Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 587 As if Made of Paper

After the first day's box office figures were released, the entire North American media circle was a bit stunned.

Tron: Legacy appears to be far ahead with $1.7 million in revenue, but its damn $1700 million production cost also puts it far ahead.

Ironically, the lowest-budget film among them is "Black Swan," directed by Wu Chen.

It even easily beat Warner Bros.' family-friendly animated film, Yoga Bear.

This is where things start to look promising.

However, the media did not act rashly, waiting for the complete data from the first three days before making a final assessment.
On the other hand, the initial ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb are not yet widely available.

However, the atmosphere in the conference room at Burbank, the headquarters of Disney Studios, was already quite tense.

A crucial report on CinemaScore (theatrical audience ratings) was presented to Rich Ross, then president of Disney Studios.

Tron: Legacy received a "B+" rating, which is quite mediocre for a blockbuster aimed at fans and suggests a lack of staying power.

Paramount's "Black Swan" received a rating of "A".

Everyone's expression changed slightly.

"A psychological thriller? And you got an A?"

Some people couldn't believe it.

“Yes, A.” Chuck sighed. “The audience feedback has been excellent, with extremely high recommendation rates. To be honest, I haven’t seen this type of film get this score in a long time.”

For a psychological thriller, this is clearly an extremely rare and outstanding achievement.

"Damn it, this Paramount movie cost less than a quarter of ours!"

Publishing director Dave Hollis couldn't help but slam his pen down.

"Wu Chen, this guy, actually has an impact on us?"

“Maybe,” Chuck shrugged. “After all, his films have the best word-of-mouth among this batch of movies, and the speed at which audiences recommend them to each other is much faster than we expected.”

The conference room was silent.

Everyone knows that if the box office continues to be this bad in the next few days, then we're really doomed.
One of them will soon be forced to resign for this!

In contrast, Paramount felt like they had struck gold.

They didn't expect Tron: Legacy to receive such poor reviews, so this is incredibly good news.

It would be a miracle if we didn't make good use of this.

As a result, a large number of film reviews and audience recommendations related to "Black Swan" began to spread virally online.

After the box office figures were released on the second day, the entire Christmas box office battle began to take a turn for the worse.

Saturday, which should have been a day of soaring box office for family-friendly blockbusters, saw a sharp drop in "Tron: Legacy," with the film only grossing $1500 million on the day.

In contrast, both "Yoga Bear" and "Black Swan" saw their prices rise.

The former grossed $7 million, while the latter, driven by strong word-of-mouth, soared to $9 million, just one step away from a single-day box office of $10 million!
Although "Tron: Legacy" is likely to be the box office champion in its opening weekend, the related reports have left netizens in China somewhat confused.

"Holy crap! How come this $1.7 million big-budget 'Tron: Legacy' looks like it's made of paper?"

"I feel like Black Swan is about to overtake it any minute!"

"That's not quite right, but it's still incredibly poor. The budgets of the two films are worlds apart."

Jiang Wen was still basking in the glory of "Let the Bullets Fly" breaking 100 million yuan at the box office in just two and a half days. When he saw the news from North America, he was a little surprised and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement on the phone.

"Holy crap, this arthouse film is outrageous! How come it's doing so well at the box office? It almost blew up the big-budget movies!"

"I'd like to, but I'm still a bit short."

Wu Chen, on the other end of the phone, sounded genuinely regretful.

"You actually dare to think that?" Jiang Wen was stunned for a long time. He had just said it casually, but he didn't expect Wu Chen to actually have such a thought.

"What's there to be afraid of? If it doesn't work this week, it might work next week, or the week after that. Its staying power is nothing compared to my movie."

"That's fucking awesome."

Jiang Wen put down his phone at home and kept muttering to himself.

This dampened the joy of soaring box office numbers somewhat.

As Wu Chen had predicted, Sunday's box office figures showed that "Tron: Legacy" had fallen again, even dropping below its opening day box office on Friday, reaching only 1100 million.

