North America.
In the box office week that crosses New Year's Day, "Titanic", which was released in its third week, officially replaced "The Flash 2" and became the subject of hot discussion in the film and television circles across the United States and even around the world.
Or it’s because of the miraculous box office performance of this movie.
In the box office week from December 26, 1997 to January 1, 1998, "Titanic", which despite the strong box office pressure of "The Flash 2", still achieved a 4% box office decline in the next week, with the increase in word-of-mouth and popularity Further fermented, it fell again by as much as 11%. In its third box office week, it successfully overturned the much-anticipated "The Flash 2" to the ground. The single-week revenue increased from 62.35 million U.S. dollars in the first week to 63.94 million U.S. dollars in the next week. million, and in the third week, it hit directly to $70.92 million.
In three weeks, both Daenerys officials and industry media had generally predicted that the domestic box office of this ultra-high-budget blockbuster would be only about US$150 million, and the cumulative box office quickly reached US$196.21 million.
Breaking 200 million is imminent.
In comparison, "The Flash 2", which was released in its second week, not only failed to exceed 100 million in its first week, but also fell by 41% after being stolen by "Titanic" the following week, with its single-week revenue quickly falling to 57.61 million. US dollars, after two weeks of release, it accumulated a box office of US$155.49 million.
150 million in two weeks, which is a success for most other movies. However, for "The Flash 2", it is not satisfactory.
Since the box office week from December 26 to January 1 is still in the popular holiday period, Warner Bros. had previously expected that the box office of "The Flash 2" would only drop by about 30% in the second week, even if it was based on the first week's 9,788 Calculated in US$10,000, the next week’s revenue should be around 70 million.
In general, facing the anomaly of "Titanic", "The Flash 2", which was released for two weeks, has been suppressed and swallowed up at least 20 million US dollars in box office.
This is still a fairly conservative estimate.
Without "Titanic", "The Flash 2" would be almost the only Christmas blockbuster and occupy the most popular period for two weeks. It is not impossible for this super blockbuster of the DC movie universe to exceed 200 million in box office in two weeks.
Now, with "The Flash 2" earning 150 million in two weeks, it still has to face the follow-up impact of "Titanic" whose popularity has not diminished at all. Not to mention that Warner officials originally hoped to replicate last year's "Wonder Woman 2" to have a local impact4 The secret expectation of a box office of 100 million, even the 300 million box office threshold that the industry generally believes is easy, may not be able to cross it.
With such box office results, the film will definitely not suffer losses, and it will even definitely make a huge profit. But for the ambitious Warner, it is a bucket of cold water.
Especially since Titanic is also produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Another expectation of Warner Bros. and even Time Warner parent company General Electric for "The Flash 2" is that through this project, it will more or less take back some of the initiative in the DC movie universe.
The success of "Titanic" is simply a silent mockery.
Daenerys does not rely on the DC movie universe, the "Jurassic Park" series, or even Pixar's 3D animation. Just make a blockbuster and it will crush you to death.
Of course, other major Hollywood studios will not laugh at Warner for this.
At least Warner Bros. has maintained a certain sense of presence despite being crushed by "Titanic", but what about the others
It’s just the Christmas season that opened on December 12 last year. Whether it’s MGM’s “King of Fighters 2”, Sony’s “As Good As It Gets” or DreamWorks’ Paramount-distributed “Mousecatcher,” the box office figures are all due to the two movies. A super bombshell crush that fell short of expectations.
The market is only so big, and the two blockbusters have already chewed up all the meat. Other films can only follow the soup, and they are still rushing to drink.
Moving forward, "Shakespeare in Love", which was originally planned to be the focus of Gaomen Pictures' awards competition during the 1998 awards season, was released on December 5, but the situation was also quite embarrassing.
After the first week of screenings, in the following three large-scale box office weeks, as the limelight was taken up by "Titanic" and "The Flash 2", "Shakespeare in Love" has almost no sense of existence. The cumulative total of the four weeks of release The box office gross was only $17.09 million.
For an awards season literary film, this result is not considered a failure, because the production cost of the film was only 25 million.
The problem lies in the positioning of this project.
