American Entertainment: Starting with playing the role of Little Beaver

Chapter 18 The Battle of Dipi
"Dinosaur" is a Disney animated film that premiered in North American theaters on May 19th of this year. It grossed $38.8 million in its opening week, beating "Gladiator," which had dominated the box office for a month, to become the number one film of the week.

The film was released in the British Isles on October 13th, the week before last. Like in North America, it topped the box office in the UK, grossing £212 million (about $3 million) in just three days.

Don't underestimate this number; it's already quite impressive in the UK film market.

Due to its small population, the UK film market is actually not very large. For example, this year's UK box office champion, "Toy Story 2," only grossed a little over £4 million. However, because the pound is valuable, the UK contributed 12.5% ​​of the global box office for "Toy Story 2."

Therefore, when the outside media hyped up "Dinosaur" and the box office revenue soared, the kids in the HP crew also wanted to go out and see what kind of movie could garner such attention.

but……

Isabella thought these people probably wanted to herd sheep.

"You guys don't want to go to class, do you? That's why you invited me to the movies?"

"how can that be possible!"

Rupert panicked, "We love learning so much!"

"That's it!"

Daniel nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice.

"Isa, we simply wanted to invite you to a movie to thank you for your help these past few days..."

"Really? I don't believe it."

“Of course it’s true.” Bonnie nodded as well.

"Oh~ So you guys took leave?"

Everyone was stunned by these words.

They looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.

"Hey, I knew she could guess what we meant."

The young master helplessly shrugged.

"Ugh--"

The others sighed.

Just when they were about to give up, Isabella changed her tune and her expression changed instantly.

"Okay, I agree."

"Ok?"

The group, who had been listless, seemed to spring back to life like seedlings that have drunk water.

"Go change your clothes. I'll go ask the director for leave. It's on me today, okay?"

Isabella stood with her hands behind her back, exuding an air of authority.

"Wow~ Thank you, Isa~"

The words of acceptance sparked a cheer.

While expressing their gratitude, everyone seemed afraid that Isabella might change her mind, and they all ran away quickly.

To be honest, helping everyone skip class is wrong.

But as the saying goes, do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.

Isabella herself doesn't like going to class, yet she's advising others not to skip class?

Isn't this funny?
She could never do something like that!
Not to mention, when someone really wants to relax, they can't do anything well. Since low-quality learning is a waste of time, and everyone is asking her for help, there's nothing wrong with her helping out, right?
So, after discovering that these guys hadn't even asked for leave and were hoping to use her as a shield, Isabella took a different approach and went to Columbus, who was still busy, to voice the sentiments of the people.

The director was left speechless, both amused and exasperated by the straightforward explanation.

"Isha, you mean you want to invite everyone to a movie? Today?"

“Yes.” Isabella nodded.

"Then why didn't you tell me these things in the morning?"

"Because I didn't have this thought in the morning."

Columbus was laughing so hard he almost died.

Isabella's response was tantamount to revealing the mastermind.

The blatant deception made him shake his head and sigh, "In principle, it's not allowed for the whole group to take leave to avoid studying, but if you're treating... okay, I agree."

"However, you need to change your mode of transportation. Don't let your parents drive you in their private cars. Just take the crew's car instead, because I need someone to follow you so I can get firsthand information. Is that alright?"

“Of course~” Isabella nodded decisively.

The reason she was so obviously lying was because if something happened on a group trip, she would be held responsible.

She needs to have someone from the production crew keep an eye on her.

It was certainly a good thing that Columbus understood her intentions.

Just as she was smiling and thanking the director, preparing to leave, Columbus called out to her, "Wait a minute. Although this is the first time you've all taken leave together in the crew, it's also the last time. I won't approve any more leave after this."

"Oh, I understand."

"You do not understand."

The straightforward answer made Columbus shake his head.

"You're thinking about security? That's true. But besides security, we'll soon face another new problem: Warner Bros. is preparing to release movie posters before Christmas."

"At that time, the main poster for the HP movie and your individual promotional photos will be shown to the public."

"So, from that point on, you can't appear together in public, at least not until you get Warner's permission, because group outings can easily cause disturbances..."

All movies rely on marketing and distribution.

Or rather, for any film that aims to achieve success, its marketing and distribution efforts are often more complex than the production process itself.

Therefore, when Warner Bros. wanted to develop Harry Potter into a legendary IP like SW, they couldn't wait until all the movies were finished before doing any promotion and distribution. They had to keep releasing information during the production period. They wanted to keep Harry Potter constantly in the public eye, keeping fans excited and attracting more casual viewers to learn about Harry Potter. This way, they could maximize their profits when the movies were released.

