Although the reputation of Iron Man in North America is comparable to that of Superman and Spider-Man, Tony Stark has a relatively limited audience around the world, which has also affected the film’s overseas box office to a certain extent. "Iron Man" has more than 70 Countries and regions were screened at the same time, and US$110.11 million was issued overseas in the first week.
If the director was not Duke, the film’s overseas first week would never exceed 100 million.
In any case, Tony Stark is a relatively unfamiliar character to most audiences outside North America. This is another production that has just started, and it is impossible to have a large audience base like the sequel.
In fact, except for the United Kingdom and Australia, "Iron Man" did not exceed the $15 million mark at the box office of the first weekend in other overseas regions.
Even Duke can't change the normal film market laws.
Of course, even if he and James Cameron are added together, they cannot go against the laws of the market.
Duke knows very well that if this is not a comic book movie, there would have been a large number of comics fans as the basis, even if his name is on the director's column, the box office in North America would not exceed $100 million in the first weekend.
In fact, as long as you think about previous movies such as "Titanic", "Avatar" and "Inception", it is easy to find that the first weekend box office of original non-sequel movies will not be too high.
This is the law of the market, even James Cameron at the peak cannot surpass.
Perhaps one day Duke can break this phenomenon, but that requires certain conditions for films, theaters, screens and ticket prices.
Duke and the crew traveled in North America for ten days before returning to Los Angeles. He had no plans to go overseas. The promotion of the film has Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson two major highlights, and there is no shortage of attention. Especially Robert Downey Jr. Not only the starring Tony Stark, but the real person is also very funny.
It's enough if there are actors in the limelight.
In addition, Marvel Pictures and Warner Bros. successively announced related Marvel plans, which also added a certain degree of topicality to "Iron Man".
Duke returned to Los Angeles, on the one hand to take a short vacation, on the other hand, Warner Bros. wanted to discuss with him in detail.
It is clear. The final box office of "Iron Man", which is happy and simple popcorn, must surpass the dark reality style "Batman". Now Marvel is a big success. As the owner of dc comics, Warner Bros. cannot have no further ideas.
Warner Bros. naturally put the way of realization on the director of Duke.
"Doug, I have already told you on the phone that I submitted the script outline to the editing team of the Duke Studio in March."
This is the reception room of Warner Bros. There are only two people, Duke and Doug Walter. Duke was also not polite to him. He spoke directly, "Now that the final draft of the script has not been determined, you have to be more patient."
"I have enough patience, otherwise I won't wait until now." Doug Walter looked a little worried, "I read your settings and outline. Duke, I think you have gone to extremes. "Knight" is more dark and rational than "The Hour of War". This style..."
Duke understood what he was worried about and had to say. "This is an extremely realistic superhero story with the approach of a realistic police and criminal film."
"But..." Doug Walter said nothing, after all, Duke was too successful in the past.
"Yes, this will be a very heavy movie."
Now that everything is fictitious, Duke only said indifferently, "The production cost of 150 million US dollars does mean a lot of risk."
Doug Walter knows. Make your own choice.
This is not another work, but "Batman" whose copyright is entirely in the hands of Warner Bros. If Warner Bros. disagrees with the project, Duke has nothing to do. "The Dark Knight" cannot be a cheerful popcorn movie.
Hesitated for a few seconds. Doug Walter thought of the past and made up his mind, "I will push the review committee to review as soon as possible."
Duke nodded slightly to Doug Walter. He had no dissatisfaction. As an executive, he would be cautious in the face of commercial films with such heavy themes and astronomical investments.
If Doug Walter made a decision without hesitation, he would definitely not sit in his current high position.
No one will rush to decide on the investment of a movie because of a script outline and a few words from the director, even between Duke and Warner Bros. this is impossible.
Warner Bros. is not a company of Duke alone. For all major Hollywood studios, the share structure and power structure are extremely complicated.
After discussing a few more details with Doug Walter, Duke didn't wait much, and quickly left the Warner Building. He had just walked out of the main entrance and was about to get into the car when someone suddenly came over from the side.
The man walked extremely fast, almost trotting, and still some distance away, he shouted, "Director Rosenberg! Director Rosenberg! Can we talk? I'm a manager from imax. Chad Geerfang."
