The first-week box office of "The Lord of the Rings" was within Jimmy's expectations, but the proportion of IMAX's box office exceeded his expectations.
Of the US$55 million in box office revenue in the first week, nearly US$9 million came from IMAX theaters.
You must know that the number of IMAX screens is very small. There are currently less than 70 commercial IMAX screens open to the public in North America. This means that in less than three days, each IMAX screen contributed an average of nearly 10
Box office of $30,000.
This result also shocked the major theater chains. Many people had no idea that IMAX movie tickets were so expensive, several times the price of ordinary movie tickets. There were actually audiences who bought them, and even queued up to buy them.
In fact, when IMAX first started to be promoted, many cinemas went to the IMAX company to inquire about prices. However, after hearing the high price of rebuilding an IMAX theater, many people were deterred.
IMAX theaters are very different from ordinary theaters. They have very high requirements for space, especially height, so it is very difficult to renovate them based on the original ordinary theaters. Many theaters, even if they want to be renovated, lack...
basic condition.
To renovate a theater, IMAX charges a total of US$2.4 million for design and construction, and another US$1.2 million for installing the audio-visual playback system, adding up to US$3.6 million.
This is the price after discounts. Before discounts, it would have cost five million US dollars.
The reason for the discount is also because IMAX hopes to quickly open up the market.
Facts have proved that the effect of price reduction is quite obvious. Otherwise, there would not be more than 60 commercial IMAX screens open to the outside world in North America.
But even if the cost is discounted and the price is reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars, many theaters are still unwilling to renovate. After all, $3.6 million is not a small amount of money, and subsequent maintenance also costs money.
The most important thing is that this is only the cost of the theater itself, and the cost of each subsequent screening is also higher than that of ordinary theaters. If no one buys the tickets, it can be said that each screening is a loss.
When movies such as "The Martian" were made into IMAX before, it was not as lively as this time. There are two reasons. On the one hand, the number of IMAX screens opened in the second half of this year has increased a lot. Before that, the number of theaters was simply not enough.
Not many people watched IMAX.
In October, there were only more than 40 IMAX screens open in North America, but by the end of November, in less than two months, the number had increased to 20.
In addition, the IMAX effects of the previous movies are not as stunning as the visual effects of "The Lord of the Rings". The grand scenes often appear in "The Lord of the Rings", which are especially suitable for the large format of IMAX theaters.
A combination of various reasons made IMAX suddenly popular.
Those theaters also calculate accounts. Although the renovation cost is high, the profits are also high. The daily turnover of a single theater can reach tens of thousands of dollars, which is simply a money tree.
Nowadays, major theaters are worried because the profit from movie tickets is getting lower and lower, and everyone is looking for a way to increase movie ticket prices. Therefore, IMAX's performance this time has made major theater chains very interested.
Also on the fourth day, news about IMAX's box office success hit major newspapers. Many newspapers put photos of movie fans queuing up to buy tickets at the entrance of the cinema on their front pages.
With such a good opportunity, the box office website will certainly not miss such a good publicity opportunity, and directly launched the slogan "Come to the box office to buy IMAX movie tickets".
The phone calls between IMAX and Deep Space Company were also inundated during this period, with people coming to inquire about the IMAX theater.
…
In Manhattan, inside Satisfaction Teahouse, Spielberg and George Lucas sat around a square table, and the three of them raised their teacups at the same time.
Jimmy smiled and said, "Let's celebrate IMAX's milestone victory with tea instead of wine."
"congratulate."
After putting down the cup, George Lucas looked through the window at the Deep Space Building under construction opposite, and smiled, "I know why you opened a teahouse here, because you can watch the construction of the Deep Space Building here every day.
, do you feel a sense of accomplishment watching the building slowly being constructed?"
This was the first time for George Lucas to come to Satisfied Tea House. He had always heard that Jimmy had opened a tea house here, but he never had time to come.
"Let's see what the point of building a building is. I opened this teahouse just to kill you. Remember to pay for the tea when you leave." Jimmy joked.
