Chapter 243: Stunning! Huge Victory!
Historically, the box office of "Train to Busan" in North America was only around 2 million US dollars.
But the core reason is not that the movie is bad, but that there are too few screens showing it, only a pitiful 27.
Its distribution company, Well Go USA, has become an old friend of Chinese-language films after the Sino-US confrontation and has released a large number of Chinese-language films.
These include "The Wandering Earth 2", "Ip Man 4", "Operation Red Sea", "Lost in Hong Kong", "Fengshen 1", etc. Almost all major Chinese-language films are released by this company.
But the scale of the opening is also very pitiful, with dozens of theaters or even a hundred. In 2024, an Australian horror film "Spiders in the House" opened in 1,350 theaters in North America, which is also the largest scale released by this company.
Train to Busan is one of the smallest films released by the company in North America. The Wandering Earth 2 opened in 142 theaters, with a peak of 176. Ip Man 4 opened in 70 theaters, with a peak of 126.
"Train to Busan" opened in 27 theaters and reached a peak of 36.
In terms of box office, the single-theater box office of "Train to Busan" reached about 70,000 US dollars, which is definitely an excellent figure. After all, the movie has a score of 8.0 on IMDB, which is very high for a commercial film, and is much higher than the 7.5 points of the most classic zombie movie "Dawn of the Dead".
But now the situation is different. Sony Columbia has become one of the investors of this film, and their distribution capabilities are not comparable to Well Go USA.
Moreover, Amy Pascal is no longer the president of Columbia in Asia, but the global president of Columbia. In the future, she will become the big boss of Sony Pictures.
Those who attended the preview this time included heads of many distribution companies around the world.
The most important among them are Lee Mi-kyung from South Korea, Minamisaku Ichikawa, assistant to the chairman of Toho Co., Ltd. of Japan, Amy Pascal from Columbia, and Tom Bernard from Sony Classics.
Therefore, this is also the highest-level preview for domestic films so far.
Lin Xiao didn't even invite any stars or directors, only artists and directors from the Lightning series, and the only outside directors invited were Zhang Guoshi and Zhou Xingchi.
Director He Ping, who has newly joined the Lightning Department, and Zhen Zhidan are also among them.
What made Director He most angry before was being fired from his position as Asian film consultant by Columbia, but now he can once again chat and laugh with the president of Columbia.
Because the big drama "Squid Game" also has investment from Columbia.
"Zhang, congratulations. House of Flying Daggers will be released in North America next week. We will tentatively open 15 theaters at first. If the results are good enough, we can expand it." Tom Bernard shook hands with Master Zhang. "I hope we can get good box office results."
The overseas distribution rights of "House of Flying Daggers" were bought out by Sony Classics, and eventually expanded to 1,183 venues, but the North American box office was only around 11 million US dollars, which is far from a success and is much worse than the box office of "Hero".
"Lin, there is good news and bad news." Amy Pascal said, "The good news is that there is a zombie movie that is a big hit in the North American market this year, and many audiences will have a reference."
This movie is Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead 2004", which grossed 26.72 million U.S. dollars in North America in its first week, a total box office of 59 million U.S. dollars in North America, and a global box office of about 110 million U.S. dollars.
"Because there is a successful precedent, as long as the quality of your film "The Last Days" is similar to "Dawn of the Dead", I believe Mr. Tom of Sony Classics will be very generous in his support."
Tom Bernard said to Lin Xiao, "Yes, Dawn of the Dead has brought a certain level of hunger to the audience. If there are movies of the same type, they will still be favored by many audiences."
Next, Amy Pascal continued to introduce Lin Xiao to film distributors from other countries around the world.
Then, the two men came to the corner and had a private conversation.
"Lin, the production schedule for this movie is really tight." Amy Pascal said, "As you can see, House of Flying Daggers was completed this summer, but it wasn't released in North America until December."
"Now that it's the end of November, the entire schedule will be very, very tight."
