Chapter 619: The "giant" who made Xianmi join forces for him
"Now You See Me" can be said to be the movie that Cao Xuan has promoted the most and most diligently in recent years.
He still attaches great importance to this movie. It is doing well in China and Asia, and its fundamentals are stable enough. As long as the quality of the movie and the promotion team are guaranteed, his presence is just the icing on the cake.
Europe and the United States need to make more efforts. After all, Cao Xuan's film appeal in these places has not been fully formed, and he also intends to get rid of his position as a pure action star. So the movie "Now You See Me" is very crucial.
Taking into account the subsequent Marvel series, "Taken 3" and the "John Wick" series that are likely to start filming.
"Now You See Me" is his only major non-action film in a short period of time, so it naturally has an extraordinary position in Cao Xuan's heart.
"Actually speaking, strictly speaking, the demon thieves in the movie are mainly demons, and their methods are magic. They can also be understood as magic. However, this magic is not without logic, but an exaggerated interpretation based on reality..."
Capital Normal University, school auditorium
The main creator of "Now You See Me" held a fan meeting for college students here. Cao Xuan, the director and other main creators answered the students' questions.
Just now, because someone saw a lot of magic in the introduction and introduction, they asked if it was a magic theme, and Cao Xuan responded.
Most of the magic tricks in "Now You See Me" are well-founded, and some methods can be found to crack or restore them, but some are artistically rendered. If you are a magic fan who insists that the movie is all about real magic, I'm afraid
You will be greatly disappointed.
Cao Xuan doesn't want to do any "100% real magic gimmicks". To be honest, except for a very small number of real magic fans, the vast majority of the audience don't care at all whether these magic tricks are real or fake.
The real selling point of "Now You See Me" is not all about magic. The visual effects and suspenseful twists are the top priority.
"Hello, you are a benchmark for Chinese-language movies. I would like to ask a side question, what do you think of product placement in movies, such as Shuhua milk in "Transformers 3"."
As soon as these words came out, the whole auditorium burst into laughter, and Cao Xuan couldn't hold it back.
Recently, "Transformers 3" was released in China, and it has lived up to its reputation as "the most popular Hollywood film series among domestic audiences".
It was released on a Wednesday during the work week and still took in a box office of 85 million+ on the first day, and the box office exceeded 100 million in a single day on Saturday.
This is also the first mainland movie to have a single-day box office of over 100 million. The previous two films, "Avatar" and "Let the Bullets Fly", which had a box office of over 1 billion, failed to achieve this.
The box office in the first week was 430 million yuan, which also broke the 308 million yuan of "Let the Bullets Fly" and became a new film history record.
However, the box office declined a bit in the next week and the stamina was slightly lacking. However, even so, the cumulative box office exceeded 700 million yuan.
Under normal circumstances, such a movie will definitely have to be postponed. If nothing happens, it will only be a matter of time before it exceeds 1 billion+. It will also be the third 1 billion movie in mainland China.
With such a high box office, the movie is naturally very popular, but most of the actors in it are unknown to domestic audiences and have no psychological understanding of it. What most attracts the attention of domestic audiences is not only Transformers and the plot, but also the product placement of Chinese brands in it.
The Metersbonwe T-shirt worn by the male protagonist includes Shuhua milk with a trolley in the close-up, a TCL TV transformed into Transformers, and a Lenovo computer.
No, Lenovo is an American company and cannot be considered a Chinese brand...
But no matter what, the appearance of these four brands well-known to domestic audiences in "Transformers 3" has attracted a lot of attention, especially Shuhua milk, which has been called "the most awesome brand in China".
There is another interesting fact here. It is said that Yili, the company behind Shuhua Milk, hoped that Bumblebee could drink milk and make milk the source of energy for Transformers.
Of course, this outrageous request was rejected, but the dialogue and close-ups were still specially set. In addition, I heard that the history of the milk and the characters was also set, and the feature film was not shot in the end.
Shuhua Milk's appearance in "Transformers 3" only lasted a few seconds, but the advertising effect it caused can definitely be regarded as a classic marketing case.
Perhaps from the beginning, Yili never thought of profiting from product placement, but instead took a fancy to the gimmick and made a big fuss about it.
