In fact, there is no contradiction between "The Fault in the Stars" with white male and female protagonists and Liu Yifei as the starring role, of course, Li Mu by no means means to let Liu Yifei play a supporting role, in fact, what he means is, why not just make this script into two versions of China and the United States?

"20 Years Old Again" can be filmed in five countries with the same script, and Li Mu's "The Fault in the Stars" seems to have no big problem with the two versions of Huaxia and the United States.

To say that it is not completely impossible to shoot only one version of Liu Yifei, but the problem is that this is not just as simple as changing the male and female protagonists to the Chinese, if the male and female protagonists are changed and the supporting roles are not changed, then the male and female protagonists must speak a lot of English when communicating with the supporting actors, and too much English dialogue is obviously not friendly enough to the local Chinese audience.

Of course, it is not uncommon for foreign language films to get extremely high box office in China, but it is an indisputable fact that the audience of foreign language films is naturally not as wide as that of local films, and the more the market matures, the greater the advantage of local Chinese films.

Among the ten highest-grossing movies in the future Chinese film market, it would be good if they could squeeze into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Now that the Chinese film market has begun to take shape, Li Mu estimates that the time node for a single film to break the box office of 2 billion should soon come, and the box office of 2 billion yuan is close to 300 million when converted into US dollars, and the box office of 300 million US dollars is already a relatively successful film in the world.

Of course, science fiction blockbusters and action blockbusters must only be filmed in one version, because with an investment scale of more than 100 million US dollars, it is extremely difficult to shoot one version, and the profit pressure is huge.

And the most important thing is that sci-fi blockbusters and action blockbusters are almost all over the world, since one version can kill the whole world, of course, there is no need to double the investment to shoot two versions.

But a small-budget feature film like this is completely different, it doesn't have the ability to kill in various markets, so if you use a white male and female protagonist and shoot in English, it may affect its box office in China; And if you make it completely Chinese, there is a high probability that you will lose in the North American market.

But if you spend $7 million to make an American version, then the $307 million global box office of the original time and space will probably be preserved.

But if this pure American film is released directly in China, it may be difficult for the box office to exceed 100 million, and the original time and space film has not been released in the mainland, and obviously the film is not very optimistic about the performance of this film in China.

But if you take out tens of millions to make a local version of China, is it possible for this local version to win a box office of 300 million or even 500 million?

Of course it's possible!

Since it is possible, it is obvious that shooting two versions is the most rational choice in line with the principle of profit maximization.

Moreover, Li Mu said that the local version of Huaxia has a high probability of being a hit, and it is not a groundless guess.

In 2015, there was a film with the same theme called "Get Out! The film "Tumor Jun" was released, starring Bai Baihe and Wu Yan, directed by Han Yan, and finally received a box office of 509 million with an investment of 40 million.

One more thing to say here, this "Get Out! "Tumor Jun" is adapted from Xiong Dun's comic of the same name, and this comic is Xiong Dun's record of his life during the hospitalization and anti-cancer period in the form of comics.

At present, Xiong Dun should have been hospitalized, and the comics should only start to be serialized on the Tianya Forum in February next year, but unfortunately, Xiong Dun's cancer was still early when it was discovered, and she has been receiving treatment positively and optimistically, but the disease still quickly progressed to an advanced stage, and finally passed away at the end of 2012.

It is said that Xiong Dun said before his death that the heroine of this movie can only be one of two people - one is herself, and the other is Bai Baihe, but unfortunately she did not meet Bai Baihe in the end, and she did not wait for the official start of the film.

This is just a basis for Li Mu to judge that this kind of theme can have a market in China, in fact, there is another more convincing example.

In 2020, "Fuck off! Han Yan, the director of "Tumor Jun", made another film with the same theme, which is "Send You a Little Red Flower" starring Liu Haocun and Yi Yang Qianxi.

This film finally received a box office of 1.432 billion yuan, ranking fourth among the films released in 2020, as for why Li Mu said that the hot sale of this film is more convincing?

Because, the plot of "Send You a Little Red Flower" is very similar to "The Fault in the Stars"!

So how high is it?

So high that a large number of people on the Internet said that it plagiarized "The Fault in the Stars"!

However, because Disney did not defend its legal rights in the end, the plagiarism scandal finally ended.

