After its first full week, "Fight Club" finally grossed $23.45 million at the box office in its first seven days. Although it still failed to pose a threat to "The Matrix" in its third week of release, it became the most watched movie in early August.
Then, enter the second week that determines the total box office volume of the film.
Under the increasing attention and discussion, even if the number of screening screens is still maintained at 1,263, the film's box office performance in the second week from August 13 to August 19 is still outstanding, with a single-week decline of only 17%. Another $19.46 million was collected.
In two weeks, the cumulative box office of "Fight Club" has reached 42.91 million US dollars.
When the box office for the next week was released, the New World Pictures team had to adjust its initial box office expectations of the film's US$60 million to US$80 million, because in the third week, the number of screening screens for "Fight Club" will double to 2,537.
At the same time, "The Matrix" is still the strongest film in recent times.
In the third and fourth weeks of its release at the same time as "Fight Club", "The Matrix" took in US$47.96 million and US$30.69 million respectively. About a month after it started, the cumulative box office of this sci-fi blockbuster with a reputation as a classic has already exceeded 200 million, reaching US$223.41 million.
Quite steadily moving towards the US$300 million target.
On the other hand, after Simon's fifteenth child was born, Nancy continued to cultivate on the east coast. The two Jennys quickly returned to the west coast with a group of children to end the summer vacation. study.
Los Angeles.
The time has come to late August, which is August 23rd.
on Monday.
In the new week, Simon first went to Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills today.
The merger of the three companies has been basically completed. Shirley Lansing has taken over most of the business of the new company. What we want to discuss today is some of the subsequent development matters of the new company.
Simon arrived at the studio, and Rupert Murdoch arrived at about the same time. Obviously, it is still to gain more initiative.
Simon had no objection either.
After all, initiative depends on both strength and ability. It just so happens that Murdoch is worse than Simon in both.
Therefore, there is no need for Simon to be too strong at all.
Simon has always been better at sneaking into the night with the wind, and unknowingly completed the expansion of the Westeros system, but people around him noticed that this place was already an unshakable behemoth.
Like the development of Daenerys.
The main discussion this time is the development of a series of major film projects after the merger of the three companies.
First up is the Star Wars series.
However, although Lucas messed up the first part of the Star Wars prequels, because of everyone's previous agreement, Simon had no intention of interfering with the prequel trilogy, and Lucas continued to play the last two parts.
Of course, after the prequel trilogy ends, there will be nothing more to do with Lucas.
Simon was not in a hurry.
Even if the trilogy ends, the Star Wars series will be refrigerated for a few years before being brought out. After all, feelings need to be brewed for a long time.
Secondly, there is MGM, the 007 series, and even the secret agent movie universe that Simon planned in his early days. However, progress on this plan has been slow. Three years ago, after "Spectre" and "Charlie's Angels" in 1996, Simon deliberately suppressed it. The new 007 will not be released until the end of this year, and "Charlie's Angels 2" will be scheduled for next summer. , four years apart from the first one.
After all, it was too crowded.
Moreover, Simon increasingly dislikes seeing Hollywood being full of sequels. With such a good momentum at the moment, it is the right way to develop some originals as much as possible.
However, now that the three companies have merged, at this meeting, all parties took the initiative to express the hope that the planned Agent Movie Universe plan could be accelerated.
Simon didn't object.
In addition to the new 007 film at the end of the year and "Charlie's Angels 2" next summer, this time it was agreed to launch a new agent series, yes, "The Bourne Supremacy".
The main creators have been confirmed in advance, including Paul Greengrass, who quickly rose to the top of the list through two consecutive films, "The Blair Witch Project" and "Public Enemy", and Classmate Ma Da, who will be the leading actor. But the premise of the latter is that you must agree to sign a long-term agreement, otherwise, Simon can only change people.
In fact, Simon prefers to include the "Mission: Impossible" series. Unfortunately, part of the copyright of this series is in the hands of Paramount. For this reason, Simon once again adopted a suppression strategy. After "Mission: Impossible 2", even if Paramount repeatedly urged , still suppressing the development of "Mission: Impossible 3", so that after "Mission: Impossible 2" in the summer of 1996, the third part was initially expected to be released as early as the end of 1998, but until now, there has been no sign.
In addition, the overall direction is to suppress sequels.
