Huayu started as a lecturer at Beijing Film Academy

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is considered to be the ace show of NBC's late night schedule, with a fixed audience of nearly 8 million people.

In November every year in North America, a large number of Oscar-winning movies are released. If it weren't for the huge momentum it had previously gained in Toronto, "The Invisible Guest" might not have had the opportunity to appear on this stage.

After all, NBC has too many movies to choose from!

In Santa Monica, California, the headquarters of Lionsgate Films, President Frank Gustav sat in his office early in the morning. He looked a little anxious and looked at the office door from time to time.

Soon there was a knock on the door outside, and then the female secretary walked in.

"Sit down, Trish." Frank tried to make himself look natural.

Trish, Frank's secretary, took out a folder from her bag and sat down.

"Boss, we have got the statistics of yesterday's single-day box office."

"Tell me about the situation of the three newly released movies."

Tracy glanced at the numbers on the document and said, "Warner Bros.' Gravity opened in nearly 3,000 theaters, and the first-day box office reached 23.87 million US dollars! Columbia's Captain Phillips opened in 268 theaters, with a box office of 950,000 US dollars! Our Invisible Guest opened in 100 theaters, with a box office of 980,000 US dollars!"

"9,800 US dollars per theater per day?" Frank tapped the table lightly, "Not bad, a little higher than I expected."

In view of the huge honor "The Invisible Guest" won in the early stage of the film, this time it was screened in a small range.

It can be predicted that the single-theater box office of the film will be hot. According to the prediction of Lionsgate Films, the single-theater box office of the film in the first three days of the weekend should be more than 20,000 US dollars. Now it has exploded 9,800 US dollars on the first day. Generally, Saturday will rise more than Friday. The single-theater box office in the first weekend can completely hit the 30,000 US dollar mark.

The single-theater box office of a single day breaking 10,000 is something that only Hollywood's first-line directors can do!

For example, Nolan and Spielberg.

According to this situation, 100 theaters will definitely not be able to meet the market demand.

Thinking of this, Frank continued to ask: "Other statistics."

"The average attendance rate of "Gravity" is 70%, and the audience's favorable rating is 87%. According to the analysis agency, the box office should rise sharply after the first week..."

"Let's talk about "Captain Phillips". That's what we should focus on!"

Bill knocked on the table with some dissatisfaction.

"Gravity" is a big hit at the box office, which is a sci-fi blockbuster with an investment of 150 million yuan, and two big movie stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock joined. It would be strange if the box office is not high!

"Captain Phillips has an attendance rate of 49% and an audience favorable rating of 82%, but there are too few theaters showing it, and the situation is not clear; "The Invisible Guest" has an attendance rate of 80%, an audience favorable rating of 92%, and a huge audience reputation. Several market analysis agencies believe that if we expand the release, the box office is likely to usher in a rapid growth."

Expand the release?

There are too many things to consider, so Frank asked again, "What about the audience?"

"Of the 210,000 people who entered "The Invisible Guest" yesterday, audiences over 40 years old accounted for about 70%, and students accounted for less than 20%. Most of the audience basically gave the film a good review."

First of all, the number of suspense theaters is limited, and those who want to support the film are often die-hard fans of this type of drama, or fans of the actress Sharizi, and the audience is relatively limited.

The purpose of doing this is to avoid people who are not fans of genre films blindly buying tickets to enter the theater of "The Invisible Guest", so as to form a super high audience reputation in the early stage.

Coupled with publicity promotion, it is enough to whet the appetite of many people.

Movie fans are blind and gather in groups. If a person sees a film that he thinks is wonderful, he will always recommend it to people around him, and those who accept the recommendation often have preconceived views, thus further spreading the good audience reputation.

In addition, "The Invisible Guest" is originally an honor, and it has been hyped and promoted by Lionsgate in various ways before the screening.

According to Frank's previous idea, he would wait until the market was almost ready before expanding the release. By then, it would definitely be able to explode with huge energy.

Therefore, Frank did not accept the secretary's suggestion to expand the number of screenings for the time being.

As a result, by Tuesday night, more than half of the theaters in the 100 theaters showing "The Invisible Guest" were even full.

You know, online ticket purchases are not popular in the United States, and there are no half-price student tickets. They often call to book tickets in advance.

So full houses are indeed rare!

When Frank called Gu Zhongyu to congratulate him, his tone was flat but he could not hide his inner joy.

After all, there has been no full-house suspense film in the North American market for a long time!

And by Wednesday, "The Invisible Guest" received a box office data of 1.25 million US dollars in 100 theaters, and the box office of a single theater exceeded 10,000 US dollars!

This result is enough to rank in the top 20 of the weekly box office rankings!

November in North America is the absolute best month for major film critics. Around Thanksgiving, a lot of Oscar-winning movies are released!