"And it is very likely that the fate of this movie will be the same as that of House of Flying Daggers, which will be released on a small scale first, and then decide whether to expand it depending on the box office performance."
"After all, North America is a purely capitalized market."
Lin Xiao: "Let's finish watching the movie first and then decide, okay?"
If it is released on a small scale, it will simply compete on the box office of a single theater. The single-theater box office of "Train to Busan" is extremely high in history, but Lin Xiao still wants to release it on a large scale.
Amy: "Of course, this year does have a huge advantage, that is the box office miracle of Dawn of the Dead 2004, which can bring a huge role model effect."
Lin Xiao said: "But..."
Amy: "You need to prove to filmmakers around the world that The Walking Dead is as good as Dawn of the Dead, or even slightly worse."
"Lin, I know that you are particularly good at creating miracles. You are simply a magician."
"But don't forget, I've seen two of your movies, "Crazy Stone" and "Love Is Not Blind". I didn't understand them and I wasn't optimistic about them, but they were huge box office successes in the Chinese market."
"I am a typical Westerner, and I represent a large group of Westerners. If I don't understand it and I don't think it's good, then it proves that it is regional and limited."
"You should know how difficult it is to have a preview. Director Zhang Yimou and Stephen Zhou can't have a preview of this level."
Lin Xiao certainly knew this. Although "Hero" had achieved huge success at the domestic box office and starred Li Lianjie in the film, the film was still shelved in North America for a long time. If it weren't for the great director Quentin Tarantino's particular love for Chinese Kung Fu films, this film might never have seen the light of day.
This high-level preview was entirely due to Amy Pascal's connections. She is now a big name in the film industry.
Amy: "Of course, you got this preview yourself. You just made us tens of millions of dollars in profit."
"But if this "The Last Days" is still like "Crazy Stone" and "Love Is Not Blind", I think it will have no chance in the global film market, because Western filmmakers will not have the patience."
Female President Amy reminded Lin Xiao very subtly that "The Journey" would only be able to be released worldwide if it had global commercial potential.
Lin Xiao: "Of course, I hope that the next preview will not disappoint you or others."
…………………………
Next, Lin Xiao talked with Lee Mi-kyung from CJ Entertainment.
"Lin, you are really younger and more handsome than I thought." Li Meijing smiled and said, "At least, you are much more handsome than that guy."
Lin Xiao knew who she was talking about, the current crown prince of Samsung Group, Lee Jae-yong, who was Lee Mi-kyung's enemy even though he was her nephew. Her father failed in his struggle for power, which led to her family being driven out of Samsung.
"We at CJ Entertainment had a very successful movie last year, Memories of Murder, but we haven't had any so far this year," Lee Mi-kyung said. "This year, the entire Korean film industry has been overshadowed by Taegukgi."
"Taegukgi: Rise of the Taegukgi" was released in South Korea in February this year and took in 56 million US dollars at the box office in this market with a population of more than 40 million, setting a new record for Korean films.
"We originally had plenty of time to promote the film, but we finished it too late, and neither the director nor the actors were very famous." Li Meijing said, "So, in terms of the scale of promotion and the number of theaters, our CJ Entertainment may not be as big as you think."
"If you hadn't driven away director Bong Joon-ho at that time, it might have been much better, after all, he had just finished filming Memories of Murder last year."
"Lin, have you seen Taegukgi?"
Lin Xiao: “I’ve seen it.”
Li Meijing: "What do you think?"
Lin Xiao: "It's very good, but its success in the Korean market is largely due to its unique national sentiment. It is a typical single market product, while "The Last Days" is a typical global commercial film."
The box office of Taegukgi was very strong in South Korea, but it was relatively weak globally, with around 1.1 million US dollars in North America. Excluding the Korean market, the global total was only around 10 million US dollars.
Lee Mi-kyung: "I just want to tell you that although you shot this movie in Korea and used a large number of Korean actors and co-directors, I advise you not to have such high hopes for the Korean market. As you said, Korean movies are now particularly pursuing our unique national sentiment."
