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Similarly, the newly added theaters after the expanded screening are still located near the Chinese community.

Ronan was not blindly optimistic because of the excellent box office performance in the first week of screening, and he would not overestimate the status of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon among the old American audience without award protection. Before, the mainstream audience was always Chinese.

If you expand it a little bit, East Asians and Southeast Asians can also be counted.

It's true that many Americans who saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in theaters thought they were enthralled by the sci-fi film, but other things have happened.

For example, when some old beauties saw the hanging steel wire lens flying around, they even laughed together.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon doesn't have any funny scenes.

There are even many old Americans who think this is a Japanese film, and some people refute it and even quarrel with others.

In the test screening, apart from Chinese and Asians, there are not many other types of old-American audiences. Unless Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wins important Hollywood awards such as Golden Globes or Oscar nominations, the denial will not be too big change.

Americans take themselves too seriously and others too little.

Numerous foreign films have suffered disastrously in the North American market.

Fortunately, Ang Lee is a smart person who knows how to shoot in order to please the beautiful audience.

In recent days, Ang Lee has also been spinning around.

A breakfast date with Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan in the morning, lunch with the directors of the Producers Union at noon, and a drink with Schmidt from the Directors Guild in the evening sounds like a dreamy schedule , just an ordinary day for an award winner during awards season.

In just one week from Christmas to New Year, under the arrangement of the embassy film industry, Ang Lee participated in two video conferences, three media interviews, a public TV talk show, and visited more than ten senior members of the academy.

They even personally presented some old men with hardcover DVDs of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and matching souvenirs. The porcelain made by the Embassy Pictures in the Royal Albert Company of the United Kingdom printed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on the porcelain. Relevant patterns and logos are claimed to be props used in the film, allowing the judges to appreciate the serious and responsible attitude of the crew when shooting the film.

Similar excuses can always be found.

I gotta Feeling.

On the way to an event, Li An finally had some free time, and said to his manager, Ronan and the public relations of the Embassy Pictures seem to be holding the line just like Harvey Weinstein.

The agent said: It's okay, the bottom line of Oscar's public relations has long been pushed down by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax.

Ang Lee was a little worried: This is an art award, but it has become a money game.

The agent said with a smile: Film art has never been separated from money.

Li An was silent for a while, then nodded his head lightly. He had a deep understanding of this point. For this Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he and Xu Ligong were about to sell everything.

The car soon arrived at the hotel that had an appointment with Vanity Fair. After getting out of the car, Li An cheered up and showed his best mental state.

In many cases, the quality of a movie is very subjective, and it is also very easy to be influenced by the opinions of others, because it has no criteria for judging, and the Oscar is different from those European film festivals. It is voted by thousands of judges. , so it is possible to influence the votes of these judges in public opinion.

Oscar PR is like an election campaign. All activities are like a battlefield. You have to build momentum for yourself, intrigue with each other, and canvass votes like an election, which is physically and mentally exhausting.

Every event will be accompanied by a banquet. The chicken in Los Angeles is like plastic. This plastic chicken feast needs to be eaten at least twenty or thirty times to win the Oscar.

For the little golden man, no matter how unpalatable the plastic chicken is, he has to swallow it.

Face the media with a smiley face, talk to film critics to make them happy, and the actors' union and directors' union have to build relationships, don't talk nonsense, and you have to step by step to win the Oscar.

Ang Lee is very clear that the unspoken rules behind the Oscars are full of controversy: art is never the only criterion, and factors such as luck, popularity, and public relations will all determine the award at the end.

On the last weekend of 2000, the North American screening scale of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was expanded to 300 theaters, and the expansion strategy was still based on theaters close to the Chinese community.

Due to the accurate distribution strategy and targeted publicity of the film, the reputation in North America is extremely good. After the extended screening, not only did the single-house box office not plummet, but the trend was extremely stable. The average weekend box office of 300 theaters reached 28,900 US dollars.

This is also the third weekend that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has been screened, with a cumulative North American box office of 13.45 million US dollars.

