Shen Zhenghui certainly knows how fast film technology is evolving. 2009's "Avatar" lit up both 3D and IMAX technology points, many people after watching the ordinary 3D version, but also went to the IMAX theater to see the effect of IMAX, it can be said that "Avatar" is really rediscovered the movie. But standing at this awkward point in time for Shen Zhenghui, he can't and is unwilling to use new technology to pursue better results, at most trying to consider the effect of 3D in the follow-up production or consider converting to 3D.

It has to be said that the application of new technologies takes time, and the general application of new technologies still needs a process. Of course, a prominent figure can dramatically shorten this process, such as James. Cameron. Even if Shen Zhenghui is a time-traveler, he will not be arrogant and think that he can replace Cameron to complete this job.

However, judging from the midnight premiere he participated in, the level of "Apprentice Magic" seems to be within everyone's expectations. The next thing to do is probably just wait.

Towards the end of the film, there is a small **, Enleko, with the help of Hegeelo, thwarts Drekes's attempt to absorb the magical power under the seal, and when Hegeelo looks at Miss Fenathia played by Enleko with affection, there is an irrepressible laughter throughout the cinema, not only male audiences, but also female audiences who seem to be more overwhelming. Shen Zhenghui even suspects that the shot he shot will become a classic shot that the rotten girls are watching, and even one of the most classic shots of the pseudo-mother, probably no movie can promote the BL complex they love so fruitfully, although one party knows nothing about the gender of the other party.

A light-hearted ending ensued, as the mission completed its intended mission and signed a peace treaty with Kaoqi, not by selling their own country's princesses or other humiliating methods. But in reality the problems were even more severe, and they sent their best young men to the Empire, where King Hoccols III of Kaoqi unceremoniously entrusted him with the task of trying to win them over. It is foreseeable, and at the same time can be proved in the novel, in the second part. The story will develop with more twists and turns and the conflict will be more intense.

"Thomas's son plays well," Mitsumi Fukuda said near the end of the film, "and it really looks like he plays an ambitious young king." ”

"Indeed," Shen Zhenghui nodded, "If young people are modest, they still have an advantage when performing this kind of theme film." ”

"They know the story better?"

"It's better to say that the setting of the characters themselves is closer to their nature."

"Aha, I know, young man!" Mitsumi Fukuda responded, asking with interest. "So what do you think of his directing skills? Although Thomas Sr. said that the failure of his youth would be a valuable asset for him. ”

"I think he is still qualified in terms of professional skills, and his shortcomings are that his education limits his horizons." Shen Zhenghui replied, "But since he has such an experience in China this time, I personally think it is a good experience for him, at least it has made him understand his weaknesses." ”

"Oh, have you started mentoring young Hollywood directors? Are you ready to turn around for him? ”

"I've always been—" Shen Zhenghui pouted, "I'm a good teacher." But his own fate is in his own hands. ”

"Interested in guessing tonight's box office?" Mitsumi Fukuda asked, "If you can't sleep." Forget it. ”

"yes, it's hard to fall asleep tonight, I'm ready to read the scripts of the next three parts." Shen Zhenghui tilted his head, "It's really strange, I've made so many movies before, but I've never been as worried about this movie as I am." He took a deep breath. Is it because of $200 million? ”

"Maybe." Mitsumi Fukuda stood up, and by this time the movie was over, and many fans were still discussing the plot with great interest, "Are you going to a reception later?" ”

"Forget it," Shen Zhenghui shook his head. "They can probably understand the director's uneasiness. But if you want to go......"

"It's better to leave the work of perfunctory reporters and media people to Sony, so that we will not waste the publicity expenses we have paid." Mitsumi Fukuda replied.

The two men stood up and began to leave the cinema to prepare to return to the hotel. The bodyguards and cars outside have been waiting for a long time.

Shen Zhenghui said, "I suddenly thought, why did we come to the United States to participate in this propaganda campaign if we are like this? They use Hollywood actors for promotion, don't they? ”

"As a director, you also have a coffee position." Mitsumi Fukuda replied, "Of course, your main job is not tonight, and as soon as the box office comes out tomorrow morning, you will have to think carefully about how to face the inquiries of reporters." ”

"I really don't know what to say."

"Didn't you read the materials that the PR sent you?" Mitsumi Fukuda responded, "In response to various situations, they have worked out how you should answer so that you don't have an undignified answer. ”

"If you're talking about that thing, I've seen it, but I really didn't put it in my head." Shen Zhenghui replied.

Of course, it's not just the people on the Kasuga side who are worried and concerned about the box office, Sony and Columbia are also very concerned about this, and of course, whether the people these two companies pay attention to have their own careful thoughts is another matter.