Award winning film.
The typical operating strategy of award-winning films is to continuously receive various nominations and awards during the period from the announcement of the nominations for the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards in December until the Oscar Awards ceremony in March or April of the following year. Including the various trade union awards and association awards, it repeatedly stimulated the audience to buy tickets and enter the venue, forming a long-term trend, accumulating small amounts into large sums, and ultimately a double harvest of box office awards.
At present, with the phenomenal word-of-mouth reputation of "Titanic" that has been counterattacking all the way and the reputation of directly winning 8 nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, it is conceivable that "Shakespeare in Love" will not be able to perform at all in the following awards season.
Or maybe.
That is, "Titanic" and "Shakespeare in Love" are produced by two companies. Then, the producers of "Shakespeare in Love" can stir up various topic disputes. For example, "Titanic" is just a commercial film that lacks connotation. Will it have a high box office? The representative is qualified to win awards and so on, and this is used to gain status.
It's a pity that the two movies come from the same family.
Even with Daenerys' current label structure, the two films cannot be considered biological brothers, but can only be said to be cousins, but the company will not allow "brothers to fight against each other" to occur.
After all, the trend of "Titanic" is really good. If it can shine again during the awards season, it is very likely to create a box office miracle. In this case, "Shakespeare in Love" can only give up, and Simon will not approve the use. Controversial marketing strategies that may have affected audiences' perceptions of Titanic.
Los Angeles.
The time comes on January 3rd, Saturday.
After its release on January 2, "Titanic" earned US$10.13 million in a single day, and the local box office successfully exceeded US$200 million, reaching US$206.34 million.
Daenerys also chose this Saturday to hold a grand celebration party for the crew of "Titanic".
At seven o'clock in the evening, Lena Kane, who easily got two invitations through Linda Vargas because of her relationship with someone, took Jessica Chastain to this long-famous mountain on time. The mansion, deliberately stopped for a while at the gate where reporters were gathered, and allowed themselves to be photographed by the client who was recognized as the female co-star of "The Ghost Story" before the two women entered the mansion.
The celebration party was said to start at 7 o'clock, but after entering, I discovered that many people had already arrived early.
Still using her identity tag, Lena was able to go upstairs to the main villa and meet up with Daenerys Entertainment's big bosses who were chatting. She said hello and talked about "Blair Witch".
Daenerys has begun to promote the official website of "The Blair Witch Affair", which has gradually become a very popular supernatural event recently.
Not only that, but Blair Witch's Sundance schedule is already set.
This year's Sundance Film Festival will kick off on January 15th and last 11 days until January 25th.
In order to give "Blair Witch" enough post-production time, the film will have its Sundance premiere on January 24, which is a Saturday, followed by a total of four media and audience screenings.
Moreover, Sundance is also quite cooperative with the confidential marketing strategy here.
The 14th Sundance, which announced the shortlist for the main competition in early December last year, has unprecedentedly announced only one film with only a code name. The code name for "Blair Witch" is "B Project", which translates to "B Project". Project" or "Project B," but for those in the know, it's of course "The Blair Witch Project."
In fact, if there is no explanation, there is no problem with "B Project" as a movie title. Sundance officials also specially explained that the film comes from Daenerys's New World Pictures, and the name is just a code name. The official name is The content is kept confidential, so it has sparked heated discussions and even controversy.
The living room upstairs in the villa.
Seeing Lena Kane talk about it, the few people who knew that this was their boss's new favorite didn't hesitate. After all, this girl is quite lovable and capable.
New World Pictures President Danny Morris said: "Regarding the online marketing of "Blair Witch", the plan remains unchanged. We will increase our promotion efforts next week. However, Lena, you must also be mentally prepared. Now The focus of online platforms is all on "Titanic", which will definitely have a great impact on the spread of the topic of "Blair Witch"."
"It's such a pity." Lina stood upright and sat on the sofa near the door in a respectful posture. She sighed after hearing this, then smiled and said: "But "Titanic" is really a surprise. I have gone to see it three times during this period, and I have learned a lot from a filmmaker’s perspective. I really look forward to meeting Mr. Cameron next.”