In fact, the spring of professional film critics has begun since the second half of the awards season!

For "The Invisible Guest", professional film critics have been gearing up and ready to do a great job.

Many film critics couldn't wait to go to the theater to watch this film as soon as the screening started.

It has only been three days since the movie was released, and relevant comments about "The Invisible Guest" have appeared on the social platform columns of many well-known film critics.

"There is an obvious mentoring relationship from Hitchcock in this movie, which can be said to be rare. It first throws out a plot that you can think of, allowing you to guess how the incident will develop. In the development of the incident When it really meets your imagination, you will lower your expectations and guard against the movie, and this is the moment when the movie starts to shine. If the context of this movie is described as a road, it can be described like this. : When you think you have reached the end, the starting point has just begun...

"The Invisible Guest, the whole story depicts two women, and the men are just supporting roles. The two women are portrayed in the same way, with suppression first and then promotion. The characters are brought into the male-dominated society and the audience has a strong understanding of the existence of women. Among the stereotypes, be it the femme fatale or the cowardly mother, the story of the male protagonist blaming others would not be valid. It is a very clever technique..."

"The male protagonist and villain played by Chinese actor Gu Zhongyu is eye-catching. I always thought that Asian actors can only rely on kung fu or ethnic characteristics to act in Hollywood. It turns out that I was wrong, and the screenwriter is actually him. A Chinese person is How did you write such a script with European and American social characteristics?”

In addition to posting film reviews on the Internet, these film critics also expressed their opinions in newspapers and magazines. A bunch of praising film reviews appeared in major newspapers.

Without Lionsgate's request, many cinemas offered to screen "The Invisible Guest"

The theater chain is very clear that this movie definitely has huge box office potential!

So, naturally, starting from November 7th, the movie's screening scale doubled several times to 500!

With the rapid increase in the number of people watching the film, the audience reputation of "The Invisible Guest" will inevitably decline, but everyone who has watched the film has a consensus that this is a very good film!

"The lawyer is pretending to be a lawyer is actually not difficult to guess, but that is not the point. The point is the relationship between "narration" and "truth". In the absence of a chain of physical evidence, every narration of the male protagonist is actually self-consistent and It is true, but it may not be true. This is really thought-provoking. How much of the truth that we believe and grasp is controlled by narrative?”

"After watching a movie, I didn't realize that the old man was played by Shalizi!"

Although the audience's opinions are varied, they are basically supportive of the movie. "The Invisible Guest" was a complete hit in North America!

This is not over yet. Three days after it was released in North America, the film was released in mainland theaters and instantly became a dark horse in the November blockbuster war!

Even though there were Hollywood blockbusters "Thor: The Dark World" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" in the same period, "The Invisible Guest" benefited from the box office performance of starring Gu Zhongyu in the past two years and the super high performance of the TV series "Descendants of the Sun" Popularity, it also received nearly 25% of the film schedules on the first day.

Moreover, Gu Zhongyu is uncharacteristically playing a villain in the movie this time, which has become a major selling point of the movie. Whether they are his fans or passers-by, they are willing to go to the cinema to find out what is going on, even if they are little Heizi who want to write a movie review. He, don't you have to buy a ticket first and take a look.

As the movie was released, its box office and reputation continued to rise. One week after its release, the film not only ranked first in box office and reputation in the same period, but also broke a series of box office records for Sino-US co-productions in China. The attendance rate also ranks first on many days.

The box office in the first three days was close to 150 million, which has broken the box office record for domestic suspense films. It is also far ahead in terms of film schedule, surpassing the second-ranked "Thor 2" by 10 percentage points!

Those movies that have not yet been released have chosen to change their schedules in order to avoid its sharp edges and avoid becoming victims.

Now China and the United States are really blooming!

…

"Mr. Gu, do you know the first week box office results of "The Invisible Guest"?" Frank's voice on the phone was trembling.

"I'm not sure, but it should be around 5 million!"

Gu Zhongyu had already finished filming and left the crew. He was discussing matters related to Running Man with Wang Shicong and others from Blueberry TV. He suddenly received a call from the boss of Lionsgate and had to lower his voice to ask.

"Five million? Of course it's more than that. If it's five million, do you think I will call you specifically?"

Frank on the opposite side was a little dissatisfied. Before Gu Zhongyu could speak, he had already taken the initiative to break the news: "15 million U.S. dollars! If everything goes well, our movie is likely to exceed 100 million in North America!"

"Are you sure? It will earn $100 million at the box office before the Oscars?"

Gu Zhongyu was also startled, and his voice could not help but rise an octave higher.

This box office performance is almost catching up with that of the Mainland. Gu Zhongyu is not very popular in North America, and although Shalizi is an Oscar-winning actress, her appeal at the box office is not strong. However, they both got a box office of 100 million US dollars. ?

