Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 436 Annual Box Office Ranking

After finalizing the Lord of the Rings project, Link began filming the new movie.

After more than a month of selection, the main cast of "007" has been finalized. Pierce Brosnan will still play 007 James Bond, Michelle Yeoh will play the female lead Lin Hui, and Diane Lane will play the role of Bond's lover. The other roles remain largely unchanged.

Regarding the casting of the female lead, he originally wanted Brigitte Lin and Joey Wong to try out for the role of Lin Hui, but neither of them had acted in Hollywood before, and their acting styles did not match those of European and American actors, so they did not perform well during the audition.

While Gong Li and Maggie Cheung are good, they haven't filmed action scenes before, so their performances weren't particularly outstanding.

In the end, he could only respect the original work and hand over the role to Michelle Yeoh.

After casting was completed, Link took the crew to London, England to film indoor scenes. Outdoor scenes would be filmed after the sets in China and Japan were completed.

While "007" was being filmed, "Zheng Chenggong" began its run in North America, opening in 12 theaters and grossing $21.51 in its first week, a better result than expected.

In its second week, the film grossed $138 million in 87 theaters, a respectable achievement.

Due to strong box office results from the preview screenings, theaters increased the number of screenings, and the film was shown in 774 theaters in its third week, grossing $639 million.

The film is expected to gross around $4000 million at the North American box office.

In addition, "Zheng Chenggong" has been showing in China for two months and has now grossed $6736 million, of which 3.82 million yuan came from mainland cinemas, making it the first film in mainland China to reach 3 million yuan at the box office.

Outside of China and North America, "Zheng Chenggong" was released in 38 countries and regions for 1 to 6 weeks, grossing a total of US$1214 million.

Currently, "Zheng Chenggong" has grossed a total of US$8749 million, which is equivalent to about RMB 6.36 million, making it the highest-grossing Chinese film to date.

Based on the current box office growth, "Zheng Chenggong" is expected to gross at least $1.5 million worldwide.

"$1.5 million? Isn't that a bit outrageous?"

Director Zhang Yimou frowned as he looked at the newspaper, his lean face full of surprise.

$1.5 million is equivalent to nearly 11 billion yuan.

Last year, the total box office revenue for domestic films was only 11.2 billion yuan.

The box office of the film "Zheng Chenggong" alone is comparable to the total box office of all films in China last year.

That's amazing.

"That's not an exaggeration."

Producer Zhang Weiping said, "Guess What Films has a good distribution capability, with distribution companies all over the world. Moreover, Guess What Films is very willing to spend money on promotion when distributing films. It is said that when 'Zheng Chenggong' was released in North America, Guess What Films invested tens of millions of dollars in promotion. With such promotion, the film will not lack exposure. In addition, the film itself is good, so the total box office performance will not be bad, perhaps even more than 1.5 million."

Director Zhang nodded, feeling a mix of envy, jealousy, bitterness, and excitement.

Although the box office success of "Zheng Chenggong" made him realize the gap between himself and Lin Ke again, and also made him give up his plan to win back Gong Li, the fact that "Zheng Chenggong" earned hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide shows that films with Chinese historical themes have a market both domestically and internationally.

This is undoubtedly a joyous occasion for all Chinese filmmakers.

"I've decided that my next film will also be a historical film, and I can draw inspiration from 'Zheng Chenggong' in terms of film style and narrative structure."

Director Zhang said.

"Okay, I support you."

Zhang Weiping, his longtime partner, said without hesitation.

After the data for "Zheng Chenggong" was released, not only was Director Zhang happy, but his colleagues in the Chinese film industry were also overjoyed.

In the past, when making movies, they only knew how to learn from Hollywood and borrow Hollywood's narrative style to film Chinese stories or movies about suffering.

However, they didn't learn properly; they neither mastered Hollywood's narrative methods nor unearthed the profound meaning of Chinese stories, resulting in a film that was neither fish nor fowl.

Naturally, no one would support these kinds of movies after their release.

Directors who lack self-awareness will blame the audience for being too ignorant and unable to understand good movies after the box office fails.

Those who understand the problem will continue to learn and try to make films that suit the tastes of Chinese audiences. However, this process of trying is very difficult and expensive. Many people have to stop trying due to funding issues and leave the film industry in disappointment.

Now that "Zheng Chenggong" is a global box office hit, domestic directors can see the direction of Chinese cinema's development in this film.

Many directors and film companies were inspired and began to draw inspiration from "Zheng Chenggong," preparing to make similar films to make big money.

Mainstream media also congratulated "Zheng Chenggong" on its success in overseas regions in their reports.

The China Youth Daily published a 10,000-word commentary praising "Zheng Chenggong" as a shining light on Chinese cinema, a benchmark and a pinnacle of Chinese historical films.

