In the blink of an eye, it’s another Friday, June 28th.
"The Dark Knight" ended its third week of screenings. During the seven days from June 21 to June 27, the film's box office decline shrunk to 25% compared to last week, earning another US$45.13 million.
At the same time, the cumulative North American box office of this superhero blockbuster also officially exceeded the US$200 million mark, reaching US$207.28 million.
Breaking 100 million in the first week!
Breaking 200 million in three weeks!
In the eyes of many people, this box office record can only be broken by other films in the DC movie universe.
In addition, Paramount Pictures' new film "The Dark Knight", which opened last week, took in $31.54 million at the box office in its first week, exceeding Paramount's expectations.
As "The Dark Knight" began to rapidly release market space, the industry gradually discovered that this unstoppable superhero movie actually played a very obvious role in stimulating the market.
On May 24, the week when six new films were released intensively at the beginning of the summer season, the total box office of North American theaters in a single week was only more than 86 million US dollars. However, since the opening of "The Dark Knight" on June 7, the total weekly box office figures in the North American film market for three consecutive weeks have reached US$179 million, US$146 million, and US$131 million respectively.
After calculation, the cumulative box office in the three weeks minus the US$200 million of "The Dark Knight" is equivalent to the average weekly revenue of other films of US$83 million.
Obviously, influenced by the recent movie-watching craze caused by "The Dark Knight", many viewers have watched more than one movie during this period.
Specific to the movies in the same period, in addition to "Bad Guy 2" whose first-week box office exceeded expectations, the original fire-fighting film "Backfire" produced by Universal Pictures has accumulated a box office of 5,611 in the five weeks since it opened on May 24. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.
Although the single-week box office has dropped to around US$5 million, the final North American box office of "Backfire" is still expected to hit the US$70 million mark.
The production budget for "Backfire" is $40 million. The North American box office of US$70 million, including expected overseas box office revenue, is basically enough for the film to recover its production and distribution costs.
"City Hillbilly" starring Billy Crystal, in the four weeks since its release on May 31, has accumulated a total box office of US$52.22 million in the shadow of "The Dark Knight".
Unlike "Backfire," which fell into the $5 million box office range, "City Hillbilly" still had a single-week box office of $14.18 million in the past week, ranking second only to "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight" in the weekly box office list. "White Head Detective 2", ranked third.
According to this box office trend, it will be easy for "City Hillbilly" to achieve a box office of over 100 million in North America.
Not only these mainstream commercial films, the Antarctic documentary "Snow World" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's Gaomen Pictures has been like a small but very eye-catching 'dark horse' since its release.
Although the box office volume is not large, due to its excellent market performance and its alternative theme to the mainstream summer films, it has attracted much attention from the media and the public. Even under the limelight of "The Dark Knight", it has remained It’s a very good topic.
Therefore, although the highest single-week box office of this non-mainstream Antarctic documentary was only US$7.66 million in the second week, the cumulative box office continued to exceed the expectations of all parties.
As of June 27, the cumulative box office of "Snow World" has reached 31.12 million US dollars. This figure is equivalent to 10 times the film's meager production cost of US$3 million. It is definitely the film with the highest return rate this summer.
Moreover, with "Snow World" still taking in US$4.61 million at the box office last week and its decline being controlled within 20% for four consecutive weeks, the film is very likely to hit the US$50 million mark at the North American box office.
There is no shortage of cannon fodder when there are blockbuster movies.
The most dismal market performance this summer is undoubtedly Bruce Willis's "Condor" with a production cost of US$65 million. The film failed both in terms of reputation and box office.
As of June 20, "Condor" had only collected a little over 16 million US dollars at the box office in its four weeks of release. It couldn't even make back the publicity and distribution expenses. Most theaters quickly released the film after completing the two- to four-week screening contract. files.
Other films, such as Disney's "The Prancing Pony," Fox's "The Big Picture," and Paramount's "Soap Plate," also did not perform satisfactorily at the box office.
Spike Lee's new film "Jungle Fever", originally produced by Universal Pictures with a production budget of US$14 million, also failed to meet market expectations due to errors in its release schedule and promotion strategy. The total box office in North America is expected to be just over US$20 million.
Films with an all-black cast have limited overseas market potential, and Daenerys Entertainment can only look forward to recouping all US$19 million in production and publicity costs through subsequent local distribution through other channels.
The problem with "Jungle Fever" is obvious. It directly collided with the schedule of "The Dark Knight". During the integration of the two companies, people's hearts were unstable and it was difficult to adjust the promotion strategy in time. After all, it was impossible for all departments within the company to be completely unified. In the end, As a result, the box office of this movie with a fairly good reputation was unsatisfactory.
