The Queen's Rumored Father

Chapter 1263 Bingbing's Spring

If you were to ask Li Bingbing what the luckiest and most important decision of her life was,

She used to say that she chose the path of acting because this decision changed her life.

But now, she would say that in the second year after Xu Yuan landed in Hollywood, she accepted an invitation from Xu Yuan's "First Love 50" crew to play a minor supporting role.

Admittedly, at that time, Li Bingbing could only play roles of that caliber in Hollywood. However, Xu Yuan was a Chinese, and Li Bingbing's status was no lower than Xu Yuan's, yet she had to do odd jobs for Xu Yuan's films.

Many people believe that this is Li Bingbing promoting Xu Yuan.

But Li Bingbing, who understood her situation at the time, knew that Xu Yuan was helping her out.

After that, Li Bingbing's career in Hollywood went much more smoothly.

On the one hand, she did have a brilliant performance in the movie, and many Hollywood directors and producers began to take her seriously as a Chinese superstar, instead of just using her as a front to make money from Chinese culture.

On the other hand, it's also because Li Bingbing is Xu's good friend. And Xu, in Hollywood, rose to prominence at a speed that no one expected, even becoming capable of competing with Hollywood giants.

If it weren't for that role, and if she hadn't become friends with Xu Yuan, Li Bingbing would have returned to China from Hollywood long ago, and there wouldn't have been "The Meg" a few years ago.

How could we have the "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" we know today?

Yes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith became the highest-grossing film in Hollywood this year!

The Christmas season is such a golden period.

However, Mr. & Mrs. Smith had very few competitors, with almost no strong rivals.

The November release window wasn't particularly good, but a host of Hollywood blockbusters were snapped up.

This is human nature.

Of course, those other films weren't stupid either; they tried to release two or three weeks before "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was released. On the one hand, this prevented them from directly competing with "Mr. & Mrs. Smith".

The first two weeks after a film's release account for 80% of its box office revenue, which is sufficient.

But if "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" doesn't perform that well, then these movies will receive a "gift" from Xu Yuan, and incidentally swallow up the Christmas season.

This was a perfect plan, so the slots in mid-December were snapped up incredibly fast.

But after "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was released, everyone knew that their little scheme had been in vain.

Xu Yuan would never give anyone a chance.

He's a god when it comes to film.

This commercial film, which combines comedy, action, romance and other elements, sparked a viewing frenzy across North America upon its release.

Although the rating wasn't as good as Xu Yuan's other two films this year, it wasn't low either, at least it's something that other commercial films rarely achieve.

North America's opening day box office reached 1.693 million US dollars, significantly breaking the North America's single-day box office record.

The film grossed 3.4 million US dollars in its opening weekend, shocking the world!

After twelve days in theaters, the total box office has exceeded 7 million, causing a global sensation!

This is the strongest result ever achieved.

The key point is that it's not a big-budget production, and it doesn't have many exaggerated special effects or big-name stars.

Xu Yuan and Li Bingbing, the two of them carried a film that became the highest-grossing film of the year.

What a terrifying appeal this is!

Admittedly, this drama has many flaws compared to Xu Yuan's other works; it's not as refined or realistic as some others. But ironically, this slightly exaggerated style is completely acceptable to North American audiences.

After being "tortured" by Xu Yuan's two consecutive highly-rated suspense films, North American audiences said they needed some popcorn to regain their confidence and have a good laugh.

Xu Yuan distributed the bucket of popcorn to everyone, and no other popcorn manufacturers came to compete for the market during that time.

This time it was a victory for Xu Yuan, but wasn't it also a blessing from North American competitors?

"Xu is so handsome in it, as handsome as ever."

"Honestly, I've always felt that Mrs. Hsu is wasting her life. She's incredibly handsome, but look at what she's done. In 'Forrest Gump,' she played a fool, and although she acted so well, it still broke my heart."

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with his special effects old age makeup, I almost thought my youth was about to end, it was so painful."

"In order to fit the character image in '50 First Dates,' he dressed himself up as an ugly character, and his personality was also more like a scumbag. Although he was better looking than in the other two movies, he still had to lower his appearance level, otherwise it would not be easy to achieve a funny effect."

"While The Grandmaster is certainly cool, it's too Eastern. I prefer the more flamboyant kind of cool."

"Yes, only in 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' is Xu completely able to deliver a performance without needing to hide his good looks. I love this movie so much! Xu's appearance alone is enough to make me go to the cinema to watch it again and again, no, no, no, I don't want to stop!"

"Li Bingbing is really too beautiful. When she was assassinating her target all by herself, I admit I had a reaction."

"It's hard for other women to maintain such a good figure at this age. To be honest, I'm so envious of Xu. I bet something must have happened between him and Bingbing."

"Stop speculating, but Li Bingbing's performance this time was truly excellent. For a long time, Chinese actresses have had a certain cool and sassy vibe, which was brought by Michelle Yeoh, but Li Bingbing can be said to have brought that vibe to its peak."

boiling!

The North American film industry is absolutely thrilled because of this movie.

Li Bingbing has gone from being a second or third-tier Hollywood actress to a top-tier star.

Her international influence has caught up with Zhang Ziyi, one of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses in China).

Moreover, she has already surpassed them in terms of box office performance.

Two weeks later, Li Bingbing even surpassed Zhang Ziyi in terms of influence.

Because this year's Oscar nominations have been announced.

If last year was an Oscar compromise for Xu Yuan, awarding his films many incredible prizes and propelling him to legendary status...

So this year, the Oscars were swayed by the market and global public opinion, and had no choice but to give Xu Yuan a lot of nominations.

Because this year in Hollywood, almost all the hit movies, critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are from Xu Yuan.

Among the nominees for Best Newcomer is Chae Cho-yeon from the drama "Andhadhun".

Although she is not young and belongs to the middle-aged actress, it has to be said that this is really her Hollywood debut.

Similarly, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her outstanding performance.

For Best Supporting Actress, Chae Tak-yeon and Song Hye-kyo were both nominated, and Yang Mi also received a nomination for her outstanding performance in "The Invisible Guest".

In the Best Supporting Actor category, Zhang Hanyu was also nominated for his role in "The Invisible Guest".

(End of this chapter)