Simon believed that as long as the Hearst family did not lose their minds, things would end there.
A family that has been around for hundreds of years may be deeply rooted, but it will inevitably lose its spirit.
It is now difficult for the Hearst Group to recklessly make "initiatives" such as provoking the Spanish-American War. When encountering an opponent who does not follow common sense and is powerful enough, it is inevitable that some of them will feel that they are porcelain. The tiles are timid and timid.
What's more, this time the opponent is not a tile, but more like an iron lump.
In the following days, news came from North America that William Hester III had fired most of his servants. Not only was the matter reported in the newspapers, but some people also tried to initiate a lawsuit.
Apparently the Hearst family also reacted.
Of course, it would cost Hearst $1 million to bribe the people around Simon. If Simon bribes the people around Simon to deliver gifts to the Hearst family, the price would be much cheaper.
There were also newspapers focusing on anecdotes that reported that a man and woman in San Francisco were abducted by aliens while on a date and woke up thousands of miles away in a remote seaport town in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, sitting in their original In the car.
It's winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and Tierra del Fuego is already within the Antarctic Circle.
Rumor has it that the two people who had been comatose for a week were extremely weak when they woke up, and even almost froze to death. Many people in the seaport town testified that they saw with their own eyes the white Toyota sedan with the San Francisco photo hanging on it and the two people in the car who were in extremely embarrassed condition.
It’s just that the news was quickly dissipated before it spread on a large scale.
It seemed that a big hand was preventing the incident from getting further. Even the photos taken by residents of the Tierra del Fuego seaport town were bought, and the identities of the man and woman were never exposed.
Apparently, another evil government is monopolizing news about alien abductions.
Traditional media cannot obtain more information. Many mysterious incident forums on the Internet discuss the matter in a formal manner, and some people call on the federal government to disclose the truth.
Naturally, there was no response.
Simon and his wife arrived in Melbourne on June 15 and set out to return on June 25.
At the same time, another box office week passed from June 18 to June 24.
"Superman", which was in its third week of release, saw its decline shrink to 32% this week and continued to earn US$41.33 million, easily crowning the single-week box office champion. The cumulative box office in three weeks officially exceeded US$200 million, reaching US$214.76 million.
The second place on the list is not the most watched "Phantom Hero", but the romance film "Sleepless in Seattle" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, which has been spreading word of mouth. This romance film, which opened with a screen size of 2,369, relied on its excellent reputation and popularity to earn a box office of 33.81 million U.S. dollars in the first seven days, with a box office average of 14,000 U.S. dollars.
The most complicated thing for other Hollywood studios is probably the cost of "Sleepless in Seattle."
As a romance film, although Tom Hanks's salary reached the first-line level of US$8 million, the final cost of the film was only US$25 million.
The box office in the first week alone has exceeded the production cost of the film. Considering the long-term nature of the topical romance film, the film opened with 33.81 million U.S. dollars. It is not difficult for the total local box office to exceed 100 million. Daenerys Entertainment and Disney only made it through the local box office. Can make a lot of money.
"Phantom Hero", which ranks third on this week's charts, is in sharp contrast to "Sleepless in Seattle".
With a production cost of US$85 million and a publicity budget of US$30 million, the box office in the first seven days was only US$21.93 million, and the average opening price did not even reach US$10,000.
Contrary to the sluggish box office, the film's reputation was also dismal.
The media generally predicts that the box office drop of "Phantom Hero" will reach more than 40% in the second week, and the final North American box office is likely to be only about 50 million US dollars.
With a total investment of US$115 million and an expected North American box office of US$50 million, it is obvious that the project's huge losses are unavoidable. Even if Schwarzenegger's overseas box office appeal can double the overseas box office to 100 million U.S. dollars, Columbia Pictures can only recover more than 60 million U.S. dollars. At least in the next year, Columbia will bear a huge loss of at least 50 million U.S. dollars.
With the huge losses of "Phantom Heroes", Sony could no longer let go of the film company it had originally invested heavily in, and proactively dispatched a working team to Los Angeles. Hollywood media predicts that Peter Cooper, who is in charge of Columbia Pictures, is not far away from stepping down.
The last new film, "Terror", which opened last week, had a box office of US$11.69 million in its first week. Compared with the opening scale of 1,517 screens, the box office average was US$7,705. The box office performance was not too bad, but it was also Far inferior to the film "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" three years ago.
Based on the film's opening box office and word-of-mouth status, it is initially predicted that the film's total box office in North America will be around US$30 million.
