This star is going to the moon

Chapter 547: The Release of "Avatar: The Way of Water" and Lu Yun's Influence on the World Film Industry

The idea of ​​"the end of the world" was more popular in the past, especially a decade ago.

Before that, the "Mayan prophecy" was very popular. People not only made many apocalyptic movies, but also Chinese "apocalyptic" online novels were very popular.

However, after a year or two, nothing happened, so the "apocalyptic" online novel genre declined.

Of course, those "doomsday enthusiasts" or "doomsday survival fanatics" don't care about these things. Even without the "Mayan prophecy," they would spend their whole lives preparing for the end of the world.

Especially among Americans, many of them distrust the government, so they deliberately seek out remote places far from the government to live, practice their marksmanship, and stockpile canned food.

Some even built underground shelters.

If you don't have money, make it simple; if you have money, make it luxurious.

This also spurred the emergence of specialized shelter construction and operation companies.

As soon as these companies see another "doomsday symbol event" happening, they immediately buy news and generate buzz to promote the apocalypse, hoping to attract wealthy people with a strong sense of crisis to purchase their shelter services.

Otherwise, we can't let the shelters go to waste after they've already been built!
So very quickly, the internet was flooded with all sorts of information about the end of the world and its omens.

Have you heard? This time, the world really is going to end!

[Really? Although Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the world's largest active volcano, its eruptions don't seem to have had a significant impact on the global environment, right?]

[It's not just the volcanoes in Hawaii; I've heard that the Yellowstone supervolcano in the US is also unstable. That's the world's largest supervolcano cluster, and its eruption could potentially cause the end of the world!]

[Wow, really? Yellowstone volcano is really awesome; it's been featured in so many apocalyptic movies.]

[It should be true. Look at this link; it's from a world-renowned geologist who said that active volcanoes all over the world, including Mount Fuji, have become more active.]

[Oh, there's something about Mount Fuji? I'd love to see what an eruption would be like.]

[Can you please stop with your narrow-minded nationalism? If people couldn't handle a Mount Fuji eruption, how could we, living so close by, possibly cope?]

[Since I'm going to be affected anyway, why don't I just watch the drama unfold in my daily life first?]

[Hey, stop arguing! The things you're debating aren't the main cause of the apocalypse at all. Even the most unstable volcano can't compare to the impact of an earthquake. Earthquakes can't wipe out humanity, let alone volcanoes. On the contrary, the virus shouldn't be underestimated. Didn't you see the news? A truck transporting experimental virus monkeys overturned in the US, and all the experimental virus monkeys escaped. That's the real danger!]

[Yeah, that's true. Many biohazard/virus disaster movies start like this.]

[As you said yourself, that's a movie. The apocalypse requires a lot of coincidences to happen; in reality, such coincidences are unlikely to occur.]

【Why not? Movies need logic, but reality doesn't. Reality is a giant makeshift operation; maybe those experimental virus monkeys have already met the conditions for an apocalypse and started spreading the virus!】

Yes, viruses are indeed hard to guard against, so it's best to be careful. Hopefully, the Americans will arrest those monkeys who were experimenting with the virus soon...

Don't worry, the US is still the world's number one superpower; catching a few monkeys is a piece of cake...

It's hard to say. Putting aside American apocalyptic movies, it has done its fair share of terrible things in reality...

As time passed, the end of the world didn't come, but the end of the year did.

In mid-December, Avatar: The Way of Water was released worldwide.

The second part of the story takes place more than ten years after the first part. After the male protagonist becomes the chief of the Na'vi Omatikaya tribe, he and the female protagonist raise several children and also adopt Dr. Grace's daughter Kiri and a human orphan. The family lives a peaceful life.

However, the RDA corporation on the human side did not give up. They returned to plunder resources, bringing a large army and building an even larger military base. Colonel Quaritch, who had already died, was also resurrected in avatar form through cloning technology, leading a team of cloned avatars with a single-minded desire for revenge.

To protect his people, the protagonist decisively abandoned his jungle home and fled, taking his entire family to the sea tribe of Metkaina.

Then, with the help of the ocean tribe chiefs Tenovari and his wife, they learned the "Way of Water," and their children gradually adapted to ocean life. His children even became friends with the giant ocean beast Tukun.

But then humans discovered the "immortality essence" in the brain of the Tu Kun, which could slow down human aging, so humans began to hunt it extensively.

After a series of elaborate chases, the human forces found the ocean tribe, and a fierce battle ensued.

After paying a heavy price, the protagonist led the marine life to defeat the human's steel weapons and drove the humans away once again.

Finally, a hook is left for the third part.

Lu Yun had seen this movie in his previous life. He knew that the plot of the Avatar movie was not important. The plot of the first movie was already weak enough, but he did not expect the second movie to be even weaker!
The actual filming location was the same, changing from a forest to the sea, and it was indeed water.

He also knew that the third part was about fire...

All I can say is that the special effects, achieved with money, are truly exceptional.

As a phenomenon in the film industry, Lu Yun, a film and television professional, is quite familiar with the Avatar series.

In its previous life, "Avatar: The Way of Water" grossed 17 billion RMB in China and 23 billion USD worldwide.

However, the first Avatar film, which was released more than a decade ago, also grossed 17 billion RMB after several re-releases in China, and 29 billion USD worldwide.

Keep in mind that these were RMB and USD from over a decade ago.

In this life, Lu Yun's influence in the film and television industry is incomparable to that of his previous life. At the very least, the achievements of the films and television dramas he participated in far surpassed those of his previous life.

"The Wandering Earth 2" was also released a year earlier and was divided into two parts, with each part having several tens of minutes more of plot, making the story more exciting.

Furthermore, with the participation of Lu Yun's subsidiary, Tiangong Special Effects, the special effects were several orders of magnitude stronger.

These things gave the Chinese audience a sense of "having seen it all before," and simply watching special effects was no longer enough for some viewers.

Hollywood even fully supported the global release of "The Wandering Earth 2" because the Americans were plotting something and wanted to see China make a fool of itself in the future.

The film ultimately grossed nearly $4 million overseas, and its global box office, including domestic box office, reached $23 billion.

Based on the exchange rate at the time of the film's release, it was approximately 147 billion RMB.

This immediately propelled the first part of "The Wandering Earth 2" to sixth place in the all-time global box office rankings.

The consequence of this American intervention was that, before the Americans even realized China was making a fool of itself, a segment of the world's moviegoers had higher expectations for film plots, leading to a decline in the global box office of some Hollywood special effects blockbusters.

The currently showing "Avatar: The Way of Water" is exactly the same as the previous one, so Lu Yun really can't say whether its box office revenue will reach the level of the previous one.

Especially considering that the global box office of the first part of "The Wandering Earth 2" reached the $23 billion mark, if "Avatar: The Way of Water" in this life doesn't surpass that, then Lu Yun will know that his influence on the global film and television industry in this life is truly enormous.

Judging from the current situation, it is indeed uncertain.

PS: (Actually, the conversion methods for RMB and USD exchange rates for global movie box office figures are quite chaotic, with various methods used by different companies. This book will follow the method described in this book.)
(End of this chapter)