In the summer of June, the sky was blue without a single cloud, and the scorching sun was scorching the ground of the Shanghai Airport.
When Nanaya stepped off the plane, he was almost knocked back by the rolling heat wave.
Accompanied by employees of Washimine Entertainment's Chinese branch, he walked out of the Shanghai International Airport.
When walking out of the airport gate, Nanaya looked around deliberately. There were neither media reporters with cameras nor those spontaneously organized movie fans as he had seen in the capital before.
Except for a few business cars that picked up people, everything seemed very normal, as if they were unrelated people.
Nanaya was not surprised by the cold reception he received after getting off the plane.
Because this was his specific request before coming to China, he hoped to keep a low profile.
After all, Nanaya came to China this time not to promote FGO and "Prologue", but to participate in the Shanghai International Film Festival.
However, Nanaya will also do some things related to FGO, but officially, it is mainly participating in film festivals.
So, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Nanaya did not make any big noise.
Although as an international friend, he believed that the authorities in Shanghai would not mind.
But in order to leave a good impression on them, some things should be avoided if possible.
As for why not take this opportunity to promote "Prologue"...
Come on, it's already June.
"Prologue" was released in China in May.
Generally speaking, if there are no unexpected events, imported films will be released in China for about a month.
It is already the middle to late stages of the screening of "Prologue", and the film's popularity has long passed.
It is too cost-effective to carry out large-scale publicity at this time, so Nanaya has no plans to promote the movie at all.
Although Nanaya had anticipated this situation, he couldn't resist Lily beside him who kept diss-ing him.
"Huhu, it seems you are not very famous here."
Lily, who was holding Nanaya's arm, deliberately laughed mockingly: "Director Kiryu, it seems that you have to work harder in the future."
Nanaya shrugged and said calmly, "You are no better than Miss Wettin. Don't you have no fans looking for you?"
Lily was so angry that she deliberately rubbed Nanaya's arm.
Then she said in a retaliatory tone: "It's okay, I think it's good to live in our own world."
Nanaya didn't bother to pay attention to her and directly dragged her into the business car.
The box office performance of "Prologue" in China was actually a little beyond his expectations.
Based on previous calculations for other Fate movies, Nanaya originally thought that this sentimental movie would be good enough to have a box office of 600 to 700 million.
The previous box office performance of "Madoka Magica" of 1.4 billion RMB was simply an exception and is not enough to be used as a model.
It can only be said that during this period, China's final movie box office potential is around 1.5 billion RMB.
After all, his rise in Hollywood was too short.
In addition, the Internet was not well developed in the past few years, and information transmission was relatively slow.
Nanaya feels that compared with great directors like Spielberg and James Cameron, he is generally considered a second-tier Hollywood director in the minds of Chinese audiences.
Although several of Fate's previous films have been released in China, the performance was only average.
Although this is also related to the fact that China's box office potential has not been tapped and the audience's movie-watching habits have not been formed.
But in the final analysis, it is because the IP of Nanaya and Fate lacks mass base in China.
The popularity of Fate's IP in China was somewhat similar to that of Marvel's IP in China before "Avengers 1".
There is a certain audience, but it's not a large one.
But if there are no special effects movies in the same period when the movie is released, then the audience will also choose to watch Fate.
That's probably the situation.
However, China's film market is still quite difficult to understand.
After all, in this magical land, anything can happen.
This is not a joke, but Nanaya's own personal experience.
There is a very strange phenomenon in China's film market, which is chasing trends.
Take the Fast and Furious series for example.
The first three films in this series had no introduction at all, and the fan base for the movies was zero.
Starting from the fourth film, this series began to be released by taking advantage of the good opportunity of expanding the quota of imported films.
But up to the sixth film, the box office performance of the films in China was very mediocre.
The sixth film was outshined by "Now You See Me" of the same period and didn't even make 500 million. The worst part, the fourth film, was so pitiful that most movie-related websites didn't even record the box office data.
Then in the seventh part, the series went crazy.
With a box office of 2.427 billion RMB, it directly crushed "Avengers 2" and became the champion of imported films and box office champion of the year.
The most amazing thing is that many viewers watched "Fast and Furious 7" to commemorate Paul...
In particular, some Paul fans suddenly appeared and commemorated Paul on various social platforms.
He is almost being touted as the best actor in the world.
There are men too, but they are not as exaggerated as those fan girls.
