Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 377 A La La Land song resounds throughout North America!

"Bruce, congratulations!"

Michael turned the computer screen around to show Gu Bei the latest news: "The results of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards are in. You've won both Best Picture and Best Director. The awards ceremony will be on January 11th next year."

"Thank you!"

Gu Bei glanced at it and said calmly, "I hope the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards tonight will also bring a good result!"

This year is such a coincidence.
Two major film critic awards have clashed.
The results of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards will be announced this afternoon.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ceremony is tonight.

Seeing Gu Bei's calm expression, Michael smiled and said, "Bruce, it seems you're even more confident this year!"

Gu Bei smiled upon hearing this.

Compared to the anticipation and surprise of attending the awards season for the first time, and the slight disappointment of attending the awards season for the second time,

During this year's awards season, Gu Bei's mindset has become much more reserved and composed.

After all, looking at the box office performance of La La Land this year, it's clear that he no longer needs awards to embellish his image as he used to.

Whenever any news about his movie comes out...
It will naturally become one of the media's focal points.

As for the association awards in the first half of the awards season, the probability of correctly predicting the winners is very low because the opinions of the college judges are still in a state of confusion.

Its role as a bellwether is to hype up the awards season and determine the top dozen or so films.

One or two association awards could no longer affect Gu Bei's mood.

"Da da da!"

at this time,

There was a knock on Michael's office door.

"Mr. Buck, the weekend box office figures for week 51 are out!"

Marin Byrne pushed open the door and, upon seeing Gu Bei, greeted him with delight, "Congratulations, Bruce, La La Land got second place this weekend!"

"I didn't have a chance to congratulate you when you were in China, but congratulations on your promotion!"

Gu Bei smiled and said to him.

Marin Byrne as the whiplash drummer, and the 500 Days of Summer, as well as the artist's distribution manager.
Gu Bei was quite familiar with him, so he was naturally happy to see him promoted.

Subsequently,

Gu Bei took the box office report from Ma Lin.

He glanced at it.
The weekend box office champion was undoubtedly Avatar, which had just been released.
It grossed $77 million in its opening weekend, which seems rather pathetic compared to Avatar's production cost of nearly $300 million.

And La La Land
This week, the number of cinemas screening the film has expanded to 1100.

The third weekend box office still garnered a staggering $2900 million.

This weekend's box office results

Although it didn't reach the $60,000 per venue on the first weekend...
The fact that a single venue broke $10,000 every day during the second weekend was as outrageous as that.
However, the box office revenue per theater on Saturday still exceeded $10,000, and the combined total of $26,000 per theater over the weekend shows that the screening scale of 1100 theaters is far from enough to satisfy the audience of La La Land.

It ranked second in the box office charts for the third weekend!

To know,
Just two weeks ago, during its first week of release, La La Land was only ranked twelfth at the box office!
The thirteenth film, also vying for an Oscar, is Up in the Air, which grossed $160 million in 15 theaters, not far behind La La Land.

And it was only the second week.

La La Land surged to third place.
Second only to the weaknesses of sports blockbusters, it is comparable to Disney's last 2D hand-drawn animated film, The Princess and the Frog.

Now it's the weekend of the third week.

Both "The Weakness" and "The Princess and the Frog" only grossed a little over ten million dollars at the weekend box office.
La La Land, on the other hand, was able to expand its scale once again, with its box office more than doubling compared to last week, leaving them far behind.

For a B-movie, especially an award-contending B-movie, this achievement is nothing short of a box office miracle!

"Bruce, I think we should expand the screening again. I want this song, La La Land, to resonate throughout the entire North American continent!"

Michael had also finished reading the box office report, and he turned to Gu Bei excitedly.

Before collaborating with Gu Bei

Sony Classics is Sony's independent film distributor.

The best result was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which grossed $1.28 million in North America.

Even though Whiplash's box office in North America was less than 20 million US dollars, it was already considered a dark horse film released by Sony Pictures Classics. Normally, their dozen or so films a year would only bring in 30 to 40 million US dollars in box office revenue.

