Chapter 369 Don’t Play with Fire (Subscribe to support!)
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Although it is not a comedy, and is not even suitable for viewing during the family-friendly Spring Festival period, due to Xu Kai's previous reputation and the excellent popularity accumulated by "Farewell My Concubine" which has won nearly a hundred awards and nominations, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Cannes International Film Festival's highest honor, the Palme d'Or, "Farewell My Concubine" led the Spring Festival box office as soon as it was released.
——The first-day box office of "Farewell My Concubine" was still over 200 million, and the first-week box office was nearly 1 billion.
Moreover, the word of mouth for "Farewell My Concubine" is overwhelming, and everyone has to admit that "Farewell My Concubine" is an excellent movie that truly lives up to its reputation.
but--
An art film is still an art film after all. After the initial enthusiasm for supporting China's best films, the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" began to decline, and it was a cliff-like decline.
To quote one audience member, I know that "Farewell My Concubine" is a good movie, even the best movie in China, but I would rather watch the funny comedies that Yu Qingyun has made in the past, and I want to laugh heartily while watching a movie, rather than crying while watching a movie or learning something from it after watching it. Movies are just a pastime in my spare time for me, and I don't want to shed tears over them. And if I really want to learn, why not read a book or look up information? If that doesn't work, just sign up for a cram school. Why should I go to the cinema?
Speaking objectively, the audience's statement actually represents the voice of many moviegoers. After all, many people watch movies just to have a good laugh, not to be abused or to gain insights, especially during the Chinese New Year.
This also explains why the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" started high but ended low.
As Xu Kai often said, movies with strong artistic value have high thresholds and good reputation, but the public does not buy into them. Movies with strong entertainment value have low thresholds and low reputation, but the public is very willing to buy into them.
So, if you want to make money, don't talk about art that is too high-brow for the masses. Only by reaching out to the masses and pleasing them can you make money.
There is no doubt that "Farewell My Concubine", which has won numerous awards, is a good movie.
But it is a bit unrealistic to expect "Farewell My Concubine" to make more money than Xu Kai's previous entertaining films.
Simply put, while everyone is saying that "Farewell My Concubine" is good, fewer and fewer people are willing to spend money on it. This is actually a very normal market phenomenon and there is nothing strange about it.
Moreover, Xu Kai had anticipated this.
Fortunately——
"Farewell My Concubine" does have a lot of halos that are dazzling and it also has some commercial value.
Therefore, "Farewell My Concubine" finally earned Xu Kai more than 1.5 billion yuan in box office revenue.
In addition, "Farewell My Concubine" had good box office overseas, earning nearly 100 million US dollars in North America alone.
Therefore, "Farewell My Concubine" still made more money than other movies, and it did not disgrace Xu Kai's reputation as the number one commercial director.
The key point is that although the box office of "Farewell My Concubine" was not satisfactory, another film "Rush Hour", which was also directed by Xu Kai, helped Xu Kai "get back his position."
"Rush Hour" was released in North America and also in China during the Spring Festival.
As a result, "Rush Hour" not only stirred up the North American movie box office market together with "Iron Man", but it also came from behind and surpassed "Farewell My Concubine" to become the final winner of the Spring Festival in China.
——Finally, "Rush Hour" temporarily came to an end with the magnificent results of a total box office of 411 million US dollars in North America and a total box office of 2.1 billion Chinese yuan in China.
Yes.
This is only temporary, as "Rush Hour" will be released in other countries and regions.
By the way, "Iron Man" also achieved a final box office of 319 million US dollars in North America, and it has begun to be released in other countries and regions of the world.
It is expected that "Iron Man" will be released in China during the summer vacation - this is Xu Kai's idea, mainly to avoid "Iron Man" colliding with "Rush Hour" again, and then causing internal friction.
According to conservative estimates, the global total box office of "Iron Man" should exceed 500 million US dollars.
Compared to the production cost of more than 100 million US dollars, "Iron Man" undoubtedly made a lot of money.
- Don't forget, as long as this kind of sci-fi superhero becomes popular, the peripheral products will definitely sell very well, so a large part of the income will also come from there.
