Vol 2 Chapter 783: Argonaut plan

The Oscar public relations is still going on. Before the final vote is over, the contestants will never give up easily. "Gravity" also spent the third weekend in the North American market. The box office trend is still strong, only down from the second weekend. Thirty-five percent, with a harvest of 37.29 million U.S. dollars. In addition to the previous four working days, the North American box office has exceeded the 250 million U.S. dollar mark, reaching 258.97 million U.S. dollars.
Overseas, the film's release area has increased to 108, and the overseas box office is also growing rapidly. The global box office has steadily passed the 500 million US dollar mark, reaching 527.88 million US dollars!
More importantly, after a long time of screening, the reputation of the film is still strong, which is extremely conducive to the film's subsequent development.
Time slowly entered late January. When Sunday arrived, Duke threw away all his work and came to Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, with the goal of the famous Rose Bowl Stadium.
This is one of the most famous stadiums in the United States. It can accommodate more than 90,000 people. It was built in the 1920s. The Rose Bowl Stadium is famous for its annual college American Football Bowl Cup, which is also known as the Rose Cup.
However, during the NFL season, this is temporarily the home of Duke's Los Angeles Raiders.
After the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles, they could only lease this famous stadium as a temporary home stadium because they did not have their own stadium. However, Duke has already asked people to find a good site for the design, and the new Raiders Stadium is from Construction began in the summer.
After at most two seasons, his Los Angeles Raiders can relocate to his home game.
Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney came to watch the football with Duke, but when they walked through the long corridor of the stadium, led by the team’s dedicated reception staff, they entered the VIP seats. , I also saw many peers in the industry.
Such as Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain and so on.
Although this is not the Super Bowl, it is the American League final. The winner between Duke's Los Angeles Raiders and the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers will directly advance to the Super Bowl next month.
"Hi, Duke."
"Hi. Duke..."
Sitting in the team’s box specially prepared for the boss, people acquainted nearby came over to say hello, and Duke also responded one by one, not just those who had seen it before. Among those who came over one after another, many familiar faces were also seen.
For example, Orlando Bloom, who has collaborated with him, such as a newly emerging Canadian singer Justin Bieber.
I don't know why, Duke saw that Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom seemed to be at odds, but they were seated far apart. Just exchanged an obviously hostile look at Duke and returned to where they were.
"The attendance rate is okay."
Turning his eyes around the stadium, Leonardo DiCaprio said to Duke, "Much better than I thought."
"Do you imagine?" Duke said, sitting in his seat, "Do you think the entire stadium should be empty."
"Of course not." Leonardo shook his head. "I thought that half the attendance would be good."
George Clooney went to Ben Afrac's side. Only Duke and Leonardo are left here. The conversation between the two is more relaxed and casual, and ridicules will come from Leonardo’s mouth from time to time. Jumped out.
"I see!" He pointed to the two stands on the left hand side and on the opposite side, covered with huge Raiders team logos. Suddenly said, "You have covered these two large stands, so it seems that the attendance rate is high."
Duke shrugged, but said nothing.
Although he is not involved in the direct operation of the club, he also knows that the Raiders have not completely become the Raiders of Los Angeles, even though Nancy Josephson’s icm and the team themselves have done a lot of promotion work to achieve this. The goal also needs time to settle.
Coupled with the Rose Bowl's capacity of nearly 100,000, the direct consequence of this is that the attendance rate of the team's games is not too high, because the nfl official has a rigid rule on attendance every game day. The team simply covered the top two grandstands of the Rose Bowl to make it look like there were not many empty seats.
This is also the most common practice in all professional sports leagues in the United States.
The attendance rate of the Los Angeles Raiders last year was far lower than it is now. Professional sports have always relied on game results to speak. This season the Raiders have not only reached the playoffs. And entered the American League finals, just two steps away from the Super Bowl, which greatly stimulated the market, starting from the playoffs, the team's game day attendance has been greatly improved.
Los Angeles is the second most populous area in the United States, and it is also a huge market. Whether the Los Angeles Raiders can grab a delicious enough cake from many professional sports teams depends on whether they can achieve correspondingly good results.