The online platform viral marketing plan for "Blair Witch" was decided years ago, and it still needs to participate in Sundance. It cannot be canceled temporarily, and now it can only be implemented step by step.
Even the schedule in early February cannot be adjusted.
Because Daenerys' 1998 movie list has already been lined up, it's almost as crowded as a few carrots, unless "Blair Witch" is willing to delay its release until next year.
If you really do this, all the arrangements made in advance will be in vain.
Now, we can only do our best and obey fate.
After everyone chatted for a while, a staff member knocked on the door and came in to remind him that James Cameron had arrived. Upon hearing this, Amy Pascal stood up and planned to greet him out. With the current momentum of "Titanic", 1 billion in the world is conservative, and Cameron deserves Amy to stand up and greet him.
However, Danny Morris, Ella Deutschman and others who were also in this living room continued to sit.
There’s no need to rush it all.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a few in their prime, such as Steven Spielberg or George Lucas, might have convinced big studio executives to come together. Now, at least for Daenerys Entertainment, It is said that its executives have enough confidence to face any filmmaker, whether it is a big director or a big star, and there is no need for all kinds of flattery in the early years.
Even for "Titanic", everyone has recently felt that if their boss had not been almost indulgent in this project in the past two years, the box office miracle of this movie would not have happened at this time.
Therefore, as this project became more and more successful, it was my own boss who was still in Australia at this time that everyone admired more.
This is vision.
Lina did not continue to stay like Maurice and others, but trailed slightly behind Amy and took Jessica downstairs.
Then I saw a picture like stars looming over the moon.
On the lawn in the backyard of the mansion, under the bright lights in the night, a large circle of people had gathered around James Cameron, who had just arrived. The core was Amy and Cameron who were chatting, and many people around him were also from the Hollywood circle. There are familiar faces.
Daenerys has the confidence to remain calm, but other Hollywood studios, who are almost breathless under Daenerys' suppression, do not have this confidence.
The circle of people in front of him is probably the most vivid reflection of James Cameron's recent encounters.
This long-established director did not sign a long-term contract with Daenerys. Even though he had a bad reputation of always overspending, this reputation was suddenly not concealed in the scenery of "Titanic". Therefore, during this time, Hollywood studios large and small are trying to get cooperation opportunities for Cameron's next project.
Cameron, who was under great pressure during the production of "Titanic" and had a lot of gray hair, was also in high spirits at this time. He brought a new girlfriend and talked and laughed with everyone around him.
Lina and Jessica, the two little shrimps, couldn't squeeze in at all, so they could only watch enviously from the periphery for a while, feeling some emotions such as what a man should be like, when they saw Linda Vargas, who they had become more and more familiar with in private, not far away. Lena and another Hollywood big shot, Tom Hanks, walked over together.
When I came closer, I happened to hear Linda introducing a project to Hanks.
"The story tells the story of a man who was tired of his marriage and divorced his wife. He accidentally got a mobile phone to have an affair. After experiencing a series of women, he finally realized the true meaning of love and life. The idea comes from the movie that was just released in China on January 1st two days ago. A very interesting movie, Jim, and I think you could try for the leading role.”
"It's a remake of a Chinese movie, Linda, are you sure?"
Linda Vargas and Lena, who approached, nodded, and continued to the obviously questioning Hanks: "Actually, it is a film company established by the boss in China, and the script was finalized by Simon himself, including this time. The remake was also Simon's decision. Hehe, I even suspect that Simon wrote this idea himself, but he just didn't admit it."
When Tom Hanks heard what Linda said, he immediately looked at it seriously: "Linda, can I read the script first?"
"There is no script yet," Linda shook her head and said, "However, there is a copy of the movie here. If you are interested, I will take the time to send it to you. The boss specially asked someone to make English subtitles. You must Can understand."
Hanks thought for a moment and said, "Just tomorrow, which happens to be Sunday."
"no problem."
After Hanks walked away, Lena immediately said: "Linda, can I also watch the movie you just mentioned?"
Linda smiled and shook her head: "No, Lena, there is only one copy, and I can only give it to Hanks if Simon asks for it."