Chapter 898 National Mythology

Not only skin color, gender and age are also stubborn barriers in Hollywood. Some people once described that the ownership of the Oscars reflects the aesthetics of a group of older white straight men. industry.

Regardless of the final outcome of the Oscars, the landscape of Hollywood will not fundamentally change in the short term.

After paying a little attention to this aspect, Duke returned more to the preparations for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

IMAX specially modified two IMAX cameras according to Duke's requirements. After these two cameras were sent to the crew, one was named Death Star by Duke and the other was named Millennium Falcon.

Of course, these are all for the sake of publicity. Even for super-influential movies like the Star Wars series, there is no room for relaxation in publicity and promotion.

When the time entered April, Warner Bros., Lucasfilm and UNICEF jointly organized a public welfare activity called The Force of Change, which raised more than 40 million US dollars and caused a lot of trouble in North America and the world. Great sensation.

This is not over yet. As the distributor, Warner Bros. deliberately announced that the release time of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Italy will be three weeks later than the global release, and then secretly prompted Duke's fan organization in Italy to start a protest. The Italian branch of Warner Bros. sit-in protested opposite, and also organized a signature of more than 50,000 people to submit to Lucasfilm, demanding that Star Wars: The Force Awakens be released simultaneously in Italy and North America.

Subsequently, Lucasfilm and Warner Bros. held a press conference to announce the adjustment of the release time of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Italy. The release date of the film was moved to December 16, 2014, becoming the first country in the world to start painting. .

The news made Italian fans rejoice. Also won the attention of a large number of eyeballs.

At the same time, relevant institutions on Wall Street and Warner Bros. have also made certain estimates on the profitability that Star Wars: The Force Awakens can drive, and the results are quite gratifying.

To understand it from another angle, driven by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this series can make Lucasfilm or Duke. And how much money Warner Bros. and other collaborators get.

Duke once said that getting the Star Wars franchise was one of the best moments of his life, and that's not an exaggeration at all.

A few years ago, Lucasfilm founder George Lucas revealed to Duke that he was going to retire and planned to sell the company, along with the Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark franchises.

Prior to this, Lucasfilm had a long-term cooperation with Duke because of the relationship between Industrial Light and Magic. The two sides hit it off, and then Duke acquired Lucasfilm, which owns Star Wars, with more than four billion US dollars in cash, and at the same time obtained the live-action film production under his company's name-including Star Wars and Traveler. Raiders and more - consumer products, video games, animation, VFX and audio post.

But even with Star Wars in the dowry, the acquisition was not a small sum in the eyes of the year. Big money, at least on paper.

In fact, according to the latest forecast, Star Wars: The Force Awakens alone could generate more than $9 billion in revenue for Duke's Lucasfilm and its partners. Including box office, TV Internet copyright, peripheral products, toy sales...

In Wall Street's predictions, as long as Duke can ensure that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is as good as the other films he has made. Lucasfilm will obtain extremely terrifying revenue, and even in less than three years, Duke will be able to recover the more than four billion dollars invested in Lucasfilm, and may also generate profits.

To be precise. Duke's super IP coupled with a super IP like Star Wars will create unprecedented commercial value.

Previously, Twentieth Century Fox was the original distributor of the first six Star Wars movies, and still retains the distribution rights of the first two Star Wars Trilogy and the permanent distribution rights of the 1977 Star Wars movie. At the same time, it owns the theatrical and home video distribution rights of Star Wars 1-3, 5, and 6 until May 2020.

Lucasfilm owns the TV and digital distribution rights to Star Wars and all but the first film.

Starting from this Star Wars: The Force Awakens, subsequent related productions are jointly named by Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm, which is somewhat similar to the joint name of Warner Bros. and Pixar Studios. The new Star Wars The series has no further ties to Twentieth Century Fox.

This also means that all copyright income of the new Star Wars series will belong to Lucasfilm and the distributor Warner Bros., and the biggest beneficiary is Duke.

Although Star Wars: The Force Awakens has not yet started filming, after Duke acquired Lucasfilm, it has been warming up for new films. The pulling effect of Star Wars 7 is quite obvious, according to Lucas According to the statistics of the film industry, in the past 2012 and 2013, the products surrounding the IP of Star Wars brought Lucasfilm about 2.2 billion US dollars and more than 2.4 billion US dollars in revenue respectively. It is the peripheral product of Hollywood movies. One of the most profitable series in sales.

