Simon returned to Los Angeles. Due to the time difference, it was still February 13th on the east coast of the United States.
The 2000 Valentine's Day schedule has already opened on February 11th. On Daenerys' side, in addition to Lena Kane and Annika Settle, two women who Simon is particularly concerned about, are responsible for the new version of "I". "Mad About Mary", and on the same day there was another romantic film "Embrace the Dawn" starring American sweet girl Meg Ryan. And, the week before, on February 4, there was also a crime action film "The Last Strike" produced by New Line Cinema and starring veteran Hollywood action man Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Among them, the production cost of "Back Strike" was US$25 million. It is a Hollywood-famous tough guy and beautiful girl drag racing gun battle, but it has a very good reputation. The comprehensive media score reached 8.1 points. In the first week from February 4th to February 10th, it earned US$26.83 million. box office, and thus got off to a good start and successfully entered the competition for the Valentine's Day period.
Let's talk about "Embrace the Dawn". Compared with "Crazy About Mary", which is just a low-brow comedy type with a little love veneer, Meg Ryan's new work is a very orthodox romance film, telling the story of a pair who suffer from the same disease in their own past. A romantic story about a Manhattan man and woman with insomnia who unexpectedly meet each other and then get to know each other and heal each other. Daenerys released it with a production cost of 30 million U.S. dollars. It premiered in advance and received average reviews, with a comprehensive media score of 7.3.
However, because the song "Embrace the Dawn" with the same name as the film's title track is unexpectedly very popular, the film also shows good market prospects.
Finally, there is "Mad About Mary", which cost only 16 million US dollars to produce. It was the lowest budget among the three Daenerys films in the same period. Moreover, the reputation was lifted after the premiere, with a comprehensive media score of 6.3, which is also the lowest reputation. part of.
This makes the publicity team of New World Pictures a little worried. After all, because of Simon's special attention, the distribution of this film is also the strongest. If it fails, of course it will not break the bones. It is just the performance of this lover's film. Compared with the other two brother brands, it may be a bit ugly.
Subsequent facts once again proved Daenerys' current dominance in Hollywood, a kind of strength that even her own team is often uncomfortable with.
With the three-day weekend and the four-day hit on Monday, February 14th, and the box office week from February 11th to February 17th, the single-week box office volume of the North American film market hit a new high since the beginning of 2000. to $160 million.
Among them, the three movies of Daenerys Entertainment directly occupied the top three.
At the top of the list is the most worrisome "Mad About Mary," a vulgar spoof comedy that is inferior to Daenerys's other two films in terms of cost and reputation. "American Pie," which was billed as an adult film during the promotion stage, has started to Seven Days of Painting ultimately grossed US$39.12 million at the box office.
What a surprise.
Even though there is Jennifer Aniston who is also an American sweet sister from "Friends", but this obvious "Saturday Night Live" joke style, well, for many viewers who don't like it, why can it open for a week? It grossed close to 40 million US dollars at the box office, which is simply unreasonable.
However, for some people familiar with the current Hollywood landscape, it makes sense.
Because in today’s Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment’s advantages are all-round.
For example, in the production process, Daenerys can more easily attract the best filmmakers to join at a relatively low cost, just like Jennifer Aniston this time. Even if "Friends" has ended, the call of "Rachel" Under normal circumstances, a small-cost production of US$16 million cannot absorb the power. However, because of Daenerys, 'Rachel' joined.
Let’s talk about publicity. With the media resources currently controlled by Daenerys and even the entire Westeros system, it is easy to amplify the effect to 5 million or even 10 million as long as it is done properly and the film under its own company has a publicity cost of 1 million.
In comparison, even if the same old Hollywood studios, such as Paramount or Disney, which are currently weak, spend 10 million on promotions, the best result is only 10 million. Once they confront Daenerys, With a little manipulation here, 10 million will shrink to 5 million or even lower in the blink of an eye.
Finally, regarding distribution, even if most theaters in the United States are operating independently at this stage, unless they do not want to get more copies of popular films from Daenerys, for all the movies produced by Daenerys Entertainment For the film, major theaters must provide the highest quality screening rooms and the most prime film schedules, and even more posters of Daenerys' films must be posted in the theater halls.
All the results are very simple, one waxes and wanes.
This time "I'm Crazy About Mary" is another confirmation of the results. Then, perhaps in other studios, even if it accidentally meets the audience's taste, the box office volume in the first week will only be about 20 to 30 million. Under Daenerys' all-round strong promotion, it directly soared to nearly 4,000 million box office.
