Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 290 A Mega Production Worth 2.7 Billion

The summer movie season in North America runs from early May until Labor Day, which is the first Monday in September, a month longer than the summer movie season in China.

The summer movie season in China usually starts on June 1st and lasts until August 31st.

Summer movie season has always been the highest-grossing period for films in North America, a tradition that has lasted for more than half a century, involving family moviegoing.

Inception is definitely going to be released during the summer holiday season; this is a plan that Columbia Pictures and China Film Group have already made.

As early as six months ago, Columbia Pictures had already begun promoting the film in North America, releasing posters and having the actors give interviews from time to time.

Moreover, Columbia also "exploited" Cao Yang and the Fox Searchlight controversy.

To promote "Juno," Fox Searchlight arranged numerous interviews and TV appearances for Cao Yang. Whenever there was buzz, Columbia Pictures would find some media outlets to "incidentally" mention Cao Yang's "Inception."

As a mega-production that claims a $1.8 million investment, Columbia Pictures certainly values ​​publicity immensely and definitely doesn't want to mess it up.

After Juno won the Oscar for Best Picture, Columbia Pictures capitalized on the buzz by secretly promoting Cao Yang and Inception.

Columbia Pictures initially wanted to release Inception on July 4th, a date that is special to Americans as it is their Independence Day, also known as America's national day.

However, a Warner Bros. blockbuster with a production cost of $270 million is set to be released on June 28, and it features one of America's most popular superheroes.

That's Superman Returns, the DC Comics Superman movie series that's been rebooted after 20 years!
Warner Bros. must have made a lot of money in recent years thanks to the stable Harry Potter film series.

In order to avoid being drained by its parent company Time Warner, which suffered a huge net loss of $990 billion, it has invested in a mega-production almost every year in recent years.

For example, the reboot of "Superman Returns" claims a production cost of 2.7 million.

$2.7 million, not in any other currency.

Many people don't understand.

What kind of movie needs a production cost of 2.7 million?

Well, some "insiders" have revealed that the actual investment in the film was 2.2 million, while others say it was 2.5 million.

However, Warner Bros. has consistently maintained that it invested $2.7 million.

Whether outsiders believe it or not, anyway... what? Some senior executives at the parent company don't believe it either?
Come, come, let me calculate it for you.

Superman has been shelved for twenty years. As a reboot series, and as a household name superhero, we can't let "Superman" be disgraced. So, we changed directors, actors, and scripts...

Isn't this too much?
What? You still don't believe that an investment of 2.7 million is needed?
Well, actually, after the reshoot, a large part of the movie was created using CG effects. It was a huge segment, and every second of it was burning US dollars.

What? You're asking where all that CG effects are?
Yes, I deleted it.

Later, during editing, considering that this long stretch of plot was a bit drawn out, the director deleted it.

What? You're saying I'm talking nonsense?
Oh my god, how could you think that?
Well, actually, as we all know, in the past two years, many of our Warner Bros. executives have been a bit sick. They frequently change directors and actors for the movies they produce, and they often cut and change the plot. This is routine for us.

What? As a senior executive of the parent company, you want to see that huge section of cut CG effects?

Okay, I was prepared... no, I was prepared.

Look, in the dark outer space, a spaceship flies slowly, carrying a searchlight as it flies back and forth. There are no lines of dialogue and no background music. The spaceship explores quietly like this.

Flying and flying, shining and shining, exploring and exploring, look, still exploring, still flying, the wreckage of Krypton is huge.

Don't worry, don't worry, look, we've encountered a giant fragment that has turned into Kryptonite, haven't we? At this point, the scene will cut to Superman being injured by radiation, setting an automatic command for the spaceship to return to Earth, and then he faints.

Isn't this a long segment? Tell me, such a long CG effect segment definitely wouldn't be possible without at least 50 million.

What? You're saying the special effects don't look very good? Like the graphics of a low-quality web game?

That's an amateurish statement. This is basic modeling; it hasn't been rendered yet. Once it's rendered, the effect will be absolutely identical to the real thing.

What? You said it wasn't finished yet, so why was it deleted? And why did it cost 50 million?
The director felt this part of the story was too drawn out, and after careful consideration, decided against including it.

As for the 50 million spent on this long CG effect, it only cost 50 million because it wasn't fully rendered. If it had been fully rendered... well, it would probably have cost 60 million.

It's not that he didn't want to quote a higher price for this "wonderful" special effects; it's just that the quoted price was too high and unreasonable. That's how it is.

In short, the total production cost of "Superman Returns" was 2.7 million.