With projects being disclosed indefinitely, how can actors possibly remain unaffected?
Actors cannot remain unaffected, so...

This is HP!
"Oh~ is this true?"

Isabella's eyes lit up.

Isabella wasn't too concerned about whether or not they could travel together as a group.

Right now, what she looks forward to most is actually becoming famous.

You're already in the industry, and you still say you don't want to be famous?
Isn't that just deceiving yourself?

Isabella wouldn't be one to act with the detached indifference of a chrysanthemum. That's why, when facing her sister, she bluntly stated that winning over Hermione would solve the family's predicament; when facing Rowling, she openly expressed that Hermione could change her destiny; and now, facing director Columbus, she can also unabashedly reveal her joy...

"Of course~"

Columbus nodded with a sigh.

He already knew why Rowling chose Isabella, so he wasn't surprised.

"Warner Bros. said the poster would be released before Christmas, but it should actually be released in early December."

"However, I can't determine the exact time because this matter is not under my jurisdiction."

"And then... I only told you..."

"Oh, I see. I get it."

Isabella gave an OK sign.

"Once the news leaks, everyone will be incredibly excited, right? You'll be driven crazy with anticipation then, because who can guarantee that someone won't be asking you every day—Director, why hasn't the poster been released yet?"

As Isabella said this, she even felt as if a bunch of kittens had appeared in front of her. The guys in the group were like the three little ones in "Puss in Boots," lying on the table staring at Columbus with their big, sparkling eyes.

"Hahaha~"

Columbus gave Isabella a thumbs up.

'You guessed right.'

Isabella then made a zipping gesture near her mouth.

'I'm very tight-lipped.'

Isabella was very tight-lipped. She smiled and said goodbye to the director, went back to the dressing room to change out of her costume, and after meeting everyone again, she immediately... told everyone that the director had treated them to dinner.

Hmm, I'll keep your secret and you'll treat me to a meal. That's so beaver-like, isn't it?
If you don't take real action to shut me up, what if it starts talking nonsense?

Okay, just kidding.

The main problem was that she couldn't easily say that the reason the crew sent the car was because the director wanted to track everyone's whereabouts, so she could only fool everyone by saying that the director was treating them to a meal. Of course, she still paid for it herself.

However, when she mentioned that the director was treating, a chorus of admiration immediately filled the air. Surrounded by everyone, Isabella smugly slipped into the small-town cinema next to the film set, bought a ticket, entered, and then…

She felt like she was possessed by the old man on the subway.

Isabella hadn't seen the movie "Dinosaur" in her previous life, so she didn't know if it was good or bad. But after she sat down in the theater, she found that the movie didn't seem very good.
The movie "Dinosaur" tells the story of Alada, a baby Iguanodon who is separated from his tribe due to an accident and raised by a group of lemurs who found his eggs. The beginning of the film is quite heartwarming, until one day, a meteorite hits the earth and destroys their habitat. In order to survive, Alada and his companions embark on an extremely difficult migration journey.

Judging from the story, this is a road movie, but in reality, it should be considered a stunt movie.

Since there are no living dinosaurs in reality, creating a road movie from a dinosaur's perspective would require extremely high-level special effects technology. And in this day and age, isn't using special effects just showing off skills? And then…

The visual effects in the movie "Dinosaur" were rather average.

"This movie has been the box office champion for the past few weeks? That's incredible."

We entered the movie theater at 4:30.

The movie was less than ninety minutes long, so it wasn't even six o'clock when we came out.

It was already lunchtime, and going home for dinner would probably mean dawdling until 8 PM, so Isabella treated everyone to a meal at a restaurant near the cinema. During the meal, Rupert directly voiced his doubts—

"I didn't think the movie 'Dinosaur' was very good, so where did its box office revenue come from?"

"I also think this movie is no good."

Daniel said, "The story is so boring, and the special effects aren't very good either. It's just... so-so..."

"Isabella, how do you feel?" Bonnie asked Isabella.

"Um... I think Toy Story 2 might be more suitable for me."

As soon as Bonnie opened her mouth, everyone's eyes turned to her.

Isabella's roundabout response won everyone's approval.

"Yes! I also think Toy Story 2 is better!"

"Oh, watching this movie is such a waste of time!"

"But it's better than going to class."

"Huh? What kind of comparison is this?!" They came full of enthusiasm, only to leave disappointed.

The poor quality of "Dinosaur" left everyone feeling listless when it was time to say goodbye.

