Chapter 479 Honorary Citizen

They're actually missing an important point about the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Sitting in the small bar of Spielberg's house, George Lucas sipped red wine and said to an old friend, The emphasis on direct communication with the audience.

Spielberg shook the glass gently, recalling the various marketing tactics used in the trilogy, and nodded, It is undeniable that Duke's personal website played an important role.

Then, he thought of other things, And the social networking site he used before The Return of the King, the various information released by The Lord of the Rings in his name, and frequent interactions with supporters are also the key.

The Internet can no longer be ignored by anyone. George Lucas put down his glass, stood up and took a few steps, Amateur video bloggers are just getting a little bit of influence, Duke and Donald Trump's daughter, has already created It’s an increasingly powerful publicity tool that instantly brings Hollywood closer to moviegoers and can easily win over huge audiences.”

Spielberg fully agreed with George? Lucas's point of view, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not only the success of Duke's directorial career, but also the overall success of film marketing!

George Lucas sighed, He's changing Hollywood!

That's right! Spielberg echoed. Duke is changing the marketing model inherent in Hollywood.

Speaking of this, Spielberg suddenly showed a look of great interest, The Return of the King is far more successful than The Two Towers, thanks to that website, it seems that I have to register as a user, go to Look how amazing it is.

Times have changed, and the Internet is bringing everyone closer, even allowing anyone's point of view. Duke has not overlooked the role of online publicity since the original The Fellowship of the Ring as the Internet spread across the country, and he and The Lord of the Rings have been a major driving force in online news coverage.

After the start of a new Monday, Duke left exotic Brazil and flew to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The data of the second weekend of the release of The Return of the King are also freshly released.

In North America, The Return of the King drew a god-like weekend box office chart. The box office in the next weekend only dropped by 35% compared with the first week, and received 82.33 million US dollars. It won the North American box office championship without any suspense.

The second place went to Crack of Memory, which Paramount Pictures opened in more than 2,700 theaters, but the box office figure in three days was only $13.12 million, which could not pose any threat to The Return of the King at all.

overseas. Although the film's release area has increased to 90, the newly added regional market volume can only be said to be average. The weekend box office fell to 162.33 million US dollars, still maintaining a leading position in the world.

The Return of the King was released for ten days, and the North American box office broke the $300 million mark in one fell swoop. Reaching as much as 304 million US dollars, the global box office cumulative total of 846.35 million US dollars!

According to our marketing department and CinemaScore's survey estimates, the global box office of The Return of the King is very likely to exceed the $1.5 billion mark!

In the CEO office of Warner Bros., Jamie Johnson watched Doug Walter excitedly. All the theater chains in North America have promised us that before Memorial Day weekend, the number of theaters and the filming rate of The Return of the King will not be reduced!

When Jeff and I were pushing this project, we expected Duke to be successful, Doug Walter said with emotion, but we never thought the trilogy would be so successful!

to be frank. Compared with the investment of The Lord of the Rings Studio, the profit at the box office is not to say how high, but the profit generated by the surrounding is too amazing. It is only the first two DVD discs. Before the release of The Return of the King, It has brought a total of more than 300 million US dollars of net profits to investors from all over the world, if other peripherals are added...

Doug Walter naturally thought of the peripheral products that were released in the global market at the same time as The Return of the King. In ten days, the roughly estimated sales reached nearly 400 million US dollars!

For Warners and Duke Studios, this trilogy is a complete gold-making machine.

Thinking of this, Doug Walter's eyes drooped and fell on the four scripts in front of him, one was a small production, and the investment would not be very high, and the other three were Batman trilogy related to the fate of DC movies.

The script of this trilogy has been discussed at Warner for a round. There are many internal disagreements. The biggest reason for the opposition is too dark. Doug Walter actually agrees with this point of view. The plot does not seem to be very good to the audience. Friendly, if this is not the script that Duke brought over, he and Warners will definitely reject it.

But thinking of the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, Doug Walter suppressed all these ideas. Before the production of The Lord of the Rings, how many people in Hollywood dared to touch Tolkien's giant production? Known as the most difficult literary work to be adapted into a movie, in Duke's hands, it has become a model of commercial success!

Jamie... Doug Walter made up his mind, I hand over these four scripts to the review committee. No matter what method I use, I must push them to be successfully approved!

Perhaps, only Duke can save DC's superheroes! Doug Walter decided to take a chance.

