After its premiere at the Shanghai Film Festival, Pirates of the Caribbean was officially released in the mainland Chinese film market.
As the film's importer, China Film naturally invested a massive amount of resources to promote Pirates of the Caribbean.
In the major box office cities, posters for Pirates of the Caribbean could be seen everywhere—at bus stops, on giant screens in commercial plazas. These posters were different from the ones used in North America; Gilbert's name was printed in the largest font.
The reason was simple: in mainland China, Gilbert was far more famous than the film's leading actors. Even Orlando Bloom, who was globally popular, did not have Gilbert's name recognition in China—especially since he hadn't even come to promote the film.
Johnny Depp once gave a very candid comment: "I thought Tom Cruise had arrived—the fans were that crazy."
In reality, although Tom Cruise had some recognition in China, he still couldn't compare to Gilbert.
Many movie fans even said that Gilbert's films were their gateway into Hollywood blockbusters. It was his movies that sparked their love for Hollywood.
In fact, aside from The Shallows and Final Destination, all of Gilbert's films had been released in the Chinese market. Though some were censored, the edits were generally within acceptable limits.
Saving Private Ryan and the Lord of the Rings series, which were filmed in China, received widespread acclaim.
The media also heavily promoted Gilbert himself—his legendary career and life story. With this kind of large-scale exposure, it was nearly impossible for Gilbert not to be a star in China.
After attending the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Film Festival—but unable to see the opening film due to lack of access—Guo Fan and Liu Ji chose to watch Pirates of the Caribbean at a cinema in Shanghai.
While waiting to enter, Liu Ji spoke about his connection to Gilbert's films: "My favorite is The Rock. I watched the pirated DVD with my brother back then, and I was instantly hooked.
Later, I got into Speed, Real Steel, and others.
But the most mind-blowing was when I watched The Matrix in the theater back in high school. That was the first time I saw a movie in a cinema.
From then on, I fell in love with movies—and with Gilbert."
Guo Fan added, "I got into it a bit earlier than you. After watching Real Steel, I was inspired to become a director, specifically a sci-fi director."
"Then realized you weren't cut out for it?"
"Not exactly," Guo Fan shook his head. "I just realized, given our domestic environment and technology, reaching their level would take at least twenty years."
"True," Liu Ji patted Guo Fan's shoulder. "I have faith in you, man. You've got potential. Keep it up."
Guo Fan gave a wry smile, "Don't flatter me. Even someone like the National Director couldn't make a sci-fi film. What chance do I have?"
"Hey!" Liu Ji disagreed. "It's not that he couldn't. He just didn't have the skill, you know? We're different. We're still young!
There will be opportunities in the future."
"From your lips to God's ears," Guo Fan thought to himself. He knew this classmate of his was always optimistic—famously loud-mouthed and full of confidence. Sometimes, Guo Fan had no idea where that confidence came from.
The movie soon began, and the two followed the crowd into the cinema, ready to watch.
The base of moviegoers in China's film market was still very small compared to its massive population. Perhaps only in big cities like Shanghai did a significant movie-going population exist.
So this cinema in downtown Shanghai still had decent foot traffic, and the showing that Guo Fan and Liu Ji attended had a surprisingly decent 60% attendance rate.
Unlike theaters in North America, where moviegoers usually have popcorn and soda in hand, in China, most people went to the cinema simply to watch the movie. Only a small percentage would buy popcorn and drinks.
After all, cinema snacks weren't cheap, and for Chinese moviegoers, whose overall entertainment spending was still low, they felt like a luxury.
Liu Ji, however, had money—he always said his family owned a mine—so he bought popcorn and a soda.
But neither Liu Ji nor Guo Fan expected that, aside from a couple of bites of popcorn and a sip of soda at the beginning, they wouldn't touch the snacks again.
Not because the popcorn wasn't sweet or the soda wasn't tasty.
But because the movie was just too good—they couldn't bear to take their eyes off the screen.
Logically speaking, both were students from the film academy and should have watched plenty of movies.
But watching Pirates of the Caribbean in a cinema—especially the scene where the characters turn into skeletons under moonlight—still left them both stunned.
If two film academy students were this blown away, there was no need to mention ordinary viewers with little or no movie-going experience, some of whom were entering a cinema for the first time.
Guo Fan even made a point of observing the audience's reactions. Almost everyone had their mouths wide open. After the film, the adrenaline-induced excitement was clearly written on their faces.
For many Chinese moviegoers, this was a completely new experience.
Shanghai was still better off in that regard—as the country's biggest box office city, going to the movies was still a popular activity.
In fact, watching movies wasn't unfamiliar to Chinese audiences. But compared to the vast population, those who had seen a film in a cinema were still a minority.
Most Chinese audiences watched movies on pirated DVDs—mostly Hong Kong films.
After watching the stunning Pirates of the Caribbean, Guo Fan and Liu Ji exited the theater and overheard a group of peers chatting in front of them.