The current result is that Paramount has almost worn it out. No matter what Simon says, they will probably not object, and Cage, as the leading actor, will not have much objection. Because Simon is also quietly suppressing Cage to prevent the actor from having other outstanding works outside of the "Mission: Impossible" series.
Therefore, except for "Mission: Impossible", Cage's development in the 1990s was much worse than in the original time and space. Without "Mission: Impossible", it would only be a matter of time before he fell into the second or third tier.
Finally, after the Star Wars and Spyverse cinematic universes, there's Fox.
The series that Fox can produce in the past are probably a few such as "Die Hard" and "Alien". However, both series have completed the initial trilogy. The follow-up is a waste of food and a pity to abandon. That kind of thing.
In addition to the fully owned series, there are also two cooperative projects, the "Terminator" series and the "Mummy" series.
Disney originally obtained the authorization to make a "Terminator 3", investing a huge amount of money, but the result was tepid, and there are no plans to continue. The copyright is still jointly held by Fox and Daenerys. Then there is "The Mummy". Two films have been completed. According to the Hollywood trilogy curse, there is only room for one film. After that, it will probably be a pity to abandon it.
Generally speaking, Fox has been a company that has been heavily influenced by Simon's big butterfly in recent years. The popular "Home Alone" series, "Speed" series, "Day of the Alone" and even Super God-level movies were popular in the 1990s. "Titanic" originally belonged to Fox, but unfortunately it was taken away early.
If it weren't for the several collaborative projects that Simon offered, Fox's life would definitely have been even more difficult in recent years.
However, in addition to bombshells, this meeting decided to restart two series, Simon's two famous works in his early years: "Death is Here" and "The Butterfly Effect".
At first, because Simon was no longer involved in the follow-up, as the box office continued to decrease and the cost continued to increase, both series ended after completing the trilogy.
This time, Simon is back again, and it’s time to restart the two series.
After all these years, it’s time to sell some feelings.
In general, the few things that were roughly finalized at this meeting are that the Star Wars prequels will continue to be given to Lucas, and the construction of the Agent movie universe will be accelerated, and the project of "The Mummy 3" will be approved, and "Die Hard 4" and "Alien" "Series spin-offs are under consideration, and "Death Comes 4" and "Butterfly Effect 4" projects have been approved.
In fact, the most direct result of this series of actions is to bring a large number of new opportunities to Hollywood.
After the day's meeting, as the news spread, many people had already started to take action.
Rupert Murdoch currently lives in New York. Now that he has come to the West Coast, of course he will not leave immediately. In the evening, a cocktail party was specially held at the Murdoch family's mansion in Coldwater Canyon, Beverly Hills.
Simon was invited and attended as promised.
In the brightly lit mountain mansion under the darkness of night, Simon got out of the car and was greeted by Murdoch himself, accompanied by a blond white woman in her 30s who introduced her name as Linda. This was Murdoch. Simon is not sure about the specific number of his new wife.
However, she looks like a very smart woman.
While greeting the couple, Simon couldn't help but think of one thing.
This time, because of this big butterfly, a certain strange woman failed to come to Murdoch's side.
What a pity, what a pity!
That's really a strange woman. Simon didn't mean to be sarcastic at all, it was from the bottom of his heart.
What a shame.
If you can meet him, Simon will definitely help. However, after so many years of flapping the butterfly's wings, it was unknown where the strange woman was blown, and Simon would not deliberately look for it.
Speaking of which, there was another woman beside Simon who was once related to Murdoch.
Jerry Hall.
When they first met, they just wanted to have a taste, but they became long-term lovers after a few times. Therefore, the idea of pushing the other person to Murdoch's side was gradually given up and let nature take its course. Simon would never do this weird thing of pushing his own woman to another man.
After saying hello and arriving at the reception, it was inevitable that there would be another round of socializing.
Simon has always been a very conscious guest and knows not to steal the spotlight from his host, so after socializing, he hid in a corner of the terrace on the cliffside of the mansion as usual.
Naturally, there is no shortage of vases with flowing water around.
On the left is Meichen Amick, one of the three heroines of "Charlie's Angels".