Regardless of outside speculation, before the film's release, both the rumored $2.2 million production cost and Warner Bros.' claimed $2.7 million undoubtedly indicated that this was an absolute mega-production. Add to that the universally known superhero Superman, and who would dare to go head-to-head with it during the summer blockbuster season?
Moreover, there's an unwritten rule among the seven Hollywood studios: for any A-list or higher production, they all tacitly agree to release two films at least a week apart to avoid mutual damage.

So, Colombia is afraid too.

While the July 4th release date is good, it's too close to the release of "Superman Returns" on June 28th. This would disrupt the tacit understanding between them, which is undesirable and would make them public enemies.

Moreover, without having seen the movie, nobody knows the true quality of "Superman Returns," which cost 2.7 million.

But no matter how you look at it, the chances of Superman Returns failing are extremely slim.

Initially, Columbia Pictures discussed with Cao Yang the possibility of setting the release date of "Inception" for July 21st.
They felt that since "Superman Returns" had been released for more than three weeks by July 21, it was a safe time interval.

The mainland Chinese box office market cannot accommodate two blockbusters in a short period of time, but North America is different. As the world's largest box office market, three weeks is enough to avoid mutual destruction and will hardly affect each other's box office.

After considering it for a while, Cao Yang realized that while others might not know the quality of "Superman Returns," he did. So he suggested moving the release date of "Inception" forward by a week to July 14th.

This way, "Inception" can be compared with "Superman Returns," and because there is a two-week gap between their releases, "Superman Returns" will not impact the box office of "Inception."

Columbia Pictures is still a bit worried that the huge success of "Superman Returns" (2.7 million) might squeeze out the box office of "Inception".

That's why, as soon as Cao Yang finished post-production on "Inception," Columbia Pictures and even its parent company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, sent high-level executives to a small screening.

I'm mainly worried about it.

It's only early June, and there's still a month and a half until the release of "Inception" and more than twenty days until the release of "Superman Returns".

Before watching Inception, they were also worried that the movie would not live up to their expectations.

After reading it, I felt completely relieved. Cao Yang is definitely the most reliable person I know!

With its concept, visual effects, and the acting of the cast, Inception could easily rival Superman Returns!
Director Cao Yang is as awesome as ever!

Originally, Columbia Pictures planned to screen "Inception" in around 3500 theaters, depending on the situation.

Now that the senior executives have reviewed the film, they have unanimously decided to treat "Inception" as a top-tier production, not only increasing the number of theaters showing it but also allocating an additional ten million for final promotional purposes.

Columbia Pictures started to ramp up its efforts, with Depp, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hardy, and Claire Dennis taking the lead in promotional activities, including TV appearances and interviews.

By the end of June, even Leonardo DiCaprio put aside his work to dedicate himself to promoting "Inception".

Wu Qihua and Fat Bing also came to North America to promote the movie.

On the 28th, the third day of Fat Bing's arrival in Los Angeles, she participated in an interview with Depp and others during the day to promote "Inception". In the evening, Cao Yang took her to see "Superman Returns".

Today is the premiere of "Superman Returns," and a lot of people are paying attention to this super-big-budget production. Everyone wants to see what kind of amazing film Warner Bros. can create with its claimed $2.7 million budget.

"I thought this version of Superman would have another square face, but I didn't expect the director to have chosen such a good actor."

This was Fat Bing's first impression of "Superman Returns" as she left the theater.

"Have you seen any other Superman movies? The most recent one is from twenty years ago."

Cao Yang casually remarked that this "Superman Returns" was the same one he remembered, which put his mind at ease.

Fatty Bing stuck out her tongue, hooked her arm around Cao Yang's, and said with a smile:

"I've only seen one movie, and I don't know which year it was. In my memory, Superman was very powerful, but he looked too square. I've also seen the animated version, and Superman had a square face."

Cao Yang laughed, guessing that Fatty Bing had watched it on a large TV, so it might have looked a bit distorted. In his memory, the animated Superman looked alright, but the live-action Superman from twenty years ago was indeed a bit too square.

What did you think of the movie?

Cao Yang asked, "Don't think about anything else, just talk from the audience's perspective."

Fat Bing smoothed her hair and said, "Superman is so cool, the special effects are great, especially the part where he carries the plane, that was really exciting, and the plot..."

She thought for a moment and realized that apart from the part about carrying the airplane, she didn't remember any other particularly interesting plot points. So she said, "The plot is a bit weak. You've seen it, so you've seen it."

Cao Yang nodded. Pang Bing only saw the surface. The director of this movie was very bold and even incorporated some religious allegory. It's clear that he had a lot of ideas.

(End of this chapter)