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作为电影先驱者，乔托·卡努杜于1911年发表的一篇论著中把电影看作是一种艺术——建筑、音乐、绘画、雕塑、诗歌和舞蹈这六种艺术形式之外的一种艺术，从此，“第七艺术”成为电影的同义语。光影世界，幻世浮生，影影绰绰，有多少人在那黑暗的包厢里获得人生价值的塑造与重建，但是，这个世界也讲利益，也说金钱，而在背后操纵的就是获利的心。所以，今天的电影投资一次又一次地冲击高点，就像撑杆跳女皇伊辛巴耶娃挑战的决心——没有最高，只有更高；今天的大片越来越“低龄化”，金刚美女还有尖叫足矣，思考与泪水无谓；续集一二三四五，裹脚布般又长又臭，直到“民怨四起”方才消停。制片方爱走捷径，赚快钱，但观众不是傻子，无心无眼。有价值的东西不是小打小闹之后的空虚寂寞，而是冷冽之后的日久弥香。或许一时不够抢眼而被人忽视，但终究走得更远，且最终稳行于高处。
——Mac
Hollywood studios have 1)latched onto a new strategy: delivering big explosions, car chases, and CGI, served with a 2)hefty helping of 3)déjà vu.
In 2011, nine of the 10 top-grossing films worldwide were sequels, led by the final Harry Potter 4)installment ($1.3 billion), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.1 billion), and the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean offering($1 billion), according to online movie database 5)Box Office Mojo. So far this year, six of the top 10 top-grossing movies are part of bigger franchises, including four sequels (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Men in Black 3, Madagascar 3, and Wrath of the Titans),
好莱坞的电影制片厂对一个新的战略紧抓不放：震撼的爆破场面、刺激的飞车追逐以及电脑生成画面，再加上多重观众再熟悉不过的桥段。
2011年，全球十大票房大卖的电影中，有九部是续集。根据网上电影数据库Box Office Mojo的统计可知，排在前列的是《哈利·波特与死亡圣器（下）》（票房为13亿美元）、《变形金刚3：月黑之时》（票房收入为11亿美元），而《加勒比海盗4：惊涛怪浪》则赚取了10亿美元票房。今年到目前为止，十大卖座电影中有六部是豪华大作，其中四部是续集——《地心历险记2：神秘岛》、《黑衣人3》、《马达加斯加3》以及《诸神之怒》，
With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate(富有同情心的), and the wisdom to be humble(谦逊的). Courage is the foundation of integrity(正直的). —Keshavan Nair
one film with sequels to follow (The Hunger Games), and one 6)hodgepodge of heroes from other films(Marvel’s The Avengers). Another of 2012’s top hits, Titanic 3D, is a high-tech 7)reissue of the 1997 hit.
Moviegoers have a 8)smorgasbord of recycled characters to choose from in part because studios want to make absolutely sure they keep theater seats full.
“It’s an industry 9)rife with uncertainty, in that every time you make a movie, you’re making a 10)prototype product that you have no idea that anyone wants,” says Lawrence Turman, film producer and the chair of the 11)Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.
Not only are box-office revenues uncertain, he points out, but 12)piracy and online viewing have helped to take a bite out of the revenues that come after a film’s theatrical release.
“It’s a little harder for major studios to make money now because their DVD sales have dropped 13)precipitously,” he says.
Consumer spending on buying and renting discs and digital movies fell by 2 percent in 2011, to $18 billion, as USA Today reported earlier this year. And while Blu-ray disc sales grew by 19 percent, DVD sales—a much bigger market—dropped 20 percent.
