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

Chapter 727 Oscar (14)

Actually, "The Mermaid" is currently surpassing "Detective Chinatown" at the overseas box office...

There's no way around it, Stephen Chow has a lot of influence in Southeast Asia!
In the original timeline, "The Mermaid" performed well at the overseas box office, mainly in Southeast Asia. It grossed a whopping $702 million in Malaysia, almost breaking the record set by "Ip Man 3," making it the second highest-grossing Chinese-language film in history.

The film grossed $311 million in Singapore, $25 in Indonesia, $50 in Thailand, and $441 million in Vietnam, breaking the record for Chinese-language films.

Southeast Asia sold $1529 million.

This record makes it one of the strongest Chinese-language films in history.

In comparison, Shen Yan's sales were slightly weaker, with Vietnam selling for $141 million, Malaysia for nearly $400 million, Singapore for $240 million, and Indonesia for $180 million... but Thailand sold for $320 million...

Total box office: 1281 million.

Shen Yan remains one of the most popular Chinese actors in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand, thanks to his roles in dramas such as "My Love from the Star," "Legend of Fei," and "Eternal Love."

Additionally, it was released in North America…

The Mermaid opened in North America with 35 theaters, grossing $98 in its opening weekend, before expanding to 106 theaters…

"Detective Chinatown" aimed for ten times more theaters than "The Mermaid"—it opened in 360 theaters directly, and its opening weekend box office was $273 million, which just made it tenth place!

It's clear that "Detective Chinatown" has gained some recognition in North America thanks to Shen Yan's promotion.

A film directed by and starring the director of La La Land…

By the way, regarding the Hong Kong box office, "The Mermaid" completely outperformed "Detective Chinatown," with the former raking in HK$5000 million in three weeks, while the latter only managed less than HK$1400 million...

Uh, Shen Yan talked about the "owing movie tickets" marketing tactic during his live stream in November, and then The Mermaid actually used that trick...

Shen Yan's fans are making all sorts of sarcastic remarks!
It even trended on social media…

This is also one of the reasons why the situation was turned around on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year...

……

In fact, the fact that "Detective Chinatown" turned the tide on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year foreshadowed that it would inevitably surpass "The Mermaid"...

It's quite normal. While "The Mermaid" isn't a bad movie, it's certainly not a masterpiece either. Even within Stephen Chow's cinematic universe, it falls into the lower-middle tier.

"Detective Chinatown" is definitely a great movie, with a Douban rating of 7.9!
Add to that the hot topic of Baoqiang's divorce...

It's estimated that the final box office will likely exceed 36 billion!
However, Shen Yan didn't have time to think about these things right now. He was at the Dolby Theatre in the center of the Highlands, where the Oscars ceremony was being held...

This year, we hired a black guy as the host!
Chris Rock…

This guy started by saying, "Is there racism in Hollywood? There are at least 15 Black people in the film," "The Oscars have become the 'White Choice Awards,'" and "If even the host is chosen based on nominations, I wouldn't be the host this year. It would probably be the white comedian Neil Harris."

"Some friends advised me not to host anymore because all the nominated stars for the past two years have been white. But I find it strange that it's always the unemployed who tell others to quit. I thought about it, and even if I quit, the Oscars will still continue."

There have been previous Oscars without Black nominees, but why didn't anyone protest then? Because we had much more worthy of protest during those years.

Oh, there are way too many white people nominated for the films last year and this year!

ABC News reported that this year's Oscar nominations have the worst racial diversity in 17 years, with all four acting nominees being white.

— "Sheep Without a Shepherd" was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, but failed to win any acting awards…

The last time this happened in Oscar history was in 1998. People magazine also complained that this year's Oscar nominations were all white, not only for acting awards but also for Best Director.

To be honest, Shen Yan didn't quite understand the point of this complaint... Well, there really weren't any noteworthy Black films this year!

However, after talking with Cynthia, I realized that this is a characteristic of North America: diversity!
Cynthia also said that the Oscars once considered adding a special category for Black actors, such as Best Black Film, Best Black Director, and Best Black Actor…

But doing this is too discriminatory!

It's like iMdb has a special section for Indian movies—Indian movies are so heavily inflated in terms of ratings that they're almost always 10, so this section is completely useless for reference!
In the end, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the Black president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, promised to make "huge changes."

Then... everyone saw "BlacKkKlansman" and "Black Panther" nominated for Best Picture, "Moonlight" won Best Picture... and even "Instant Universe" had its entire cast win awards!

On a side note, I always felt that Donnie and Emma Stone's disregard for Guan Jiwei and Yang Ziqiong stemmed not only from racial factors but also from a degree of disdain...

After all, everyone knows that "Instant Universe" won awards simply because of its diversity...

In terms of performance boldness, can Michelle Yeoh surpass Cate Blanchett in *Tahr*? Can Kwan Kai-wai rival Brendan Gleeson in *The Banshee of Inisherin*?

……

"How many awards have you won?"

"It has already won six awards, including Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Song..."

"They won Best Editing?"

"Correct!"

"That's a sure thing!"

"No award for Best Original Screenplay..."

"That's normal. The script for *La La Land* is too simple; it's just a lighthearted romance..."

BJ, 2 PM...

At the Weibo building, a group of people were waiting for the Oscars ceremony...

The Oscars are held at 8 PM Los Angeles time. Beijing time is 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles time, which means the Oscars ceremony will begin at 11 AM Beijing time!
Almost two hours have passed, and La La Land has already won four awards. The Best Actress award ceremony is just around the corner!

Oh, Best Editing is generally considered a secondary award to Best Director; if you win Best Editing, it's almost certain you'll win Best Director.

Of course, this doesn't mean it conforms to the law 100%!

Back in the day, films like The Social Network, The Bourne Legacy, The Aviator, and The Matrix all won Best Film Editing!
In the year that "Life of Pi" was released, the Best Film Editing award went to "Argo," but "Life of Pi" won Best Director.

"Don't speak, Eddie Redmayne is coming up..."

At the Oscars, the winner of the previous year's Best Actor award usually presents the award to the winner of the current year's Best Actress award.

Later it was changed to men versus men, women versus women...

"Five outstanding artists have been nominated for Best Actress, delivering complex and profound performances that bring their characters to life..."

Then came the five Best Actress nominees: Cate Blanchett for *Carol*; Jennifer Lawrence for *Joy*; Charlotte Rampling for *45 Years*; Saoirse Ronan for *Brooklyn*; and Emma Stone for *La La Land*…

"The winner is... Emma Stone, La La Land!"

(End of this chapter)