Rhino Entertainment Original
Wen | Founder Editor| Xia Tian
Near the end of "Dune", the heroine Chini turned her head slightly, looked at the audience with blue eyes, and whispered, "Everything has just begun." The majestic epic scroll begins to unfold, and this line seems to echo the real-life "Dune" project.
"Dune", which came to China on October 22, broke 100 million after 16:00 on 1 day of release, breaking the record of the fastest film released by director Villeneuve in China. With the film accumulating more than $200 million at the global box office, Legendary Pictures announced the news of the sequel, which means that the "Dune Universe" will continue to embark on its long journey in China.
The magnificent audio-visual feast + Oscar-based luxury card division has become the main reason for this sci-fi giant to attract domestic audiences. For the Chinese market, where Hollywood blockbusters have been in short supply since the epidemic, this film, which may represent the highest industrial standards in Hollywood at present, has released the audience's long-lost demand for immersive movies.
However, unlike the situation of "Dune" becoming a household name in the Western world, this IP is not yet widely known to the public in China, which makes the film's publicity and promotion in China encounter many problems, and also hinders some domestic audiences from entering the rhythm of the "Dune Universe".
In order to decode the promotion status of the movie "Dune" in the domestic market, Rhino Entertainment recently contacted LegendAry Pictures, the producer of the movie "Dune", and specially interviewed its head in China, Ms. Liu Siru, CEO of LegendAry Oriental. We had a full and pleasant exchange of experiences before and after the film was released in China.
Let Chinese audiences know "Dune"
It's not easy
"Abroad, its status is equivalent to some of the classic novels in the history of Chinese literature that are well-known." In the interview, Liu Siru used an easy-to-understand analogy to point out the fundamental difference in the "starting point of publicity" that "Dune" faces in domestic and foreign markets.
As an old classic science fiction in Europe and the United States, the original work of "Dune" is the first industry-recognized masterpiece to win both the "Nebula Award" and the "Hugo Award", which is different from only a small number of domestic science fiction fans, and its cultural dissemination foundation overseas is quite strong.
From novels to games, from movies to dramas, many works around Dune have an impact on the mass level. From the perspective of creation, many of the creators of Star Wars, Avatar, and Alien have openly admitted to being influenced and inspired by Dune. Domestic audiences know the above works, but they only know very little about "Dune", the source of "grandfathers".
In order to welcome more audiences into the "Dune World", LegendAry Oriental has made a lot of efforts in various publicity channels. "What we have done this time is particularly detailed, for those who love directors, love science fiction, Star Wars fans, Hollywood movie audiences, etc. who have learned about IP, and then there is a larger group of people who have never heard of "Dune"."
Since August, LegendAry Oriental has opened a warm-up publicity very early. At that time, director Villeneuve successively settled in Douban and Zhihu, which once became a popular event on the dual platform. Douban attracted the attention of 2w+ people, and ranked first in the list of real-time popular movies for 16 consecutive days; 16 times in the 6 questions asked by Zhihu, the 3 questions answered helped users understand the director's creative ideas and film details, and fully opened up the "Dune" screen news in science fiction fans, film fans, Kochi and other groups widely disseminated.
Unlike the use of directors to promote and promote, for users in the sinking market, LegendAry Oriental extracts multi-dimensional selling points. For example, on the Douyin platform, it uses interesting science popularization of "sandworms", "the world after 10,000 years", "military weapons" and other content to open up more circles, related movie topics have been on the douyin hot list 5 times, and the topic #Dune is not seen in the cinema to lose # Ranked 6th in the overall list at the highest time.
In addition, the film's official release of the "Dune Sand Painting Trailer", "Dune Planet Daily" series of strips, as well as about the world view, character settings and other graphic science was once widely disseminated on Weibo, Tiger Flutter, is undoubtedly a material publicity example worth learning. Through activities such as #Dune Planet Journey# to link up the B station UP master, the explanatory video was further made in a popular and interesting way, which became a "must-see guide before watching the movie" for many viewers.
Under the guidance of the legendary Oriental's accurate and subdivided "point-to-point publicity" strategy, we will find that the current audiences' love for "Dune" is actually different. "There are a bunch of military fans who are particularly interested in the flapping plane, many female audiences rush to the sweet tea to see, and there are superhero fans because of the starring role of Aquaman to see", Liu Siru's observation reminds us of one thing, as long as a film is well-made, its selling points are often quite rich and diverse.
As for the problem that the film's high threshold for watching movies makes it difficult for some audiences to accept, Liu Siru also gave her opinion, "I don't think that this is a problem with the audience's appreciation taste, and everyone's aesthetic preferences are different." But what we want to do in our promotion is that we really think this film is good, and we try to tell you where it is good, such as the soundtrack, actors, sandworms, weapons, etc., are all elements that can attract everyone to watch. ”
It can be seen that even if the domestic audience's awareness of the IP of "Dune" is still lacking, there are still many efforts that need to be invested in future publicity, but in fact, in the face of such a Hollywood industrial masterpiece, all segments of the audience can actually find different reasons and paths for them to enter the "dune world".
The most difficult adaptation in history
It does the "greatest common divisor"
At present, there is still room for discussion on many topics around "Dune", but on one issue, it seems that all walks of life can reach a consensus, that is, Villeneuve's version of "Dune" is indeed a relatively successful film and television adaptation.
