It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 102 Dreams need money to support them! (Seeking monthly votes)
"Senior, how did you do those magic tricks? They were amazing!"

At the celebration banquet for the premiere of "The Prestige", Liu Yifei leaned close to Lü Rui and asked with a face full of curiosity.

Lu Rui raised an eyebrow at her and smiled, "Want to know?"

"Mmm! I want to!" The little girl nodded her head like a rattle-drum.

"If you want to know, go see the movie in three days, and you'll understand."

"..."

Seemingly not expecting Lü Rui to keep her in suspense, Liu Yifei stood there stunned for a moment before coming back to her senses.

She was about to ask more questions, but the person in front of her had already disappeared.

"Hmph, fine, I don't want to know." She raised her head haughtily and turned to look for her mother.

However, although she said that, she had already made up her mind to go see the movie as soon as it was released.

Tonight's magic show was absolutely amazing, and it left so many mysteries unsolved. She couldn't wait to find the answers.

Like Liu Yifei, when others met Lü Rui, they would greet him and then ask him about the secrets of the magic trick.

But without exception, he brushed them off with just a few words.

Compared to the audience watching on screen, the celebrity guests and lucky audience members attending the premiere tonight will most likely be going to the cinema after the film's release.

After witnessing such a spectacular magic show, who could suppress their curiosity?
"Lv, tonight's show was amazing! Eastern witchcraft was absolutely awesome!"

Lauren Megan raised her champagne glass and gently clinked glasses with Lu Rui.

He has attended many movie premieres in Hollywood, but few can compare to The Prestige.

He was completely captivated by those magical "spells".

"Lauren, this is magic, not witchcraft," Lu Rui explained to him, clarifying the difference between the two.

The more I explained, the more curious he became!
Since he rarely comes to China, he didn't plan to return to Hollywood after attending the premiere. Instead, he intended to explore this mysterious ancient Eastern country thoroughly.

Of course, besides having fun, it's even more important to keep an eye on the box office performance of "The Prestige".

This was his primary goal in coming here.

He is now very much looking forward to seeing how high the box office will be after tonight's magic show.

The banquet officially ended at 11 p.m.

Although the premiere has ended, for "The Prestige," this is just the beginning.

The following morning, a nationwide propaganda campaign swept across the country!

The word "magic" can be seen everywhere in cinemas, television stations, variety shows, and newspapers.

This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the currently showing film "A World Without Thieves".

Feng Xiaogang received bad news.

Yesterday, the box office of "A World Without Thieves" dropped instead of rising, falling by a full 100 million yuan to 712 million yuan.

He couldn't hide his panic and immediately led the creative team to launch a new round of publicity.

In contrast, the promotional campaign for "The Prestige" has officially come to an end.

That "magic show" already had enough hype and appeal; there was no need to add anything more.

Sometimes, excessive publicity can be a bad thing.

December 15th, on the eve of the release of "The Prestige".

Lu Rui arrived at Ruishijie early in the morning.

He came to the company today to take care of three things.

The first thing is that the script for "Remote Control" has been approved, but some pre-project review is still needed.

The task was not complicated and was completed quickly.

Shen Ao could not hide his excitement when he saw Lü Rui sign and stamp the last page of the project proposal!
After more than a month of hard work, he finally achieved results and is now officially embarking on the path of becoming a "director".

"Brother Rui, when will the project approval announcement be released?"

With preliminary preparations complete, the next step is project approval and attracting investment; Shen Ao is already itching to get started.

Lu Rui thought for a moment and said, "No rush, let's wait until the Lunar New Year film season is over before we talk about it."

Commercial films cannot exist without gimmicks, hype, and attention, unlike art films, which sometimes remain unknown to only a small circle of people from the start of filming to their release.

Some even went so far as to rush to film festivals to win awards and sell copyrights before the film was even released.

With the Lunar New Year film season in full swing and movies like "A World Without Thieves," "The Prestige," and "Kung Fu Hustle" heavily promoted, it's clearly not a good time to promote "Click."

"Okay, Brother Rui, I'll come to the company after the Lunar New Year film season ends."

Shen Ao has other business to attend to lately, including showing the "client representatives" from Hollywood around the area.

When a friend comes from afar, and is an important client at that, we naturally cannot neglect him.

"Well, you go and do your work first."

After Shen Ao left, Lü Rui began to deal with the second matter.

The domestic film "The Prestige" is about to be released, and Hollywood's "Insidious" is also on the verge of its release.

This month, both films will be released simultaneously in theaters both domestically and internationally; what a coincidence!

Lu Rui picked up his phone and called Peter Griffin.

It was 7 p.m. in North America at the time, and the call was quickly connected.

“Lv?” Peter’s voice came through.

"How's the situation over there?"

