China Entertainment Mythology 2004

Chapter 153 Box Office, Li Mu and Cheng Long's Appeal
June 6th, US Western Time, early morning.

Li Mu's room.

Almost all the main creators of the crew arrived: Cheng Long, Chen Musheng, Liu Xiaoli, Liu Yifei and Li Mu himself.

Today is not only the day when "Taken 2" is officially released in the United States, but also the day when the film's first-day box office results in the mainland market are officially announced.

China Time is now close to 6:13 on June 2. If there is no accident, China Film will send the first-day box office data of "Taken [-]" to the relevant creators in about half an hour.

"Li Mu here is your most accurate vision, why don't you talk about the box office prospects of 'Hurricane 2' in North America and mainland China?" Brother Cheng Long suddenly suggested at this time.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were on him, Li Mu no longer refused.

"Then I'll just talk about it based on my intuition, but I'm not sure it's accurate. Let's talk about the North American market first..." Li Mu said.

Then he paused, and at the same time began to think seriously in his mind.

To predict the box office performance of "Taken 2" in North America, it is natural to refer to the box office results of the same movie in the previous life in North America, and then add or subtract weights based on the differences between the two movies.

So what was the North American box office performance of "Taken 2" in the previous life?

$5000 million in three days in the opening weekend!It broke the record for the highest box office in the same week in American film history, more than double the $1 million gross of the previous film "Taken 2460" in the first weekend.

The reputation of 'Hurricane 2' is far inferior to that of 'Hurricane 1', but this is also the benefit of having a fan base of the previous work, just like "Detective Chinatown 3", the box office on the first day was as high as 10 billion yuan, and even broke the global film history Single-day box office record!

But in fact, the word-of-mouth of "Tang Tan 3" is not very good either.

Carefully compare the differences between the two versions of "Taken 2", first compare the two directors.

The director of "Taken 2" in the previous life was Luc Besson, and Luc Besson is considered a big name in Hollywood; in this life, although the director of "Taken 2" is Chen Musheng, Li Mu has always been the core during the promotion, and now Li Mu's popularity in Hollywood has gone Not losing to Luc Besson at all, especially after "Inception" was released.

Therefore, Li Mu felt that he should be slightly better than the soul character alone. After all, the popularity of "Inception" has not yet dissipated, and now is the peak period of Li Mu's popularity.

Then compare the actors of the two movies.

Who has the bigger wrist in Hollywood, Cheng Long or Liam Neeson?
Li Mu thought it was Cheng Long!
In the previous life, Cheng Long did not lose to Liam Neeson at all, and in this life, Cheng Long became more famous because he starred in several Li Mu's movies one after another, so Li Mu felt that his version was the winner in terms of leading actor.

As for the heroine, at this time Liu Yifei has already starred in "Taken 1", "Assassin", "Kung Fu King", "Inception" and other influential films in North America, and her influence in the North American market is also the same. Not inferior to the heroine of the original.

Finally, compare the number of venues for the two movies.

The version of "Taken 2" in the previous life was screened in more than 3600 cinema halls at the same time; while Li Mu's version won about 3900 openings-this time it is still Li Mu's version that wins.

So in theory, the North American box office performance of Li Mu's version of "Taken 2" should be better than that of the previous version.

Since the box office of the previous version had already reached 5000 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend, why does Li Mu's version have to add 200 million U.S. dollars? !
After careful comparison, Li Mu finally said: "'Hurricane 2''s North American first weekend box office, I guess... 5200 million US dollars! As for the global box office of the movie, it may be difficult to break through the 4 million US dollar mark."

The room fell silent all of a sudden.

It’s not that everyone has predicted the box office of the first weekend of the movie before, and even everyone has predicted the box office of the movie’s first weekend in North America in their hearts, but everyone dared to guess at most 4000 to 5200 million US dollars, but now Li Mu came up and guessed $[-] million? !

