Made in Hollywood

"I am the king of the world!"

When James Cameron raised the best director and shouted this sentence, it set off all the media, some commented that he was arrogant, some commented that he was arrogant, but no one thought he was not qualified.

Fourteen Oscar nominations and eleven statues are enough to prove the greatness of James Cameron and "Titanic".

What's more, there are even greater box office numbers that are still accumulating!

The 70th Academy Awards is undoubtedly the moment when James Cameron is consecrated. The former truck driver and self-taught director has already stood at the highest position in Hollywood, and no matter how much public opinion ridicules James Cameron In person, it is rare that he no longer targets "Titanic". Even those who do not deal with the tyrants on the set in Hollywood will not say anything to him in the open. Even all Hollywood production companies will, to a certain extent, say nothing to him. , thanks to James Cameron and Titanic.

Because the big ship brought not only the box office, but also opened the door of countless closed markets, it pushed Hollywood's globalization strategy to a peak, and Hollywood movies have completely dominated the world's movie market since then. Other countries can only find ways to protect their own The film industry, rather than face the competition.

If Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" led to a revolution in the world film market, then James Cameron's "Titanic" completed the revolution.

Seeing the brilliant James Cameron, it was impossible for Duke to have no idea, but he was clear-headed and knew that there was actually a considerable gap between the two, after all, he had been cheating.

Even if it is cheating, he can't actually beat James Cameron and Steven Spielberg - in terms of cumulative box office, Spielberg has completely destroyed him; in terms of single box office. James? Cameron's opponent is just himself.

As for the so-called three major directors of the 1990s hyped by some media, Duke has never taken it seriously. Now he wants to be on a par with the other two, but the gap is still obvious.

However, only when there is a gap can there be motivation, and the era without competitors is the most terrifying. It is not unfortunate to have a strong enough competitor.

Duke has never been afraid of competition. He has a lofty goal erected in front of him, and he will always remind him not to be complacent. One more life may not make him stronger than the world's top elites.

The Oscars this year had a deep memory for Duke, but now it's just a symbol, except for James Cameron's "King of the World" declaration. As well as Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron promoting "The Matrix" on the red carpet, Duke's main focus is still on work. Similar to the previous few months, he will stay in Los Angeles on weekdays. Hosted post-production on The Matrix. On the weekends, I flew to New Zealand to participate in the preparatory work for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Maybe such a high-intensity work will drive people crazy, but Duke has always been full of fighting spirit and full of desire for his future career. Nor is there a lack of effort and drive to succeed.

At the same time, the revenue share of "Titanic" has been put in place one after another. It also greatly inspired Duke's spirit. How many people in this world can get rid of the influence of fame and fortune? At least he can't.

From November last year to April, "Titanic" has been released for nearly half a year, and the North American box office has accumulated a total of 587.95 million US dollars. The global box office totaled 1.57524 billion US dollars, which can be described as infinite scenery!

In addition, the eleven Oscar statuettes have an obvious effect on the promotion of the film. Not to mention the number of theaters in North America soaring again, many overseas markets that have already been offline have also started their second screenings.

That is, at the beginning of April, 20th Century Fox, which is responsible for overseas distribution, made its first overseas box office share with Paramount Pictures and Duke Studio, from which Duke Studio received a $35 million overseas box office share, thereby investing the investment. 'Titanic' grossed nearly $110 million!

The various seaside areas of the film are also being negotiated. The first thing that Duke Studio can participate in is the super hot soundtrack album.

"Titanic" has won 16 North American weekly box office titles so far, and the original soundtrack album has also achieved eight consecutive sales on the Billboard, with 10.14 million copies sold so far in North America alone.

Overseas is a wider market. Although the sales of soundtrack albums in non-English speaking regions are not as exaggerated as in North America, the total overseas sales are as high as more than 16 million.

Due to the share with various overseas distributors, by the middle of April, Duke Studio received the first part of the overseas sales of the original soundtrack album, and the figure was as high as 21.2 million US dollars!

Although it is only the first share, there will be a large amount of income in the future, but the income received by the Duke studio seems to be a little less than the terrifying revenue figures, but the operation of the overseas market is extremely cumbersome, and there is a number of calculations in the middle. Layer-level channel dealers, this is a commercial activity, and no organization will only contribute without receiving money.

