Millennium director

Princess movies are really popular abroad if they are well made.

It's strange.

Although Disney's live-action princess movies have never been popular in China, they are very popular in the entire international market except China.

Even in the Japanese and Korean film markets, they are also very popular, which is amazing.

When "Beauty and the Beast" was released in China, the response was mediocre. After the release, the market fell continuously. With a 60% screening rate, it only got a box office of 500 million in two weeks.

But in Japan, "Beauty and the Beast" won seven consecutive championships after its release, with cumulative box office revenue exceeding 10 billion yen, and finally achieved a box office of 12.4 billion yen.

In Japan, movies that can break the 10 billion yen box office are not available every year. "Beauty and the Beast" even became the Japanese movie of the year!

That year, the box office of the Japanese local movie of the year, "Detective Conan: Crimson Love Song", was only 6.89 billion yen.

It can be said that Disney's live-action princess movies are completely popular in Japan.

Well, Disney's "Frozen" performed even better at the Japanese box office, directly creating a miracle of 25.5 billion yen in box office, which can be ranked in the top five in Japanese film history.

The cumulative number of viewers of "Beauty and the Beast" in South Korea7 also exceeded 4.62 million, and "Frozen" exceeded 10.29 million.

In summary, even though they both belong to the Confucian cultural circle, Japan and South Korea are also very fond of Disney princess movies, and they are fond of both real people and animation, which is different from the mainland of China that only eats the animated version.

So it took "Beauty and the Beast" only 29 days to enter the "1 billion US dollar box office club" that year. Less than a month after its release, the global box office broke 1 billion US dollars.

It can be said that Disney's princess movies are really powerful in the global market outside of China.

And it is a very golden IP. Even the "Little Mermaid" movie that forcibly replaced the mermaid with a black fish can earn 300 million US dollars in the global box office.

And this 300 million US dollars can be said to be won amid a chorus of scolding and ridicule.

In other words, even if Disney's princess movie is a piece of shit, fans around the world will pay $300 million to watch it in the cinema, and then go online to criticize it.

Good guy!

Movies come with a global box office of $300 million!

It is certain that as long as "Mulan" is made a little better, and there is no plot that can cause fans to mock and collapse the reputation, the global box office will be guaranteed to be $500 million.

If it is well-made and can satisfy fans and make them praise it, the global box office will go to $1 billion.

It would be a lie to say that Wu Yuan is not tempted.

If there is a chance to take over the filming of such an IP, and the crew is completely led by him, and he can support his wife and let his wife become the C-position protagonist in the global cinema as a Disney princess, then why refuse such a good thing?

So after receiving the request from Disney, Wu Yuan's response this time was very ambiguous. He did not refuse decisively as before, but negotiated with Disney.

He wanted to test Disney's bottom line to see if he could get more benefits from the box office share and give his wife better treatment.

Disney was also "eager to recruit talents" and patiently discussed the details of the cooperation with Wu Yuan bit by bit.

In this way, a month passed, and when the hot summer came, Wu Yuan successfully reached a cooperation agreement with Disney.

He will serve as the director of Disney's "Mulan" movie, and Liu Yifei will play the heroine Mulan.

The script of the movie will be re-made, and local Chinese screenwriters will be introduced to work with Disney screenwriters to make a script that is more inclined to the plot of Disney's "Mulan" animated movie, but more fantasy and magic elements are needed.

After all, Disney's princess movies are all fantasy and magical. There can be no very Western magical elements such as witches and magic, but there must be evil villains who can cast spells, and there must be righteous friends.

Yes, it's Mushu.

Wu Yuan always thought that Mushu in the animated film "Mulan" was pretty good, but he didn't know why he was not used in the live-action version. Isn't it a basic operation of fairy tales to arrange a little follower and helper for the princess?

Just like Snow White has seven dwarfs, Cinderella has fairy old men and small animals to help her.

Is it too much for the Chinese princess Mulan to have a cute oriental dragon to follow her?

Hollywood now has the technology to make a more real and interesting monster than "Hu Ba", it's just a matter of finding a voice actor.

The other leading actors in the script are basically based on the handsome boss who helps Mulan in the animated film "Mulan", as well as his father, the general, the leader of the northern nomadic people, and so on.

In order to make this animated film well, Disney carefully studied every move of Chinese martial arts and hired a large number of writers, historians, and artists from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to study and review the script, scenes, and modeling of the film repeatedly to maintain its Chinese characteristics and the spirit of the original work.

Why is Disney unwilling to do this now? When the project of "Mulan" was launched, it found a few female directors and screenwriters and started working?

Wu Yuan didn't understand and asked Disney directly.

But the other party hesitated for a long time and did not give a reasonable reason. He just kept emphasizing that this time he would definitely follow Wu Yuan's idea and create a live-action movie with both Disney characteristics and the charm of Chinese martial arts.

In the end, Disney also gave Wu Yuan a big concession, giving him 5% of the box office share, and also gave Liu Yifei, the heroine, a salary of 10 million US dollars plus 1% of the box office share.

That is, Wu Yuan has a big face, and Liu Yifei is indeed the most suitable candidate. There is no second choice, so Disney gave 1% of the box office share, which can be regarded as a huge investment.

You must know that this live-action princess movie is not the previous "Bruce Lee". "Mulan" is positioned as a commercial blockbuster, aiming for the box office, investing hundreds of millions, and the expected box office target is also at the level of 1 billion US dollars.

Wu Yuan couldn't get 10% of the box office share by asking for too much. 5% is already the price for the top directors in the industry. Add to that his $20 million capped salary. If the global box office can really reach $1 billion, he can take away $70 million.

Liu Yifei's 1% box office share can also get $10 million. Add to that the $10 million salary, and you can take away $20 million, which is a number that Hollywood's top actresses and even actresses rarely get.

Wu Yuan was able to negotiate such a salary. Disney really spent a lot of money. There was really no better choice, so they had to take this cut.

However, after the negotiation, Wu Yuan did not hesitate and immediately started the preparations for the film! (End of this chapter)