The box office trend of a feature film like "The Invisible Guest" is ultimately predicted based on the number of theaters it is shown in and the number of nominations. Unlike commercial blockbusters, once the Oscar nominations are announced, "The Invisible Guest" will only be able to win Nominations will generally increase the box office. If you are lucky and really win the Oscar, then it will be distributed and most countries around the world will introduce this movie!

But it's rare for a movie like "The Invisible Guest" to earn $100 million before the Oscars begin.

After all, the final investment for this movie was only over 10 million US dollars, most of which was the remuneration for Shalizi (the price of friendship obtained by Gu Zhongyu selling meat). Even if the publicity expenses are included, it does not exceed 20 million.

Putting down the phone, Gu Zhongyu suppressed his inner joy, but Mr. Wang opposite him still saw the uncontrollable rise of the corners of Gu Zhongyu's mouth: "What's wrong?"

"It's okay, let's continue discussing our topic."

After all, this is a formal occasion, so it's really not appropriate to talk about your own movie.

"We have reached an agreement on the four candidates, Mr. Gu, Mr. Wang, Deng Chao, Chen He, Wang Baoxiang, and Zheng Kai. What we are discussing now is the female MC and the other two male hosts. As far as we know, the Bai Lu you proposed is I’m your assistant. I’m a complete amateur and I’m afraid I’m not suitable to be a permanent guest!”

Wang Jun, Blueberry TV is responsible for the main planning of the Running Man project. He insists on the formula of the original time and space. Regarding the list of candidates provided by Gu Zhongyu, except for Deng Chao and Chen He, everyone else has doubts. The first one is Bai Lu.

"She is still a student at Nortel, and she also participated in Tang Yan's new drama "Why Shengxiaomo". By the time the first episode of Our Running Man is aired, the TV series has almost started airing, so she can't be considered an amateur..."

"Why is the Shengxiao Silent" that Tang Yan has been thinking about is about to start filming. This will be Bai Lu's debut film. Gu Zhongyu doesn't plan to let her become a star in one film, so it is better to start slowly from a supporting role.

Gu Zhongyu gave them a brief introduction to Bai Lu, and also assured that the effect of Bai Lu's variety show would definitely exceed their expectations. If you don't believe it, you can give it an interview and see.

Wang Jun shrugged. Since Gu Zhongyu said so, it was hard for him to refute others. Anyway, it was a mule or a horse. Just take it out and run around.

"As a candidate for this ability user, Yu Bo is too low-key. We think Li Chen is more suitable. He is very strong and looks like an ox!"

"Li Chen is very strong, but his character is not good. How dare you use such a person?"

Gu Zhongyu retorted directly, "You guys don't do your homework. You don't know that labor and management are tired of this person, right?"

"Yu Bo has acted in hit dramas such as "Water Moon Cave" and "Xiao Shiyilang". In terms of popularity, he is just as popular as Li Chen. In terms of skills... I don't think anyone in the entertainment industry can compare with him. of!"

"Then choose him!"

"For the other MCs, I suggest you choose from Sha Yi, Huang Bo, Dapeng, Xue Zhiqian, and Da Zhang..."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Gu, you seem to have forgotten someone!"

"Who did you forget? These are the people on the list. Do you have any other ideas?"

"No, Teacher Gu, we mean you!"

Wang Jun looked at Gu Zhongyu with a smile.

"I?"

Are you fucking kidding me?

I am the boss of Zongheng, and I take care of Wanji every day. There are so many things waiting for me to do, and so many movies waiting for me to shoot. Do you think I will be the resident MC of an outdoor variety show?

Gu Zhongyu thought he heard wrongly at first.

When several people from Blueberry TV nodded in agreement, Gu Zhongyu realized that these people were serious. They really wanted him to join Running Man!

Wang Jun stared at Gu Zhongyu eagerly.

Thank you very much for thinking so highly of me, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate!

"Yes, Teacher Gu, just participate. With your reputation, you can definitely increase the ratings and influence!"

Unexpectedly, Wang Sicong, who did not mind watching the excitement, would also persuade him. In fact, if conditions allowed, he would like to be a permanent guest.

Gu Zhongyu looked at Wang Shicong, who looked a little unnatural, and then looked at the people from Blueberry TV who looked expectant.

"Have you already hooked me up?"

"Indeed!" Wang Shicong nodded.

Let me go, you actually admitted it?

So shameless!

I asked you how to sell it for 200 million!

In the previous life, Blueberry TV went to Hanguo SBS TV station to buy the copyright of Running Man, and it only cost 120 million. It also came with the original PD Zhang He who was experienced in production, and a bunch of cameras and editors!

Why are you willing to pay 200 million to buy theirs this time? Gu Zhongyu has already been included in it!