Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 434 Stunning, Floating Share

In May, before summer had even arrived in mainland China, the country was already scorching hot from the box office success of "The Martian."

Among those record-breaking statistics, "The Martian" seems to have completely shattered all the records set during the May Day holiday.

The Martian's box office surpassed 45 million again on Friday, bringing its total to 2.56 million, and it is expected to break the 300 million mark on Saturday!

[The Martian surpasses 250 million yuan at the box office in six days; the era of 400 million yuan at the box office is just around the corner!]

[Will Wu Chen break 300 million yuan at the box office? He's starting a new chapter in Chinese film box office history!]

[The Martian Creates the Strongest May Day Film Season in History!]

The homepages of portals were refreshed one after another, and hot posts appeared on social forums. On one hand, the media was tracking the domestic box office, and on the other hand, everyone was eagerly anticipating the opening day results in North America.

The following day, at 9:00 AM Los Angeles time.

Inside the conference room at Universal Pictures headquarters, the sun was just rising outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the palm trees of Hollywood swayed in the breeze, as if they too were foreshadowing some kind of news that was about to explode.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was noticeably more relaxed.
"The box office figures for both AMC and Regal theater chains are still being updated simultaneously."

The manager in charge of North American ticketing monitoring flipped through the documents in his hand, his face unable to contain his excitement. "But based on the data that has been sent back so far, the initial estimate for the opening day is between $2200 million and $2500 million."

As soon as he finished speaking, a low gasp came from the right side of the conference table.

It's important to understand that "The Martian" isn't a superhero film; its box office success relies more on the long tail effect.

"Increased resource investment is possible"

David Lyndon's face lit up with barely suppressed joy.

If the North American box office continues to hold steady or even slightly increase on the second day after this opening performance, then The Martian will not only be a box office dark horse, but will become a global focus of the year.

Meanwhile, in a hotel suite on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York, Wu Chen was leaning against the dining table.

The phone on the table vibrated, displaying a text message from David Lyndon:
[Initial estimate: 2200 million. We will update the exact figure later. Congratulations!]

Wu Chen took a sip of water, tapped the table lightly with his finger, and remained calm and composed.

Liu Yifei came out of the restroom with tiny water droplets still clinging to the ends of her hair. She was wearing a loose white shirt jacket and light-colored trousers, looking both casual and refreshing.

Seeing the text message on her phone screen made her mouth slightly open.

Meanwhile, domestic media
The results are finally out.

Jason Blum seemed even more excited than David Lyndon, shouting into the phone, "It's $2438 million! I thought it would only be a little over $2000 million!"

"Is that high? It's much lower than Iron Man's opening day gross of over 30 million."

Wu Chen chuckled and said, to which Jason Blum responded immediately:
"This can't be compared like that at all. You have to understand that your film is just a science fiction film. It just uses your name and has three Best Actor and Best Actress cameos to help increase its popularity."
However, *Iron Man* is a national comic book franchise in North America, its popularity far surpasses ours, and its theatrical run in North America is much longer, allowing the film to accumulate high box office revenue entirely through word-of-mouth.

"How can that compare to the North American box office of 'Iron Man'?"

When asked this question by Wu Chen, Jason Blum hesitated for a moment.

Iron Man's North American box office of over $300 million is indeed very high, with only The Dark Knight surpassing it.

"It's hard to say, it might not work out, but I can guarantee that The Martian's global box office will very likely surpass Iron Man's."
I'm confident, and our production costs aren't nearly as high as theirs.

"." This opening day result truly surprised Hollywood, and in an instant everyone knew that Universal had made the right bet.

Because The Martian only cost $80 million to make.
At Fox headquarters, film studio chairman Tom Rothman and CEO Jim Gianopulos exchanged a glance, both noticing a hint of envy in each other's eyes.

Damn, Fox has been so strapped for cash these past few years because of their gamble on Cameron's Avatar that it's almost driving their finance department to despair.

Although there have been films produced in recent years, each one has been difficult to make, for fear of exceeding the budget.

"Has there been any news from Cameron yet?" Tom Rothman couldn't help but ask.

He said the final editing wouldn't be completed until October at the earliest, and it was expected to be delivered in November, so we should wait.

Upon hearing Jim's reply, Tom Rothman muttered "fuck" under his breath, then sighed helplessly.

Wu Chen received numerous congratulatory calls, including from Nolan, Lionsgate, and even Warner Bros.' Alan Stone, who also mentioned the floating share issue of "Inception."

"OK, Wu, we're willing to accept your previous offer of 10%, but you need to be listed as a co-owner and help us with promotion."

"of course."

Wu Chen smiled and replied.

After hanging up the phone, Alan Stone looked at Jeff Robinoff and nodded.

"Seven hundred million US dollars?"

"It's hard to say; we'll have to see how the global box office performs next week. But currently, major institutions predict the film will gross no less than $6 million, and the Chinese market is developing very rapidly."

As they talked, a hint of regret inevitably crept in.

If Get Out had been distributed by Warner Bros., then it's highly likely that they would have handled the production of The Martian as well, rather than Universal Pictures.

Fortunately, Warner Bros. still has Nolan.

Meanwhile, the final box office figures for North America began to be released through Hollywood ticketing agencies:
Universal Pictures has confirmed that The Martian's North American opening day box office was $2438 million!
As soon as the news was announced, North American media quickly reported: "A stunning start on Mars, exceeding $2400 million on the first day."

Meanwhile, the domestic internet was in an uproar after learning the news.

"Wow, that's awesome! I remember 'Now You See Me' only grossed a little over ten million dollars when it opened!"

"If this performance continues, could the global market reach six or seven hundred million US dollars?"

"It might be more than that; it depends on the global box office."

The portal website reacted quickly, changing the headline shortly after the North American results were announced.

[A hit both domestically and internationally: "The Martian" opens strong in North America, grossing over $2400 million in its first day!]

[The US-China co-production "The Martian" achieves a successful North American premiere; Wu Chen is poised to break another global box office record for a mainland Chinese director!]

[Wu Chen's sci-fi film, "The Martian," grossed over $24 million on its opening day!]

【.】

Immediately, major forums created dedicated threads for predicting the global box office of "The Martian".
Some people have started predicting box office trends in Europe, Japan, and South Korea; others have taken stock of the global film release schedule; and still others have compiled a global box office ranking from 2009 to the present, attempting to predict its final position this year.
(End of this chapter)