Huayu: From an ordinary person to a happy director

Chapter 69 Hollywood shock, invitation to cooperation

Ordinary inspirational films tell stories, but "Million Dollar Baby" tells about life, which is the film that the judges like.

At the end of the story, Maggie died, and the coach donated the money according to Maggie's wishes.

The film ended and warm applause broke out!

Even those who had previously scolded the screenwriter and director started applauding!
Although they were dissatisfied with the ending of the film, they were dissatisfied with the director and screenwriter, not Maggie. Their applause was for Maggie, not for the director.

……

Oscar judges and professional film critics left one by one.

Shi Lei thanked the guests one by one and thanked them for their positive comments.

The Chinese directors and stars were the last to leave.

"Director Shi, congratulations in advance." Li An was also a director of art films and had attempted to win an Oscar before, so he knew the preferences of the Oscar judges.

"Million Dollar Baby" is very much in line with the judges' taste. It is hard to say what award it will win, but it is certain that the film will win.

"Then I'd like to take advantage of Director Li's good wishes." Shi Lei was not being modest. This was North America. Being too modest would make people think that you had no interest in the award. You might have been awarded the prize, but in the end you lost it.

If you don't even want it yourself, why should we give you the award?
So he directly expressed his desire to win the award!

Cheng Long came up to Shi Lei and said with a smile: "I also wish your film a great success, but Director Shi, when will you work with me to make a movie? I look forward to working with you."

"Thank you. I will definitely contact you if I find a suitable script." Shi Lei agreed readily.

He did not lie. Cheng Long's movies performed relatively stably. Many of them had box office of 5 million or 6 million yuan. One of them, "Kung Fu Yoga", even had a box office of 17.48 billion yuan. As long as he could make money, he was willing to cooperate with Cheng Long.

But this will have to wait until Cheng Long's salary is reduced. Now Cheng Long has the "Rush Hour" series in Hollywood, which is very expensive at the box office.

At the same time, we have to wait for the mainland film market to develop.

At the entrance of the cinema, Columbia distributed questionnaires to the audience.

"A+, I like Maggie very much. She bravely fights for her dream."

"A+, this rating is for Maggie, she is brave and kind."

"A. I was going to give it an A+, but I didn't like the ending so I could only give it an A. If I didn't admire Maggie, I would have given this movie a C."

“Ah, it’s a very good movie.”

"Bitch, Shi Lei is so annoying. He actually made my Maggie disabled for life and died a mediocre death in the end!"

……

Questionnaires were collected one after another, and the overall evaluation was around A, with most people voting high for Maggie.

The word of mouth was good, but Columbia strictly followed the award-winning process and did not expand the number of theaters on a large scale. Instead, it just screened the film for three days.

Three days later, the first weekend box office of "Million Dollar Baby" came out, with a total of about 210 million, which was beyond Columbia's expectations.

This is the box office revenue of 50 venues, with an average of US dollars per day for each venue.

This revenue is very high, and the attendance rate exceeds that of other films of the same period by a large margin.

Other films competing for awards cannot compare to "Million Dollar Baby".

The box office was good, word of mouth remained unchanged, and the overall rating remained at A.

With such achievements, Columbia immediately increased the number of screening venues to 200.

Half of the opening venues are located in areas where Oscar judges usually live, a quarter are in Chinese areas, and the remaining quarter is evenly distributed.

The number of venues has expanded fourfold, and the revenue of a single venue per day is still around $240. On weekdays, the single-day box office is as high as $ million.

By the end of the next weekend, the total box office for the ten-day screening was 2400 million U.S. dollars. This result put Shi Lei at the forefront of public opinion.

Shi Lei was previously known as a Venice Silver Lion-winning director, a Chinese martial arts film director, and an excellent horror film screenwriter. Now that Shi Lei has produced a film that has achieved great success in both word-of-mouth and box office, Hollywood has taken Shi Lei seriously.

All Hollywood production companies with a bit of status called and made countless filming invitations.

Mike from Warner even came straight over to kill him.

"Mike? Why are you here?" Shi Lei asked in surprise.

"Shi, the company's top management is now very regretful for not cooperating with you." Mike looked grim, as if he had been in great misfortune.

Wow, is he here to repent after seeing the success of Million Dollar Baby?

Shi Lei was very happy, but he still held back his smile and consoled her: "It's okay. If the cooperation on Million Dollar Baby fails, we can have other cooperation. There will always be opportunities."

"Shi, there is an opportunity for cooperation now. We are planning to shoot a comic-adapted movie and would like to invite you to be the director. Are you interested?" Mike followed up Shi Lei's words.

"A little... curious." Shi Lei almost agreed without thinking, but finally realized what was going on and changed his words in time.

"It's a comic book movie called 300," Mike explained.

? ?
Shi Lei fell into deep thought. If he remembered correctly, the original director of "300" was Zack Snyder. Why did he invite him?
Shi Lei soon figured out the key. Zack Snyder only entered the film and television industry in 04 and shot "Dawn of the Dead", which grossed 1.02 million U.S. dollars. Zack's qualifications were lower than his, so it was normal to find him first.

As for why they didn’t look for other directors who had box office revenues of over $100 million, they may have already looked for them but were rejected.

Thinking of this, Shi Lei asked directly: "What are the conditions you give me?"

"Your director and screenwriter fees are considered as investment, accounting for 30% of the investment amount." Mike stated the conditions.

Shi Lei narrowed his eyes slightly. Something was wrong, very wrong.

Nowadays, unless it is a co-production, Hollywood companies rarely give investment amounts. No matter how good the director is, they will only give a share of the box office but not the investment amount.

"Does the income from this investment include online broadcasting rights, TV broadcasting rights, and the disc market?" Shi Lei asked.

Mike quickly responded, "It shouldn't be included, but I can get it for you."

"If the return on the investment includes the right to broadcast online, the right to broadcast on TV, and the disc market, I will agree to shoot 300."

"What if the company doesn't agree?" Mike asked.

"We'll talk about it later." Shi Lei said loudly.

Mike smiled and said, "Shi, I will try my best to convince the company. It is very likely that we will continue to cooperate. I will go back and fight for you now."

"I'll take you there." Shi Lei smiled.

At the gate of Shuimitao Film and Television, Shi Lei looked at Mike's departing back and the smile on his face disappeared.

If he didn't know the box office of "300", "300" would be a complete pitfall.

In this day and age, large companies like Warner Bros. rarely give up their investment. If they do, it means that Warner Bros. has no confidence in the film and wants to find someone to share the risk.

If he remembered correctly, the investment in "300" was 6500 million US dollars. The investment did not exceed 300 million, which further proved that Warner lacked confidence. Thinking back to the director and actors of the previous "", it was confirmed.

The previous version of "300" had no famous director or actors. If it weren't for Zack Snyder's efforts, this "300" might not have made a profit from the box office, and would have had to rely on the disc market to make a profit.

As for why Warner insisted on making this risky film, we can only say that Warner had its own considerations, or perhaps Warner did not have that many options.

Just like Huayi in China in the past, it has to make movies and TV series even if it makes a loss. Otherwise, how can a film and television production company maintain its stock if it does not produce movies and TV series?

As long as a company goes public, its operating model will also change.

(End of this chapter)