另一部是未完待续的电影——《饥饿游戏》，一部是从其他电影引申而来的英雄“大杂烩”——《复仇者联盟》。另一部2012年的大热片是《泰坦尼克号 3D版》，以高科技重新制作1997年的大片。
摆在观众面前的是由不同的电影名角色拼凑而成的混杂大餐，以供各取所好，部分原因在于电影公司想确保电影院座无虚席。
“这个行业充满不确定因素，每次你拍摄一部电影，你就是在塑造一个你不知道观众会否买账的新品模型，”劳伦斯·杜鲁门说，他是一名电影制片人，还是南加州大学“彼得·斯塔克制片人项目”的主管。
不仅仅是电影票房收入不确定，杜鲁门还指出，盗版以及网上观影这种行为也“分薄”了电影上映期间的票房收入。
“现在对大电影公司来说，赚钱不那么容易了，因为电影的DVD销量下滑得很厉害，”他说道。
根据《今日美国》在今年早些时候的报道所述，2011年，消费者在购买和租借电影光碟上的花费下降了2%，降至180亿美元。虽然蓝光光碟销量增长了19%，但受众面更广的DVD销量则下降了20%。
In addition to giving studios a surefire path to more revenues, making sequels can also simply be more efficient.
“It can 14)diminish the need for casting an all new set of actors. And they’re often also filmed in a series, which saves time and money,” says Agata Kaczanowska, lead entertainment industry analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. For example, all three Lord of the Rings movies were filmed 15)back-to-back.
Still, while making a sequel can save some trouble and maybe some money, film studios still tend to stick to big-budget, CGI-heavy 16)blockbusters when it comes to franchises. In other words, moviegoers shouldn’t 17)hold their breath for Black Swan 2 or Revenge of the Social Network.
“The idea of doing sequels was not invented by this generation, but the kind of sequels have totally changed directions. Now the only sequels are the big 18)rock’em sock’em ones,” says Turman. “The studios have learned that the biggest revenues come with the biggest cost, the most expensive risk. And if it worked once, why not a second time?”
Indeed, a glance backward suggests that sequels didn’t always dominate. In 2000, only one movie in the global top 10—Mission: Impossible II—was a sequel (though Meet the Parents and X-Men went on to inspire more installments). In 1990, only two films in the global top 10 were sequels.
除了能保证为电影公司赚得盆满钵满之外，拍摄续集同时也是“更高效”的体现。
“拍摄续集能免除寻找新演员所带来的麻烦事，而且这些电影通常也是整个系列连续拍摄的，这样省时省力，”阿卡塔·卡赞诺娃斯卡说，她是市场调查公司IBISWorld娱乐业市场调查方面的头号专家。例如，《魔戒》三部曲就是一部连一部紧密拍摄完成的。
同时，尽管拍摄续集能够免除一些麻烦，或许还能省点钱，但在对待续集这个问题上，电影公司还是倾向于出品高成本，同时充斥大量电脑特技的大片。换句话说，电影观众不应该对《黑天鹅2》或《社交网络的复仇》这样的电影屏息而待。
“拍摄电影续集并不是这个年代的发明创造，但是拍摄哪一种续集则是与以往大相径庭。如今，最好的续集是那种动作大片，电影公司现在觉得，舍得高投入，才有回报，那是最昂贵的风险。如果这样做成功过一次，为什么不再试第二次？”杜鲁门说道。
事实上，回首历史，续集也不总是大卖。2000年，全球十大热卖大片中，只有一部是续集作品——《碟中谍2》（尽管当年的《拜见岳父大人》和《X战警》后来都有续集作品）。1990年，当年的热卖大片中只有两部是续集。
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. —Will Durant
Big-budget action films make big money not just because they’re fun; it’s because they market well to foreign audiences. Thus far this year, over 70 percent of Men in Black 3’s grosses have come from overseas, along with 58 percent of The Avengers’ $1.4 billion.
“To put it in 19)blunt terms, the big companies—Warner, Sony, Universal, Paramount, all those—they are essentially making movie for people who do not speak English,” says Turman. A film that involves lots of 20)visual stimulation without thousands of words of reading, he says, will be more enjoyable for many non-Englishspeaking audiences.
Put more simply, hearing Prometheus’ Noomie Rapace scream in terror as she delivers an alien via a robot-administered 21)C-section requires no translation. Hearing Colin Firth’s King George VI overcome a 22)speech impediment requires a more 23)nuanced explanation, not to mention a fair amount of reading for foreign audiences.
It is true that Hollywood’s interest filming sequelsand remakes is nothing new—one need look no further than Rocky, Star Wars, and The Godfather for proof. But in today’s action-24)fixated environment, says Turman, the famous 25)mafia 26)trilogy might have looked a bit different.
“Doing that today they’d probably 27)spice it up with having Spiderman visit them or something,”he says.
