Chapter 180: Box Office Success

When you go to the cinema with full anticipation, wanting to see some exciting scenes, you only see a few shots that flash by, and many scenes don't appear at all.

May I ask what your mood is?

Of course, it's to go to the "Cao Yang Bar" to complain wildly, and then support the OP who posted the pictures, hoping he can post more welfare.

"I'm so stupid. I should have thought of it earlier. Some scenes unsuitable for children would definitely be cut to nothing. As it turns out, Cao Yang still has a big face; I did see two scenes that flashed by."

"Haha, this is for sure. The domestic side should have learned from the Americans long ago and implemented a rating system, instead of doing a one-size-fits-all approach for everything."

"You people are really superficial. I didn't go for those intense scenes; I went for the Oscar Best Picture, I went for Depp's butt... Depp's Oscar Best Actor."

"Depp's acting is really good, and really perverse. Although I didn't see the intense scenes, the Great Scissors were still quite capable this time; the cuts didn't affect the plot at all."

"Depp's acting has always been very good. He is an art-house freak. He has always cooperated with Tim Burton and has been nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes twice."

"Cao Yang is still the awesome one, making Depp win not only the Golden Globe Best Actor but also the Oscar Best Actor. I think Cao Yang is more powerful than Tim Burton."

"Tim Burton is very powerful in Hollywood; he is a very famous art-house freak director. He... forget it, Cao Yang is not human; Tim Burton still has quite a gap with him."

"Everyone, don't automatically upgrade the status of foreign directors whenever they are mentioned. In terms of achievements in art-house films, there are really not many directors still alive who can compare with Cao Yang."

"By the way, aren't you here to despise the Great Scissors like me? Don't go off-topic."

"Put the Great Scissors aside. By the way, aren't there many people saying how good the Americans are and how politically transparent they are? In this film, I seem to see something a bit different..."

"Cao Yang filmed it randomly, right? American politicians are all elected by the people and should serve the underclass."

"The person above is stupid. This is a film adapted from a true story and won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. How could it be filmed randomly?"

"I also used to think that the Americans should be very... forget it, I think what Cao Yang filmed can at least represent a part of the American political ecology."

"In other words, the United States is not as beautiful as we imagined, right?"

"Just looking at the film, their politicians really can do anything for votes."

"This happened in the 70s and 80s; maybe it's better now..."

The discussion in the "Cao Yang Bar" was a bit unexpected. Cao Yang also went online to take a look. He thought everyone would wildly complain about the Great Scissors; he was prepared to let the Tieba management team lead the rhythm at the appropriate time.

Unexpectedly, some people actually saw a part of the truth about the United States from the film.

Of course, in the thread where the pictures were uploaded, supporters said they wanted to build a ten-thousand-story building to give the OP the motivation to continue uploading pictures.

The "Cao Yang Bar" is getting more and more popular. Many people who have seen the film will come to the bar to participate. At first, the topics were mostly centered on intense scenes, but as they talked, they would all talk about the film's plot.

Many people who yearn for the United States cannot accept it, so they try their best to find ways to make up for it.

This leads to fierce arguments.

More and more people are gathering—those watching the fun, those participating in the discussion, those looking at the pictures...

In short, driven by both interested and uninterested parties, the "Cao Yang Bar" has a bit of the hot momentum of the "Li Yi Bar" back then; it just depends on whether it can be maintained.

As the helmsman of Baidu, Boss Li is also paying attention to all of this.

He feels he needs to re-evaluate Cao Yang's influence. A film can make so many people argue about whether the American political system is good or bad; it's truly incredible.

Boss Li had a sudden inspiration: if this film sells well in North America, Cao Yang's influence in the United States will expand further, becoming one of the most influential Chinese people.

Baidu is going public in the US next year. Can they use Cao Yang's influence to tell a vivid "story" to the Americans?

At any time, you cannot underestimate the celebrity effect.

In the next few days, Cao Yang accepted an exclusive interview, then stopped worrying about the film and returned to the Beijing Film Studio to work on post-production.

During this period, Ehrmann called and asked Cao Yang if he wanted to go to North America to promote the film. Cao Yang refused, saying he wanted to finish the post-production of the film in his hands as soon as possible.

Ehrmann also told Cao Yang that the opening performance of *Milk* in North America was quite good.

47 million over the three-day weekend. Although it can't compare to the 83 million-plus for the three-day weekend of *The Passion of the Christ*, this is already a very good result.

*Milk* successfully won the weekly box office championship.

Columbia has already added to 3,748 cinemas.

Because there are no films that can pose a threat, Ehrmann said that *Milk* passing 100 million is definitely no problem; it just depends on how much it passes.

This depends on the results of the second week.

During this period, Depp and Anne Hathaway promoted in Europe for two days and took the opportunity to promote in China for two days, causing a great sensation. The media scrambled to interview them, and television stations even produced exclusive interviews.

The results of *Milk* in North America in the second week were very stable, with a little over 30 million over the three-day weekend, a drop of 36%, which is quite good.