As for whether it is plagiarism or not, Li Mu doesn't know the inside story, and it's not easy to talk about it, but Li Mu knows that in 2016, Huaxia Company's project to remake "The Fault in the Stars" was officially launched, and the boss of the production company was Yin Lu, and the screenwriter was Yu Yanlin.

In 2018, due to Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Huaxia withdrew from the remake of "The Fault in the Stars".

In 2020, "Send You a Little Red Flower" will be released, the producer is still Yin Lu, and one of the screenwriters is still the Yu Yanlin mentioned above.

So the plagiarism theory may not be easy to say, because you can't say that a movie where both the male and female protagonists have cancer must be plagiarized from "The Fault in the Stars", but there is a high probability of learning from it.

Of course, this is not the point, the focus is on "Get Out" with the same theme! "Tumor" has a market in the mainland, and "Send You a Little Red Flower", which has a high degree of similarity to the plot of "The Fault in the Stars", is also very marketable in the mainland, so is there a market for Li Mu to shoot a Chinese version of "The Fault in the Stars" with Liu Yifei as the protagonist?

There must be a market! Because you don't need to ask, you know, Li Mu will definitely shamelessly refer to the plots of the two films "The Fault in the Stars" and "Send You a Little Red Flower".

After the year, Li Mu and Liu Yifei will go to the United States to shoot "The Hunger Games 2" together, so simply the two films will be filmed together, the actors are still the actors of the original movie, the start-up time of the two versions of the movie should be about the same, and the age of the actors is also appropriate, and since the original film can finally win the global box office of $307 million with a shooting cost of only $7 million, it shows that its casting must be desirable, and Li Mu has no need to choose another thankless actor.

In the evening, Li Mu chatted with Liu Yifei in the quilt.

Li Mu: "This time I went to the United States, and after filming "The Hunger Games 2", I didn't return to China first, and by the way, I filmed "The Fault in the Stars" together, and I arranged the preparation of the new film in the next few days. ”

Liu Yifei turned around and lay on Li Mu's chest and said, "Have the actors all been decided?" ”

"I haven't officially sent out an invitation yet, but I already have the right person in mind." Li Mu said, "The male protagonist Ansel Elgert, the heroine uses Sheileen Woodley." ”

Liu Yifei raised his head, his chin resting on Li Mu's chest: "I haven't heard of it, have you ever made any masterpieces?" ”

Li Mu pinched her shoulder and said with a smile: "It's right if you haven't heard of it, the budget of the film does not exceed 10 million US dollars, and of course this budget cannot use too well-known actors." ”

"Oh." Liu Yifei said, after speaking, he changed his posture and put his head on Li Mu's arm to prepare for sleep.

At this time, Li Mu said: "In addition, I plan to shoot another Chinese version of "The Fault in the Stars", you help me with the staff and see who is the right actor to play among these actors and actresses in our country?" ”

When Liu Yifei heard this, he turned over and pressed on Li Mu's body, and his two snow-white arms were propped up on Li Mu's chest, which made Li Mu a little uncomfortable.

"What's wrong with you?" Li Mu asked.

Liu Yifei's head came to Li Mu's eyes, and he grinned on his face: "I haven't figured out who to play yet?!" Why don't you think about it again?! ”

Li Mu pretended to suddenly realize: "You mean...... You? ”

Liu Yifei nodded again and again, and smiled while nodding.

Li Mu shook his head: "You? Square peg! ”

"Why?" Liu Yifei asked.

Li Mu pretended to be old for a long time before saying: "There are many kiss scenes in it, if they are all filmed in a dislocation, it doesn't feel very good, if it's a real kiss, I can't accept the actor using anyone." ”

"Stingy." Liu Yifei was stunned for a moment, and then muttered, after a while, she suddenly rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, stingy ghost, why don't you just play the actor yourself?" ”

"Myself acting?" Li Mu pondered for a while before asking, "Don't you know your husband's worth?" Me, Li Mu! Such a big director! You asked me to act in such a low-budget film? And both characters have cancer, so I'm unlucky and don't play it...... Absolutely not! ”

……

Li Mu finally succumbed to Liu Yifei's obscenity, and couldn't help but give in, young lady, she magnified her move - a big move that Li Mu had never received.

……

The next day, Li Mu called Liu Siying to his office and explained to her that he was going to prepare two versions of "The Fault in the Stars", and then learned about the progress of the company's other projects by the way.

The filming progress of "You from the Star" is nearly halfway, and "Shanshan is Coming" and "Huaxia Partner" are currently undergoing preliminary preparations, saying that they will start shooting soon.

