Millennium director

"We have to admit that respecting the original comics is indeed a more correct choice."

The screenwriters of "Doctor Strange" C. Robert Kyle and Joe Spaihts lowered their heads and whispered to each other.

Although there are many screenwriters named in this movie, including Steve Ditko, the original comic author who co-created Marvel's superhero Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, and the most important Marvel world creator Stan Lee also signed.

But they are more of Marvel Pictures' names out of respect for the original work. The actual screenwriting was done by the two screenwriters C. Robert Kyle and Joe Spaihts.

They also wanted to change the role of the Ancient One from a Chinese man in the original version to a Celtic woman.

At first, they were complacent about this decision. After all, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko both approved of this decision and felt it was harmless.

And they themselves believed that changing the Ancient One into a woman would make the relationship between the Ancient One and Stephen Strange more dramatic.

After all, if the main actors are all men, from the perspective of a film screenwriter, it is not a good practice. Even in a male drama like "Fast and Furious", there must be a female embellishment. This has become a Hollywood screenwriter formula.

In addition to war films, any film of any theme must have a male and female match, which can complement each other.

However, after Wu Yuan took over the directorial work of "Doctor Strange", he immediately proposed to change the Ancient One back to the image of the original comics.

For this reason, Joe Spaihts and Wu Yuan had a cross-ocean video conference to argue.

He believes that in the original comics, Doctor Strange has many love stories, and his girlfriend (ex-girlfriend) Christine Palmer appeared from the beginning, so there is no need for the Ancient One to be responsible for the "female" perspective.

But the movie is different. In the movie, for the sake of length, this kind of side plot must be cut, and there are not many scenes left for Christine Palmer.

If the Ancient One is also set as a man, 90% of the scenes in this movie will only show various men, with only a little bit of women's drama.

This is undoubtedly not in line with the style of Hollywood movies, nor with Hollywood's "commercial routine template", and doing so will cast a layer of risk on the success of the movie.

I have to admit that this idea is reasonable.

Wu Yuan is also very clear that a pure man's play is indeed a taboo in movies.

Even if it is a real "pure man's play", it needs some sexy beauties to embellish it, that is, the so-called vase heroine.

But Wu Yuan still firmly asked Gu Yi to change back to the original image of Marvel, but he also relaxed the requirements and allowed the two screenwriters to appropriately increase the role of Christine Palmer.

So in Wu Yuan's version of "Doctor Strange", there is an additional plot about introducing the love line between Stephen Strange and Christine Palmer, which is also a plot that appeared in the original comics.

This is also the reason why Rachel McAdams will shoot with the crew, otherwise according to the original version, she only needs to shoot in New York for a few days to finish.

In the end, because Wu Yuan's status and influence are large enough, Marvel executives chose to follow his ideas and let the two screenwriters cooperate with him, which resulted in the current version of "Doctor Strange".

Until the movie was released, the two screenwriters were actually somewhat dissatisfied with their "wonderful ideas" being rejected.

But now that "Doctor Strange" has begun to be released on a large scale around the world, there are more and more discussions about this movie on the Internet, and the box office has been rising steadily, they have to admit that Wu Yuan's persistence may be right.

Because in any country where "Doctor Strange" is released, when fans in those countries discuss this movie, Master Gu Yi will be the focus character. A large number of fans are full of curiosity about this mysterious Chinese man, and they are also fascinated by the high-class style he shows in the movie.

Ask yourself, if this character is a bald Celtic woman who is ordinary in the eyes of Europeans and Americans, will it have this effect?

The two screenwriters are not fools. They can guess that there will definitely not be such good character feedback now.

And when the time came to November 4, when China and the United States began to release "Doctor Strange" on a large scale, this idea was completely accepted by the two.

On November 4 (Friday), "Doctor Strange" was fully released in 3,882 theaters in North America, and the first day box office won 38.43 million US dollars!

This won the box office champion on Friday without any suspense!

The next day, November 5, "Doctor Strange" collected another 37.68 million US dollars in North America. Although it was a little lower than the first day, the box office performance was still strong!

In general, when most Hollywood movies are released in North America, it is normal for the box office performance on the second day of release to drop by 5%-8% compared with the first day. It is even a relatively good performance.

It is normal for a movie with average performance to drop 50% of the daily box office performance on the second day of release!

When the original "Doctor Strange" was released, the box office on the first day was not only 32.56 million US dollars, but also the box office on the second day fell by 4.2%, and the box office on the third day was only 21.25 million US dollars. The total box office in North America for three days was 85 million US dollars!

This report card is already very good.

But Wu Yuan's version of "Doctor Strange" performed even better in North America!

The first day was 38.43 million US dollars, the second day was 37.68 million US dollars, and the third day was 31.22 million US dollars. The box office successfully broke 100 million US dollars in the first three days of the weekend!

The role of the Ancient One in the movie has a lot to do with such a good result!

Many fans who went to the cinema to watch the movie on the first day shared their viewing experience on the Internet, and focused on the mysterious Chinese wizard "Ancient One". They believed that this role was different from all the Asian images that appeared in Hollywood movies before, and was full of "Chinese classics".

It was because of this attraction that more North American audiences chose to go to the cinema to see this wizard from the mysterious China on the second and third days of the release of "Doctor Strange", and finally set a good box office record of over 100 million in the first weekend!

Although it cannot be compared with the big movie with superheroes like "Avengers", the performance of "Doctor Strange" is enough to rank at the top among the single Marvel superhero movies!

Judging from the current box office trend, the final North American box office of "Doctor Strange" is likely to exceed 300 million US dollars, which is about 70 million US dollars higher than the original version!

In mainland China, "Doctor Strange", which was released simultaneously with North America, also achieved good box office results!

The film was released in China on November 4, with a box office of 120 million yuan on the first day and 450 million yuan in the first three days of the week, which is also a box office result far exceeding the original version.

This is mainly due to the personal charm of director Wu Yuan and the charm of the characters in the film who show the image of Chinese people.

After all, Marvel movies are now very influential in China. Everyone hopes to see the face of Chinese superheroes in Marvel movies. Of course, the Ancient One is also counted, and he is a very high-end superhero!

In the first weekend of its release, "Doctor Strange" blossomed on the other side of the ocean and achieved a first weekend box office result that made Marvel extremely satisfied! (End of this chapter)