Ronan is very sure that this movie, which cost $8 million to buy out the North American rights, will inevitably bring profits, even if it gets nothing at the Oscars.

If you can make some gains at the Oscars, it is not difficult to win tens of millions of dollars in profits.

Investing in Oscars is meaningful, because winning the favor of the Academy and the judges, nominations and even winning Oscars can bring great financial returns.

The re-screening of the film, the release and reprint of DVD, the sales of peripheral products, and even the investment in other films of the company will all become a matter of course. This is the reputation effect.

In addition to newspaper advertisements, the public relations firm hired by Ronan also placed outdoor billboards in areas where Hollywood filmmakers live, such as Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Tiger Hidden Dragon website and blog.

Many people regard canvassing as the black screen of the Oscars, and scoff at it, thinking that if a film is good enough, it can kill everything in seconds, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences encourages canvassing and public relations within the specified range, believing it to be a manifestation of the will to compete freely.

Wanting to stand out from the crowd of strong competitors and get the desired result, Ronan did not hesitate to go too far, placing a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, advocating Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the best movie of the year. Movie.

It is also a propaganda offensive, and it is more cost-effective to directly target members of the academy who have voting rights.

For this reason, the embassy film industry and the public relations company spared no expense. In addition to filling the judges' mailboxes with relevant graphic materials introducing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, they also did not let go of the judges' daily activities.

Just after entering 2001, some important outpost awards including the Golden Globes announced the nominations one after another, and the name of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon appeared on the list of many nominations.

At the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won three nominations for Best Director, Best Film Industry and Best Film Score.

In terms of the Hollywood Industry Union and Association Awards, which can be called the real Oscar vane, Ang Lee was nominated for Best Director at the Directors Guild Award, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for Best Picture at the Producers Union Award, and Bao Dexi also won the Nominated for Best Cinematography by the Society of Photographers.

Nominations for these awards almost guarantee that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be nominated for several Oscars, and even best director and best picture are not out of the question.

Nominated for these awards, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has attracted more attention.

Embassy Pictures and Xu Ligong's Zongheng International once again made efforts to buy a large number of media advertisements, sponsor many programs, win many famous critics, and let them work hard for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. blow.

If you want to win an award, you must have enough face, you must dare to brag, and you must not even be afraid of bragging.

If you don’t think your film is good, how can you get others to recognize your film as good?

Vanity Fair magazine also published Ang Lee's interview, and added a commentary article at the end of the interview.

Although Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not perfect, this movie that combines women's sex, love, martial arts, suspense, philosophy and oriental beauties has captivated Western audiences. It has an entertaining side, a deep side, and It is ironic, humorous, tragic and romantic, so that after watching it, it is difficult for you to give this movie an exact classification. When the film was released in the United States, it was first screened in art theaters in the United States, and the screening areas were concentrated in Metropolitan cities such as California and New York with a large number of Chinese.”

But to everyone's surprise, American audiences of different races formed rare lines at art house cinemas, which one art house expert said was the first time in more than two decades he'd seen audiences waiting for a film. There are such long queues for foreign films that even weekends in New York are sold out.

Afterwards, the film began to be screened in hundreds of theaters, and the box office soared to the top five in the ranking of American films. Even in the editorial department of Vanity Fair, even those female secretaries began to watch this foreign film with subtitles...

At the same time, the second round of publicity bombing by The Hollywood Reporter also kicked off.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon received rave reviews from the American news media, praising it as a great work that explained 'women are not weak'. It is the first time to witness the natural beauty of the earth...

There are also news feedbacks from various aspects. Ronan obtained a piece of data collected privately by a public relations company, and it was confirmed that more than 600 judges had listed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the first place in the nomination ballot for the best foreign language film. .

According to Oscar's nomination rules, if a film wants to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture, it must not only get enough votes, but also have no less than 5% of the judges' votes to list the film on the voting list. top of the list.

Combining all the data, Ronan can confirm that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has an over 80% chance of being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

While Ronan was working on the Oscars, he received a call from Paris Hilton. The rich daughter came to Los Angeles and wanted to try her career as an actor.