Back home, the two Michaels, who happened to be neighbors, stayed up almost all night discussing coping strategies because of their worries about "Wonder Woman" and the development trend of the entire Hollywood film industry.
While the entire Hollywood is paying close attention to everything about "Wonder Woman", Simon has already rushed to Australia.
"Superman" has officially started filming recently, and the filming location for this superhero movie is still in Australia.
The difference is that this time the main filming city is in Sydney.
Because of Daenerys Entertainment's connections in Australia, "Wonder Woman" was released simultaneously in Australia and North America. During this period, the Australian film industry was also quite lively.
After attending the premiere of "Wonder Woman", I set off on Friday, June 5, and arrived in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon local time.
In order to make it easier to take care of her children, after quitting her job, Veronica no longer lived in a high-rise apartment in Melbourne. Instead, she bought a villa on the banks of the Yarra River, a short distance from the Johnston family mansion and the Simon couple's suburban home. The den is not far away.
Raymond Johnston loved his grandson so much that he specially arranged a room for the little guy in the mansion.
When Simon and his wife arrived, they immediately saw a certain little guy in the baby room of the mansion.
The half-year-old Melbourne Westeros is now able to crawl. Compared with the ugly little appearance when he was born, his fair and tender appearance makes people unable to help but hug and kiss him when they see him.
Janet picked up the child as soon as she saw the 'little irritant' she often talked about, and exchanged affectionate hums. After the last Easter, we haven’t seen each other for more than a month. The little guy didn’t recognize life at all, and he followed his mother very cooperatively, showing a tacit understanding.
The mother and son 'interacted' for a moment, and then Janet handed the child over to Simon.
The little guy inherited his mother's beautiful eyes and looked at the man in front of him. Perhaps he thought he had seen him before somewhere, so he didn't resist. He even raised his tender little hands to grab Simon's collar. When Simon asked questions like "Do you miss daddy?", he naturally didn't know how to answer, but he also responded with two "ums and ahs" very skillfully.
Veronica, whose temperament was much softer than before, stood next to a family of three, watching Simon talking to the little guy. She wanted to say something, but in the end she remained silent. She just looked at the situation in front of her with a bit of satisfaction in her eyes. .
After playing around for a while, the little guy quickly fell asleep from exhaustion.
Putting the baby on the crib and guarded by the nanny, the three of them left the room together.
It was still some time before dinner, in addition to Raymond Johnston and his wife, Anthony Johnston also came with his family, and everyone gathered in the living room of the mansion to discuss some recent events.
After Australia liberalized foreign investment in the telecommunications industry last year, after more than a year of planning, the Internet access services of the Westeros system and the Igrit portal have initially gained a foothold in this country.
Affected by Japan's economic recession, Australia's economy has also entered a period of recession.
The rise of the emerging Internet industry has made the Australian government pay more and more attention to this field. Of course, this is also the result of the secret lobbying efforts of the Westeros system and the Johnston family.
Just last month, the Australian Federal Parliament passed a bill related to promoting the development of the Internet industry. The Australian government plans to invest A$10 billion in the next five years for infrastructure construction related to the Internet industry. At the same time, this bill also formulates support measures in many aspects such as talent and taxation.
Under Simon's secret operation, the U.S. Information Highway Act has entered the congressional agenda in advance. However, it will take at least next year to pass and implement it.
Europe, which has not yet completely ended its turmoil, has no intention of taking care of this emerging field.
Therefore, Australia’s bill on promoting the development of the Internet industry has become the first national policy document in the related field.
Due to its own market size, the scale of Australia's Internet industry cannot be too large after all.
However, taking this step in advance and seizing the opportunity in the Internet field can definitely bring unexpected benefits to this country.
Outside of the Internet field, Verizon's Australian branch has also successfully started mobile communications business in Australia. Although Nokia is temporarily unable to enter North America, it took this opportunity to cooperate with Verizon's Australian branch to prepare for its entry into North America in advance. The market lays a technical foundation.
