Chapter 407 Target: 50 billion!
James Cameron, one of the greatest science fiction directors, the world's box office record holder, the creator of "Terminator", "Titanic" and "Avatar", the man who swept the Oscars...

He is also the American "adoptive father" of countless Hollywood fanatics.

In the online debate about "The Wandering Earth" in recent days, whenever the black fans are at a disadvantage, they bring up Cameron's "Avatar" and Nolan's "Interstellar". The implication is that apart from these two movies, other science fiction movies are garbage.

In this regard, fans of "Little Broken Ball" can only say:

[You are right! ——From user "2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick"]

The haters thought they could keep using this "spiritual victory method" to cause trouble, but they never expected that at this time, they would be stabbed in the back by the "card god" they believed in.

However, we have to admit that Cameron's reputation is indeed high in the hearts of science fiction movie audiences. The first reaction of fans of "The Wandering Earth" who saw this Weibo post was also shock.

[Fuck! It’s really the God of Cards, and he’s posting on Weibo. This style of painting is too weird. ]

[My little broken ball is awesome! The card god flipped the card, it must be right. ]

[Kaishin encouraged us to play the game, and I knew that good movies would not be buried! ]

【? ? really? Thanks! 】

【…】

"What the hell? Who of you is so powerful that you can invite Cameron?" Guo Fan called Meng Bai and asked excitedly.

In the past few days, in addition to various publicity interviews, he has also been paying attention to the public opinion of the movie. He also dislikes those black fans who wantonly smear and criticize the film, but due to his status, he can't say anything to the public.

As for those people comparing "The Wandering Earth" with "Avatar" and "Interstellar", he doesn't care much.

The gap between the domestic film industry and Hollywood is an objective fact. There is no need to distort or deny it. We just need to work hard to catch up. Moreover, these films are all science fiction masterpieces recognized by fans around the world. The fact that they can be compared together is itself a recognition of "The Wandering Earth".

What he didn't expect was that he actually saw Cameron supporting them on a domestic social platform.

When he first heard the staff report the news to him, he thought it was a joke. It was not until he saw the message from the verified account that he finally believed it.

Guo Fan's first thought was: Wow! We are so awesome that even Cameron watches our movies and applauds us after watching them.

But then he realized that, regardless of whether Cameron would find a newly released Chinese sci-fi movie to watch, even if he was satisfied after watching it, he would definitely not post a message on Weibo.

There was no need to ask, this must have been done by one of the producers in the crew, and the first person he thought of was Meng Bai.

"Brother, no matter how great Arclight is, it's still in China. We really don't have much contact with Hollywood."

Meng Bai directly denied Guo Fan's guess. He knew that only China Film Group Corporation could have such resources and connections.

"Wasn't Cameron's new movie 'Alita: Battle Angel' going to be released in China on the 22nd? It just so happened that when we were talking about the release and promotion, China Film recommended 'The Wandering Earth' to him, and they returned the favor by helping promote it."

"That's no wonder. I was wondering why he used Weibo to post a message." Guo Fan was a little disappointed. "I thought he really recommended it after reading it and thought it was good."

As a science fiction film creator, Guo Fan is also a fan of Cameron, so he is so excited.

"It's about half and half, actually. When I talked to the China Film Group yesterday, they said that Director Ka had seen some clips and indeed thought the quality was very good." Meng Bai comforted him, "If the movie was really bad, people wouldn't be able to praise it."

"Haha, yes."

Knowing where the other party came from, Guo Fan felt relieved. Of course, he did not forget to respond to his idol.

[Oh my god! Thank you for the encouragement from Kagome, and I wish you good luck with the upcoming "Alita: Battle Angel"! I'm looking forward to it and will definitely watch it.]

It also helps to promote it.

On the other hand, after watching the "friendly interaction" between the two directors, the fans of "The Wandering Earth" seemed to have suddenly obtained a magical weapon, and won an overwhelming victory in the battle against the black fans.

After all, the other party’s most respected director has personally come out to express his support, so what else is there to say.

Although there are still some stubborn haters who have been severely slapped in the face, most of them have stopped and can only make a few remarks in marginal places, and have to be careful about being attacked by fans at any time.