Other media outlets have reprinted and reported on this story.

"Zheng Chenggong" is even more famous in China, to the point that almost everyone knows it. Dongfeng Pictures also became one of the leading companies in the domestic film industry thanks to the huge success of "Zheng Chenggong". Directors Chen Chong, Feng Xiaoning, and Chen Kaige became highly sought-after in the film industry, receiving many invitations to collaborate with film companies and to give lectures at universities.

However, Chen Chong didn't have time to deal with these things for the time being because she was pregnant.

After receiving the call, Link told her to rest well, that the company's affairs would be handled by several managers, and that he would visit her when he had time, or that she could come to the United States to recuperate.

Chen Chong said she is newly pregnant and not showing yet, and will talk about it later.

Link told her to make her own arrangements and contact him if she needed anything, while he continued filming "007" on set in London.
-
In March, The Hollywood Reporter released its 1996 North American box office rankings, a list of total box office revenue for the film industry.

According to statistics, a total of 336 films were released in the North American film market last year, 42 more than in 95, representing a 14% increase.

The total box office revenue was $56 billion.

Of these, 16 films grossed over $1 million at the North American box office, and 34 films grossed over $5000 million at the North American box office.

Last year's North American box office champion was Warner Bros.' Batman Forever, which grossed $3.36 million in North America and $6.57 million worldwide.

The second place went to Fox's science fiction film "Independence Day," which grossed $3.06 million in North America and $7.82 million worldwide.

The third place went to "The English Patient," which grossed $2.25 million in North America and $4.81 million worldwide.

Fourth place: Toy Story, $1.96 million in North America and $3.14 million worldwide.

Fifth place goes to Paramount Pictures' Mission: Impossible, which grossed $1.83 million in North America and $4.57 million worldwide.

The sixth-ranked film, *The Internet*, grossed $1.83 million in North America and $3.76 million worldwide.

The seventh film is Columbia Pictures' "The Mask of Zorro," which grossed $1.56 million in North America and $2.5 million worldwide.

Eighth place: Rush Hour, $1.48 million in North America and $2.44 million worldwide.

Ninth place goes to Columbia Pictures' "Jerry Maguire," which grossed $1.44 million in North America and $2.73 million worldwide.

The tenth place goes to Disney's "Ransom," which grossed $1.22 million in North America and $3.09 million worldwide.

Eleventh place goes to Guess the Movies' "Final Destination 2," which grossed $1.22 million in North America and $2.65 million worldwide.

The twelfth place went to Disney's "101 Dalmatians," which grossed $1.1 million in North America and $3.2 million worldwide.

Thirteenth place goes to "Scream" with $1.09 million and a global box office of $1.87 million.

The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth places are Universal Pictures' "The Fat Professor," Warner Bros.' "A Time to Kill," and MGM's "The Birdcage," all of which grossed over $1 million in North America.

Of the films that grossed over 100 million yuan, six were produced and distributed by Guess Movies, and eight were produced by Guess Movies, including "Jerry Maguire" and "The Mask of Zorro," accounting for half of all films that grossed over 100 million yuan.

The Hollywood Reporter also listed the box office results of major Hollywood film studios last year.

Guess what? Films released 13 films last year, grossing $13.93 billion in North America, $100 million more than the $12.81 billion of the previous year, and approximately $26.3 billion worldwide, an increase of about 9% year-on-year.

Warner Bros., which ranked second, had a total box office revenue of $7.33 million in North America and $18.25 billion worldwide last year.

The third place went to Disney Studios, which earned $6.19 million last year with films such as "Ransom," "101 Dalmatians," "Basic Instinct," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Fourth place went to Fox, with North American box office revenue of $6.26 million.

Fifth place went to Columbia Pictures, which earned $5.83 million in box office revenue in North America last year, with films co-produced with Guessing Pictures accounting for 55% of that.

The remaining Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and MGM Studios all had total North American box office revenues of less than $5 million.

The strong performance of films from the eight major film studios has led to very poor performance for independent film companies, with more than 60 small and medium-sized film companies going bankrupt at the beginning of the year.

In addition, The Hollywood Reporter released a new list, the 'Person of the Year' list.

Link is undoubtedly at the top.

Last year, all three of Link's films grossed over $100 million at the North American box office, ranking first, third, and sixth respectively.

These three films are unmatched in the film industry in terms of box office numbers, artistic merit, and international influence.

He is undoubtedly a prominent figure.

The second place goes to Tom Cruise, who became Hollywood's highest-grossing male star last year with the blockbuster films "Mission: Impossible" and "Jerry Maguire," and his influence has soared globally.

The third place goes to Sandra Bullock, who became the most cost-effective actress last year with the box office hits "The Internet" and "A Time to Kill," and her fame and salary have also increased dramatically.

(End of this chapter)