It would be best if this result could be achieved, but is it really possible?
"The first week's US$5200 million is a good figure. The total North American box office of "The King of Kung Fu" is US$5200 million!" Cheng Long added, "Let's talk about the first-day box office forecast in China. Now that it’s revealed, we’ll know right away whether the guess is right or not, that’s what’s interesting.”

Li Mu thinks it is still possible for "Taken 2" to earn 4000 million to [-] million domestic box office, so if we reverse it based on the general ratio - the box office on the first day is [-] million?
"I guess, 3500 million!" Li Mu finally said.

"Okay, it's only 3500 million, and we'll soon see whether Li Mu's vision is accurate." Cheng Long said with a smile at this time.

美国西部时间6月12日上午08点35分，华夏京市时间6月13日0点35分，中影集团终于将《飓风营救2》在国内的首日票房数据发到了李沐等人的手机上。

Everyone opened the email at the same time, and then quickly scanned the unimportant information and went straight to the movie's first-day box office data.

""Taken 2", the box office on the first day was 7400 million yuan." (Note: China market box office)

Li Mu himself took a deep breath—it was only 400 million yuan lower than the first-day box office of "Inception"?

Although he felt that "Taken 2" was not a bad movie by any means, but - it was only 400 million lower than the first-day box office data of "Inception"?
Does it match?
Although Li Mu wrote the script, he still couldn't help asking: Does it match?

"Inception" invested 1.2 million US dollars, "Taken 2" invested 4000 million, the box office is so close, why?
Almost everyone in the room was a little dumbfounded, including director Chen Musheng, and Liu Yifei was holding Li Mu's arm at this time, and his face was also full of surprise.

At this time, Cheng Long suddenly smiled and said: "It is said that Li Mu has a good eye, but I think that's the case. You only guessed 7400 million on the first day of 3500 million, and you didn't even get half of the actual box office. That's a guess." Where is it right? It is obviously wrong and outrageous!"

After Brother Cheng Long finished speaking, the room fell into silence again. In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that it wasn't that Li Mu's guess was wrong, but that the box office results were really exaggerated.

It seems that Li Mu still underestimated the influence of himself, Cheng Long, and Liu Yifei, and underestimated the huge popularity that "Taken 1" has accumulated for the movie.

But at the same time, Li Mu also believes that even if "Taken 2" has impressive box office data in the early stage, it is impossible to get out of the box office curve of "Inception".

In the previous life, "Taken 2" had a North American box office of 5000 million US dollars in its first week, and it deservedly won the North American box office weekend champion without any suspense. However, its box office fell to 2250 million US dollars in the second week. Although it won the North American weekend box office champion , but its box office fell as high as 54.6%!

This drop is still quite large, which shows that the movie did not meet the psychological expectations of the audience. Although Li Mu has made some optimizations and adjustments to the plot of the movie in this version, it still follows the plot of the previous work as a whole, so Li Mu has reason to believe him. The box office curve of this version of the movie will also not be too good-looking.

But there is no need to tell everyone about it right away.

……

Saturday, October 6.

After the movie "Taken 2" won a super high box office of 7400 million in China on the first day, it continued to make efforts on the second day. And it also broke the previous single-day box office record of 1 million created by "Inception".

"Taken 2" also became the second film in the country after "Inception" with a box office of over [-] million in a single day.

At this moment, not only the film and television industry across the country was almost dumbfounded, but even Li Mu himself had begun to doubt life.Even he himself couldn't help but ask in his heart: "Did I make a mistake? Break the single-day box office record set by "Inception" half a year ago? Are you crazy?"

But the facts are right in front of your eyes, and you have to believe it if you don't believe it.

October 6, Sunday.

"Taken 2" has a national box office of 7500 million yuan.

The results were still exaggerated, but Li Mu let out a sigh of relief in his heart—fortunately, this is the result he should get!
At the beginning, "Inception" was 7800 million on the first day, 9300 million on the next day on Saturday, and 10100 million on the third Sunday.

Now "Taken" is 7500 million on the first day, 10200 million on the next Saturday, and 7500 million on the third Sunday.