But after collaborating with Gu Bei,
Summer's single film grossed more than an entire previous year's box office.

The film "The Artist" went on to gross over $100 million in North America, surpassing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to become Sony Classics' highest-grossing film.

The La La Land of today is now beyond artists, a fact that is already a certainty.

The only suspense is whether the North American box office can break through $200 million, becoming the best box office result for Gu Bei and Sony Classics!

“Add, must add!”

Gu Bei nodded heavily.

Friday is Christmas Day, and the screenings will reach their peak the following week, allowing the show to perfectly capitalize on the Christmas holiday season.

Although there are many threats during this Christmas season,
The day after tomorrow, Wednesday, is the release of the family-friendly movie, 20th Century Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Club.
On Friday, a new Sherlock Holmes film, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), will be released.
Of course, we can't forget Avatar either.

Every single one is a genuine A-list production.
Fortunately, La La Land's target audience doesn't overlap much with theirs.

As long as we increase the number of screenings as much as possible, we can make as much box office revenue as possible during the Christmas season!
Gu Bei and Michael continued chatting for a while longer.

Subsequently,

The two then parted ways.

Getting ready to head to the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ceremony tonight.

Compared to the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held, the venue for the Association Awards is much smaller, even smaller than the MTV Awards hall, but the star power is no less.

A-list actors and directors such as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Quentin Tarantino made appearances, adding star power to the awards ceremony.

Gu Bei even spotted Leonardo DiCaprio, who had been out of the public eye for a long time.
He punched Leonardo on the shoulder and joked with a laugh, "I thought you were still sunbathing on some beach! When are you planning to come back to work?"

Since winning the Oscar last year, he hasn't taken on any new projects for a year and is completely retired.

"No need to rush,"
Anyway, I still have one movie that hasn't been released yet!

Leonardo replied with a smile, looking much more relaxed than before, "Now it mainly depends on the projects. Anyway, the audience won't forget me so easily, so I have to carefully choose the projects I'll be working on next."

Gu Bei knew about the movie Leonardo DiCaprio was talking about.
It's George R.R. Martin's Shutter Island, a classic suspense thriller with a memorable final twist.

Leonardo DiCaprio has a good eye for choosing films.

Although the success of Titanic left him feeling lost for a few years, he never made a bad film again after changing agents and regaining control of his career.

“I just bought a project from Paramount. Would you be interested in playing the father of their two children?”

Gu Bei extended an invitation to Leonardo.
After taking on the director's job for Mission: Impossible 4 in exchange for Interstellar, he...

After nearly a year, he finally finalized the script with Jonathan Nolan.

“While I wouldn’t want to do that in real life right now, I don’t think it’s unacceptable in a movie.” Leonardo DiCaprio became interested.

Gu Bei's project is definitely the highest priority for him.

"That also depends on whether you can play the role of a father well!"

Gu Bei teased with a smile.

After all, Leonardo explained why he only dates women but doesn't marry them.
However, he said that although he is 50 years old, his mental age is only 32.

It can be said that a man is a model of youth until death, and it will not be easy for him to play the role of a loving father in Interstellar.

"My God, Bruce, you actually questioned my acting skills!"

Leonardo smiled and looked at Gu Bei, "Do you know why I came here today?"

Gu Bei raised an eyebrow: "What do you do?"

Judging from Leonardo's tone,

It seems to be related to me?

"The award presenter!"

Leonardo said this with a pointed remark.

Gu Bei pursed his lips upon hearing this.

Anyone who didn't know better would think you were the one presenting me with the award!

You, as an award presenter, don't know more than I do!

at this time,

A smug voice came from behind: "Hey guys, what are you talking about?"

Gu Bei turned around and looked at Harvey Weinstein as he walked over, saying sarcastically, "What? The bankruptcy crisis is over?"

Harvey's face stiffened.