Peter knew he was asking about the distribution, and immediately replied, "The distribution went very smoothly. Lionsgate held two advance screenings for media and fans, and the reviews were good."

Regarding advertising, we've only placed ads on second-tier media outlets so far. We'll really ramp up our efforts after the film's release and follow up based on box office feedback…

Halloween is over, and James Wan's directorial debut, "Saw," has been a huge success, raking in $5518 million on a budget of $120 million!

His new film, "Lurking," will soon be released in theaters.

Although the traditional North American horror movie season has ended, the film still garners considerable attention thanks to its predecessor and the director's popularity.

"How effective are the outdoor advertising campaigns?" Lü Rui pressed.

"Not bad. The survey report shows that out of 100 viewers who saw the advertisement, 30 to 40 said they wanted to see it after its release."

that's enough!
Lu Rui nodded in satisfaction, and emphasized, "We're willing to talk to Lionsgate and add another $50 for publicity. Let's see if they can provide some additional funding. We'll try to increase the publicity efforts a week before the release."

Hollywood horror films typically have an average run time of 3 to 4 weeks, or about a month.

However, movies with a budget of tens of millions of dollars and good reviews and box office performance usually take 7 to 8 weeks, or two months.

This cycle is crucial!

Because the longer the screening time, the better the box office and revenue will be.

Horror films have a shorter theatrical lifespan than traditional blockbusters, so the opening week is absolutely crucial!

Peter replied, "Okay, I'll contact Lionsgate right now."

Due to the time difference, "Insidious" was released 15 hours later than "The Prestige," so the details could still be adjusted.

"By the way, how big is the screening scale?" Lu Rui almost forgot the core question.

Peter blurted out, "After two screenings, Lionsgate gave 'Insidious' a B rating overall, and expects it to be shown in no less than 1500 theaters on its opening day."

"Okay." Lü Rui nodded in satisfaction.

The number of theaters showing the film will directly determine the box office performance.

Although there are four ratings before B, a horror film that receives an internal overall rating of "B" is actually considered to have a very good reception.

You know, this is Hollywood's award-winning season right now.

Christmas is just a week away, and there will be a plethora of movies!

Keep in mind that this is currently the peak season for Hollywood films to compete for awards, and Christmas in North America is just a week away.

As a low-budget horror film, "Lurking" was undoubtedly a lamb surrounded by wolves during this period.

However, North American horror films generally have a fixed audience and are less affected by blockbusters.

"Contact as many media outlets and film critics as possible to generate buzz and publicity after the film's release, continuously amplifying its popularity..."

Horror movies are known for their short bursts of excitement; the climax comes and goes quickly.

Therefore, it's essential to generate buzz in the week leading up to the release.

If you can't get enough box office revenue in the first two weeks, it's just wishful thinking to try to achieve a long-tail effect!
Lü Rui didn't expect "Lurking" to be as successful in both critical acclaim and box office as the original; he just wanted it to be a box office success.

The main reason for this is that the number of screens and ticket prices now cannot compare with those in 2011.

His expectations for this film stemmed more from his familiarity with the entire process of North American film preparation, investment, production, distribution, and screening.

To truly make money, we need to look at films like "The Pursuit of Happyness" (a collaboration with Sony Pictures), "I Am Legend" (a collaboration with Lionsgate), and "The Prestige" (a collaboration with Warner Bros.).

After ending the call with Peter Griffin, Lü Rui briefly processed some documents submitted by Hou Hongliang that needed to be signed.

The revenue from "Hitch" has been fully tallied, and the distribution rights for Europe and America were ultimately acquired by 20th Century Fox for $3.8 million.

With this, the film can be considered to have officially come to an end.

It is worth mentioning that its box office performance ranks among the top in the industry across Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

It ranked second at the box office in mainland China, second only to "House of Flying Daggers".

Hong Kong's market ranked third with HK$2069 million, second only to "Fantastic Beasts" and "New Police Story".

Only in the Taiwan market did it fail to crack the top ten in box office revenue.

Even with Li Ming's box office appeal, it couldn't withstand the impact of Hollywood blockbusters.

Looking at the current top ten box office charts in Taiwan, all of them are Hollywood movies, with not a single domestic film.

This demonstrates just how deeply Hollywood culture has influenced this region!
The local film "Formula 17" became the top-grossing film in Taiwan with only NT$5 million in box office revenue, which suggests the weakness of the local market.

After finishing his company business, Lü Rui got up and went to Ruiyue Animation next door.

Upon entering, one could see Tian Xiaopeng busy debugging equipment, while team members were debugging software.

"Chairman Lü!" Upon seeing Lü Rui enter, Tian Xiaopeng quickly stood up to greet him.

"How's it going? Is everything alright?" Lü Rui surveyed the scene.

