East Hampton, Long Island.
After finishing work yesterday, I came here in the evening to watch a group of girls dancing, and stayed overnight at a nearby manor. It always reminded Simon of a group of women with the words "it's not early to go to court".
Unknowingly, another winter has arrived, and the first snow has recently fallen on Changdao. Standing outdoors, because of the vast land and sparsely populated areas, it is easy for people to feel that the sky is vast and everything is vast.
It’s inevitable to get up a little late.
Reflecting on the outdoor snow scene, he walked around the manor and returned to the restaurant in the villa. As soon as he sat down, a woman walked in along with the waitress who brought the food. Simon was flipping through a box office report for the past weekend. Seeing the woman approaching, he raised his head and took a look. It was Yu Zhijin, the sister of the mulberry collector. The woman's face was rosy, but she looked timid.
Simon didn't motion for her to sit down with him, but just asked: "What's the matter?"
Yu Zhijin glanced at the maid next to him, and waited until they put down their breakfast and left, then said softly: "Mr. Westeros, I, I want to go to Canada to see my son."
Simon nodded: "Yes."
The woman blinked and asked, "Mr. Westeros, did you agree?"
"Well," Simon nodded again: "Let's go out."
After receiving the confirmation from Simon, Yu Zhijin looked a little happy, and then thought of something again, and said with a gloomy expression: "Mr. Westeros, you, I mean, Miss Chen, she may not agree, can you talk to her?" Talk about it.”
Simon frowned slightly, raised his head and glanced at the woman beside him, raised his hand and patted her knee: "Come here."
Yu Zhijin immediately knew that he was talking too much and did not dare to resist. He stepped forward carefully and was immediately hugged by the man on his lap. Then he continued to silently flip through the information in his hand that was full of English and numbers. He also picked up the tableware and ate slowly. She could only shrink down as much as possible so as not to hinder him.
I haven’t had breakfast yet, so I’m inevitably a little hungry.
Simon ate a few pieces of lamb chops, took a sip of warm milk from the cup next to him, and then remembered something and asked the woman with the alluring fragrance in his arms: "How old is your son?"
Yu Zhijin swallowed his saliva. Hearing this question, he felt inexplicably guilty. He paused and then said: "Ten...seventeen years old."
Simon seemed to remember: "Xiaoqing said, do you have two sons?"
Yu Zhijin felt even more guilty and nodded slightly.
Simon didn't let her go: "Where's the other one?"
Yu Zhijin hesitated for a moment, not daring to lie, but whispered: "Twenty-three."
Simon shook his head: "They are adults and not children. Why are you going to see them? Can't they take care of themselves?"
The woman's eyes suddenly became red and pitiful. She turned her head and looked at Simon pleadingly: "Mr. Westeros, please, Xiaoguang and Xiaoyi, they have never traveled far before, this time... please." "
Simon saw the woman start to shed tears, and because he was in a good mood, he gave it a try and said, "Okay, go ahead. Xiaoqing also said it was me who said it."
The woman immediately turned from sadness to joy, and turned around in Simon's arms: "Thank you, Mr. Westeros."
Simon turned his face slightly: "Is it just a verbal thank you?"
The woman's tears hadn't dissipated yet, and she turned shy again, but she still came over and kissed Simon on the face.
Simon smiled and gestured to the large dining table: "Climb up and put on my favorite pose."
The woman still obeyed obediently.
Simon turned a page of the document in his hand, looked up, shook his head and said, "Turn around, face me... very good."
With the addition of a beautiful and charming beauty, breakfast will be more enjoyable.
Forcibly resisting the idea of staying one more day, Simon set off to fly back to the west coast after breakfast.
This is November 8, 1999.
on Monday.
Because the competition for this year-end schedule is too fierce, the Thanksgiving schedule in North America started last Friday. During breakfast, Simon looked through the official North American box office data for the past weekend.
Three days ago, on November 5th, "Everest" started filming in China. At the same time, a total of four new films were released in North America, one of which was from Daenerys Entertainment's Gaomen Pictures, Anthony... Minghella directs new film, "The Talented Mr. Ripley."
After Simon was only willing to give a budget of 30 million US dollars, the creative team failed to invite Ma Da to participate. The two male protagonists of the new version, one is still the original Jude Law, and the other plays the protagonist of Ripley. In the end, Identified as Christian Bale, the former Nolan version of 'Batman'.
Christian Bale is a child star. He starred in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" very early. He is only 25 years old this year, but he already has more than ten years of acting experience. Although he has always been considered a second-tier actor, The acting is absolutely outstanding, and Bale's level of professionalism is well known.
Just this time, because the image differences between Bell and Jude are quite big, in order to adapt to the setting of the story, Bell, who has an awl face, not only gained a certain amount of weight, but also wore a special So much so that when the character was being finalized, and with the cooperation of Jude Law, who was also aroused the desire to act, Simon didn't recognize who was who at a glance, only feeling that the two male protagonists looked really alike.
In addition to the two male protagonists, the role of the heroine, which once belonged to Gwyneth Paltrow, naturally fell to Vanessa Johnson this time.
The final film effect is obviously better than before.
