Similarly, the newly added theaters after the expanded screening are still located near the Chinese community.

Ronan was not blindly optimistic because of his outstanding box office results in the first week of preview, nor did he overestimate the status of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" without awards among American audiences. Before this film could win heavyweight awards, the mainstream audience was always Chinese.

If it is slightly expanded, East Asian and Southeast Asians can also be included.

Indeed, many Americans who have watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in theaters believe that this science fiction film makes them fascinated, but other situations have not happened.

For example, some Americans actually laughed together when they saw the flying steel wire lenses.

There are no funny scenes in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

There are even many Americans who think it is a Japanese film, and some people refute it and quarrel with others.

During the preview, apart from Chinese and Asians, there are not many American audiences of other types. Unless "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won important Hollywood awards such as the Golden Globes or Oscar nominations, it is denied that the situation will not change much.

Americans always take themselves too seriously and too much to take others seriously.

Countless foreign movies have been terrible in the North American market.

Fortunately, Ang Lee is a smart person who knows how to shoot to please the American audience.

Recently, Ang Lee has been doing a roundabout way.

I went to a breakfast date for Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Tulane in the morning, had lunch with the directors of the producers' league at noon, and had a drink with Schmidt of the director's union in the evening. This sounds like a dream schedule, but it was just an ordinary day for a prize-winning person during the awards season.

In just one week from Christmas to New Year, Ang Lee participated in two film gatherings under the arrangement of Embassy Films, three media interviews, a public TV talk show, and visited more than ten senior members of the academy.

He even personally presented some old men with hardcover DVDs of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and souvenirs. The porcelain customized by Embassy Film Company at the Royal Albert Company in the UK, and the relevant patterns and logos of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were printed on the porcelain, claiming that they were props used in the film, allowing the judges to appreciate the crew's serious and responsible attitude when shooting movies.

Similar excuses can always be found.

"I gotta Feeling."

On the way to an event, Ang Lee finally had some time to say to his agent: "Ronan and Embassy Films' public relations seem to be on the line like Harvey Weinstein."

The agent said: "It's okay, the bottom line of Oscar's PR has been suppressed very low by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax."

Ang Lee was a little worried: "This is an art award, but it has become a money game."

The agent smiled and said, "Movie art is never free from money."

Ang Lee was silent for a while, nodded slightly, and had a deep understanding of this. For the sake of this "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", he and Xu Ligong were almost selling their products.

The car soon arrived at the hotel that he had made an appointment with Vanity Fair magazine. After getting off the car, Ang Lee cheered up and showed his best mental state.

Many times, the quality of a movie is very subjective and is very easy to influence the opinions of others because it has no criteria for judgment. The Oscar is different from those film festivals in Europe. It is produced by the votes of thousands of judges, so it is possible to influence the votes of these judges in public opinion.

Oscar public relations are like an election battle. All activities are like battlefields. They need to build momentum for themselves, intrigue each other, and canvass votes like elections, which makes people physically and mentally exhausted.

Every event is accompanied by a banquet. Los Angeles chicken is like plastic. This kind of "plastic chicken feast" requires at least twenty or thirty times to get an Oscar.

For the sake of the little golden man, even the "plastic chicken" that is unpalatable must be swallowed.

When facing the media, you should face the same smile, and talk to film critics to make them feel as if they were in spring breeze. There are also actors and directors’ unions to build relationships. You cannot speak nonsense, and you have to get an Oscar step by step.

Ang Lee is very clear that the unspoken rules behind the Oscars are full of controversy: art is never the only standard, and factors such as luck, people's expectations, public relations, etc. will all end up with the award's ownership.

On the last weekend of 2000, the screening scale of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in North America expanded to 300 theaters, and the expansion strategy was still mainly theaters close to the Chinese community.

Due to the accurate and targeted promotional strategy of the film, North America has an extremely good reputation. After the expanded screening, not only did the box office of a single-story hall plummet, but the trend was extremely stable. The average box office of a single-story hall in 300 theaters on weekends was as high as US$28,900.

This is also the third weekend of the premiere of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", with a total box office of $13.45 million in North America.

Ronan is very sure that this movie that spent $8 million to buy out North American copyright will inevitably bring profits, even if it gets nothing at the Oscars.