In general, "Farewell My Concubine", "Rush Hour" and "Iron Man" all made Xu Kai a lot of money. Although these three movies could not allow Xu Kai to repay the 10 billion loan he owed to Minxin Bank, there was no problem in ensuring that his capital chain was sufficient.
Of course, not all of Xu Kai's films are satisfactory.
Relatively speaking, Xu Kai's "Lover's First Kiss" and "The Grandmaster 4", in which he invested and starred, were a bit disappointing.
Let’s talk about “Grandmaster 4” first.
Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang originally planned to use "The Grandmaster 4" to conquer Hollywood and the world.
But the American people are not interested in "The Grandmaster 4" - in the first place, the American people don't get the point of China's martial arts movies from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang also combined the most scarce and invaded indigenous people in the United States, which made the American people even more unwilling to watch "The Grandmaster 4".
Overall, "The Grandmaster 4" earned nearly 15 million US dollars in box office in some theaters in Chinatown.
This is mainly due to Xu Kai's fame and the foundation laid by the first three "Grandmaster" films overseas.
What's even more embarrassing is that the Chinese people don't understand or like the Hollywood Western cowboy-style drama that Yuan Xiaoliang and Xu Wenguang added.
To quote a domestic audience's review: Apart from Yu Qingyun's fighting scenes which were as exciting as ever, other aspects of the film failed to leave a deep impression.
Another die-hard fan of "The Grandmaster" said fairly: The flavor of Hollywood western cowboy movies has made the lives of Chinese people in the West more lively. The film not only has exciting and intense fighting scenes, tender love stories, and funny jokes, but it does not simply promote patriotism of "Kung Fu vs. Western Boxing". It also brings the protagonist into the confusion caused by the conflict between the advancement of foreign culture and traditional culture. The whole film has a fast pace and many scenes. As a western cowboy film, all the elements are complete, but there is a lack of details and no opportunity for in-depth description. After watching it, there is no more aftertaste. All the actors are the same team of the new Grandmaster series, and they are familiar.
Despite such reviews, "The Grandmaster" only achieved a box office of over 400 million yuan in China.
This is all thanks to Xu Kai's strong box office appeal and the popularity accumulated from the first three "Grandmaster" films.
In short, although "The Grandmaster 4" made Xu Kai and others earn some money, the reputation of the "The Grandmaster" series is over, and "The Grandmaster: The Lion of the Western Region" can be regarded as the last story between Huang Feihong and Thirteenth Aunt.
This was actually decided by Xu Kai.
After the failure of this Western Expedition, Yuan Xiaoliang came to Xu Kai again, wanting to make another "Grandmaster 5".
Yuan Xiaoliang said: "We won't go to Hollywood this time. We will just make money in the country."
But Xu Kai still refused.
Xu Kai said to Yuan Xiaoliang: "Our failure this time is not only because we added Hollywood Western elements, but also because the audience is a little tired of watching the "Grandmaster" series. So let's stop here with "The Grandmaster". If we continue to shoot, we will be exchanging our reputation for money."
It can be seen that Yuan Xiaoliang is not willing to see the profitable "Grandmaster" series end.
But Xu Kai was still determined to complete the "Grandmaster" series, at least that was the case for him.
Let’s talk about “Lover’s First Kiss”.
When Claude Binaudot made "A Lover's First Kiss", he originally wanted to make an art film. Of course, he also took some commercial elements into consideration and he was a bit ambitious about the box office.
Anyway, Claude Binaudot actually wanted a lot.
But the result was that "First Kiss" only won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and it was only a nomination.
Of course, as an art film that has been made with great effort, "A Lover's First Kiss" is still praised by some people in Claude Binaudot's home country of romance.
——At the romantic César Awards, "Lovers' First Kiss" was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Actress.
The only award that "Lovers' First Kiss" actually won at the Romantic César Awards was the Best Music Award - and the music was composed by Xu Kai.
From this perspective, "Lovers' First Kiss" is obviously not very successful artistically.
Now let’s talk about the box office.
Claude Binaudot filmed "Lovers' First Kiss" in Hollywood, casting Xu Kai as the male lead and Sophie March as the female lead, hoping to reap the box office in North America, China and Europe simultaneously.
But in the end, people in North America did not recognize "Lovers' First Kiss", so it was a waste of Claude Binaudot's efforts to shoot "Lovers' First Kiss" in Hollywood and use a large number of Hollywood actors. "Lovers' First Kiss" finally only got a box office of more than 8 million US dollars in North America.
