In fact, it is not uncommon for audiences to be stunned by movies at film festivals, and when Kim Ki-duk's "Drifting Room" was screened in Venice in 2000, some viewers even fainted because they couldn't bear the cruel images; During the screening of "Irrevocable" at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, more than 20 audience members fainted on the spot, and some of them needed to be hospitalized.

However, the newsworthiness of the general audience who was hospitalized in fear is definitely different from that of the chairman of the jury, the two-time Oscar winner, who was hospitalized.

It is news that the average viewer was scared into hospitalization, and John Paulman was scared into hospitalization by "Invasion of Darkness" is undoubtedly big news.

All the media were in an uproar!

Of course, most of the media looked at this in a mocking manner, found it interesting and did not take it too seriously, only the Italian media was very angry about it.

In fact, since the opening of the film festival, the Italian media's criticism of Mark Müller has not stopped, mainly because Italian films are not favored by the film festival, and there is only one film shortlisted.

Now the Italian media has undoubtedly found a better reason to publish opinion pieces pointing the finger at Marc Mill and Invasion of Darkness.

"I don't know why Mark Mueller chose a horror film in the main competition, the Venice Film Festival is the temple of art films, why choose a purely commercial film? Marc Müller reneged on the tradition of Venice for sixty-one years. ”

"Movies are supposed to entertain the public, but today an elderly man was admitted to the hospital. What the hell is going on, who is to blame for this, and why choose a horror film? ”

"Shame, it's a shame for the Venice Film Festival. This year's festival is a joke, and from the day it opens, there are constant problems. This is the most chaotic film festival, and it's all Mark Mueller's fault! ”

In the face of overwhelming criticism, Mark Mill was under great pressure and had to stand up and say: "My job is to get more films to participate in this festival, and the quality of the films is left to the audience, I believe that this festival is an unforgettable film festival for fans." ”

And the judges all stood up for Mark Mueller, Scarlett Johansson said in an interview: "I don't understand why people criticize Mr. Mark Mueller, I think he made the right choice, "Invasion of Darkness" is a really good movie, the best film I have seen in the competition, I love this movie!" ”

Helen Mirren said: "I think everyone can watch this movie, especially the boys and girls who don't take people's surnames seriously, and there are some lessons to be learned from it!" ”

Even John Paulman stepped forward to defend himself: "It's not Mark Mueller's fault, "Invasion of Darkness" is a pretty good movie, violence, monsters, plasma, darkness, caves, carnage, every detail is rigorous, it's my body's condition, it has nothing to do with the movie!" ”

On the Internet, those viewers who have watched the movie in the cinema have left messages to express their support: "When the movie is released, I will go to see it again, I found that I fell in love with Zhu Zhu, although I am also a girl, she is really handsome!" ”

"My first reaction after watching the movie was, God, it's terrifying, kill me, and I won't go to the cave to explore. Not only that, but I also saw the horror of people's surnames, and this movie will definitely become a classic! ”

"I love this movie, especially the finale, it's just amazing, it's the best horror movie I've ever seen this year!"

It is said that curiosity can kill an elephant, and young people are undoubtedly the most curious group, and now their curiosity has been hooked, and they all want to see if this movie is really that scary.

As a result, many young people who had not watched "Invasion of Darkness" came to the movie palace in groups, holding up signs and asking for additional screenings.

The organizing committee of the film festival was dumbfounded, the Venice Film Festival has been held for sixty-one years, and there are really only a handful of emotions from so many audiences who demand a re-screening of a film.

In this world where the internet is very developed, this sensational news spreads quickly. In a short period of time, many horror movie lovers around the world knew that there was a horror film called "Invasion of Darkness", which scared two-time Oscar winner John Paulman into hospitalization.

For many horror movie fans, there is no better publicity, everyone is looking forward to this movie, want to get a glimpse, and there are more and more discussions about this movie on the Internet.

Of course, there were also various rumors, someone in a certain theater in Italy was scared to death, judge Scarlett Johansson was so scared that she peed her pants, etc.

Driven by the media and the Internet, the craze triggered by "Invasion of Darkness" spread to the world, centered in Venice.

This time "Invasion of Darkness" is really popular!

After the release of "Dark Invasion", it was already very popular with film companies, but now it has become the object of everyone's crazy robbery, and countless film companies came to the door and asked to buy the copyright of the film, which almost broke Cheng Peng's threshold.

Because there are too many film companies, Cheng Peng can only be divided into two groups to talk with the film companies, he is responsible for negotiating European and American copyrights with blockbuster dealers, and handing over the copyrights in other regions to Zhang Meng and Zhao Linlin.

The filmmaker is eager to win "Dark Invasion" immediately, but Cheng Peng is not in a hurry at all, now "Dark Invasion" is full of gimmicks and has not been released first, as long as you seize this point for viral marketing, it is definitely profitable and loss-free, and at this time, you must raise the price hard.

After a circle of film dealers negotiated, Miramax's boss, the Weinstein brothers, offered the highest price, $9 million to buy out the rights in Europe and North America.

