It was a lively Christmas season, with three controversial films bringing different feelings and influences to the audience. There were boycotts, protests, discrimination against homosexuality, and also an evolution towards changing this discrimination.
Laila wasn't interested in any of this. To her, these were all things that would exist in history. She had seen it all in her past life and there was nothing worth noting.
There was only one thing that she had experienced before but still wanted to know about—box office numbers!
She wanted to know if Peter Jackson, who missed the opportunity to direct "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, could barely break even with "King Kong," and also if Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" would achieve a similar box office success of over $170 million in controversy as it did in her previous life.
As for Steven Spielberg's "Munich," well, she didn't pay too much attention to it. Mainly because this film was not considered too outstanding in the director's directorial career. At least, that's what she thought.
This film might reveal something or make the audience understand something, but to her, a movie that not even fans were interested in watching didn't hold much value.
Film critics have always been shouting that box office numbers don't mean anything, but that's bullshit. She didn't think it was bad to add deeper elements to a movie, but why not find a way to make the audience enjoy it while also conveying what you want to convey?
The Christmas season passed amidst many controversies, and people welcomed the arrival of 2006 with the New Year's bell.
As several films finished their runs, the final box office numbers were finally settled. Similar to the results in her previous life, "King Kong" grossed over $500 million worldwide, about tens of millions less than before. "Brokeback Mountain," on the other hand, increased by $20 million, almost breaking $200 million with just a few million short.
Considering the production cost of $14 million, this was a very good box office result, probably even the investors and the directors themselves did not expect such a good result.
Laila, however, was not surprised by this, because she knew that in her previous life, this film had good word-of-mouth and box office performance. And because the director was Asian, she had once invited the media under Moran's umbrella to invite the "Brokeback Mountain" crew. She invited the director and several actors to participate in several programs with good ratings and also had several newspapers and magazines do some special reports.
Firstly, she felt that after so many years, there was finally a director from the East who had established himself in Hollywood, so who else should she support if not him? Secondly, it was because of the controversial nature of the film itself. Before the film was released, there were already many discussions about it, and after the release, it was even more so, causing many disturbances that even the police had to intervene.
Readers and viewers liked such topics and hoped to see related reports in the media. So Laila took the initiative ahead of the others. While other media were only reporting on some events caused by the movie, she had already invited the crew to do programs.
In Laila's view, what she did was something she should do and she did not lose money. But in the eyes of others, it seemed a bit like she was expressing some ideas on behalf of her family, that is, she was supporting homosexuality.
This was a beautiful and yet not beautiful misunderstanding.
In this era, the discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community was very severe, otherwise, "Brokeback Mountain" would not have attracted so many boycott activities. At this time, Laila and the media under Moran's umbrella stood in an objective position and even supported them in a subtle way, which made many LGBTQ+ people have a great favor towards them.
However, at the same time, some people who opposed homosexuality also issued warnings to Laila. The most exaggerated was that someone sent her a bloody cat corpse wrapped in a rainbow flag representing the LGBTQ+ community.
The package was sent to the Dragon Soul Company. Suspicious things like this without a sender's name would not be delivered directly to Laila, so the front desk girl who opened the package on behalf of Laila became the victim, fainting from the shock of what was inside.
Since there was also a threatening letter inside the package, Laila directly handed the package over to the police station. She didn't have the time or energy to play guessing games with these boring people. If they dared to send such things to her, then they shouldn't blame her for being ruthless.
If anyone was to blame, it could only be the person who sent the package without a brain. It was estimated that similar threats had been sent too many times, and since no one came to investigate their relationship, they became more and more bold and even dared to send it to Laila. However, he forgot that Laila was surnamed Moran, and when the old man Moran spoke, the police would not handle it as they would with ordinary people.
So the package and its contents were immediately sent to the best laboratory to search for all the traces left by the criminals. It was estimated that it wouldn't take long before the person was caught.
At most, these things could only be a small episode in Laila's life. What she cared more about was that with the arrival of January, the Golden Globe Awards ceremony was also here.
Two years ago, she didn't have any films released and had been filming "The Lord of the Rings," so she did not attend any award ceremonies. She even declined invitations to appear as a guest presenter.
But it was different last year. Once again, she swept the summer box office with an overwhelming momentum, and many believed that she would continue to dominate the entire award season.
The so-called award season was from the end of November to the end of February or early March of the next year. During this period, there were not only international awards like the Golden Globe Awards but also awards from various unions and independent film awards, etc. In short, before the Oscars, there were many awards of all sizes to warm up for it.
Laila had received the invitation to the Golden Globe Awards early on. Although she didn't have much confidence in the authority of this award, it was still an international award. And she also wanted to take this opportunity to meet with Director Ang Lee. It would be even better if they could talk face-to-face. She had admired this great director since her previous life!
The 2006 Golden Globe Awards officially kicked off on January 17, and the venue was chosen at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
This time, "The Lord of the Rings" received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Music, and Best Film Score, which was significantly fewer than the seven nominations for "Brokeback Mountain."
Laila also knew that in her previous life, they had won four out of these seven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It was truly as glamorous as it could be.
But now, whether it would be the same was hard to say because she had brought "The Lord of the Rings" to this time. Would "Brokeback Mountain" continue to sweep the Golden Globes and Oscars according to historical development? Or did she interfere and snatch the awards from others?
It's so hard to get backstage today. I thought I couldn't make it.