America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 189 Released simultaneously, shocking the world

If the time progress bar is dragged back 10 years, there is a word about movies that everyone is already familiar with, and that is simultaneous release in multiple countries.

But in 2003, it was still difficult to achieve this step.

The benefits of simultaneous release are very obvious, and the most intuitive one is the impact on piracy.

Looking around the world, no matter which country you are in, piracy is a rampant business.

The United States is the world's largest pirate country, especially of popular movies.

Often, just after it hits theaters, the gun version will be circulated the next day, and three or four days later, the disc will start to circulate in the underground market.

This is true for our country, not to mention other countries that have delayed the release of the movie. By the time the movie starts, pirated copies will already be flying everywhere.

After watching the pirated version, how many people will be willing to spend money to go to the cinema again?

Although simultaneous release cannot cure this problem, it can effectively attract box office during prime time after the opening.

The audience wants to watch but can't get pirated discs, and the gun version has not been leaked online. If he can't hold it in any longer, he will naturally go into the cinema.

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of MGM, Transformers has made a breakthrough in this regard.

It was released simultaneously in more than 20 countries including North America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, and China.

Using this method, it is expected to increase the box office by at least US$50 million.

With luck, $80 million or even hundreds of millions is not impossible.

"Before the creation of all things, the source of fire existed, and no one knew its origin."

"I only know that the energy contained in it can reshape the world and create life, and the life of Transformers comes from this."

"Just like countless races, the existence of power is coveted."

“Some people try to do good, others try to do evil, and war breaks out.”

"In the protracted battle, the planet Cybertron was reduced to rubble, and countless compatriots fell."

"In the end, the source of fire wandered into the universe. We explored in the endless darkness and visited every galaxy and every planet."

"Long time passed, when hope gradually faded, and a new planet was found."

"So the Transformers set off one after another, and there was the last hope - Earth!"

On the big screen, along with Optimus Prime's narration, part of Cybertron's history was revealed.

In just 1 minute and 15 seconds, the process of this alien civilization from glory to destruction has been shown.

The camera moves from far to near, and countless Transformers are fighting, and finally they all turn into a pile of scrap metal and fall down.

In the close-up shot of the screen, a Transformer's Spark is hit.

It's obviously just an iron lump, but it makes vivid facial expressions.

The mechanical palm tried to catch its own fire, but in the end it could only close its eyes in pain.

In order to save money, the original Michael Bay didn't even make Cybertron graphics.

This way of handling it made Eric feel a little regretful and he wanted to do better.

Therefore, in order to show the style of Cybertron, nearly 5 million US dollars were burned just for the opening special effects.

The effect was also explosive, and he could clearly hear the exclamations one after another in the theater.

The film critic from the Los Angeles Times nodded secretly and wrote: "Judging from this scene alone, the special effects are definitely at the top level in the industry, and MGM is really not bragging."

"If the subsequent special effects are of this level, then even if the plot is rubbish, I believe no audience will care. The rush of adrenaline is enough to smooth everything out."

Sitting on Eric's right is Sergey.

He also participated in the pre-trial meeting, but the special effects at that time were not perfect enough, and he mainly watched the plot.

Seeing this picture now, the toys on the assembly line flashed through my mind. I never thought that one day they would be vividly displayed in front of my eyes.

This feeling is really shocking and touching.

And listening to the exclamations around him, Eric couldn't help but laugh.

That’s it, here comes the real appetizer.

The picture shows an endless desert, with a formation of V22 Ospreys advancing rapidly.

Inside the cabin, the camera advances and a group of soldiers who have obviously just completed their mission are chatting. The most prominent one in the crowd is naturally the little bitch Ryan Reynolds.

After a few words, his status as captain was highlighted, with the rank of major on his armband.

Soon, under a wide vista, a magnificent military base came into view.

Fighters of various colors, main battle tanks, and armored vehicles are arranged neatly.

The big and round American soldiers were either exercising or training, giving the audience a feeling of incomparable sturdiness.

It seems to be saying that our army is so powerful and our great guys are so powerful.

The military fans in the audience immediately felt as if they had found a treasure. These equipment were so familiar to them, and at first glance they were real shots. The texture could not be simulated by CG at all.

Immediately afterwards, one of the Decepticon members appeared on the scene in a stun-disguised armed helicopter and quickly approached the military base.