Immediately afterwards, the same is true for "Embrace the Dawn", which ranked second on the list.
Since "Sleepless in Seattle", Meg Ryan has been somewhat tepid in recent years. In addition, the rise of super blockbusters has squeezed the living space of other types of films, and the popularity of Meg Ryan has been declining significantly. The purpose of cooperating with Daenerys again this time is to maintain her precarious position in the film industry. Therefore, Meg Ryan has been very concerned about it from the early preparations to the recent announcement.
The movie's results did not disappoint Mei Tian.
In its first week, "Embrace the Dawn" earned a box office of US$36.45 million, second only to "Crazy About Mary", surpassing its own production cost of US$30 million in one fell swoop.
Moreover, considering that the genre of the film is likely to last longer than the more popcorn-worthy "About Mary", and that there will be no strong competitors until Easter, "Embrace the Dawn" will achieve reverse results in the follow-up It is not impossible to break into the 100 million yuan box office club.
Then, third on the list is New Line Cinema's "The Last Strike."
In the second week of its release, due to the Valentine's Day schedule, even though it is also an action movie with strong popcorn attributes, "The Last Strike" still achieved a very good 29% decline, continuing to earn 18.93 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative box office reached 45.76 million U.S. dollars, which has basically recovered the production cost of 25 million U.S. dollars.
The local box office is expected to be around US$70 million, allowing New Line to recoup all its investment and enter a profit cycle just through local theater distribution.
Continuing on, fourth on the list is a stark contrast.
"Paris Bride" is also a romantic comedy produced by Paramount. The heroine is Julia Roberts, who just once again proved her appeal in romantic films through "My Best Friend's Wedding" a year ago. The male protagonist is Invited the "Dude" Jeff Bridges, who will definitely look handsome as long as he takes care of himself and controls his figure. In that year's "The Baker Brothers", all the men were staring at Michelle Pfeiffer. Women will definitely not forget Bridges. Moreover, just looking at the title of the film, the story takes place in the romantic city of Paris, which obviously has a natural attraction for Valentine's Day lovers.
In addition, the production cost of 35 million US dollars is higher than the three Daenerys films, and its reputation is not bad, with a comprehensive media score of 7.6. As a result, "A Parisian Bride" only earned US$16.53 million at the box office in its first week, which was not even as good as New Line's Jean-Claude Van Damme action film "The Last Strike" which was released the following week.
Why
Just looking at the comparison of screens, the first place "Crazy About Mary" has 3,265 screens, while Paramount, which concentrated on releasing only this one film during the same period, only got 2,127 screens, so it can be seen.
Los Angeles, Point Dume Estate.
After the warm Valentine's Day, for Simon, it was his 32nd birthday on February 22.
I decided in advance to keep things simple and only invite close relatives and friends. After the list was finalized, it still reached the level of hundreds of people. Therefore, this night in Shell Villa was still lively.
In the lobby of Shell Villa.
Simon patiently socialized all the way and came to a sofa next to the glass curtain wall facing the sea. Several women were sitting around teasing the little one in Nancy Brill's arms. In the blink of an eye, Alex Wei, who was already half a year old, Stroll grew up very quickly. He was no longer the 'little mouse' he was teased by Janet at first. He was as chubby as a doll and everyone wanted to pinch him when he saw him.
What makes Nancy a little regretful is that after all the hard work, the small female executive still failed to discover that her son may have genius attributes similar to Seattle's. It has been six months since he was born, and he still can only pronounce "um". It's considered a normal level for young children.
After greeting several women, there was no room here, and no one was willing to give up his seat. Simon casually sat down on the arm of the sofa next to Kathryn Bigelow, and handed the red wine in his hand to the other side. On the single sofa, Sofia Faisy, who had come to North America for the ongoing New York Fashion Week, leaned on the back of the sofa and leaned towards the woman who was obviously interested in the little guy in Nancy's arms, smiling. He asked in a low voice: "Are you envious?"
"Yes," Catherine, who was accustomed to sitting upright, just turned her head slightly, looked at Simon, and responded softly and directly: "But, I already have two godsons, Mel and Nick, they are mine. child, so don’t think about anything.”
Simon just smiled, looking at Catherine's delicate face that had hardly changed over the years, feeling the faint feminine fragrance, and continued softly: "What am I thinking?"