George Lucas shrugged his shoulders, "No problem, will you collect the deep space points? The deep space points you gave me are still useless."
Jimmy nodded and smiled, "You can also collect points. The cup of tea you drank is 10,000 points."
"Forget it then." George Lucas pouted, "Ten thousand points can be exchanged for a lot of things. I'd better save them for other things. For example, I can go to the ticket office to exchange for IMAX movie tickets.
Less Zhang."
Spielberg said with a smile, "IMAX's order volume will definitely increase sharply during this period. We must be prepared. Our pace of renovating theaters is still a bit slow."
Jimmy said with a smile, "Slow down, just slow down. There's no point in going too fast. There are still fewer movies that are willing to be made into IMAX. We don't have enough equipment for rental. We will wait until the orders for this part come in."
It’s not too late to speed up.”
"As long as you have a plan, in this year's movie market, your Deep Space is the absolute winner. Now it seems that the top three box office of the year should be yours. You will definitely appear more frequently at next year's Oscars and Saturn Awards.
Very high.”
Jimmy shook his head, "The Saturn Award is definitely fine, but forget it about the Oscar."
Spielberg and George Lucas smiled. They also understood what Jimmy meant. These three movies had a high box office and should be nominated for many Oscars, but they would definitely not win many awards in the end.
Grand prizes like Best Picture are even more impossible.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Oscars do not favor movies such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter", and "Shrek". This year's "A Beautiful Mind" and "Shrek" were released.
"Unfaithful Love" and "Moulin Rouge" should be more popular with the Oscar organizing committee. These films of Deep Space can probably win some awards in technical categories such as visual effects, costumes, and makeup.
"I heard that "Warcraft 3" has been produced?" Spielberg asked.
As a game fan, he is quite concerned about these things.
Jimmy nodded, "It has indeed been made. The official release date will be announced at the annual meeting."
Spielberg rubbed his hands and said, "Leave me a copy when the time comes."
"No problem, I have another piece of good news to tell you, that is, in addition to "Warcraft 3", we also have 1.5 games. You can experience it when we go to Jinling for the annual meeting." Jimmy said with a smile.
.
"One point five models?" Spielberg showed a puzzled expression, "What does this mean? There is only one model of one type and two models of two models. Why are there still one point five models?"
"There are only 1.5 games. One is a game made by Xuele Mountain called "Minecraft". It has been promoted a few days ago and will be officially released on space on the game theme day of the annual conference. The other half
It's only been a few days since we started working on it, and we should have a semi-finished product ready for the annual meeting," Jimmy explained.
It was okay if he didn't explain it. Once he explained it, Spielberg became even more puzzled, "It only took a few days to do it, and by the time of the annual meeting, it would be a semi-finished product? How can a game be made so fast, like Lianliankan?"
Jimmy waved his hand and said, "It's different from Lianliankan. This is a relatively big game, but it's based on "Warcraft 3", so it can be made very quickly. I don't know much about the technology, so it probably only needs a few changes.
Just the parameters."
"What kind of game?"
Jimmy said nonchalantly, "You will know by then that this game is YU's idea."
Spielberg said with a smile, "If you say so, I am more interested. His ideas can always surprise people. Are you sure you can play it at the annual meeting?"
Jimmy nodded and said, "The other two models are definitely fine, and this half should also be playable."
"What kind of game is Snow Mountain's Minecraft?" Spielberg asked again.
Jimmy thought for a while and simply concluded, "It's a sandbox game."
"Oh, it turns out to be a sandbox game. Xueleshan has never made this type of game before."
As a senior game enthusiast, Spielberg certainly knows what a sandbox game is. This type of game has been around for many years, but the term sandbox has only been used in the past two years. It is a relatively new term. Generally speaking,
Players really don’t necessarily know what a sandbox is.
Jimmy nodded, "Xuelesan has indeed never done this type of game before, and this is also an attempt."
