The last few days of 1998 flew by and time entered 1999.
While people are celebrating the New Year in Australia, Simon still inevitably pays attention to the box office situation of the year-end period in North America, because the last day of 1998 happens to be the end of a complete box office week from December 25 to December 31.
First of all, "Suicide Squad 2" remains the weekly box office champion without any suspense.
This DC movie universe super blockbuster dropped 39% in the second week, which was a pretty good trend. It earned US$77.06 million in the second week, and the cumulative box office exceeded US$200 million, reaching US$203.4 million.
The first week's box office plus the following week's trend has basically reaffirmed the total box office potential of "Suicide Squad 2" in North America at about US$350 million. It is expected to rank second among films released in 1998, second only to the summer release of "Jurassic Park 3" 》.
In addition, even though many large-scale ticket warehouses have not opened yet, in the same two weeks, the cumulative overseas box office of "Suicide Squad 2" quickly exceeded 200 million, with preliminary estimates of around 250 million US dollars.
Because overseas markets are much more complex than those in North America, the total overseas box office needs further observation, but there is no doubt that it will exceed that in North America. The total global box office of the film will definitely not be less than 700 million US dollars, and is more likely to be between 800 million and 900 million US dollars. between.
As for 1 billion, the local market has not exceeded 400 million, and the global 1 billion is not too much to hope for.
In the past year of 1998, only "Jurassic Park 3", whose global release was basically completed, exceeded 1 billion in global box office. To be precise, it was US$406 million in North America, US$737 million overseas, and US$1.143 billion globally.
Such a result, if Simon hadn't finalized it himself, even if the series had been announced to the public in advance that the series was temporarily over, Daenerys would still hope for another Jurassic Park 456.
Simon had no intention of changing his mind.
Mainly to ensure Hollywood's creativity. At least, even Hollywood cannot escape the cycle of boom and bust. If you shoot more non-sequel originals in the current prosperous years, you will have more money to rest on in the future.
Second place went to "My Best Friend's Wedding" quite unexpectedly.
The romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts took in $23.62 million in its first week.
Compared with the box office queen-level appeal of the original movie in the 1990s, the current results are somewhat unsatisfactory.
However, considering the medium production cost of the film of US$35 million, even if the publicity and distribution of US$15 million is added, the total investment will reach US$50 million. With such a start, after the global release, the pressure to return the money will not be too great. Perhaps in You can still make a small profit in the theater stage.
After all, with the continuous development of channels surrounding Hollywood movies, the revenue of the next movie from the three major channels of theaters, video and television is roughly the same. Therefore, if we do not consider the long time cost of follow-up channels that may take several years to operate, purely on paper, as long as a movie can recover one-third of the investment in the theater channel, it can basically be achieved after the subsequent operation of the two major channels. break even.
Of course, the problem happens to be the cost of time.
For example, if the same US$100 million is invested in other channels, it can obtain a return of 15% every year. In three years, when the compound interest rolls off, it can double by 1.5 times, reaching US$150 million.
If you invest in movies, in the same three years, in a cycle where the three major channels of theaters, video and television can be fully operated, as a result, only a break-even is achieved, and the return is still 100 million US dollars, which is actually a loss. , it is even better to just deposit the money in the bank and earn interest.
This is also the reason why Hollywood studios care most about the first stage of theatrical distribution.
After all, most studios do not spend their own money to produce movies, but often obtain financing from various financial investment institutions, a large part of which is debt financing that requires interest payments.
Therefore, if the cost can be recovered at the theater stage and the loan from the financial institution is repaid directly, the income from subsequent channels will be the net profit.
As for Carlock Company, which was very active in Hollywood in the past few years and has now gone silent due to the influence of Simon the Big Butterfly, it is the production company that invested in blockbuster films such as "Terminator 2" and "Instinct" in the original time and space. Even more advanced, most of the distribution rights were sold through capital operations during the film's preparation stage in order to collect funds as soon as possible.
It’s just that the comprehensive income from doing so must be very low.
All this is because the studio simply cannot afford the time cost.
If we can break through this limitation, form an omni-channel self-circulation, and keep the benefits within our own system to the greatest extent, we will undoubtedly be able to maximize the benefits of a project.