However, Cheng Peng does not trust the Weinstein brothers, they have a lot of Chinese filmmakers, and they often offer a very high price, such as $5 million to buy the overseas rights of the film, and when others see that he has bought it, they will naturally disperse. But Weinstein only paid a small deposit to the filmmaker, and after a while he said that he didn't want the film anymore and paid the deposit to the filmmaker. At this time, the film has missed the best time to sell the film, and he offered 1 million, whether you want to sell it or not, the filmmaker has no choice but to sell it to them cheaply.

Cheng Peng didn't want this to happen to him, he didn't want to be guarded, he didn't want a deposit, and asked the Weinstein brothers to pay it all at once.

The Weinstein brothers were in pain, and they shouted in their hearts that they were wronged, they really wanted to buy "Invasion of Darkness", they didn't think about playing tricks at all, "Invasion of Darkness" is so popular that if they return it, a lot of filmmakers are waiting to take over, they are not so stupid, but Cheng Peng's conditions have been opened, although they are dissatisfied, but for the sake of money, they can only pinch their noses and admit it.

Without delay, the Weinstein brothers quickly transferred the money to the designated account and won the rights to Dark Invasion in North America and Europe for $9 million.

At the same time, North America and outside Europe are also selling, especially in East Asia, which is selling quite well.

Yueben is already rich in horror films, and there are many horror movie lovers, plus the starring Zhang Ziyi's previous movies in Yueben have been very good at the box office and are relatively famous, so the bidder's bid reached 1.6 million.

South Korea sold 600,000, Malaysia 400,000, Thailand 300,000, etc., and the rights of the whole of Asia sold 3.5 million.

In the end, the overseas rights of "Dark Invasion" were sold for a total of $12.5 million.

12.5 million US dollars, which is converted into 100 million Chengren yuan, and the cost of the film is only 20 million, that is, 80 million overseas rights alone.

This price is not the highest overseas copyright sales of domestic films, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" sold for $17 million in North America and Europe alone, and his "Ambush on All Sides" is almost the same price, but the cost of "Hero" is as high as $30 million, and the cost of "Ambush on All Sides" is even more than $36 million, while the cost of "Dark Invasion" is only $2.5 million, and the return on investment is better than "Dark Invasion" The two blockbusters were complete.

However, Cheng Peng still has some regrets, with the popularity of "Dark Invasion" on the Internet, the overseas box office must be very good, and it is a bit of a loss to sell the copyright by buying out.

In fact, not only Cheng Peng is facing this problem, but almost all Chinese filmmakers are facing this problem. Take "Hero" as an example, the film's overseas box office has accumulated more than 1.1 billion yuan, which is almost five times its total domestic box office, and even more than the total domestic box office in China for the whole year. However, since the copyright is a buyout, most of these astronomical high box office profits fall into the pockets of overseas distributors, and all the new picture can get is the income from the one-time sale of the copyright.

It is undoubtedly a loss to sell the copyright of the new picture, but their next two blockbusters "Ambush on All Sides" and "The City Full of Golden Armor" are still directly selling copyrights. Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou are not fools, and if there were a better choice, they would definitely not do it.

In fact, the reason is very simple, it is too difficult to divide the work, and foreign language films are generally released slowly abroad, especially in North America, basically it takes a year later, "Hero" even waited for nearly two years to be released, and it took even longer to add the time of box office settlement, and people like Cheng Peng who are waiting for money to make the next movie, sharing means that the new movie will not be able to start for a long time.

Another reason, if the method of sharing is adopted, it means that the copy cost and publicity cost of the film have to be paid by the producer, that is to say, Cheng Peng. There is a very big loophole here, Cheng Peng has no way to monitor the promotion and distribution of the movie, and the cost of publicity and distribution is completely up to them, and the final result may be that the box office is good, and Cheng Peng can't get a penny.

There are many such examples, Feng Xiaogang's "Big Shot", the overseas income is 2 million US dollars, and it stands to reason that Huayi can share a lot of money, but the actual result is that Colombia reports the accounts, and the travel expenses and publicity expenses are very high, and in the end, the issuance fee is 2.3 million US dollars, and Huayi has not made a penny, and this result is better than a direct buyout of 50,000 US dollars.

In this case, everyone has no choice but to choose to sell the copyright directly. To change this, unless there is a Chinese company in North America that regulates the publicity, of course, it is undoubtedly better to be able to issue it directly.

Soon, the Venice Film Festival ended, the British film "Vera Drake" won the Golden Lion, the Spanish film "Deep Sea Sleep" won the Grand Jury Prize, and Kim Ki-duk won the Best Director Award for "The Empty Room".

"Invasion of Darkness" didn't win any awards, but no other film can compare to the sensation it caused, and the level of media attention.

For Cheng Peng, the trip to Venice was a successful end, with $12.5 million in hand, and many plans could be rolled out. But instead of rushing home, he boarded a plane to Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

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