Chapter 247: Famous Overnight, Well-Matched

An impulsive young man.

Luo Bo Friedman silently gave Chen Nuo a comment in his heart.

Having roamed the business world for many years, he had seen too many such people.

He himself had also transformed step by step from such a hot-blooded, naive youth into the cold-blooded business killer he was now.

Even if the first "Twilight" movie was about to lose heavily, so what?

He would only stop losses, and would never lose his mind.

In fact, he had already planned to shelve the second and third parts of Twilight.

Shoot a motherfucker, and continue shooting?

Really treat dollars as lira?

Although he didn't think so in his heart, the movie's promotion still couldn't do without the other party.

Therefore, Luo Bo Friedman said, "Chen, I appreciate your determination, and I also agree with your pride, but isn't it too early to say all this now? Let's first..."

"No, not early!"

Chen Nuo stood up and waved his hands wildly in the air.

If someone were watching Chen Nuo from the air with a God's-eye view.

He would find that Chen Nuo's current expression and posture were exactly the same as when he was learning to slay gods from the Seventh Brother at the Nanshan Nursing Home a few months ago.

Almost a reserve team for lunatics.

"Luo Jie Ebert said that to his tens of millions of fans on his blog, and I didn't sleep for a whole night yesterday. I've figured it out, none of you were wrong. It was me, it was my stubbornness. Being headstrong on set, that's why I harmed everyone."

"I'm sorry to Will, sorry to Catherine, and I'm sorry to you, Luo Bo. I'm sorry to all of you."

"I thought... I originally thought..."

If Chen Nuo were to grade his own performance, he would definitely give his lines a failing grade. From the beginning until now, his lines were actually the weakest part of his performance.

Just like at this very moment, the draft he had prepared, the emotions he had brewed so well, suddenly got stuck in his brain.

Thought... thought what?

Forget it, it should be about enough. Saying more leads to more mistakes; it's better to cut the Gordian knot.

"Come on, let's sign the contract, Luo Bo."

Luo Bo Friedman was feeling touched.

What a simple and honest young man.

From the first time he met him in Japan, he had felt this way.

Suddenly hearing about signing a contract, he really couldn't react for a moment.

Luo Bo Friedman blinked and said, "Chen, what did you say?"

"Luo Bo, I've already prepared the contract." Chen Nuo suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "Chris, bring our contract in."

The door to the study of the Hilton executive suite opened, and Qi Yuntian walked in with two contracts. He looked very dissatisfied, didn't say a word, threw the contracts in front of Chen Nuo, turned around, and went out.

Chen Nuo handed the two contracts to Luo Bo and said, "I've already signed them. The contract is exactly the same as the one we signed before, except that the agreed movie names have changed; not a single clause has changed. Luo Bo, take a look."

Luo Bo Friedman was stunned, "Chen, are you serious? Have you discussed this with your agent? I see he doesn't seem to approve. And, in fact, we haven't prepared to shoot the second and third parts."

Chen Nuo said seriously, "Don't blame my agent. His eyes only see money, while mine only see movies. Of course I know you guys don't want to shoot sequels now, Luo Bo, but there will be such a day, won't there?"

Americans signing contracts is not quite the same as in China; it doesn't require an official seal, just the signature of the company's legal representative is enough.

Therefore, when Luo Bo Friedman signed his name on those two contracts, the film contract for the "Twilight" trilogy between Summit Entertainment and Chen Nuo was reached.

However, for Chen Nuo, the fly in the ointment was that the old guy Luo Bo, whether out of some intuition or really as he said: "Chen, I admire your persistence, I have a premonition that you will lead us to success one day, therefore, I think this clause should be crossed out."

So, he crossed out the clause where Chen Nuo would get 15% of the box office share if it sold over $300 million, and unified it to 10% if the box office was over $200 million.

The question Chen Nuo was confused about was the same one Will Richardson was confused about.

In the car on their way to the premiere site, Will Richardson frowned and asked, "Why do you want to do this, Luo Bo? Anyway, they are useless contracts, used to comfort Chen, give him a little hope, and let him cheer up and invest in promotion."

"What's the point of you haggling over $200 million or $300 million, 10% or 15%? Luo Bo, don't tell me you still have plans to reboot this series within five years. Not to mention, you hope it can really sell that much money one day."

Luo Bo Friedman sighed and said, "Will, Will... your way of saying this is like we've already failed. You know, tonight is the premiere, our movie hasn't been publicly released yet, everything is still an unknown. What if everything isn't that bad?"

Will Richardson smiled bitterly, "I hope so, but the fact now is, all day today, all the experts I follow, from HBO to NBC, none of the box office forecasters are optimistic about us."

"That damn HBO box office analyst Raffi Clausen even said our box office couldn't exceed $30 million because no adult would watch our movie."

"What's more damn is..." Will Richardson sighed deeply, "I seem to have been convinced by them."

"Fuck." Luo Bo Friedman cursed lightly. But looking at it, he didn't seem that angry.