In today's Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment is the company that has most vividly realized this.
Because Daenerys is large enough and powerful enough, first of all, from the film production stage, Daenerys Entertainment does not need to rely on external capital, which directly avoids a large amount of interest expenses. Secondly, in the issuance stage, because there is no need to rush to sell off the issuance rights of various channels for cash flow considerations, it is like cultivating a field and can be cultivated as intensively as possible to achieve maximum output.
Eventually a virtuous cycle is formed.
In the 1990s, traditional Hollywood studios merged and consolidated one after another to expand their own strength and achieve diversification. To a large extent, this was also to achieve the goal of a virtuous cycle that could ultimately maximize profits.
Back to the box office.
The third place is still "Scary" produced by Daenerys Entertainment. It has entered its third week of release. With a single-week decline of 38%, it once again made 20.34 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative box office reached 108.73 million U.S. dollars, successfully crossing the border. Entering the 100 million yuan box office club.
The industry can only envy and sigh for this spoof comedy, which was a spoof of "Scream" and was surprisingly successful in selling emotions.
Can't learn.
Just like the second place "My Best Friend's Wedding", and this movie, in addition to the movie itself and some sentimental gimmicks, on the other hand, there is a very important reason for the relative success of the two movies. , or Daenerys Entertainment itself is simply too strong.
With the advantages that Daenerys Entertainment has accumulated in various aspects such as media and theaters, coupled with the many resources possessed by the entire Westeros system, it will be possible to add another dimension to Daenerys' films without realizing it. An aura of gain that studios can’t match.
Just like publicity.
The promotion of a movie is ultimately about seeking exposure so that more people can know about the movie before it is released and accumulate as many potential audiences as possible.
In this regard, in addition to the national ABC television network, the rapidly emerging Internet platform is also completely open to Daenerys. As for the print media, although she does not have many print media resources, Daenerys has very good relationships with companies with strong print media capabilities such as News Corporation and Time Warner.
The result is that for the same 10 million US dollars in publicity expenditures, other studios may only be able to achieve 10 million US dollars in publicity results, but Daenerys Entertainment can expand it to 20 million or even 30 million US dollars.
Speaking of this, we can actually refer to Hollywood in the original time and space.
In the end, the big studios that can thrive, whether it is Disney, Warner or Universal, basically have their own television assets that can provide a broad marketing platform for the film business.
As for Viacom, which owned CBS but later played a good hand to pieces, Redstone, who never delegated power except for his own poor performance, became the biggest obstacle to Viacom's development. Another point is that the Redstone family Internal strife led to Viacom being effectively split up, with film and television theaters and other businesses going their own way. The result is that at the beginning of the new century, Paramount, which was quite powerful with "Transformers", "Mission: Impossible", DreamWorks Animation and even Marvel Studios, which could have easily taken over it, has not only fallen to six At the bottom of the pile, he almost had to sell himself to survive.
By the way, it was almost sold to a Chinese company.
By the way, it didn't sell in the end because something happened to the Chinese company, so I had to hang on half-dead and eat some of the money from "Mission: Impossible" and "Transformers". Later, the "Transformers" series was ruined, so I had no choice but to I honestly worked for Tom Cruise, who had been fired because of his arrogance and then shamefully invited back.
Compare this to the truly arrogant Di Bao.
If you say I'm too controlling and don't give the director creative space, then you go.
So the taillights went away.
Then the scandal of Taillight's cheating on the set many years ago broke out.
So Taillight tricked himself through "Justice League".
Compare it to Paramount.
Mr. Pei, you are mighty, Mr. Pei, you are domineering, Mr. Pei, you can play whatever you want, Mr. Pei, you can make whatever you want, so Mr. Pei killed the most profitable "Transformers" series, slapped his butt, went to the big assembly line dog, and continued to take it. With a large amount of money, they can make money at will, leaving a certain unlucky owner who can only seek to sell himself to survive.
And then.
Back to the above, by the way.
Let’s talk about the box office.
The fourth place finally had nothing to do with Daenerys Entertainment and fell to Disney's "Jojan".
