Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 379 A Double Blossoming for China and the US

When Gu Bei saw this message,
It was already the second day of Leonardo DiCaprio's New Year's Eve party.

"Focus on the game!"

Seeing Gu Bei pick up his phone, Leonardo reminded him and asked curiously, "What work do you have to do on the first day of the new year?"

"Michael forwarded this news to me!" Gu Bei tossed his phone to Leonardo, simultaneously pushing out his chips. "500? I'll call!"

Seeing Gu Bei's actions, Toby Maguire, sitting opposite Gu Bei, had a flash of excitement in his eyes. After sizing Gu Bei up, he gently tapped the table with the chip in his hand.

Leonardo DiCaprio saw the news and couldn't help but exclaim, "This Christmas and New Year's Eve week together generated $5.2 million in box office revenue! This is the strongest Christmas season in North American film history!"

Leonardo, as the host, and the fact that what he exclaimed was indeed explosive, drew everyone's attention.

"So tall? The box office champion should be Sherlock Holmes!"

"I think it should be Cameron's Avatar. Both of these movies should have grossed over 100 million, otherwise they wouldn't be able to support such a huge box office."

"La La Land should be good too. I've seen that movie, and it's my favorite music film!"

Whether they were at the card table or not, everyone gathered around to discuss it. After all, the people at the party were mostly Hollywood professionals, and box office figures were one of the industry trends they cared about most.

However, Toby was more concerned about the poker table, urging Leonardo, "Hurry up, are you going to call or not?"

Leonardo glanced at his cards and decisively folded: "Call!"

After a pause,

He looked at the news article more closely: "Avatar is still the highest-grossing, even rebounding this week to reach $1.45 million, while the second place..."

Halfway through,
He looked at Gu Bei in surprise: "It's Bruce, your La La Land, $9450 million!"

"My God, is this still a musical?"

One sentence expressed what everyone was thinking.

Musicals have long been a box office failure. There was a Chicago musical that broke $100 million, but that was based on the popularity of a musical that had been running for decades.

La La Land's box office is getting stronger every week.
This has completely exceeded their understanding of the industry.
Everyone looked at Gu Bei in surprise, marveling at the box office miracle achieved by La La Land.

"Third place is Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes, which grossed over $9200 million, and fourth place is Alvin and the Chipmunks animated film, which grossed over $9050 million."

"Just your four movies alone have grossed over $4.2 million!"

After Leonardo finished reading, he handed the phone back to Gu Bei. "Now I know why Michael forwarded this news to you. The box office distribution this Christmas was just too even!"

Gu Bei smiled and put away his phone.
Actually, the box office data for Christmas and the following days...

He had already obtained it, but he didn't expect that the daily box office figures, which didn't break 100 million, would combine to create the strongest Christmas season in North American film history.

The biggest contributor to this Christmas season is definitely Avatar.

Avatar only occupied the IMAX and 3D theaters.
The IMAX theater, which is rarely full, was almost packed to capacity.
Leave more regular screening rooms for Gu Bei and his friends to watch other movies.

then,

La La Land was responsible for attracting female and couples to its audience.

Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, was responsible for attracting male viewers and fans.

Alvin and the Chipmunks are naturally designed to attract family audiences.
By targeting four different audiences, the four films were able to significantly boost the overall box office performance without dragging each other down.

of course,

They had fun watching all four movies.

Other films were squeezed out of their format.

Like the romantic film *Complex*, starring Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, directed by Nancy Sit, and distributed by Universal Pictures.
This A-list production with a budget of $8500 million opened on Christmas Day, but only grossed $2500 million in its opening week, already heading towards a box office loss.

Everyone at the scene was discussing the box office.

Only Toby remained engrossed in the game.

He ignored the onlookers behind him and pushed out his chips: "ALL IN!"

The others were already distracted by the box office results, and since Toby had gone all in, no one dared to go head-to-head with him.

Only Gu Bei followed along nonchalantly: "I'll go all in too!"

Although Toby had three tens, he still ran into Gu Bei's straight flush, and naturally suffered a crushing defeat.

Toby sighed and rubbed his head dejectedly: "It's a bit boring. If we don't gamble with money, even losing isn't as satisfying!"

