In Simon's view, the summer of 1987 was a "watershed" in Hollywood's film production and distribution model.
Starting from mid-May, "Ida" starring Dustin Hoffman, "Beverly Cop 2" starring Eddie Murphy, and "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and "Witches of Easttown" starring Jack Nicholson and other films were released in sequence.
Among them, "Isda" and "Beverly Cop 2" are the most typical representatives of this watershed.
The budget cost of "Isda" is as high as 55 million US dollars, and the box office of 5.7 million US dollars in the first week is destined to make the producer Columbia Pictures lose all their money. However, this movie heralded the official arrival of the big-budget era in Hollywood.
As the sequel to the 1984 North American box office champion, the production cost of "Beverly Cop 2" was also as high as US$28 million. However, the more representative thing about this movie is that it has a screen size of 2,326.
2,326 opening screens is not a lot for later blockbusters that often cost 3,000 to 4,000 yuan to open on screens, but in this era when most films can only get about 1,000 yuan to open on screens, "Beverly Cop 2" "The scale of the opening is absolutely unprecedented.
Paramount Pictures did not choose the traditional release date of Friday, but decided on Wednesday, May 20.
Through an intensive publicity campaign in the early stage, "Beverly Cop 2" earned US$7.61 million at the box office on Wednesday and Thursday, just two days after its opening, directly surpassing "Isda" which only received US$5.7 million in the whole week. It reached the second place in the single-week box office list.
The following week, "Beverly Cop 2" took in another US$40.03 million, bringing the total box office to US$47.64 million in nine days.
Before 1987, such a strong box office momentum could only be matched by the national-level "Star Wars" series.
In comparison, the 1986 box office champion "Top Gun" only had a box office of US$12.21 million in its first week, and the 1985 box office champion "Back to the Future" had a nine-day cumulative box office of only US$22.02 million in the same Wednesday schedule.
At the same time, after raking in $47.64 million at the box office, "Beverly Cop 2"'s box office data dropped sharply by 40% in the following week, far exceeding the long-term trend of 10% to 20% for popular films.
Even so, "Beverly Cop 2" is destined to be another super hit work.
While many film companies are studying the distribution strategy of Paramount Pictures, Simon understands that outside of the big-budget era, Hollywood movies gain popularity through large-scale early promotion, and then roll out thousands of screens at once to recover them in a short period of time. The era of full box office distribution also arrived at the same time.
On Simon's side, the layout of stock index futures has been completed, and "Death is Coming" produced by Daenerys Pictures also officially started production on May 18.
The main filming location of "Death is Coming" was in Queens, New York. Simon flew to New York personally after the filming of the film started and stayed with the crew for three days before returning to Los Angeles again.
In the following time, Simon was basically busy with the casting, location planning and actor rehearsal of "Pulp Fiction".
The shooting cycle of "Death Is Coming" is 8 weeks. If all goes well, the film will be completed around July 10. The filming of "Pulp Fiction" was scheduled to start on July 13, and the initial planned shooting period was 10 weeks.
at the same time.
Due to the release of a series of new films in the summer, the box office trends of "Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect" have been significantly affected.
However, on June 15, the 18th week of its release, "Run Lola Run" earned a box office of US$1.36 million over the three-day weekend, and the cumulative box office officially exceeded the US$200 million mark, reaching US$201.07 million.
Immediately afterwards.
From June 19th to June 25th, "The Butterfly Effect" was released in its 12th week, and the box office collected another US$1.82 million. The cumulative box office also exceeded the US$100 million mark, reaching US$100.87 million.
Although everyone knew the box office potential of "Run Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect", when the two films really exceeded the expected box office numbers, the entire North American media was still excited again.
For a time, countless news about Simon once again spread in various newspapers and media.
Catherine's "Night of the Dead" happens to be released on June 19th.
Due to Simon's previous participation, "Night of the Blood Corpse" has become the most direct beneficiary of this media popularity.
The film opened on 513 screens in its first week. Amid intense media discussion, "Night of the Dead" earned a box office of US$7.86 million in just the first three days of the weekend, with an average of more than US$15,000 per theater, fully reaching the level of a blockbuster. .
Simon and Janet originally planned to hold some parties in March and April to thank those who had helped Simon over the past year.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two also brought up the matter again.
Saturday, June 27th.
In the Palisades mansion, a grand party was officially held on this day.