From a businessman's perspective, Cao Xuan even appreciates Yili's approach. As a filmmaker, there is no objection at all.
“The inseparable element of commercial movies is profit. Box office is profitable, copyright is profitable, and advertising is also profitable.
I personally have no objection to product placement. My previous movies, even "Now You See Me", also had product placement, and I probably won't specifically avoid this in the future.
In my opinion, this is a very normal business behavior. Of course, the premise is that the advertisement does not affect the plot and only exists as a prop or background..."
When you are a cousin, you can't set up a memorial. Taking the money from advertisers and still saying that you want to support the purity of the movie, you can't blame the blame in a weird way. It's a bit shameless.
Cao Xuan would often tell clichés to avoid trouble, but sometimes he was unwilling to bluff people with lies.
Product placement is an inevitable part of commercial movies.
Apart from other things, the movie "Now You See Me" cost 85 million US dollars, and the product placement alone can make back 15 to 25 million US dollars, at the expense of some props, backgrounds and shots that do not affect the plot.
It would be difficult for any normal commercial producer to say "no" to these advertisers.
Cao Xuan can understand the disgust of some movie fans or art practitioners towards these advertisements, but in the adult world, most people need to compromise with reality.
His answer was very sincere. The students in the auditorium may not necessarily agree with it, but they would not stand up to refute it.
Cao Xuan came out for a rare trip, and everyone communicated face to face. Everyone wanted to seize the opportunity to ask a few more questions. At first, it was about the movie "Now You See Me" itself, but then the topic deviated.
"Xu Zheng announced that he will direct and star in a new movie, Guo Xiaosi also announced that he will be a director and make a movie, Xiao Yanzi also has similar rumors, and Han Han also revealed the director's wish on Weibo. What do you think of their cross-border directing?
How to do it? Do you also have the idea of becoming a director?”
"Well…"
Cao Xuan didn't expect that the topic would suddenly turn to this, so he thought about it before answering.
"I'm not very familiar with most of these people, so I won't comment too much on them, but I can talk about Xu Zheng.
His new movie can be regarded as a companion piece to "The Lost Road". He saved the script with others, and then asked me to buy the copyright. I read the script and it was good. After subsequent research by Fanxing, he also invested in this movie in the form of copyright + funds.
.
Xu Zheng is very talented in comedy, and he had been a director before. I have confidence in his new play, and I helped persuade Huang Bo to join him.
As for whether I will be a director in the future, I don’t think I have that talent, so I should just listen to the directors’ instructions honestly (laughs).”
Cao Xuan didn't want to tease those people, and besides, their movie hadn't been made yet, so he couldn't do it either, so he just went there with a haha.
However, Xu Zheng still helped and did some publicity. This is also a movie that Fanxing has full investment in.
What Cao Xuan said was cool, but in fact Xu Zheng didn't look for Fanxing at all, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't have confidence that Fanxing would pay attention to such a low-cost comedy.
The biggest gimmick of the whole movie is that he and Wang Baoqiang collaborated for the second time in the companion piece of "Unfortunately".
As for Huang Bo, he would also like to find him, but Huang Bo is more hesitant about his script and has little desire to take the role.
Therefore, Xu Zheng initially wanted to seek investment from outside, and then return to Fanxing to buy the copyright or filming license for "The Lost Journey".
However, Xu Zheng ran into obstacles everywhere because the outside world was not optimistic about his directing and acting.
Xu Zheng has also accumulated a lot of contacts over the years, and his status is not low. At least he can get in touch with major companies and some capital bosses.
He quickly found Mr. Wang from Guangguang and Mr. Li from Xiaoma.
Lao Wang has been involved in film production over the years, but his results have been poor and he still focuses on distribution. Although he is optimistic about the film, he is hesitant about Xu Zheng's directorial skills.
Boss Li has been busy seeking to go public in the past two years. The company's resources have been concentrated on Wu Baige, and he has not paid attention to Xu Zheng at all.
As for the feedback from other bosses, capital or independent producers, they are not very positive.
Xu Zheng almost gave up and decided to go to Fanxing to get the copyright first in case something unexpected happened, and then slowly wait for the opportunity.
So, he came to ask for the copyright of "People on the Road", but what was even more embarrassing was that Fanxing was unwilling to sell it.
