Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

Also this week, after several rounds of negotiations and consultations, Lionsgate and Warner Pictures reached an agreement on the joint development of the character of the Joker in the Batman series.

Initially, Lionsgate wanted to obtain the adaptation rights of the Joker, but this proposal was rejected by Warner. Warner Pictures made it clear that they did not want to sell this potential character and hoped to cooperate with Lionsgate to develop the Joker.

After negotiations, Lionsgate obtained the five-year adaptation rights of the Joker for US$5 million, and promised to leave 45% of the investment share to Warner when making the Joker movie.

After the movie was released, Lionsgate was responsible for the film distribution in North America, and Warner Pictures was responsible for overseas distribution.

After obtaining the adaptation rights of the Joker, Lionsgate began to collect and create relevant scripts. For the selection of scripts, Link will personally check and try to find the script that is closest to the original.

After finishing the company's work, Link joined the crew of Avengers 2 and began to shoot the role of Captain America.

"Avengers 2" tells the story of Iron Man investing in the development of a robot to protect world peace. As a result, the robot Ultron developed self-awareness during the research, and its distorted beliefs led it to launch an evil offensive intended to exterminate mankind.

In this case, the most powerful superheroes on earth, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, once again joined forces to fight against the evil robot Ultron and save the world.

The plot of "Avengers 2" is still dominated by Iron Man, and Captain America does not have many scenes. Link only took two weeks to complete most of the shots of Captain America's face.

The remaining shots are fragmented, and there are more than 3,000 special effects shots, and the shooting cycle is very long.

In the next year, Link will need to frequently enter and exit the studio of the "Avengers 2" crew to complete the remaining shots.

——

In early April, "Captain America 2" produced and released by Disney was released simultaneously around the world. After finishing filming Avengers 2, Link immediately joined the promotion of Captain America 2, from the United States to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and then to China, South Korea, Australia, and Japan.

During the promotion period, Link and the publicity team traveled to more than ten countries.

On April 4, Captain America 2 was released worldwide, and the North American box office was 115 million US dollars in three days of the weekend.

This result ranked 10th in the North American premiere box office rankings, which is lower than the premiere box office of movies such as The Dark Knight, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter, but in the Marvel series of movies, it is second only to the premiere box office of Avengers 1 and Iron Man 3.

The first week box office was 165 million US dollars, and the first week box office recovered, and the results exceeded expectations.

The first week box office in overseas regions was 218 million US dollars.

Compared with the first film, Captain America 2's overseas box office performance is much better.

The movie is a big hit. According to Link's contract with Disney, he not only has a basic salary, but also a 3% share of the global box office. This is why he is willing to follow the crew to promote.

However, considering that he will be very busy at work in the future, in addition to filming movies and boxing matches, he also has to accompany Eva Ka and the three children on vacation. He decided to quit the role of the male lead in The Martian and let the crew re-select actors.

"The Martian" is a film project jointly produced by Lionsgate and Paramount Pictures. It is currently in preparation. The budget of the film is 100 million US dollars. Ridley Scott is the director and producer.

When preparing for the project at the beginning of the year, Paramount Pictures hoped that he could play the leading actor to ensure the box office performance of the film.

At that time, Link reluctantly took it. Now he has too much work and no time to shoot. In addition, according to the role setting, the male protagonist needs to lose 20 to 30 pounds to survive on Mars and become skinny, which is a difficult task for him to complete.

After thinking about it, he decided to turn down the role and spend more time on boxing training.

He has four games this year.

The first game is against the "Bronze Bomber" Deontay Wilder for the WBA heavyweight champion challenger title.

If the game goes well, he will challenge the WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin next.

The third game is against the "Oriental Beast" Valuev for the WBC heavyweight champion challenger title.

If the match goes well, he will fight against the current WBC boxing champion Vitali Klitschko in the second half of the year.

His match with Deontay Wilder will be held at the end of April. After promoting "Captain America 2", he spent most of his time in the boxing gym and the gym to train and study his opponent's fighting style.

——

"Captain America 2" was released for two weeks, with a North American box office of 219 million US dollars, a cumulative overseas box office of 335 million, and a global box office of over 500 million US dollars.

This week, several films released by Lionsgate also achieved good results. "The Fake Family" was released for six weeks, with a cumulative North American box office of 152 million US dollars and an overseas box office of 129 million, which far exceeded expectations.

The science fiction film "Ender's Game" produced by Summit Entertainment was released for four weeks, with a North American box office of 63.97 million US dollars and an overseas box office of 52.2 million US dollars. The global box office is expected to be around 140 million US dollars.

Compared with the production cost of more than 80 million and the publicity cost of more than 10 million, Lionsgate expects to lose more than 40 million on this project.

