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Similarly, the new theaters added after the expanded screening are still located near the Chinese community.

Ronan was not blindly optimistic because of his excellent box office performance in the first week of the screening, and he would not overestimate the status of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which has no award-protected body, among American audiences. This film can win heavyweight awards. Before, the mainstream audience group was always Chinese.

If you expand it slightly, people from East and Southeast Asia can also be included.

Indeed, many Americans who have watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in theaters think that this sci-fi movie makes them fascinated by it, but other situations have not happened.

For example, when some old Americans saw the hanging wire shots flying around, they laughed collectively.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" doesn't have any funny scenes.

There are even many old Americans who think this is a Japanese film, and some people will argue with others when they refute it.

In the preview, there are not many other types of old American audiences except for Chinese and Asian people. Unless "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" wins important Hollywood awards such as Golden Globes or Oscar nominations, the situation will not be much denied. Change.

Americans always take themselves too seriously and don't take others seriously.

Countless foreign movies are terrible in the North American market.

Fortunately, Ang Lee is a clever man who knows how to shoot to please the beautiful audience.

In recent days, Ang Lee is also spinning.

In the morning, I went to the "Los Angeles Times" film critic Kenneth Turan's breakfast date. At noon I had lunch with the directors of the Producers Union. In the evening I had a drink with Schmidt of the Directors Guild. This sounds like a fantastic schedule. , It's just an ordinary day for a prize redemptor during the awards season.

In just one week from Christmas to New Year, Ang Lee, under the arrangement of the Embassy Pictures, participated in two pull-up sessions, three media interviews, a public television talk show, and visited more than ten senior members of the college.

He even personally presented some old men with hardcover DVDs of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and matching souvenirs. The porcelain made by Embassy Pictures in the Royal Albert Company of the United Kingdom was printed with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on the porcelain. Relevant patterns and logos are claimed to be props used in the film, allowing the judges to appreciate the serious and responsible attitude of the crew when shooting the film.

Similar excuses can always be found.

"I gotta Feeling."

On the way to an event, Ang Lee finally had some free time and said to his agent: "The public relations between Ronan and Embassy Pictures, like Harvey Weinstein, are pressing the line."

The agent said: "It's okay, the bottom line of Oscar public relations has long been held down by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax."

Ang Li was a little worried: "This is an art award, but it has become a money game."

The agent smiled and said, "Movie art is never without money."

Li Ang was silent for a while, and nodded lightly. He had a deep understanding of this. For this "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", he and Xu Ligong were about to sell iron.

The car soon arrived at the hotel that had been scheduled with Vanity Fair. Ang Li got out of the car and refreshed and showed his best mental state.

In many cases, the quality of a movie is very subjective, and it is also very easy to be influenced by the opinions of others, because it has no judging standards, and Oscars are different from those in European film festivals. It is produced by thousands of judges. Therefore, it is possible to influence the votes of these judges in public opinion.

Oscar public relations is like a campaign battle. All activities are like battlefields. They have to build momentum for themselves, fight each other, and canvass votes like an election, which is exhausting.

Every event is accompanied by a banquet. The chicken in Los Angeles is like plastic. This kind of ‘plastic chicken banquet’ must be eaten at least 20 or 30 times to get an Oscar.

For the little golden man, even the unpalatable "plastic chicken" has to be swallowed.

Face the media with smiles, talk to film critics to make them feel like spring breeze, and the actors' union and directors' union have to establish relationships, not to talk nonsense, and it takes a step by step to get to the Oscar.

Ang Lee is very clear that the unspoken rules behind the Oscars are full of controversy: Art is never the only criterion. Factors such as luck, popularity, public relations, etc. will determine the ownership of the award in the end.

On the last weekend of 2000, the North American screening of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" expanded to 300 theaters, and the expansion strategy was still focused on theaters close to the Chinese community.

Due to the accuracy of the film’s distribution strategy and the targeted publicity, the North American reputation is extremely good. After the expanded screening, not only did the box office of single theaters plummet, but the trend was unusually stable. The average box office of 300 theaters on weekends was as high as 28,900 US dollars.

This is also the third weekend of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", with a total of 13.45 million US dollars at the North American box office.

Ronan is very sure that this film that spent 8 million US dollars to buy out the North American copyright will inevitably bring profits, even if it won nothing at the Oscars.

