Chapter 258: Summer Smoke
In the hotel room, Liu Zhou and Zhang Tong lay on the bed and snuggled together.

"Xiaotong, is it really okay to film?"

"No problem, I'll pay close attention."

"How's the food on the crew?"

"I used to eat with the crew, but since I found out I was pregnant, I asked my assistant to prepare it specially for me."

"That's good. I'll talk to Xu Ke later and ask him not to arrange too many filming plans for you every day. By the way, I got you a motorhome. It will arrive in two days so that you can rest better."

Seeing Liu Zhou's nagging tone, Zhang Tong couldn't help but feel a sweet feeling in his heart.

Seeing that he was about to continue, Zhang Tong interrupted with a smile:
"I'm not tofu that will break if touched. You're just worrying too much. It's fine now. Don't think I'm too stupid."

Hearing Zhang Tong's words, Liu Zhou couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

He was not out of concern, but compared to Zeng Li who received meticulous care, Zhang Tong could only take care of himself.

This made Liu Zhou feel a little uncomfortable.

He couldn't do much, he could only try his best to make Zhang Tong feel more comfortable.

"Promising you to finish filming this drama is already my biggest concession. You must follow my arrangements."

Seeing Liu Zhou's firm attitude, Zhang Tong no longer objected and agreed with a smile.

Liu Zhou then pondered for a while and asked:
"Xiaotong, after filming Painted Skin, where are you going to take care of your pregnancy?"

"I have already thought about this. I plan to go abroad to take care of my pregnancy and give birth to my child."

"No! You'll be too far away from me. I have a lot of work to do in the second half of the year, so it's hard to find time to visit you abroad."

"But if I stay in the country, I will have too many acquaintances."

"It doesn't matter. I'll buy you a house in Beijing. It will be more convenient for me to visit you then."

Although Zhang Tong was also very tempted, he finally shook his head and said:
"I'd better go abroad. The facilities and environment there are better."

Seeing that Liu Zhou wanted to interrupt him, Zhang Tong quickly continued:

"Just listen to me this time, okay?"

Liu Zhou looked at Zhang Tong's pleading eyes, swallowed back the words he wanted to refuse, sighed and said:
"Okay, but when you go abroad, you have to follow my arrangements."

"no problem."

Seeing Zhang Tong's smiling face, Liu Zhou couldn't help but tighten his arms around her.

In fact, Liu Zhou knew very well that saying that medical facilities and environment abroad are better is just an excuse.

The climate in Beijing has been a little bad in recent years, but China is so big that there are places with beautiful environments.

Zhang Tong insisted on going abroad simply because he didn't want to make things difficult for himself, because only by going abroad could he minimize the risks.

They each knew what was in their hearts. For Zhang Tong, as long as Liu Zhou had this intention, it was enough. She didn't want to cause trouble to Liu Zhou and just wanted to give birth to the child quietly.

After a long silence, Liu Zhou continued:

"Xiaotong, do you want to tell your family about your pregnancy?"

"No, I can take care of myself. Telling them will only make them worry. It's better to wait until the baby is born before telling them."

"Xiaotong, I'm sorry for wronging you!"

"I don't feel wronged. This is my own choice."

……

Liu Zhou stayed with the "Painted Skin" crew for three days and returned to the capital only after arranging everything.

It is now June 20th, and the popularity of "The Battle of Guandu" and "The Forbidden Kingdom" has not completely dissipated, and there are still many people discussing these two movies online.

It can be seen that everyone is still quite concerned about these two movies.

Perhaps neither Chengtian nor Huayi had expected that the two companies, which were originally sworn enemies, had invisibly completed a successful bundling marketing.

Otherwise, if the film project was just established but there was no deliberate promotion behind it, how could the popularity last for so long?

Liu Zhou didn't care about this at all.

Now he devotes himself completely to his two women.

After getting over the initial awkwardness, Liu Zhou is now looking forward to the birth of his child.

However, Liu Zhou wanted to do something, but his mother disliked him. As for Zhang Tong, he was too far away to do anything and could only call him at night.

Afterwards, Liu Zhou no longer sat around at home and was a hindrance. Rather than being despised by others, he decided to build a bigger empire for his unborn child.

In the future, let them experience what hardcore fatherly love is!

By the end of June, the smoke of the summer movie season had already begun to fill the air.

However, compared with the past, this year's summer season seems to be a bit quieter. There is no domestic blockbuster, and the only one worth mentioning is Ning Hao's second part of the Crazy Series, Crazy Racing.

In this life, Ning Hao's "Crazy Stone" was a box office hit under the operation of Golden Harvest, and earned more than 80 million yuan in box office.

Not only did it greatly increase the influence of the film, it also made Ning Hao much more famous than in the original time and space.

This is his first movie after he became famous, and it is in the same vein as "Crazy Stone".

