Chapter 596
Wang Yifei: I'm a Hollywood Newcomer!!! Anti-gravity technology application
The Fast and Furious film crew at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
Wow, this place is huge!
When Wang Yifei first visited Paramount Studios, she found it to be very large, and according to the person in charge, it was just one of Paramount's studios.
Since Paramount was acquired by Want Want Group in the summer of 1989, the company has embarked on a period of rapid growth.
Over the past decade, most of the films produced and distributed by Paramount have made it into the top 100 of global film charts.
Several of these films have even topped the box office charts in film history.
Especially in the last seven or eight years, Paramount's annual box office revenue has been soaring.
As a result, in May, the month before last, the low-budget comedy "The Hangover" actually grossed $3.38 billion worldwide.
Such results, while not particularly remarkable within Paramount, are still incredibly lucrative.
With box office revenue continuing to rise, revenue from movie merchandise will naturally continue to surge—this is an inevitable result.
Even for a low-budget film like "The Hangover," the merchandise revenue can be equivalent to half or even more of the film's box office.
If a company's revenue increases, then naturally, its investment in various aspects will also increase.
In order to produce more high-quality films, attract more audiences to theaters, and bring more profits to the company, Paramount is naturally willing to invest more money.
Paramount has as many as seven studios in Los Angeles alone, and even more in other places, such as tax states.
For example, the Marvel superhero blockbusters that Paramount collaborated on with Marvel Studios were filmed not in Los Angeles, but in other places.
Even most of the dialogue scenes or indoor scenes were filmed outdoors.
This is because although Marvel Studios is a Hollywood film company, it's just an empty shell here, with filming locations in states with extremely low tax rates.
Wang Yifei was unaware of these things, but that didn't stop her from being curious about them all, after all, she was a newcomer to Hollywood.
"Fast & Furious 2" is the second film in the series, but it does not use the original cast. Instead, several main characters were selected through a casting call.
For example, Wang Yifei also entered the crew through an open audition.
The film has a main cast of eight people, three of whom are Chinese, and Wang Yifei plays Gisele, a sexy biker girl.
Compared to the original timeline, the storyline of this timeline will naturally be different, incorporating some plot elements from "Fast & Furious 4," such as the scene where the motorcycle girl helps Don.
This will naturally make Wang Yifei's character more well-rounded.
So she's not the second female lead, but the female lead of this movie.
However, the motorcycle babe won't date the racer 'Han'. She's a motorcycle babe who loves money and thrills, so love is a bit too much of a luxury for her.
Wang Yifei wants to be a female knight-errant because of her own background and family circumstances; she certainly can't just play any role.
This time, Gisele is supposed to be a hot motorcycle girl, but she actually robs a police station with the main characters.
Although the money in that large safe in the police station belonged to the boss of Rio's biggest gang, it was still robbery, even though it was like stealing ill-gotten gains.
He's a negative character!
But this is a Hollywood movie, so as an actor, there shouldn't be any major problem with playing such a role, right?
After joining the film crew, Wang Yifei quickly got into work mode.
Meanwhile, the global film market is experiencing its most booming summer season of the year.
This summer's movie season features a plethora of films, including the renowned "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," "The Dark Knight," "Indiana Jones," and "Kung Fu Panda."
These are all movies that fans are eagerly anticipating.
Captain America 2 was released on July 1st, ahead of the summer blockbuster season.
This film topped the US box office with $1.25 billion, and by a huge margin.
Such a terrifying box office performance stunned many people.
In just four days, the US alone garnered $1.25 billion in box office revenue.
Based on this, the box office performance of this movie is expected to be phenomenal.
July 5th was a Monday, a weekday, and Captain America 2 actually grossed $260 million in a single day.
The whole of America is in an uproar.
It's a weekday, not the weekend.
It grossed $260 million in a single day, while the entire US box office only grossed $300 million.
In other words, the other films only grossed $40 million at the box office?
No, is the American film industry really that developed now?
Even if an average movie ticket costs twenty dollars, with a box office of three hundred million dollars, more than fifteen million people would still go to the cinema to watch the movie that day.
Moreover, the average ticket price in North American cinemas is now $12, and at least 25 million people go to the cinemas that day.
But the entire United States only has a population of just over 300 million.
Why would so many people go to the cinema to watch a movie?
The Federal Reserve, the CIA, and other agencies were baffled, yet the cinemas they investigated seemed to be functioning without any problems.
So what went wrong?
Is it really not counterfeit money?
Or did that many people actually go to the cinema to watch movies?
Kung Fu Panda was released on July 8th, and on its opening day, it became the top-grossing film, earning $280 million.
Another blockbuster film.
This is a movie brimming with Eastern elements; kung fu comes from China, and so does the panda.
Many of the kung fu theories in the film originated from mainland China, and the poetic cinematic visuals, reminiscent of ink paintings, thrilled many Europeans and Americans.
Therefore, it is foreseeable that "Kung Fu Panda" will become a new Hollywood blockbuster, and a trendsetting super blockbuster at that.
Meanwhile, Captain America 2 has grossed over $1.9 billion in the United States.
In the global market, "Captain America 2" was released in multiple countries, and on July 9th, the total box office revenue in overseas markets excluding the United States was US$1.69 billion.
Together, the total box office has exceeded 3.6 billion US dollars.
Based on the current box office trend, breaking 5 billion US dollars is a certainty, but whether it can break the previous box office record of 5.6 billion US dollars set by "The Avengers" remains to be seen.
That's hard to say.
Wow, the box office is so high!
When Wang Yifei is filming in Hollywood, she often goes to a nearby movie theater during her breaks. She really liked the movie "Kung Fu Panda" just from hearing the title.
