Chapter 168: Box Office Miracle

In the United States, besides the Super Bowl, the Oscar awards ceremony has always been the most-watched TV live program in the United States, jokingly called the "Women's Super Bowl" by some.

The reason for this nickname is that the female guests who arrive are all dressed in various gorgeous clothes and different styles on the red carpet, competing for beauty, always wanting to outshine others.

The Oscars start at 5:30 PM American Western Time; at 5:00 PM, Cao Yang, Luo Bote, Gu Changwei, and the others had already arrived at the guest waiting area of the Kodak Theatre.

This year, the length of the red carpet was restored to 500 meters again.

The red carpet was laid from the guest arrival area to the entrance of the theatre, and the remaining red carpet would be laid all the way from the entrance of the Kodak Theatre to the theatre auditorium.

Sitting in the car, Luo Bote watched the guests keep walking onto the red carpet, especially the female guests, who walked very slowly, waiting for the photographers to take enough photos and put down their cameras before slowly moving forward again.

This year's red carpet interview host is Maria Menounos, who is also familiar with interviewing guests; specifically, those with big names, high news value, and controversial topics will be interviewed a few more sentences.

Seeing some guests, mainly female guests, delaying too much time on the red carpet, Maria Menounos would naturally shout a few times, pretending to be very enthusiastic to interview, but actually just say a few words and "drive" people into the theatre.

Luo Bote watched with relish and didn't complain because he was still waiting in the car and hadn't been let through.

Of course he wouldn't complain; *The Bad Milk* is the film that won ten Oscar nominations this year, one of the big favorites, and walking the red carpet was arranged at a very late time; as one of the producers, Luo Bote enjoyed such treatment.

If *The Bad Milk* could win the Oscar for Best Film under the joint efforts of Columbia and Miramax, Luo Bote wouldn't immediately become a gold-medal producer, but he could leap to become a first-line producer.

"Do you know, it is said that the red carpet host, Maria Menounos, is wearing that low-cut diamond-encrusted evening dress, all real diamonds, worth as much as 25 million USD."

Luo Bote looked outside the car and said to Cao Yang with a smile.

Cao Yang looked through the car window at the host named Maria Menounos; because it was too far, he couldn't see very clearly.

"Is it that valuable?"

"That's right, the news reported it, and it was discussed by many people."

Luo Bote said with a smile: "Of course, this is also a kind of promotion for the Oscars to increase public attention and get more ratings."

Then, he said to Cao Yang: "Just like you not being willing to see the people from Fox before the Oscars, it's also a strategy."

Cao Yang smiled and didn't speak.

Fox, specifically not 20th Century Fox, but its subsidiary, Fox Searchlight Pictures.

This is a company established in 1994, started business in 1996, mainly responsible for the production of non-mainstream low-cost art films, similar to the positioning of Sony Classics.

Before Cao Yang came to the United States, Luo Bote had called Cao Yang, saying that Fox Searchlight Pictures valued one of Cao Yang's novels and planned to adapt it into a film.

The name of this novel is *Zhu Nuo*, which tells the story of an unmarried teenage girl in the old American place getting pregnant.

This novel is included in *Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey 2*.

*Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey 2* also contains five novels in total, three of *The Hunger Games*, the fourth is *Zhu Nuo*, and the fifth is called *The Fault in Our Stars*.

Maybe everyone doesn't know much about *The Fault in Our Stars*, but this novel was once very awesome, staying at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 78 consecutive weeks.

Later, it was adapted into a film called *The Fault in Our Stars*. Cao Yang adapted it into a short story based on the film; it might not be as popular as it was back then, but based on the content of this novel, it is still very easy to win awards if adapted into a film.

However, it is also relative; for other directors, winning awards might not be easy, but for a great art film director like Cao Yang, as long as the quality is not bad, it is not difficult to win awards.

Actually, putting *The Fault in Our Stars* in *Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey 2*, Cao Yang also had his thoughts.

In *Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey 2*, all five novels are about teenagers; he just wanted to use these five different types of youth novels to test whether he could increase the sales of this book.

Facts have proven that even if they are all short stories, this book is the one with the highest sales among the three books Cao Yang has published.

The book on the North American sales list top 50 that Luo Bote mentioned is this one.

It seems that whether it is film or novels, teenagers are always the largest group.

Luo Bote guessed that Cao Yang might want to increase the copyright fee of the novel after winning the award at the Oscars, but this is only one aspect.

In *Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey 2*, whether it is *The Hunger Games* trilogy, *Zhu Nuo*, or *The Fault in Our Stars*, after being filmed, they are all examples of low-cost production and box office explosion after release.

Just like *Zhu Nuo*, this film was not adapted from a novel, but an original script, and the film had no big-name actors participating, with a cost of only 6 million USD.

What about the box office?

It won over 140 million in box office in the United States, and over 90 million in other countries, totaling over 230 million globally.

!

This is the real box office miracle!

The reason Cao Yang didn't contact Fox Searchlight before the Oscars was not only to get more copyright fees, but more importantly, he wanted to control this project.

Such a profitable film, if you only sell a copyright fee and get a little bit of share, wouldn't you lose a lot.

Controlling the project is different; with Cao Yang's fame now, compared to when he first entered Hollywood, it is absolutely two different things, and he will never be so passive again.

Of course, although the film box office is very high and very profitable, Cao Yang never thought about doing it alone in the old American place.

If it were in China, it would be fine; he is a great director and has power, so doing it alone would definitely be no problem.

But in Hollywood, do you want to go it alone and bypass the seven major Hollywood film studios?

How is that possible!

Even if it is filmed, whether the film can be released by then is a problem.

Earning money from the old Americans together with the seven majors is the most correct way to do it; the seven majors will also feel you are awesome, and your status in Hollywood will definitely rise, becoming the most distinguished director and producer of the seven majors.

"Let's go, it's our turn to go on stage."

The staff came to remind, and Cao Yang said to Luo Bote and Gu Changwei.

Getting off the car, Cao Yang tidied up his suit and took a deep breath.

I hope Columbia and Miramax are powerful; as long as they can cut down one or two major awards with weight, and take a few side awards, this Oscar trip will be considered a success.

Oscars, I'm coming!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 169 =====