Legendary Hollywood Director

December 24th, a new Monday.

As for what happened at the film market from the 21st to the 23rd last weekend, there are still some people who are happy and some who are sad.

Marvel is happy that Guardians of the Galaxy won the consecutive box office with 42.19 million, and the overall decline curve of less than 51% in 4,088 theaters, the single-house revenue was 10,320 US dollars, and Sunday was compared to Saturday. And the average month-on-month decline between Saturday and Friday was astonishingly maintained at 14% (indicating that the audience's buying sentiment was relatively stable).

So after the second weekend, the total North American box office of Guardians of the Galaxy reached 176.5 million, and the global revenue was 437 million;

Warners is happy that the second place on the weekly list is still Sherlock Holmes 2, which received a weekend box office of 17.47 million. Its theaters have not changed, and it is still 3,703, with nearly 55% of the total attendance in one week. The rate has also attracted the attention of the film circle many times. In short, it is quite stable for its own market audience;

Brother Tom is also very happy. Mission: Impossible 4 has not decreased but increased, controlled the opening of the theater chain, and implemented the strategy of word-of-mouth and hunger marketing very successfully. After getting 13.25 million, due to the scale of the opening, the curve It is smoother than Guardians of the Galaxy, and while the momentum is full, the public's favorability towards him is increasing, and it is no longer as bad as being hacked 2 years ago;

But the above-mentioned people can accept the results of the film market, so who is worried?

Of course, it is Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Paramount, the publisher who underwrote the two co-produced The Adventures of Tintin.

The reputation of this film is good, but no one has watched it. The production mode of 3D + motion capture CG has not been successful in Hollywood. Before it, there was Beowulf, and then there was a classic long comic remake of Ding Ding.

Although Cameron said in an interview after the filming of Avatar that was swept away, he commented on why he used real people to replace part of the rendering work but increased the workload, saying that the character CG needs a soul.

This sentence also seems to be a reference to the fiasco of Final Fantasy that year, and the audience's evaluation of the discomfort may have certain opinions. After all, under the psychological drive of the uncanny valley effect, most people always feel strange when they see the imitation of lifelike film and television works. Knowing that it is a human, but it is not human, I panic.

But the problem is that the product Ding Ding, which uses so many cutting-edge shooting technologies that burn so much money, does make the character more vivid, but it ignores the fact that animation does not need to be too real.

Avatar is a future sci-fi after all, but the audience for Ding Ding should be aimed at the children and teenagers market, and it is a family-friendly type like Disney.

But after the release of Ding Ding, children did not like Ding Ding.

If they have to say it, they can love the 3D animation created by Pixar's one-dimensional modeling and rendering, but they can't like Ding Ding, which is also well-made, very expensive, and has a relatively broad reading foundation. It is enough to see What a difference.

Of course, according to some media reports, at the beginning, Spielberg wanted to make the film into a live-action movie, and he asked Peter Jackson for technical support, hoping that his Weta Digital could help make a realistic white snow.

But by accident, Jackson himself happened to be a fan of Tintin, and he persuaded Spielberg that comics should be brought to the screen in an animated way.

Everyone knows what happened later. The two hit it off, and Spielberg also accepted his suggestion and introduced Jackson as the producer of the film.

So it took Spielberg 32 days to complete the corresponding filming part, and Peter Jackson, because he was busy with The Hobbit, only appeared on the set on the first day of the shooting, and then didn't come. However, I only occasionally use the conference software to understand the progress of the film through remote chat.

Until this film was supposed to be shocking, two top directors cooperated, but the chemical reaction was not very good, but it shocked Hollywood in disguise.

how to say,

It made a lot of people break their glasses, and it can't be said that the film performed abnormally, because its ratings and professional standards are all in it. Grade feedback.

Since its release on the 23rd, Ding Ding has easily won the screening scale of 3,087 theaters in the theater chain. After all, the theater chain owners know that the combination of Peter Jackson + Spielberg can lose, but the fact is that the film The first day only received 2.3 million box office.

From the first day of release to the end of the first weekend, the box office percentage did not increase much every day. This is simply a trend of aging and dying. There is no doubt that it has become the largest in the circle at the end of this year. a failure case.

Paramount was stunned, and the North American Cinema Alliance was a little overwhelmed. Even Andy Serkis, the first motion capture brother who worked with Peter Jackson for the third time, was a little confused, and he made no secret of his confusion in front of reporters. Sample--

The production cost of Ding Ding of 130 million is definitely not less than the publicity cost of 50 million. It can be said that Paramount's treatment is not low, and it is very optimistic about the market prospects of this work, but the box office of the first weekend is less than 9.7 million. , the average movie theater received only $3,132.