Hearing the last sentence, Duke waved his hand to stop the bodyguard who was about to stop him.
The middle-aged man strode up to him, and took the initiative to stretch out his hand. Duke would not be rude, and gently shook his stretched hand, "Hello, Mr. Gerfang."
"Can you talk, Director Rosenberg?"
As if afraid that Duke would refuse, he added, "It only takes five minutes."
Duke thought for a while, turned around and walked into the Warner Building, and said, "Please here."
Entering the lobby of the Warner Building, the bodyguard who followed him has requested a reception room from Warner's front desk. Duke led the way, and the two soon arrived in the reception room.
"Director Rosenberg, you must have heard of imax?"
The man named Richard Geerfang said directly, "Do you know this movie technology?"
"Of course." Duke said simply, "This is a film production and projection technology with a larger and higher resolution than traditional film."
"Yes..." Richard Gerefang is not nonsense, "Compared with the traditional film technology and the emerging digital technology, imax has more advantages in the viewing experience..."
Before he finished speaking, Duke raised his hand to stop him, "Mr. Geerfang, I know the advantages and disadvantages of imax and other technologies, please explain your intentions directly."
Richard Gurfang organized the language a little and asked, "I understand that you are preparing to shoot the second part of the Batman series with Warner Bros."
Seeing that Duke did not deny, he continued, "Director Rosenberg, haven't you considered shooting with an imax camera?"
Duke couldn't help but glanced at Richard Gerefang. He did have a plan to shoot with the imax camera, but this plan was never mentioned to anyone. I didn't expect the people from imax to find it first.
But he didn't speak immediately, instead he showed a thoughtful look.
The current imax company is not the future. In fact, the imax technology has not really been accepted by Hollywood, far from mainstream production and projection technology. imax is doing a lot of promotion work. If you want to promote this technology, you must first have enough The film source, those converted films, cannot take advantage of imax technology at all.
The imax technology was born for many years. In the past, it could only be circulated in the planetarium and documentary fields. The imax company knew very well that to promote this technology, Hollywood was the barrier they had to overcome, and they were the top directors who wanted to get through Hollywood and Hollywood. Primary goal.
In the past few years, imax has cooperated with Warner Bros. and sponsored the "Polar Express" directed by Robert Zemeckis. Although this film has brought an excellent viewing experience, its market influence is far It's not a big success, but there is still a certain distance from imax's expectations.
In recent years, imax has also sponsored several other projects, but none of these projects has become a sensational popular movie. Although the imax theater line is constantly being built, there is a lack of good enough imax movies to make imax worldwide Build a reputation.
Richard Gerefang was burdened with important tasks during this trip. He had also done enough in advance to understand the working style of the director opposite, so he didn’t care about the circle and said directly, "Director Rosenberg, imax The company wants to participate in your new project. If you decide to use imax technology to shoot and make movies, imax will provide you with 2 imax cameras for free, and our professional and technical personnel will also be stationed in your crew for a long time. "
Duke was also very direct, saying, "I am personally very interested in the imax technology, but if you want to use this technology in this film, you have to obtain the consent of Warner Bros."
The film can be shot and produced using imax technology, which is only good for "The Dark Knight", but Duke will not use 3d, which is really helpful for some movies, such as James Cameron who needs to show the scene of Pandora.
However, 3d technology will damage the light and is not suitable for intense action pictures. Most of the scenes in "The Dark Knight" take place at night, and 3d technology is completely unsuitable.
Of course, as long as the film is suitable, Duke will definitely use 3D technology.
Duke and Richard Gerefang talked for less than ten minutes. The two parties only reached a certain intention. The preparations for "The Dark Knight" have not yet begun. The specific cooperation items need to be discussed one by one by the following people. .
However, the imax technology also has its drawbacks. The most typical is that the imax camera is too heavy and bulky. It is very inconvenient to shoot a lot of lenses, especially in relatively complex environments.
If the two parties reach an agreement, John Schwarzman’s crew must take the lead to get to work and get acquainted with the new equipment.
Leaving the Warner Building, Duke temporarily put down his work and officially entered a vacation state. (To be continued...)
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