Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 381 First Week Sales: 2.3 Million (34)

Shen Yan was browsing Tieba...

To be precise, it's about monitoring movie box office information!
Judging from the information on the movie box office forum, "Ice Age 4" probably won't reach 3000 million in box office revenue today...

"The Prisoner" should have grossed over 4800 million at the box office...

Then you can rest assured.

In terms of subsequent screenings, "Ice Age 4" certainly can't compare to "The Criminal".
I vaguely remember that Ice Age 4 grossed over 400 million yuan at the Chinese box office.

Later, "Ice Age 2" was re-released in 3D in mainland China, and Huang Lei and Huang Duoduo were brought in to do the voice acting... but the box office was not good!
Ice Age, Blue Sky Studios' signature series!
The series reached its fifth installment, which was a box office flop, and Blue Sky Studios' new film, Epic, also failed to achieve the expected results…

In 2017, "Ferdinand" was released and received good reviews, but unfortunately it was a critical success but not a box office hit.

Later, Fox was acquired by Disney, and Blue Sky Studios became a subsidiary... With a new financial backer, they definitely had to prove their strength!

After all, Disney has two powerful competitors: Pixar Animation and Disney Animation!
Blue Sky, having held back for a while, released "Spies in Disguise" for Christmas 2019.

The film cost a whopping $1 million and featured Will Smith and Tom Holland as voice actors.

However, misfortune never comes singly; the film's release coincided with the height of the pandemic.

It ultimately flopped at the box office, grossing only $1.7 million worldwide, making it the worst-performing film of all time.

This became the final straw that broke the camel's back.

In April 2021, Disney announced the permanent closure of Blue Sky Studios…

However, I heard that most of the employees from Blue Sky Studio went to Illumination Entertainment.

Illumination Entertainment is the upstart that created Despicable Me, Minions, and The Secret Life of Pets.

Christopher Meledandri, the owner of Illumination Entertainment, was previously the CEO of Fox Animation, a subsidiary of Fox.

He spearheaded the acquisition of Blue Sky Studios and launched Ice Age, instantly establishing Blue Sky Studios' reputation.

But Blue Sky Studios was founded by Chris Wedge, who is the soul of Blue Sky Studios. With him around, Stoffel Meledandri will always be second!

In 07, Universal Pictures decided to hire Christopher Meledandri at a high price to take the helm.

They hit it off immediately and co-founded Illumination Entertainment in 2007. Universal Pictures was only responsible for marketing and distribution and did not interfere with any of Christopher Meledandri's creative work.

Lighting Entertainment poached a large number of people from Blue Sky Studio.

Chris Renaud, the director of his first film, Despicable Me, came from Blue Sky Studios!

The screenwriter is also one that Blue Sky Studio frequently collaborates with…

So, the same goes for the underworld of Hollywood; it's always the same few people coming and going!
Oh, Ice Age 4 grossed 2780 million on its opening day…

"The Criminal" grossed 4900 million yuan on the 27th, 400 million yuan more than expected...

Of course, the media didn't release many press releases either...

Yes, it beat Hollywood imports... but Ice Age 4 is an animated film!
This thing is so good that even bragging about it is difficult.

By the way, according to predictions from theaters and major media outlets, "The Prisoner" should gross around 2.2 million yuan in its first four days, with a total box office of around 6 million yuan...

The actual situation is not much different...

On July 30th, the first week ended, and "The Criminal" grossed 230 million yuan.

Second only to "Painted Skin 2" with 2.8 million, it ranks second in the history of Chinese-language films.

The following week only featured one film, "Meet the In-Laws," starring Xu Zheng…

Before "Lost in Thailand," Xu Zheng was just a second- or third-tier comedian with some fame, lacking star power and not well-received by theaters...

It clearly poses no threat to "The Prisoner"; we'll have to wait for "The Silent War" on August 7th!
……

"The last subtitle was something we wanted to add ourselves... Exams are one of the most important things that the whole society in our Confucian cultural sphere pays attention to, and cheating is definitely wrong... So, there had to be something that touched her..."

On August 1st, the crew arrived in Guangzhou. During a break from the promotional tour, Shen Yan was interviewed by Southern Weekly.

"Globally, there is a cultural awareness among students regarding cheating. It's not that cheaters can escape punishment; they eventually have to return to the right path!"

“When we look at some foreign films, including some Hollywood films, even gangster films, film noir, and stories about murderous criminal gangs, they will still depict the beautiful parts of human nature. This is the positive aspect. If you are a gangster film that also depicts the darkness of human nature, even in foreign markets like Hollywood, it is not good. Audiences don't like to watch that kind of stuff!”

“From the perspective of the film itself, I don’t think it’s forced, because there’s a very important reason why Lin went to turn herself in: she saw that the boy was destroyed, which shocked her a lot.”

"I know everyone wants to see a different ending, with the two forming a pair of thieves... but realistically speaking, that's unlikely!"

"Educational equity is a social issue... Commercial films use cinematic language to address the issues they concern. Social issues are a part of a film, but if a film only explores social issues, then... it can't be said whether it's a good film or not, but it will definitely be very boring!"

"The biggest surprise was that when I told Chairman Han that I wanted to make a movie about students cheating, he didn't say 'nobody's interested in this movie' or 'this kind of movie won't pass censorship,' but instead took me directly to Director Tong..."

"Including 'The Big Shot,' 'Sheep Without a Shepherd,' and 'Finding Mr. Right'—all of these deal with relatively sensitive topics...and I got them all made!"

"Setting the story in Thailand was my suggestion... This wouldn't work in China, because top students are treasures in any school! Even the school bullies wouldn't dare mess with them..."

Therefore, "Better Days" is very strange...

The female protagonist, a top student, is usually the apple of the eye of the school teachers and is kept under close watch.

A promising student from Peking University had his hair cut, was pushed off a building, beaten black and blue, left homeless, sleeping on the streets, and living with thugs...

No, could you please tell me a little about the situation?
She's a top student! Even though her mother lost face and had a scandal, her teachers would immediately focus on her mental health to ensure her grades weren't affected…

How could I possibly be bullied?

Are you bullying the top students? You're bullying the principal's promotion, the teachers' salary increases, the school's college entrance examination pass rate, and the education bureau's reputation.

Even if you occasionally make a small mistake on a test, everyone from the subject teacher, homeroom teacher, grade leader, dean of studies, and even the principal will express their concern and care.

Shen Yan continued, "I think there are still many aspects of the youth film genre that can be explored, such as school bullying, idol worship, etc... it's not just about romance!"

(End of this chapter)