Millennium director

Let's go back a little bit in time.

When Wu Yuan stayed at home, hugged his daughter and called her "Dad" every day, expecting his daughter to learn to call him.

On February 10, 2020, the 92nd Academy Awards ended a few days later.

Director Wu Yuan has already returned to China on a private plane, but the film project "Bruce Lee" has not been disbanded on the spot, and has even entered a more critical period.

Now the "Bruce Lee" movie can be said to have popularity and awards, and the last piece of the puzzle for the large-scale release of the movie has been filled in.

Yes, "Bruce Lee" has never been released on a large scale in North America.

I said before that this movie took the route of a small-scale award-winning route relying on word of mouth.

It is said to be "relying on word of mouth", but in fact, it is also a small-scale release to facilitate the capital behind it to brush word of mouth.

This set of hype was first done by Hollywood, as early as the 1970s and 1980s. Movies that want to win awards will first be released on a small scale in dozens or hundreds of theaters, and then pay money to buy off film critics to write some articles praising the artistry.

It is not to say that such a film is necessarily artistically inferior or not well-made.

It is just that there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people. If it is released on a large scale at the beginning, public opinion will definitely not be controlled, and it will not be convenient to rush for awards and hype.

At the same time, if a biographical film like this is released on a large scale without being famous, it will all depend on whether the "biographical hero" is famous enough and whether he can attract audiences to the cinema.

This is completely different from winning an award first and then taking advantage of the influence of the award to roll out on a large scale to get a higher box office.

This is the case with "Bruce Lee".

After the Oscars were announced, although it won the second Best Director Award, the news of the film's award quickly caused a storm of discussion in North America, and the discussion was even higher than that of "Parasite", a film that won the Best Picture Award.

Realistically speaking, "Parasite" is a Korean film after all. This has nothing to do with skin color or race, but North American movie fans have preconceived ideas and will pay more attention to movies from their own country.

Yes, "Bruce Lee" is a local film in the eyes of North American movie fans.

Although the leading actor and director of this movie are both Chinese.

But the story takes place in the United States. Bruce Lee himself is also a famous legendary Kung Fu star in the United States, and Wu Yuan is a Hollywood director certified by Americans. This movie is naturally a Hollywood movie.

In addition, this movie is invested by Disney, which makes it more authentic.

The Oscars are watched by tens of millions of North American audiences every year!

Disney is also very experienced. On the second day after the Oscars, it vigorously promoted "Bruce Lee" both online and offline. The manuscripts were written long ago, and only the "Best Director" line was determined at the end.

So, on February 10, more than 2,000 cinemas across the United States replaced the new "Bruce Lee" release poster.

On the Internet, all websites and information related to the movie also followed up with the latest "Bruce Lee" release information.

Because the premiere of this movie had already been held, it was held at the Art Cinema in New York at the time.

After all, one of the requirements for Oscar nomination is that the film must have been released in North America to be registered (theoretically, it can be released in only one theater in the United States.)

So "Bruce Lee" is a movie that was released in December in the United States.

But the real large-scale release did not start until February 10.

Overnight, more than 2,000 theaters and nearly 10,000 movie screens began to schedule "Bruce Lee".

And the audience who watched the live broadcast of this year's Oscar Awards ceremony and saw Wu Yuan winning the Best Director Award did have some curiosity about this movie. After casually checking the theaters near their homes for the screening, they bought two movie tickets and prepared to go to see it with their partners or family.

After so many years of development, theaters in North America have also been connected to online ticket purchases, which can be purchased on some ticketing websites or the theater's own online websites.

However, because North America has not experienced the online service website market that has developed rapidly through mobile payments, such as the thousand-group war, takeaway war, taxi war, and online ticket war in China, Americans are still not very accustomed to ordering movie tickets online.

On the contrary, the new generation of people in China who are willing to go to the cinema to watch movies, who were beaten by the money-burning war between Meituan, Maoyan and other platforms, and enjoyed the online ticket purchase of five or ten yuan per ticket, then re-entered the cinema, and are very accustomed to online ticket purchase.

Therefore, most ordinary people in the United States are still accustomed to buying tickets directly at the cinema.

It can only be said that habit is really a terrible thing, and it is deeply rooted and difficult to break.

But this does not affect the rapid growth of the box office of "Bruce Lee" in North America.

With the influence of winning the Oscar, plus Bruce Lee's own popularity, plus Wu Yuan's popularity and reputation, and the Hollywood nostalgia of the 1960s and 1970s brought by "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".

Under the influence of various factors, although the large-scale release of "Bruce Lee" did not deliberately shout slogans for promotion, the box office results were very gratifying.

When it was released on a small scale in more than 100 cinemas before, the film earned a total of just over 4 million US dollars in North America, which is not bad.

For example, "The Wandering Earth" was released in more than 140 cinemas in North America and eventually won more than 5 million US dollars.

But on February 10th, "Bruce Lee" won a box office of 23.2 million US dollars in North America.

Although it cannot be compared with those commercial blockbusters that easily make 30 to 50 million US dollars on the first day, 20 million US dollars on the first day is definitely a good result, especially when the cost of this movie itself is not high.

On the second day of its release, "Bruce Lee" once again won a daily box office of 18.2 million US dollars, and the total box office was close to 50 million US dollars.

The total cost of this movie, including the money spent on public relations for the award, only added up to 40 million US dollars.

According to the current box office growth trend, "Bruce Lee" should have no problem with a North American box office of over 100 million, and a global box office of 100 million US dollars. The final total box office is likely to be around 300 million US dollars, and even if it does not reach that, it will not be too far away.

That is to say, even if Bruce Lee spent a lot of money on public relations for awards, the movie would not lose money, and it could even make a lot of money!

This is why even the six major Hollywood movies have to strive for Oscars from time to time. This thing can really increase the box office! (The premise is that it must be a movie produced by Hollywood itself.)

Wu Yuan, who received the box office summary news half a month later, was also very happy to see this result.

After all, he can also get 10% of the box office share!

Spending other people's money to make a movie for yourself, strive for awards for yourself, and finally get 20 million US dollars, whoever gets this good thing will be happy! (End of this chapter)