On the third day, the box office has already started to decline significantly, which shows that the word-of-mouth of "Taken 2" is much lower than that of "Inception", and it also shows that although the early box office figures of the two films are very close, the total box office of the two films is completely different. Same day.

Next up is Monday, June 6th.

The national box office of "Taken 2" is 3400 million, which has almost fallen to one-third of the single-day box office of over 6200 million at its peak, while the box office of "Inception" was still as high as [-] million on the first Monday when it was released. .

So far, on the fourth day of the film's domestic release, the single-day box office of "Taken 2" has changed from overwhelming "Inception" to just a little more than half of the latter.

At the same time, the film's first weekend box office results in the North American market were finally announced.

6月12至6月14日，首周末三天，《飓风营救2》在北美电影市场共计斩获6000万美元的票房，力压《宿醉》的3400万美元票房和《飞屋环游记》的3100万美元票房，毫无悬念地夺得了本周的北美票房榜冠军。（北美数据）

To be honest, although Li Mu had a vague premonition that the box office would exceed that of his previous life, after all, the number of theaters opened was more than 300 more than that of his previous life, but he did not expect that the weekend box office would be directly higher than the original movie by 1000 million US dollars.

At the same time, with the announcement of the first week's box office results of the film in North America, all the creative staff of the entire crew felt joyful and encouraged.Brother Cheng Long even expressed with confidence that the film's global box office is very likely to break through the $5 million mark!
Li Mu had no choice but to pour cold water on Brother Cheng Long.Li Mu pointed out that the word-of-mouth of the film seems to be a bit mediocre, so when predicting the total box office, the box office curve of other movies cannot be directly applied.

Brother Cheng Long said that Li Mu is very good at making movies, but when it comes to predicting the box office, he still lacks some experience.

Li Mu was speechless about this.

That's right, after all, he just guessed that the domestic box office on the first day was 3500 million, but the domestic market was really disappointing, and it came up with 7400 million!
Isn't his guess not accurate enough?
But Li Mu still insisted on his own judgment, because the box office curve of this movie in his previous life was in his mind.

In the previous life, "Taken 2" had a box office of 5000 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend, but it dropped to 2250 million U.S. dollars in the second week, a drop of 54.6%!

If you have no idea about this decline, you might as well compare it with "The Hangover", which is currently in theaters.

The box office of "The Hangover" was US$4497 million in the first weekend, and US$3342 million in the second week, a drop of only 25.7%. Of course, the low decline of "The Hangover" is relatively rare in the entire United States.

Let's look at the same period movie "Up", the drop of "Up" is 30.9%, which is also much better than the drop of "Taken 2".

And "Taken 2"?The drop was as high as 54.6%, which was nearly [-] percentage points larger than the drop of "The Hangover"!
The first weekend of "The Hangover" was $4400 million, and "Taken 2" was $5000 million. The latter was higher. As a result, the box office of "The Hangover" in the second week was more than $2 million higher than that of "Taken 1100". The side shows that "Taken 2" is not as amazing as the first one.

However, it seems that only Li Mu himself is cautious about the follow-up box office trend of this movie. The rest of the people, whether it is Brother Cheng Long, director Chen Musheng, or Liu Yifei, Liu Xiaoli's mother and daughter-almost everyone They are all full of confidence in the global box office of "Taken 2".

In fact, not only the main creators of these films, but the entire Chinese film and television industry, and even the entire Chinese Internet, are almost saying that Li Mu has once again created a miracle at the box office.

In forums, post bars, and major portal websites, netizens are discussing related topics intensely.

"I heard that the quality of the movie can only be regarded as a pass, so I didn't rush to watch it. In the end, my good guy, the single-day box office has exceeded [-] million? Dream Space created a single-day box office record in less than a year?"

"Surprised? Let me tell you this. When the box office data came out on Saturday, almost everyone who had predicted the movie's box office performance was dumbfounded. Everyone kept saying that "Taken 2" could only be considered a pass. Let’s keep talking, everyone should know that this film is at least not as good as "Inception", right? The result? The single-day box office surpassed "Inception", can you believe it?"

