Chapter 775

Although Miss Luo Quan had informed DC fans in advance that "Joker" was not a superhero movie.

It had no flashy special effects, no exciting fight scenes, and the plot would even be very depressing.

But the fans still chose to trust Miss Luo Quan, feeling that no matter what, she would produce a brilliant film.

And the film was indeed brilliant, it was just that the form was somewhat beyond the fans' expectations.

Rather than calling "Joker" a superhero movie, it would be better to call it a documentary.

Isn't what is being portrayed in the film exactly what is happening in the United States right now?

Soon, a veteran film critic published an article:

"From 2019 to the present, there have been two biggest surprises in film for me.

One is 'Forrest Gump', and the other is 'Joker'.

These two films came from the same person, yet they are like a mirror.

The person outside the mirror is Forrest, and the one inside is the Joker.

Forrest recorded the era's changes in the United States of the last century; he is the embodiment of the American Dream, containing our longing for a better life, and is the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty.

And Anna, the protagonist of 'Joker', represents the evil of human nature.

Once, she was also kind, but blow after blow from reality eventually turned her into the ultimate evil, the Joker.

The Joker is actually also a dream, but a Gotham nightmare.

And what caused all of this is Gotham itself, this society full of discrimination, violence, and exploitation, and those capitalists who are high above.

At the beginning of the year, Miss Luo Quan wove a dream for us that was as beautiful as a fairy tale.

But now, the dream has awakened, and we have fallen into a nightmare created by her, which I call the reality of America.

I think this film has great satirical and warning significance; you can find parallels in the film for many of the chaotic phenomena in American society today.

While watching the movie, I felt a chill in my body because the plot was so realistic; that cruel world gave me the feeling of watching the news.

Thank you, Miss Luo Quan, thank you for bringing us these two brilliant dreams."

A single film review articulated the essence of the film and gave all the netizens who hadn't seen it yet a clear concept of "Joker".

That is, this film might be as excellent as "Forrest Gump", which was already slated for an Oscar.

Of course, this was just the personal opinion of this critic; what it's really like, you have to see for yourself to know.

However, besides this critic, other fans and media professionals who had seen the film also posted articles praising "Joker".

Although the wording wasn't as exaggerated as this one, it was definitely highly recommended.

With so many people cheering, the film basically couldn't be bad.

So, on the second day of "Joker's" release, the box office saw a wave of growth, and judging by the momentum, this growth was expected to continue for several more days.

More importantly, "Joker" didn't just explode in word-of-mouth in the United States; it also received a massive amount of praise in Europe.

For some time now, where else has been chaotic besides the United States?

Gotham in Joker actually has parallels in many countries and cities in Europe and America.

This is a film that can resonate strongly with fans from all over the world because it is more realistic and more in line with the current situation than the American Dream in Forrest Gump.

However, Miss Luo Quan didn't make this film for people to vent their inner anger like the Joker.

She added a line at the end of the film, which is: Let us treat the people around us kindly, be full of love and hope for life, and do not release the Joker within!

The meaning of these words is already very clear: it is to let the audience treat the world kindly and treat themselves kindly.

However, after the film is broadcast, there will definitely be extreme people who will do extreme things because of the plot; whether the film will be implicated remains to be seen based on the specific situation.

But for now, "Joker" has exploded—a double explosion of word-of-mouth and box office.

This is the first time since Warner decided to make superhero movies that they have achieved a double harvest in both critical acclaim and commercial success.

In fact, before this, Warner's superhero movies didn't have particularly high ratings, and the box office was actually just average.

This is a problem of strategic decision-making; compared to Disney, Warner is not pure enough.

Disney makes Marvel movies with the goal of commercial profit; they take awards if they can, and it doesn't matter if they don't—they just focus on making the fans happy.

But Warner is impressive; they want to make money commercially while also trying to put in some profound content to win awards.

The final result is that they please neither side, and the achievements on both sides are average.

Plus, Warner's senior management would occasionally pull some brain-dead maneuvers, step by step turning a good hand of cards into mud.

It can be said that Warner's management bears a great responsibility for DC movies being so lukewarm now.

And the appearance of the Joker became a fig leaf for the management.