If you make a remake abroad, that's fine, and the outside world won't think that Fanxing is involved. But if you're filming a sister chapter in China, what if you use Fanxing's brand to cheat and fall apart?
If Xu Zheng spent tens of millions, Fanxing might still consider it, but Xu Zheng's budget is not high, and the price of pigs is worthless to Fanxing, so there is no need to sell it.
Seeing that this matter was about to fall through, at the critical moment, a producer named Chen Zhixi from Fanxing Film and Television Department stepped forward.
Chen Zhixi, a former actor, is a 2000-level student of China National Opera. She has done quite a few films, but she is not well-known. Later, she moved behind the scenes.
In 2009, Chen Zhixi, who had served as Pan Yueming's agent, joined Fanxing with the help of Dong Xuan. However, she did not continue to be an agent and switched to a career as a producer.
Chen Zhixi was an actor in her early years and also worked as an agent. She has many connections in the circle. In addition, she comes from a wealthy background and is said to be the second generation of rich people. If she doesn't want to gain experience in the stars, she can directly invest money to become an independent producer.
With her connections, abilities and resources, even though she was new to Fanxing, she was quickly put to good use.
She was one of the co-producers of "Unfortunate Journey" which was released last summer.
Because of this, Chen Zhixi was familiar with Xu Zheng and recognized his abilities. At the same time, for his own promotion purpose, he kept Xu Zheng and actively promoted the project within Fanxing.
In the end, the project called "People on the Journey to Thailand" came to Cao Xuan's ears, and at Boss Cao's suggestion, he fully invested in it.
Xu Zheng became the director as he wished, and Chen Zhixi became the producer of "囧囧" as he wished. Both of them were very happy.
Cao Xuan is even more happy. Although the success of "囧囧" is highly accidental, Fanxing's strength can make it possible to replicate and contribute to this "accident" with a high probability.
Considering the return on investment and profits of "Thailand", Cao Xuan is very much looking forward to Fanxing's financial statements next year.
A veteran like Cao Xuan was very slippery, and ordinary college students couldn't beat him, so the smart ones shifted their targets to Damimi.
"Guo Xiaosi said that he particularly admires you and Liu Tianxian and wants to invite you to star in "Little Times" together. Will you accept the invitation?"
The female college student who spoke had an expectant look on her face. When Guo Xiaosi said this, she was almost scolded to death by fans of Xianmi and Xianmi. However, for the rest of the public, it can be said that they are very much looking forward to it. They wish they were in the same group and the whole network would enjoy it.
"I did not receive an invitation from Director Guo. As far as I know, the same should be true for Liu Yifei.
Frankly speaking, I don’t like this kind of deliberate marketing hype using the two of us, and I don’t feel respect in their behavior.”
Da Mimi looked very unhappy about being so hot on her, and didn't tolerate Guo Xiaosi at all, so she started to start a fight.
Cao Xuan next to him had a strange look on his face. In the past, Da Mi Mi was pregnant and was going to film "Tiny Times". Now, is this attitude about to be blown away?
Lin Xiao, do you know how much you have lost at this moment...
Of course Damimi knew the price of her words, but she didn't care.
In the original time and space, she had been filming Guo Xiaosi's movies. It wasn't that Guo Xiaosi was so awesome, or that she liked "Tiny Times" so much, but that Damimi simply didn't have access to any decent film resources.
Although "Tiny Times" is terrible, at least the box office numbers are good, the popularity is good, and it can also bring certain fashion resources and exposure, which is very important to Damimi.
But who is Damimi now? She is a Hua Dan that is favored by many stars. Not only does she have the choice of film resources, but she is definitely in the first echelon of actresses in the entertainment industry and has access to many high-quality film resources.
Da Mimi, who was full of confidence, naturally looked down on Guo Xiaosi, a fledgling director.
The highest paid writer?
The achievement that Guo Xiaosi is most proud of, Da Mimi can match it by eating a few more packs of plums, shouting "Are you okay" a few more times, and can easily overtake him.
It's hard to talk about Piaoliao, mainly because she was angered by Guo Xiaosi's hype about her and Liu Tianxian.
The two of them quarrel constantly, but sometimes they are very reluctant to let outsiders join in the fun, especially in publicity and marketing, which is their own patent.
