During the gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas, "The Piano" produced by Gomen Films will be screened on 21 screens in major North American cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago on December 6.
This work, which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in September, received unanimous praise from the media after its release. The film's overall score is as high as 9.2 points, becoming another high-scoring masterpiece at the end of the year after "Toy Story".
Roger Ebert, a well-known American film critic, described the film as "one of the most extraordinary and unforgettable films I have ever seen."
In its first week of screenings, "The Piano" grossed US$1.55 million in seven days, with a theater average of US$73,000.
Another award-winning film "Grand Canyon" released at the same time as "The Piano" was produced by Fox Pictures and directed by the well-known Hollywood screenwriter and director Lawrence Kasdan. It tells the story of the racial conflicts caused by a black man who mistakenly enters a white community. .
"Grand Canyon" only had a smaller screening scale of two screens, purely to qualify for awards season nominations. It earned a box office of US$190,000 in the first week with the two screens it opened.
However, as an award-winning film, "Grand Canyon" received only average reviews from film critics, with an overall score of only 7.6. Compared with "The Piano"'s score of 9.2, it is obviously difficult to make a difference during the awards season.
Friday, December 13th.
Although theoretically this week is still a break between the two major schedules, judging from the scale of released films, the Christmas schedule is considered to have started early.
Because this week, Steven Spielberg's "Captain Hawke" is released, and Paramount Pictures' "JFK" is also opening.
Columbia Pictures has great expectations for "Captain Hawk". The final production budget of the film reached US$70 million, and the opening screen size was 2,197.
However, as the film started, the reputation of "Captain Hawke" completely collapsed, and the media score dropped all the way to 2.8 points.
"Variety" magazine criticized "Captain Hawke" as "messy and unrestrained", and "Newsweek" even harshly commented that watching "Captain Hawke" is like "watching an 80,000-pound dwarf dance."
Three days after its opening, the first weekend box office of "Captain Hawke" was only US$13.52 million, far less than Columbia Pictures' expectations.
In the original time and space, the North American box office of "Captain Hawke" finally exceeded 100 million US dollars. Relying on the total global box office of more than 200 million US dollars and subsequent profits, this film barely allowed Columbia Pictures to recover its costs.
This time, however, the poorly-received 'Blockbuster' won't have such good luck.
Because in the following week, another new film in the highly anticipated DC cinematic universe, "The Flash", will be released.
In the original time and space, "Killing JFK", which was released at the same time as "Captain Hawke", should have been produced by Warner. However, because Warner focused most of its attention on "The Flash" at the end of this year, it gave up this project at the beginning. project.
Compared with "Captain Hawke", the situation of "Killing JFK" is much better. This slightly alternative historical drama received an excellent media score of 8.3 points after its opening.
However, in terms of box office, the opening screen size of "Killing JFK" was 1,164, and the box office in the first three days of the weekend finally reached 5.22 million US dollars, which is not satisfactory.
You know, due to the success of Oliver Stone's previous films and the joining of Kevin Costner in this film, the production budget of "Killing JFK" was as high as $40 million. Although it does not reach the level of "Captain Hawke", with a budget of US$40 million, it is definitely a big production in this era.
The three-day box office revenue of the first weekend was US$5.22 million. Compared with the production budget of US$40 million and the publicity expenditure of approximately US$20 million, if this film cannot develop an excellent long-term follow-up, someone at Paramount may be fired. .
In the original timeline, "Killing JFK" did very well at the box office and became one of the big winners at the 1992 Oscars.
However, this time, no one is sure.
It’s also because of “The Flash” which will be released on December 20th.
With such a much-anticipated heavyweight blockbuster standing in front of it, other films of the same period simply have a tragic feeling.
The first two works of the DC Cinematic Universe were really too strong.
Moreover, according to internal news from Warner Bros., the final effect of "The Flash" is also amazing.
After intensive promotion in the last two months, the Los Angeles premiere of "The Flash" was held on December 18.
