released in North America, Guess What Pictures invested tens of millions of dollars in publicity. With such publicity, the movie will not lack exposure. In addition, the movie itself is good, so the total box office performance will not be bad, perhaps more than 150 million."
Director Zhang nodded, feeling a mixture of envy, jealousy, bitterness, and excitement.
Although "Zheng Chenggong" was a big hit at the box office, making him realize the gap between himself and Lin Ke again and giving up his plan to win back Gong Li, "Zheng Chenggong" earned hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, which shows that Chinese historical films have a market both at home and abroad.
This is undoubtedly a happy event for all Chinese filmmakers.
"I have decided that my next film will also be about history, and I can also draw on the style and narrative structure of Zheng Chenggong."
Director Zhang said.
"Okay, I support you."
Old partner Zhang Weiping said without hesitation.
After the data of "Zheng Chenggong" came out, not only Director Zhang was happy, but his colleagues in the Chinese film industry were all excited.
In the past, when making movies, they only knew how to learn from Hollywood, borrowing the narrative style of Hollywood movies to shoot Chinese stories, or shoot movies about suffering.
It’s just that they didn’t learn enough. They neither learned Hollywood’s narrative methods nor dug out the profound connotations of Chinese stories. In the end, the movies they made were a hodgepodge.
Naturally, no one supports this kind of movie after it is released.
Directors who lack self-awareness will blame the audience's poor quality and inability to appreciate a good movie after suffering a box office loss.
Those who know the problem will continue to learn and try, striving to make films that suit the tastes of Chinese audiences. However, this process is very difficult and expensive. Many people have to stop trying due to financial problems and leave the film industry in disappointment.
Now that "Zheng Chenggong" is a global hit, domestic directors see the direction of development of Chinese films in this movie.
Many directors and film companies were inspired and began to learn from "Zheng Chenggong", preparing to shoot similar films to make big money.
Mainstream media also congratulated "Zheng Chenggong" on its great success overseas in their reports.
The China Youth Daily published a ten-thousand-word review, praising Zheng Chenggong as the light of China's screen, a benchmark for Chinese historical films, and a pinnacle of Chinese history.
Other media outlets reprinted the report.
"Zheng Chenggong" is even more famous in the country, to the point where almost everyone knows it.
Thanks to the huge success of "Zheng Chenggong", Dongfeng Pictures became one of the leading companies in the domestic film industry. Directors Chen Chong, Feng Xiaoning and Chen Kaige also became popular in the film circle, and received invitations from many film companies to cooperate and give speeches at universities.
However, Chen Chong didn't have time to pay attention to all this for the time being because she was pregnant.
After receiving the call, Link asked her to have a good rest. He said that the company's affairs would be handed over to several managers, and they would visit her when they had time, or she could come to the United States to recuperate.
Chen Chong said that she just got pregnant and it’s not obvious yet, so she’ll talk about it later.
Link asked her to make her own arrangements and contact him if she needed anything. He continued to film "007" in London.
——
In March, The Hollywood Reporter released the 1996 North American box office rankings and the film industry's total box office revenue rankings on time.
According to statistics, a total of 336 films were released in the North American film market last year, 42 more than in 1995, an increase of 14%.
The total box office revenue was 5.6 billion US dollars.
Among them, 16 films had North American box office exceeding $100 million, and 34 had North American box office reaching $50 million.
Last year, the top-ranked film in North America was "Batman Forever" released by Warner Bros. Pictures, with a North American box office of $336 million and a global box office of $657 million.
The second place was the science fiction film "Independence Day" released by Fox Film, with a North American box office of 306 million US dollars and a global box office of 782 million US dollars.
The third place is "The English Patient", with a North American box office of 225 million US dollars and a global box office of 481 million US dollars.
Fourth place: "Toy Story", with $196 million in North America and $314 million worldwide.
Fifth place is Paramount Pictures' "Mission Impossible," with $183 million in North America and $457 million worldwide.
Sixth place: "Net", with $183 million in North America and $376 million worldwide.
Seventh place: Columbia Pictures' "The Mask of Zorro", with $156 million in North America and $250 million worldwide.
Eighth place: "Rush Hour", with $148 million in North America and $244 million worldwide.
Ninth place: Columbia Pictures' "Jerry Maguire", with $144 million in North America and $273 million worldwide.
The tenth place is Disney's "Ransom," with $122 million in North America and $309 million worldwide.
Eleventh place is "Final Destination 2" from Guess Pictures, with a North American box office of 122 million and a global box office of 265 million.
The twelfth place is "101 Dalmatians" released by Walt Disney Pictures, with $110 million in North America and $320 million worldwide.
Thirteenth place is "Scream" with $109 million and a global box office of 187 million.
The fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth places are respectively "The Nutty Professor" from Universal Pictures, "A Time to Kill" from Warner Bros. Pictures and "The Birdcage" from MGM Pictures. The North American box office of these three films also exceeded $100 million.
Among the movies with box office revenue of over 100 million yuan, six were produced and distributed by Guess Pictures, and eight were produced by Guess Pictures, including "Jerry Maguire" and "The Mask of Zorro", accounting for half of all movies with box office revenue of over 100 million yuan.
The Hollywood Reporter also listed the box office performance of major Hollywood film studios last year.
Last year, Guess What Pictures released a total of 13 films, with total box office revenue in North America of $1.393 billion, $100 million more than last year's $1.281 billion. The global box office was approximately $2.63 billion, an increase of approximately 9% over last year.
The second-place Warner Bros. Pictures had a total box office revenue of $733 million in North America last year and a global box office of $1.825 billion.
In third place is Disney Pictures, which earned $619 million last year thanks to films such as "Ransom," "101 Dalmatians," "Unusual Instinct," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
Fourth place: Fox Film Corporation, with North American box office revenue of 626 million US dollars.
Columbia Pictures ranked fifth, with box office revenue of $583 million in North America last year, of which 55% came from films produced in collaboration with Guess What?
The remaining Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and MGM Pictures all had total North American box office revenues below $500 million.
Due to the strong performance of the films produced by the Big Eight Studios, the performance of independent film companies has been very unsatisfactory, with more than 60 small and medium-sized film companies going bankrupt at the beginning of the year.
In addition, The Hollywood Reporter also released a new list, the 'Person of the Year' list.
The top of the list is undoubtedly Link.
Last year, the three films directed by Link all grossed over 100 million in North America, ranking first, third, and sixth respectively.
These three films are unmatched in the film industry in terms of box office data, film art level, or international influence.
He is a well-deserved celebrity.
The second place is Tom Cruise, who became the highest-grossing male star in Hollywood last year thanks to the two blockbuster movies "Mission Impossible" and "Jerry Maguire", and his influence has soared worldwide.
The third place is Sandra Bullock, who became the most cost-effective actress last year thanks to two hit movies "The Network" and "A Time to Kill". Her fame and pay also increased sharply.
(End of this chapter)
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