This blockbuster combines the characteristics of films such as "Out of Africa", "King Kong" and "Jurassic Park", with a production cost of US$90 million. Unfortunately, it failed to gain the popularity of the three films it borrowed from, and started to In the first seven days of the film, the final box office was only 20.02 million US dollars.
If it were some other low- to medium-cost films, the $20.02 million in the first week would not be considered a failure, but if it falls on "Joyan", it will undoubtedly be a job that can disappoint the executives of Disney and its parent company Vivendi. A result of kicking the table.
After all, with 20.02 million US dollars in the first week, the film's North American domestic sales can only be set at around 50 million US dollars.
Counting the whole world, even if the total box office of the entire theater stage can reach more than 100 million, compared with the huge production cost of 90 million US dollars and the equally expensive investment in publicity and distribution, it will only face a huge loss.
Even if other channels are fully operational in subsequent years, the entire budget may not be recovered.
When it was ambitious to win over Disney, which can be regarded as the representative of American culture, France's Vivendi was once complacent. However, after two or three years of hard work, there has not yet been a blockbuster film that can even support Vivendi.
As some of you may have figured out, Hollywood isn't all that fun.
As for when we will have the enlightenment and be ready to pack up and leave like many of those who come to Hollywood, no one is in a hurry.
Fifth place went to MGM's "The Perfect Murder."
Michael Douglas continues his style of crime thrillers, which brought MGM a box office of 16.34 million US dollars in the first seven days. Whether it is word-of-mouth or box office, it is not as good as the """ that made Douglas fall into a similar genre 10 years ago and found it difficult to extricate himself. "Fatal Attraction".
Fortunately, the production cost of the film is only US$35 million, and it is expected to earn US$40 million to US$50 million at the local box office. Plus overseas, there is still some hope of achieving breakeven at the theater stage.
Outside of the top five, only films related to Daenerys Entertainment are mentioned:
"The Mummy 2" grossed US$10.01 million in its sixth week, bringing the cumulative box office to US$198.78 million, which is about to exceed US$200 million. The local box office is expected to be between US$220 million and US$230 million.
"Collision" earned US$8.86 million in its seventh week, bringing its cumulative box office to US$243.37 million. The local box office is expected to be between US$260 million and US$270 million.
"Gangs of New York" earned US$2.01 million in its seventh week, bringing the cumulative box office to US$73.82 million. There is little chance of the domestic box office breaking US$80 million.
Then there's "Elizabeth," which was released before the Christmas season as an award-winning film.
After three consecutive weeks of small-scale screenings, it avoided the direct impact of "Suicide Squad 2" and relied on Golden Globe nominations to increase the number of screens to 506 in the new week of December 25. After a larger-scale screening, the box office of "Elizabeth" in the latest week The final revenue was US$6.93 million, and the museum average reached US$13,700.
The cumulative box office in the four weeks was US$10.71 million, successfully exceeding 10 million US dollars.
Obviously, this is actually just the beginning.
As Daenerys Entertainment’s operational focus during this year’s awards season, even though the Oscars this year may discriminate against Daenerys Entertainment’s films due to last year’s overwhelming victory at the Oscars, until the Oscars , it will not be a problem for "Elizabeth" to follow a box office curve similar to that of "Shakespeare in Love".
Furthermore, during this year’s awards season, Simon has no intention of tempering his talents, as can be seen from the nominations for this year’s Golden Globe Awards.
Therefore, even if it is not certain to win the Oscar this time, it is still 70-80% certain.
The ultimate goal is to push "Elizabeth" to exceed 100 million locally, and after winning the highest Oscar award, the world will reap another wave of awards.
In any case, for a literary film with a production cost of only US$25 million, judging from the current beginning, "Elizabeth" is bound to achieve a pretty good success.
After the North American schedule officially ended at the end of 1998, Simon did not stay in Melbourne for too long in Australia.
On January 3, before the weekend after New Year's Day ended, Simon left Australia ahead of the women and children. After all, he had been away for a month, and there was really too much work accumulated in North America that Simon needed to deal with.
The two Jennys and a group of little guys will continue to live in Melbourne for a while.
Moreover, the return date will be staggered as much as possible. In fact, Simon left first and this was also considered. Again, be cautious and you will never go wrong.