The movie "The Da Vinci Code" has a large number of fans of the novel, although some of the settings about Jesus Christ mentioned in the novel are somewhat subversive.
Many religious figures have repeatedly complained about the film and even called on the general public to boycott it.
But such fanatics are only a minority after all, and most audiences are very interested in this film that deconstructs religion from a new perspective.
Plus Tom Hanks's face, which is not handsome but very friendly.
Audiences in North America and around the world are buying into this.
The film's first run of $77 million box office also proves this.
As a non-sequel film, The Da Vinci Code's performance proves its commercial strength.
Although the film has been criticized for being too faithful to the original work, it lacks surprises for fans of the novel.
But as Reuters commented, even with such reviews, the film was still able to have a grand box office start around the world.
Because there are countless curious eyes around the world waiting to see what this novel with 40 million readers will look like when adapted into a movie.
What's more, most of the audience have not read the novel, so being so faithful to the original work is not necessarily a bad thing.
And another very important point is that "The Da Vinci Code" is much more popular around the world than in North America.
It seems that this film, which completely deconstructs traditional religion, has a wider audience around the world than in North America, where religious style is relatively conservative.
Generally speaking, at this time in 2006, a hit movie would account for about 40%-50% of the global box office in North America.
However, even though "The Da Vinci Code" only grossed $217 million in North America, it still managed to take in $756 million at the global box office.
The data of more than three times even sparked heated discussions among many people.
Although the final box office results of "The Da Vinci Code" have not yet come out, its outstanding performance has finally made Sony Columbia breathe a sigh of relief.
As we all know, Sony Columbia now relies entirely on the "Spider-Man" series for its livelihood.
In 2006, when there was no Spider-Man movie released, there was a movie that sold well and gained a lot of popularity, which was an explanation to their old boss, Sir Stringer, now the executive of Sony Group.
The release of "The Da Vinci Code" has undoubtedly had an impact on other movies currently in theaters, with UBW being the first to bear the brunt.
Facing the strong performance of "The Da Vinci Code", UBW's box office fell by more than 60% in its third weekend, and finally closed at only 34.76 million US dollars.
However, adding the previously accumulated box office data, UBW's North American box office has reached 364.76 million US dollars.
There is no doubt that UBW is the most commercially successful film that Nanaya has made since entering the film and television industry.
To celebrate this achievement, after returning to New York after a week of promotional activities (forced by Shion), Nanaya held a celebration party at the house prepared for him by Shion.
Because this party was very private and the venue was not large, Nanaya originally planned to only invite people related to the Fate crew.
As a result, all the main actors went to Europe for publicity, and only a few behind-the-scenes staff from Erque Studio were available.
Even Ryougi Shiki, who was originally very bored, returned to Japan because of the start of filming of Kiritsugu's version of "Kara no Kyoukai".
There were too few people, so Nanaya simply called over the new members of the FZ crew who were still receiving action training in the United States.
Including Dwayne Johnson, James Cameron, Tom Hiddleston and others, even Mr. Li Tongchen, were invited by Nanaya.
In Nanaya's words, this is the success of Fate. Since everyone is a part of Fate, they should naturally share the happiness.
In addition, Johnson and others have been undergoing action training recently, so Nanaya felt that it was time to let them relax.
This party was originally meant to be a relaxing party, and Nanaya didn't want to make it too complicated.
Therefore, he specifically asked the party organizing company to prepare ingredients and utensils for the barbecue party, and let Nanaya and others just be responsible for eating and drinking.
"I'm telling you, Nanaya boy."
Li Tongchen, holding a skewer in one hand and a beer in the other, sat beside Nanaya and complained to him.
"These young guys really need to be punished. When I was filming, those guys could stand in horse stance for three hours, but now..."
The old man glanced coldly at James McAvoy and the others, and said disdainfully: "You idiots who can't even hold on for 20 minutes. If I were them, I would have peed and drowned myself!"
Maybe it was because he drank too much and his tongue became big, the old man spoke with a strong Sichuan accent.
Nanaya could only persuade him, "Don't be angry, old man. After all, times have changed. Besides, foreigners are not as hardworking as us Orientals."
Li Tongchen rolled his eyes at Nanaya and said, "You speak Chinese quite well~"
"No, it's just so-so."
Nanaya chuckled: "I didn't expect that you, old man, have lived in Japan for so many years and can still speak Chinese so fluently."
Mr. Li snorted disdainfully: "Tsk, I'm a martial arts instructor for Hong Kong movies, what's wrong with me speaking Cantonese?!"
[Fuck! Are you speaking Cantonese?!]
