As Americans celebrated the Independence Day holiday, far away in Africa, starting with the mutiny of thousands of pro-Rwandan Tutsi soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 5, another large-scale African melee broke out, which was regarded as the first in the world in July. A big event.
This matter started two years ago.
In the summer of 1996, Rwanda, together with Uganda and several other countries, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the pretext of hunting down war criminals responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Together with the Democratic Republic of the Congo rebels, they invaded the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 1997 and overthrew President Mobutu, who had ruled the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 32 years. , and supported the rebel leader Kabila to come to power.
In the following year, thinking that he had stabilized the domestic political situation, Kabila began to demand that the Rwandan coalition forces withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Of course, the Rwandan coalition was not willing to give in, so this conflict took place.
In 1994, Simon took a huge risk of uncertainty to intervene in the Rwandan genocide, basically to show his own strength. This time, he would just watch indifferently. Because this melee, in the final analysis, is a major reshuffle of Africa by various forces and a redistribution of resources.
What the Westeros system can do is get its own share of the benefits.
This is a tacit understanding formed by all parties.
On the contrary, if you continue to intervene in it without overestimating your capabilities, you will be an enemy of the entire Africa and the Western society behind the scenes. Simon will not do such a stupid thing.
As for the millions of casualties this melee known as the 'Second African World War' will cause, not many people care about it. There is no exact statistics on the specific death toll. Some say it is between five and six hundred. Ten thousand, some say 8 million, others say tens of millions, who knows.
Let’s just say that at the moment, compared to the wars in Africa, even after visiting China, the major mainstream media in the West are still paying close attention to Clinton’s growing zipper door scandal.
Or in terms of entertainment, the visual shock brought by the real and cruel war scenes in "Saving Private Ryan" and the moral conflict caused by eight people saving one have triggered discussions far beyond the war in Africa.
this is the truth.
The strong ones attract all the attention, while the weak ones have almost no sense of existence.
Simon's personal concern about the developments in Africa was that he secretly held a meeting on the deployment of the Wei family's private army and then put it behind him.
"Saving Private Ryan" once won the North American box office crown in 1998 with a local box office of US$216 million. Not to mention that this achievement is compared with "Titanic", even the second place "Men in Black" the previous year "It can't be compared with the third place "Jurassic Park: The Lost World".
It can only be said that 1998 in the original timeline was a small year for movies.
This time is certainly different.
However, the current leader "Jurassic Park 3" has already exceeded 300 million in its local market and is steadily moving towards the 400 million target.
Anyway, "Saving Private Ryan" didn't do too badly.
The popular Independence Day holiday has started. In the first seven days, this war movie with high reputation and popularity has grossed US$53.46 million at the box office, easily taking the top spot at the box office in a single week.
The question this time is whether "Saving Private Ryan" can still achieve good results exceeding $200 million in North America.
The key is actually later.
In the new box office week of July 10th, Simon's gang of bad guys will land in North American theaters with a brand new "The Hangover".
Then, on July 17, there will be Warner's blockbuster "Lethal Weapon 4", and on July 24, Fox will launch the movie version of "The X-Files". Simon did not interfere with this very popular TV series. It was still taken away by Fox a few years ago, and it plans to get another one at the end of this year.
At the end of the month, on July 29, "Hero" will be released.
Speaking of which, starting this week, Simon's attention has been focused on China and the United States at the same time, because "Heroes" will be released in mainland theaters in North America on July 9 ahead of schedule.
Regarding "Heroes" in China, Simon's first concern is public opinion.
Once "Hero" was criticized as worthless after it was released in China, Zhang Guoshi was almost depressed. This time, Simon asked the media feedback during Cannes to be sent back to China to set the tone in advance. The trend of public opinion was indeed much better, and it could even be said to be reversed. .
Even if there are criticisms, they are like "the story is weak but the artistry is strong".
Not really a criticism.
Simon didn't even bother to complain about it.
If the previous "Hero" was criticized because it did not meet the taste of the Chinese people, and the reason was probably because it was specially made for foreigners, then the record-breaking 250 million yuan box office of domestic films in mainland China does not represent the attitude of the Chinese people. Or is it that only a very small number of pens can represent the attitude of the Chinese people
Now, no one is scolding, and "Titanic" has just set a box office record in mainland China in the first half of the year. Stimulated by certain emotions, Simon feels that "Heroes" has a good chance of hitting the 300 million yuan mark.