"Of course I was surprised. The only two films in China with a box office of over [-] million in a single day are all Li Mu's works!"

"It's really unbelievable. It feels like everyone doesn't care if the movie is not as good as 'Inception'. Since it's not a bad movie, and since there are Cheng Long and Liu Yifei, then go see it."

"If you want me to say that the group of people like Li Mu has already achieved word-of-mouth effect, the audience believes that as long as it is made by them, the movie will not be too bad!"

"That's right, I feel like I've got the point this time!"

"Now I want to say that Li Mu's box office appeal is the No. 1 in China. There should be no objection, right?"

"Originally, I wanted to say that Cheng Long and Li Lian were here, but after thinking about it, I'd better forget it. Cheng Long's performance in non-'Li Mu movies' in the past few years is just like that."

……

In the Huayi Brothers Group, the Wang brothers were also filled with emotion.

"The movie 'Hurricane 2' can exceed [-] million in a single day? It's unbelievable!"

"Now the market is blindly trusting Li Mu."

"Actually, it's no wonder that the market blindly trusts his films, as if he hasn't made a bad film since his debut."

"It's impossible for a human being not to make mistakes all the time, and it's impossible for Li Mu's movies to be hits forever. I just don't know when his first box office Waterloo will appear."

"It's meaningless to think about it now. Huayi Brothers is going to be listed soon. When publicizing it to the outside world, we still need to talk about the fact that Liu Yifei bought a large amount of Huayi Brothers' original shares. Liu Yifei is Li Mu's official girlfriend. Liu Yifei is optimistic about it. The shares of Huayi Brothers are, to some extent, the reason why Li Mu himself valued the shares of Huayi Brothers."

"I understand this. At the same time, we must talk about the projects we have cooperated with Li Mu over the years. The cooperation cases between Huayi Brothers and Li Mu for so many times can increase the market's interest in Huayi Brothers' stock. confidence."

Inside China Film, Xiying, Bernard, Light Limit, etc.

Several well-known executives in China's entertainment industry couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion when faced with the box office results created by "Taken 2" in China and North America.

The domestic single-day box office exceeded [-] million, and the TM broke the record again!
Overseas, the first weekend in North America was 6000 million U.S. dollars, and "The King of Kung Fu" Cheng Long and Li Lianhe cooperated, and the total box office in North America was only 5200 million U.S. dollars!

Obviously, the super high box office performance of "Taken 2" can't be all attributed to the leading actors Cheng Long and others, but this Li Mu - after all, is it a bit too exaggerated?
In the entire Huaxia entertainment circle.

No matter whether it is a celebrity or an actor, looking at the box office results created by "Taken 2", there is almost no one who can look at it calmly.

Many of them began to be proud of having met and greeted Li Mu.

"Let me tell you, I used to run a trick in director Li Mu's crew, and director Li Mu even handed me the water!"

"real or fake?"

"Is that still fake? Let me tell you..."

……

In the following week, the domestic single-day box office of "Taken 2" was basically maintained at around 2000 million. I remember that the box office of "Inception" during the same period was basically maintained at around 6000-[-] million.

Although the box office of "Taken 2" has dropped a lot, the spokesperson of China Film Group still stated that there is no problem with the film's domestic box office exceeding 6 million.

At the same time, "Taken 2" also released its box office results in the second week of the North American film market, with 3070 million US dollars, ranking first in the North American box office.

Compared with the box office of 6000 million US dollars in the first week, the drop is about 51.1%, which is indeed not small, but it is still slightly better than the 51.6% drop of the original version in the previous life.

According to the latest forecast data from relevant agencies, the global box office of "Taken 2" has reached 4.3 million US dollars.

Although it is much lower than the 5 million US dollars promised by Cheng Long, no one can deny that this is still a very astonishing figure.

　Thanks to "boring middle-aged man" for the reward
　
(End of this chapter)