Compared to Kate Beckinsale and Catherine Zeta-Jones, this big vase who is set as the femme fatale in the Angels trio is the one with the least development in recent years. She appears here tonight. On the one hand Probably because he heard the news, but on the other hand, he was obviously looking for opportunities.
On the right is Sherlyn Fenn, another Hollywood glamor vase, the famous 'box beauty'.
When saying hello, Simon joked that if the other party had come to audition, she would be more suitable for "Basic Instinct" than Linda Fiorentino.
Based on the standards of "Basic Instinct", actresses with slightly higher pursuits would hesitate.
However, because "Basic Instinct" had proved to be very successful back then, not to mention that it was Simon Westeros who said these words, Xuelin Fen suddenly looked flattered, and unknowingly became entangled with Simon.
Simon was sitting on a four-seater sofa, so Xuelin Fen squeezed in a girl named Melissa George, the former heroine of "Terror Cruise" on the right.
This was Nancy Josephson, the female president of ICM, leading several young actors over to greet Simon. The purpose was obvious. They happened to meet an 'acquaintance' like Melissa. Although she was not Simon's cup of tea, she pointed at Xuelin. The other person sat down on the empty seat next to Fen, which also caused several other young men and women to lose their temper even if they tried their best to hide it.
What Simon was more curious about was just Melissa George's age.
I remember that "Terror Cruise" was produced in 2009, but I didn't expect that this girl would have made her debut right now.
In response to Simon's inquiry, Melissa George, who looked like a little quail or pretended to be like a little quail, had no hesitation as a woman whose age was inappropriate for asking questions, and said that she was 23 years old.
A late bloomer.
However, it seems that it has never been considered a 'success'.
Simon only had this idea, and then quietly labeled "Horror Game". Such a movie would not be able to sell well in 2009, when the film and television industry was already impetuous. If it is made in advance now, the market performance will definitely be better. very good.
In addition, there was certainly no shortage of women at the party that Simon was more familiar with, such as Nicole Kidman, who was Australian and happened to be in Los Angeles recently and came to support her fellow countrymen, such as the alien girl Natasha Henstridge, such as the above Charlize Theron, the South African beauty who missed the opportunity to be the heroine of "Chicago" for the first time because Madonna agreed to Simon's conditions.
But, well, Simon prefers novelty.
The girl who came over to chat with Simon was quite new, Natalie Portman.
Frankly speaking, Simon recognized the artistic achievements of "The Killer Is Too Cold" and the outstanding performances of the actors in it, but he actually had no feelings for a certain little girl who came out of it.
Let’s talk about this time again, despite the appearance of the big butterfly Simon, a certain little girl once again got the role in "The Killer Is Not So Cold", and once again became Ami in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" Queen Darla.
The former may be due to historical inertia or luck, but the latter can only be said to take advantage of the ethnic group.
It’s well known that Natalie Portman is Jewish.
Moreover, I don’t know if anyone has discovered that there is actually a very interesting thing in Hollywood. There are many famous symbolic female characters, such as Queen Amidala in Star Wars, such as Black Widow in Marvel, and DC’s Magic The heroines and their actors are, yes, all Jewish.
Coincidence or not
Whether it's really a coincidence or not is a matter of opinion.
Simon personally doesn't think this is a coincidence.
Off topic.
Let’s talk about the Star Wars prequels. The failure of the entire series can almost be said to have started with the casting.
The performances of the original male and female protagonists, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman, in the series, to put it simply, not only did not produce any chemical reaction, but even when the two were separated, it was really difficult to make them So many impressions were made on people that this series hardly provided much help to the development of their careers in Hollywood. Even if they don't pay attention, many people will forget who played the leading actor in the prequel series.
This time too.
Although the male lead was replaced by a completely new person, the female lead remained the same, but again, it failed from the beginning of the casting.
Then again, failed casting in the Star Wars series seems to have become a tradition since the prequels. For example, in the "Star Wars 7" series that was later launched again, the male and female protagonists are even more difficult to describe.
Simon doesn't think that this series is so famous that it doesn't matter who plays the character. After all, the success of the original series is inseparable from the outstanding performance of the first generation of actors. Harrison Ford has been famous all his life because of Han Solo.
All in all, it’s hard to describe in one word.
Now that Lucasfilm has been acquired, needless to say, the prequel series is already like that, but in future reboots, Simon will not allow what happened in the past to happen again.