Chapter 30: Word of Mouth Is Not Easy
If other Chinese-language filmmakers were approached by Columbia, the Hollywood film giant, they would most likely not refuse.

As the saying goes, sake makes people famous, money makes people's hearts move, and the temptation of a world-class title is really too great.

Jiang Heng is different. After being reborn, he first wants to have endless money, second, he doesn't want to work too hard, and third, he wants to be closer to home.

If it weren't for the constraints of law and morality, we would have used "super microcomputers" to make money from other sources.

If he returns to his old career of making movies, he will only make "special effects blockbusters" with higher box office performance. Why would he go abroad to be a pioneer just for a little bit of false fame?

The reason why I sat down and chatted with Pascal was just to give him some face during the cooperation between the two parties.

But when I heard her say that, an idea suddenly flashed through my mind.

"Ms. Pascal, you said that just to strengthen our cooperation. I can make a promise here. If our cooperation can go smoothly, the distribution rights of The Matrix 2 and 3 in some countries in North America and South America can be handed over to your company!"

"Is it just the distribution rights? We can also provide funding and actors for the filming. You know, the first film in many series of films has a good reputation and box office, but the subsequent films often face the risk of not making money or even losing money!"

Jiang Heng smiled and shook his head. He didn't have to spend any money to make the special effects, so he wouldn't lose money anyway.

"I don't need any investment for now. In addition, I will often shoot some special effects blockbusters in the future. If your company is interested, you can be the agent for distribution!"

Pascal was a little unhappy. Her cousin, the most promising vice president of Columbia, came all the way here just for the agency distribution rights of a few non-Hollywood films? Any manager could have negotiated with him!
"Oh, I wonder what kind of film Director Jiang is going to shoot this time. If it's a mythological story from your country, it's fine, but the audience here really won't understand it!"

Jiang Heng could hear the sarcasm in her tone, but he was not angry. He smiled and said, "Of course I know this. It's not a myth, it's a monster movie!"

"Monster, you're not going to make a movie about dinosaurs too!"

"Yes, I want to make a movie about dinosaurs!"

Pascal laughed so hard that he couldn't straighten his back. "Isn't it something like Jurassic Park?"

"Yes, what I photographed this time were dinosaurs from the Jurassic period!"

"Ha, Chinese people are making a monster movie? You have no experience, and there will be great risks!" Pascal laughed so hard that his mouth hurt.

"Before I filmed The Matrix, I had no similar experience, but judging by the current market response, it's pretty good. I want to try my hand at monster movies!"

Pascal straightened up and stopped laughing because she was really angry!

This oriental man in front of me is handsome and talented, but he is also really arrogant!

Proud people are often very conceited and not easy to listen to others' advice.

Although it is easy to achieve success, it is also easy to encounter major failures.

It's fine if such people join the team and can be controlled, but once they are out of control, they often cause huge disasters to the company.

She had already given up the idea of ​​recruiting Jiang Heng. If she wasn't still thinking about the collaboration on the sequel to "The Matrix", she wouldn't even bother to say polite words.

"Oh, then I'm looking forward to it. When Director Jiang finishes shooting the film, please remember to show it to me!"

"Of course, I'm also thinking about releasing it worldwide and trying to get some box office sales!"

Pascal sneered and thought to himself, "I want to see what kind of weird things you can film!"

In fact, it is not easy to shoot a monster movie, because the real protagonists of the movie are not humans, but those vivid monsters that seem to really exist.

But we can’t just film monsters fighting each other, that would turn into an animal world!

Besides, we can’t afford the cost of special effects!
According to unofficial data, the dinosaurs only appeared for fifteen minutes in "Jurassic Park 1", and the rest of the time was spent on the male and female protagonists and other human characters.

The real highlights of the film are the realistic and shocking images of dinosaurs, and the chase and escape scenes that are so oppressive that they take your breath away.

The problem that needs to be solved is how to place the titular human protagonist in a dangerous environment.

This may be due to the supporting characters, but the protagonists don’t seem to be that smart either. Only in this way can a suffocatingly tense atmosphere be created.

For example, in "Jurassic Park 1", when the Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared, the little girl in the car frantically looked for a flashlight and used the light to shine on the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

There is also the scene where they cross the high-voltage power grid. The heroine pushes the switches one by one in the control room. The high-voltage power grid has already sounded the alarm. The hero below tells the little boy to jump down, but the boy refuses to jump.

Then the heroine turned on the power, and the little boy was knocked down by the high-voltage power grid. It was outrageous that he could be saved.

But overall, there is nothing wrong with the plot design of "Jurassic Park 1". In addition, as the world's first special effects blockbuster about dinosaurs, it has caused a huge shock to the hearts of countless young people, so its reputation is still good, with a Douban score of 8.3.

But in the second part, Spielberg was still the director and the screenwriter of the first part, but the score dropped sharply to 7.6.

The global box office fell from US$9.12 million to US$6.18 million, which can only be considered a small profit.

The director was changed for the third film, and the ratings were acceptable, but the global box office plummeted to 3.69 million, causing Universal Pictures to lose a lot of money and had to temporarily shelve this IP.

In addition to the Jurassic series, films like "King Kong: Skull Island" in 17 only had a Douban score of 6.5, and "King Kong vs. Godzilla" in 21 only had a score of 6.3.

As for the "shark survival" films that are quite popular among female audiences, most of them have a Douban score of around 5 points, and those with a score of 7 or above can be considered excellent.

The reason is simple. It is somewhat abnormal for the heroine to encounter a shark at the seaside.

It can be seen that it is extremely difficult for monster movies to achieve both box office success and good reputation.

Jiang Heng didn't expect the new film to have a good reputation, as long as he could make some money in name.

After seeing off the angry Pascal, Jiang Heng rested for another day before taking a plane back to Beijing.

This time, as soon as he landed, someone from the Beijing Film Studio came to pick him up and took him to the hotel.

"Hey, Director Jiang, you must have gained a lot from this trip to the United States!"

Not long after I returned to the hotel room, Han Sanping called.

Jiang Heng was having a leisurely time in the United States, but he was extremely anxious in China, not knowing how the script had been changed.

There is a time difference between the two sides, so it is not convenient to call every day.

Jiang Heng hung up his clothes, walked to the bed and said, "Fortunately, fortunately, we won the box office championship in the first weekend. At least we didn't embarrass the Chinese people!"

Han Sanping said: "Next time, it should be released in both places at the same time. The box office in the United States is so good, and promoting it will boost the domestic market. When this news came, we were offline, and everyone who wanted to support it had nowhere to go!"

(End of this chapter)