A success of this scale in both commerce and word-of-mouth hasn't appeared in Warner's superhero movies for a long time.

So, just on the second day of "Joker's" release, Warner's management couldn't wait to send Miss Luo Quan a film contract, hoping she would helm the filming of other superhero movies; the price was not an issue.

However, no matter how nicely Warner's senior management invited her, they were all rejected by Miss Luo Quan.

She had finally finished this year's tasks, and they still wanted her to work overtime? Are they kidding?

Besides, she still had a whole bunch of movies and TV shows on her own plate.

Harry Potter, the Chinese Harry Potter, plus motion capture and voice acting for games—if she filmed more movies for Warner, would she even need to rest next year?

Anyway, Miss Luo Quan, who had always detested working overtime, would absolutely not add any more work to her plate right after finishing a project.

Let alone Warner, even Sony or Universal, with whom she had better relations, wouldn't work.

So, Warner's senior management was given the cold shoulder without any suspense.

Speaking of this Harry Potter and the Chinese Harry Potter, this was actually the project Miss Luo Quan had put the most thought into during this time.

First of all, there's no need to mention Harry Potter; there's a ready-made script.

And the Chinese version of Harry Potter, or to put it bluntly, practitioners of Daoism, is actually a subject worth digging into.

As for the villains, they are easy to set; what practitioners of Daoism need to slay are nothing more than demons, ghosts, and monsters.

Counting the zombie movies that were very popular in Hong Kong in the last century, adding a zombie villain is also no problem.

And while England has Hogwarts, the corresponding Chinese equivalent can directly be the Celestial Master Mansion of Mount Longhu.

She had already thought of the ultimate techniques: the Jin Guang Incantation and the Thunder Method.

When fighting people, she would directly chant the incantation: "Heaven and Earth, Profound Sect, the root of all Qi, cultivating through vast calamities, proving my divine power!"

Then, covered in flashing golden light and surrounded by thunder, it would be simply cool to the point of exploding.

Actually, there have been quite a few similar TV dramas filmed domestically before, but the costumes, makeup, and special effects were simply too, too, too painful to look at; all the budget was spent on hiring young idols.

The key is that the young idols' acting wasn't very good, and it also caused the budget for other sectors to fall short, resulting in a completely disastrous final product.

But this time, she is the one responsible for the investment and filming, so the situation is completely different.

For special effects, she has Blizzard Studios and the omnipotent Unreal Engine; the things she makes will absolutely sweep all those embarrassing fifty-cent special effects TV dramas currently on the market into the trash heap of history.

As for the plot, it's a story about how a young Daoist priest protects the peace of two worlds in this modern era where martial arts are harmoniously banned.

When the hype is about right, she'll do a crossover with Harry Potter, and the traffic will probably go through the roof.

Of course, these beautiful visions still only exist in Miss Luo Quan's imagination.

Whether Chinese audiences will buy this, and whether foreign audiences will buy this, will only be known after the first movie comes out.

Right now, even she herself doesn't have a detailed plan yet.

However, she has been working on this aspect during this time, a little bit every day, striving to get it done before the end of the year, and officially starting filming after the new year.

As for "The Walking Dead" on the other side, it has already entered the finishing stage.

This TV series, which shares the same worldview as "Resident Evil", will be an important part of the zombie universe.

If nothing goes wrong, it will be broadcast on Netflix in December; the first two episodes will be free, and the subsequent ones will require a membership to watch on demand.

Netflix spent a sky-high price of 200 million US dollars for the exclusive rights to "The Walking Dead" this time.

However, because it was the first TV series, Netflix was slightly conservative and did not purchase the rights to subsequent sequels.

It can only be said that the two sides have collaborated too few times; if it were Sony or Universal, they would probably have bought three or four at once.

What's a little extra money spent this time?

As long as they can harvest Miss Luo Quan as a long-term meal ticket, the value she can create later will grow exponentially!

But anyway, Netflix is rich and powerful, sitting firmly in the position of the world's number one online video streaming leader, so it doesn't matter if they spend a little more money later.

Miss Luo Quan certainly won't feel sorry for them.

