As night falls, the lights in front of the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel light up.
A long red carpet was laid directly onto the driveway, with a large number of media reporters gathered on both sides of the carpet.
These people held up their cameras and kept pressing the shutter button to capture the figures of everyone walking on the red carpet.
This was a celebration party held by Washimine Entertainment for "Madoka Magica", which became the second highest-grossing film in film history.
Even though the movie has only been out for a month, the film has been a huge success by any measure.
Especially the achievements in business.
Not to mention the still-increasing box office figures in North America and overseas, the film already has the potential to break box office records in film history.
Just from the copyright transfer of "Madoka Magica" peripheral products and image, Washimine earned hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
This is not an exaggeration. According to the data that can be counted so far, the revenue from the peripheral products of "Madoka Magica" has reached 400 million US dollars.
That doesn't even include licensing revenues such as the image printed on Coca-Cola packaging and a partnership with McDonald's on children's meal toys.
Of course, these data are commercial secrets and the reporters on both sides of the red carpet are certainly unaware of them.
But the box office data alone is enough to make them crazy about the "Madoka Magica" crew.
"Ms. Washimine, can you say a few words?"
At the temporary interview area outside the Hilton Hotel, several reporters stopped Shion Washimine, the CEO of Washimine Entertainment.
"Madoka Magica has been a huge success. Will Washifeng Entertainment continue to produce sequels after this movie?"
Shion stood in front of the reporters, smiling and talking.
"Why not? Madoka Magica is a great film. I don't think there are many films in Hollywood today that can surpass Madoka Magica."
It is an accepted fact in Hollywood today that successful commercial films will have sequels.
After all, "Madoka Magica" is not a movie adapted from real events like "Titanic".
Its main creator, Nanaya Kiryu, is not a director like Nolan who doesn't want to reshoot a subject after finishing it.
Therefore, the movie "Madoka Magica" will definitely have a sequel, it's just a matter of when it will be released.
Of course, Shion naturally couldn't tell the reporters about this completely uncertain thing.
She nodded to the reporter and walked into the hotel.
Not long after Washimine Shion entered the hotel, Nanaya also walked onto the red carpet with Ryan.
As per convention, there will be an interview area at the end of the red carpet.
Since "Madoka Magica" was still being screened, he did not refuse the reporter's interview, but instead said a few more words.
"Director Kiryu, what do you think is the main reason why Madoka Magica is such a big hit?"
Facing the reporter's question, Nanaya thought for a moment and replied: "Audiences are always seeking new excitement. I think they are, to a certain extent, tired of those Hollywood commercial films that are very homogenized."
This is not a lie. Pure Hollywood special effects movies have long been unable to convince audiences.
The era when you could easily sell a movie by simply piling up special effects is gradually fading away.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, the Marvel series, the Fate series and this time "Madoka Magica" have all become popular in North America.
In addition to special effects, the novel plot and serial-like viewing experience are also important reasons why audiences buy into the film.
But it will take a long time for Hollywood film producers to understand this truth.
Just like the craze for "Madoka Magica" this time, they simply attributed it to the success of 3D movies.
Nanaya heard that almost all large-scale commercial films that have not yet started shooting will consider adding 3D format.
For those movies that have already been filmed, 3D versions will be added through post-production conversion.
Nanaya can already predict that a considerable number of low-quality 3D movies will appear in Hollywood in the next few years.
Maybe the first one or two films can get good box office, but when the 3D movie market is saturated, this money-making trick will not work so well.
The 3D version has played an important role in the current box office success of "Madoka Magica".
But without the 3D version, would "Madoka Magica" become a successful commercial film?
Nanaya thinks it will definitely happen.
Because special effects can only be a selling point, and the story is the core that can truly capture the audience.
Of course, there is a difference between the plot of commercial films and art films.
The most obvious point is that the story of a commercial film must be exciting enough and easy to understand.
But it is very difficult to do this.
Nanaya knows that red carpet interviews are not over yet.
A reporter continued to ask: "Director Kiryu, will serious films represented by "Madoka Magica" become mainstream in the future?"
"Serious?"
Nanaya was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, "Madoka Magica has never been a serious work!"
The reporters never expected that Nanaya would say this.
But Nanaya's answer was obviously intentional. How could he justify such a good publicity opportunity if he didn't come up with some topics for these people to hype?
However, he didn't feel comfortable following Gen Urobuchi's example of telling lies with his eyes wide open, insisting on describing "Madoka Magica" as a heartwarming work.