高投资的动作电影能够赚大钱不仅仅因为这类电影有趣，更因为它们在迎合海外市场方面做得好。今年到目前为止，《黑衣人3》的票房收入中超过七成都是海外收入，《复仇者联盟》的14亿美元票房中，58%的收入是海外市场的贡献。
“说白了，那些大型电影公司——华纳、索尼、环球、派拉蒙等等——基本是照顾母语为非英语的国家的观众需求而拍电影的，”杜鲁门说。他说，一部充斥着视觉刺激却没有众多言语打扰的电影，让许多母语为非英语观众更乐在其中。
更简单来说，听《普罗米修斯》中的劳米·拉佩斯通过机器人手术装置剖腹生下外星人而尖声惊叫并不需要什么翻译。相反，听（影片《国王的演讲》里）科林·费斯扮演的乔治六世克服口吃需要更细致入微的诠释，更别提里面要外国观众快速阅读的大量字幕了。
好莱坞对于拍摄电影续集和翻拍的热衷并非什么新鲜事——这一点并不假。远的不说，看看《洛奇》、《星球大战》以及《教父》系列就是佐证。但在今天这个对动作题材恋恋不舍的时代，杜鲁门说，著名的黑手党三部曲看上去有那么一点不入流。
“要拍摄黑手党的故事，现在电影公司可能会加入蜘蛛侠去拜访或是其他什么的桥段来‘丰富’剧情，” 杜鲁门如此说。
小资料
CGI 即Computer Generated Image，电脑生成图像，昔日被称为电脑绘图（Computer Graphics，CG），是指使用电脑产生的影像，更精确的如应用在影片中的3D特效，还有在电影、电视、广告、视频游戏、互动多媒体等领域也很常见。
Blu-ray disc 蓝光光碟，简称BD，是DVD之后的下一代光盘格式之一，用以存储高品质的影音以及高容量的数据存储。蓝光光碟的命名是由于其采用波长405纳米的蓝色激光光束来进行读写操作（DVD采用650纳米波长的红光读写器，CD则是采用780纳米波长）。一个单层的蓝光光碟的容量为25或是27GB，足够录制一个长达4小时的高解析影片。
franchise 原意是特许，特权。用到电影上时，人们对这个词语的使用相对松散。本质上franchise指的是一部这样的电影：它在各种发行方式（主要是影院、影碟和电视）所得之外还通过其他途径获取了额外收入。其他途径可以是续集和系列电影，也可以是制片商授权他方发行的附属产品，包括玩具模型、电子游戏、咖啡杯、T恤衫，以及其他上百种可孕育的商品。
——Mac
Hollywood studios have 1)latched onto a new strategy: delivering big explosions, car chases, and CGI, served with a 2)hefty helping of 3)déjà vu.
In 2011, nine of the 10 top-grossing films worldwide were sequels, led by the final Harry Potter 4)installment ($1.3 billion), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.1 billion), and the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean offering($1 billion), according to online movie database 5)Box Office Mojo. So far this year, six of the top 10 top-grossing movies are part of bigger franchises, including four sequels (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Men in Black 3, Madagascar 3, and Wrath of the Titans),
好莱坞的电影制片厂对一个新的战略紧抓不放：震撼的爆破场面、刺激的飞车追逐以及电脑生成画面，再加上多重观众再熟悉不过的桥段。
2011年，全球十大票房大卖的电影中，有九部是续集。根据网上电影数据库Box Office Mojo的统计可知，排在前列的是《哈利·波特与死亡圣器（下）》（票房为13亿美元）、《变形金刚3：月黑之时》（票房收入为11亿美元），而《加勒比海盗4：惊涛怪浪》则赚取了10亿美元票房。今年到目前为止，十大卖座电影中有六部是豪华大作，其中四部是续集——《地心历险记2：神秘岛》、《黑衣人3》、《马达加斯加3》以及《诸神之怒》，
With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate(富有同情心的), and the wisdom to be humble(谦逊的). Courage is the foundation of integrity(正直的). —Keshavan Nair
one film with sequels to follow (The Hunger Games), and one 6)hodgepodge of heroes from other films(Marvel’s The Avengers). Another of 2012’s top hits, Titanic 3D, is a high-tech 7)reissue of the 1997 hit.