"I'll go to Las Vegas with you in a couple of days!"

Leonardo lit a cigarette and said to his friend with a smile.

Then, he turned to Gu Bei and extended an invitation: "Bruce, do you want to come along?"

"I'll forget it!"

Gu Bei waved his hand.

The more successful he becomes, the less he dares to go to places where all sorts of people mingle.

and,

He actually felt those things weren't exciting enough.

Once filming begins, millions of dollars are being burned every day. Isn't that much more exciting than this?

Compared to when he initially made movies just to make money, Gu Bei now enjoys the process of making movies more and more, and even enjoys spending time on set.

Toby, who loved playing cards the most, had lost his enthusiasm.
The card game, which had lasted all night, came to an end.

Gu Bei walked to the villa's balcony and looked out at the now crystal-clear sea.
Even though I didn't sleep all night, I'm still not sleepy at all. Instead, I'm looking at the sea with some excitement because today marks the beginning of 2010.

He arrived in 2010!
"Bruce!"

Leonardo walked out from inside, just as he lit a cigarette.

Gu Bei merely glanced at him indifferently.

Leonardo hesitated for a moment, but with a cigarette in his mouth, he didn't light it: "I'll take on your project called Interstellar Travel!"

"Your agent is still negotiating with the producer!"

Gu Bei reminded.

The agent works for Leonardo DiCaprio, negotiating his salary and other benefits.

The largest chip

It definitely comes down to whether Leonardo DiCaprio will be able to join the cast.

As a result, Leonardo revealed this directly to Gu Bei. If Gu Bei were a little ruthless, he could use this to drastically lower the price.

But what Gu Bei understood even more clearly was...
An agent essentially acts as a buffer between the two parties. When the agent and the producer's negotiations break down, Gu Bei and Leonardo are still able to maintain their friendship while continuing the negotiations.

If he actually uses it, it will be a one-time transaction!
Gu Bei still recognizes Leonardo DiCaprio's commercial value.

The artist benefited from Leonardo DiCaprio's box office appeal and the media buzz generated by his Oscar win, resulting in a significant increase in both box office and DVD sales compared to the original.

The original film only grossed $40 million in North America and $130 million worldwide.

After Leonardo DiCaprio starred in and won his long-awaited Oscar,
It grossed over $1.5 million at the North American box office.
The global box office has approached $400 million.

Disc sales have increased significantly due to varying market conditions, so the exact increase is unknown, but it has definitely been substantial.
The cost of hiring Leonardo DiCaprio was only $10 million plus 1000% of the box office revenue, which was a bargain compared to the returns!

"It's alright! I can decide that he's only serving me!"

Leonardo DiCaprio, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, gazed at the sea just like Gu Bei, exuding the aura of a top superstar. "My salary is still the same as before, 10+10. After a year's rest, it's time for me to get back to work!"

"Row!"

Gu Bei hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

Leonardo DiCaprio offered him a rock-bottom salary again, clearly an attempt to curry favor with him.

Gu Bei was happy to save this money.

Box office appeal is actually a very vague concept.
But the biggest role of top stars is that they can leverage more media resources to give film projects greater exposure, which is exactly what Rose Pictures, which is not one of the Big Six, needs.

Entering 2010, after experiencing the strongest Christmas holiday in film history,
The phenomenal box office performance of Avatar
This attracted the attention of the media.

If Avatar's $1.35 million opening weekend box office was unremarkable,

The $1.45 million box office increase in the second week alone is enough to demonstrate the film's popularity with audiences.

Even so, the $2.8 million box office gross in two weeks was not the strongest performance among the opening films of 2009, falling only between Transformers 2 and Twilight 2.

However, Avatar only dropped by 30% in its third week, still maintaining a weekly box office of $9700 million, with a cumulative box office of nearly $3.8 million.

Even industry professionals who thought 3D movies were garbage had to start taking Avatar, this revolutionary film, seriously!
3D movies weren't anything new before.
Hollywood had already enjoyed a period of great popularity back in the last century.

However, due to the inability to consistently produce high-quality content, 3D movies have not become mainstream, but rather serve as an added value to increase ticket prices, with occasional masterpieces emerging.

At this point, some people thought of Gu Bei's acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.