"It's going quite smoothly. Most of the equipment is in place. The main challenge is the software debugging, but it should be finished by the end of the month at the latest."

Compared to the initial investment of Ruishijie, the investment of Ruiyue Animation is much higher!
A single SGI O2 workstation for professional animation production and graphics processing is worth tens of thousands of dollars.

There are also 2D and 3D animation software such as 3ds Max 7, Maya, and RETAS PRO, with a total price of over 100,000 US dollars.

Lü Rui's willingness to invest so much money is a great sign of his high regard for Tian Xiaopeng, but it also puts more pressure on him regarding future performance.

With such a large investment, if we can't recoup the costs, it will all be a waste!

Just like his previous studio, it eventually went out of business because of high costs and low returns.

"Director Lü, the script for 'Qin's Moon'..."

"Don't rush." ​​Lu Rui raised his hand to interrupt, "After the Lunar New Year film season is over, I'll give you the script once I'm done with this period of work. You can start preparing for the early stages."

"Okay." Tian Xiaopeng nodded, but he was a little surprised.

This young boss's abilities are truly amazing!

He can write scripts in various genres, including suspense, comedy, and crime, and the quality is extremely high.

Now they can even write animation scripts themselves...

This level of self-directed and self-written skill is absolutely top-notch in the industry!
Just then, the voice of Lu Rui's secretary, Liang Lulu, came from outside the door: "Chairman Lu, someone from the company has come and says they want to see you."

"Okay, got it."

After nodding to Tian Xiaopeng, Lü Ruichong returned to his office.

As soon as the door opened, Ning Hao, who was sitting on the sofa, sprang up like a spring and greeted him with a smile: "Director Lü, it's been a long time."

"Senior Brother Ning."

Lu Rui shook hands with him, and the two sat down again on the sofa.

After helping to film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" last year, Ning Hao received his payment and immediately devoted himself to the post-production of "Incense".

This film was not released in China, but was screened in Switzerland and won awards such as Best Film at the 4th Tokyo Filmex International Film Festival.

They definitely made money, because art films can sell their copyrights to some extent as long as they win awards.

He then immediately used the money he earned to start filming his new movie, "Green Grassland".

This film won the Best Director Award at the 6th Spanish International Film Festival and also sold its distribution rights.

However, compared to "Incense", "Green Grassland" received far less attention.

He's made back the money he invested before, but now his girlfriend, Xing Aina, wants to get married as soon as possible and is urging him to buy a house and a car so they can settle down.

However, Ning Hao didn't have enough money, so he came up with the idea of ​​making a commercial film.

He happened to have two scripts, "Red Racer" and "Big Diamond," which he and Xing Aina wrote in their spare time.

However, both films required substantial investment, and with the money he had, he simply couldn't afford to make them.

Unlike art films, commercial films often face the greatest challenge in securing investment in the early stages.

Ning Hao tried to use his connections to find several investors, but he repeatedly ran into obstacles.

Finally, it was at Xing Aina's suggestion that he thought of Lü Rui.

As a film and television company, Ruishijie's main business is investing in and producing movies.

So, Ning Hao tried calling Lü Rui.

He hadn't held out much hope, but to his surprise, after listening to the outline of his script, Lü Rui actually said he was willing to give him a chance.

So the two arranged to meet today.

"Director Lü, these are the two scripts I mentioned."

Ning Hao opened his briefcase and took out two scripts.

Lu Rui took the script, glanced at the titles "The Big Diamond" and "Red Racer" on the cover, and began to read.

He was very familiar with "The Big Diamond," as it was the first work in Ning Hao's "Crazy Series" from his previous life, "Crazy Stone."

While "Red Racer" is similar to "Crazy Racer," its script is far less mature than that of "The Big Diamond."

Half an hour later, he put down the script and was about to speak when his gaze was drawn to the large gold chain around Ning Hao's neck.

A thick gold chain hung from her neck to her chest, gleaming brightly and attracting attention!

"Is this real?" Lu Rui asked curiously.

If it's true, its value is definitely not low!
Because recently, in addition to hoarding houses and investing in stocks, he has also invested in some gold bars.

Based on the current median gold price of 100 yuan per gram, the chain around Ning Hao's neck must have cost at least 2 yuan!
In 2004, being willing to spend 20,000 yuan to buy a gold chain definitely made you a "big brother" level person.

"Ahem." Seeing that Lü Rui's attention had wandered, Ning Hao smiled awkwardly, "They're fake. The chain and watch are counterfeit."

The reason he bought this outfit was that when he met with other investors, they always thought he was "uncool" and were unwilling to invest in him.

So he simply got himself this outfit, just to scare people.

Although the effect was mediocre, it at least saved the day.

When I have more money in the future, I'll definitely get a real set!