The North American screenings and promotions continued, and Duke walked into Wellington City Hall the day after his arrival in New Zealand.

The morning sun was exceptionally bright. Hundreds of journalists, including those from North America, gathered in front of the New Zealand City Hall. They held long guns and short cannons and aimed at Duke and the mayor of Wellington, who were standing at the top of the steps.

I am delighted that Director Rosenberg is here again in New Zealand, where he has left a deep footprint.

The mayor of Wellington, Claremont, stood in front of the microphone and said in a cadence, Wherever there are people, there is great film art spreading; wherever there is a screen, there are films directed by Rosenberg showing! Today! , the City of Wellington welcomes a citizen who has made a significant contribution to the art of cinema...

Having said that, Claremont gestured to Duke next to him, The New Zealand government and Wellington City Hall have unanimously decided to make Mr. Duke Rosenberg an honorary citizen of Wellington!

There was a round of applause in front of the city hall.

Amid the applause, Duke took the certificate and golden key from Claremont and stood in front of the microphone. He said in a timely manner, Thank you, thank you New Zealand for recognizing me. I am very happy to be an honorary citizen of Wellington. I love this beautiful country!

This is not as simple as granting honorary citizens, Duke and New Zealand have the intention of publicity. With good communication, the two sides have already prepared a press conference.

As a new honorary citizen of Wellington, Duke is naturally the protagonist of the conference.

The venue turned to the press room next to City Hall, where Duke accepted interviews from Warner and New Zealand media.

The interview in New Zealand, of course, focused on tourism.

Director Rosenberg, if there is a Lord of the Rings fan who travels to New Zealand and would like to see where the film was filmed. Which place or experience do you think is a must-see for film fans?

In fact, the film crew originally built the location, and many places used polystyrene, which is not suitable for tourism at all, and it is impossible to leave it in the natural environment for a long time after the filming is over. The crew was dismantled at the first time.

However, with the popularity of The Fellowship of the Ring, the New Zealand government quickly discovered the business opportunities. Tourism New Zealand reached an agreement with The Lord of the Rings Studio and obtained most of the design drawings. Under the guidance of the crew, use the fastest speed. The scenes and locations from the shooting were restored.

These have become popular tourist attractions in New Zealand now.

New Zealand has so many beautiful places to visit, but for fans of The Lord of the Rings, there's no better place to visit Hobbiton, which was originally a set and construction area for movies. It's now a veritable Hobbit. settled.

It's a win-win campaign, and Duke will definitely sell well. I went to see Hobbiton yesterday when they were filming, and I'm so happy that nature is back here, the grass and bushes are growing back, remember It was like that when we first shot here. After all these years, it's no longer a fictional set, but a real hobbit farm with herds of cattle and sheep.

For Warners media reporters, they were more focused on the film and Duke itself, and the questions had little to do with New Zealand.

Duke, now that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is completely completed, how do you feel now, and what are the memorable places?

“It’s a lot of pressure to wrap up a movie, no matter the movie. I’ve been working on post-production for the past few months, and I’ve been looking forward to getting the movie out of the way.”

After a short pause, Duke continued, I'm still working more than ten hours a day, so I don't have time to reminisce. I just want to see the light at the end of the tunnel and go out as soon as possible. But I Certainly, six months from now, when I look back on the past few years, I'm going to have all kinds of emotions in my heart.

According to the agreement between the two sides, the next question is the New Zealand media.

Why did you choose New Zealand as a location for such a masterpiece as the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Why? Of course, it is for simplicity and convenience, as well as cost savings.

However, Duke would not say that, he thought for a few seconds, then answered seriously, Tolkien created a European style of prehistoric times in the original book, according to his setting it was about six or seven thousand years ago. , a fictional era that predates ancient Greece and Egypt, and everything that happened in that era is now forgotten.”

I was looking for a place that had a European feel, but it was off the beaten track and full of originality. So New Zealand was my choice, it was very original, you can clearly feel the location is uninhabited, this description is decisive. Not an exaggeration.

New Zealand has a population of 4 million people, and the UK has 60 million people, and the two countries are about the same size, so in New Zealand, you can go to many places without meeting a person. There is no doubt that when shooting the film , you don't want TV antennas, highways, houses, etc. to appear in the picture, but only want boundless natural scenery, so this is the best location for framing. Sparsely populated and pleasant scenery, this is the most suitable location. (To be continued~^~)

PS:  I have been very busy recently, hey, I have been taking leave for several days in a row...