Because of its confidence in the film, Warner raised the premiere to the same specifications as the summer release of "The Dark Knight" and still chose to hold it in the Holy Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, which can accommodate 2,000 people.
Dume Point Estate.
At around five o'clock in the afternoon, Janet finally put on her makeup, held up her skirt, and walked downstairs accompanied by two girls AB.
Simon, who was waiting in the living room downstairs, turned around on the sofa and looked over. The woman was wearing a burgundy silk dress that she had always liked very much. She had small black heels, loose fluffy blond hair, and the skin exposed on her shoulders was pampered during pregnancy. It looks more and more fair and moist, and people can't help but have the urge to take a bite.
Yingying floated next to Simon, and Janet bent down beside the sofa and said with a smile: "Little boy, do you want a bite?"
This tone is the same as before.
A smile appeared on Simon's face, he raised his head and kissed Janet who came over, and said, "Let's go."
"Yeah, let me say goodbye to Moer first."
Janet said that and walked to the crib near the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. Deborah, the D girl, was guarding a little guy who was sleeping soundly in the crib.
Compared with the inevitable ugly appearance when he was just born, within two weeks, the little guy has returned to the delicate appearance that a baby should have, and the shadows of Simon and Janet can be seen between the eyebrows.
After looking at the child together at the crib for a while, and explaining the three ABD girls, Simon and Janet rushed to the city by car.
There was a bit of congestion in Los Angeles in the evening, and it wasn't until 5:40 that the two Simons arrived outside the Sacred Civic Auditorium in the city center.
The premiere starts at six o'clock, and the previous hour is red carpet time. Although it is not as big as the Oscars, the lively battle here is no less than the Oscars.
As soon as Simon and Simon got off the car at the entrance of the red carpet, they heard cheers of surprise.
Not wanting to steal the limelight from today's protagonist, Simon had a smile on his face, nodded slightly to the media and fans on both sides, and led Janet into the auditorium without stopping.
After taking pictures in front of the photo wall, Terry Semel, CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, had already greeted him.
Everyone was greeted and entered the backstage of the auditorium, which was also star-studded at this time.
Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith and many other superstars came specially to support today.
Of course, Adam Baldwin, Valerie Golino, Tommy Lee Jones, Anthony Hopkins and other main creators of the "Batman" series will not be absent. Famke "Wonder Woman" Jason, Linda Hamilton and Joanna Cassidy also made it over today.
In comparison, "The Flash" director George Cosmatus, actor Jason Gedrick and actress Robin White seem a bit inconspicuous among the big names.
Of course, considering the popularity of Adam Baldwin and Valerie Golino before the "Batman" series, the "inconspicuousness" of these creators will completely change in the following weeks.
After a brief exchange of greetings, as six o'clock approached, everyone began to enter the auditorium hall.
After everyone was seated and the host made a speech, the screening officially began.
The story of the first "The Flash" mainly tells the origin of the superhero.
Simon doesn't like the old-fashioned narrative mode that starts from childhood. Therefore, the original "Batman Begins" started the story directly from Bruce Wayne becoming a superhero. Facts have proved that this is very effective. success.
"Wonder Woman", which is currently in its later stages, also does not intend to involve Diana Prince's childhood.
However, in this "The Flash", the story must return to some kind of "normal".
Similar to Bruce Wayne's parents being killed in an alley, the childhood shadow of Barry Allen's witnessing his mother being killed as a child is also a topic that the superhero simply cannot avoid.
However, due to his instinctive resistance to childhood narratives, Simon still turned Barry Allen's childhood experience into an opening plot wedge.
By the time the main film begins, Barry Allen has become an adult.
The story continues most of the basic settings of the comics. As an adult, Barry Allen is an evidence technology expert at the Central City Police Department.
Of course, changes were necessary to accommodate the film version.
The general plot of this origin story tells the story of Barry Allen, an expert in physical evidence technology at the police department, who accidentally encountered a laboratory accident during a collaboration with Professor Albert Swann. Gained the superpower of extreme speed in an accident.