Lu Rui smiled and didn't ask any more questions, bringing the topic back to the script: "The script for 'The Big Diamond' is good, but 'Racing' still needs some polishing."

My family knows their own affairs.

Ning Hao picked up "Red Racing" and stuffed it into his bag, explaining, "This one really isn't done well. I always feel like something's missing, and it's going to be a pain to fix."

After saying that, he pointed to "The Big Diamond" and added, "But I put a lot of effort into this script."

"Yes, I can tell." Lü Rui nodded, placing his hand on the script and looking up at him. "The script is good, I can submit it. How much are you planning to take?"

"Five...no! Four hundred! No, no...three hundred, three million is enough to bid!"

Ning Hao was afraid that his high offer would scare Lü Rui away, so he quickly tried to lower the price.

In fact, his original investment budget was 500 million, but he knew that it was simply unrealistic.

Who would be willing to gamble 500 million with a director who comes from an art-house film background?

So he managed to cut the budget down to 400 million. If he tightened his belt, he could manage with 300 million. If all else failed, he could cut back on spending and lower the quality a bit...

Looking at him, Lü Rui felt as if he were seeing himself when he first faced Jiang Wen.

He made various guarantees and promises to secure the 400 million yuan investment for "Gone Girl".

Thinking of this, he smiled, a hint of reminiscence flashing in his eyes: "When I made my debut film, I also met with many people and said a lot of things before I finally convinced them and secured 400 million yuan in investment, which allowed me to gain a foothold."

"You're amazing!" Ning Hao couldn't hide his envy.

That's what geniuses are like; given a chance, they can take off immediately!
A grand slam of the three best directors in Europe, one of only two directors in China with a box office of over 100 million yuan... Ning Hao wouldn't even dare to dream of such a thing.

Lu Rui stopped laughing and his expression turned serious: "Getting back to the point, I can invest 400 million yuan in you to make this movie, but I have one condition."

"I promise!"

Ning Hao didn't even listen to Lü Rui's details before agreeing without a second thought.

400 million!

He was confident he could film the movie if he could get the money.

Don't even mention one condition; as long as it's not illegal or criminal, he'd agree to two more conditions!
"I want the copyright to this script, including overseas distribution, adaptation rights, and the development of subsequent sequels. All of these rights must belong to Ruishijie."

The Crazy series of movies isn't just one film.

According to Lu Rui's memories from his previous life, this film series not only spawned multiple sequels, but also achieved considerable success in Southeast Asia and surrounding regions.

Although Ruishijie currently lacks the ability to develop copyrights, who can say for sure what the future holds?

He invests in movies to make money, not to open a charity.

Although I admire Ning Hao's creative and directing talent, as well as the quality of the script, even close brothers have to keep clear accounts, especially for a project involving commercial investment, which is of paramount importance.

"Copyright? Sure! No problem!"

Although Ning Hao didn't understand what use Lü Rui had for these derivative copyrights, he still agreed without hesitation.

As long as we can secure investment, nothing else matters.

“Let’s leave it at that for now.” Lu Rui stood up and added, “Go back and get a complete project proposal, then come to the company to sign the contract. I’ll arrange for someone to help you with the project preparation. You don’t need to worry about the publicity; I’ll take care of that.”

"okay!"

Ning Hao was overjoyed, stuffed the script back into his bag, and rubbed his hands together excitedly.

It was lunchtime, and he immediately offered to treat everyone to thank Lü Rui for his help.

Lü Rui didn't refuse and even called Zhao Peng over.

He didn't have time to personally oversee "Crazy Stone," so he let Zhao Peng, who was free at the time, follow up and also help Shen Ao with the follow-up work on "Remote Control."

"Haha, so I've become the producer of two movies?"

Zhao Peng was quite excited when he arrived and didn't feel like it was a burden.

Lü Ruiken entrusted him with these two projects because he valued him highly!

If you do well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to become a director in the future.

"Director Lü, let me toast you. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be running around looking for investment."

When he first entered the industry, Ning Hao was a young man with hemorrhoids who harbored dreams.

But now, after years of hard work, even to the point of having his hemorrhoids ruptured, he has finally come to understand a truth.

Dreams need money to support them!
Lu Rui raised his glass and clinked it with his, then suddenly remembered something and reminded him, "By the way, the name 'The Big Diamond' isn't quite right. I think we can change it."

"Hmm? What should it be changed to?" Ning Hao looked over curiously.

"Let's call it 'Crazy Stone'."

Lu Rui thought this name sounded better, it had a Chinese-language feel to it, like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

"Great!" Ning Hao agreed without hesitation, tilting his head back and gulping down most of a glass of baijiu. "Let's call it 'Crazy Stone'! Let's go all out and aim for a box office hit!"

(End of this chapter)