Author / Little Lotus
A wave of new films was released, and the box office of the film market last weekend ushered in a wave of heat increase, and the data of the lighthouse professional version showed that the weekend box office of the three days from October 22 to October 24 accumulated 440 million. The National Day champion "Chosin Lake" still leads steadily, winning the three-day box office small championship, directed by Dennis Villeneuve, and the science fiction movie "Dune" joined by Zhang Zhen has also gained a lot of heat.
As the runner-up of the domestic box office last week, under the power of the Chinese market, "Dune", which was released simultaneously in China and the United States, won the global box office championship with a global box office of $220 million. According to data from the North American box office statistics website boxofficemojo.com, the production budget of "Dune" is as high as $165 million, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, "Dune" beat "Godzilla vs. Kong" to create Warner Bros. this year's highest weekend box office record.
When the space epic of the desert planet crosses from the text of 1965 and returns to Earth from the universe, "Dune" may be of greater significance to Star Wars fans who love space opera. The energy emitted by science fiction fans such as Star Wars fans, starting from social media, allows "Dune" to eventually radiate to a wider range of places.
The intertext between space operas
In 1965, the American writer Frank Herbert published the first part of Dune, and it was not until 1985 that the sixth part of the novel "Dune" was completed. As the first work to win both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for science fiction, the "Dune" novel was introduced into China very late, and until 2013, the last three novels of "Dune" were still only in English. In China, probably only hardcore science fiction fans have read the original book.
However, along with science fiction masterpieces such as "Base" and "Hyperion", which are listed as the first few on the list of "classic novels that science fiction fans must read in their lifetime", "Dune" still has a lot of popularity in science fiction circles.
Due to the broadening of the narrative mode of traditional science fiction, and the classic narrative mode and political metaphors such as the fantasy epic "Revenge of the Prince" and the "Epic of the Fall of the Country" into the novel, "Dune" as a classic work of the space opera science fiction genre has a profound cultural influence in the world.
The most famous big IP in the world, influenced by Dune, is Star Wars. In 1977, the first Star Wars movie opened: a desert planet, a talented canonical trilogy that prepares to lead the rebels against the evil Empire.
Also starting from the desert, it is also a cosmic empire with Middle Eastern colors, and it is also a well-known representative of space opera. Digging into the plot, there are more similarities, the first generation of male protagonists launched wars against their parents, changed dynasties, established a new empire, and all had a sister who once came to power in the later stories, and directly or indirectly led to the sacrifice of the first generation of male protagonists.
In "Dune", the male protagonist Paul is killed in order to overthrow his sister's tyranny, and in "Star Wars", the male protagonist Luke's sister serves as the head of state in the biography, and in the main biography, Luke's nephew carries out the tyranny, and he is killed in the new revolution. In the following story, the first generation ends, giving birth to twin heirs of brothers and sisters, and the older brother inherits the status of ruler, but becomes a "tyrant".
In addition to the character relationship and plot development, the two works have more details that can be matched, such as the huge monster in the desert, the "spice", which can bring foreknowledge ability and support interstellar navigation, and the "Force" that improves human ability, and the "astronautical guild" that exists in both universes.
With the long-term prosperity of the "Star Wars" IP in the world and the continuous enrichment of film and television dramas, movies and novels that are constantly derived, the influence of "Star Wars" itself is also increasing.
In the "Dune" movie, the actor who played the father of the male protagonist Paul once participated in "Star Wars". In the Dune movie, he tells Paul, "My dream when I was younger was to be a pilot. And in Star Wars, his character happens to be a pilot.
In a 1977 interview with the American media, Frank Herbert, author of "Dune", jokingly said about the similarity of the two works: "I try to restrain myself from prosecuting." ”
Today, the director who brought "Dune" to the big screen also had to say in an interview: "Lucas was inspired by "Dune" when I made "Star Wars", and I had to consider the influence of "Star Wars" when I made "Dune". ”
Star Wars fans who smell the wind
With the release of the movie, more previous related film and television works have also been turned over by netizens. Marvel at David Lynch's imagination of the shield in '78, admire the amazing beauty of James McAvoy, who was jokingly called "A Beauty", in 2003's "Children of dunes", and the "European and American circle" that was gradually cooled by the end of the Marvel series has become popular again.
But smelling the wind, under the comments of "Dune", the Star Wars fans of Amway 'Star Wars' intentionally or unintentionally are undoubtedly the protagonists of such a carnival. Although more Star Wars fans entered the cinema with regrets about missing the opening of "Star Wars" in 1977, some Star Wars fans directly regarded "Dune" as a "meal replacement".
As a kind of Star Wars fan culture, under all related or unrelated content with the popularity of "Star Wars", or rubbing heat, is a large part of the Star Wars fans are most enthusiastic about things, as a domestic is not a popular international IP, Star Wars fans rely on a unique "rubbing heat" way to sell Amway.
Memes and paragraphs on social media are commonly used means, and some people will bring a similar topic of #Star Wars today to show their star wars fan status.
Also not popular enough in China, with the inextricable connection between the two works, Star Wars fans have become the first major force of Amway's "Dune". In order to make it easier for netizens to quickly understand the theme of carnival, Star Wars fans have specially made memes to facilitate everyone to understand the Star Wars memes more, and also to let everyone understand the relationship between "Dune" and "Star Wars". Or make a Star Wars meme related to Dune and participate in this carnival.
In fact, this kind of rubbing heat and playing the hashtag culture is not only "Star Wars", but also in the past "European and American circles" fans also often used a variety of paragraphs to divert each other and increase the discussion of the topic. In foreign social media culture, it is even more popular, in fact, the "custom" of Star Wars fans rubbing hot speed is also derived from foreign Star Wars fans.
After the release of "Dune", fans of other works warm up to each other, and the behavior of "rubbing heat" is actually the behavior of hugging and warming between the relatively niche European and American fan circles in China, and the fans of Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and other European and American classic IP will also join the carnival.
According to the data of Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of the 26th, the domestic film box office of "Dune" reached 160 million, compared with the director's two science fiction films released in China in 2017, "Arrival" (108 million) and "Blade Runner 2049" (76.959 million), which are the best domestic box office results.
The global box office of $220 million is also the director's personal best achievement, and "Dune", which only adapted the first half of the original book, is essentially a prelude, and the ending abruptly leaves enough room for imagination. Can such achievements impress Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to continue the development of the "Dune" IP universe, and how far away is Dune 2 from us? Suffice it to say, it's worth the wait.