Awakened by the ringing of the phone in the morning, Simon opened his eyes and found Catherine looking at him, with a bit of confusion and panic in his eyes after being suddenly awakened.
Simon pulled the woman into his arms, kissed her on the lips, and then reached out to pick up the microphone on the bedside table.
The call came from Pat Kingsley, who had been in New York in recent days as Simon's public relations manager due to a taping of "The Johnny Carson Tonight Show." The content of Kinsley's call was about a piece of gossip that appeared in the Daily News newspaper here in New York today.
"The Palme d'Or judges stay at the Cannes mansion in Westeros."
The matter of Natasha Kinski borrowing Simon's room was still revealed. The "Daily News" exaggerated the matter into a piece of gossip in the article, but if you think about the title for a while, it is not difficult to find that the other party The fundamental purpose is to question Simon's fairness in winning the Palme d'Or.
Simon was not at all surprised to hear this news.
The competition for summer movies has entered its fiercest stage, with more than ten blockbuster new films set to be released in recent weeks. Due to the ebb and flow nature of the box office market, at this time, by suppressing the opponent's momentum, you can gain more market space.
The two were close together, and Catherine could naturally hear the conversation between Simon and Kingsley. When Simon hung up the phone, the emotion in Catherine's eyes had changed, but she still looked at him steadily. Obviously, the focus of women's attention is not on the deeper meaning of the "Daily News" report.
Simon was stared at by Catherine, so he had to take the initiative to explain: "I have nothing to do with that woman, and she is already married."
Catherine hummed, took off Simon's arms, and said calmly: "This is Jenny's business, it has nothing to do with me."
Simon smiled and wanted to move closer, but Catherine pushed him away and had to ask: "What do you want for breakfast?"
Catherine did not answer the question, but said: "You are responsible for mending the buttons of my shirt."
"It seems that there is no sewing at home. You can wear my clothes." Simon sat up and planned to get up. He found his shirt and gestured to the woman, saying, "You will definitely look better in a men's shirt."
Catherine reached over and pushed him, and said dissatisfied: "People will see it."
Regarding the relationship between the two, Simon knew that Catherine was more cautious than him, so he nodded: "Okay, I will ask Neil to send some needles and thread later."
After the two had breakfast, Catherine still stayed in the apartment and planned to leave quietly later. Simon rushed to the Westeros corporate headquarters to discuss with James Raybould the acquisition of New World Entertainment through debt-for-equity swaps.
On the other side, the report in the "Daily News" was indeed just the beginning, and similar news later came from the West Coast. The public relations teams of Daenerys Pictures and Orion immediately began to enter the scene to guide the direction of public opinion.
Under this kind of open and covert struggle, "Pulp Fiction" was officially released in North American theaters the next day. At the same time, Fox Film's "Future" starring Tom Hanks and Warner Bros.'s Chevy Chase's Starring in Funny Farm.
In addition, the North American box office data for the past week has also been released.
With 2,837 opening screens, "Crocodile Dundee 2" took in a box office of US$30.17 million in its first full seven-day week, easily winning the single-week box office championship. Including the two days of the previous week, the film's total box office has reached 34.92 million US dollars.
However, the reputation of "Crocodile Dundee 2" is in sharp contrast to its vigorous early promotion and large-scale opening of the screen. North American media almost gave the film one-sided negative reviews.
"Variety" magazine commented that "Crocodile Dundee 2" "is too bland as an adventure film and has not many laughs as a comedy."
The "New York Times" film critic's view is even more intense: "The default strategy of most sequels is to capture the advantages of the previous film as much as possible to give the audience more elements they like, but "Crocodile Dundee 2" does the opposite like an idiot. However, it has abandoned almost everything that made the first film eye-catching, making it seem mediocre and boring."
Although the media reputation of "Rambo 3" starring Stallone is better than that of "Crocodile Dundee 2", it is only relative.
Moreover, with the same large-scale opening screen of 2,562, "Rabo", a sequel movie with a huge investment of 63 million US dollars in production costs, the box office revenue in the first two days of the opening was equivalent to "Crocodile Dundee 2", but In the first full week, the box office was quickly outperformed by the other party. In seven days, the box office revenue was 20.17 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was 24.63 million US dollars.
"The Gathering", which ranked third on the list, saw a box office drop of only 16% the next week, collecting another US$9.26 million. However, due to a weak start, the cumulative box office of "The Gathering" in two weeks was only US$20.32 million.
