"Frozen" is taking the world by storm, second only to "Gravity" and "Avatar". "Inception" or "The Martian" can certainly be called extremely popular, but it is obviously far from the point where "Frozen" is today.

As the director of "Frozen", the chairman of Manwu Animation Studio, and the chairman of Huashang Media, Li Mu was a guest on the "Lu Yu Appointment" column on the occasion of the film's release for a week and was interviewed by the host Lu Yu.

"Should I call you Director Li, or Dong Li?"

"Everything."

"I'll still call you Director Li, after all, our main topic today is the animated film "Frozen" directed by you, which is currently being screened."

"Okay."

"May I ask Director Li, how did you come up with the idea of making such an animated film?"

"I have a lot of ideas in my head, and as for which one to do first, there's actually a lot of randomness."

But why Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales? I saw some people on the Internet say that there are so many very touching and very ethnic content in China, but Director Li, you chose Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales created by foreigners. ”

Lu Yu's question actually has a pitfall, and if it is not answered well, it is likely to cause some controversy. Of course, it doesn't mean that Lu Yu intends to dig a pit for Li Mu, many times interview shows are like this, if you don't ask a little sharp question, and some are just stable, then the interview is not interesting.

Many times it is not the host who wants to ask you this question, but the question that many people on the Internet are asking, if it is not covered at all in the interview, it will inevitably be suspected of avoiding the important and trivial.

Li Mu smiled and asked, "Host, may I ask, is Mulan ours from China or American?" ”

Lu Yu smiled: "Of course it's ours." ”

Li Mu continued: "'Chirp and chirp, Mulan is a household weaver. That's right, Mulan is our Chinese heroine, "Mulan Ci" is a key article in my country's junior high school textbooks, every Chinese student has been moved by Mulan's filial piety and bravery, but at the same time, "Mulan" is also a classic animated film of the Disney Company, and has won many Annie Award awards and many nominations such as Oscars and Global Awards. ”

Lu Yu nodded: "Disney's animated movie "Mulan" is very classic, I have watched it many times. ”

Li Mu asked again: "Is the panda Chinese or foreign?" ”

Lu Yu continued to nod: "Of course, the panda belongs to our China, and it is a national treasure of our country. ”

Li Mudao: "That's right, pandas are our national treasures in China, but "Kung Fu Panda" is a classic IP in Hollywood. ”

Lu Yu asked: "Director Li, what do you mean is that since Hollywood can make our "Mulan" and "Kung Fu Panda", then Director Li's Manwu Animation Company can certainly also make classic Hollywood fairy tales, right?" ”

Li Mu replied: "First of all, I would like to correct it, "Frozen" is adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale "Snow White", and Hans Christian Andersen is neither American nor British, but Danish, in a sense, there is no difference between Hollywood's filming of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and our filming of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. ”

Lu Yu nodded: "I think I understand what Director Li meant." ”

Li Mudao: "No, you don't understand, what I said above is just to illustrate a problem, that is, Chinese people don't look at my country's company adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and feel empty-hearted, I think we are misappropriating the cultural achievements of other countries, Andersen's fairy tales have long passed the copyright protection period, Hollywood can use it, of course we can use it, but this is not the main basis for my decision." ”

Lu Yu: "? ”

Li Mu said: "I want to do animation, I want to make high-quality animation, and this will undoubtedly cost a lot of money, take "Frozen" as an example, it cost 150 million US dollars before and after, which is converted to 1 billion yuan, such a large investment, if you only rely on the domestic market, then if you can't get a very high box office result, it is almost impossible to make a profit, but in the domestic film market alone, it is even more difficult to make a film with an investment of more than 150 million US dollars profitable. ”

"Excuse me." Lu Yu said, "According to the latest Maoyan movie box office forecast, the final box office of "Frozen" is likely to reach 2 billion yuan, isn't this a very high box office? ”

Li Mu spread his hands: "2 billion is already the ceiling of the domestic market, but if the film only has the Chinese market, the box office will still lose nearly 200 million yuan." ”

Lu Yu: "So Mr. Li has to consider the international market for the film? ”

Li Mu nodded: "Now the scale of the domestic film market is still slightly smaller, and when two or three billion box office films begin to become common in the future, we will start to produce animated films adapted from our own Chinese stories, such as Sun Wukong, Nezha, Jiang Ziya, White Snake, Green Snake, etc., in fact, we have completed the creation of a script about Sun Dasheng and a script about Nezha, I believe that in the near future, these will continue to flow, The national animation works will officially meet the audience and friends across the country. ”

Lu Yu: "Okay, I and the TV viewers across the country are looking forward to that day coming soon. ”

When I got home, Zhang Liangying was also there.