"I used to watch God of Gamblers and A Better Tomorrow on rented DVDs. I never imagined watching a movie in a cinema could be this exciting."
Another young man shared his thoughts: "That's the shock factor of Hollywood movies. If you screened our domestic films in cinemas, it just wouldn't feel the same."
Guo Fan nodded in agreement from behind them.
Indeed, to enjoy Hollywood visual effects blockbusters, you had to see them in a theater. Watching pirated discs just couldn't replicate the impact.
In fact, the cinema they went to was part of China Film's own theater chain. The projection system used in this theater had been imported from North America's most advanced systems, delivering a top-tier viewing experience.
From the layout of the theater, to the sound system, to the high-resolution 2K big screen—all of it was outfitted with the world's best cinematic equipment.
This was part of China Film's cooperation with several North American theater companies—to import projection systems and upgrade China's theater infrastructure.
When it came to projection technology, Hollywood had no export restrictions, and the reason was simple: the Chinese market still had enormous room for growth.
The biggest challenge was how to expand the moviegoing audience and get more people into cinemas.
This not only impacted the growth of the Chinese-language film market but also served Hollywood's interest in tapping into China and reaping the rewards.
If the market wasn't big enough, or the audience base wasn't large enough, then no matter how attractive the region was, it wouldn't be worth it for Hollywood. So developing the Chinese market became a shared consensus among all Hollywood companies and even the broader North American cultural sector.
Moreover, it was tied to ideological output—something even Washington officials supported.
Therefore, even though projection technology was quite advanced, it wasn't considered sensitive and was thus boldly imported into China.
Now, several cinemas in Shanghai had completed these upgrades and were being used as pilot projects. If successful, China Film planned to roll out the upgrades to all its theaters nationwide.
In this regard, even though Hollywood's ultimate goal was to cultivate and then harvest the market, it still ended up doing a good thing—so their intentions aside, their actions mattered.
However, there was still another issue—the technological advancement in filmmaking itself, which North America was far more guarded about.
For example, this upgraded Shanghai cinema had a screen capable of displaying 2K resolution, but Chinese-language films were still mostly shot with cameras limited to 1080p.
In other words, the image quality of the film didn't match the 2K big screen, making it look like a cheap, inferior product, which was quite frustrating.
On this front, several state-owned film companies had been working hard. They either spent huge sums to purchase mature foreign camera systems or tried to develop their own.
When Gilbert finished filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he used his influence to keep a few seemingly damaged camera systems behind for China Film to study.
China Film did study them, but research was one thing—many components still had to be imported from Japan or Germany.
For instance, camera lenses that met the required standards couldn't be produced by any domestic company; they had no choice but to buy German or Japanese products.
But foreign suppliers hiked up the prices—a single lens cost as much as manufacturing several older camera models.
China Film wasn't a charity. Once the camera systems were reverse-engineered, they had no choice but to raise the price of each unit or increase rental fees.
However, the high costs of purchasing or renting these systems would often deter other film companies and production teams, leading to a vicious cycle.
But for China Film, the more fatal issue wasn't the cost—it was that the camera systems they had just spent huge sums replicating were already outdated in Hollywood, replaced by the next generation of technology.
In other words, not only did they earn nothing from the money spent on copying the camera systems, but what they ended up with was already obsolete.
And that wasn't all. Before the lectures at the Shanghai Film Festival began, Director Tian made a special trip from Beijing to have dinner and chat with Gilbert.
During the meal, Gilbert revealed that an IMAX company in North America had developed a complete IMAX filming and projection system, which was now mature and commercially viable.
Gilbert also said that his next film would be shot using IMAX cameras.
In fact, as early as 2001, Shanghai already had its first IMAX theater. However, not many people went to experience it, and very few knew what it was.
Hearing about all these new advancements made Director Tian deeply worried.
While foreign technology was progressing rapidly, domestic development remained stagnant. The commercialization of the Chinese film market had been talked about for nearly a decade, yet not even one or two decently commercialized films had emerged.
At this rate, when would Chinese-language films ever rise to their feet?
What Director Tian didn't know was that Gilbert hadn't even told him everything—James Cameron's research on a 3D filming system had already made significant progress.
Over the past two years, James Cameron had made great strides filming documentaries and experimenting with underwater photography.
At present, James Cameron had returned to his studio in Los Angeles to prepare for a major project, planning an investment of between 200 and 300 million US dollars.
But in truth, just the R&D cost of the new technology had already burned through 300 to 400 million.
James Cameron, worried that film companies wouldn't trust the project, brought Gilbert onboard as an endorsement to attract investment for his new film.
Gilbert had already agreed to Cameron's request, and barring any surprises, Gilbert would serve as the producer of the film, temporarily titled A.
And there was no need to guess—A was none other than the world-famous Avatar.
However, given James Cameron's notoriously slow pace, along with the many remaining technological hurdles and the need to construct 3D cinemas, the release of this film was still a ways off