"When Harry Met Sally" still ranked fourth, continuing to earn 3.32 million US dollars in its 12th week of release, with a cumulative box office of 97.55 million, just one step away from breaking 100 million.
Compared with previous new films such as "Crocodile Dundee 2", the three films released on June 3 all have very good reviews.
Tom Hanks' "Future" can be said to be the Hollywood superstar's famous work, and it also brought him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Chevy Chase, the veteran comedy star, also received a lot of praise for his "Funny Farm".
However, these two new films are completely unable to fight back in the face of "Pulp Fiction" which is destined to go down in the annals of film history.
The aura of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford, Madonna, Sean Penn and other big names have joined the franchise.
Simon has accumulated a huge fan base since "Run Lola Run".
The extremely high topic popularity brought about by praise and controversy.
All these factors make "Pulp Fiction" the most anticipated movie of the summer.
Obviously in order to curb the momentum of "Pulp Fiction", as the film was released, some media simply stirred up the controversy surrounding Simon's Palme d'Or, unabashedly questioning the possibility of awards insiders at the just past Cannes Film Festival.
Faced with these doubts, Cannes officials had to respond publicly again.
Naturally, the media would not give up easily. The matter of Natasha Kinski borrowing Simon's mansion was quickly hyped up as one of the most important pieces of inside evidence, and many newspapers started to pursue this point.
Because this incident was linked to gossip, Natasha Kinski’s wealthy Egyptian businessman husband also got involved and rushed to Cannes in person to take his wife home. The eccentric and stubborn Natasha Kinski was clearly not going to give in easily.
The two were already separated. After being rejected, the wealthy Egyptian businessman felt greatly embarrassed and publicly announced that he would divorce Natasha Kinski.
With this commotion, things suddenly became more lively.
Simon Westeros not only seduced the judges to manipulate the awards, but also destroyed other people's families. It is simply unbearable to watch.
only.
Before the media chasing the incident could produce more "violent information," things suddenly took a 180-degree turn.
On June 7, Natasha Kinski, who was tired of being surrounded by countless tabloid reporters from all over the world, suddenly announced to the reporters following her during a shopping trip that she had not participated in the awards process. Instead of supporting Pulp Fiction, she voted for Quarantine.
As soon as the woman's remarks came out, all the media chasing the incident immediately said 'WTF'.
Is this still possible? !
The selection process at the Cannes Film Festival does not have as rigorous a voting process as the Oscars. Sometimes, if the judges can reach a verbal agreement, the award can be determined without voting at all. However, in the past session, the voting process was started due to differences in the opinions of the judges.
Natasha Kinski made a public statement, and the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival, which had been overwhelmed by the media bombardment, immediately found the voting cards from the recently sealed film festival archives. Because it was a voting card with her name written directly on it, Natasha Kinski's handwriting was easy to read. As expected, this woman voted for "The World of Quarantine."
Confirming this, the relieved Cannes Film Festival organizers immediately published a photocopy of Natasha Kinski's voting card in the newspaper.
The famous Italian director Ito Scola, who served as a judge for the previous main competition unit, later publicly stated that Natasha Kinski did prefer "World of Quarantine" during the jury discussion. In the competition for the Palme d'Or, "Pulp" The ratio of votes between "Novel" and "Quarantined World" was six to four.
When the news was announced, even Simon himself, who had just returned to Los Angeles, was like 'WTF'.
Sister, I borrowed your place and hired a lot of housekeepers, chefs, servants and drivers for you, and I also had to pay the bills. Is this really okay for you
When Janet learned about this, she laughed so hard that she couldn't even stand up straight. She also despised Simon, the 'taken advantage of'.
Although the truth makes people laugh or cry a little bit, the insider doubts that some media outlets have been accusing of have disappeared in an instant.
After such a debate, "Pulp Fiction" attracted even more attention. Moreover, the one-sided praise of "Pulp Fiction" by most media in North America and the word-of-mouth praise of the film's quality by the audience itself also completely reversed things.
Amidst the hustle and bustle, on June 10th, another week of summer vacation passed.
From June 3 to June 9, the release of new and old films increased the North American box office total for this week to $92.67 million. In comparison, in the previous week from May 27 to June 2, the total box office in North America in a single week was only US$73.87 million.