After all, Europe is Claude Binaudot's base camp, and Sophie March is also known as the French Rose. In her early years, she also accumulated a lot of popularity in Europe by shooting commercials.
This is why "Lovers' First Kiss" earned more than 40 million euros at the box office in Europe.
What really surprised Claude Binaudot was that "Lovers' First Kiss" actually earned more than 300 million Chinese yuan at the box office in China thanks to Xu Kai's strong box office appeal.
——Although "Lovers' First Kiss" has a mediocre reputation in China, Xu Kai has great box office appeal in China, and Sophie March is so beautiful. In addition, "Lovers' First Kiss" was released on Valentine's Day, and as a result, "Lovers' First Kiss" earned more than 300 million Chinese yuan at the box office.
As an art film, "Lovers' First Kiss" has achieved such a high box office, which has made Claude Binaudot and the film company that invested in him a lot of money. Claude Binaudot and others are very excited. Claude Binaudot even wants to find Xu Kai to cooperate with "Lovers' First Kiss 2", and let Xu Kai and Sophie March partner.
Xu Kai originally didn't want to take on "Lovers' First Kiss 2", but Xu Kai really couldn't resist the little goblin Sophie March who was pestering him in bed, so he agreed to wait for Claude Binaudot's script to be finished and he would read it before making a decision.
…
Because "Iron Man" made Marvel a lot of money, Marvel couldn't wait to find Xu Kai to co-produce "Iron Man 2" before "Iron Man" was released worldwide.
This also involves the need to add some new actors.
The first to join was Black Widow, who introduced Iron Man to the Avengers.
In addition, at Xu Kai's suggestion and insistence, Shang-Chi will be Iron Man's fighting skills teacher, teaching Iron Man close combat skills.
This is of course a plot that is not in the original book.
In the original work, before the events of Spider-Island, Julia Carpenter asked Shang-Chi to train Peter Parker's fighting skills to make up for the loss of Peter Parker's spider sense, help Peter Parker develop a unique fighting style, and regain Peter Parker's lost power.
In other words, in the original work, Shang-Chi is just Spider-Man's melee combat teacher.
In Xu Kai's plan, Shang-Chi will be the melee teacher of all Marvel superheroes, and Iron Man will be his first student.
This is a bit off topic.
Today is the day when Xu Kai will decide on the candidate for Black Widow.
When the interview recruitment information was sent out, Yijiang’s recruitment information stated that the role of Black Widow would be a “lifetime job”, which means that the actor would have to play Black Widow for the rest of his life, so if he wanted to get the role of Black Widow, he would have to sign a “lifetime job” contract with Yijiang.
In fact, all the actors who got Marvel superhero roles from the artist have signed a "lifetime" contract with the artist, including Robert Stark.
Of course, Yijiang can’t just offer unfair terms without providing any benefits.
Yijiang's recruitment information also stated that once "Black Widow" is hired, she will immediately star in two Marvel superhero movies, "Iron Man 2" and "Shang-Chi", and the treatment is generous.
As a result, even with the unfair terms, Hollywood actresses are still flocking to the charming Marvel superhero role of Black Widow.
——Currently, there are at least ten very famous and powerful Hollywood actresses who want to apply for the role of Black Widow, and several of them have expressed their willingness to sign with Artisan Films and become the company's artists for life.
Although it is not stated explicitly, those Hollywood actresses who are willing to join Artisan and work for Artisan Films for life obviously have a better chance of getting the role of Black Widow.
This is actually normal.
Xu Kai is unwilling to change someone else to play the Black Widow when his Marvel Universe is halfway through filming.
Therefore, even if "Black Widow" is not an artist of Yijiang, she will definitely be a long-term partner of Yijiang.
Arriving at Yijiang's headquarters building, Xu Kai went straight to the interview location.
But just as Xu Kai was about to walk to the interview location, Nicole Johnson, who was dressed in an office lady outfit, suddenly appeared in front of Xu Kai and said with a smile, "Mr. Xu, can we chat for a few minutes?"
Xu Kai was surprised and asked, "How come you are in my company? I don't remember you being in the company?"