Thomas, like Shen Zhenghui, couldn't sleep at night. This is definitely not because his son played an important role in the first part, and even had important scenes in the later episodes. Because of the scarcity of faces in the western part of China, the crew has the task of making cameos, that is, Thomas himself also made a cameo appearance in the movie, and hung up within ten seconds of appearance, of course, he also stood by the king's side and acted as a vase nobleman, maybe he will have the opportunity to appear when the Sophie Kingdom hangs the betrayed nobles at the end. But these are not the reasons why he is as anxious as Shen Zhenghui.

He first looked at some of the audience surveys that came back, and the question that Columbia and Sony were most concerned about, whether the Asian (yellow) protagonist would cause the audience to resist and resent the worry, judging from the little questionnaire that has been fed back so far, it seems that it is not a hot topic of attention at all. Opposite. Audiences, especially female audiences, almost all expressed jealousy and satisfaction at the hero's appearance, even though there were several close-ups of yellow characters, their angular faces in line with Western aesthetics kept the girls screaming - some viewers said that it was so happy to have a variety of handsome guys with different flavors to watch.

Most of the audience is a reader of the novel. So they knew about the movie itself before they walked into the cinema, and they said that the movie did not disappoint them, on the contrary, they had a pretty good evaluation of the movie, whether it was the story adaptation that was faithful to the original book, or the choice of characters, scenes and scenes, which made them feel excited. This also worries Thomas, even though the midnight show is a high box office. He will not continue to be optimistic, because the people who are attracted to the midnight show are lovers of novels, and the good box office results in front of him are likely to be some kind of overdraft of fans, even if fans have a high evaluation of the movie, but whether the movie can attract people who have not read the novel to enter the cinema, Thomas is really not optimistic.

Thomas had to admit that he had some gains and losses, and now he was afraid that he only had the number of jù in the first week. No, maybe the number jù in the first week is not enough. It also takes the first four weeks to come out for Thomas to breathe a sigh of relief, or to exacerbate some kind of tension.

Of the three companies, Sony is responsible for the distribution, and the pressure itself should be minimal, but because this is a series of films. The beginning of the first part involves problems related to the sequels later, so Sony, which did not directly invest in the filming, also paid attention to the box office situation of the movie. Gordon also spent sleepless nights, anxiously waiting for the final number jù to arrive, constantly looking through the number jù that had already come out, and also thinking about what attitude he should take towards the follow-up films. Of course. Not only do he think about Kasuga and Columbia, but he also thinks about the attitudes of other studios.

In fact, several other film companies are also concerned about the success or failure of "Magic Apprentice", with Warner being the most concerned, and they also want to see whether Sony's so-called replication of Warner's path is successful, if "Magic Apprentice" is successful at the box office, it means that Sony has found another new channel for the source of the theme, even if this new channel is completely controlled by Kasuga and Shen Zhenghui, a Chinese director in Asia.

Finally waited for the day to light again, and the preliminary number based on the box office statistics was delivered to the desks of customers who had been waiting all night, and when Thomas saw this number, he felt a little relieved in his heart, but at the same time, he was a little nervous, and began to worry about the box office during the day today.

"The box office of the midnight show is about 17 million?" Thomas thought: Although it lost to "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", this result can be regarded as okay, at least better than "Star Wars 3". But it occurred to him that it would be nice to hope that the results on the first day could surpass the level of "Star Wars 3".

This idea of his was apparently passed on to Gordon, and it was at this moment that his phone rang.

"Thomas, did you see the number jù?" Gordon shouted on the other end of the phone.

"Of course, it's not a bad result, what do you think?"

"I feel half relieved to see the audience say good things during the survey," Gordon replied, "but if it's really easy, at least wait until the first week's number jù comes out, no, that's not good, at least the first two weeks' count jù comes out before I can feel a little more at ease." ”

"Don't forget that we still have a big box office in Asia," Thomas comforted him, as if comforting himself, "Japan will definitely be able to harvest 100 million US dollars at the box office, plus Europe and China, I think it will not be a problem to be on par with the mainland, so it seems that we only need to win 400 million at the box office, and it can be said that we have earned." ”

"But do you think that if you want to continue to promote the production of films, is 400 million box office enough?" Gordon asked, "Thomas, you know, 17 million is a good result, but we are facing the first part, like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", they are definitely in a relaxed mood when the second part is released than when the first part is released, and I really can't find this feeling at the moment, as if no kind of number can make me relax, my mood is so nervous, I don't know why." ”

"Maybe it's because if the follow-up plot is not filmed, your daughter won't be able to find a chance to appear." Thomas tried to make a joke on the phone to make Gordon a little more relaxed, but also to make himself a little more relaxed. "I'm much better." He didn't believe it himself.