The movie has been released for a month, and cute (false) publicity is no longer effective.
Without waiting for the reporter to ask, Nanaya said again, "I did arrange some serious plots and particularly realistic expressions in Madoka Magica. But..."
Nanaya paused deliberately.
"But all these contents have one principle, that is, they must give the audience an exciting feeling and make the audience happy to accept them!"
The expression on the reporter's face clearly showed a question mark of "Are you kidding me?"
In response to this, Nanaya simply shrugged calmly.
"No matter how dark the plot is, Madoka Magica is still a highly entertaining commercial masterpiece! Otherwise, it would not be recognized by the market."
Without waiting for the reporter to say anything more, Nanaya walked into the hotel with Ryan.
The confused reporters were left standing there in embarrassment.
Led by the staff, we entered the banquet hall where the celebration party was held.
Almost all the crew members of "Madoka Magica" have arrived, and most of the senior executives of Washimine are also here.
After all, on a memorable day like this, it's natural for these powerful figures in Washimine to get involved.
At the same time, media reporters invited by Washimine Entertainment were at the party to take photos and record the wonderful moments of the party.
After all, Washimine held this party now instead of after the film was taken off the shelves in North America.
One of the important purposes is still publicity.
If you want to hit a high enough box office, it is very important to keep the topic of the movie fresh.
However, these reporters will not stay too long, otherwise everyone will not be able to have fun because they have to pay attention to their image.
So, after going through the fixed process of speaking.
Nanaya and Shion cut the cake together, and everyone at the scene raised their glasses to celebrate.
Afterwards, the media reporters who took the photos were asked to leave.
Next is the time for both the host and the guests to have fun.
As the absolute protagonist of tonight's celebration party, Nanaya couldn't remember how many people came to congratulate him.
For this reason, Nanaya managed to escape from the crowd with the help of Ryan.
However, Nanaya did not leave the banquet hall, but began to look for his target at the banquet.
Don't get me wrong, Nanaya is not looking for a target.
At this moment when all his women were present, he still didn't have the courage to do so.
Nanaya was looking for the person he wanted to talk to.
"Luvia, it's been a while since we last met."
Nanaya greeted the gorgeous actress in a blue evening dress while holding a drink.
"It seems to be less than a week, right? Senior Nanaya~"
Luvia said disdainfully.
"Well, it feels like a long time since we last met."
Luvia snorted, "Senior, why don't you tell this to your Miss Ryan?"
Nanaya touched his nose and coughed lightly in embarrassment.
"Enough of the jokes. I came to you to ask if you are free in the next few months."
"I knew that you were looking for me for work."
Luvia rolled her eyes at Nanaya with resentment, then nodded slightly: "Of course I will be free for the next period of time."
"But I have to participate in the promotion of The Avengers in April, so I won't be free then."
Nanaya thought for a moment and said, "It shouldn't take that long."
Luvia asked, "What's the content? Senior, are you the director?"
"It's a 3-episode web series, and it should be directed by Ori." Nanaya replied, "It should be considered a prequel to Madoka Magica, telling the story between Mami and Kyoko before Homura Akemi's reincarnation."
This web drama is inspired by the official spin-off manga "The Different Story" of "Madoka Magica" in the previous life.
However, the original comic is very long, divided into three volumes, and it also involves the plot of the main story of "Madoka Magica".
Nanaya didn't plan to shoot so many films, he only chose the story of the first volume.
Mami and Kyoko met each other, and then something happened in Kyoko's family, and then the two parted ways.
This is the script that Nanaya asked Old Gen to prepare.
However, Nanaya made some changes to the final plot.
After Kyoko left Mami, Mami later met Madoka, who became a magical girl by saving Homura.
It can be regarded as the official continuation of the plot of "Madoka Magica".
The reason why I only produced such a small amount of content is very simple - Nanaya doesn't have that much time.
Nanaya hopes that this short web drama based on the spin-off can be released before May next year.
Because by that time, the popularity of "Madoka Magica" must have almost faded.
This web drama will once again arouse fans' desire to watch movies and bring them back to the cinema.
This is the main reason why Nanaya chose to shoot this web drama.
Nanaya's operation is essentially no different from Disney's previous move of using a special edition of "End Game" to trick audiences into going back to the cinema.
But at least, Nanaya did not confuse the audience with the so-called new version.
Another reason why Nanaya chose this red and yellow CP story is also very simple, because in the next promotional plan, Luvia and Kujo Fuu are the most free.
They have time to film the web drama, but the other three protagonists don't.