The subtext of all this is that although you have chosen CJ Entertainment as your ally, we may not be able to invest a lot of resources in this film as you imagined.
But Lin Xiao was really not worried at all about this.
Although Lee Mi-kyung is a lady from a wealthy family, she is also a movie fanatic. Moreover, as she said, as a Korean entertainment giant, CJ Entertainment has no representative works this year.
………………
After more than half an hour, all the communication was completed.
The movie officially started playing.
Because the production cycle was so tight, the entire editing and post-production took only about two months.
Therefore, it is really difficult to have too high expectations for this movie because of the several core BOSSes.
However……
Just a dozen minutes later.
They felt a sense of surprise.
Because the early stages of making a disaster movie like this are the most difficult.
First of all, the early stage must be a literary drama. There must be enough sense of substitution and the emotions must be deep enough, but the plot must be simple enough.
This is achieved perfectly in "The Last Days".
Especially with Lee Jung-jae's superb acting skills, this sense of immersion is even stronger.
An hour into the movie.
Everyone present was fascinated by the scene.
Because the rhythm is so excellent.
The characters here are so excellent.
A divorced office worker father and a lovely daughter.
A super strong husband who is as strong as an ox, and a beautiful and weak pregnant wife.
And throughout the entire movie, the pace keeps going up and up.
There was not even a moment of pause, it went straight to the climax and burst out completely.
The whole mood has almost no breaks or wrinkles, it just keeps booming and booming until the climax at the end of the movie.
And because of the high production costs, professional special effects artists were invited to film the entire zombie crisis in real life.
It was dark and overwhelming.
This scene is really shocking.
It will give people a feeling of a fake blockbuster.
This is very rare because almost all zombie movies are classified as B-level movies.
There are probably two exceptions, one is "World War Z" and the other is "I Am Legend".
Of course, "I Am Legend" is not a zombie movie, but a typical doomsday movie.
But after watching these two films, people will feel that they are A-level productions, not B-level films. One reason is the grand world view, of course, because of the participation of superstars, and the other is the grand scenes.
"World War Z" was shot all over the world, and there was a zombie tide surging like an ocean.
In "I Am Legend", the entire New York City and an aircraft carrier were used as the backdrop of the movie.
"The Last Days" will also have this A-level production feel, even though his investment is a typical B-level movie.
Because there are several particularly grand scenes in it, the tide of zombies surging like the sea, the overhead view of the doomsday city, and the large-scale military mobilization.
This is also the reason why the cost increased from $7 million to $13 million.
This is also a big scene that was not in the original version of "Train to Busan", but Lin Xiao felt it was worth adding it as it could create the feeling of a blockbuster.
In this regard, "The Wandering Earth" is simply textbook-level. The production cost alone is about 300 million RMB, maybe less than that, but it gives people the feeling of a super production. That's 300 million after 2017.
…………
Two hours later, the preview ended! Even though it was a preview, there were still people who took the lead in applauding.
Li Meijing came to Lin Xiao and said, "I take back what I said."
"It's a really amazing movie, I read the script, but I really didn't expect the finished product to be like this."
“It’s so excellent and wonderful.”
"To be politically incorrect, I think it's better than 'The Taegukgi: Battle Through the Heavens'."
This is typical of senior officials. They need national sentiment, but they themselves are relatively insensitive to national sentiment.
"Besides, I have to admit that you were right to replace Bong Joon-ho. He is too artistic." Li Meijing said to Lin Xiao: "Although time is very tight, you have to believe in the strength of our CJ Entertainment. We have enough capabilities to carry out extensive publicity in the Korean market, and we can also obtain the largest theater resources."
"There is no doubt that this is not only our CJ Entertainment's masterpiece this year, but also one of our masterpieces over the years."
Next, Lee Mi-kyung went to shake hands with director Yeon Sang-ho and actor Lee Jung-jae.
"Well done, boys."
Director Yeon Sang-ho was so excited that he was shaking all over: "Thank you, President Lee, thank you, President Lin."