"Mr. Li!"

Seeing Li Mu coming in, Zhang Liangying hurriedly stood up and said hello, Li Mu smiled and asked the other party not to be too polite.

"I didn't expect the theme song and the plot to be combined, and the effect was so good, when the theater where I was broadcasting that part, I clearly felt that the people in the entire theater were stunned." Zhang Liangying said with emotion.

Liu Yifei put his arm around Li Mu and said, "It's a perfect movie." ”

Zhang Liangying said with a smile: "The reason why it is so perfect is not indispensable, how many audiences walked into the theater because of Yifei's face, by the way, Mr. Li, how did you think of using Yifei's appearance?" ”

Li Mu turned his head to look at Liu Yifei, and pinched her chin with his hand to look at it, Liu Yifei and Zhang Liangying looked inexplicable, and then said, "Do you still need to ask?" This is the most perfect face in my heart, and I can't get enough of it in my life, so I put it in the cartoon. ”

Zhang Liangying rolled her eyes and said in her heart: "Is it necessary to show affection in front of me?" ”

Liu Yifei blushed and said: "How can it be as good as you say, in fact, I don't think I am beautiful at all, you are ......"

Suddenly stopped.

Zhang Liangying continued: "There is Xi Shi in the eyes of the lover, why are you embarrassed to say it?" ”

Liu Yifei said: "If I don't look like this, then do you still use my image?" ”

Li Mu: "That's not good, the investment of 150 million US dollars is not child's play, there must be bright spots to use, for example, if you sing as well as a beautiful movie, then the theme song of the film "Let It Go" will definitely be handed over to you to sing, and when the original soundtrack album will directly appear on the US Billboard, you will be famous in the music industry all over the world." ”

Zhang Liangying smiled at Liu Yifei and said, "Does he usually coax you like this?" Listen, even the billboard is out, he doesn't know how hard it is to get on this list? He didn't coax you to say that he wanted to praise you for the Oscar, right? ”

Liu Yifei's face turned even redder, Li Mu really coaxed her like this, but where would she recognize it at this time? I had to wave my hand again and again: "No, no!" He didn't coax me with an Oscar! ”

……

The box office of "Frozen" in China is really fierce.

Since the box office broke 600 million in the first three days of the release, from the first to the first Friday of the second week, the daily box office of the film has always remained above 150 million yuan, sometimes a little more than 160 million, sometimes a little more than 170 million, and by the weekend of the second week, the single-day box office of the film rebounded to more than 190 million yuan, and then fell below 130 million yuan until Monday's working day.

So far, the total box office of the film has officially exceeded the 1.7 billion yuan mark.

The CEOs of major film and television companies across the country, as well as the big domestic directors, were all shocked, no one thought that an animated film could achieve such exaggerated box office results.

The major news outlets began to report on it one after another.

"Eleven days after the release of the film, the total box office exceeded 1.7 billion yuan, and Li Mu once again proved his unparalleled box office appeal!"

"China, RB, South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia...... "Frozen" is firmly in the box office champion in major countries around the world, what does "Frozen" use to conquer global audiences?"

"The world is also Chinese, Li Mu said bluntly in an interview with "A Date with Lu Yu" that Hollywood can make "Mulan", and of course Huaxia can also make "Frozen".

"In order to make money by filming Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, Li Mu admitted that the domestic film market is still small, which is not enough to cover the high production costs of his films."

Let's talk about the North American film market.

"Frozen" won more than $91 million at the box office in its first weekend in North America, which is not a bad result, and the data is not amazing, but it still regrets that it did not reach the top of the championship.

Because it met the fan-oriented masterpiece "Twilight 4: Breaking Dawn (Part II)", the opening weekend score of $145 million made it easily in the top 10 of the first weekend box office in film history.

Many netizens in China are feeling sorry for "Frozen", more than 20 million of "Rapid Pursuit" are the champions, and more than 91 million of "Frozen" are the runners-up?

Born at the wrong time!

In fact, most netizens are not interested in the North American box office list, and there are few films on the list that they are familiar with, so what's the use of watching it?

But since Li Mu's movie topped the North American box office list at every turn, there have been significantly more domestic netizens who pay attention to this list.

Especially when Li Mu's works are released worldwide, there are especially many netizens who pay attention to the list.