As Daenerys' entertainment grew larger, Simon knew that problems like this were inevitable and that he couldn't handle everything on his own.
This is actually one of the reasons why Simon has recently insisted on streamlining and integrating the production and distribution teams of Daenerys Entertainment. Large company diseases are inevitable for any corporate giant, but the impact of this negative factor can be mitigated through constant adjustments of efficient company teams.
On June 28, a new movie box office week, two new films were released in North American theaters.
The blockbuster film "Terminator 2", a collaboration between Daenerys Entertainment and Fox Pictures, opened on 2,506 screens.
The final production cost of this sci-fi classic sequel was US$73 million, and Cameron still forcibly exceeded the US$70 million budget limit set by Simon by US$3 million.
Fortunately, in the end, it still saved a lot compared to the original budget of 102 million US dollars.
Since all 73 million U.S. dollars had been spent, Simon did not save any more and asked Fox to give a publicity budget of 30 million U.S. dollars, making the total production and publicity budget of this project still exceed the 100 million yuan mark.
Another new film is a gangster film "Boys from the Block" produced by Columbia Pictures. The opening screen size is only 876, which is basically a foil.
Simon checked out the next phase of Universal Studios' reconstruction plan in Burbank in the morning, had lunch with Nancy Brill, who was still staying here, and drove back to Malibu at two o'clock in the afternoon.
The car left Universal Studios, drove west along Ventura Boulevard for more than 20 kilometers, and then turned south onto Mountain Highway 27, which leads north-south to Malibu. Follow Mountain Highway No. 27 and enter a newly built asphalt road about 5 kilometers inward.
The asphalt road leads directly to the administrative area of Daenerys Studios. The entrance and exit are just at the top corner of the triangular studio. This was originally a mountain trail leading to the water tower on the top of the mountain. After being reopened and widened in recent months, There is a two-lane asphalt road.
As Daenerys Entertainment further expands, the transportation and accommodation of Daenerys Entertainment employees have begun to become issues that the company needs to pay attention to.
In the past, Malibu Daenerys Studios had only one exit from the studio area to Coastal Highway 1.
Although the southern exit leads directly to Malibu to the west and Sunset Boulevard to the east, neither Malibu nor the wealthy areas such as Palisades, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills that Sunset Boulevard leads to are Daenerys. Most entertainment employees can afford to live there, and Santa Monica is also a high-cost area.
After Daenerys Entertainment merged with MCA, the problem became more serious.
Because Universal Studios is in Burbank, most employees live in the valley where housing prices are relatively low.
With Simon moving most of his functions from Universal Studios into Daenerys Studios, many employees are facing long commutes.
In the past, if you wanted to rush from Malibu Daenerys Studios to Burbank, you had to enter the coastal highway from the southern exit of the studio, go east for a while to the entrance of Mountain Highway 27, and then go north.
After the construction of the asphalt road connecting the northernmost administrative area of Daenerys Studios and Mountain Highway 27 is completed, employees can save at least 15 minutes in entry and exit time. The entire road can be driven into the northern valley in less than 10 kilometers.
Moreover, there are actually many scattered residential communities on both sides of Mountain Highway No. 27.
After the asphalt road is opened directly to the north of the administrative district, many employees can also buy or rent houses in these low-cost mountain residential communities. There is no need to drive around a big detour from the southern exit. Even walking to work on weekdays is no problem.
The total distance from Universal Studios in Burbank to Daenerys Studios in Malibu was about 35 kilometers, and it took exactly one hour in the afternoon when the traffic was relatively smooth.
Simon had no time to spare in the car. By the time the car drove into the administrative district from the northern entrance, he had already finished reading the materials for the "Wives of New York" project that will start filming next month.
Robert Egger was also in Los Angeles recently and happened to be here from Universal Studios with Simon.
The two got off the car in the parking lot. Simon was still holding the information. As he walked, he turned to the previous page and asked: "The synopsis of the plot is very good, but what is going on with this woman?"
On that page, the woman’s name was Kris Jenner.
Last year at the year-end party at Daenerys Studios, a certain woman called Kris Kardashian.
Although the original history was like this, it seemed to be too fast.
and.
It also became the 'Honey Wives of New York'.
Robert Egger glanced sideways, with something strange flashing across his expression. He glanced at Simon and asked, "You don't know?"
Simon was even more confused: "What do I know?"
Robert Egger looked at Simon's expression again, hesitated, and said: "This, Ms. Jenna was not originally among the finalists. However, she took the initiative to contact me several times, that, hinting, she and you Very, um... very familiar. So..."