"Sandbox games are not easy to make, but once they are made, they will be very popular. For example, "The Sims" was released early last year. I heard that it has sold more than five million copies. This is a very scary situation.
number."
It is indeed a very scary number. In the past few years, there are not many computer games that can match the sales volume of "The Sims".
It is said that when Electronic Arts was making the game "The Sims", the goal was only to sell 160,000 units, but now the sales of the first unit alone have exceeded 5 million units, which is what Electronic Arts expected.
Thirty or forty times.
It is precisely because of the huge sales of "The Sims" that this type of sandbox game has become popular. Various simulation games have appeared on the game market this year, such as "Simulated Campus", "Simulated Town", and "Simulated Family"
, "Simulated Marriage" is countless.
However, because they are all popular works and made in a hurry, the quality is very poor. Apart from "The Sims", there are no other impressive sandbox games.
When Jimmy said that Snow Mountain was making a sandbox game, Spielberg's first reaction was that Snow Mountain was also riding on the popularity of "The Sims", but it was too late to catch on. "The Sims" is the most popular game.
It should have been from the second half of last year to the first half of this year, but now the popularity has dropped a bit.
The one that has been criticized the most now is "Plants vs. Zombies" produced by Deep Space Company. This game has directly made tower defense games popular again, and some new and old tower defense games have emerged one after another.
However, although the game "Plants vs. Zombies" looks simple, it is extremely difficult to play. Many games cannot learn the essence and have no sense of experience at all.
It’s normal for Spielberg to have such an idea. In fact, when Xueleshan officially announced on Deep Space Tribe that they were about to release a sandbox game, many netizens suggested that Xuelershan was trying to catch up with “The Sims.”
"The popularity of "Xueleshan", after all, Xueleshan has no experience in making this type of game before, so there is no reason to suddenly make a sandbox game, and it is made quite quickly.
Jimmy probably saw what Spielberg was thinking, so he smiled and said, "YU also gave a lot of opinions on this game, and they were key opinions. It was inspired by YU that Roberta decided to make this game."
A game.”
Sure enough, when he heard that YU was involved, Spielberg's expression immediately changed.
"Really? YU is really involved? Then I have to look forward to it."
George Lucas observed the change in Spielberg's expression from the side and said with a smile, "Sure enough, the name YU is more useful. I will see what products you want to promote in deep space in the future. There is no need to say anything more. Just tell me.
As long as YU participates, everyone will definitely buy it."
"The name YU is of course useful. After all, he has never disappointed anyone. And I believe that since he is involved, it will definitely not be a popular work."
"You finally said what you really think. If Jimmy hadn't said that YU was involved, you would have thought that Xueleshan was riding on the popularity of "The Sims."
Spielberg chuckled, held the tea cup and said, "Here, let's drink tea."
…
Spielberg sat at Satisfaction Tea House for more than an hour and left early because he had something to do, leaving George Lucas and Jimmy behind.
Jimmy asked someone to bring George Lucas a new cup of tea, "This is my own collection of West Lake Longjing tea. It's quite rare."
George Lucas looked at the hot tea in front of him and said with a smile, "There is a Chinese idiom called cow chewing peony. If you give such a precious tea to a person like me who doesn't understand tea, it should be cow chewing peony."
"
Jimmy smiled and said, "Your Chinese level has improved a lot. As for this tea, sometimes you just drink it with an atmosphere. It doesn't matter whether you understand the tea or not, what matters is the atmosphere. Even if what I brought out today is not a good Longjing, as long as you believe
It is Longjing, and it has the value of Longjing.”
George Lucas waved his hand, "Jimmy, don't do this to me. Tell me quickly what you want to do."
He knew Jimmy very well. As soon as Spielberg left, Jimmy gave him a cup of tea. He must have something to tell him. He didn't like to beat around the bush, so he asked Jimmy directly.
George Lucas's directness was what Jimmy expected, so Jimmy also said very directly, "I want Industrial Light and Magic."
Chapter completed!