Then, he bowed to Ning Hao again: "Thank you, senior. Thank you, senior."
Columbia President Amy Pascal's anxious heart was completely relaxed. She could understand the movie and was fascinated by it. She thought it was very, very good.
Then, she turned to Tom Bernard of Sony Classics next to her and asked, "Tom, what do you think?"
Tom Bernard: "Very, very good."
“It’s much better than I thought.”
“It’s even different from all the zombie movies.”
"All previous zombie movies, in order to create a sense of doomsday desolation, are usually very dark, desperate, and depressing."
"One of the reasons why Dawn of the Dead 2004 was successful was that it used relatively bright camera shots, but the overall tone was still dark and despairing."
"This film, The Last Days, is completely different. Although it is about the end of the world, its rhythm is very clear and positive. Its passion is far greater than its despair."
“So, this is not a zombie movie, but a classic disaster movie.”
“It has extraordinary business rhythm and business attributes.”
Then Tom Bernard asked, "How much did it cost to make?"
Amy Pascal: "$13 million."
Tom Bernard: "No way, no way. Dawn of the Dead 2004 cost 26 million U.S. dollars to make, but it is far inferior to this movie in terms of scenes."
"I was deeply impressed by several huge scenes in this movie, where even fighter jets, tanks and missiles were used."
"There are also large-scale troop movements and tidal waves of zombies."
“Is this something you can make with $13 million?”
“I feel like it’s even like an A-level production.”
Amy Pascal asked: "Does it need to be released on a smaller scale?"
Tom Bernard said: "You are the boss?"
Amy: "We will have a meeting in the next few days to decide on this matter."
Tom Bernard said: "The competition in the North American market is still very fierce, with Million Dollar Baby and Meet the Fockers 2 coming out soon."
Amy: "But these are all typical dramas. The market for "The Last Days" is completely blank during this period."
Tom Bernard: "It is true. This movie really came at a good time, catching up with the huge success of "Dawn of the Dead". And it is actually better than "Dawn of the Dead"."
Lin Xiao came to Song Dai of Yindu Agency, the Hong Kong distributor, and said, "Mr. Song, what do you think?"
The Yindu Organization belongs to the Hong Kong circle, but also does not belong to the Hong Kong circle, because its background is very red and it is a typical leftist.
Mr. Song: "Very good, very good."
“It doesn’t even look like a typical Asian movie. The rhythm is more like Hollywood, but it also has the unique charm of our oriental movies.”
“I am very optimistic about its box office in Hong Kong.”
"Boss Lin, we are family behind closed doors, so I'll be honest. In fact, I was very worried at the beginning. Because now it's hard for movies with a purely mainland flavor to be popular in Hong Kong. In the current Hong Kong market, only Mr. Zhou Xingchi can remain undefeated. The market for local movies is getting smaller and smaller, not to mention mainland movies, which have been hit hard by Hollywood movies."
Lin Xiao said: "Then the Hong Kong market will be handed over to Mr. Song."
Mr. Song from Yindu smiled and said, "Of course, but we still need Mr. Zhou Xingchi to help us. The two movies will be slightly staggered."
Zhou Xingchi: "I still have the final say in the Hong Kong market, no problem."
Historically, the box office of "Kung Fu" in Hong Kong was 61 million Hong Kong dollars, and that of "Train to Busan" was 66 million Hong Kong dollars.
Of course, "Train to Busan" was released later, and the box office also expanded at that time, so overall, "Kung Fu" is stronger in the Hong Kong market.
But in the final analysis, the market power of the two films is equally strong.
Lin Xiao came to the assistant to the chairman of Toho Corporation and asked in English: "Mr. Ichikawa Minamisaku, what do you think of this movie?"
Ichikawa Nansaku: "Excellent, Lin-san."
Lin Xiao: "Because of the tight schedule, my friends are very anxious, and I am very sorry for that."
Ichikawa Minamisaku: “You’re welcome, Mr. Hayashi. The Japanese market is somewhat unique, so in that respect, it’s OK!”