However, Professor Swan was paralyzed due to the accident.
Barry Allen told Professor Swan that he had gained superpowers, trying to find the reason, and at the same time he had to deal with the 'climate wizard' who also gained superpowers because of the accident.
As the plot progresses, Allen successfully defeats and captures the 'Climate Wizard', but unexpectedly discovers that he has unknowingly fallen into another conspiracy.
It turns out that Professor Swan, who was seemingly paralyzed, actually also gained super speed.
However, because of the accusations and difficulties made against Professor Swan by all parties after the laboratory accident, this super-powered person developed an anti-social mentality.
To sum up, this origin story has three lines.
The first is Barry Allen's life experience and childhood, including the unsolved case of his mother's murder and his father who is still in prison. This part of the plot also makes up most of the daily narrative in the film's plot.
The second is the awakening of Barry Allen's superhero attributes as The Flash, which he gained during his confrontation with the Weather Wizard.
The third article is the showdown between Barry Allen and his old enemy Professor Albert Swann, the "Reverse Flash".
The first and third story lines are actually closely related. Professor Swan is the 'murderer' who killed Barry Allen's mother. The Reverse Flash accidentally returned to the past during a duel with Allen. , thus creating Allen’s childhood tragedy.
For the audience in the Sacred Civic Auditorium, the three intertwined story lines were not complicated at all and were very clear.
However, most people's attention was attracted by the special effects of "The Flash".
In the "Superman" series that started in 1978, the 'special effects' of Clark Kent flying around the earth and reversing time were simply too crude to look at.
However, this "The Flash", with the technical support of Daenerys Special Effects Company, not only perfectly displayed Barry Allen's high-speed movement scenes, but also made a scene similar to the original time and space "X-Men" "The slow-motion shots of Quicksilver in the series.
The specific effects will certainly not reach the level of twenty years later. However, in the eyes of audiences of this era, the level of stunning is no less stunning than the visual impact that the previous two "Batman" series brought to the audience.
When the final battle on the big screen ended and the subtitles rose, suddenly the thousands of viewers in the Sacred Civic Auditorium realized that the two-hour screening had ended just like that.
Simon has always felt that the most important criterion for evaluating the quality of a movie is whether the audience can experience the passage of time during the viewing process.
If a movie makes the audience watch it from beginning to end without even realizing it, and even forget about the Coca-Cola popcorn in their hands, then it is difficult for the project to fail.
On the other hand, if a movie always makes the audience laugh, have other thoughts pop up in their minds, or even give up watching the movie, then the box office prospects of the movie will be obvious.
This "The Flash" may not reach the heights of the two "Batman" films, but in terms of plot, the smoothness of the plot is definitely better. In addition, the IP of "The Flash" itself is as well-known as Superman and Batman and the film's outstanding high-speed special effects, there is basically no possibility of failure.
The question is just how high the film's box office will ultimately reach.
The subtitles come to the end, the usual plot easter egg.
This time, the Easter egg is Catwoman played by Valerie Golino.
This female superhero, who is both good and evil, looks dusty on the big screen. She seems to have experienced battles, and there are tears on Catwoman's uniform.
Under Barry Allen's surprised and confused gaze, Catwoman didn't say much nonsense and said straightforwardly: "Hey, Job, I know you are special, so now some guys need your help."
When the words ended, the big screen went completely dark.
For comic book fans, just this simple interaction is exciting enough.
Of course, the Flash and Catwoman have had encounters in the comics, but on the big screen, Catwoman played by Valerie Golino has become the head goddess of DC. This female superhero has a close relationship with the Flash Barry Allen. Meeting each other and thinking about the subsequent development of the story is so exciting.
Some core comic fans are even already sorting out other information revealed in this short Easter egg.
Why did Catwoman come to Central City
What kind of battles has she been through
How will Barry Allen respond to the appearance of Catwoman
Etc., etc.
Moreover, even people who don’t know much about the plot of the original comics, after watching the first two "Batman" films, are inevitably full of expectations for the fusion of DC superheroes.