Although it is a bit strange for Universal to use dead people for publicity, as a commercial project, Nanaya can still accept "Fast and Furious".
It doesn't necessarily mean that a movie won't be released just because someone died, right?
But for this group of people, those shameless people who commemorate the past, Nanaya really wants to give them a set of middle finger services.
When other people's movies were first released, you ignored them and just wanted to watch Fourth Girl's movie.
Now that he has gone to see Jehovah, you can't love him anymore?
Where were you when Fast and Furious 6 was released?
If even half of those who shouted to commemorate Paul went to see "Fast and Furious 6", the box office would not be less than 500 million.
Of course, more magical things are yet to come.
Since "Fast and Furious 7", this IP has become a first-class IP in China.
Even "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" earned nearly 1.5 billion RMB at the box office.
From the example of "Fast and Furious", Nanaya saw two characteristics of Chinese audiences.
One likes to follow the trend, while the other is nostalgic.
Although when a movie becomes a big hit, it will create a trend of nationwide movie watching.
But this situation seems to be particularly obvious in China. As long as a movie has the potential to become a popular culture trend, countless people will follow suit.
On the other hand, as long as this movie becomes a trend, it will be highly praised.
When sequels or spin-offs are released later, these movies will be sought after by the Chinese market.
The two series that Nanaya felt most deeply about were Marvel and the "Fast and Furious" series.
And now he found himself seemingly becoming one of them.
Although during the Fate era, it cannot be said that Nanaya was ignored.
But as a filmmaker, his popularity in China is still a little bit lacking.
But all this changed after the release of Madoka Magica.
The box office revenue of 1.4 billion RMB set a new record for Chinese movie box office.
At the same time, the name of director Nanaya Kiryu was also remembered by the audience here, and even became a trendy culture in 2010.
Last year, the words [Madoka Madoka], [Nanaya], and [Magical Girl] became popular on the Internet.
The classic lines from the movie can also be found everywhere on major online platforms.
Even [QB] has been defined as a swear word.
Amid such popularity, a large number of true fans of [Nanaya Kiryu] emerged in China.
No one knows whether these people have been following Nanaya like Wang Jue and other real Nanaya fans.
However, these "true fans" are sharing their love for Nanaya Kiryu on major social media platforms.
There is something so special about Nanaya Movies;
Which character in Fate has a particularly good design?
Which of Nanaya's works do I really love?
…
Although the actions of this wave of "true fans" seem a bit stupid, it is hard to say which are good or bad.
After all, the more famous Nanaya becomes, the more helpful it will be for him to expand into the Chinese market.
But as a Chinese in his previous life, Nanaya certainly didn't have a very good impression of these followers.
"I hope that with the release of the FGO series, there will be more fans who truly like Fate."
"It's okay, Nanaya." Lily comforted him, "Doesn't it prove that you have some talent if someone admires you?"
"I'm talking to you..."
Nanaya turned his head and found Lily reading a Chinese entertainment newspaper.
He tilted his head to look at the familiar Chinese characters on the newspaper and asked curiously, "Can you understand it?"
"I don't understand."
Lily replied proudly.
Nanaya was speechless about Lily's behavior: "Why are you reading this if you don't understand it? Where did you get this newspaper?"
"I asked the staff to buy it at the airport just now." Lily replied, "Although I don't understand Chinese, at least there are Chinese characters in Japanese, right? I can always figure out something by guessing."
Nanaya shook his head, thinking about the time when he ate raw Japanese meat in his previous life.
In order to get the information as soon as possible, Nanaya would try to read the original Japanese information.
However, Nanaya's Japanese level at that time was not even good enough, and he could only recite according to the 50-character scale.
But luckily he watched a lot of anime, so he could more or less understand what was read out, plus some of the Chinese characters above.
Nanaya can always guess some information every time.
Even though he never guessed right once.
Nanaya now sees the shadow of his past reckless behavior in Lily.
"If you don't understand, don't read it."
Nanaya shook his head and took the newspaper from Lily's hand.
"Tsk~"
Lily pouted in dissatisfaction, and she said to Nanaya provocatively: "Nanaya, didn't you brag that you can read Chinese? Then tell me what is written in the newspaper?"
Nanaya raised his eyebrows. Lily's tone and expression sounded like a woman questioning a man's ability.
This made Nanaya very unhappy. A man should never say that he is not capable at any time.
So Nanaya directly opened the newspaper and decided to show Lily his real skills.