However, this wave of public controversy has helped create some popularity for "The Wandering Earth". Coupled with Cameron's popularity, the momentum of the film has become even stronger.

On the fourth day of the Spring Festival, the screening and single-day box office of "The Wandering Earth" continued to rise, earning 4.2 million yuan.

On the fifth day, the number rose to a terrifying 4.6 million, accounting for 33% of the screenings, and the attendance rate continued to remain above 45%.

You know, the total box office of movies in theaters across the country on that day was only 8.7 million yuan. This means that "The Wandering Earth" took more than half of the box office with only one-third of the screenings.

The total box office of the movie reached 17 billion.

No one could have imagined that "Little Broken Ball", which was the least favored before its release, would make great strides and completely create a huge gap with other Spring Festival movies.

At this point, the entire 2019 Spring Festival movie season has also been divided into four levels.

At the top is undoubtedly the dominating "The Wandering Earth", followed by "Crazy Alien" and "Speeding Life" in the second tier.

Then in the third echelon, "The New King of Comedy" and "Boonie Bears" are almost the same, and the latter is about to overtake.

As for the remaining games like "Peppa Pig", they have lost the chance to compete and have basically left the battlefield.

Following this trend, "The Wandering Earth" is a foregone conclusion to be the champion of the Spring Festival, and the only thing left is to see how high the final total box office will be.

Not only Meng Bai, Guo Fan and other main creative staff are looking forward to it, but also fans and audiences of "Little Broken Ball" are also curious about how far this movie, which opens the "door to domestic science fiction", can go. Under such attention, the box office performance of "The Wandering Earth" has shown amazing stability.

On February 2, the last day of the Spring Festival holiday, the total box office of movies exceeded 10 billion.

On February 2, the tenth day of the movie’s release, the total box office exceeded 14 billion.

On February 2, half a month after its release, the total box office of "The Wandering Earth" successfully exceeded 20 billion, and still maintained a single-day box office growth rate of over 40 million, far exceeding the box office forecasts made by previous ticket purchasing platforms such as Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao.

But it’s not their fault. After all, before this box office figure was reached, no one could have imagined that the movie would have such great potential.

I don’t know if the two platforms were stimulated, but they simply raised the final box office forecast to 50 billion in one go.

Everyone was shocked by this number. Although there have been many box office hits in the past two years, they are all in the 30 billion range. Above this, only "Wolf Warrior 56" with 2 billion sits on the throne.

The Wandering Earth has surpassed 40 billion, which is already the second highest-grossing domestic film in history. But before everyone has digested this news, it is now said that it may surpass 50 billion.

Many people in the industry have begun to wonder, is the future domestic film market really going to take the path of heavy industry and large-scale production?
However, many people also believe that it will be more difficult for "The Wandering Earth" to break through 50 billion than it did to break through 40 billion before.

Cameron's "Alita: Battle Angel" is about to be released. Its competitiveness is completely incomparable with "Crazy Alien" and "Speed ​​Life".

The film is directed by Robert Rodriguez, the world's top science fiction director who won the Saturn Award for From Dusk Till Dawn 20 years ago. The script is adapted from the well-known science fiction film Battle Angel Alita. The genre is the cyberpunk genre that has been very popular in recent years. It also has Hollywood's super high special effects level and the gimmick of the female lead being synthesized by CG...

No matter how you look at it, it looks like another sci-fi masterpiece.

Even Guo Fan and his friends were full of anticipation and nervousness about this "competitor".

"Don't be so pessimistic."

In Guo Fan's studio, Meng Bai encouraged everyone: "Cameron is indeed amazing, but this movie was not directed by him personally after all, so the final quality may not be as high as everyone imagines."

Meng Bai's words are of course not nonsense. Due to censorship reasons, "Alita: Battle Angel" was released in mainland China later than in North America, so there are already reviews and scores about this movie abroad.

Yesterday he looked at the reviews about this movie on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes in North America. The American audience's evaluation of this movie can be summed up in one sentence - there are enough special effects, but not enough plot.