The car was silent for a while, and Will Richardson suddenly realized, "Luo Bo, you should know all this better than me, otherwise you wouldn't have signed this kind of contract with him. So, why is this? I have to say, you are very contradictory."

Luo Bo Friedman looked at the night view outside the car window and said indifferently, "There's nothing contradictory about this, Will. I indeed couldn't take the initiative to shoot the second part within five years. Because for the next five years, we have to crawl in the desert, silently licking our wounds, distributing some small and rotten films, accumulating funds, and waiting for the next opportunity, but..."

Will waited for a while, didn't wait for Luo Bo to continue, and couldn't help but ask, "But what?"

Luo Bo Friedman looked at the lights on the streets of New York, thought of the "My Blueberry Nights" he had seen, and said, "But Chen is different, I think he doesn't need it. This failure won't crush him. He has the classic role of Joker on him, I have already received news that Warner will start shooting Batman 3 within three years."

"So, I think, the hope for the reboot of 'Twilight' in the future lies with him."

Speaking of this, Luo Bo Friedman turned his head and smiled cunningly at Will, "I am willing to sign this contract with him. Because by then, 10% of $200 million box office is exactly $20 million, which is also exactly the salary check he deserves after entering the $20 million club."

"But 15% of $300 million... that's too much, too much."

Will was stunned for a while and asked, "Then what if he doesn't have a day to enter the $20 million club?"

Luo Bo Friedman's smile disappeared bit by bit, and finally, this expressionless Jewish old man said coldly, "Then there will be no Twilight 2, never."

Following the two big bosses of Summit Entertainment, Chen Nuo also went out five minutes later.

The lady who was going to watch the movie with him wasn't Qi Yuntian, but... Rory Eisner.

Rory Eisner came to New York to see an old friend, not to walk the red carpet with him, just to go to the scene with him, and then the two of them would watch the movie together, and also chat about some official business by the way.

On the way, Rory Eisner told Chen Nuo about the official business.

As Chen Nuo's semi-public mole inside Warner, she told him about the secret project of Batman 3. Because after the Oscars, Nolan had been writing scripts with his brother like a madman, and in a few months, he had written two, one of which was Batman 3. And there was still controversy about which one to shoot first.

Chen Nuo, as the only candidate for Joker, could also start thinking about how to talk to Warner about his salary.

Speaking of this, Rory Eisner, who understood what Chen Nuo and Qi Yuntian were doing before, was really very puzzled: "Chen, why do you want to do this? I really, really don't understand. What's the point of tying yourself to such a big rotten movie?"

"I even saw that your contract has such a clause, whether Summit Entertainment finds someone else to play Edward, or you refuse to play Edward, you will have to pay an astronomical amount of liquidated damages."

"I don't understand, what will you do if Spielberg asks you to shoot a movie, but it clashes with this rotten movie? Or are you just that unconfident about your future in Hollywood?"

"Chen, although the failure of this movie has cast quite a shadow on your future in Hollywood."

"But the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor can still get you another opportunity in a low-budget movie, you really don't need to be so self-abandoning."

Chen Nuo could see that Rory Eisner was genuinely worried about him.

But...

How could he tell the other party that all the box office analysis experts in the United States, including the middle and senior management of Summit Entertainment, saw the consistent bad reviews from critics. And only he had psychological preparation for this.

He didn't lie either; he really didn't sleep all night last night.

But it wasn't because of Luo Jie Ebert, but because he and Qi Yuntian were analyzing those reviews one by one.

Afterward, they found that the bad reviews about Twilight were mainly concentrated on the depthless plot and the shallow acting of the actors.

However, even the most harsh critics didn't say that the oriental yellow-skinned vampire played by Chen Nuo had any sense of incongruity in the movie. Whether it was appearance, body shape, or skin color, no one questioned it.

This was originally what Chen Nuo was most worried about.

When they found that more than two-thirds of those bad reviews mentioned "vampires are beautiful," Chen Nuo made up his mind to do what he just did.

If it flopped, it flopped.

If it didn't flop, and he didn't take advantage of such a good opportunity, then he might as well jump into the Hudson River.

Chen Nuo's conscience didn't hurt either.

The media screening wasn't his idea; he even kindly tried to dissuade them.

In the end, Luo Bo Friedman brought it on himself, was hit by a group of critics until he had no confidence, and signed the contract with him; this had nothing to do with him.

He was really just a philanthropist.

Finally, facing Rory Eisner's concerned question, he still didn't say too much, just naturally held the other party's hand and said affectionately: "Rory, thank you for your concern for me. And the Oscar thing last time... I haven't had time to say thank you to you yet. Having such a good friend as you is truly my luck."

Rory Eisner looked at her hand, then at Chen Nuo, and said very seriously: "As the founder of MeToo, aren't you afraid I'll sue you for sexual harassment?"

Chen Nuo let go of her hand as if nothing had happened and said: "Rory, I'm just expressing gratitude."

