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

Chapter 663 A Promising Future (33)

The Martian is being released overseas…

In fact, for Chinese people, the so-called overseas box office mainly refers to the US box office!
Even if you're a huge hit worldwide, it's useless if you don't have a box office in the US.

That's understandable, since we see the world as consisting of only China and the United States!
The only heroes in the world today are you, my lord, and Cao Cao!
I never expected Americans to be this surreal…

The Martian spent $600 million on marketing in North America, primarily focusing on the internet…

The results were good; it was initially shown in 227 cinemas, and later expanded to 1100…

The final box office is estimated to be between 2500 million and 2700 million...

It has entered the top ten of the best-selling foreign language films in North America!
Getting into the top five is a bit difficult.

Fifth place went to "Pan's Labyrinth" with $3700 million at the box office—this fifth place came before the release of "Parasite".

In addition, two of the top five foreign language films in North America are Chinese-language films: *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (1.27 million USD) and *Hero* (5371 million USD)...

The top ten should include "Fearless" with $2463 million…

As an aside, "Ne Zha 2" ranked 12th with a box office of $2085 million...

The threshold for the top 100 is $4.5 million!
……

Shen Yan made his entrance as usual, and then Wu Fan rode in on a motorcycle…

A cheer erupted from the audience!

After he greeted the group of "mentors," Feng Xiaogang enthusiastically introduced him as "the male lead of 'Mr. Six'!"

Then a group of mentors showered him with praise.

Zhang Guoli praised, "She has a bright future!"

Feng Xiaogang also praised him highly: "I've worked with him and I know what kind of person he is. He's considerate of others and has others in his heart! He's very hardworking, very low-key, easy to work with, humble and eager to learn, and he especially cherishes opportunities."

Jackie Chan also praised him, saying, "Youth has endless possibilities. He's very young, and his acting skills will only improve with practice. If he continues to work hard, he'll be an extraordinary figure in the future!"

Only Shen Yan didn't join the praise, and Yi Yi asked, "Director Shen, do you know Wu Fan?"

Shen Yan picked up the microphone: "I know, EXO..."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "I've heard of this group. Lu Han signed with my former manager, Yang Siwei. We've had drinks together; he's a pretty manly guy... Wu Fan, I've never met him, I've only heard of him!"

"Now that you've seen it with your own eyes, what do you want to say?"

Shen Yan shrugged: "...I can't think of anything for now!"

With tens of millions of fans, should we avoid his sharp edge?
Wu Fan picked up the microphone: "Maybe I still need to work harder!"

Shen Yan continued to smile: "Yes, keep it up, the future is bright!"

Hmm? The future looks promising?

Then Li Lianhua suddenly asked, "Shen Yan, how old are you?"

"I was born in '88, I'm 27 this year... What's wrong?"

"And what about you?" Li Lianhua asked Wu Fan.

The latter replied, "I was born in 90..."

"A two-year age gap... and you're really putting on airs!"

Originally, I thought Li Lianhua wanted to teach Shen Yan a lesson, but then she changed her tune: "Tsk tsk, at 27 years old, you've already won the Venice Best Director Award, the Venice Best Actor Award, the Golden Lion Award, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay... Basically, you've won all the major awards around the world... It's really hopeless to be the same age as you!"

Jackie Chan exclaimed in surprise, "You're only 27?" Shen Yan retorted, "...No, do I look that old?"

"No... I'm just surprised. You're so young!"

"No, maybe the whole world is just eager to hear stories of young achievers, so..."

Everyone applauded…

……

The judges chatted for quite a while before the show officially began…

Shen Yan then realized why this show wasn't popular—it was too chaotic!

There are skits, martial arts performances, and even singing and dancing!
These aren't even on the same track, how can you compare them?

Li Lianhua rattled off a whole bunch of things, then asked Shen Yan, "What do you think?"

Shen Yan thought for a moment: "Actually, before 'Running Man' last year, I was chatting with President Xia and we talked about singing variety shows, but why aren't there acting competition variety shows? President Xia said it wasn't realistic, there wasn't a standard for judging, so we temporarily gave up on it... Then, when I heard the name of the show 'I See You Have Talent,' I thought it was a competition of acting skills..."

"Now you've discovered it's not true?"

Shen Yan scratched his head: "I'm not quite sure about the judging criteria..."

"Just pick whichever you like!"

"Okay!" Shen Yan casually picked a set...

Then it was Feng Xiaogang's turn to comment. I don't know what he was thinking, but he suddenly brought up 'variety show movies' and then asked Shen Yan, "Director Shen is also a producer, what do you think of variety show movies?"

"A variety show movie is just a variety show... People watch variety shows in the cinema, there's nothing to say about that. When I was in high school, I even watched the World Cup final in the cinema!"

"But this phenomenon has a very negative impact!"

"It's not that bad. There are tons of variety show movies... but only one or two are box office hits. They're not mainstream; they're mostly non-mainstream films. As long as mainstream films are made and the audience's aesthetic sense remains normal, then our film market is healthy. And if the film market is healthy, then it doesn't matter!"

Feng Xiaogang shook his head: "Investment will decrease... which will mean no producer will continue to be willing to invest in a serious film that requires a lot of effort!"

"This is the investors' problem, not the movie's problem!" Shen Yan waved his hand. "You only see that a variety show movie only needs six days to shoot, but you're ignoring the fact that the variety show before the movie wasn't filmed in six days. Without the phenomenal popularity of the previous show, how could there be a variety show movie? There are only one or two phenomenal variety shows a year at most..."

After a pause, Shen Yan added, "Moreover, both variety show movies released during this year's Spring Festival, 'Where Are We Going, Dad? Season 2' and 'Dad's Holiday,' were box office failures... This shows that, given a choice, audiences are unwilling to watch variety show movies..."

"I think the relevant departments should do something about it!"

"...What the market creates will correct itself...it doesn't need regulation from relevant departments. In fact, our films are already very strictly regulated..."

But it's not a movie!

"No, who says cinemas have to show movies?" Shen Yan was a little annoyed: "When 'The Dream Factory' was released, do you remember what film critics said about it? They said, 'It's a TV series, it's a sketch, but it's definitely not a movie.' And then 'The Dream Factory' became a huge hit... I really don't understand why there are so many bad movies in China every year, some of which are even worse than variety show movies... Why don't you boycott them?"

Zhang Guoli smoothed things over: "...Ahem, Xiaogang was just thinking a bit too deeply from a director's perspective..."

"...I'm just discussing this. Actually, given the situation with 'Where Are We Going, Dad? Season 2,' I doubt many variety shows would dare to attempt a so-called variety show movie!"

Jackie Chan interjected, "What are you going to film next?"

Shen Yan: "I'm going to Los Angeles to direct an English film!"

Li Lianhua: "Is it 'La La Land'?"

Shen Yan nodded: "Yes... I ran into Emma Stone at the Venice Film Festival last year. I talked to her and told her that to make this movie well, I need to do at least four months of dance training. She agreed... So I definitely have to do my best to make it!"

(End of this chapter)