If you can make a profit at the Oscars, it will not be difficult to win tens of millions of dollars.

Investment in the Oscars is meaningful because it has won the favor of the college and judges, and nominations for work and even winning the Oscars can bring great financial returns.

The re-release of the video, the release of DVDs, the reprint, the surrounding sales, and even the investment in other company videos will become a natural thing, and this is the "reputation" effect.

In addition to newspaper advertising, the public relations company hired by Ronan also placed outdoor billboards in areas where Hollywood filmmakers live, such as Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. At the same time, it also began to follow the new media trends and create websites and blogs used to canvass votes for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Many people regard canvassing as the "shady curtain" of the Oscars, and sneer at it, believing that the film is excellent enough to kill everything in seconds. However, the School of Film Arts and Sciences encourages canvassing public relations within the prescribed scope, believing that this is the embodiment of the will to compete freely.

In order to stand out among the strong competitors and get the ideal result, Ronan did not hesitate to take some excessive actions and put on a full page advertisement in the New York Times, advocating that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the "best movie of the year."

It is also a propaganda offensive, which is directly targeted at the college members with voting rights, which is more economical and effective.

To this end, the Embassy Film and Public Relations Company spared no effort. In addition to filling the judges' email addresses with relevant pictures and texts introducing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and not letting go of the judges' daily activities.

Just after 2001, some important outpost awards, including the Golden Globe Awards, have been announced one after another, and the name of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" appears on many nomination lists.

At the Golden Globe Awards for American Film and Television, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won three nominations: Best Director, Best Picture and Best Film Soundtrack.

In terms of the Hollywood Industry Union and Association Award, which is a real Oscar vane, Ang Lee won the Best Director nomination for the Director's Union Award, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won the Best Film Nomination for the Producers League Award, and Baudhi also won the Best Photography Nomination for the Photographers Association.

The nominations of these awards almost guarantee that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will receive several Oscar nominations, and it is not impossible for even Best Director and Best Picture.

After receiving nominations for these awards, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has attracted more attention.

The Embassy Film and Xu Ligong's Zongheng International has made efforts again. In this period when it is already possible to vote, they have bought a large number of media advertisements, sponsored multiple programs, won many famous critics, and asked them to vigorously brag about "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

If you want to win a prize, you must have enough shame, dare to brag, and even be afraid of bragging.

If you don’t think the video is good, how can you make others recognize your video good?

Vanity Fair magazine also published an exclusive interview with Ang Lee, and added a commentary article at the end of the interview.

"Although "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is not perfect, this movie that combines female ***, love, martial arts, suspense, philosophy and Eastern beauty has attracted Western audiences. It has entertainment, deep side, ironic humor, tragic romance, so that after watching it, it is difficult for you to give this movie an exact classification. When the film was released in the United States, it was first screened in art cinemas in the United States, and the screening areas were concentrated in large cities such as California and New York, where there were many Chinese people."

"But what surprised everyone was that American audiences of different races lined up in art cinemas in rare long queues. An art cinema expert said that this was the first time in more than 20 years that he had seen audiences line up such a long line for a foreign film, and even had tickets sold out on weekends in New York."

"Thereafter, the movie began to be screened in hundreds of theaters, and the box office soared to the top five in the American movie rankings. Even at the Vanity Fair editorial department, even the female secretary began to watch this foreign movie with subtitles..."

At the same time, the second round of publicity bombing of The Hollywood Reporter also kicked off.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has received praise from the American news media, praising it as a great work that explains that 'women are not weak', and overshadows the "Charlie's Angels" under the banner of feminism. The sword-like competition between Zhu Runfa and Chan Ziyi's bamboo forest is even more eye-catching. It is the first time to witness the natural beauty of the earth..."

There has been feedback from all parties. Ronan received a data collected by the public relations company privately and determined that more than 600 judges were nominated for the best foreign language film, and listed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" first.

According to the Oscar nomination rules, if a video wants to get the best foreign language film and the best film nomination, it not only needs to get enough votes, but also has to have no less than five percent of the judges vote to put the video on the top of the voting list.

Based on data from all aspects, Ronan can confirm that the probability of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" being nominated for the best foreign language film is more than 80%.
Chapter completed!