The production budget of "Thriller" is US$12 million, and the North American box office is US$30 million. In such a popular summer season, it obviously did not meet New World Pictures' expectations. However, the project's profitability is certain.
On June 25, the day Simon returned to North America, three new films were released in the summer season, including Disney's "Superstar" starring Michael Fox, and MGM's "The Edge" starring Nick Kidman. and "What's Love Got to Do With It," a musical biopic of rock star Tina Turner produced by Highgate Pictures.
"Superstar" and "Body Heat" are both typical commercial films in the summer season. Simon is more concerned about the Tina Turner biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It" produced by Gomen Pictures.
Tina Turner, a female rock singer who is over 50 years old this year, can be described as a typical late bloomer. As a mixed-race descendant of blacks and Indians, Tina Turner started her career at the age of 16. It was not until the early 1980s that she had a taste of success. The singer was already over 40 years old at the time.
Then it became popular throughout the 1980s, during which time it also appeared in "Mad Max 3" starring Mel Gibson.
The film "What's Love Got to Do With It" is not about Tina Turner's experience after she became famous, but her 16-year bumpy marriage. The singer married her mentor and salesperson Ike Turner at the age of 16. , the marriage lasted for 16 years, during which Ike Turner abused Tina Turner for a long time. After the last conflict, the actress finally decided to leave, and she did not even get a share of the property during their marriage.
Later, when many people thought that without the resources and channels of Ike Turner, Tina Turner would never recover. After a few years of silence, Tina Turner, who was over 40 years old, became popular again, and she became very popular. Purple surprised everyone.
"What's Love Got to Do With It" was one of Tina Turner's best-selling album singles in the 1980s. Because it fit the theme of the story, it happened to be used as the title of this movie.
Musical biopics are a very important subject in Hollywood. However, the box office failure of "The Doors", a film about the Doors directed by Oliver Stone two years ago, was just around the corner. When "What's Love Got to Do With It" was originally proposed, Highgate Pictures The team is not sure whether the project will be successful. The film's budget is US$15 million, which is not high at the Hollywood level and is not low for Gaomen Pictures, which specializes in low-cost literary films.
In the end, it was Simon himself who made the final decision.
It's a risk.
Because there is not much information about this movie in my memory, the movie obviously did not reach the level of a big hit. However, with an investment of US$15 million, Gaomen Pictures is enough to bear the loss even if it fails at the box office.
Due to the uncertainty about the film's box office prospects, "What's Love Got to Do with It" opened on only 107 screens, which is a very conservative distribution strategy in this summer season.
In the end, "What's Love Got to Do with It" did not disappoint at the box office.
In just the first three days of its opening weekend, the average ticket sales exceeded US$17,000. From June 25 to July 1, the ticket sales of "What's Love Got to Do With It" in the first seven days of the show exceeded US$33,000, and it only relied on 107 screens. It took in a box office of US$3.61 million.
You know, the Disney comedy "Superstar" released at the same time opened on 1,366 screens, ten times more than "What's Love Got to Do with It", and its box office in the first seven days was only US$4.39 million.
"Body Heat" starring Nick Kidman had the best box office performance among the three new films in the same period, with a box office of 16.38 million US dollars in its first week, exceeding MGM's expectations. The film's total North American box office is expected to be 4,000 US dollars. Between 10,000 and 50 million US dollars. The production budget of "Body Heat" is US$20 million, and the promotion budget is US$8 million. The total investment in production and promotion can be basically recovered just by relying on the North American box office.
In terms of old films, after two consecutive weeks of sharp declines of more than 30%, the box office decline of "Superman" finally narrowed to 23% in its fourth week of release. It earned US$31.83 million this week and remained the single-week box office champion for the fourth consecutive week. Location. In four weeks, the film's cumulative box office revenue reached US$346.59 million.
Because none of the three new films this week were strong, the box office of "Sleepless in Seattle" dropped only 21% in the second week, earning another US$26.72 million.
Within two weeks of filming, the cumulative box office of "Sleepless in Seattle" reached US$60.53 million. The project has now begun to achieve profitability. The film's total North American box office is expected to reach US$120 million to US$130 million, becoming another local Hollywood film in 1993. Works that grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office.
Moreover, with the success of "Sleepless in Seattle", the video tape of the old Hollywood classic romance "The Golden Alliance", which was frequently mentioned in the film, suddenly became popular.
In just two weeks after the film was released, 300,000 boxes of the "Golden Alliance" video tape were quickly sold. In this unexpected video tape sales event, Blockbuster relied on Nancy Brill's continuous optimization of the corporate information feedback system. , responded immediately. In the past two weeks, more than 200,000 of the 300,000 boxes of "Golden Jade League" video tapes were sold or rented through Blockbuster channels.