"Isn't it said that animated films have always been long-term? You see a lot of animated movies with a global box office of 900 million 100 million, and the box office in the first weekend was not high, but the final box office is very high, and I feel that "Frozen" still has a chance to fight back! ”

"It's true that animated films go on a long-term basis, but the gap with "Breaking Dawn" is still too big, a difference of more than $50 million, and it's not easy to fight back."

"Who knows, I really miss the days when "Gravity" topped the North American box office for five consecutive weeks, and at that time there was one word in my heart, cool!"

Soon the weekend box office in the second week of North America was tally, $45.7 million, a drop of about 50%.

Looking at "Breaking Dawn" again, the box office in the second weekend was $43.07 million, a drop of as much as 70%!

Fan movies, sure enough, most of the box office is concentrated in the first week of release.

In other words, "Frozen" counterattacked.

From the runner-up of the North American box office list in the first week of release, it successfully topped the box office list in the second week!

In third place was Sony's "Skyfall," which grossed $36.2 million this week.

So far, the film has been released worldwide for 10 days, with a cumulative box office of $150 million in North America, $320 million overseas outside North America, and a total overseas box office of $470 million, plus about $250 million at the mainland box office.

In other words, only ten days after the global release of "Frozen", its total global box office has reached $720 million!

Ten days, $720 million?!

Is it so exaggerated?

When someone predicted that the film's final global box office was likely to break the $1 billion mark, everyone thought it was a little incredible at the time, but now that I look at it, the previous analysis is clearly conservative!

For a while, the entire entertainment industry was discussing "Frozen".

As an animated film, "Frozen" was originally not much concerned by the stars in the circle, at least not as much as live-action movies like "Gravity" and "The Hunger Games" were released.

Live-action movies can still envy Gong Li or Liu Yifei who has caused a sensation in the Western film industry, who has a salary of 8 million US dollars or even 10 million US dollars, what is there to discuss in an animated film?

But when the box office of the film is too exaggerated, and almost the vast majority of people around you and ordinary netizens on the Internet are discussing it enthusiastically, the stars in the circle will inevitably see too many related news reports.

The crew of "The Richest Man in Xihong City".

Jin Chen was dumbfounded when he looked at the report of the global box office of 720 million US dollars in ten days, and couldn't help but think: "The movie directed by Li Mu and Director Li himself, if there is a chance to get the role of the protagonist, it is really worth paying any price." 720 million US dollars, which is converted to 4.9 billion yuan, and in ten days, the global box office exceeded 4.9 billion yuan! Mr. Li is always creating miracles! An actor can star in a film directed by Director Li himself for a lifetime, which is probably enough to eat for a lifetime! ”

Shen Teng walked over at this time, sat next to Jin Chen, handed her a bottle of water and said, "Do you know? Mr. Li originally planned to direct this movie himself. ”

Jin Chen looked at Shen Teng curiously after taking the water.

I thought: "The original director of "The Richest Man in Xihong City" is Li Mu and Mr. Li? If Mr. Li could direct this film himself, wouldn't I have become a 'Mu girl'? Why didn't you lead it later? ”

Shen Teng said: "Originally, the heroine of the film considered it, if it was not the starring role, then the director of the eight achievements was Mr. Li himself, and later he did not act, and the director was naturally replaced." ”

Jin Chen suddenly realized: "It seems that I still don't have the life of 'Mu Girl', if the film doesn't change the director, I can't be the heroine." ”

The crew of "Obstetrician".

The whole crew got together to discuss the global box office of "Frozen" of 720 million US dollars in ten days.

"Liya, what was Director Li like when he made the movie? Isn't it particularly serious? Love to scold or not? Isn't it particularly handsome? ”

Tong Liya: "I don't know, I haven't participated in a film directed by Director Li himself. ”

"Didn't you?"

At this time, the entire crew of "Obstetrician" was blinded, and even doubted the Mandela effect they had just experienced.

Everyone clearly remembers that Tong Liya starred in a film directed by Mr. Li, and the box office broke 1.1 billion.

Tong Liya said: "The director of "Living Together in Time and Space" is Su Lun, not Director Li. ”

Several of them were stunned for a moment: "We thought you were also from 'Mu Girl'!" ”

The crew of "Flower Thousand Bone".

The actors are also discussing the box office of "Frozen", and Zhao Liying, as one of the four golden flowers of Huashang and one of the new four little flowers of President Li, has naturally become the object of other actors who have not been in contact with Li Mu to ask what kind of person Li Mu is.

"Mr. Li is very good!"

"Mr. Li speaks with a great sense of humor and is very quick to think."

"Actually, I haven't said much to Mr. Li, and I will be very nervous when I see him!"

……

(End of chapter)