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

Chapter 722 Persuasion (15)

In the original timeline, "La La Land" grossed 2.47 million yuan at the Chinese box office…

Later, it was re-released and grossed 4000 million yuan at the box office.

By the way, its first run coincided with Valentine's Day, and it grossed 7400 million on its opening day…

With an opening day gross of 7400 million, the total box office reached 2.47 million…

Musicals, regardless of their reputation, are not popular in the country!
Let alone Western musicals, even Chinese musicals don't seem to have many successful examples. The only film to gross over 100 million yuan at the box office dates back to Jay Chou's "The Rooftop" in 2013...

The previous films, *The Nutcracker: Mirror's Adventure* and *Moulin Rouge!*, grossed 2775 million yuan in mainland China, while *Moulin Rouge!* only made 1000 million yuan…

There are also musicals that did well at the box office—the live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast" grossed nearly 6 million yuan in mainland China, and "Aladdin" grossed 3.68 million yuan in mainland China!
However, these two are more often considered Disney's live-action princess movies!
By the way, the American version of "Sheep Without a Shepherd" did pretty well at the Chinese box office... it actually grossed over 2.6 million yuan in just two weeks...

This exceeded Shen Yan's expectations!
In his opinion, the American version of "Sheep Without a Shepherd" has no cinematic beauty at all... and the addition of racial conflict greatly diminishes the ingenuity of the plot!

However, the American version of "Sheep Without a Shepherd" was a huge hit in North America before being released in China...

The American version of "Sheep Without a Shepherd" grossed $1.42 million in North America after four weeks of release, and nearly $200 million overseas, becoming the highest-grossing film controlled by A24 in all regions.

It's probably because of this title that it became a huge hit in mainland China—with estimated total box office revenue exceeding 3.5 million RMB…

how to say…

Back then, "Infernal Affairs" represented Hong Kong in the competition for the 76th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but unfortunately it did not make it into the final shortlist.

An authoritative film critic's analysis is: the subject matter is presumptuous and seems to imitate Hollywood; the ideological depth is shallow, and the film's theme and artistry are not favored by the Oscar committee.

However, three years later, Martin Scorsese's remake and repackaged "The Departed" won an Oscar...

Shen Yan explained the American version of "Sheep Without a Shepherd": "Oranges grown south of the Huai River are sweet oranges, but those grown north of the Huai River are bitter oranges."

The cultural differences are huge. American thinking is completely different from ours. Do you think we can film the same thing?

"I wasn't involved in the script or directing at all... They said adding racial elements would make the story more compelling, but I don't understand any of that..."

"It feels like they just borrowed the escape methods from 'Sheep Without a Shepherd' and then made up their own story... just like 'The Departed'..."

"Wanda's acquisition of Legendary... Yes, this really shocked the entire Hollywood!"

Uh, on January 12th, Wanda announced its acquisition of Legendary Pictures for no more than $35 billion…

Although Legendary Pictures is not one of the traditional Big Six, it is still at the pinnacle of the second tier!
The American reaction was polarized. Most people took a wait-and-see attitude, while a small number felt that this was a normal business cooperation. Legendary was out of money and had a lot of debt, and Wanda had money to acquire it, which was a good thing.
Some believe that 'Legendary Pictures will gain more access to the Chinese film market with the injection of substantial funding, including Wanda's offline and online cinema resources.'

Others are filled with concern, believing that Wanda's aggressive acquisitions will "control the American media industry"...

Shen Yan remained calm about this: "I don't think it needs to be over-interpreted. It's actually the same principle as when Sony acquired MGM and Columbia Pictures. It's just that Wanda couldn't acquire one of the six major Hollywood studios, so it chose Legendary Pictures, which has high-quality IP and an excellent international reputation."

"I heard from them that Wanda initially wanted to acquire Paramount, and negotiations were almost complete, but Viacom backed out, so they bought Legendary Pictures instead..."

Whether Legendary Pictures is worth $35 billion... depends on how you calculate it. Legendary Pictures itself is just a private equity firm...

Shen Yan gave a brief overview of Legendary Pictures' history and then said, "Legendary Pictures itself doesn't own the rights to 'Batman' or 'Inception'... However, you can look forward to the sequels to 'Warcraft,' 'The Great Wall,' and 'Pacific Rim'!"

Then a netizen asked about A24's situation, and Shen Yan smiled: "A24 is profitable every year, with profits exceeding 200 million US dollars last year. We are considering investment from Netflix or Amazon... I personally lean towards Netflix, but if Amazon offers more money, we will definitely go with Amazon..." "Most of A24's works are unlikely to be imported to China because they are rather bizarre. For example, *The Lobster*, a dystopian black comedy, tells the story of single people being moved to a hotel where they must find a matching partner within 45 days. Those who fail are transformed into a type of animal of their choice and exiled to the forest..."

"I read the script and felt it had a lot of Wang Xiaobo's style, so I agreed to produce it!"

"These types of films don't have high production costs, generally between $800 million and $1000 million. The streaming rights fees usually cover the costs..."

"However, the box office success of 'Sheep Without a Shepherd' has given us new inspiration... We will choose the same script during the project initiation stage... to adapt the same script into two films!"

"The next project will be 'The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil'..."

"How many awards will 'La La Land' win... I don't know. Until the very last moment, no one can say for sure it will win..."

……

After chatting for more than an hour, Shen Yan ended the live stream and checked the time... 10 a.m.

I changed my clothes, then went to the bedroom to wake Shishi up…

Shishi came last week.

That's great, it solves Shen Yan's problem of not having a female companion!
Cynthia told him, 'If you don't find a female version soon, many people will start to suspect you're gay!'

Most importantly, Shen Yan is a man of high moral character and seems to have little interest in women…

Shen Yan was truly wronged. Damn it, all the women he encountered were white Europeans and Americans over thirty years old... some were even over fifty!
He's not into mature women...

How could I possibly be interested?
Is it wrong to keep oneself clean and virtuous?

At first, Shi Shi was very enthusiastic about accompanying Shen Yan to various parties...

I fly an average of two times a day and attend two cocktail parties…

After three days, she couldn't take it anymore!
She was exhausted; the schedule was like a promotional event. The worst part was that her English wasn't very good, so she mostly sat and greeted people with a smile…

Like a robot…

After five days, she quit!
I strongly request to return to China…

Shen Yan pleaded, "If you leave, I won't have any female companions, and that will cause a lot of trouble!"

"...Trouble? What kind of trouble could there be?"

Shen Yan explained, "Many women would throw themselves at me... Yesterday, David invited me to host an audition, but I didn't go!"

Shi Shi was surprised: "Would she throw herself into my arms?"

“Yes,” Shen Yan nodded, “David told me that as long as I say ‘Give me a reason to choose you,’ she will take off her clothes!”

"You guys made a low-budget film, right? And there were women willing to go?"

"Our A24 has already made a name for itself in Hollywood..."

(End of this chapter)