The corners of Nanaya's eyes were twitching wildly, and he thought the old man must have drunk too much.
"Hey, Nanaya, Uncle Li."
Shiki also staggered over. His style was almost exactly the same as Li Tongchen's, except that the skewer in his hand was replaced by a cigarette.
"What are you two doing hiding in the corner? You should come out and pick up girls... No, look at the beauties!"
"Look at the beauty, your brother-in-law!" Nanaya hit the guy on the head with a slap, "Can you touch the beauty here?"
"Oh, yes."
Shiki Matsuno laughed, "All of these are women from your Kiryu family, we outsiders are just here to admire them."
"You big-headed ghost! That's not what I meant!"
Nanaya punched the guy again. What he originally meant was that the girls here were not easy to mess with, but this guy completely misinterpreted his meaning.
Of course, no one knows whether Nanaya's idea is what he really means.
"Tsk, that's boring." Shiki waved his hands and said, "Old man, are you interested in going to buy wine with us?"
"Shit, I prepared 5 boxes of beer and you guys finished them all?"
Nanaya's eyelids twitched suddenly.
"Ah." Shiki Matsuno answered after taking another sip of beer, "Don't you see how many people we have here?"
Nanaya glanced at the place where the beer was stored in the distance and found that the boxes there were indeed empty.
"You guys can really drink. I'll ask the party company to send some more wine."
Just as Nanaya was about to take out his cell phone, he was stopped by Shiki.
"There's no telling when they'll deliver it, and the beer you chose tastes terrible, like horse urine."
Shiki Matsuno pouted and said, "McAvoy, Johnson and I are planning to go buy two boxes directly. Are you coming, old man?"
"Go!" Li Tongchen nodded immediately. "Beer is not good enough for you. Let me see if I can get some liquor."
"Grandpa, you should take it easy."
Nanaya quickly supported Li Tongchen. He originally wanted to say, "You're already drinking enough to speak Sichuan dialect, so stop drinking."
But Li Tongchen pushed Nanaya away roughly.
"Fuck it! When I was on the set, I drank four large bottles of liquor and was able to kill a tiger. This little bit of liquor is nothing!"
The old man refused to admit defeat and shouted, "Kiryu boy, wait here for a moment while I make you a tiger-skin apron to play with."
"Are you Wu Song?!"
Nanaya really felt like he was going to be in trouble, but Li Tongchen had already left with Shiki, and his two followers, Johnson and McAvoy, also disappeared from the party.
"I always feel like something's going to happen to these people."
Nanaya felt uneasy and thought this was a very bad omen.
Sure enough, half an hour later.
Nanaya did not wait for Shiki Matsuno and the others to come back, but instead waited for a phone call.
"Is it Mr. Ki——r——yu?"
"…It's me."
It was the first time that Nanaya heard someone pronounce his last name so awkwardly, and he almost didn't realize that it was a call for him.
"Hello, this is the Upper East Side Police Station."
Perhaps the other party also felt that Nanaya's name was difficult to pronounce, so after confirming Nanaya's surname, they omitted his full name.
"Police station?"
Nanaya took another look at his cell phone, and only after making sure that the phone he was holding was indeed his own did he put his ear to the receiver again.
"What do you want from me?"
"It's like this, we have arrested a few people here, and they hope to be able to release you on bail."
"Are you really a police officer?"
The other party's voice was very calm: "Of course, if you don't believe it, you can check my phone number."
Nanaya frowned, wrote the other party's phone number on the palm of his hand, and motioned Ori to check the authenticity of what the other party said.
"Mr. Ki——r——yu, I don't want to trouble you if I can, but these people we arrested said they are your friends. They said they wouldn't say a word before you come."
Perhaps because Nanaya hadn't answered, there was a hint of impatience in the other party's tone.
[Do you think I'm a lawyer?! ]
"Who did you catch?" Nanaya already had a bad feeling in his heart.
"A young man full of dirty jokes."
"…"
"A guy with muscles all over his body, looking like a bodybuilder."
"…"
"A Japanese with dyed yellow hair."
"…"
"There was also an older Oriental man who kept cursing, but we couldn't understand what he was saying, but he seemed pretty powerful."
"…What did they do wrong?"
Nanaya already knew who was arrested.
"Hmm... a suspected ** female?"
The other party's tone became uncertain, and he seemed to be confused about something.
"I know. I'll be right over."
Nanaya answered the police officer on the other end of the phone with a trembling voice, then he hung up silently.
"I'm so pissed off!"
Nanaya threw his phone directly onto the grass.