Isabella, in particular, didn't get home with her mom until 8 pm today because she hadn't practiced her piano, read her books, or gone online before going to bed. This made her want to sing "Where Has the Time Gone?"

Catherine was also intrigued by her sister's depression.

Ever since Isabella joined the film crew, whenever she and her mother don't come home for dinner, the little girl does her homework in the living room.

Let's consider it waiting for someone.

When Catherine learned that her sister had become like this because the movie was bad, she was quite surprised.

"You guys watched 'Dinosaurs' today?"

“Yeah? What’s wrong?” Vivian asked.

"Oh, I was thinking of inviting you guys to see this movie too, but my classmates all said it was a scam, so I gave up. But I never expected... you guys would watch it with the crew..."

'Um? '

Isabella looked up at her older sister's words.

Why is this movie considered a scam?

"Because the advertisement doesn't match the actual product?" Catherine tilted her head and thought for a moment.

Then he shook his head—

"I don't know the specifics, because I haven't talked about these things much with my classmates, but they said..."

"Is this some kind of war between Disney and Pixar?"

Isabella's curiosity was piqued by her sister's words.

After a brief chat, I promptly returned to my room, logged onto Yahoo, and browsed the news.

Immediately afterwards, negative comments related to "Dinosaur" flooded her screens.

This includes dissatisfaction with the film's quality, resentment towards the media's hype, and, interspersed among these, a revelation from the Daily Mail that Disney bought the box office revenue for "Dinosaur".

As for the reason?

That story begins when Pangu separated heaven and earth:
After the success of Star Wars, George Lucas became fascinated with special effects. Recognizing the booming computer industry at the time and understanding the potential of computers, Lucas led Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) into the digital visual effects field in 79, establishing a new company called Graphics. This company had only one mission: to start with animation and research CGI technology.

Then, Star Wars sequels, Indiana Jones, and Sherlock Holmes all benefited from the era's dividends.

The technological success greatly excited Lucas. At the same time, the development of CGI also interested Disney. The former wanted to officially produce pure computer animation, while the latter wanted to get involved to preserve the name of the fairy tale kingdom.

After communication, the cooperation was reached.

But no one expected that at the same time, Lucas's marriage would suddenly take a turn for the worse.

His wife is getting a divorce from him.

The divorce proceedings drained Lucas of all his cash reserves. Coincidentally, Industrial Light & Magic and Lucasfilm were at a critical stage of development and needed a lot of money. In order to save his core business, Lucas had no choice but to sell the animation company.

Then, the new owner, Steve Jobs, renamed the graphics company Pixar.

Because the equity transaction would not affect the original cooperation, Pixar was able to continue making animations after Jobs took over.

Then, the first fully computer-animated film in history, "The Little Rescuers' Australian Adventure," was released in theaters in 90 and grossed a total of $2793 million.

Yes, "The Rescuers" was the first collaboration between Disney and Pixar, and Disney paid for the entire production, totaling 30 million... Mickey Mouse lost a fortune.

After that incident, Disney felt computer animation was unreliable, so they stuck to hand-drawn animation, resulting in "The Lion King," which was suspected of plagiarism. Meanwhile, Jobs also suffered a major setback in the computer field, and reluctantly had Pixar continue making animation, producing "Toy Story," and then…

Both sides are idiots.

Disney couldn't believe that CGI was the future, and Jobs couldn't believe that his first billion dollars came from animation. After realizing this, Jobs returned to Apple, still wanting to sell computers, while Disney decisively embraced CGI.

They wanted to create their own computer animations.

Well, although Disney and Pixar have a long-term cooperation agreement, Pixar is not their own company after all, and Disney started out with animation, so it is impossible for others to master the core technology of animation production. Therefore, Disney formed a secret development team overnight, and the project they developed was "Dinosaur".

This was a crucial step for Disney in its attempt to break free from Pixar's control over computer animation. Production alone cost a staggering $1.25 million. Because of the immense effort invested, marketing and promotion were even more aggressive, burning through $1 million and buying countless advertisements. But unexpectedly…

Most people who saw it didn't buy it.

Judging from the current reputation, let alone breaking even, it will be difficult to even keep the losses within 1 million.

Furthermore, Disney's actions greatly angered Jobs.

Although he returned to Apple and didn't have time to manage Pixar, Pixar is still his personal property!
If Disney's "Dinosaur" becomes a success, his wealth will shrink!
Can he bear this?

Therefore, as soon as "Dinosaur" was released, Jobs launched a scathing attack on Disney.

Yes, the big news about the conflict between Disney and Pixar was released by Steve Jobs himself.

Isabella's eyes lit up at the sight of the lengthy, thousand-word essay.