Moviegoers have a 8)smorgasbord of recycled characters to choose from in part because studios want to make absolutely sure they keep theater seats full.
“It’s an industry 9)rife with uncertainty, in that every time you make a movie, you’re making a 10)prototype product that you have no idea that anyone wants,” says Lawrence Turman, film producer and the chair of the 11)Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.
Not only are box-office revenues uncertain, he points out, but 12)piracy and online viewing have helped to take a bite out of the revenues that come after a film’s theatrical release.
“It’s a little harder for major studios to make money now because their DVD sales have dropped 13)precipitously,” he says.
Consumer spending on buying and renting discs and digital movies fell by 2 percent in 2011, to $18 billion, as USA Today reported earlier this year. And while Blu-ray disc sales grew by 19 percent, DVD sales—a much bigger market—dropped 20 percent.
另一部是未完待续的电影——《饥饿游戏》，一部是从其他电影引申而来的英雄“大杂烩”——《复仇者联盟》。另一部2012年的大热片是《泰坦尼克号 3D版》，以高科技重新制作1997年的大片。
摆在观众面前的是由不同的电影名角色拼凑而成的混杂大餐，以供各取所好，部分原因在于电影公司想确保电影院座无虚席。
“这个行业充满不确定因素，每次你拍摄一部电影，你就是在塑造一个你不知道观众会否买账的新品模型，”劳伦斯·杜鲁门说，他是一名电影制片人，还是南加州大学“彼得·斯塔克制片人项目”的主管。
不仅仅是电影票房收入不确定，杜鲁门还指出，盗版以及网上观影这种行为也“分薄”了电影上映期间的票房收入。
“现在对大电影公司来说，赚钱不那么容易了，因为电影的DVD销量下滑得很厉害，”他说道。
根据《今日美国》在今年早些时候的报道所述，2011年，消费者在购买和租借电影光碟上的花费下降了2%，降至180亿美元。虽然蓝光光碟销量增长了19%，但受众面更广的DVD销量则下降了20%。
In addition to giving studios a surefire path to more revenues, making sequels can also simply be more efficient.
“It can 14)diminish the need for casting an all new set of actors. And they’re often also filmed in a series, which saves time and money,” says Agata Kaczanowska, lead entertainment industry analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. For example, all three Lord of the Rings movies were filmed 15)back-to-back.
Still, while making a sequel can save some trouble and maybe some money, film studios still tend to stick to big-budget, CGI-heavy 16)blockbusters when it comes to franchises. In other words, moviegoers shouldn’t 17)hold their breath for Black Swan 2 or Revenge of the Social Network.
“The idea of doing sequels was not invented by this generation, but the kind of sequels have totally changed directions. Now the only sequels are the big 18)rock’em sock’em ones,” says Turman. “The studios have learned that the biggest revenues come with the biggest cost, the most expensive risk. And if it worked once, why not a second time?”
Indeed, a glance backward suggests that sequels didn’t always dominate. In 2000, only one movie in the global top 10—Mission: Impossible II—was a sequel (though Meet the Parents and X-Men went on to inspire more installments). In 1990, only two films in the global top 10 were sequels.
除了能保证为电影公司赚得盆满钵满之外，拍摄续集同时也是“更高效”的体现。
“拍摄续集能免除寻找新演员所带来的麻烦事，而且这些电影通常也是整个系列连续拍摄的，这样省时省力，”阿卡塔·卡赞诺娃斯卡说，她是市场调查公司IBISWorld娱乐业市场调查方面的头号专家。例如，《魔戒》三部曲就是一部连一部紧密拍摄完成的。
同时，尽管拍摄续集能够免除一些麻烦，或许还能省点钱，但在对待续集这个问题上，电影公司还是倾向于出品高成本，同时充斥大量电脑特技的大片。换句话说，电影观众不应该对《黑天鹅2》或《社交网络的复仇》这样的电影屏息而待。
“拍摄电影续集并不是这个年代的发明创造，但是拍摄哪一种续集则是与以往大相径庭。如今，最好的续集是那种动作大片，电影公司现在觉得，舍得高投入，才有回报，那是最昂贵的风险。如果这样做成功过一次，为什么不再试第二次？”杜鲁门说道。
事实上，回首历史，续集也不总是大卖。2000年，全球十大热卖大片中，只有一部是续集作品——《碟中谍2》（尽管当年的《拜见岳父大人》和《X战警》后来都有续集作品）。1990年，当年的热卖大片中只有两部是续集。
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. —Will Durant
Big-budget action films make big money not just because they’re fun; it’s because they market well to foreign audiences. Thus far this year, over 70 percent of Men in Black 3’s grosses have come from overseas, along with 58 percent of The Avengers’ $1.4 billion.
