Chapter 1030： Lightning McQueen

Once Ronan was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, animated films were all grouped together to be released on the International Children’s Day. However, Americans rarely have the concept of International Children’s Day, and naturally there is no such thing as a June 1 animation movie schedule.

This is a strange country. Many international festivals originated in the United States, but most Americans don’t care about festivals. They may have never heard of them.

In 2001, the United Church in the White Room was called the Pig’s Head. The United Church publicly announced that June 3 would be the National Children’s Day, but Children’s Day was not widely accepted in the United States because of the church and the government’s initiative.

The North American release schedule of "Cars" is the first weekend of June.

Relativity Entertainment was suggested by Ronan. After a preliminary market survey, he had high hopes for this animated feature film by Pixar Studios. Since the Oscars, he has continuously carried out various publicity and marketing activities and united multiple partners.

After the release of various character posters and several trailers, Embassy Pictures cooperated with McDonald's to launch the Lightning McQueen package and the "Cars 2" collection card event.

At the same time, various car models including Lightning McQueen launched in cooperation with Hasbro have been launched, winning the hearts of many boys.

After 　　 etc. gained some momentum, Relativity Entertainment convened media and car fan groups to hold a number of commemorative activities including but not limited to racing cars on the famous Highway 66.

This is a country that lives on cars. The popularity of car culture is far beyond imagination.

The activity on the special highway No. 66 attracted a lot of attention.

This is the most historic highway in the United States.

For Americans, Highway 66 is like a mirror, reflecting the various historical changes that have occurred in the United States.

During the Second World War, Highway 66 was once used as a military route for the transportation of military supplies. At the same time, it was also the mother's road that country singers have been singing. It has been passed down from the ancestors of the United States to today.

Whether you are an American or a person who has lived in the United States, whether you know more or less about it, they have more or less experienced the blessings of Highway 66. It has a sacred meaning like a totem.

It is undeniable that with the development of the times, Highway 66 began to decline, and the small towns along the way gradually became desolate.

In order to create a super animation series, Relativity Entertainment has invested a lot of resources in "Cars", far exceeding last year's "The Incredibles" and the upcoming "Ratuitouille" on holiday this year.

Only in the promotion and distribution, the Embassy Pictures has set a global budget of 130 million U.S. dollars for "Automobile."

This has completely exceeded the production cost of the film.

Driven by the huge platform of Relativity Entertainment and the complete marketing channels of the Embassy Films, "Cars 2" broke out with great market vitality before it was released. Various offline peripherals including Lightning McQueen, only North America In one place, the sales channel belonging to Relativity Entertainment has more than 15 million US dollars in revenue.

Before the first weekend of June, Embassy Pictures held the premiere of "Cars."

In order to fit the plot and atmosphere of the film, the premiere was held in the old dock area of ​​Santa Monica at the end of "Highway 66", and it was held in the open air.

Although Ronan did not go, all the five Pixar Tigers will be there.

Under the creation of Relativity Entertainment, this animated feature film produced and directed by John Lasseter is amazing.

John Lasseter positioned "Cars 2" as the most humanized film in Pixar's history. The story itself represents a real experience for most Americans.

Which boy has never been fascinated by mechanical things? Especially cars.

John Lasseter has a deeper relationship with this. As the son of a dealer of Chevrolet cars, John Lasseter almost spent his entire childhood with car models in his father's office.

His first formal job when he was 16 was a part-time job in his father's car factory...

To use John Lasseter’s exaggerated words in an interview: “The blood in my veins belongs to my animation business; and in my arteries, gasoline flows-when they finally converge in my heart Time, the passion that can be generated represents the limit of my life."

As in the past, this is not a work to coax children. Although it is a CG animation feature film, it adheres to the philosophy of Pixar Studios for all ages.

Similarly, similar to the past protagonists such as Hooker Cowboys, Buzz Lightyear, and Nemo, the characters in the film have distinct flaws.

There is no one without shortcomings, and those with shortcomings are not necessarily unlovable.

Pride, confusion, mutual help, humanity, touch, return, love, and flawed and happy ending, can be described as a typical Pixar-like role and plot.

To a certain extent, "Cars" is an inspirational film with a mixed road film and a nostalgic type. The protagonist Lightning McQueen gained the care of a group of car friends and realized it during the process of crossing Route 66. Self-worth.