In the end, it’s naturally the film industry.
Australia's support for the film industry was very strong in the 1980s, and George Miller's "Mad Max" series was produced under this background.
However, this kind of policy support is still far less than the promotion brought by a series of blockbuster movies starting filming in Australia.
In the original time and space, just because of the "Lord of the Rings" series, not only did New Zealand become the Middle-earth world that movie fans around the world yearned for, this small country in the southern hemisphere also became one of the most famous film production bases in the world.
The situation in Australia is almost the same as in New Zealand.
Except for "Wonder Woman" which cannot be filmed in Australia due to filming reasons, a series of projects in the DC Cinematic Universe, "Batman Begins", "The Dark Knight" and "The Flash", all started filming in Australia, including A lot of post-production work is also done directly here.
Driven by the DC Movie Universe series, Australia has quickly formed a film industry chain foundation with Melbourne as the core. Coupled with Australia's generous tax rebate measures, some other Hollywood studios are increasingly inclined to produce movies here. .
Australia's Internet industry, mobile communications industry and film industry are all booming, and a series of companies in the Westeros system have already occupied a pivotal position in these fields in Australia.
This is actually a kind of penetration.
The next goal of the Westeros system is to take over the shell of the Johnston family and get involved in Australia's core mining resources.
By completing this layout, Simon will have a decisive influence on this country.
June is the winter in the southern hemisphere, and cities such as Melbourne located on the coast are not too cold.
The couple spent a weekend in Melbourne and went skiing in nearby mountains on Sunday. On Monday, Simon rushed to the set of "Superman" in Sydney to follow the filming of the movie.
The straight-line distance between Sydney and Melbourne is about 700 kilometers, just one takeoff and landing of a private plane. Therefore, while working in Sydney during the day, Simon will basically fly back to Melbourne at night.
At the same time, North American box office data about "Wonder Woman" continues to come.
With the support of excellent word-of-mouth, "Wonder Woman" took in a box office of US$19.21 million on its first day.
Subsequently, in the three days of its first weekend, the box office of this superhero movie reached 61.39 million US dollars.
When Simon returned to North America after finishing his working week in Australia, the first seven-day box office of "Wonder Woman" was officially released: US$91.12 million!
Stimulated by "Wonder Woman", in the week from June 5 to June 11, the total box office revenue of North American theaters in a single week reached 162.86 million US dollars.
However, because "Wonder Woman" alone accounted for more than half of the weekly box office share, the box office of movies such as "Lethal Weapon 3", "Sisters Are Crazy" and "Earth" released in the previous few weeks all showed huge box office losses. The box office fell by 30%.
Because the reputation is far inferior to that of "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Sisters", and the subject matter is not popular with the audience, the start of "Terra" starring Tom Cruise was far lower than expected, and this week's decline was even worse. Reaching 46%, compared with the first week's US$15.62 million, the box office for the next week was only US$8.39 million.
It earned US$24.01 million in two weeks, and its single-week box office has shrunk to just over US$8 million. Even if the subsequent box office decline eases, the total North American box office of "Earth Ambition" is expected to be difficult to exceed US$50 million.
However, the total production and promotion budget invested by Columbia Pictures for this project reached US$90 million.
Even if the time cost is not taken into account, "Earth Ambition" still needs to achieve a box office of approximately US$60 million in North America before it can recover all investment through subsequent overseas distribution, video channels and television platforms.
The North American box office is less than 50 million U.S. dollars, which means that Columbia Pictures will have a hard time recovering the entire total cost of 90 million U.S. dollars during the entire effective film release cycle of the film, which lasts from 5 to 7 years.
Drawing on the lessons of "Ambition," it is clear that Hollywood will not be able to get involved in similar themes for a long time in the future.
Tom Cruise's already declining popularity was also severely impacted by the failure of "Terra".
Next, the Hollywood actor can only return to the low-budget field.