Even after several months apart, Gu Bei remained as impolite as ever.

However, the two sides had long been bitter enemies.

The Weinstein Company pulled itself out of the brink of bankruptcy thanks to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
Harvey also gained more confidence: "I hope you'll still be this confident after this awards season is over!"

"What do you mean?"

Gu Bei frowned.

"I just want to tell you that not everyone in Hollywood can accept a Chinese director continuing to act so arrogantly!"

Harvey said coldly to Gu Bei.

"Harvey, what are you saying!"

Leonardo said coldly.

When Leonardo reprimanded Xavi
Gu Bei simply stared at Harvey's eyes, observing his subtle emotional changes.

Subsequently,

He chuckled, still sarcastic, and said, "Indeed, someone like you can't accept it, but not everyone is as fragile as you."

Although Gu Bei didn't know what Harvey had heard,
Or is he planning to use this tactic to replicate the success of Savage's past love affair?
But Gu Beiyuan understood better than Harvey how he had achieved his success, in order to avoid hitting some unseen ceiling.

Compared to Harvey's intimidation, Gu Bei had more faith in his own judgment.

"Then we'll see!"

Harvey saw Gu Bei's determined gaze and knew he couldn't influence Gu Bei's thoughts, so he turned and left the waiting area.

Gu Bei watched Harvey's departing figure.
La La Land should be his last award-contending film in the next few years.

Regardless of whether La La Land wins an award, Gu Bei plans to focus on commercial films this year.

Otherwise, if you try to win awards every year, it will weaken your standing among the academy members, and even if your work is of good quality, no one will vote for you.

Just like Martin Scorsese and other established directors,
He appears on the nomination list almost every time.

There's a reason why he didn't receive an award until the end of his career.

If you are close to them, they will be disrespectful; if you are far away from them, they will complain.

It doesn't mean anything if someone appears on the nomination list every year.

Gu Bei and Leonardo chatted for a while longer before walking onto the red carpet together and being photographed by the media.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards venue has tables instead of rows of chairs like the Oscars venue, making the awards ceremony feel more like a banquet.

The stage was very close to the table, almost within a few steps.

After the awards ceremony began,
The first awards presented were also technical awards.
The Best Cinematography award went to The White Ribbon, a German film and also this year's Palme d'Or winner.

The runner-up was the bomb disposal unit that Weinstein bought.

"Pity!"

Gu Bei lamented the loss of Tim, the cinematographer for La La Land.
Subsequently,

He saw Harvey not far away, who was giving him a smug look.

That’s it?
Gu Bei didn't take it seriously.

Then came the announcement of the final two awards.

"The winner is..."

Leonardo opened the envelope, “...Gu Bei, La La Land!”

The runner-up was Michael Hennick, in white ribbon!

The two of them went on stage together.
Gu Bei held the microphone,

He glanced at Harvey, whose face looked grim.
This old man probably still thinks Hollywood is a thing of the past, the era when they controlled it.

In fact, this era has already begun to change, but Harvey stubbornly remains in the past. No wonder the future was crushed by the MeToo movement!

"Thank you so much!
La La Land is a film created by everyone. Thank you Tim, thank you Michael, and of course, thank you Andrew and Emma for your contributions to the film.

Finally, I hope that everyone who has lived in Los Angeles can see reflections of their own lives in the film and believe in the power that this era provides.

Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps in the future, when we look back on this era, we will find that it was also a golden age!

clap clap clap!
Thunderous applause!

Musicals are the best embodiment of the dream-making phenomenon of the golden age of cinema.

Even today, many people still reminisce about Hollywood's golden age.
Gu Bei's acceptance speech expressed his optimism for the future, suggesting that the present era may also be a golden age for film.

Gu Bei knew, of course, that this was impossible. The film industry had already reached its peak and was bound to get worse and worse in the future, until this art form declined.

But the people in the audience were unaware that they were clapping excitedly, enjoying the fantasy that Gu Bei had given them!
(End of this chapter)