Chapter 138

Six days later, Dongfang Yuqin came to report and moved into the villa.

Li Zetian signed a confidentiality agreement and contract with her, temporarily hired her as a secretary, and then casually threw a lot of information to her to let her familiarize herself with the business content. Li Zetian plans to train her for a period of time and then depending on the situation, see whether she has the ability to serve as the CEO of Times Technology Company.

…

Li Zetian has now begun to read a large number of books related to artificial intelligence, which is the main development direction in the future. Research in this field includes robots, language recognition, image recognition, natural language processing and expert systems, etc., involving philosophy, cognitive science, mathematics , neurophysiology, psychology, computer science, information theory, cybernetics, uncertainty theory...

Li Zetian said that he was "under a lot of pressure" and it seemed that it would be difficult for a person to complete the work even if he had no knowledge of it.

On a sunny afternoon at the end of July, Li Zetian was swimming in the swimming pool when George Lucas suddenly called and said that the post-production of "Star Wars" had been completed and was ready to be released.

"George, bring the film to me. I have a small home theater here."

"Okay, Chronos, I'll send it over in person right away and talk to you about something by the way."

"Um."

Beverly Hills is too close to Hollywood. Within an hour, George Lucas came to Li Zetian's house.

After everyone briefly said hello, they went directly to the home cinema.

Li Zetian called Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin over to watch a movie.

The filming of the first "Star Wars" was very exciting. It was similar to the work in Li Zetian's impression, except that there were a few more things, such as Apple's Apple-ll and Walkman, and special effects lenses were added, but it made the movie It looks more brilliant and technological.

While Yu Jingqiu and Dongfang Yuqin were watching the movie, they made sounds of surprise from time to time. This shows that this movie should be a success!

Afterwards, everyone responded to the living room. Li Zetian poured a glass of water for George Lucas and said, "George, it's a good shot. I like it very much! By the way, didn't you say you wanted to talk to me about something? What on earth is it?" "

George Lucas shook his head and sighed, "Twentieth Century Fox is not optimistic about "Star Wars". Our movie has just been shot and has not even been promoted, and they are preparing to release it."

"No publicity?" Li Zetian frowned when he heard this.

"It can't be said that there is no publicity at all - just some "Star Wars" movie posters are posted at the entrance of the cinema. However, what is extremely bad is that 20th Century Fox only allocated us a dozen cinemas..." George Lew Cass said this with an almost desperate tone.

In my day, more than 30 movie theaters were divided in my previous life. In this life, because of Apple's investment, the number of movie theaters has been divided into even fewer.

Li Zetian cursed secretly in his heart, but on the surface he forced himself to be calm. He patted George Lucas on the shoulder and comforted him: "It doesn't matter. I believe that "Star Wars" is a very good movie. With word-of-mouth spread, it will definitely become more popular." More and more people will go to theaters to watch our movies! At that time, 20th Century Fox will naturally increase the number of screens for Star Wars."

"hope so."

After George Lucas finished speaking, he took a drink of water.

Li Zetian asked: "George, do you plan to make the second part of "Star Wars"?"

"If the movie becomes a hit, of course I will!"

"Haha, it's settled then. I'm really looking forward to our cooperation again!!"

Li Zetian stretched out his hand and shook his hand.

The copyright of "Star Wars" belongs to Star Wars Film Company. Whether the second part is filmed or not is decided by Li Zetian as the director, but he is more inclined to let George Lucas film it because George Lucas Si's understanding of "Star Wars" is unmatched by others. Moreover, George Lucas has proven successful in his previous life!

Not long after, George Lucas left.

"There is no market for science fiction movies in the United States, so it is natural that 20th Century Fox does not value "Star Wars". There are only a dozen theaters in the United States showing it, so it may be difficult to recover the money..." Yu Jingqiu said.

"Do you dare to bet with me? I think "Star Wars" will be popular all over the world, with a box office of more than 100 million US dollars." Li Zetian laughed. He said a very conservative figure. In his previous life, the global box office of this movie reached a shocking It grossed more than US$775 million, nearly US$800 million, of which the US box office reached US$460 million.

Yu Jingqiu obviously didn't believe it, "Just bet! What are you going to bet on?" She said with her head held high.

Li Zetian smiled and whispered in her ear.

Yu Jingqiu's face suddenly turned red with embarrassment, and she glared at Li Zetian angrily.

"Do you dare?"

"What are you afraid of? But you haven't said yet, how will you be punished if you lose!"

"If I lose, it's up to you!"

"Then I have to think carefully about what kind of tactics I can use to punish you! Don't complain then!"

Li Zetian laughed triumphantly at this moment. When he thought of Yu Jingqiu agreeing to his bet, every pore in his body became excited.

…

On August 1st, "Star Wars" was officially released.

Due to the lack of vigorous promotion and only a dozen screens, the box office of "Star Wars" was disastrous on the first day. At the end of the day, it was less than 20,000 US dollars.

What was unexpected the next day was that almost all the "Star Wars" movie theaters were lined with people.

"I want a ticket to the Star Wars movie!"

"I want two tickets to the Star Wars movie!"

"I want two Star Wars movie tickets too!"

"..."