"Do you think Dune has a benchmark film in the domestic market?" In the interview, when Rhino Jun threw this question to Liu Siru, she gave a negative answer very firmly, "We tried to find a benchmark with the data company every day, but we didn't find it." I'm not saying that other films are not perfect, but I find that this film is indeed quite unique, first of all, this IP has no successful precedent for film adaptation, and it is not comparable to other films. ”
Dune in 1984 by David Lynch
Under the "fame" of the most difficult adaptation and famous director curse in history, Legendary Pictures spent 175 million US dollars (equivalent to about 1.1 billion yuan) to join hands with director Dennis Villeneuve to challenge the "dune adaptation problem" again, which is actually a high-risk investment for both sides to gamble money and reputation.
Judging from the results, this cooperation has been very fruitful. At the box office, "Dune" quickly broke through 200 million US dollars in the world, becoming the box office champion in many countries and regions, so that the project can continue to advance; word of mouth, from the Venice premiere after the 8 minutes of applause, the European media have given annual praise, Rotten Tomatoes score of 83%, to the domestic premiere after the media praise, Douban score of 8.0, "Dune" occupies the topic center of this year's global film market.
"I think "Dune" is the most perfect combination of art and business so far, he wanted to make this when he was 14 years old, he put the most beautiful imagination of this story in the film, and he also knows to use the Oscar team stars to escort the film", between Liu Siru's words, we can feel that the cooperation between the filmmakers and the director is very satisfied and happy.
During the interview, Liu Siru repeatedly emphasized legendary pictures' full trust in Wei Dao. Whether it is the visual presentation of the immersive grandeur, or the simplification and reorganization of the character line in the story dimension, to create a "sci-fi version of the Revenge of the Prince" story that follows the protagonist Paul' march, the director has achieved the "greatest common divisor" in the balance of commercial and artistic, and also achieved the "greatest common divisor" of the film and television of "Dune".
But Director Wei is only one of the heroes who helped the final film and television of "Dune". Behind the actor's superb performances such as the photographic lens with both religious and epic senses, the mysterious and strange soundtrack with lingering sounds, and the superb performances of the actors such as Sweet Tea "20 Seconds Showing 5 Levels of Pain", is the joint efforts of many talented creators. In particular, Hans Zimmer, who was in charge of the soundtrack, quit his old friend Nolan's "Creed" soundtrack work for "Dune" in order to concentrate on incubating the masterpiece.
"Cinema-watching immersion for cinemas" and "Hans Zimmer's ingenious soundtrack", these marketing points repeatedly emphasized by Legendary Oriental in the promotion are quite effective. Indeed, a large number of viewers have been immersed in it for a long time after watching "Dune", and have opened the two brush, three brush, N brush mode, and even specially bought the original book after returning home, they will be the main group of people who will help the "Dune" IP continue to spread in China.
The "universe" was not built in a day
The audience needs to gradually familiarize themselves with the process
"'Dune' will get better and better in China," Liu Siru repeatedly expressed her optimism about the future prospects of the "Dune" film series in the domestic market later in this interview. Her confidence may come from past experience.
In the first half of this year, Legendary Oriental worked on the promotion of "Godzilla vs. King Kong" in the Chinese market, and helped it eventually win a box office performance of 1.232 billion yuan in China. But it is clear that the success of this "Monster Universe" series in China is not a step up to the sky, and it has undergone a long process of making IP known to Chinese audiences step by step.
"When the first "Godzilla" was released in 14 years, many people were not familiar with godzilla and would mispronounce Godzilla's name, including "Godzilla 2" when we were still doing popularization, including other kinds of monsters in the universe, which were slowly recognized and loved by the audience, and the cultivation process in the middle was very long." The team of Legendary Oriental single-handedly contributed to the "Monster Universe" series of movies in China, and the promotion and marketing experience of the past few years tells a story about the "universe" that can not be built in one day.
Perhaps because of his rich experience in promoting the "Monster Universe", Rhino Jun perceives that Legendary Oriental seems to have a lot of confidence and confidence in the promotion of the follow-up project of "Dune". "From the audience is not familiar with the universe, to know a few of the characters, to be familiar with the characters' growth environment, hobbies, love and hate, you can empathize with them, it takes a process, but we have the confidence to go through this journey with the director." 」
In fact, under the influence of the "Dune" movie and the promotion of a series of propaganda works, the spread of the "Dune" IP in China has undergone a qualitative leap. The "dune fever" set off by the release of the film triggered the situation that the original novel was snapped up on the book e-commerce platform, and the audiobook "Dune Overture", which was launched at the same time as the film, repeatedly appeared on the popular list of the Himalayas.
"In addition to 'Dune 2', we will also do sority derivative American dramas, we have just launched a new comic, from the Dune IP derivative product development plan revealed by Liu Siru, I have reason to look forward to the further improvement of the popularity of "Dune" IP in the Chinese market."
The successive launch of the above derivative products is also equivalent to a long-term advance campaign for the "Dune" movie sequel in disguise, which will be a good start. As the "Dune" IP is known and familiar to more Chinese audiences, Rhino Jun is very optimistic about the box office prospects of the "Dune 2" and even the "Dune Universe" sequel in the Chinese market in the future.
The road is long and obstructive, and the steps are non-stop. Just as the heroine of "Dune" at the end of "Dune" said that "everything has just begun", the journey of the "Dune Universe" in the Chinese market has just begun, and for a series that may become a classic of the times, the Chinese market needs patience. "We just set off," Liu Siru finally said.