After the warning failed, two F22 Raptor fighter jets took off directly into the air, preparing to monitor and warn each other.

The take-off process of the fighter plane was shot in real time, and the clips soaring in the sky were provided by the Ministry of Defense and edited by Eric.

The process was very smooth, even the numbers of the two F22s were deliberately painted exactly the same.

At this time, in an unknown movie theater, Harvey Weinstein secretly hid in a corner and watched.

Just like two days ago, Eric was secretly hiding in a corner watching "Polar Expedition".

Now the thought in his head is, how the hell did this kid convince the Ministry of Defense?

At first glance, this scene looks like a real-life military base, and the guys at the Pentagon had to vomit blood for the price.

Did he spend all his money on this? Are the special effects for the next hour or so perfunctory?

If this is really the case, that would be great, I would laugh in my dreams.

But the plot that followed completely slapped him in the face.

The movie reaches 6 minutes and 40 seconds, and the gunship disguised by Dizzy slowly lands in the base.

He was immediately surrounded by several Humvee armored vehicles, with machine guns aimed at the pilot. As long as the opponent made the slightest movement, he would be torn into pieces immediately.

The eyes of the audience and film critics were glued to the big screen. Everyone knew that the armed helicopter was a Decepticon disguised and it was about to transform.

Tsk...

Tsk...

"Stop the engine and put your head in your hands!" the lieutenant colonel leading the team shouted.

What responded to him was the gradually blurring figure of the pilot.

"It's a holographic projection!"

Someone in the audience immediately shouted, instantly attracting many comments.

He quickly shrank his head to apologize, indicating that he would pay attention.

On the big screen, just as people expected, amidst the complex mechanical sounds, the armed helicopter suddenly began to transform.

The wings and tail were retracted, and the hatch was protruding outward. In the eyes of the American soldiers with their eyes widened, in less than three seconds, it had transformed into a huge mechanical life.

A code appears in the upper left corner of the screen.

Faction: Decepticons.

Name: Vertigo.

Metamorphosis: Sikorsky MH-23 armed helicopter.

Abilities: Robotic arm machine gun, energy pulse wave, chest cannon, jamming stance, photon blast rifle, rocket-piercing uranium rounds, regenerative armor.

During the post-production process, Eric thought about it for a long time and finally decided to add an introduction to Transformers.

First of all, the appearance of the Transformers in the movie is different from that of the comics and animations. More importantly, we need to take care of the ordinary audience, at least let them distinguish who is who.

Otherwise, if a few gangsters start to work together and the scenes move very fast, the audience may not understand who is winning and who is losing, which will affect the viewing experience.

"Oh my god!"

Seeing the dizzy transformation, countless people on the big screen and in the cinema simultaneously exclaimed.

"Fire!"

Immediately afterwards, machine guns and submachine guns opened fire together, and the screen suddenly burst into flames.

But the large-caliber bullets that could penetrate the steel plate hit the dizzy body, only causing bursts of crisp sounds and no real damage at all.

boom!

Boom!

indistinct……

On the other hand, he was dizzy and fired with his left arm, immediately smashing a Humvee armored vehicle into a sieve.

With a slap of his right hand, an armored vehicle had been knocked away.

Its chest glowed with orange light, and a cannon beam streaked around it.

Dozens of American soldiers and several armored vehicles couldn't even resist for a second. They were instantly vaporized and couldn't even scream.

That is, it is for the pg13 level, otherwise Eric would have to create a few scenes of American soldiers being torn apart.

In order to pass the trial, he could only choose to use more energy weapons.

This can not only show the technological strength of Transformers, but also keep the picture from being too bloody.

In the command tower, men with the rank of lieutenant general hurriedly issued combat orders and simultaneously called the Pentagon to call the police and ask for help.

But before the message was sent, the soldiers were already looking at him in horror.

"General, the signal has been interfered with, we can only fight independently!"

On the other side, Ryan Reynolds led a group of men and wanted to drive a tank to face the enemy.

If the bullets don't work, it only means that the power is not strong enough. I don't believe that the cannonballs can't penetrate this mechanical monster.

And just when they were preparing to launch the tanks with this idea, someone else had already taken the lead.

Several M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks rushed over from all directions, knocking over their own armored vehicles in the rush, but they couldn't care less.