"That being said..." Guo Fan said, "But after all, Cameron's reputation is there. Even if the effect of the movie is really not as good as expected, it will definitely attract a lot of viewers in the first few days, which will definitely have an impact on our viewing traffic."

"There will definitely be an impact. There's nothing we can do about it when it hits a blockbuster like this." Meng Bai thought, "We discussed with China Film Group before to see if we can apply for a key extension. An extra month of release time should be able to make up for the impact during this period."

Guo Fan and Gongger's eyes lit up: "Can we apply for a key extension?"

"It should be no problem." Meng Bai said with a smile: "The film and television industry is in a downturn now, and the output value of movies has been gradually declining since last year's National Day. It took a lot of effort to recover some of the decline during the Spring Festival this year, and our box office potential has not been completely exhausted. Extending the break is a good thing for everyone."

It is a common practice to extend the key of popular movies. The film producers can earn more box office revenue, the cinema chains can make up for the sluggish period between popular schedules, and the government can get better performance figures.

For the audience, the movie ticket prices during the extended period will generally drop significantly, and those who haven't watched the movie yet can spend less money. As for the audience who bought the original price before, I can only say that it's just like the discount on games. The earlier you watch, the earlier you enjoy it, and the later you watch, the discount you get.

"It would be great if we can get the approval." Guo Fan breathed a sigh of relief. "With one more month of release, maybe we can really break through the 50 billion threshold."

"Why, you just can't stand Brother Jing sitting in the first seat, right?" Meng Bai teased.

Guo Fan waved his hand and said: "I'm sure we won't be able to surpass the 2 billion of Wolf Warrior 56, but a little more is always better."

Meng Bai nodded. Indeed, the performance of "Wolf Warrior 2" was not so easy to break through. This had nothing to do with the quality of the film. It mainly involved many off-field factors and was not so easy to replicate.

So for Guo Fan and others, if the final total box office can exceed 50 billion, it would be a complete success.

Of course, all of this is based on the fact that the performance of "Alita: Battle Angel" is not as good as expected. If it really becomes a big hit, there will be no need to discuss it later.

For a while, everyone from the film producers to the audience focused on the upcoming "Cameron's new film". Even those haters of "The Wandering Earth" - if the movie is a big hit at the box office, they can strike back and take back the situation.

On February 2, "Alita: Battle Angel", which had previously been released in many markets around the world, finally landed in mainland theaters.

On the first day of its release, it earned 1.32 million yuan in single-day box office, ending "The Wandering Earth"'s half-month reign as the "single-day box office champion."

In the following two days of the weekend, the box office of this new movie increased slightly, and it achieved a box office revenue of 4.3 million in the first three days of the weekend.

If it were any other movie, this would be considered quite good. After all, the Spring Festival holiday has passed, and students are almost back to school, so the audience for watching movies has shrunk a lot.

And just as Guo Fan and others had expected, the single-day box office of "The Wandering Earth" was indeed affected, falling below 100 million yuan for the first time since its release.

But the problem is, this is Cameron's new work. It has been widely promoted online before, with claims like "the world's first movie with a CG-synthesized female lead", "the latest masterpiece in the field of science fiction", etc. The audience's expectations have been raised very high.

As a result, after coming out of the theater, many viewers felt that they were still not satisfied - it was not because the movie was so good, but because the story was not finished!
[No, what's wrong with these Hollywood blockbusters these past two years? They're all learning from Marvel, right? They can't finish a movie, and people have to watch the second one.]

[The special effects in this movie are really awesome, and the heroine Alita is really cute, but the plot... it's just awkward no matter how you look at it. ]

[It’s over, my friends. After watching The Wandering Earth, I suddenly found that I can’t stand this kind of story where a personal hero saves the world. ]

[You are not the only one who said this. I had the same feeling when I was watching. I always felt that if we didn’t come up with a few more alternative plans or teams, we would just be done for if they failed.]

[Really, I feel more and more that American blockbusters, whether it's "Alita: Battle Angel" or Marvel, have basically the same routines, and the personal heroism is too exaggerated.]

[Fuck, it’s all “The Wandering Earth” that ruined my enjoyment of watching these traditional blockbusters. ]

【…】

(End of this chapter)

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