Egger didn't say it too clearly, but Simon understood it and could only smile bitterly and sigh that this woman is really... amazing.
Robert Egger was still a little unsure. If the woman in the information was not familiar with Simon, why would he ask again this time.
Moreover, thinking about the posture and figure of the beautiful woman in her thirties, Iger felt that it might be more in line with the taste of his boss. Therefore, Iger did not ask Simon for confirmation in advance for this kind of 'little matter' that only needed to be understood by his subordinates.
Seeing Simon close the folder and hand it over, and continue walking towards the office building, Egg thought for a while and asked: "Simon, do you need to change someone?"
Simon shook his head and said with a smile: "No, this woman is very capable and is indeed very suitable for this show."
Egg nodded and said no more.
Simon added: "I will stay in New York for one day before going to the UK next week. You can make arrangements for her to come see me."
Egger was stunned for a moment, and then just responded again.
The two soon separated, with Iger attending a meeting and Simon going to a screening room in Office Building No. 1.
There are still two hours left in the afternoon, and the schedule is an internal preview of "Thelma and Louise," which Kathryn Bigelow has just completed the final cut.
The schedule for "Thelma and Louise" is September 6. The film's promotion and distribution work has already started. It was only completed in the first two days and will be sent to the MPAA for rating next week.
Entering the screening room, the movie is ready for screening.
Probably because it was confirmed that Simon would attend, the small screening room with more than thirty seats was very busy.
In addition to Catherine, the film producer and the staff of the publicity department, the two heroines of "Thelma and Louise" Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis also came here specially, and they also brought their respective Her boyfriends are also filmmakers in the circle, Tim Robbins and Renny Harlin.
Tim Robbins is the male protagonist of "The Shawshank Redemption" in the original time and space, and previously participated in Robert Altman's "The Crossing".
Renny Harlin has made a name for himself in Hollywood in recent years by directing "Die Hard 2" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 4". He belongs to a rising generation of new directors.
Moreover, the latest film directed by Renny Harlin is called "Rose", which will also be released in the following September, two weeks later than "Thelma and Louise". The heroine of "Rose" is already destined to be Missing Laura Dern in the new version of "Jurassic Park".
If history does not change, the pair of Renny Harlin and Geena Davis will work together to complete the super blockbuster "Cutthroat Island" in Hollywood history, which created the Guinness record for losses in the film industry.
So, Hollywood is really small.
Simon actually wanted to drive away all the other 'unrelated people' so that he could be alone with Catherine.
Of course, just thinking about it.
Everyone said hello, but Simon didn't hide it. He sat directly in the back corner of the screening room with Catherine, and then motioned to the staff to start playing the film.
Catherine is not as shameless as Simon. Fortunately, she is in the last row, so it is not so embarrassing.
And even if you would never admit it to anyone.
However, there is probably no one in Hollywood who doesn't know about the relationship between the two.
After a brief moment of shyness, Catherine quickly adapted to the feeling of sitting with Simon in public.
A few years have passed, and many things have changed. He has even gotten married, and she has tried to be cold to him on purpose. However, the closeness between the two that has been accumulated since the initial encounter has not faded.
Originally a celibate, Catherine has gradually adapted to her current life.
He has his own career, his own life, his own social circle, and a close man.
A few sneaky kisses now and then can satisfy you for a long time.
Although he seemed to have everything as a matter of course, he would not let her feel the possessiveness that disgusted women.
All right.
In fact, no man dares to pursue her in Hollywood today.
When the lights in the screening room dimmed, she noticed that Simon seemed to have a tendency to put his arm over hers. Catherine glared at him and said softly: "Don't cause trouble, someone is here."
Simon smiled and leaned into the woman's ear: "Do you think I look like a good person?"
“… “
"Oh, that's wrong. Do you think I look like a bad person?"
Catherine rolled her eyes and decided to ignore him.
Knowing that women are actually very thin-skinned, Simon just made a joke and said: "Let's go back to Dumei Point to have dinner together tonight. I will be on a business trip for some days next week, and I want you to help look after Jenny. I would like to thank you first tonight. .”
When Catherine heard what Simon said, she remembered something, with a little teasing in her tone: "Is it still a business trip like going to Seattle last Saturday night?"
"Um?"
Catherine rolled her eyes again at Simon next to her who was trying to act stupid, and said: "That night Jenny said she couldn't sleep and insisted on calling me to accompany her. She also said that you were on a 'business trip' to Seattle."
Simon nodded solemnly: "Yes, it's a business trip. It's an urgent matter."
On the screen, the main film of "Thelma and Louise" began to play.
Catherine turned to the other side.
Plan to ignore this guy for the next two hours.
It's considered punishment.