While inspiring, this film does not forget to promote the spiritual characteristics of American highway movies, that is, freedom of choice and infinite inner boundaries. Highway 66 was built in 1926 and traverses the Midwestern hinterland of the United States from Chicago to Southern California. It can be described as a material symbol of the pioneering spirit of the United States.

Anthropomorphic gives the car body language and thought character. The most classic settings are the "Burst Tooth" trailer, the "Beetle version" Little Flying Insect, and the "Dolly" tractor and "Monster" Combein appearing in guest appearances. Many viewers may be quietly awakened from the long-lost innocence, immersed in joy, anger, sorrow and joy along with the plot.

In particular, Lightning McQueen, who was imprisoned in a small town isolated from the outside world, received the baptism of human feelings and the cold world that he had no time to experience. Friendship can color selfishness; equality dwarfs the arrogance that discriminates against the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled; Love makes the head occupied by utilitarian find that life can be more beautiful.

When he was dragged back to the real world again, perhaps he really understood the happiness of letting go.

Although Pixar Studios uses several new technologies such as ray tracing in this film, the story told is also quite good, but in all fairness, the quality of "Cars 2" in the long animated films that Pixar has launched can only be regarded as ordinary.

After the film was released, the reputation among the audience was not that good. The audience in the theater only scored "A-". Compared with the past animation feature films of Pixar Studio, it can be described by word of mouth.

Before, which animated feature film from Pixar Studios was released, not from the media to the film critics to the general audience, all were well received.

"Cars" was not well received, and a voice gradually appeared.

Many film critics began to promote this view in the column: After the acquisition of Relativity Entertainment, the Pixar Studio, which originally insisted on artistic creation, has been soaked in the business and money of Relativity Entertainment, and it is no longer the Pixar studio before. .

It sounds like the previous Pixar studio was not commercial.

In the eyes of these people, all are selectively ignored. The former owner and dictator-like boss of Pixar Studios was a businessman named Steve Jobs.

By the way, "Cars" is indeed a bit rougher. For example, the environment rendering and drawing in the production process takes more than four times faster than when rendering "The Incredibles".

Even so, on average, the "rendering work" for each frame of this film is more than 17 hours!

Use such a complicated process to complete a one and a half hour long animated feature film? It feels terrible to think about it.

Although word-of-mouth declined after its release, under the operation of Relativity Entertainment and Embassy Pictures, the box office revenue of "Cars" still topped the crowd.

Three days after the opening weekend in North America, "Cars 2" won the box office of 68.87 million US dollars in 4285 theaters, suppressing all the films released in the same theater in North America, and airborne the North American box office leader!

Animation movies have a longer life cycle in theaters, often far exceeding live-action movies. Embassy Pictures and both have made box office predictions for "Cars", and the results are not much different.

It is estimated that the final North American box office of this animated feature film will be around $260 million.

Of course, comparing the film’s US$120 million production cost and the US$130 million global advertising costs, the North American box office revenue is simply impossible to recover the cost even if it is predicted that the world may reach US$550 million The total box office income of the company cannot recover the investment of "Automobile."

However, whether it is Relativity Entertainment or Embassy Pictures, basically they are not worried about the return and profit of this animated feature film.

Because the sales of peripheral products can only be described as extremely hot compared to the box office of the film.

As early as before the film’s release, under the strong promotion of Relativity Entertainment, various derivatives of "Cars" have been distributed all over the world. Corresponding to the film’s excellent box office performance, the derivatives have been well received by teenagers, especially those The boy’s welcome took only three days. Only the car models and toys of the characters such as Lightning McQueen sold nearly 40 million US dollars in sales in North America.

All related peripheral products, the combined sales in the global market have exceeded 70 million US dollars.

In the past, even for animated movies whose derivative sales far exceeded the box office, their derivative value was closely related to the film's box office. The derivative value shown in "Cars" is simply a typical example.

The former "Cars 2" is one of Ronan’s most impressive animated films. This is not how wonderful the film is. It’s about listening to professionals from the film industry in a training session. As of 2011, even if not Calculating the global box office, the "Cars 2" series has also brought Disney and Pixar more than $6 billion in revenue.

This mediocre film is the one with the highest creation value among all the works of Pixar Studios.