Perhaps seeing her strange expression, Nolan smiled awkwardly, feeling that he had somehow ruined his image, so he cleared his throat and changed the topic.
"This time, director Jackson's remake of 'King Kong' cost over two hundred million dollars."
"Yes, there will be a lot of special effects needed, so spending a lot of money is inevitable," Laila remembered that in her previous life, this film only grossed about $550 million worldwide, barely breaking even and not considered a successful film. At least compared to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy he created, it was not in the same league at all.
Some people suggested that this movie was underestimated, but the final box office numbers were there. It would be meaningless to try to come up with other explanations.
Nolan shook his head, "It's not that easy to get a spot during the Christmas season. The only advantage is that the films released at the same time won't be competitive in terms of box office."
Laila nodded. Whether it was "Munich" or "Brokeback Mountain," although they were works by well-known directors, they would not pose much pressure on "King Kong" at the box office. Apart from these two big directors' films, other films currently did not seem to have the strength to compete with "King Kong."
"It's also a matter of promotion. I think their early promotion wasn't done well. Besides us, the people who pay attention to the film industry and the fans who like to watch movies, how many people know that such a movie is going to be released?"
She has always attached great importance to promotion, so she would use various methods before each movie's release to excite various media outlets and help advertise her film.
In her opinion, for a film like "King Kong" that costs over two hundred million dollars, no amount of money spent on promotion is excessive. Because you reap what you sow, just throwing seeds in the ground without any care, how can you expect them to grow into anything?
According to Hollywood conventions, promotional expenses generally account for half of the production cost. In other words, for an investment of over two hundred million, at least another hundred million should be spent on promotion to be reasonable.
However, due to the excessive investment, Laila didn't know how much the promotional costs for "King Kong" had been reduced to. At least she didn't see the kind of publicity blitz that a blockbuster of this scale should have.
"Maybe the investors are not willing to invest more money?" Nolan recalled his past experiences and shook his head with a bitter smile. "Not every director has the appeal of Cameron, who can make investors throw money in without hesitation."
Laila fell silent.
Indeed, investors desperately want to make more profit with less investment, while directors are more concerned about the quality of the film itself. Some things, if not enough money is invested, cannot be filmed well. If it's not filmed well, audiences won't approve of it. If audiences don't approve of it, can you still expect them to speak well of it? Once a bad reputation spreads, let alone making a profit, breaking even is already lucky.
It's a vicious cycle that many people choose to ignore.
In fact, investors also feel "bitter in their hearts." Their money doesn't come from a big wind. Saving a little is necessary. What if the film is a flop? But they forget that if it's not filmed well, there is a greater possibility of it flopping.
In such a situation, it can only rely on the director's ability to operate within it, and whether it's good or bad, it's up to the audience to judge. So many times, it's not that the director can't film well, but that there are too many constraints.
Take Laila's bloody example. The only film she made in her previous life had only that much money, and the actors were the investors' relatives and friends. Almost everyone was related in some way.
=Don't want to use those people? You can go as far away as you can. With money, who's afraid of not being able to find someone willing to shoot?
In that situation, Laila could only choose to compromise. She thought that as long as she could make a movie, she could overcome any difficulty. In fact, she overestimated her ability and underestimated the "amateur actors' " willingness to sabotage.
Even in her previous life, her ability to teach actors didn't turn those people into real actors. Either there were all kinds of problems during filming, or they would randomly add scenes for themselves. The only good news was that through her editing, those shots that were taken could barely be watched.
Unfortunately, the actors were too bad, and she didn't have the ability to completely control the crew. Those people relied on being the investors' relatives and friends and didn't listen to her commands at all. So even with her god-like editing skills, when she encountered such terrible actors, she didn't get any good results. The result was... she was reborn.
It seems that even heaven felt sorry for her for making such a thing, so it gave her a new life, right?
After Nolan left, Laila stared at her phone for a while, then pressed Roy's number. The call went through, and she remembered that he should still be on the set at this time. Just as she was about to hang up, the call was actually answered.
"Hi, dear." Roy's slightly breathless voice came from the other end.
"Are you busy? If you are, I can call back later."
If other women heard their boyfriends make such a breathless sound, they would probably suspect that he was doing something indescribable with another woman. But Laila didn't even think about that because she knew his schedule better than anyone else. It wasn't that she wanted to ask too clearly, but that he was eager to report anything to her. So she knew that he should be shooting the script at this time.
Seeing that he did have time to talk now, she didn't beat around the bush, "Do you have time at the end of the month? Would you accompany me to see two movies?"
"Of course!" Roy answered quickly, and the pleasure in his voice could be clearly felt through the line. "Are there any good movies? That even got you interested?" The number of times she actively invited him was extremely rare. It was rare for her to speak up, let alone go to the movies. It was okay for him to go to the moon to pick her up!
"There are two that I want to see. If you have time, that would be great." She didn't want to delay his progress in the crew because of her temporary interest.
"At the end of the month? Isn't that the Christmas season?" Roy said as he thought about what movies would be released during the Christmas season, even she took the initiative to invite him to watch. No matter if the movies were good or not, he had decided to go to watch those two movies. After all, it was rare for her to ask him out personally.
"Right, it's the Christmas season. Are you off during that time?" Laila finally remembered the importance of Christmas to Westerners, no less important than how Easterners treat the Spring Festival. It seemed normal to take a holiday at that time.
Roy nodded without thinking, "Definitely. Don't worry, I will definitely come back to accompany you to watch." Whether there was that holiday or not, he would definitely get that holiday!