Wall Street analysts predict that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will generate between $3 billion and $5 billion in merchandise sales in its first year after its release, and between $11 billion and $20 billion five years later. between.

In addition to selling peripheral products, Star Wars toys are also an important part of Lucasfilm's income.

In mid-April, Lucasfilm held the first sale of Star Wars toys and launched 100 new Star Wars toys, which directly became a phenomenon-level event in the cultural world.

By the end of this year, industry insiders estimate that retail toy sales of the Star Wars series will reach $2 billion.

At the beginning of the year, Lucasfilm announced that the license of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars comics was terminated, and the comics authorization will belong to Marvel Comics, another holding company of Duke.

In late April, Comics Marvel re-released the Star Wars comic book, which sold nearly 1 million copies in just one week. This number is 25 times the sales volume of Dark Horse Comics' last Star Wars comic seven months ago.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has made Duke and Lucasfilm full of profits before filming has even started.

The preparatory work is gradually coming to an end. Although the crew has adopted extremely strict confidentiality measures, even except for the core personnel, most of the crew members have not seen the full version of the script, but Duke's promotion of the film. Never relax.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Duke Rosenberg, the famous director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, recently received a special invitation to attend a state dinner held at the White House on Tuesday night. It was President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama who sent the invitation.

This state banquet has two purposes. One is to welcome the visiting French President Francois Hollande, and the other is to entertain Democratic sponsors from all over the United States for the upcoming mid-term elections. The total number of guests invited has reached 350. Due to the There were many invitees, so the dinner will be held on the South Lawn of the White House, not in the usual White House Ballroom...

This was one of the many hyped news about Duke and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Duke also attended the banquet afterwards, becoming one of the focuses of many current affairs media attention.

Perhaps many people find it difficult to understand why Americans are so fascinated by a science fiction film. From the president to the nerds all over the country are crazy about it.

In a way, Star Wars is a national myth created by Americans themselves.

The United States is a young immigrant country that has only been founded for more than two hundred years. Like Britain, it lacks its own system of myths and stories. Britain has Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings can be created based on Norse mythology; but the United States, unfortunately. No one has been able to make up for this lack until the birth of Star Wars in 1977.

Those who have watched the Star Wars movie must have a deep memory of the yellow subtitle in the opening title-A long time ago, in a galaxy far away... What is this? This is the beginning of the most classic storytelling! George Lucas, from the very beginning, regarded Star Wars as a fairy tale.

Look at the story structure of Star Wars again: an ordinary person fantasizes about escaping the ordinary life and going on an adventure in the outside world; a mysterious figure appears and tells him about his extraordinary life experience. And bring him into a whole new world; the protagonist realizes that he is the prophesied savior, and after experiencing a series of hardships, he grows into a truly wise, brave and responsible hero; finally he saves the world and fulfills the prophecy .

Does it sound familiar? In fact, Harry Potter in Harry Potter, Neo in The Matrix, and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings are all like this.

Many classic myths also have such a story structure.

I remember that someone has done research and said that all kinds of stories of human beings can be summarized into several specific story templates, which makes sense.

The Star Wars routine of a weaker party overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles and finally defeating a strong enemy can be traced back to the story of David defeating the giant Goliath in the Bible.

In addition, the story of the national myth must be easy to understand and must be popular, and Star Wars has also achieved this.

In the Galactic Republic, there are clear boundaries between black and white, heroes and villains. Darth Vader, the most complicated character, can also be understood as a good guy in the early stage, but a bad guy in the late stage, so the audience doesn't need to worry about it , the plot can be clarified.

There are many basic human emotions such as love, family affection, fear, betrayal, sadness, failure, victory, etc. These emotions are expressed in the simplest and most direct way, which can not only satisfy adults, but also make it easy for children to understand.

But just having a classic story structure and being easy to understand is not enough to make Star Wars a national myth in the United States. It must also have its own unique things.

In this regard, Lucas cleverly added Eastern philosophy and culture.

Therefore, the Star Wars series also has a market in the East. It depends on how to use it. Duke not only takes a fancy to the traditional Japanese and South Korean markets, but also does not want to let go of the Chinese market, which lacks a profound Star Wars culture foundation. (to be continued ~^~)

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