Not far away, Dizzy's right arm suddenly deformed, and his palm disappeared and turned into a huge-caliber rifle.

Dense light points are shot out from the rifle. Whenever the light points come into contact with people or objects, a violent explosion will immediately occur.

On the runway, more than a dozen fighter jets that had not had time to take off were blown to pieces.

The construction buildings and soldiers' dormitories were even more ablaze.

In a matter of moments, Dizzy had cleared up the surrounding area.

In the close-up of the camera, its eyes glowed, and after scanning the entire base, it finally landed on the target in the center of the command tower.

Just as he was about to walk over, after a few cannon shots, a cannonball fell on it.

The huge impact caused Dizzy to retreat continuously, and the fire from the explosion finally broke through its armor.

Seeing this situation, the American soldiers were overjoyed. It turned out that the mechanical monsters on the opposite side were not invincible, and their weapons could also hurt the enemy.

But before these soldiers could be happy for a few seconds, the damaged armor had begun to heal quickly.

In the close-up shot, the soldier's originally excited expression suddenly solidified.

Dizzy was also angered by the constant harassment by the US military. A blue and white pulse energy wave suddenly spread around it with it as the center.

Wherever they went, people were turned upside down, and main battle tanks weighing dozens of tons were instantly lifted into the sky.

The energy wave passed by, turning tens of meters around the dizzy into scorched earth.

Seeing this situation, many soldiers were frightened and stared blankly without doing anything.

"Don't just watch, that monster's armor hasn't fully healed yet, aim and attack quickly!"

Amid Ryan Reynolds's roar, a group of soldiers came to their senses and poured bullets into the stun wounds.

This time, Dizzy did not allow them to attack, but protected his injured area.

But it was not in the mood to chase after the minions. The armor on its back opened and a mechanical scorpion sprang out.

Scorpion burrowed into the ground and headed towards Ryan Reynolds' team.

The ground seemed to have been run over by an excavator, causing debris to fill the sky.

Dizzy, no longer caring about anything else, walked straight to the control tower and blew off the roof with a slap.

A huge robotic arm grabbed it and inserted it directly into the information processing equipment.

"General, it's stealing core secrets!"

"Turn off the device!"

"No, it's interfered with and cannot be forcibly closed!"

Hearing this, the lieutenant general picked up a fire ax and slashed at the wires.

Then the screen went black, the battle came to an end, and the camera turned to the hero Sam's school.

call……

In the cinema, countless people exhaled deeply, and their nervousness relaxed.

The five-minute battle scene fully demonstrates the power of Transformers.

Eric gave the Decepticons a more terrifying fighting power, far more terrifying than the Michael Bay version.

Not only are the weapon systems more abundant, but the lethality is even higher.

Moreover, they have the ability to regenerate armor, which means that human weapons cannot easily harm Transformers, and the battle will only become more brutal.

"Damn it! It's so exciting, this war scene is so exciting!"

"Yes, only Hollywood can produce such a large-scale production. A five-minute scene may cost enough to produce a domestic blockbuster."

"That makes sense. I went to see He Ping's "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" a few days ago. It was advertised as having Hollywood join the cast and it was a Sino-US co-production. Now I suspect that they are falsely promoting it."

"I also watched "Zhou Yu's Train" with my girlfriend last month. Anyway, I am not the audience. Compared with Transformers, I can only say that it is hard to describe."

"The box office of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" has exceeded 20 million. How much do you think the box office of "Transformers" can be?"

"It can definitely surpass "Heroes", and maybe it can challenge "Titanic"."

In a cinema in Shanghai, two young people in their 20s were whispering. The scene just now gave them a huge shock.

This is the scene not only in Shanghai, but also in movie theaters in all countries where it is released simultaneously.

The film critic of The Independent curled his lips helplessly, saying that his newspaper and MGM have never dealt with it.

He also came with a mission, and his mission was to hack "Transformers" as hard as he could.

But after only ten minutes of play, he knew that this task was not easy to do.

"You sons of bitches! How am I supposed to write about this? Is it not artistic enough for me to criticize a commercial blockbuster?"

"Eric Cooper, this guy is really awesome. He went to a military base to shoot real scenes and controlled a crew of thousands of people. Are there really born filmmakers?"