The ticket price of the 3d hall is 8.9 US dollars, which means that in the past three days, only more than 350 spectators in each movie theater went to see the movie. According to the calculation of three films, the choice of less than 38 people per show is really sorry for this kind of card. Division and Xuanfa scale.

If it is a class film, this data is very good, but when it is put into a class A animation masterpiece, it is very stretched.

Why?

The Los Angeles Times put it this way: The Adventures of Tintin was clearly a failed attempt.

Although it is Spielberg's work, I was not very optimistic about this animation at the beginning of its release. Because several similar animations have suffered different failures before.

The first was 2001's Final Fantasy: Inside the Soul, a movie with an investment of $137 million, and the final box office was only 32 million. There are various reasons for losing money. In my opinion, in addition to the lack of an attractive plot line, there is also a lack of acceptance of cg live-action movies at that time;

In 2007, Beowulf with a budget of 150 million was released. The North American box office was 82 million US dollars, and the global box office totaled more than 190 million. It was also lost, but it was the first to implement the method of modeling animated characters using real people. , so that the audience has a preliminary understanding of this direction.

In fact, the story of Bei can be considered enthusiastic and exciting, but it still does not make people feel applauded;

Then there is the hot screening of Avatar at the end of 2009 and the first half of 2010, which promoted the concept of 3D movies. Just one of the bonus points.

Then for me, after watching Ding Ding, the 3D effect is still good, it is more comfortable than most pseudo 3D films, and it is not deliberate, and the story is told smoothly, and the intention of the production team can be seen.

For example, the material of Tintin is more refined than the general 3D animation, and you can even see the character's hair and small freckles on the skin during the viewing process.

Even for those who like British style and retro style, in this film will experience Tintin speaking European accent English against gangsters with old-fashioned machine guns.

But it's limited to this, it can't give a bright feeling after all.

So unfortunately, the existence of Ding Ding still proves that filling animated cg with motion capture is a wrong idea, especially when it targets children and teenagers, but audiences of these two age groups when not interested.

Compared with the euphemism of the paper media, some movie reviews on the Internet are much sharper from the media, especially the voice of a certain big V with a thorn - it can only be said: Spielberg's set of things is a bit outdated.

Watching The Adventures of Tintin gave me a very awkward movie-watching experience: let's restore it, Tintin's upturned hair, the dog Snow White, Captain Haddock's captain's uniform, and the DuPont Brothers' cane hat are all the same as the original.

However, from the 2D flat cartoons to the more delicate and realistic 3D motion capture animations, no matter how you look at it, it is not linked to childhood memories. When you look at it, you feel uncomfortable.

Of course, this film has two top Hollywood commercial directors, Spielberg and Peter Jackson, and the rhythm is as good as ever.

Treasure hunting and solving puzzles are suspenseful, and various scenes of chasing adventures and fighting are staged one after another, but it makes people feel accustomed to, calm, and not attractive enough. One of the audience in front of me even fell asleep, and after a while, I always feel that it is the animated version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I can't help but want to say that it is outdated.

When I said it outdated, I didn't want to use this to make a crowd.

Rather, it is really a personal judgment to look at the gap between the style of Spielberg's commercial films in recent years and the aesthetics of the times.

Thinking about it carefully, in recent years, he directed How to Get Away, Raiders of the Lost Ark 4, and The Adventures of Tintin in several conventional and commercial films.

Well, Artificial Intelligence, Happy Terminal, Minority Report, Munich Massacre and several films that reflect a strong personal artistic style are not within the scope of discussion.

In other words, when Spielberg shows his artistic personality in the film, he is still a well-deserved top film master in Hollywood.

But when he shoots a blockbuster with obvious box office intentions with conventional business routines, it is obvious that the business methods have lagged behind the sharper and more avant-garde Lyman Last, Christopher Nolan, Michael - Bay, Zach Snyder, Guillermo del Toro and others.

If you have to give an example, look at Bad Guys, District 9; look at The Dark Knight, Inception; look at Transformers, Peerless Cataclysm; look at Pacific Rim , Godzilla, which one is not better than the above-mentioned movies in terms of contradiction and commercial control, and the audience will buy it more.