In her past life, she did know that Disney and Pixar had a conflict. Disney wanted to acquire IPs such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo", but Pixar disagreed, and then a dispute broke out.

But she didn't know that the two sides had already faced off at the beginning of the millennium!

This melon smells amazing!

But after her initial reflection, she sighed again.

She truly never imagined that, having lived two lives, she could still be scammed. This was truly...

"I admit defeat!"

She shook her head, noticing it was already nine o'clock, and decided to take a shower and rest.

Warm water flowed down from the sky, and Isabella remembered something else.

Publicity and marketing can be done by throwing money at it; for international giants, it's easier than eating or drinking.

However, one must be strong to succeed.

What if the publicity is huge, but the work itself is subpar?

That would definitely backfire badly.

After all, no one would willingly watch a murder mystery game or a weight loss story in a movie theater.

Therefore, when she is the biggest variable in Harry Potter...

Why is Isha so serious today?

"I do not know!"

The next day.

Upon arriving at the film set, her colleagues noticed that the boss was acting a little differently today.

"Was she disgusted by 'Dinosaurs'?"

"Who knows?"

"Then let's go ask?"

"Whoever dares to go can go, but I certainly don't. Don't forget, we were the ones who invited her to the movies yesterday."

Everyone fell silent.

Waiting for filming to begin...

"Cut."

"No good."

Before the scene was even finished, Columbus's head popped up from behind the monitor.

"Isha—you used too much force—"

Uh, starting last night, Isabella has been reminding herself to focus.

In her past life, HP was incredibly powerful; in this life, she can't let HP fall into her hands.

"Okay, I'll adjust it."

Isabella waved.

She was truly sorry, but she dared not tell Columbus, "Brother, you still need to practice more."

After a short break, let's try again...

"Okay, that's much better, but we still have to go through another route."

Isabella breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, she was also full of energy.

Lost in work, oblivious to the passing days, four weeks have quietly slipped by...

Well, I wouldn't say I'm really addicted.

On November 23, Isabella and her older sister celebrated their mother's 35th birthday together.

Isabella paid for it, and Catherine sneaked away to buy their mother a Prada calfskin handbag from the current season.

Vivian was happy to receive the gift, but the fact that she had acted recklessly again resulted in both of them getting a beating.

Vivian smacked their hands with a spoon.

As for how it feels...

It doesn't hurt.
Then, a few days later, Isabella started paying attention to the time again, because Warner Bros. released the exact news that the movie poster would be released soon, at 10 a.m. London time on December 1st.

When this fact came to light, wow—

Everyone who hadn't seen the poster was excited.

With the arrival of Number One—

"Isha~ Come and see!"

"You're so beautiful~"

At noon, as soon as filming wrapped, everyone rushed into the director's office without even wanting to eat.

Isabella also dashed into the crowd at Bonnie's call.

Its head is stretched forward, and its neck is stretched out like a giraffe's.

With a quick scan, she found herself among a pile of posters—

Oh~
I'm so beautiful!
　Notes: ① *The Rescuers* was Dee and Pixnet's first collaboration, but Pixnet's name wasn't on it. This is because Pixnet took on projects as outsourcing at the time; Dee provided the funding, creative ideas, direction, and art team, while Pixnet only handled computer animation and wasn't considered worthy of the name. ② Pixnet was Steve Jobs's private property. Before *Toy Story*, Jobs had already fully privatized the company. Even after the IPO and dilution of equity, he still owned 49.6% of the shares. ③ After the failure of *The Rescuers*, Pixnet continued to make animation, which was related to Jobs but not significantly. The key factor was that Dee renewed Pixnet's distribution contract for three films for $2600 million. In simpler terms, Dee wanted Pixnet to continue making animation, but he wouldn't provide all the funding; instead, they would partner up. Dee's decision to pursue this while abandoning computer animation was related to Pixnet's patent swap agreement with SGI. SGI was a company specializing in graphics processing units; all of Hollywood's special effects were done using their machines. Because of the patent swap agreement, Pixnet didn't have to pay patent fees when making the film. Detroit and Pixnet signed a contract to use it as part of Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) portfolio. As for why Pixnet had the swap agreement with SGI, that's Lucas's problem. Lucas invested in SGI specifically for special effects; to put it another way, he invested in Nvidia specifically for Star Wars. ④ After Toy Story became a hit, both Detroit and Pixnet were in a bind. Because of their partnership agreement—Detroit owning 50% of the Toy Story copyright—Detroit was determined to acquire Pixnet; otherwise, neither company could use the IP.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)