If you can gain something at the Oscars, it is not difficult to win tens of millions of dollars in profits.

The investment in the Oscar is meaningful, because it has won the favor of the academy and the judges, nominations for works and even winning the Oscars can bring great economic returns.

The re-screening of the film, the sale and reprint of the DVD, the sales of peripherals, and even the investment in other films of the company will all become a matter of course. This is the "reputation" effect.

In addition to newspaper advertisements, the public relations company Ronan hired also placed outdoor billboards in areas where Hollywood filmmakers live, such as Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. At the same time, it has also begun to follow new media trends and create a "Tiger Hidden Dragon" canvassing website and blog.

Many people regard canvassing as an Oscar's "shadow" and sneer at it, believing that the film is good enough to kill everything. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences encourages canvassing public relations within the prescribed scope, which is a manifestation of the will to free competition.

In order to stand out from a group of strong competitors and get the desired result, Ronan did not hesitate to adopt a somewhat over-the-top move and ran a full-page advertisement in the "New York Times", advocating that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is "the best of the year". the film".

It is also a propaganda offensive, directly targeting members of the college who have voting rights, and is more cost-effective.

To this end, the Embassy Pictures and PR companies spare no effort to fill the judges’ mailboxes with relevant graphic materials introducing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and also spare the judges’ daily activities.

Just after entering 2001, some important outpost awards, including the Golden Globes, have successively announced nominations, and the name "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has appeared on numerous nominations.

At the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won three nominations for best director, best film industry and best film score.

For the Hollywood Industry Union and Association Awards, which can be regarded as the real Oscars, Ang Lee was nominated for the Best Director of the Directors Guild Award, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was nominated for the Best Picture of the Producers League, and Bao Dexi also won Nominated for the Best Photography Award by the Photographers Association.

The nomination of these awards almost guarantees that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" will get nominated for several Oscar awards, and it is not impossible even for best director and best film.

Nominated for these awards, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has attracted more attention.

Embassy Pictures and Xu Ligong’s Vertical and Horizontal International made another effort. In this time period when voting was already possible, they bought a large number of media advertisements, sponsored multiple programs, and won many famous critics to make them work hard for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" blow.

If you want to win a prize, you must have enough face, you must dare to blow, and even not afraid of breaking the cowhide.

If you don't think the film is good, how can you make others recognize your film as good?

"Vanity Fair" magazine also published an interview with Ang Lee, with a special commentary at the end of the interview.

"Although "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is not perfect, but this film of fusion of women*, love, martial arts, suspense, philosophy, and oriental beauties has dumped Western audiences. It has an entertaining side, a deep side, and a satirical humor. It’s so tragic and romantic, so that after watching it, it’s difficult for you to classify this film exactly. When the film was released in the United States, it was first shown in American art cinemas in the category of art martial arts. The screening area was concentrated in Chinese. Cities such as California and New York."

"But to everyone's surprise, American audiences of different races have a rare long queue in art cinemas. An art cinema expert said that this is the first time he has seen audiences as a movie theater in more than 20 years. With such a long line of foreign movies, there are even weekend tickets sold out in New York."

"After that, the film began to be shown in hundreds of theaters, and the box office soared to the top five in the US film ranking. Even in the Vanity Fair editorial department, even those female secretaries began to watch this subtitled foreign film..."

At the same time, the second round of publicity bombing of UU reading www.uukanshu.com "Hollywood Reporter" also kicked off.

""Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has received rave reviews from the American news media, praising it as a great work explaining'women are not weak', and eclipsing the feminist banner of "Charlie With the Thunder". The bamboo forest is even more eye-opening than the sword. It is the first time to witness the natural beauty of the earth..."

There are also news from various quarters. Ronan obtained a piece of data collected privately by the public relations company and determined that more than 600 judges were selected for the best foreign language film nomination, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was listed first. .

According to the Oscar nomination rules, if a film wants to be nominated for the best foreign language film and best film, not only must it get enough votes, but also no less than 5% of the judges must vote for the film to be listed in the vote. Top of the list.

Based on various data, Ronan can determine that the probability of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" being nominated for the best foreign language film is more than 80%.

Ronan received a call from Paris Hilton while dealing with the Oscar job. The rich daughter came to Los Angeles and wanted to try her career as an actor.