Is the film industry about to enter a new golden age? Are 3D movies the future of Hollywood?

The majority of Avatar's box office revenue came from 3D and IMAX screenings, propelling Hollywood into a new golden age with its special effects!

Moviegoers are using their tickets to voice their concerns to Hollywood: "We need more 3D movies!"

The entire Hollywood was stunned by Avatar's money-making ability.

They have all announced that they will invest in 3D movies.

Even Lionsgate, outside the Big Six, quickly announced that its upcoming Saw 7 would be renamed Saw 3D and would still be released on Halloween.

Gu Bei coldly watched the development of this series of public opinions.
To some extent, Hollywood is just a makeshift operation.
Even Michael, a veteran in the industry, was not optimistic about Avatar's opening weekend box office performance from the very beginning.
Then, after Avatar's second week of decline and its third week of extremely low drop, everyone started to praise Avatar and urgently began to search for 3D movie projects.

Finally, now, some people have started attacking Avatar for being too similar to movies like Dances with Wolves.

Cameron, being quite straightforward, admitted that he wanted to use this clichéd plot to make everyone feel familiar, so that he could tell this story of aliens falling in love well.

In such a complex public opinion arena,

Gu Bei, on the contrary, did not use gravity to create hype.

After all, the story of gravity is quite sensitive, and using it for hype in this heated atmosphere might actually attract criticism.

"Avatar is so good, and its box office performance is terrifying!"

Liu Yifei excitedly told Gu Bei on the phone, "Avatar has only been released for six days, and it has already grossed 2.7 million yuan in China. I feel that our 'The Message' box office record is about to be broken!"

"That's normal."

After all, China provided 600 3D screens for Avatar.

This is the most 3D screens in any film market outside of North America!

Gu Bei said with a smile,

He knew about the box office figures much earlier than Liu Yifei; Han Sanpin told him immediately, after all, the next global 3D blockbuster was their Gravity.

The better Avatar performs, the better Gravity will perform domestically and globally.

After a pause,

Gu Bei asked curiously, "Didn't you say before that Wong Kar-wai wouldn't let you go out to see movies?"

"Uh……"

Liu Yifei hesitated for a moment, then changed the subject, "Did you know that the Legend of Sword and Fairy 3, sung by Changchang, is finally airing on a major television network? And it's even the opening drama of the year for Jiangsu Satellite TV!"

"So you sneaked out to watch it with Shu Chang, right?" Gu Bei said quietly.

"How did you know?"

Liu Yifei showed a hint of fear.

She covered the microphone and looked around.

She scrutinized her assistant and bodyguard closely, looking for any signs of guilt on their faces, since these two were the most likely to reveal her whereabouts to Gu Bei.

"Stop looking for it!"

Gu Bei's words startled Liu Yifei once again.

Subsequently,

Gu Bei's words finally put her at ease: "It's not that someone told me, it's just that your thoughts are too easy to guess!"
You couldn't have brought up Shu Chang for no reason. Shu Chang must have been on your mind, so you brought up Shu Chang's Legend of Sword and Fairy 3 to change the subject.

"Since you thought of Shu Chang, you must have gone with her!"

"hey-hey!"

Liu Yifei tried to get away with being cute, saying, "We were just too curious. Besides the singer, there was also Liang Ying and Song Hye-kyo from the crew."

However, it seems her English isn't good enough; she didn't quite understand the story of Avatar.

Gu Bei could already imagine Liu Yifei and Song Huiqiao secretly doing bad things together. With four girls together, they probably wouldn't be very well-behaved.

"Just remember to bring bodyguards. It's almost Chinese New Year, and the city isn't very safe!"

Gu Bei gave a brief instruction, then became curious about the performance of "Chinese Paladin 3," asking, "By the way, how are the ratings for 'Chinese Paladin 3'?"

"It's definitely the champion!" Liu Yifei said proudly for Shu Chang. "The average ratings these past few days have exceeded 1.5, making it the top-rated show in prime time!"

Gu Bei smiled upon hearing this.

This can be considered a win-win situation for both China and the US.
La La Land in North America, and Chinese Paladin 3 in mainland China.
They all demonstrated strong commercial value!
(End of this chapter)