The market cannot deceive people. I always feel that Director Spielberg is still using his popular, most peaceful and relaxing way to entertain the audience, but this old-fashioned method may meet the needs of audience positioning of all ages. But it has been unable to cause enough stimulation to experienced moviegoers.

To put it simply, it is orgasm and the release of dopamine.

The audience will be excited when they watch The Dark Knight in the battle between the clown and Mr. Wayne; when the protagonist of District 9 turns into a prawn and controls the alien armor to kill; It would also be cool; watching Godzilla and Muto fight, the theater cries never stop.

But do the above-mentioned films have such emotional climaxes?

No.

The tone of the film is too peaceful from beginning to end, and all kinds of adventures and fights are presented in a way that lacks waves and dangers through smooth shots. No matter what kind of danger they face, Tintin and Captain Haddock can Emotional stability saved the day.

Just talking about The Adventures of Tintin, there are ship fights, plane forced landings, ancient city chases, and dock confrontations. It's hard to be peaceful if you let several other example directors film these scenes.

I can imagine in my mind how Director Nolan used 10 minutes of scheduling to portray the villain of the Joker with a bank robbery scene, but there is no action scene here that will make my heart rise to my throat Eyes or minds are highly concentrated.

It is in this de-tensioned style that the film gently entertains the audience with dazzlingly smooth shots, hilarious with some humor, but always uninspiring.

Even Michael Bay's favorite shocking explosion can mobilize the audience's emotions better than this gentle approach.

Under the social rhythm of more and more fast food and high pressure, and in the environment where more and more fragments of time are used, we need some stimulation, don't we?

As soon as this post came out, it quickly attracted a lot of traffic.

It’s just that there are less approvals and more abuses, but most of the scoldings are just filters for Spielberg’s works. After scolding the bloggers, they will not add more theaters to “The Adventures of Tintin”. The attendance rate may be that they themselves feel that it is too bland, and it will not be their choice.

Anyway, in any case, the opening of Ding Ding in the first week of 9.7 million basically declared that there is no hope of making a profit. The bosses of the alliance who arranged 3,087 cinemas are a little sad, especially when signing such a large contract, the status quo is basically maintained on the contract. I haven't run for at least half a month.

This also means that no matter how bad the performance of Ding Ding is in the next few weeks, it is impossible to recover, and it has to be arranged.

Of course, some relatively independent theater owners are even worse off. They have signed longer contracts and can only bear more pressure on screenings.

That's what shopping malls are like, people always have to pay for their choices.

Back to Lyman's side.

Since the meeting with the representative of Red Shirt that day, some documents and formalities have been carried out, and both parties have determined that the contract regulations require a lot of effort.

It is the end of the year, and this is the first financing that Lehman has secured for Amber. Although the process has been dragged a bit, it has achieved good results.

The same is a venture capital fund that has too many upper-level resources. It is escorted by red shirts. At least in how to hype the value, it has its own people.

It’s like Facebook and Netflix accepted capital and started to take off. Some things just won’t work if you don’t take them with you. It’s as if no one believes that Facebook’s virtual assets are really valuable and very valuable, but they can’t stand the backside. People can tell stories and speculate on concepts, and its market value should keep rising.

The value of amber is growing slowly, and the key is the lack of an amplifying tube.

Of course, it may not be particularly pleasant to work with and play with a cool, smart VC who is demanding, but Lehman's purpose is to be closer to the Nasdaq, and that's fine.

Playing streaming media, it’s too reluctant to burn yourself, what’s more, the efficiency of film and television production’s reversal of the investment quota is not high, and the backlog of funds is huge. Sometimes, Lehman is worried that there is a real problem with the cash flow, especially the copyright. The price increase, it is really impossible not to buy.

In addition to these things, the difficulties encountered by Ding Ding are only a little bit of discussion between him and Liam and others.

In fact, a few years ago, many big manufacturers knew that the name Spielberg was no longer a guarantee of success. The core team he led was still strong, but the output returns were the same. Everyone chases.

The problem with Ding Ding is that the cold situation is higher than everyone imagined. I thought I could still make some money, but I didn't expect to lose.

It seems that live-action motion capture animation is really not good, and children don't seem to need any real texture in animation. Liam sighed.

He still applauds the fact that some people in the circle can think about new shooting directions. The film needs to change.

The younger generation of audiences are becoming more and more impatient, which he did not expect.

Lehman said casually, but Lehman didn't take it to heart. Game of Thrones has already cut a few episodes, and the early promotion can begin.

Yes, oss.