Don't forget, there are also different taxes in different countries.

At the same time, this also means that the overseas income obtained by Duke Studio is basically pure profit.

Although Duke's investment team and other institutions have to take 10% of their income, investing in "Titanic" is definitely a lucrative business.

As long as the film can generate revenue in the future, he owns a quarter of the revenue share.

Duke's successful investment in big ships has also brought other chain reactions, the most direct one being the "Harry Potter" series.

"Maybe Duke is a little confused about investing in other industries."

In the conference room, everyone at Warners knew that Jeff Robinoff was talking about Apple, "but he's still very accurate about the movie, and I think we should promote his proposal with the highest priority. The Harry Potter series!"

Everyone at Warner Bros. is nodding, and the success of Titanic speaks volumes.

This is a circle of chasing winners.

"How's the Matrix going?" Jeff Robinoff asked.

As the co-leader of the project, Doug Walter replied, "The post-production work is basically completed. I called Duke in the morning, and now only the beginning and end of the film need to be added."

"What about ratings?"

Doug Walter shook his head, "The sample has been sent to the MPAA jury."

Robert Solomon, Warner Bros.'s representative at the MPAA, volunteered, "There is a force against us, and it's very difficult to get a PG-13 rating."

Jeff Robinoff thought for a while, then asked, "What's Duke's opinion?"

"He's mentally prepared." Doug Walter said, "PG-13 is just for the fight. If it's still R, then proceed according to the established announcement strategy."

Jeff Robinoff said, "Hold a special test screening as soon as possible, publicize it with the greatest strength, and notify all the cooperating manufacturers that from late April, some pre-production products can be listed."

"Also!" he added, "Doug, remember to keep an eye on your competitors. I agree with Duke's suggestion. CAA's Eno Martin keeps courting us. It's in Warner's interest that Martin Bob step down. What he packaged and served was DreamWorks' investment works, and "The Clash of Heaven and Earth" is our primary target."

Not only Warner Bros., but several other companies are also making some moves.

In the end, Jeff Robinoff warned again, "Don't relax on Sony Entertainment!"

On the last day of early April, after Duke added the film's end credits and theme song, the post-production of "The Matrix" was completed. This film, which he had undergone a lot of surgery, was more successful or suffered from the audience. Waiting in the cold, we can only wait for the test of the market.

Publicity and hype is an indispensable means to promote success.

In mid-April, the second trailer of "The Matrix" landed on major TV stations. The trailer, like the first one, basically ignored the slightly tricky plot, focusing on fighting, collisions and early publicity, which was praised by young people of 'cool' and 'cyberpunk culture'.

Posters, newspapers, magazines, outdoor advertisements, TV and radio advertisements, etc., these conventional publicity means Warner Bros. will not let go, and have set a publicity budget of 30 million US dollars for the film.

In addition to traditional media, on the Internet, such as Yahoo and other famous websites, you can easily see the news and comments of "The Matrix". On Duke's personal virus promotion website, he personally responded and posted a few messages. After Zhang Life Pictures, the traffic surged. Although the director could not compare with the superstars of the same magnitude, it also drove the average daily traffic of the website to exceed 50,000.

These are all potential audiences for the Matrix movies.

In late April, the summer season is getting closer and closer. The audiences, cinemas and media previews of "The Matrix" have been held twice in succession. Warner Bros. collected feedback from audience surveys, mainly from people under the age of 30. , the film's praise rate is as high as 97%!

The hype is going on, and The Matrix will have a third pure-audience preview, the last before its release.

For the sake of publicity, Warner Bros. has set up online registration points on the websites of Yahoo and Duke while setting up the on-site registration office in Los Angeles. Because the film has held two trial screenings, the audience's reputation has begun to spread, especially Among the young people, this film spreads like crazy on the Internet with smooth information!

The night before the registration started, people began to gather near several registration points in Los Angeles. By the evening, nearly 2,000 people had gathered at the registration point at Warner Studios in Burbank. I want to get a chance to participate in the test screening and see the cool and explosive film that has aroused countless curiosity among them for the first time.

At the same time, the registration on the Internet is just as popular. The big website like Yahoo is not bad, but the personal website of Duke is completely underprepared and crashes due to excessive traffic! (To be continued ~^~)