Catherine rolled her eyes at the little man next to her, but as she looked at the face that was close to her that seemed to have changed little over the years, she suddenly felt something inexplicable, so that he came over and kissed her on the forehead without even avoiding it. , just scolded again, glanced at Janet who was still socializing with Amy Pascal in the crowd not far away, her voice became softer, with nostalgia, in fact, she wanted to raise her hand to touch the little man's face, but restrained herself , said: "I never thought that the little boy who rode the bus all the way back then would become Simon Westeros today."
Simon was also a little nostalgic, but he raised his head slightly pretending to be proud: "Do you particularly admire me?"
Catherine just rolled her eyes again: "Big capitalist."
Simon leaned towards Catherine, trying to get her to help him squeeze out a seat. Unfortunately, he was refused. He could only continue to sit on the armrest and said with a smile: "Actually, as a radical leftist, I have always been worried that you will regard me as a Class enemies are coming."
"I am a leftist. Although I tend to be anarchist, I am not a radical leftist," Catherine retorted, paused again, glanced at Jennifer and Nancy next to her, then withdrew her gaze and said, "And, you, these years , and it also made me think a lot.”
"Um?"
"About our generation..." Catherine said, but she didn't want to continue, because, deep down in her heart, she didn't want the little man around her to have the idea that he and she were actually two generations, so in the end, Just a gentle sentence: "Did you know, the year I was born, "The Catcher in the Rye" also happened to be published."
Simon nodded, probably understanding what Catherine wanted to say, or perhaps a little understanding of what Catherine understood from him.
Catherine is a typical baby boomer in the United States. In 1951, "The Catcher in the Rye" was published, so she grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. economy was booming but the spirit was confused. Then, during the Vietnam War, she was still young, and at the same time experienced the most intense cold war. The state of fear, madness, laziness, and even more confusion that the doomsday clock may reset at any time.
Then, the Soviet Union collapsed, and a new era seemed to have arrived. The previous generation also entered their forties, and most people returned to the mundane life. Looking back, I realized that I had probably given up, lost, and missed too much. .
Unfortunately, life cannot be repeated.
At least for everyone else in this world besides Simon, that's probably the case.
Bowing closer again, Simon put his arm around the woman on the other side and said with a smile: "Then let's make a movie and film what you were thinking just now."
Catherine followed the strength of the little man next to her and leaned forward slightly. Hearing this, she shook her head subconsciously: "I don't want to spend your money, just in case it doesn't sell at the box office."
Simon is considerate: "I will help you attract investment and steal other people's money."
So dissatisfied, Catherine looked up and glared: "Are you sure I can't sell the box office?"
Simon raised his free hand in a gesture of surrender: "Okay, my bad."
Catherine curled her lips, remembering recent events: "During this period, during the Valentine's Day period, Daenerys's film has so crowded out other films that I have heard complaints."
"Slowly, they get used to it."
“…”
Catherine felt the little man's natural scornful tone, thought about it again, and still curled her lips: "Then, you help me write the script, and I will shoot it. It is about, um, our era."
Simon didn't refuse: "What is the approximate idea?"
Catherine also thought about it again and said, "It's like "The Catcher in the Rye"."
"This has been filmed before," Simon said, "There's no need to repeat it."
"No," Catherine wasn't sure if she remembered correctly: "It seems that Salinger refused to have his novel adapted into a film and TV show, and he is still alive now."
"I mean," Simon deliberately said something off before continuing: ""Taxi Driver" is actually "The Catcher in the Rye". The atmosphere and emotions in the film are the same. How about this, Let’s arrange a private viewing tomorrow night to review the classics?”
Catherine thought for a moment and suddenly realized that it was true.
Pearl and jade in front.
Suddenly I lost even more confidence and could only look at someone.
Simon thought for a moment and said: "Actually, if you want to do it, you can try to make a documentary. There must be enough material about that era. The name, um, is called "Our Time", and this year happens to be the millennium. If you can make it in time, we can release it at the end of the year and win an Oscar next year."
Catherine was originally moved, but after hearing the last word, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at someone.
Big capitalist.
However, he quickly nodded.
At least it wouldn't cost him too much money. Moreover, compared to movies with many restrictions, after all, one story cannot tell much in two hours. Documentary, the same two hours, can add more elements, which is undoubtedly the best choice.
Thinking like this, looking up at a certain little man, I inexplicably felt the peculiar tendency of women to push themselves too far in front of the man they love: "You can help me do this together."
Simon was easy to talk to and nodded readily: "No problem."