Although "Crazy Racing" was not produced with a large investment and there were no big stars joining the cast, with the only lead actor being the unknown Huang Bo, everyone was still paying close attention to this movie.

Because everyone values ​​Ning Hao, just like when Liu Zhou was filming "The Piano Tuner", the director was the one who supported the box office.

However, "Crazy Racing" is not the movie that everyone pays the most attention to. The most attention is paid to two Hollywood blockbusters.

One is "Transformers", which became popular before it was aired.

"Transformers" appeared in the form of toys in the 1980s and became a global best-seller in just two years.

Hasbro then launched the Transformers animated series, which was also a global hit.

After more than 20 years of fermentation, "Transformers" has already become the memory of one or even two generations and has a huge number of fans.

Now Spielberg and Boom Bay have teamed up with Paramount Pictures to produce a live-action version of "Transformers", which has attracted much attention since the beginning of the project.

Since the release of the "Transformers" movie in North America, it has become the focus of the global film market.

It was released on Tuesday and grossed $6 million in the first six days. The gorgeous special effects have conquered all audiences.

Compared with the quiet summer movie season in mainland China this year, the competition in the United States this year is unprecedentedly fierce.

Starting from the end of May, "Spider-Man 3", "Shrek the Third" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" were released one after another. They are all Hollywood blockbusters and box office hits.

The three blockbusters combined to take in nearly $10 billion at the North American box office, draining all of the Hollywood box office for that month.

The fourth-ranked "Inception" had a box office of less than 3000 million US dollars, which is the worst fourth place in the North American summer box office in recent years.

But despite this, the first "Transformers" still grossed $3.19 million in such a competitive schedule, ranking among the top three of the year in North America.

Historically, "Transformers" took in 2.81 million RMB in the mainland box office, becoming the number one box office in the mainland in .

Moreover, in the following years, except for the second "Transformers" film which had a box office of more than 2012 million less than "1000", the other three films all dominated the annual box office champion throne in the mainland, making domestic films unable to raise their heads.

However, in this life, it remains to be seen whether "The Extraordinary Man" can win the mainland box office championship this year.

After all, Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" will be released during the National Day.

Although this movie was badly criticized, you cannot deny its box office explosiveness, especially Zhang Yimou's appeal is much stronger than the same period in history.

Liu Zhou even thinks that the box office of "Curse of the Golden Flower" has a great chance of exceeding 2.8 million, considering that it earned million in the original time and space.

But now "Curse of the Golden Flower" is still in post-production and the publicity has not yet started, so the most popular movie at the moment is still "Transformers".

As the Transformers trailers began to drop, it was still shocking even when watching them on a computer screen.

Transformers toys were suddenly once again placed in the most prominent positions in toy stores, nearly half of the movie theaters were filled with Autobot posters, and Autobot trailers were played on the central big screen every day.

The movie became a hit even before it was released!
In addition to "Transformers", another popular movie is "Edge of Tomorrow" shot by Liu Zhou in Hollywood.

However, the release of this movie in mainland China has little to do with Liu Zhou.

Because the rights to imported films have always been firmly in the hands of China Film Corporation, even though Edge of Tomorrow is directed by Liu Zhou, how it will be distributed in the mainland still depends on how China Film Corporation arranges it.

There is no doubt that one of the reasons why China Film introduced "Edge of Tomorrow" this time was definitely because of Liu Zhou.

But the film "Edge of Tomorrow" itself also meets the introduction standards of China Film.

The huge war scenes, first-rate special effects and plot, strong cast, plus the impressive box office in North America, even without the Liu Zhou factor, China Film Corporation would have a high chance of introducing the film.

It was only because of Liu Zhou that China Film Group did not hesitate at all.

Although the mainland has signed an agreement with Hollywood to open up the film market, it is not completely open. The number of films introduced from Hollywood to the mainland each year is limited.

Therefore, China Film Group generally imports blockbusters, which is why Liu Zhou’s first movie shot in Hollywood, “Source Code”, was not introduced.

Of course, in addition to the small cast of "Source Code", Lionsgate does not have as strong connections as the Big Seven in Hollywood.

The vast majority of Hollywood films introduced to the mainland are divided up by the Big Seven Hollywood studios.

But this time, even the Big Seven in Hollywood couldn't stop "Edge of Tomorrow" from landing in mainland theaters.

Liu Zhou is a well-known figure in the mainland. The Hollywood blockbuster he directed was released in the mainland for the first time.

Not to mention Nicolas Cage and Anne Hathaway, everyone is looking forward to it just because of Liu Zhou's reputation.

It can be said that this directly saved Lionsgate a lot of publicity expenses.

However, "Edge of Tomorrow" is scheduled to be released in late July, so its current momentum is still inferior to "Transformers".

With the premiere of "Transformers", this year's summer season has officially begun.

(End of this chapter)