Let’s talk about North America.
Simon is certainly more focused on "The Hangover" than on "Heroes."
On the one hand, this movie is Simon's support of the bad boy gang to avoid the situation of one monopoly in the Hollywood comedy circle. On the other hand, the filming location was changed from the original Las Vegas to Atlantic City, which also promotes Simon's future. If someone wants to accept a large number of casinos and hotels, they must activate this part of the assets.
After the film had a grand premiere in Atlantic City on Wednesday, July 8, word-of-mouth was released the next day.
Even though many media realized that this was a promotional film by Simon Westeros to promote Atlantic City, and even though the film critic circle was biased against comedy movies, "The Hangover" still received an excellent media score of 7.8 points. .
One of the comments from a New York Times film critic can be said to be the most representative: "Before entering the theater, I had the lowest expectations for "The Hangover." It turned out that it brought me more laughter than I imagined. need more."
In fact, to put it bluntly, the biggest task of comedy movies is to make the audience laugh.
Even in the first half of the year, Jim Carrey's highly acclaimed "The Truman Show" not only made the audience laugh, but also triggered some thoughts. The core did not put the cart before the horse.
Judging from the feedback from the New York Times film critic and other sources, Simon is quite optimistic about "The Hangover."
The facts did not live up to Simon's expectations.
In just three days of filming, "The Hangover" easily earned a box office of US$37.29 million in its first weekend thanks to overwhelmingly positive reviews and the enthusiasm generated by Daenerys Entertainment's sparing-out marketing and promotion. It is expected that the box office will reach about 55 million US dollars in the first seven days. , which was even higher than last week’s opening performance of “Saving Private Ryan.”
With such an achievement, not to mention the outside world, even Simon himself would inevitably struggle again.
Simon's initial expectation for "The Hangover" was only to break 100 million in the country, which would be enough to promote Atlantic City. Now, it is expected to be 55 million in the first week. Unless it hits the end of the world, it is almost certain to break 100 million in the country. , even breaking 200 million is not impossible.
As it turns out, this inevitably snipes at Saving Private Ryan.
Subsequent facts also proved this.
After a full week, "The Hangover" was higher than initially expected. The final seven-day box office in the first week was 56.51 million U.S. dollars, easily recouping the 25 million U.S. dollars in production investment.
Under the impact of "The Hangover", "Saving Private Ryan" dropped 36% the next week, earning $34.21 million.
The drop still seems to be within an acceptable range, but within Daenerys Entertainment, due to its excellent reputation, it was initially predicted that the drop in the second week of "Saving Private Ryan" would probably be enough to be controlled within 30%. Only with this trend, Only then can the film reach the domestic box office of more than 200 million US dollars in Simon's memory.
Now, the drop in the second week is 36%, even if it narrows in the third week, because of a large drop, the hope of "Saving Private Ryan" to hit 200 million box office is much smaller.
If he had known earlier, Simon would definitely have moved the schedule of "The Hangover" back at least a week.
But just thinking about it.
Choosing the July 10th schedule is also the result of careful consideration. After that, we will have to pass the most popular stage of the summer season, unless we are not confident about the film or are fighting for word-of-mouth such as "Hero" and "The Horse Whisperer" Only long-term films will be on the tail end of the summer season.
In the final analysis, there are only 52 weeks in a year, and it cannot be turned into 104. With Daenerys’ entertainment ambitions, it is inevitable that she will beat herself up.
In China, the results of "Hero" are also quite impressive.
After the film opened on July 9, with the support of a series of strict anti-piracy measures such as special escorts, the film successfully earned 91 million yuan in box office within four days of its opening. As of July 16, in eight days, the cumulative box office quickly reached 139 million yuan.
It earned 139 million in the first eight days of production. In addition, Chinese films generally have a good long-term success, and the possibility of hitting 300 million in the future is very high.
Of course, even if it reaches 300 million yuan, considering the production cost of 250 million yuan, even if the theater share is raised to 40% in advance, it is impossible to make back the money. This movie will still have to be seen overseas.
This comes next.
