The next day is November 13th.
Friday.
The 1998 North American Thanksgiving season has officially opened. Not to mention some on-demand movies, there are four mainstream commercial movies with openings of more than 1,000 yuan on the same day. The most watched of them is naturally "The World" produced by Daenerys Entertainment. Collision".
Roland Emmerich, the project director, has come a long way from the DC movie universe. Not only has he developed his own reputation, but also proved his ability outside the DC movie universe through the super hit "Day of the Alone" last year. Therefore, this film "Heaven and Earth" has become the focus of movie fans since its inception.
In addition, the collision of comets with the earth has also been a very hot social topic in recent years. The theme of "Collision" is right in line with current events.
Although the project plan was finalized before "Days of Independence", which prevented Roland Emmerich from offering too high salary and production conditions, the film ultimately burned through a budget of US$120 million, which was not only far higher than the previous budget The US$75 million for Ryder's version is also one-third higher than the US$90 million for "One Day" last year.
At the same time, the film's publicity expenses also reached 60 million US dollars.
It can be said that, just like the summer release of "Jurassic Park 3", as Daenerys Entertainment's super blockbuster at the end of the year, "Collision" will not be considered a success if the domestic box office exceeds 200 million US dollars, but 300 million US dollars is the goal.
The premiere was held on Thursday night the day before, and today the word-of-mouth ban was lifted.
Compared with the original version, except for a general idea and gimmicks such as Morgan Freeman playing the first black president on screen, the film is completely different from the original film, more Emmerich-style, and the level of special effects has also been significantly upgraded. . The final comprehensive media score of 8.3 made the audience have no scruples about entering the theater to watch this movie.
Not only that, the film's opening screen number of 4,316 is the highest for this year-end period, which is larger than the new DC movie universe "Suicide Squad 2" scheduled for Christmas next month.
In short, although there were four mainstream films competing in the same period, "Collision" basically took away more than 70% of the public's attention.
The other 30%, worth mentioning, is "Gangs of New York" directed by Martin Scorsese and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis.
This is the last of a series of collaborative films that Simon launched with MGM starting with "Alien". The first four films, "Alien", "Alien 2", "Contact" and "Day of the Alone" all achieved good results. Among them, "Days of Independence" was so successful that Daenerys and her team couldn't help but wonder if their boss had a mental problem and handed over such a good project to others.
The last film "Gangs of New York" naturally attracted much attention.
Martin Scorsese had the idea of shooting this movie in the 1970s. The project had been circulating in the circle for a long time, and there were many reports of the project being approved, but nothing happened until Simon took action.
The main thing is that the opportunity is right.
In addition to the gimmicks that Martin has been preparing for many years, it was mainly because of DiCaprio, who had just reached the peak of his popularity with the success of "Titanic", that the project also signed an agreement in advance, and successfully promoted this cooperation with only a salary of 5 million US dollars at that time. Now, for the same project, Xiao Lizi will definitely get a maximum salary of 15 million, and there may be a share agreement.
For this alone, all parties familiar with the situation will once again lament Simon's vision.
The project was successfully completed with only US$65 million, which was far lower than the previous US$100 million, which was also attributed to Simon's careful calculation.
The premiere of "Collision" was held one day ahead of schedule on the previous Wednesday. As the first starring film of DiCaprio after "Titanic", well, a cameo of just a few minutes in September was also promoted as a gimmick. Of course, Woody Allen's new film "Celebrity", which is very effective, is not included. In short, the Chinese Theater where the premiere was held was packed with people and it was very lively.
There are of course unsatisfactory aspects.
The word-of-mouth ban was released on the second day of the premiere. Although it received some praises such as "Martin Scorsese's "Les Misérables"", the overall media reputation was still somewhat unsatisfactory, with a comprehensive media score of only 7.3 point. The main criticism is that the story is too weak and cannot support the ambition of an epic film.
In any case, as originally expected, bringing in Li Zizi saved at least 50 million in the publicity budget. Now the film is definitely not lacking in popularity, even if it can only be released on November 13 due to the tight schedule at the end of the year. Competing with "Collision", MGM estimates that the worldwide distribution will be completed, and the global box office recovery of 200 million should not be a big problem. This will basically achieve break-even, and subsequent channels will have good profits.
Furthermore, although it cannot be compared with "Collision", MGM also arranged 2,734 opening screens.
There are two other films in the same period, one is "Total Siege" starring Denzel Washington and starring Denzel Washington, which tells the story of counter-terrorism in New York. It cost US$50 million and opened on 2,381 screens. The other one is the romance film "A Date of Life" produced by Disney, directed by Martin Brest, the director of "Scent of a Woman", and inviting "Superman" Brad Pitt. It cost 35 million US dollars and opened on several screens. 3103 yuan.
It is obvious that this is a very crowded period.
In the past, with a super blockbuster like "Collision", let alone four mainstream films, there might not be a single competitor at the same time.
The problem is actually very simple.
Or involution.
Let’s talk about the next two major schedules. In addition to the opening and finale of “The Mummy”, next, in the new week of November 20th, there will be “The Mummy 2”, a collaborative project between Fox and Daenerys, and Baige Wu teamed up with Paramount to burn the $100 million "U.S. Marshal".
In addition, Daenerys's New World Pictures produces the seemingly less eye-catching Adam Sandler latest comedy "Tea Boy." However, the original domestic box office of this comedy was 160 million US dollars. Under the current situation, Simon's expectation this time is only to exceed 100 million US dollars.
It doesn’t matter if it can’t be broken.
Because the packaging agreement was signed in advance, although Sandler's "The Wedding Singer" cost $18 million last year and sold 80 million locally, the cost of "Tea Boy" was still controlled at $25 million, so the pressure is far lower Two blockbusters released on the same day.
Later, Christmas time.
Not to mention other projects related to Daenerys Entertainment. In the four weeks starting from December 4, they will also be rolled out all the way. They will focus on this year's Oscar-winning "Elizabeth" and the spoof horror comedy "Shocking" produced by New World Pictures. "Scream", another new work in the DC cinematic universe "Suicide Squad 2" and the romantic comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding" starring Julia Roberts.
Among them, only "Suicide Squad 2" made other blockbusters want to subconsciously avoid it.
After all, even though it is highly anticipated, "Collision" is only an original film, while "Suicide Squad 2" has the popularity of the entire DC movie universe that has lasted for ten years. "Collision" wants to hit the domestic 300 million mark, which is very suspenseful. "Suicide Squad 2", based on the first domestic result of 303 million, the chance of breaking through again is more than 80%.
In short, at the end of this year, everywhere is crowded.
Of course there are no options.
Put it off until next year.
However, filmmakers who are a little more keen can feel the change in strategy of Daenerys Entertainment.
It will only be more crowded next year.
The heads of various studios even understood Simon's intentions. Daenerys did this to suppress other studios from continuously cutting film production. After all, if you don't make movies, you don't have to squeeze in, let alone worry about it. The final result of the risk reduction is that the former first-line companies will become second-line companies, and the second-line companies will become third-line companies. Those outside the third-line companies will probably have no choice but to close their doors.
The end result is that only Daenerys Entertainment is left, forming a more oligarchic structure than the current one.