Of course, the biggest winner is Fox, which holds the copyright to "The Golden Alliance".
300,000 video tapes were sold in two weeks. With the popularity of "Sleepless in Seattle", the total sales of "Jade League" video tapes are expected to reach 2 million boxes. Fox has made tens of millions of dollars in profits. . "The Hollywood Reporter" even teased that "Jade" may be Fox's most profitable movie this summer.
In Simon's opinion, this is almost true.
Fox has a total of four new film releases planned for this summer. The original 3D animated film "Once Upon a Time in the Woods" has ended in failure, and the other three films are not the blockbuster projects that Simon remembers.
On July 2nd, North American theaters entered the most important week of the summer. Although this year’s Independence Day holiday falls on Sunday, as usual, North American audiences’ enthusiasm for watching movies will increase significantly during this week.
"Sugar-Coated Trap", which was self-invested and distributed by Daenerys Films, was released on this day, opening on 2,393 screens.
The other two new films are both heavyweights.
"Sunrise" produced by Fox, starring Sean Connery, has a production budget of US$35 million and an opening screen count of 2,177.
The comedy "Honeymooners" produced by TriStar, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, stars Mike Myers. It is also the star's first film outside of the "Old Man" series, with a budget of US$20 million. The number of painted screens is 1731.
In addition, after earning an average of US$33,000 in the first week, "What's Love Got to Do with It" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's Gaomen Pictures, the number of screening screens this week has also increased directly from 107 to 863. It is planned to It will reach about 1,500 yuan in the middle and next week.
Competition has intensified significantly, and "Superman", which had maintained the weekly box office champion for four weeks, was finally squeezed out of the first place.
However, from July 2 to July 8, affected by the significant increase in the number of moviegoers during the Independence Day holiday, the single-week decline of "Superman" narrowed to 19% again. In its fifth week of release, it collected another US$25.76 million, with a cumulative box office of 2 72.35 billion, and is expected to exceed the 300 million mark within the next two weeks.
As a result, the Warner Bros. distribution team has adjusted the total North American box office forecast for "Superman" to a range of US$350 million to US$370 million.
Of the three new films that opened on July 2, "Sunrise" starring Sean Connery and "Honeymoon Danger" starring Mike Myers seemed most likely to be a hit, but it turned out that Keanu was the most successful. ·"Sugar-coated Trap" starring Reeves achieved the highest box office, and pushed "Superman" out of the single-week box office championship.
In its first week, relying on the popularity of the original novel and the US$20 million promotional budget directly invested by Daenerys Pictures, the seven-day box office of "Sugar-Coated Trap" reached US$36.18 million in the first week. As a large-scale commercial film, it achieved a very successful box office average of 15,000 US dollars.
From the bad boy boyfriend in "Run Lola Run" to the cute boy in "The Adventures of Abby" to the tough guy in "Point Break", this time, Keanu Reeves has successfully created another character. The image of a struggling and conflicted lawyer.
With the success of "Sugar-Coated Trap", the well-informed Hollywood media will inevitably add fuel to the fire or fan the flames, saying that Keanu Reeves has replaced Tom Cruise's popular niche position in the 1980s.
As long as the North American box office of "Sugar-Coated Trap" exceeds 100 million, this matter will basically become a fact.
With a box office of US$36.18 million in its first week, "Sugar-Coated Trap" has no doubts that it will exceed 100 million US dollars.
In comparison, despite the brilliance of "Top Gun", Tom Cruise's downward trend in recent years has been very obvious, and there are no new movies released this summer.
Sean Connery's "Sunrise" opened behind "Sugar" and "Superman" and ranked third on the list during the Independence Day holiday. It earned US$22.08 million in the first seven days. The specific box office The outlook also depends on the subsequent trend.
Mike Myers' "Honeymooners" is a complete failure.
In the first seven days of its opening, "Honeymoon Danger" only grossed US$5.36 million at the box office, and the average box office gross was less than US$3,000, which was far lower than the producer's expectations. It is expected to be released in theaters in two weeks.
Mike Myers was originally still looking for the box office performance of "Honeymoon Danger" in order to gain more initiative in the salary negotiation for the third part of "Dangerous". With the failure of "Honeymoon Danger", he was unable to prove that he was in "Honeymoon Danger". In addition to the box office appeal of the "The Stars" series, this comedy actor not only failed to gain the initiative he wanted, but became even more passive.