Japanese movies are really quite unique.
Animated films are very strong, but live-action films are very weak and are basically dominated by Hollywood films.
Not to mention Hollywood movies, even Chinese-language movies are quite strong in the Japanese market. "Hero" took in $33.996 million in Japan, and "Red Cliff" took in $54 million.
The box office of "Train to Busan" in Japan was 1.8 billion yen, setting a record for Korean films in Japan.
But this time it will be different, because one of the core investors in "The Last Days" is SoftBank Group, which is Japan's super chaebol and a real local tyrant.
Ichikawa Nansaku glanced at Li Meijing and lowered his voice and said, "Mr. Lin, I have a small request."
"This movie has already won half the battle because it has Japanese dubbing. But you should know that our people have mixed feelings towards your country, but they do identify with your cultural works, so your films often achieve great success in the Japanese market. But Korean films are different. Our people have very single feelings towards Korea."
Lin Xiao smiled and said, "You don't have to be so tactful. The only thing Japanese people think of Koreans is contempt!"
So when the Korean wave swept the world, Japan was relatively indifferent, and Korean films have never been very successful in Japan.
Ichikawa Minamisaku: "So, when the film "The Last Days" is released in Japan, it would be best to blur out all traces of Korea and highlight the status of Columbia and Sony."
Lin Xiao: “No problem.”
……………………
Korean market, Japanese market, Hong Kong market, domestic market.
There are basically no major problems in these four major markets.
Whether it is theaters or publicity, they are all super heavyweights because they are giants in the local market.
The only difficult and most important market now is the North American market.
Because the North American market is a global trendsetter and can bring the greatest sense of pride. Another point is that if you succeed in the North American market, you will also succeed in the Australian and European markets.
Except for several heavyweight markets, the distribution rights of "The Last Days" are still bought out by Sony. Now it depends on whether Sony is willing to make a big effort.
While Amy Pascal and Tom Bernard were still in Shanghai, Lin Xiao held a closed-door meeting with them.
Discuss the release date and the number of films to be released.
Lin Xiao: "Madam, sir, please do not treat us as Huayi or New Picture. The strategic level between us must be greatly improved."
"First of all, this year, Dream Vision brought you tens of millions of dollars in revenue just because of the copyright transaction of the talent show."
"And this kind of profit sharing can last for many years."
"In addition, we will become an important strategic partner of Sony in TV dramas, other variety shows, and even large-scale AAA games."
"Not only that, in the future, Sony will need the full cooperation of our Lightning Group in terms of movies, games, and even PS strategy. Soon, our Lightning Group will control the largest user group in China."
"So you need to treat us as a strategic ally, instead of having a small-scale release in a dozen theaters like you did with New Picture, I want a large-scale release."
Amy Pascal: "Say what you want."
Lin Xiao: "There are 3,000 stores in North America."
Amy Pascal and Tom Bernard were both shocked.
Amy Pascal: "No way. It's really impossible."
Lin Xiao: "Why not? At the end of December, Million Dollar Baby had been released for three weeks and had lost its box office power. And the powerful Meet the Fockers 2 had also been released for about a week. The so-called New Year's Day period is a good period for the Chinese market, but for the North American market, it is only a decent period, as the Christmas period has already passed."
"Hero was showing in 2,000 theaters at the time, and Quentin picked it out of a crowded field of films."
"The combined weight of the two of you far exceeds that of Quentin."
Tom Bernard: "Lin, in the United States, capital is supreme. Even we would not take the risk of opening a movie on 3,000 screens."
Lin Xiao remained silent and did not speak, but just looked at Amy Pascal quietly.
adventure?
From the beginning of the cooperation between the two parties, it was Lin Xiao who was always taking risks, and he was also the one who had great courage.
He is the one who gets the work and he is also the one who gets the money.
Colombia has always been just following the trend of getting rich.
Moreover, in the North American market, connections are paramount, rather than so-called capital.