It is true that low-budget movies can make a big impact out of small things. However, among the hundreds of low-budget movies produced in Hollywood every year, less than one tenth of them can really make a big impact out of small things.
Moreover, as usual, Cruise can only fail twice more in the future.
If the subsequent two consecutive films fail to sell well, the other party's popularity will decline.
The three movies in the DC Cinematic Universe that have been released, "Batman Begins", which had a box office of US$82.39 million in its first week; "The Dark Knight", which had a box office of US$102.07 million in its first week; and "The Flash", which had a box office of US$102.07 million in its first week. The box office was US$72.86 million.
"Wonder Woman"'s first-week performance among these four movies was second only to "The Dark Knight".
Moreover, "The Dark Knight" obviously has the popularity bonus of the sequel. If this factor is not taken into account and only the first film is counted, "Wonder Woman" has the highest ranking in the three movies of "Batman Begins" and "The Flash" Among them, it is undoubtedly the highest.
As a DC movie universe project that was not optimistic in advance because it was a female-led superhero movie, the first-week results of "Wonder Woman" really surprised many people.
In the original agreement, "Wonder Woman" was jointly invested by Daenerys and Warner Bros., and Daenerys was responsible for distribution.
Even with half the investment in the film, Terry Semel half-truthfully complained about Simon's favoritism during a phone call.
The box office of "Wonder Woman" exceeded US$90 million in its first week, and it is almost certain that the total box office in North America will exceed US$300 million.
Among the three series premieres, although the North American box office of "The Flash" reached 250 million US dollars, it is obviously the lowest both in terms of opening and expected box office.
Compared to "Superman," who personally rushed to Australia to work on "Superman" just after filming started, Simon was simply "indifferent" to the original "Flash."
Moreover, the comparison between "The Flash" and "Wonder Woman" is not just about the box office, there is also a big difference in the sales of peripheral products between the two projects.
With the hit release of "Wonder Woman", the original soundtrack album was released simultaneously. In just one week, it became a hit because of Diana Prince's own background music. 870,000 copies were sold in seven days. It is expected that in the future It is no problem for the total sales volume to exceed 10 million.
The sales of character dolls and Wonder Woman weapons and props in the movie also far exceeded that of the original "The Flash".
Among them, 10,000 sets of limited-edition Amazon female warrior figures were sold out within a week, even though they were priced at US$1,000. This alone brought in US$10 million in revenue.
Is Simon partial
Of course.
Simon originally hoped to exchange half of the investment rights in "Superman" for half of the investment rights in "The Flash" and "Cyborg". This was actually a very cost-effective deal, but Simon's proposal was ultimately rejected by Warner.
In order to maintain the unity of the DC movie universe, Simon still accepted these two superheroes. As a producer with a strong voice, Simon actually put enough energy into these two projects.
However, it is unrealistic for him to treat "The Flash" and "Cyborg" as carefully as "Batman", "Wonder Woman" and "Superman".
After the first week, on June 12, two new films were released in North American theaters, namely "Brothers and Brothers" produced by Warner Bros. and "Reincarnation" released by Columbia Pictures' Tristar Company.
"Brothers and Brothers" is a comedy, and "Soldiers" is an action film starring two male stars, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
However, just looking at the opening scale, the two films are basically cannon fodder that was left behind after "Wonder Woman". "Brothers in Need" only opened on 1,140 screens, and "Reincarnation" only opened on 1,281 screens. Paint the screen. The combined opening scale of both films is not as big as that of "Wonder Woman."
Warner Bros. and Columbia probably chose this release strategy because they didn’t want to give up on this summer release, but they also had no confidence in these two films.
However, under the crushing popularity of "Wonder Woman", the two films that were already regarded as cannon fodder failed to make any splash after their release.
At the end of its second week of release, "Wonder Woman"'s box office dropped only 25%, collecting another $68.39 million.
In two weeks, the cumulative box office of this superhero blockbuster has reached US$159.51 million, directly surpassing all movies released in 1992 and ranking first in the annual box office list.