In addition, "20 Years Old Again" starring Bai Bing and "Shark Beach" starring Yang Mi have just begun to carry out preliminary demonstration work, and it is expected that the official start may have to wait for a year later.

"What has Tong Liya been busy with lately?" After chatting about a few projects, Li Mu asked again.

Liu Siying said: "After the hit of "Beijing City Love Story", Chen Sicheng began to prepare for his first movie with one mind, the copyright of Beijing Love is in the hands of our company, Tong Liya is an artist under our company, Chen Sicheng wants to make a movie version of "Beijing City Love Story", it will definitely not work without the nod of our company, so he is now running to me all day long. ”

Li Mu asked, "Do you think Chen can make this movie well?" ”

Liu Siying said: "The circle is not very optimistic about him, the ratings of "Beijing Love Story" are indeed very amazing, but a good TV series does not mean that he will be able to make a good movie, after all, he has no experience in making movies." However, I still tend to authorize him to make this film version, and from the previous few contacts, this young man is still very talented. ”

Li Mu nodded: "Then authorize him to shoot, I agree with you, this person is still quite talented." ”

In fact, Li Mu specifically mentioned Tong Liya this time, originally wanted to arrange a new drama for her, that is, the "Obstetrician" in her previous life, which was also starring Tong Liya, I remember that the ratings of this TV series are still very good, as one of Tong Liya's masterpieces in the original time and space, the company will still shoot this work sooner or later.

……

The time soon came on October 7, 2011, and on this day, "The Revenant" and "Iron Fist" were officially released worldwide at the same time.

In the early 10 period, there are no players who are too strong in the mainland market.

As of October 6, the work with the highest daily box office in the market is "Painted Wall", which has been released for 9 days, with a daily box office of more than 9 million.

The second is "The Legend of the White Snake", with a daily box office of more than 8 million.

The third place is a foreign film that has been released for 7 days, and the daily box office is only about 3 million.

In other words, in this schedule in early October, the only one that can bring a certain threat to "The Revenant" is "Iron Fist", which was released at the same time.

Speaking of the film "Iron Fist", in fact, its origin is really not small, in addition to the actor is Uncle Wolf in "X-Men", the director of this film is also very famous, that is, Sean Levy, the name alone may not be very familiar to Chinese people, but if you want to talk about what works he has directed, then I am afraid most Chinese people have heard of it.

For example, he was the director of the fantasy film "Night at the Museum" released in 2006, and the final global box office of this film was as high as 575 million US dollars, which is a quite successful work.

In addition, the producer of this film is even more remarkable, that is, Steven Spielberg, who has been named the world's most popular director at the box office many times in a row.

Therefore, before the official release of the two films, a considerable number of people actually felt that the box office of "Iron Fist" should be able to surpass "The Revenant".

As a result, when the box office of the two films was officially counted, many Chinese people were very surprised.

In the domestic market, the box office of "The Revenant" was 73 million yuan on the first day, and the next day was Saturday, and its box office was as high as 92 million, and 71 million on the next third day.

Three days after its premiere, the domestic box office was 236 million yuan.

On the other hand, "Iron Fist", which was still highly anticipated by a considerable number of netizens.

15 million yuan on the first day.

21 million yuan the next day.

17 million yuan on the third day.

In the first three days of the premiere, the cumulative domestic box office was 53 million yuan - only a quarter of "The Revenant".

This is true for the domestic market, but also for the North American market.

in North America.

"The Revenant" grossed $59 million in the first three days of its opening weekend, ranking first in the North American box office list that week.

The opening weekend box office of "Iron Fist" was $27 million, less than half of "The Revenant."

In overseas markets outside of North America, The Revenant also outperformed Iron Fist.

The best market for "The Revenant" after North America and China is the United Kingdom, with $10 million in its opening weekend; followed by Germany with $9 million in the opening weekend; Again France, more than $8 million.

The best-performing market outside of North America is South Korea, with a total of more than $6 million in the first three days of the weekend; followed by Russia, with more than $5 million; RB again, more than $4 million.

In short, whether it is the North American market, the Chinese market, or the overseas market outside of the two, the box office performance of "The Revenant" is far better than that of "Iron Fist".

And this can't help but surprise many people who previously thought that "The Revenant" was an Olympic film, so the box office was probably not as good as "Iron Fist".

(End of chapter)