That box office total is impressive—even by 2024 standards, it would still rank tenth on Japan's all-time film revenue list.
If you check out the Japanese box office charts in 2024, you'll see it's truly an anime nation. Nine out of the top ten films are animated. Old man Hayao Miyazaki accounts for four, and Makoto Shinkai has two. Only one movie is live-action.
Luke's Hero is now another exception to that rule, which shows just how popular he is in Japan right now!
Luke's massive appeal in Japan is the result of several factors stacking up. His taking on three Kendo students and co-creating a manga with Akira Toriyama are part of it, but there's one incredibly important reason:
Luke's master-level Japanese means he's fluent in the language and has a deep understanding of Japanese culture. This significantly reduced the Japanese market's resistance to him, and to some extent, they see him as one of their own.
Thanks to the movie's stellar performance in the Japanese market, Hero's global box office will hit $350 million, nearly double the $177 million it made in his previous life!
"We're going to make a killing, aren't we?" Luke asked with a smile.
The total production cost for Hero was $30 million, with Luke's film studio shouldering $20 million of that. As the overseas distributor, Luke's studio also covered $15 million of the total $20 million distribution cost.
So, for a total outlay of $35 million, Luke's studio is set to receive approximately 50% of the total box office earnings, totaling about $170 million.
That's a five-fold return on investment!
This also means Luke's film studio is sitting on even more cash. They already had hundreds of millions of dollars sitting around unused, and now another $170 million is coming back. Money truly is multiplying the more they spend it.
What a terrible problem to have—too much cash!
Mr. Eisen nodded and said, "We've already hit our profit goal for the year with just this one film, Hero. After the year-end settlement, I'll transfer 15% of the studio's shares to you."
Luke nodded. "Our capital is getting stronger and stronger! Maybe before long, it'll be our turn to build the stage ourselves."
Hearing that, Mr. Eisen just smiled without answering, but his eyes were full of confidence.
Building their own stage means they'll have to go head-to-head with the eight major film studios (the majors). Up until now, Luke's studio has always joined other film companies in co-production. The benefit is less exclusion and opposition—after all, the table is only so big, and if one more person sits down to eat, others get less.
But the drawback is they have to give up a large portion of the profits. For example, by co-producing Pirates of the Caribbean, Luke only gets a share of the box office, while the movie IP belongs entirely to Disney.
To truly become an influential major player in the industry, they'll eventually have to strike out on their own and can't keep relying on others. While the time isn't quite right yet, preparing ahead of time is a necessity.
Neither Luke nor Mr. Eisen spoke, but they both saw the confidence and courage in each other's eyes to face the storms that lay ahead.
"Did you know the DVD market is also exploding?" Mr. Eisen changed the subject.
"Of course. I hear the DVD discs, both for rental and sale, are completely sold out. The factories are working overtime and still can't keep up with the demand," Luke replied.
"They're selling better than hotcakes! When you first told me we should do this, I had no idea it would catch fire like this!" Mr. Eisen exclaimed.
Back in 2002, renting movie DVDs was hugely popular in the North American market. If a user especially loved a movie, they might even buy a brand-new DVD for their collection.
In the previous timeline, Hero's DVD sales revenue reached $21.7 million, which was a decent chunk of income. In this life, the Hero DVDs are selling like crazy.
Initially, they were just hard to find in the rental market. Rental stores quickly ran out of stock, which was beyond the rental dealers' expectations.
Normally, the main users who rent DVDs are those who didn't see the movie in theaters. But this time, a large number of people renting Hero DVDs were customers who had already bought tickets and even saw the movie multiple times in theaters. They were completely immersed in Hero's stunning scenery and heart-pounding action, watching it over and over, which made the return interval for the discs very long.
Luke anticipated this phenomenon early on. He even predicted that many customers renting the DVD would likely not return it, pay the lost item fee, and keep it for their own collection. This would make the rental discs circulating on the market even harder to get.
But if the audience has that kind of demand, how could Luke not meet it?
So, he and Mr. Eisen had already prepared a deluxe edition of the DVD for sale. In addition to the movie itself, each deluxe set included posters of the film's most beautiful scenes, postcards, and small character cards.
These extra goodies were a massive draw for movie fans. The catch? The posters, postcards, and character cards were all distributed blindly, like a loot box or a gacha pull!
Was the person who designed this set a total devil?!
As a result, fans, both happy and pained, couldn't help but buy several sets. Trading them became a huge topic of conversation on fan forums:
"I have two Luke character cards. Anyone want to trade?"
"Me! Me! How do we swap?"
"One Luke card for two female character cards, or three other male character cards!"
"Totally fair! Send me your address, and I'll mail them to you right away!"
"I have a surplus of the Poplar Forest scene poster here. Anyone want to trade?"
"I have the Guilin Landscape one. Want to swap?"
"Do you think I'm crazy? The Poplar Forest poster is the rarest drop! Unless you throw in a Jiuzhaigou Valley postcard!"
"Deal!"
The hot sales of the Hero DVD were definitely within Luke's expectations, but he still wasn't sure exactly how much the sales revenue would be.
Mr. Eisen didn't keep him hanging and gave him the answer straight: "We project about $70 million in sales."
Luke nodded. After deducting production costs, distributor commissions, and other expenses, they should still see about $13 million left in their hands. That's another considerable profit.
Luke felt like money was just constantly pouring into his pockets lately. Hollywood really is a magnet for fortune and fame!
With that, the performance review for Hero was pretty much complete. As for awards and nominations, they'd have to wait until next year. For now, they could put Hero aside and focus on Pirates of the Caribbean, which is set to premiere next month.
"Mr. Eisen, I'd like you to make a prediction," Luke said.
"Go ahead."
"Based on where we stand right now, do you think Pirates of the Caribbean can beat the box office of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers?"
Mr. Eisen thought seriously for a moment, then replied, "I'm afraid not. Lord of the Rings has too big of an advantage in terms of cultural background and subject matter."
Luke nodded. "I knew it probably couldn't."
"Do you really have to beat The Two Towers? I predict Pirates of the Caribbean's box office won't lose to it by much, and that's more than enough for us to make a bundle."
Luke knew that as long as Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't too far behind The Two Towers, it would already be a huge smash hit.
But the System wouldn't allow it—he was after the ridiculous attribute rewards from the second mission ring!
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