Guo Xiaosi didn't pay a dime, but he inexplicably took advantage of their popularity, and made the two of them have to act like him, acting in his movies as soon as he was greeted.
His surname is not Cao, what a crazy person!
That night, a video of Damimi attacking Guo Xiaosi was posted online. For the first time, Liu Tianxian liked the video and revealed his attitude.
The attitude of the two people angered Guo Xiaosi's fans. As one of the most popular writers and cultural icons nowadays, Guo Xiaosi still has many fans.
His pain literature books have sold tens of millions of copies and have a great influence among girls, artistic youth and some teenagers, many of whom are die-hard fans.
Seeing Xianmi's attitude, she naturally wanted to seek an explanation for her idol and angrily rushed to their Weibo accounts.
But Guo Xiaosi has fans, and Liu Tianxian and Damimi, the two most popular fans, have even more fans.
Regardless of the fan base, the number of die-hard fans, or popularity and national popularity, the two easily crushed Guo Xiaosi.
Fans of the Xianmi family, who had been trolling each other for several years, formed a brief peace at this moment and joined forces to besiege Guo Xiaosi.
This time the melon-eaters were extremely excited.
Long live, Xianmi joins forces for the first time, and Guo Xiaosi can go down in the history of domestic entertainment and gossip.
With more attacks and fewer attacks, the Xianmi family is a team that has been fighting all year round, with explosive combat power. This time they joined forces, relying on their tacit understanding accumulated through years of fighting to the death, they drove Guo Xiaosi to a standstill.
Guo Xiaosi's Weibo was accused of being criticized for three days, and all the posts were "plagiarism apologizes". Guo Xiaosi's four people and the post bar of "Tiny Times" were criticized once each. The bar owner and a bar manager of "Tiny Times" even directly
He took the blame and resigned because the two of them were huge fans of the gods.
To be honest, the power of the two families joining forces has definitely doubled, and they are invincible. After the war is over, the two sides even feel a little bit sympathetic to each other and have unfinished feelings...
However, Damimi did not stay together with Liu Tianxian for long, and followed Cao Xuan and others to Japan and Europe to promote "Now You See Me".
Damimi's popularity has surged in the past two years, and she is also well-known in Japan. When she appeared at an event, several fans shouted "Mijiang".
Damimi has a bright smile. She has never experienced the welcome of foreign fans. This kind of "international star" taste is quite good.
As for Cao Xuan, he has long been accustomed to his high popularity in Japan.
Just kidding, the box office of the two parts of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" is still at the top of the Japanese box office list. Then ask how many overseas singers can afford to hold concerts at the Tokyo Dome.
Cao Xuan's current popularity and influence in Japan is not only unique among overseas stars, but also definitely ranked among the top three.
But Mr. Tao and others didn't know this. Looking at Cao Xuan's Japanese fans and the cheers that erupted as soon as he appeared, they were surprised and sour.
To be honest, these days when they come to Asia to promote, they are in a state of being looked at by Cao Xuanxiu almost every day.
It’s a private jet, and it’s China’s Hollywood. When doing activities in China, it also caused a sensation as soon as it appeared. Unexpectedly, it was still like this when I came to Japan.
Let alone Cao Xuan, even Damimi is more beautiful than them.
After all, among this group of actors, the only one who can be called a well-known artist is Mr. Tao. He was also tepid before. "Captain America" was brought to Asia for promotion just a few days after it became a hit.
Before this, they had never experienced top-notch treatment, and now they are being shown off.
Although this is not necessarily the original intention of Cao Xuan and Damimi, it is enough to satisfy a few people.
However, that's not the end of their Chale Lemon.
After leaving Japan and heading to Europe, Cao Xuan's popularity, although not as exaggerated as in Asia, is still extremely popular, especially in English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, and he is treated like a serious superstar.
The only difference from Asia is that because "Captain America" did well at the box office in Europe, Mr. Tao became frightened this time.
Although he is far behind Cao Xuan, many people know him, as well as Juan Fu. "Charlotte" is a hit drama, and he is also considered a celebrity in Europe.
Mark Ruffalo and others continue to be transparent. The only consolation is that Damimi, who is not very popular in Europe, has also joined their team this time, watching Cao Xuan and the others making lemons together...