As for her domestic TV series, Tencent is also actively negotiating.

Mainly asking about the subject matter, plot, and approximate broadcast time.

The two sides can be considered old partners; Zhou Yangwen trusts Miss Luo Quan's ability very much and also offered 200 million to buy the TV series' rights.

However, one is in US dollars, and the other is in RMB.

Generally speaking, with such a high licensing fee, it is very difficult to break even relying solely on memberships in the domestic environment.

But besides memberships, there is also something called advance on-demand viewing.

Chinese TV series are different from Japan's; Chinese ones are filmed all at once and released slowly.

While in Japan, they film as they broadcast, and if the response isn't good, the investors might directly cut off investment and stop filming.

Filming a TV series in China and releasing it slowly can certainly maintain long-term hype.

But impatient audiences always hope to watch all the episodes at once.

Then some little genius came up with this thing called advance on-demand viewing.

Want to watch all the episodes? Sure, just spend money; one episode costs between three to five yuan, and there are discounts for buying in bulk.

Although this practice is very exploitative to consumers, it has indeed achieved considerable commercial success.

Many high-quality TV series will offer advance on-demand viewing, and the audiences who love them always obediently pay up while grumbling.

In fact, that's how commodities are; as long as they are good enough, even if the price is a bit expensive, there are still plenty of people willing to pay for them.

Of course, Miss Luo Quan doesn't think this practice is right.

If she could, she would actually hope that TV series could be like those on TV stations, relying on advertisers to share the costs and create income for the copyright holders.

With Tencent's influence, getting big advertisers is not a difficult task.

As for advance on-demand viewing, she has already sold the rights, so how they operate it is Tencent's business, and she cannot intervene.

However, recently, the authorities seem to be regulating the phenomenon of advance on-demand viewing for TV series on various platforms.

It is said that this sales method will be banned soon; if it's true, then it's good news for the vast number of consumers.

However, once this income for video platforms is gone, they will inevitably find ways to make up for it elsewhere.

It is highly likely to be reflected in increased monthly membership fees, or longer pre-roll advertisements when watching for free.

So whether it's better to ban it or not, no one can say for sure.

Miss Luo Quan cannot make decisions about these things, and she doesn't run a video platform either.

Currently, the only thing she can price is her own games.

World of Warcraft relies on monthly cards, Final Fantasy relies on buy-to-play, but both involve spending money to buy the game, not buying items that make characters stronger.

This runs counter to the operational philosophy of most domestic games.

But speaking of which, the most profitable games in China are actually not mobile games where you pay to get stronger.

Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite bring in tens of billions in revenue a year, but the paid content basically doesn't affect game stats; they only make money by selling skins.

The one that does this best is League of Legends, which is absolutely the most successful online game in world history to date; from its lifespan to its hype and influence, it's hard to find an opponent.

And now, major leagues are being held in full swing, with viewership numbers hitting new highs every year.

If nothing goes wrong, League of Legends will be able to dominate the world's number one online game position for at least another five years.

Or even longer.

Some say that as long as an epoch-making game doesn't appear, League of Legends' status will not be shaken.

So what is an epoch-making game?

Naturally, it's a virtual game with a brain-computer interface that allows players to be immersed in the scene.

However, this technology is still under research; Miss Luo Quan had invested in this area before, but the progress is relatively slow, so no results can be seen in the short term.

However, it's not like she doesn't have any impressive online game projects in her mind.

Lying on the desk in her room, Miss Luo Quan drew a mark on a piece of white paper.

Then she wrote an English word under the mark: Overwatch.

Before the battle royale craze exploded, Overwatch was the game that claimed it could replace League of Legends.

As a game from the 2016 era of her past life, Overwatch's hype was indeed terrifyingly high.

However, due to a series of idiotic moves by Blizzard, the game cooled down rapidly.

Fortunately, the Blizzard of this life is not the arrogant and stupid Blizzard of her past life.

In her hands, there will absolutely never be a situation where designers teach players how to play the game.

The direction of all operations will also be based on bringing the best experience to the players.

"If this game is released, Tencent will probably get anxious." Miss Luo Quan looked at the Overwatch icon and smiled somewhat maliciously.