There were not many people in Yijiang Company originally. After Xu Kai acquired it, some of them left. Xu Kai had no intention of making Yijiang stronger and bigger, so he did not recruit new people. He just transferred some managers from China and hired a copyright manager who was good at handling copyright transactions and leasing through a headhunting company to assist him.
Therefore, Xu Kai was sure that there was no such person as Nicole Johnson in his Artisan Company.
"Natasha has been trained by secret agents to be the best agent since she was young. If I can't even sneak into your company, how can I be qualified to be the Black Widow?" Nicole Johnson said with a smile on her face.
Listen to the sound of gongs and drums; listen to the tone of words. Moreover, Nicole Johnson has almost made it clear that she came for the role of Black Widow. If Xu Kai still can't guess Nicole Johnson's purpose, then he will have lived in vain.
To be honest, Xu Kai actually still hopes to meet the Black Widow of his dreams.
but……
At this time, Nicole Johnson suddenly took off her hood, revealing a very beautiful red hair.
When Xu Kai saw her, his eyes suddenly lit up: "She looks more like the Black Widow in my mind!"
But Xu Kai remained calm.
Nicole Johnson saw this and continued to ask, "Mr. Xu, would you please have a drink with me?"
Xu Kai shook his head: "No, I have something else to do later and don't want to go out."
"Then let's find a place to talk?" Nicole Johnson did not let Xu Kai go because of his refusal.
"Forget it, I don't think there's any need to talk to you." Xu Kai began to test Nicole Johnson.
Nicole Johnson was a little anxious. She moved closer to Xu Kai and said, "Mr. Xu, I know I made a stupid mistake last time. This time I will never fail to cherish the opportunity like last time. In fact, I have read all the comics about Natasha. I am really confident that I can interpret the role of Natasha well."
Nicole Johnson's answer this time already satisfied Xu Kai, but because Nicole Johnson had a criminal record, Xu Kai still bypassed her and went into the bathroom - Xu Kai wanted to test Nicole Johnson's sincerity and patience again.
Xu Kai stayed in the bathroom for about ten minutes before he was ready to go out to see if Nicole Johnson was still there. But at this moment, Xu Kai saw a figure approaching, and then the figure pressed Xu Kai against the wall of the corridor.
Xu Kai immediately realized that the person coming was Nicole Johnson, but he did not say anything.
Nicole Johnson thought Xu Kai was frightened by her actions, so she stepped forward and said, "Natasha's other skill is seduction, which I am also good at."
Nicole Johnson's words were quite seductive and her movements were quite appropriate, but her body was shaking the whole time, exposing that she was not as good at it as she said. She might even have no experience at all, otherwise how could she be shaking so violently?
There was no way Xu Kai would be led by a rookie, so he took the initiative and pushed Nicole Johnson against the wall.
Nicole Johnson panicked when she saw this, and hurriedly said, “Mr. Xu, please don’t do this!”
Xu Kai stopped and asked, "Isn't this what you wanted?"
Nicole Johnson did intend to seduce Xu Kai in order to get the role of Black Widow, but she obviously overestimated herself. In fact, she was not as open as she imagined.
Xu Kai had no intention of forcing others, and he had no shortage of women, so why take the risk? So, seeing Nicole Johnson hesitate, Xu Kai retracted his arm from Nicole Johnson, and said, "Little girl, if you can't afford it, don't play with fire."
Seeing that Xu Kai seemed to be ready to give up on her, Nicole Johnson, who felt that the role of Black Widow was about to slip away from her, and who was really eager to get the role of Black Widow, couldn't help but ask: "Is this a deal?"
He looked down at Nicole Johnson's beautiful and sexy face and hot body. The key point was that this was the top Cosplay, so Xu Kai couldn't help but said, "If you think it is, it can also be."
After getting Xu Kai's affirmative answer, Nicole Johnson closed her eyes and said, "I hope you keep your word, otherwise I won't let you go."
Xu Kai ignored Nicole Johnson's words, but simply lowered his head and kissed her.
Nicole Johnson had her eyes closed the whole time, and her mind was blank. She only vaguely remembered being dragged into a lounge by Xu Kai, and as soon as the door was closed, Xu Kai carried her to the bed...
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(End of this chapter)
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