In contrast, while "Black Swan" also saw a slight decline, it still held firm at $750 million. Even "Yoga Bear" still had $470 million, just a tiny bit higher than Friday's figure.

Now, the trend of the box office curve is clear at a glance.

Hollywood's mainstream media, which has always been known for its snobbishness and sycophancy, can finally act without restraint.

"David and Goliath? Black Swan challenges the massive investment of Tron: Legacy with its astonishing box office curve!"

"Disney's $1.7 million gamble may become the biggest blunder of the year."

"A commercial victory for art! Wu Chen has once again proven that a good story is far more valuable than big special effects!"

"Tron: Legacy's weekend box office dominance couldn't mask its overall decline; Black Swan became one of the biggest surprises of the Christmas season."

"."

The latest data from Rotten Tomatoes is even more jarring:

Black Swan has a freshness rating of 88% and an audience popcorn score of 92%; it also has an IMDb rating of 8.4.

Tron: Legacy has a freshness rating of only 38% and an audience popcorn score of 63%; it also has an IMDb rating of 6.3.

The huge gap in reputation is like a slap in the face to Disney.

At Paramount headquarters, Rebecca Sarkin grinned from ear to ear as she looked at the freshly released weekend box office report.

It's not because of how much money they made, but mainly because this Disney film is about to lose a fortune.

“Wu, if they continue like this, their final North American box office will probably be about the same as ours, and their overseas box office will probably be only slightly higher than ours.”

Rebecca gloated on the phone.

Wu Chen knew perfectly well what she was laughing about.

"Tron: Legacy," which cost several times more than "Black Swan," may only gross slightly more at the global box office than "Black Swan."

If this gets out, Disney will probably be laughed at for a whole year.

"Wu, there are two key public relations dinners in the next two days. We will handle the rest."

"OK, no problem."

Wu Chen nodded.

After participating in these two events, he can prepare to return to China.

Liu Yifei has been calling very frequently lately.

That evening, Liu Yifei called excitedly: "Really? Are you sure you'll be back the day after tomorrow?"

"Confirmed, I've already bought the tickets in advance." Wu Chen chuckled as he listened to the slightly sweet voice on the other end of the phone.

"Okay, then I won't rush you. Get some rest!"

"No rush," Wu Chen wasn't sleepy yet and wanted to chat a little longer, so he started a conversation, "By the way, has anything interesting happened in China these past few days?"

"Something new!" Knowing that her boyfriend wanted to talk more, Liu Yifei racked her brains, blinked repeatedly, and quickly blurted out what she had in her head.

"Fan Binbin, it seems there's a rumor about him holding hands with Wang Xueqi, it's been all over social media these past few days. Well, actually it's not really a rumor."

Liu Yifei smiled. This was a rumor to outsiders, but within the industry, most people knew the truth.

"Her."

Wu Chen couldn't help but smile.

Fan Binbin is currently going all out; after becoming an "international star," he's practically on fire now.

“Oh, right,” Liu Yifei suddenly remembered something, “Director Ning’s friend, Xu Zheng, seems to have been scammed by Huaqi Films.”

He previously starred in "Lost in Thailand," which had a budget of 800 million yuan and grossed 4000 million yuan at the box office, becoming a dark horse.

Then the original team was preparing to create a sequel, "Lost in Beijing," but Huaqi Films suddenly withdrew the project, intending to bypass Xu Zheng and find their own director.

Liu Yifei chuckled: "That's what Sister Nana told me. A few days ago, Xu Zheng even went to drink with Director Ning to vent his frustrations, complaining about this and saying that Huaqi was particularly unethical."

Wu Chen laughed after hearing this, but he wasn't laughing at Hua Qi; he was laughing at Xu Zheng.

This person wasn't exactly kind-hearted either.

But making money...
Wu Chen's thoughts stirred slightly.

Xu Zheng is probably currently writing "Lost in Thailand," and this one could be given to Xingchen.
(End of this chapter)