v2 Chapter 898： National myth

Not only skin color, gender and age are also stubborn barriers in Hollywood. Someone once described that the ownership of the Oscars reflects the aesthetics of a group of elderly white straight men. The flatness of aesthetics and values ​​permeates the awards and also permeates the whole. industry.

Regardless of the outcome of the final Oscar awards, the pattern 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."

The imax company 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 named "Millennium Falcon".

Of course, these are all for the needs of publicity. Even for movies with super influential influence like the Star Wars series, the publicity and promotion work must not be relaxed.

As time entered April, Warner Bros., Lucasfilm, and UNICEF jointly organized a charity event called "The Force of Change", which raised more than US$40 million in donations, which has caused it in North America and the world. Great sensational effect.

This is not over yet. As the distributor, Warner Bros. specially announced that the release time of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in Italy was three weeks later than the global release, and then secretly prompted Duke's fan organization in Italy to set off a protest. A sit-in protest across the Warner Bros. Italy branch also organized a signature of more than 50,000 people to submit to Lucasfilm, requesting 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 film release date was moved to December 16, 2014, making it the first country in the world to start painting. .

This news delighted Italian fans. Also won a lot of attention.

At the same time, related 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, this series can make Lucasfilm or Duke driven by "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". And how much revenue Warner Bros. and other partners earn.

Duke once said that getting the Star Wars series is one of the most wonderful moments in his life, and this is not an exaggeration.

A few years ago, George Lucas, the founder of Lucasfilm, revealed to Duke that he was going to retire and plan to sell the company, together with the franchise rights of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones".

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 Duke subsequently sold more than four billion dollars in cash. Acquired Lucasfilm, which owns "Star Wars", and at the same time obtained live-action film productions under its company's name-including "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones"-consumer products, video games, animation, visual effects and Late sound effects.

But even with "Star Wars" in the dowry, it seemed that the acquisition was not a small sum, at least literally, it was a lot of money.

In fact, in the latest prediction, the movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" can generate more than $9 billion in revenue for Duke’s Lucasfilm and its partners, including box office, TV Internet copyright, merchandise, toy sales...

In the predictions of Wall Street. As long as Duke can guarantee that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is as good as other films he made, Lucasfilm will earn extremely terrifying revenue. Even in less than three years, Duke will be able to recover more than four billion dollars invested in Lucasfilm, and it may 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. It still retains the distribution rights of the first two "Star Wars Trilogy", the permanent distribution rights of the 1977 "Star Wars" movie, and also has the distribution of "Star Wars" 1-3, 5, 6 theater and home video tapes Right until May 2020.

Lucasfilm owns the television and digital distribution rights of "Star Wars" and the distribution rights of all movies except the first one.

Starting from this "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", subsequent related productions have adopted the joint naming of Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm. Some are similar to the joint name of Warner Bros. and Pixar Studios. The new "Star Wars" The series is no longer involved with Twentieth Century Fox.

This also means that all copyright proceeds of the new "Star Wars" series will go to Lucasfilm and the publisher Warner Bros. One of the biggest beneficiaries is Duke.

Although "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has not yet started filming, Duke has been doing the preheating of new films after the acquisition of Lucasfilm. 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, merchandise around the "Star Wars" ip brought Lucasfilm about US$2.2 billion and more than US$2.4 billion in revenue, respectively, as a Hollywood movie peripheral product. One of the most profitable series in sales.

Wall Street analysts predict that in the first year after the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", product sales will be between US$3 and 5 billion, and that in five years this figure will reach US$11-20 billion. between.

In addition to selling peripheral goods, toys in the Star Wars series 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 has directly become a phenomenon-level event in the cultural world.

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

At the beginning of the year, Lucasfilm announced that the license of Dark Horse Comics "Star Wars" comics was terminated, and the license of the comics would go to Marvel Comics, another holding company of Duke.

In late April, the comic Marvel re-released the "Star Wars" comic book, and sold nearly 1 million copies in just one week. This number is 25 times the sales of the last "Star Wars" comic of Dark Horse comics 7 months ago.

Before filming of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", Duke and Lucasfilm made a lot of profits.

The preparatory work is gradually approaching the end. Although the crew has adopted extremely strict confidentiality measures, most of the crew members have not seen the full version of the script, except for the core personnel, but Duke promotes the film. Never relaxed.

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

"This state banquet has two purposes. One is to welcome the visiting French President Hollande, and the other is to host the Democratic sponsors from across the United States for the upcoming midterm elections. The total number of guests invited has reached 350. There are many invitees, so the dinner will be held on the South Lawn of the White House. Not in the usual White House Ballroom..."

This is one of the many hyped news about Duke and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", and Duke also attended the banquet later, becoming one of the focus of many current affairs media.

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

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

The United States is a young immigrant country that has only been established for more than two hundred years. Like the United Kingdom, it lacks its own systematic mythology. Britain has Tolkien who can create "The Lord of the Rings" based on Nordic mythology; but the United States. It is a pity that no one can make up for this deficiency. Until 1977 "Star Wars" turned out.

People who have watched the "Star Wars" movie will definitely remember the yellow subtitles in the opening title-"A long, long time ago, in a distant galaxy"... What is this? This is the beginning of the most classic storytelling! George Lucas used "Star Wars" as a myth from the beginning.

Look at the story structure of "Star Wars" again: an ordinary person dreams of escaping from ordinary life and going to the outside world; a mysterious person appears, tells him of his extraordinary life, and brings him into a new world; the hero consciousness Until he was the savior of the prophecy, after experiencing a series of hardships, he grew into a truly wise, brave, and responsible hero; finally he saved the world and fulfilled the prophecy.

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

Many classic myths also have this story structure.

I remember that someone once studied that all kinds of human stories can be summarized into several specific story templates. This is reasonable.

The "Star Wars" routine of "the weaker side overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles and finally defeats the strong enemy" can be traced back to the story of David defeating the giant Goliath in the Bible.

Also, the story of the national myth must be easy to understand. It must also be popular, and "Star Wars" also did this.

In the Galactic Republic, there is a clear line between black and white, heroes and villains. The most complex character, Darth Vader, the black warrior, can also be understood as "good guys in the early stage, and degenerate in the later stage". The audience does not need to worry , You can sort out the plot.

Among them, there are many basic human feelings such as love, family affection, fear, betrayal, sadness, failure, victory, etc. These feelings 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 of the United States. It must have its own unique things.

In this regard, Lucas is very clever to join 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 looks at the traditional Japanese and South Korean markets, but also does not want to let go of the Chinese market, which lacks a solid foundation of Star Wars culture. (To be continued.)

ps: Ask for monthly and recommended tickets!