Gordon laughed dryly twice, "To be honest, Thomas, your son's appearance is good, I also went to the cinema to watch a movie, it's really not bad." ”

"Thank you." Thomas felt like he didn't know what to say. He paused, "Did you tell Kasuga the news to Miss Fukuda?" ”

"Not yet," replied Gordon, "it's a little too early, and although I have her personal and hotel numbers, ......," he hesitated, "and that doesn't seem to say anything, and I can't say anything definitely." ”

"It's enough for you to simply tell them the news and look forward to the subsequent box office." Thomas replied. "There is still a long time to make specific decisions, you know, now for the entire crew, it is all out of vacation."

"Oh yes, it's still a holiday." Gordon licked his lips, "Okay, I'll make this call." ”

"I'll hit it then." Thomas replied. The two said goodbye to each other. As soon as Thomas put down the phone, he picked up the phone again and dialed Shen Zhenghui's phone.

And at the same time that Shen Zhenghui received a call from Thomas. Mitsumi Fukuda happened to receive a landline call from Gordon to the hotel.

The two men invariably lowered their voices.

Compared with Gordon's cautiousness in the face of Mitsumi Fukuda, Thomas is much more enthusiastic and optimistic about Shen Zhenghui, at least the table Xiàn came out, "Yes, the box office of $17 million at midnight shows can be on the top ten list for a long, long time." Thomas said, "The audience survey reality has a good reputation, I think we will have a good box office trend, you can rest assured ......"

At the same time, Gordon is expressing cautious optimism. "The midnight show was good at the box office, but the survey showed that they were all die-hard book lovers, and yes, I knew there were people making trouble, but Sony wasn't going to let them get their way. We're going to do it the way we do business in the U.S., and it's going to take more time and more numbers to get a clear box office analysis, and the numbers on Saturdays and Sundays are critical. Sony will definitely do everything it can ......"

When Shen Zhenghui put down the phone, it happened that Fukuda Mitsumi also hung up the phone.

"Hear that?" Mitsumi Fukuda raised her eyebrows.

"Yes." Shen Zhenghui nodded, "Obviously, they don't have enough confidence, but they are just as impatient as us. Thomas was more nervous than we were, but he tried to comfort me. Shen Zhenghui shook his head, "This is really a joke." ”

"Maybe he's worried about his son's starring role." Mitsumi Fukuda said.

"That's even more of a joke." Shen Zhenghui shrugged.

Mitsumi Fukuda tilted her head, "Sony's attitude is very cautious, I don't think they will suspect that Haruhi has a trick in this project." ”

"What if you're tired?" Shen Zhenghui pouted, "Can they check?" ”

"If you let them know that you made three films on a budget for one film, they're going to go crazy." Mitsumi Fukuda said.

"No, I didn't steal the budget," Shen Zhenghui shook his head, "I just paid the construction cost in advance." ”

"And then pay again?" Mitsumi Fukuda was slightly mocking.

"This is to avoid inflation," Shen Zhenghui replied, "No matter what happens to the first film at the box office, the actors' salaries will rise, and I am helping them to save, but they ignore my kindness." Shen Zhenghui spread out his hand, "And Kasuga did advance part of the funds for the follow-up shooting." ”

"Okay, I know better than you how much money Hasuga has subverted." Mitsumi Fukuda replied.

"You don't believe me?"

Mitsumi Fukuda rolled her eyes, "I just don't think your technique is particularly professional." She said, "I'd better help you find two people to help your little uncle." ”

Shen Zhenghui was slightly embarrassed, he turned his head, "How much do you think the box office on the first day can reach?" I think there should be 50 million, right? ”

"I hope so." Mitsumi Fukuda said.

Reading film critics' reviews on the Internet, Rotten Tomatoes' ratings, and reading film reviews in newspapers are all torture for Shen Zhenghui, and in the future world, whether the movie will explode at the box office depends on whether it can form some kind of widely discussed topic. Shen Zhenghui's own experience can understand and judge: for him in his previous life, if he knew this movie, this proves that this is indeed a good movie. The exception is when he is in a relationship, and his boyfriend's dating pastime includes watching movies, so it depends on luck whether he can see a good movie. At least in the movie "Avatar" itself, his theory is confirmed. His colleagues around him are talking about this movie, and QQ Space is also the after-viewing impression of this movie, so this movie has really become a miracle.

But Shen Zhenghui still doesn't know much about Americans, and he has the heart to go to Facebook to see everyone's discussions, but it obviously takes enough time to run an account temporarily. So he spent some idle time with Mitsumi Fukuda, and directly the staff of Sony sent a promotional schedule.

"How's the attendance?" Shen Zhenghui asked.

"Judging from the current number, it should be said that it is not bad." The other party replied, "The reputation is also very good, at least everyone is very interested in watching the movie." ”

Shen Zhenghui felt that his heart was under enough pressure. Until the next day, Saturday's box office of 48 million was finally reassuring. (To be continued......)

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