It's a pity she didn't get a voice acting role, otherwise it would have been quite interesting.
However, she entertained herself by selecting a segment, dubbing it, and then posting it on Weibo.
So she also benefited from this trend and became popular for a while.
She was already a topic generator, and recently, with the movie "Kung Fu Panda" becoming a global phenomenon, Wang Yifei's participation has naturally made it even more popular.
Moreover, her fans and casual observers all know that she's filming in Hollywood, so recording such a video might just be part of her promotional efforts.
Friday the 9th, Kung Fu Panda once again topped the daily box office charts, grossing $300 million.
It caused a global sensation.
This is an animated film, not a live-action movie.
At this rate, the box office for "Kung Fu Panda" is likely to skyrocket tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.
When Disney saw these box office figures, they were so envious they were practically grinding their teeth in envy.
Looking at the world, the king of animation is undoubtedly Disney.
However, in recent years, Blue Sky Animation Studios, a subsidiary of Paramount's DreamWorks, has produced so many great animated films that it is almost surpassing Disney.
For example, the movie "Ice Age" is already a series, and its box office performance is quite amazing.
And the currently showing movie "Kung Fu Panda" is definitely another series!
In addition, MGM's White Cloud Studios also invested in and produced the films "Despicable Me" and "Monkey King: Quest for the Sutra," which are expected to be released this Christmas or next summer.
In short, Paramount and MGM are really trying to divide up Hollywood.
The weekend arrived as scheduled, and many newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times, reported on the ticket sales of major theater chains over the two days.
Many people have realized that the movie "Kung Fu Panda" is going to be a huge hit.
Paramount is really going to take things to the extreme.
First came the live-action film "Captain America," which raked in huge box office revenue. Then, the following week, they released the animated film "Kung Fu Panda." Paramount executives weren't worried about these two films competing for box office revenue?
Monday arrived in the blink of an eye, and Facebook's news section was the first to report the latest developments.
Kung Fu Panda broke the all-time opening weekend box office record with $1.45 billion, making headlines across all media outlets.
If it gets such high box office in the first week, what will it be like in the second week?
And what about the global box office?
Meanwhile, Captain America 2 raked in a total of $1.8 billion in its second week worldwide, bringing its total box office to $5.4 billion.
Horror!
Breaking the box office record of "The Avengers" is just around the corner.
However, judging from the box office performance of "Kung Fu Panda", even if "Captain America 2" breaks the record, it is unlikely that it will be able to hold onto the top spot.
This is really interesting.
Guangzhou, Zhujiang New Town.
All senior executives of Want Want Group gathered here for a meeting.
Yes, this time it was Wang Duoyu who called them back.
Because Wang Duoyu only has one thought right now: make money!
Inside the meeting room, Wang Duoyu looked solemnly at Zheng Baoyin, Wang Jianchao, Yabo Fein, Wang Meihe, Tong Zhigang, Li Efra, and others, and said:
"In the next phase, I will research anti-gravity application technologies."
Years ago, Wang Duoyu had already verified the Riemann Hypothesis and derived anti-gravity technology from it. Over the years, he has gradually improved the theoretical foundation of it.
However, the application of antigravity technology has been slow to achieve breakthroughs.
There are two reasons: one is the issue of materials, and the other is the issue of industrial manufacturing.
The materials issue is quite simple: given the level of materials technology available to the world at that time, neither inland nor abroad could produce materials of such a standard.
Therefore, breakthroughs in anti-gravity technology applications have been slow.
As for the level of industrial manufacturing, that goes without saying.
The foundation of industry is machine tools, and most importantly, skilled workers.
Especially for top-notch technical engineers, these are the most important.
At this moment, Wang Duoyu also recalled some unsolved mysteries from his previous life.
For example, the United States clearly landed on the moon in 1969 and made multiple moon landings in the 1970s, but after the turn of the millennium, they somehow lost this technology.
Who can believe it?
At first, no one believed it, but after carefully investigating and organizing it, they understood what was going on.
Starting in the 1980s, the United States began to shrink its healthcare and other welfare systems, and the rules governing cut-off lines gradually came to the fore.
After the United States took the lead in the aerospace field, Moscow stopped playing with them and turned to things like space stations.
Then NASA began shutting down factories related to the lunar landing program and drastically reducing related financial expenditures.
Many people have lost their jobs, and quite a few engineers are out of work.
It wasn't a big deal to begin with; if you lose your job, you can just find another one.
The problem is that they have a cutoff point. After losing their jobs, they still have expenses such as rent, and they can't wait to find a job. Then the house is auctioned off by the court.
Many engineers have simply vanished into thin air in this way.
Without even people, how can the Americans build spaceships to land on the moon?
Most importantly, starting in the 1980s, the United States dumped all of its manufacturing industries, retaining only some high-end manufacturing.
So even if they're waving around US dollars, nobody's going to hire them to make screws.
"Professor, isn't this too expensive? The anti-gravity technology application project actually requires an investment of 20 billion US dollars?"
Yabo Fein couldn't help but raise his own question.
Wang Duoyu shook his head and said:
"This is just the beginning. I plan to start with small anti-gravity devices and apply them to toy cars to see if it works."
"Once anti-gravity technology and equipment are developed in the future, they can be applied to airplanes, automobiles, spacecraft, and other applications."
"In short, let's all work hard and try to earn more money this year so that we can get a bigger bonus at the end of the year!"
There is no doubt that the market for anti-gravity devices is very broad.
However, overcoming this technological limitation is not so easy.
At this point, Paramount's head, Levin Burns, began his report. (End of Chapter)