Rory Eisner said: "Chen, change the way next time."

After speaking, the two looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.

For Chen Nuo, walking the red carpet for Twilight didn't have much interesting.

Although for those teenage fans, the appearance of him, the lead actor, was no less than the monstrous waves caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the financial tsunami.

Because for these book fans, having the actor who played Joker, the individualistic Chen Nuo, play the vampire Edward was simply the super perfect match they could imagine.

When the casting decision of Summit Entertainment, which seemed to be opposed by many, came out, it didn't encounter many attacks from Batman comic fans like the Joker did back then.

In fact, not a single Twilight book fan questioned Chen Nuo's skin color.

On the red carpet, Chen Nuo took a photo with Ashley Greene, whose shoulders were slightly cool, and greeted Kristen Stewart, didn't answer any reporter's questions, and walked directly into the cinema.

In the cinema's reception hall, he chatted briefly with the movie's actors and staff, but didn't see the black makeup artist.

Afterward, he went directly to the box on the second floor of the cinema where Rory Eisner was.

Rory Eisner was sitting on the sofa eating snacks and sending text messages on her phone. Hearing the sound of the door opening, she looked back and was very surprised, "Chen, why are you so fast? You didn't accept an interview?"

Chen Nuo took off his suit jacket, took off his bow tie, unbuttoned two buttons on his collar, sat comfortably on the sofa, picked up the coffee in front of him and took a sip without any sense of being an outsider, and said: "Why accept? I heard the questions they asked, basically asking why I acted so badly."

Rory Eisner said dissatisfiedly: "That's my coffee."

Chen Nuo hummed: "Don't be so stingy with friends, OK?"

Rory Eisner blinked and said: "OK, then as a friend, I want to hear what your answer is? Can you tell me why you suddenly acted so badly?"

Chen Nuo curled his lips, raised his head to look at the angle of the light, adjusted his posture, and tilted his head, so that from Rory Eisner's angle,

she could just see the light from the crystal lamp above the box shining on his face, casting a faint shadow.

The warm yellow light made his features look more three-dimensional, and also outlined his high nose bridge and distinct jawline,

as well as those black eyes that flickered with subtle light under the oblique light.

They came together to form a face that left Rory Eisner stunned.

"Jesus Christ, how did you do that?" Rory Eisner muttered.

Chen Nuo smiled and said: "Rory, tell you a secret, only two people in the world know so far, and you are the third."

"Actually, I never felt I acted badly. Never."

November 29, 2008, the noon of the day after the midnight premiere ended,

Rotten Tomatoes finally included a five-star review from Susan Murphy of The Washington Post, which was also the first full-score review after "Twilight" opened.

It was written like this: "Never has a movie made a vampire look as handsome as Odin, and as shiny as dew. Twilight girls, get ready to scream. Your dream lover has walked out of the book."

On the second day, the midnight premiere box office statistics for "Twilight" on Friday, November 28, were released.

Luo Bo Friedman held the warm white paper coming out of the fax machine, and he needed to hold the corner of the table so he wouldn't fall to the ground.

After Will Richardson snatched the statistical table, he didn't say a word for ten minutes.

"Twilight" midnight premiere revenue was $9.6 million.

Exceeding "007: Quantum of Solace" which also opened on Friday by $4.6 million, and exceeding "Sex and the City" by $3.5 million.

Created the best midnight box office record for an independent film in history.

Afterward, for the whole of Friday, "Twilight" box office reached $78.5 million.

At this point, the $37 million cost of Summit Entertainment was not only fully recovered in one day, but had already generated profit.

The whole of Hollywood was shocked.

Because this result ranked third among all non-summer blockbusters, second only to last year's "The Dark Knight" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

On Saturday and Sunday, "Twilight" box office suffered a significant decline that was unavoidable for fan movies.

However, once the statistical data for the three days of the opening weekend were released, the glasses of all Hollywood insiders collectively shattered, and the hearts of all ordinary fans collectively broke.

Weekend three-day revenue $116 million.

Although it was far from the film history record of $188 million for three weekend days set by The Dark Knight last year, but... don't forget, its cost was only $30-plus million.

And this also created the record for the fastest independent film to exceed $100 million, 3 days.

Even among all commercial films, its speed like a money-printing machine rushed into the top five in film history.

HBO and NBC box office forecasters scratched their heads on the show, not knowing why this big rotten movie could sell so much money.

Then "The Hollywood Reporter" published on Monday revealed part of the mystery.

In the statistical data of this magazine, 85% of the audience who walked into the cinema to watch "Twilight" in these three days were women, and 55% were under 25 years old.

This was simply a crazy piece of data, leaving everyone speechless.

Thus, on the cover of this issue of "The Hollywood Reporter," there was a face of Chen Nuo made up as a vampire in "Twilight," spliced together from photos of female faces.

The cover was titled: Crazy Women, Achieving the Most Profitable Vampire in History.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 248 =====