If the team can get a Super Bowl in the last two years, marketing will undoubtedly become much smoother.
"Hey, Duke."
A greeting sounded next to him again, and George Clooney brought Ben Affleck over and Duke stood up and shook hands with Ben Affleck, "Hello, Ben."
The upper circle in Hollywood is so big, the two sides are not very familiar with each other, but they have always seen it before.
"Now the Las Vegas handicap is bullish on your Raiders."
Different from the external bully, Ben Affleck is still humble enough in front of Duke, without a trace of compliment, "The Raiders are hot now, and the combination of Tom Brady and Marshaun Lynch is nothing. People can stop, and entering the Super Bowl is definitely not a problem."
"Thank you."
With a polite sentence, Duke gestured to the chair in the box, "Sit down, Ben."
Just like Ben Affleck said, after more than a season of running-in, the Los Angeles Raiders have been on the right path. It just wants to enter the Super Bowl. It requires more than just the strength and fitness of the team. Tactics, but also have enough good luck.
Several people sat together and talked about the Raiders team. Before the game started, Ben Affleck suddenly turned the topic to the movie side.
Obviously, this is the purpose of Ben Affleck.
The Hollywood star, who has become narrower and narrower in his acting career, has given birth to his second career as a director through transformation, said, "Duke, have you heard of Hollywood's Argonaut Project?"
The name was quite familiar, but Duke couldn't remember it for a while, so he shook his head, "I think I heard it somewhere, but I don't remember it clearly."
After speaking, Duke looked at Ben Affleck, waiting for his explanation.
"That's it. When the Islamic Revolution in Iran reached its peak in 1979, militants attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and captured 52 hostages, but six Americans took the opportunity to escape. The CIA tried to rescue them. In cooperation with Hollywood, we have formulated a filming plan called "Argo". We want to bring them back to the United States through the film crew going to Iran for location shooting..."
Hearing the Islamic revolution in Iran, Duke understood what Ben Affleck was talking about, but he did not interrupt, but patiently listened to Ben Affleck to finish.
"I want to adapt this thing into a movie."
After he said these words, he glanced at Duke, saw that he did not say anything, and then said, "I have obtained the relevant adaptation rights, and I am looking for someone to write the script, but I haven't found a suitable investor."
Duke thought for a while and asked, "Ben, who are you going to direct this project?"
"This..." Ben Affleck scratched his head, "I want to direct this film myself."
Although he has directed a movie, he is still a newcomer in the directing industry. Ben Affleck knows this very well.
Considering the previous movie, the investment should not be high, it seems that the box office is not bad, in fact, such a movie has a certain market in North America, especially after decades of daily smear action by North American mainstream media, some countries That is synonymous with terrorism in the hearts of the North American public.
This film can be said to make an excellent use of this and has a sufficient market audience.
Because, Duke just thought about it, and said, "Let’s do it, Ben, you will come up with a detailed plan as soon as possible. If possible, one of my film foundations will invest in your film. If it is released in the future, it can be handed over to Warner. brothers."
Ben Affleck didn't seem to expect things to go so smoothly. A long face was overjoyed and quickly said, "I promise that I will deliver the plan to you as soon as possible."
He winced, and after speaking, he stood up and said, "Duke, I won't bother you. See you later."
"See you another day." Duke nodded softly at him.
The intention to invest in Ben Affleck’s film is not only because it is a low-return investment project. To a certain extent, Duke also gave George Clooney a bit of face. After all, he introduced Ben? Affleck is here.
In any case, after the release of "Gravity", George Clooney made a lot of efforts for the film's public relations work and launched his own network.
Subsequently, the Duke trio turned their energy to the upcoming game, perhaps stimulated by the Los Angeles Raiders reaching the American League finals. This game set a new high since the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles. Tickets were purchased. The number of spectators entering the stadium exceeded 60,000.
For the Los Angeles Raiders, this is a gratifying achievement, and it also means that the team is gradually integrating into the land of Los Angeles.
Just want to truly become a part of Los Angeles, the Raiders have a long way to go, but Duke has enough patience. (To be continued.)
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