The second week's three-day weekend plus the four weekdays achieved a total result of 48 million.

Counting the first week's 47 million, in ten days, it already has a box office of 95 million.

Calculated according to the current drop, Columbia feels that when the film is taken off the screen, it should have a box office of 140 million. Compared to the film's investment scale, this is already a big seller.

The North American box office didn't really exceed Cao Yang's expectations.

*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* received ten Oscar nominations and was able to sell over 120 million in North America.

Columbia and Miramax spent a lot of money operating to win awards for this film, which can also be counted as part of the promotion. Being able to win an Oscar is the biggest promotion.

What was a bit unexpected was the domestic box office.

In ten days, *Milk* had a box office of 96 million, which greatly exceeded Cao Yang's expectations.

Cao Yang has a strong premonition that this film might not only pass 100 million domestically, but also seem to be able to exceed it by quite a bit.

Hollywood film + Oscar winner + directed by Cao Yang—in this era domestically, it is really particularly powerful.

Han Zong was also sighing.

The higher-ups originally wanted Cao Yang to film a domestic film to test the market, but before the film was even released, they didn't expect it to be preempted by another of Cao Yang's films.

!

In today's domestic market, a film passing 100 million is really not an accident!

Han Zong was also a bit puzzled.

According to statistics, on December 31, 2002, there were a total of 35 registered cinema chains nationwide, 1,024 cinemas joining the chains, 1,843 screens, and 850 cinemas with computerized networked ticketing.

Between 2002 and 2004, the number of statistically available cinemas nationwide increased to 1,188, and the number of screens increased to 2,396.

It doesn't look like there was much growth, so how could the box office pass 100 million so easily?

During this period, an seemingly unrelated event happened, but it pushed Cao Yang and *Milk* to the hot spot again.

In the eyes of the current Chinese public, if you want to rank directors around the world, Spielberg will definitely be in the top three.

When Spielberg accepted an exclusive interview with a North American radio station, he mentioned his new film *Memoirs of a Geisha*, which he is currently preparing.

He had planned to film this movie five years ago, but he was always dissatisfied with the script, so it was shelved.

It wasn't until recently that he planned to restart it, and he also received support from Columbia.

However, he no longer intends to be the director, but has retreated to the second line to do this as a producer and executive producer.

He also talked about how, in his heart, the most ideal director is Cao Yang, and he also had a deep conversation with Director Cao Yang for a long time.

Fine, he didn't mention at all that Cao Yang refused. It can be seen that he intends to use Cao Yang to hype up and raise the heat of the film.

The host was very savvy and directly exclaimed that with two world-class directors joining forces, he believed this would definitely be a wonderful film.

Spielberg smiled and then broke a big piece of news.

This film, with an investment of 80 million USD, has already invited Cannes Best Actress Gao Yuanyuan, Venice Best Actress Yu Feihong, and Berlin Best Actress Li Xiaoran for the three main female roles...

The news spread back to the country, and both the media and the public who saw the news exclaimed.

Just think about it: Spielberg plus Cao Yang, plus Gao Yuanyuan, Yu Feihong, and Li Xiaoran—this lineup is simply heaven-defying for the domestic side.

Even Han Zong personally called Cao Yang to ask what was going on. He hadn't heard that the co-production *District 9* currently in preparation was shelved. Could Cao Yang be filming two films at once?

How is this possible?

However, he also marveled at the big hand of this film, and even felt a bit expectant, wondering if China Film Group could intervene and make it a co-production?

Because of this matter, Cao Yang once again triggered heated discussions among everyone, and *Milk* benefited from it, with the box office staying firm for another wave.

Not only that, because of this matter, it created an intuitive impression that the three of them, having won the three major Best Actress awards, seem to have a higher status than Zhang Ziyi?

More than twenty days later, Cao Yang finally finished all the post-production for *Nine-Tailed Fox*.

It was also at this time that the three of them, Li Xiaoran and the others, announced one after another that for some reasons, they had refused to appear in *Memoirs of a Geisha*.

Then the media broke the news that *Memoirs of a Geisha* is a film reflecting the Japanese during World War II, and it is normal for Chinese people to refuse to play Japanese people.

Moreover, there are a lot of intense scenes in the film, and the three Best Actresses have stable status, so they definitely won't act in it.

Fine, the tendency of the media breaking the news is very obvious, saying it as if only actors who are in a hurry to stabilize their status and don't care about intense scenes and the role being Japanese would appear in it.

Over in North America, *Milk* was shown for 32 days and has already been taken off the screen, achieving a box office of over 146 million.

The influence of an Oscar for Best Picture plus an Oscar for Best Actor is still very powerful when reflected in the box office.

Domestically, China Film Group has already extended the screening.

Although it didn't get a box office of 240 million in the first month like *Titanic*, the result of 158 million made Han Zong feel that there was still potential.

Whether it's extended or not has little to do with Cao Yang, even though the outside world is full of news about him, hyping up his title as the number one Chinese director.

Cao Yang rested for a few days and was ready to invest in the work of *District 9*.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 181 =====