The much-anticipated "Pulp Fiction" undoubtedly topped the North American box office rankings for the new week. With an opening screen size of 1,569, the box office in the first week ended up being US$27.53 million.
Although it failed to reach the $30.17 million level of "Crocodile Dundee 2" last week, no one doubts the strong strength of "Pulp Fiction".
After all, "Crocodile Dundee 2" has 2,837 opening screens, while "Pulp Fiction" has only 1,569 opening screens. On average for a single museum, "Crocodile Dundee 2" reached US$10,636 last week, while "Pulp Fiction" reached US$17,546.
What's more, "Crocodile Dundee 2" only had one competitor last week: "Rambo 3", and perhaps barely another "The Gathering" which had a sluggish box office. But this week, "Pulp Fiction" is competing with four other movies: "Future," "Farm," "Crocodile Dundee 2" and "Rambo 3."
After "Pulp Fiction", due to poor word-of-mouth and large-scale openings that over-extracted market potential, "Crocodile Dundee 2" dropped 41% at the box office compared to last week, with a box office of only 17.87 million US dollars.
But even so, the opening scale of more than 2,800 screens allowed the film's North American box office to easily exceed the US$50 million mark.
Ranking third on the list is Fox Pictures' "Future" with a box office of US$12.59 million in its first week. Because Fox Pictures has only arranged 1,132 opening screens for this new film, this box office record of exceeding US$10,000 in a single week is not bad.
In Simon's memory, "Future" has achieved over 100 million in North America. If history had not changed, "Future" would have a very good box office curve in the future.
Stallone's "Rambo 3" ranked fourth. The box office decline was even worse than that of "Crocodile Dundee 2", reaching 47%. It only received 10.62 million U.S. dollars this week, with a total box office of 35.26 million U.S. dollars. According to this decline curve, the total North American box office of "First Blood 3" may not even reach the production cost of US$63 million.
Chevy Chase's "Farm" ranked fifth, with a box office of $8.11 million in its first week.
"Farm Farm" has 1,557 opening screens, which is equivalent to "Pulp Fiction", but its first week single theater sales were only a little over 5,000 US dollars, less than one-third of "Pulp Fiction". Warner Bros. Pictures' first film of the summer was undoubtedly a dud.
With a start of US$8.11 million, even if the subsequent decline curve is relatively good, the total box office in North America will hardly be high.
Excluding the top five, the sixth-placed "The Gathering" continued to earn US$7.08 million in its third week of release, with a cumulative box office of US$27.4 million.
Immediately afterwards.
"When Harry Met Sally", which ranked seventh on the list, took in another US$2.66 million at the box office. This film, which has been in theaters for 13 weeks, finally exceeded the US$100 million box office mark amid many people's expectations, and the total box office reached 1 With US$0.21 million, it officially became the first North American movie in 1988 to have a box office of over 100 million US dollars.
Amid the buzz surrounding "When Harry Met Sally"'s North American box office exceeding 100 million, some media suddenly announced that Daenerys Pictures had successfully completed a box office relay.
"Pulp Fiction" only grossed US$27.53 million at the box office in its first week. This movie has impeccable reputation, cast, and popularity. No one doubts that it can easily break the 100 million box office threshold in North America.
You must know that the box office of "When Harry Met Sally" in its first week after being screened was only 17.81 million U.S. dollars. The first-week performance of "Pulp Fiction" almost exceeded that of "When Harry Met Sally" by a full $10 million.
The two films have exceeded 100 million at the North American box office, which is already the same as Simon Westeros's performance last year.
Previously in 1987, "Run Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect" related to Simon both achieved good results of over 100 million US dollars at the box office in North America. The box office of "Death is Coming" was slightly lower, with only more than 70 million US dollars.
only.
Not even half of 1988 has passed yet, and Simon Westeros has already equaled the box office record he achieved last year. So, what’s next
"Pulp Fiction" takes over from "When Harry Met Sally" and continues to hit the North American box office of over 100 million. In the middle of next month, will "Basic Instinct", also written by Simon himself, do the same
After "Instinct", Daenerys Pictures' announced production list also includes "Scream", "Rain Man", "Dead Poets Society", "Steel Magnolias" and a long list.
Although in the eyes of many people these films are not very popular, however, Simon Westeros has created too many miracles.
Boldly imagine if these films continued...
Tsk!