“To put it in 19)blunt terms, the big companies—Warner, Sony, Universal, Paramount, all those—they are essentially making movie for people who do not speak English,” says Turman. A film that involves lots of 20)visual stimulation without thousands of words of reading, he says, will be more enjoyable for many non-Englishspeaking audiences.
Put more simply, hearing Prometheus’ Noomie Rapace scream in terror as she delivers an alien via a robot-administered 21)C-section requires no translation. Hearing Colin Firth’s King George VI overcome a 22)speech impediment requires a more 23)nuanced explanation, not to mention a fair amount of reading for foreign audiences.
It is true that Hollywood’s interest filming sequelsand remakes is nothing new—one need look no further than Rocky, Star Wars, and The Godfather for proof. But in today’s action-24)fixated environment, says Turman, the famous 25)mafia 26)trilogy might have looked a bit different.
“Doing that today they’d probably 27)spice it up with having Spiderman visit them or something,”he says.
高投资的动作电影能够赚大钱不仅仅因为这类电影有趣，更因为它们在迎合海外市场方面做得好。今年到目前为止，《黑衣人3》的票房收入中超过七成都是海外收入，《复仇者联盟》的14亿美元票房中，58%的收入是海外市场的贡献。
“说白了，那些大型电影公司——华纳、索尼、环球、派拉蒙等等——基本是照顾母语为非英语的国家的观众需求而拍电影的，”杜鲁门说。他说，一部充斥着视觉刺激却没有众多言语打扰的电影，让许多母语为非英语观众更乐在其中。
更简单来说，听《普罗米修斯》中的劳米·拉佩斯通过机器人手术装置剖腹生下外星人而尖声惊叫并不需要什么翻译。相反，听（影片《国王的演讲》里）科林·费斯扮演的乔治六世克服口吃需要更细致入微的诠释，更别提里面要外国观众快速阅读的大量字幕了。
好莱坞对于拍摄电影续集和翻拍的热衷并非什么新鲜事——这一点并不假。远的不说，看看《洛奇》、《星球大战》以及《教父》系列就是佐证。但在今天这个对动作题材恋恋不舍的时代，杜鲁门说，著名的黑手党三部曲看上去有那么一点不入流。
“要拍摄黑手党的故事，现在电影公司可能会加入蜘蛛侠去拜访或是其他什么的桥段来‘丰富’剧情，” 杜鲁门如此说。
小资料
CGI 即Computer Generated Image，电脑生成图像，昔日被称为电脑绘图（Computer Graphics，CG），是指使用电脑产生的影像，更精确的如应用在影片中的3D特效，还有在电影、电视、广告、视频游戏、互动多媒体等领域也很常见。
Blu-ray disc 蓝光光碟，简称BD，是DVD之后的下一代光盘格式之一，用以存储高品质的影音以及高容量的数据存储。蓝光光碟的命名是由于其采用波长405纳米的蓝色激光光束来进行读写操作（DVD采用650纳米波长的红光读写器，CD则是采用780纳米波长）。一个单层的蓝光光碟的容量为25或是27GB，足够录制一个长达4小时的高解析影片。
franchise 原意是特许，特权。用到电影上时，人们对这个词语的使用相对松散。本质上franchise指的是一部这样的电影：它在各种发行方式（主要是影院、影碟和电视）所得之外还通过其他途径获取了额外收入。其他途径可以是续集和系列电影，也可以是制片商授权他方发行的附属产品，包括玩具模型、电子游戏、咖啡杯、T恤衫，以及其他上百种可孕育的商品。