Taking advantage of the huge sales in the first week, Jinshu launched another publicity campaign at the right time. The focus of public opinion was to compare "Titanic" with "Impact" to stimulate the public to buy tickets and enter the theater. There is no reason for Chinese movies to be better than foreign movies. Poor bala bala.
Last year's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" only had a box office of over 100 million yuan in mainland China. This time, "Hero" has exceeded 100 million yuan in the first week, and there is even hope of hitting 300 million yuan. Overseas, because of the reputation of Cannes, it can be expected, resulting in The result is to take the long-running "Chu-Han" trilogy a step further.
July 17th, a new week.
Mainly due to the release of Warner's "Lethal Weapon 4", due to the influence of Simon's big butterfly, the difference in "Lethal Weapon 4" is that Jet Lee, who serves as the villain, does not appear again. However, regardless of whether Jet Lee is involved or not, Simon is actually not too optimistic.
The point is that the old-school Hollywood action movies of the 1980s like the "Lethal Weapon" series are outdated.
Warner did not hesitate to burn 120 million US dollars in costs this time to speculate. Simon seems to be even more unwise. After all, "Lethal Weapon 3" was already 6 years ago. Six years apart, it is not the time limit for people to develop feelings for it. There are a lot of people who have almost forgotten about the Lethal Weapon series.
Of course, Simon won't worry about Warner.
Hollywood often has no choice but to stir things up, especially when the cost of film production is getting higher and higher.
Even if Daenerys entertains herself, this year is not yet a long list of "Rush Hour 2", "Jurassic Park 3" and "The Haunting of the Morgue 3". Speaking of which, this is where Daenerys Entertainment can sweep the summer. A big reason.
By the way, in South Korea, Showbox's second horror film "The Story of a High School Girl" was also released on July 17, local time. After being controlled by Hollywood movies for so many years, except for the different box office statistics, the distribution model of Korean movies is basically the same.
In fact, in addition to June's "Red Lotus" and this time's "The Strange Tale of a High School Girl", in South Korea, the film company supported by the Westeros system has released many films this year, but on the one hand Simon did not pay special attention to it, and on the other hand, On the one hand, the main reason is that I failed to make a splash.
Compared with "Rose Flowers and Red Lotus" which was adapted from a legendary Korean story that cost 3 billion won, the production cost of the original "Ghost Story of a High School Girl" is only 1 billion won. That is to say, as long as the total number of viewers in South Korea reaches one million, Seoul, South Korea in the statistics If the number of viewers in the region reaches 300,000, the cost can be recovered.
This was a historical project, and it ranked among the top ten Korean films of the year. Simon had high expectations for the success of this film.
Los Angeles.
After the last day of work of the week, Simon returned to Dume Point Manor, and Janet gave Simon a pair of surprises.
Twin sisters Gisele and Patricia Bundchen.
The girls raised in the past few years have gradually begun to mature. Because they have been strictly trained, they are basically placed close to the Westeros family. The same is true for the Giselle sisters this time.
Sister Gisele celebrated her 18th birthday on July 14th, and this time she officially joined the company.
Frankly speaking, even though he saw a pair of faces that looked exactly like the world's top supermodels in his memory, Simon didn't have much special interest.
Once upon a time the sea was vast.
He has experienced too many women of all kinds over the years, and coupled with his high status at this time, it is difficult for him to have too much lust for female stars and models like some rich men who pursue famous women to decorate themselves.
It's still the same truth. People who have obtained a doctorate can no longer be interested in the little red flowers in kindergarten.
Janet clearly remembered that her man was very special to Giselle among those girls. Now, they are no longer special, but instead worried.
Is my husband going to take an 'evil path' again
So when Simon flew to the East Coast the next day, he deliberately brought the Gisele sisters over. The two sisters had obviously been told what to do, and they started taking the initiative as soon as they got on the plane.
This time the destination was not New York, but Atlantic City.
Arriving at this gambling city on the east coast, the two sisters, who had taken the initiative to make a fuss and were subdued by Simon, got off the plane and were sent to Simon's mansion here.
Of course Simon has business on his hands.
Tonight is the final of the 1998 Elite World Model Competition, and Simon was invited by Grace to fly over specially to support it.
From "The Hangover" to the Elite Model Contest, which has been held in Atlantic City for two years, plus various other activities, it can be regarded as a complete marketing package of the Westeros system to promote Atlantic City.