In the original version of Damon, Ma Da really doesn't look like a highly intelligent liar. After all, he is more suitable to play the role of Ryan who is saved by others. Well, he is just not very smart. The result is that throughout the film, watching classmate Ma Da change his identity and shuttle between different groups of people, he is not at all as comfortable as he should be. Instead, he is clumsy and embarrassing everywhere.
This time, it was Bell who replaced him. Simon was immediately impressed by the dailies during the filming process. Bell's acting skills and thorough commitment blew up the motor. Ira Do, the president of Gaomen Films, who was watching the dailies together at the time. Ichiman directly stated that this time he could at least get Bale an Oscar nomination.
The premiere was held on November 3 ahead of schedule, and the word-of-mouth ban was lifted the next day. Compared with Minghella's last film "The English Patient" which had a comprehensive media score of 8.5, this time "The Talented Mr. Ripley" received a classic rating of 9.2. Among them, Bale's performance was specially mentioned by most film critics, which obviously added a lot to this excellent score.
With the support of good word-of-mouth, coupled with the strong promotion of Daenerys Entertainment, and the wide popularity of the original novel itself in the West, "The Genius Rip" attracted 2,746 screens during its opening weekend, and four new films competed at the same time. "Lee" quickly earned a box office of US$21.45 million in three days.
It failed to reach the blockbuster-level average of US$10,000 in the first weekend, but it is definitely no problem in seven days. Moreover, this is already the best result of the four new films this week, not only surpassing the other three new films this week, but also replacing "The Nun", which was released for Halloween last week, topped the weekend box office list.
It is expected that the box office of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" will reach approximately US$32 million in its first week.
The former "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was Miramax's key award-winning film in 1999. It grossed more than 80 million U.S. dollars at the local box office. This time, even if the competition at the end of the year is fierce, the new version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" started like this. "Ripley" still has no problem reaching the $80 million box office level.
Moreover, the original version failed at the Oscars and its overseas box office was very average.
This time, although Daenerys’s focus is on the Christmas release of “Chicago,” even if it does not rely on awards, but only on the quality of the film itself and Daenerys’ perfect overseas distribution network, Simon believes that this new version will be at least as popular overseas. It can also achieve box office results that are comparable to local ones.
Then, there was a complete box office week from November 5th to November 11th, with no surprises.
The well-received "The Talented Mr. Ripley" successfully reached the top spot. For seven days a week, this crime drama, which cost US$30 million to produce and only had US$10 million in promotional expenses, opened with a box office of US$32.79 million, successfully taking over the weekly box office list. Single first place position.
The second place was taken by last week's The Conjuring movie universe's latest branch, "The Nun," which took in another $30.98 million the following week. In two weeks, the cumulative box office is 87.33 million U.S. dollars, and it is expected to exceed 100 million next week.
In addition to the two self-produced films, the third place is an animated film produced by Disney. It is not an old-fashioned Disney fairy tale, but an animated film adapted from the classic game in cooperation with Japan's Nintendo, "Pokémon".
With the same cost of US$30 million, the box office of this animated film reached US$19.14 million in its first week, ranking third this week.
Then, the fourth place was taken back by Daenerys. The American version of "The High School Girl" continued to earn US$8.37 million in its third week of release, bringing the film's cumulative box office to US$51.73 million.
The other two new films released on November 5th, one from Paramount and one from Fox, ranked fifth and sixth respectively. However, one only had a box office of US$7.46 million and the other only US$6.83 million at the beginning. Basically, they were eliminated in two weeks. The results are not worth mentioning.
Immediately afterwards.
On November 12, dinner came.
This week there is one less large-scale release film with more than 1,000 screens compared to last week, but each one is larger than the last.
The first is another 3D animated film produced by Daenerys Entertainment, "Cars". The production cost of the film reached 100 million U.S. dollars. Daenerys and many peripheral manufacturers cooperated, and the joint publicity and distribution resources invested were equivalent to 50 million US dollars is a big deal. Hasbro, which has been officially included in the Daenerys system, also made a big bet this time and rolled out a full set of peripheral toys related to this animated movie on a large scale in advance.
The film opens on 3,041 screens.
It’s not too high, because animated movies are pursuing a long-term goal. As long as the reputation is not too bad, they can go all the way through two year-end schedules.
Then, MGM's latest 007 masterpiece still followed the naming pattern of the 007 series, and with a little intervention from Simon, this time it was "Casino Royale", which is the same as the previous one "Spectre" , compared to before, the order is disrupted.
The film tells the story of James Bond's further pursuit of the truth after the Specter appeared in the last movie. It is based on the previous "Casino Royale" to a certain extent, but it also has considerable changes.
At the same time, compared with the previous 007's cost of US$75 million, the budget of this "007: Casino Royale" has reached a new high, reaching US$90 million. MGM invested a promotional budget of US$50 million for the film, and opened 3,776 screens.
The third film comes from Columbia Pictures, which is currently affiliated with Westinghouse Electric, and it happens to have some 'relationship' with Simon. It was the "Air Force One" that Simon quietly asked Chris Lee to reject.
Because of Simon's optimism, although there was no longer a tacit agreement to involve Daenerys, they still boldly invested a budget of 80 million U.S. dollars. Reached 3563 yuan.
Three new films, three super blockbuster bombs, considering that next week is "Cyborg 2", you can imagine how various Hollywood studios feel about this kind of crowded schedule.