In less than an hour, the tickets for the "Star Wars" movie that day were sold out!

People who didn't buy tickets sighed or complained.

"Fuck, it's actually sold out. I want to see what this movie is like! My friend said that "Star Wars" is super good. He bought three tickets and it seems that three times is not enough!"

"My classmate also said that "Star Wars" is super good. The movie has unprecedented space scenes, complicated galaxy battles, and cool laser swords. He strongly recommended me to watch it! Alas, I didn't expect that I couldn't buy a ticket. !”

"Brother, let's go to other cinemas to see if there are any tickets left!"

"OK!"

"..."

Many people went to other cinemas, but unfortunately, these cinemas did not show "Star Wars" at all.

Everyone couldn't help but complain, why is such a good-looking movie only shown in a dozen cinemas? Are the film distribution companies showing off their brains?

One day passed, and early the next morning, the cinema had not yet opened, and there were even more people queuing up. The queue, which was tens of meters long, was shocking!

Passers-by were extremely surprised: "What's going on? Why is this movie so good? There are so many people queuing up before the cinema even opens!"

An insider told these passers-by: "The most beautiful and cool science fiction movie "Star Wars" in history, it is said that a scalper's ticket can be sold for 50 US dollars each!"

Passers-by stared wide-eyed and couldn't believe it.

"I'm not lying to you! You don't know. So far, there are only a dozen movie theaters in the United States showing this movie. The price is in short supply! All the tickets for the whole day were sold out in a short time in the morning! Look over there, The grand queuing scene attracted reporters!"

On the fourth day of the movie's release, "Star Wars" became even more popular due to word-of-mouth spread. Hundreds of meters long queues formed in front of each cinema, blocking traffic.

That night, the local TV station made a special report on "Star Wars", and the media and newspapers also reported on "Star Wars".

Twentieth Century Fox quickly convened a meeting.

A middle-aged man looked at the film company CEO Alan Ryder Jr. and said excitedly: "Mr. Alan Ryder, Jr., a dark horse has appeared, a dark horse in the movie has appeared!!! The science fiction movie " Almost all the theaters for Star Wars were full, and there were hundreds of people lining up in front of the cinema in the morning, occupying several streets. It was simply too exaggerated. This is something I have never seen in my decades of work!”

In the conference room, many people looked very surprised and talked a lot.

Little Alan Ryder thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "Make 500 copies of the movie immediately and distribute it to 500 cinemas!"

"yes!!!"

At the end of the week, "Star Wars" had grossed $550,000 at the box office on only a dozen screens.

In the second week of the release of the "Star Wars" movie, the number of screens for "Star Wars" finally increased to 500. Although compared with other movies, the number of screens is still relatively small, but George Lucas is very happy. , contented. This means that "Star Wars" is successful, not only can it recoup its investment, but it may even make a lot of money.

But Star Wars clearly did more than George Lucas and everyone else could have imagined.

As before, long queues formed at the entrance of many cinemas, and more than 500 cinemas were almost full.

After one week, "Star Wars" has achieved a box office of 15.8 million U.S. dollars, directly claiming the box office championship this week!

"Damn it, "Star Wars" is so powerful!!!"

Everyone at Twentieth Century Fox was shocked.

Little Alan Ryder waved his hand, "Add 2,000 more copies!!!"

"yes!!!"

As a result, in the third week of the release of "Star Wars", the number of screens increased to more than 2,500. The occupancy rate of the cinema is as high as over 90%. There is no doubt that "Star Wars" once again won the box office championship this week, with a box office of US$70.2 million this week!

At this moment, 20th Century Fox was speechless and immersed in great grief. I thought, if I had been willing to invest more, the copyright of "Star Wars" would have been my own! ! !

Deep resentment!

I regret it so much!

However, making money but not making money is not the true nature of the company.

Theater companies came to the door one after another, asking 20th Century Fox to give them copies of the movie.

So, little Alan Ryder waved his hand again, "Another 2,500 copies!"

In its fourth week, "Star Wars" hit an eye-popping 5,000 screens. Many people have been waiting for the box office of "Star Wars", and "Star Wars" did not disappoint them, with a box office of $114 million this week.

In the one month since "Star Wars" was released, the U.S. box office has exceeded 200 million US dollars!

Twentieth Century Fox’s stock price doubled!

Due to the multiple close-ups of Apple-ll and Walkman in the movie, sales of these two products increased dramatically during this period, which greatly increased Apple's brand awareness. Wall Street estimated Apple's market value at US$7 billion. , an increase of US$1 billion from the last financing!

Thomas Rockefeller, like Twentieth Century Fox, was as blue as a hole in his stomach. It is understandable that 20th Century Fox is unwilling to make additional investment, after all, there are risks. But Thomas Rockefeller took the initiative to hand over the Star Wars Film Company, which he regretted to death.

"'Star Wars' was a box office hit and became popular in the United States. Chronos should be proud now..." Thomas Rockefeller said with a wry smile.

In fact, Li Zetian is indeed very proud now. What he was proud of was not how much money "Star Wars" made for him, but that Yu Jingqiu lost the bet and had to fulfill the bet.

"You, you go take a shower first, and I'll brush my teeth..." Yu Jingqiu said shyly.