This is especially true in Hollywood, a place of fame and fortune. From the opening of a movie to the Oscars, which one is not a power game for big shots? You have already earned tens of millions of dollars in profits from me, so you have to give me something back.
I need the North American market, and you need the Chinese market, too. Especially now Sony is hungry for the Chinese market, do I need to tell you? Amy Pascal thought for a while and said, "First, the Christmas season is too crowded, and it's a family-friendly season, so we shouldn't squeeze into this season."
Lin Xiao: “No problem.”
Amy: "So let's set the date for December 29th, is that a problem?"
Lin Xiao: “No problem.”
Next, Amy lowered her head and made a final thought and a final weighing.
She is now the global boss of Columbia, so she has the power and resources, it’s just a matter of whether she is willing to do so.
After a long while, she said, "2,300 premieres, this is the maximum I can agree to. This is already a huge risk."
"This premiere scale is typical of Hollywood movies, far exceeding any foreign-language movie."
"Don't forget that it was only in its 16th week that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon reached the 2,000-house mark."
"The premiere in 2,300 theaters is already the biggest and craziest treatment we can give you. It's the biggest reward for our friendship."
"Even I feel crazy. I think I will regret it when I wake up tomorrow morning."
"In order to convince the group, you will have to bear half of the publicity costs for this film, which may cost several million dollars."
"Also, two episodes of America's Got Talent will be aired before the movie is released, and as the copyright holder, we need to find a way to promote it."
Lin Xiao: “No problem.”
Amy Pascal said, "Then we have a pleasant cooperation."
Lin Xiao stretched out his hands and shook hands with the two of them.
“It’s a pleasure to work with you!”
This most difficult part has finally been completed.
Lin Xiao used a series of successes and huge profits to finally achieve this huge achievement of simultaneous global releases.
Don’t underestimate this achievement. It is extremely difficult for Chinese-language films to achieve this.
……………………
December 1st! Lightning Group released an announcement.
Lightning Entertainment's annual finale masterpiece "The Last Days" will be released in China on December 23.
This announcement doesn’t count.
Next, there is a long list of release schedules in countries around the world.
Korean market, December 23.
Japanese market, December 23.
Hong Kong market, December 23.
Australian market, Thai market, British market, Taiwanese market and so on.
The most important thing is that the film will be released in North America on December 29th, with a massive opening in 2,300 theaters.
At this time, whether it was New Picture, Huayi, or even other film companies, they were all envious.
Shit! You're releasing it simultaneously around the world?
Such a big deal? 2,300 premieres in North America? Why?
Your investment is only 13 million US dollars. "Hero" was 10 million US dollars, and "House of Flying Daggers" was 35 million US dollars.
We can't unlock the global simultaneous release.
It was actually unlocked by you, Master Ergou? Then, "The Last Days" began to be promoted extensively in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and other markets.
Although the investment share is not extremely huge, the publicity campaign is absolutely colossal.
At the same time, Renren Group also launched a massive promotion for "Perfect World".
How can this look like the second closed beta test? It's just a promotional event for a super large-scale closed beta test.
On December 19, "Perfect World" will have a shocking test! On the Huayi side, the finale of the year, "A World Without Thieves", will be officially released on December 9!
This is nothing, the key point is that Huayi also issued an announcement afterwards.
The Chinese blockbuster "Kung Fu" will be released on December 23! Historically, it was also released on this day, but they previously announced it was December 28.
Now Lin Xiao’s “The Last Days” has been announced to be released on December 23rd, and they have also moved “Kung Fu” to December 23rd.
Zhou Xingchi was immediately furious.
Are you going to make both movies lose? Why don't you use your own "A World Without Thieves" to compete with "The Last Days"?
Why did they have to use my Kung Fu? Lin Xiao once again said: The Chinese film market is big enough to accommodate two excellent films. Kung Fu is a very good film. I hope both films can be successful! Almost instantly.
The atmosphere of the entire Lunar New Year super war immediately surged up!
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Note: It's the end of the month. If there are no books that need your support, could you please vote for me? Thank you very much! (End of this chapter)
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