It is also the film project with the biggest loss for Lionsgate in the past three years.

This week, Lionsgate's sixth film of the year, "The Grand Budapest Hotel," was released.

The film is a literary film that tells the story of an unknown writer who came to a hotel called "Budapest" in Europe from the 1930s to the 1960s, and met the owner of the hotel, Mustafa, and the two had dinner together.

During the dinner, Mustafa introduced the past and present life of this weather-beaten hotel to the writer.

The film is directed by Wes Anderson and stars Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Léa Seydoux, Harvey Keitel and others Starring.

"Budapest" won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of the year and was nominated for the Golden Bear Award for Best Film. It was also nominated for the Italian David Award for Best Foreign Film and the 24th Gotham Independent Film Awards. Best Film Nomination.

The reputation is very good.

The film was screened in 6 theaters in North America on March 21 and grossed US$1.096 million at the box office in two weeks, which is a relatively good result.

It began large-scale screenings in April, with a box office of US$29.33 million in 2,207 theaters in the first week, and the current cumulative box office is US$30.43 million.

In comparison, the box office performance in overseas regions was better. It was released in 23 overseas countries for three weeks, with a cumulative box office of US$66.28 million.

The total box office is close to 100 million.

The production cost of the film was US$25 million.

Judging from the current data, it is a blockbuster movie.

——

"Paul, how are you feeling today?"

In the afternoon, Link finished training and came to the UCLA Medical Center to visit Paul Walker, who was recuperating here.

After more than half a month of treatment, Paul Walker is basically out of danger, but it will take at least two or three years to recover completely.

"It's very bad. I just had my skin replaced and my whole body hurts."

Paul was lying on the hospital bed, his whole body wrapped like a big rice dumpling, only his face was exposed, and he could barely be recognized.

"It sounds very uncomfortable."

Link sat down and looked at him, "This time is really too dangerous. The doctor said it's a miracle that you survived."

The corners of Paul's eyes twitched. Since the car accident, whenever anyone mentioned the accident, he couldn't help but feel frightened. The broken bones and burned skin that had been connected were also aching.

"Huh, it's indeed a miracle. When I was lying in the car, I couldn't move. When I saw the front of the car on fire, I thought, it's over. The plot in "Fast and Furious 4" really happened. Later, some well-intentioned people I felt incredible when I was taken to the hospital and saved by the doctors.”

Paul Walker shrugged his shoulders out of habit, but he accidentally touched the wound and grinned in pain.

"Should I call you a doctor?"

"No, no need. Compared with the past few days, this pain is nothing. Just bear with it and it will pass."

Paul Walker gritted his teeth and insisted.

Link smiled softly and praised him for doing well. He was stronger and braver than before. This may be a gift given to him by suffering.

Paul Walker was not interested in the idea of ​​a gift and said that if he could do it over again, he would not be so quick and even kill his assistant Bill.

Speaking of Bill, Paul Walker sighed sadly.

Link shook his head and advised him to show his condolences. It had already happened and it was useless to be sad. He should drive slower in the future.

After chatting with Paul for half an hour in the ward, seeing that he looked a little tired, Link told him to take a good rest and come back to chat with him next time.

After leaving the hospital, Link went home in a commercial vehicle. After Paul's car accident, he rarely drove himself. Most of the time, he took a commercial vehicle or a nanny car, often accompanied by more than two bodyguards.

Back at the Mid-Levels Villa, Ivaca had just returned and had not yet changed out of her professional skirt. She was on the phone in the living room, explaining work matters.

Little Margarita was learning painting from the painting teacher in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the small living room. There were two classes per month, which mainly cultivated her interest in painting and trained her awareness of colors. As for how her painting was, Link and Iwaka doesn’t force anything.

The little guy is sitting on the soft stool, his little feet are moving around, his hands and cheeks are covered with colorful paints, and the drawings standing in front of him are also full of messy patterns, and the paintings are very abstract.

"dad!!"

Seeing him coming back, little Margarita immediately smiled brightly, her big eyes were bright, and she stretched out her two dirty palms to give him a hug.

"Stop! Don't put paint on me."

Link said.

Little Margarita was not afraid of him at all. She rushed over and hugged his legs, rubbing her cheeks and little hands on his trouser legs until his slacks were all messed up.

"You're getting naughty. Let's go, wash your hands."

Link said hello to the teacher and took the little one to the bathroom to wash her hands. On the way, the little one saw her mother talking on the phone and stretched out her little hand to call her mother. Link didn't want to stop the little one from showing her kindness, so he carried her to Yi Beside Waka.

I thought the little guy would put some paint on her mother's face, but the little guy didn't. He pouted his little mouth and smacked her mother's face.

Link shook his head, patted the little one on the butt, and carried her to the bathroom to wash her face.