The Independence Day holiday is over and a new box office week begins on July 9. There are still three new films in North American theaters.
Paramount's fantasy comedy "Spikehead" starring former "Ghostbusters" actor Dan Aykroyd opened on 2,117 screens.
"Justin's Poetry" produced by Columbia Pictures is an all-black team drama directed by John Singleton, a black director who was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director last year for "Boys on the Block" and Michael Jackson's Starring sister Janet Jackson, the story tells the story of Justines, a hairdresser starring Janet Jackson, who struggles to get out of underestimation and start a new life after her boyfriend is killed by a revenge seeker. The film opened on 1365 screens.
Fox's "The Kid with the Golden Arm" is a fantasy baseball-themed family comedy that tells the story of a little boy who accidentally acquires supernatural powers and becomes a baseball master. It opened on 1,460 screens in its first week.
The summer season is now underway, and this year's heavyweight films have basically landed in theaters.
Including this week's three new films, in the second half of the summer season, except for next week's "Grannet" co-produced by Daenerys and Warner Bros., other projects have not made a deep impression on Simon's memory, and there is the possibility of a box office dark horse. Very little sex.
This actually means that as long as the reputation and popularity of films released before July 9 are good enough, they will be able to have a very beautiful box office curve in the following days of the summer season.
However, according to statistics, this summer, there are only three movies that have been confirmed or are expected to enter the 100 million yuan box office club, namely "Superman", "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Sugar-coated Trap".
Among them, "Superman" is completely out of reach for other Hollywood studios and can only be envied and hated. Compared with "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Sugar-coated Trap", they are normal.
Of course, all three of the three billion-dollar films were produced by Daenerys Entertainment. Even though two of them are considered collaborative projects, Simon Westeros' precise vision for investing in movies still makes many people feel mixed emotions.
In fact, there are many projects trying to hit the 100 million yuan box office club this summer.
Columbia's "The Last Stand," Warner Bros.'s "Made in America," Disney's "Super Mario Bros.," Paramount's "The Addams Family Values," Columbia's "Phantom Heroes," Columbia's "Honeymoon Danger" , Fox's "Rising Sun", seven movies, either blockbusters with big investment and big production, super game IP, sequels of previous blockbuster movies, or big comedies whose previous movies achieved super high box office. It can be said that whether it is project investment, creative lineup or promotion scale, they are all aimed at the North American box office exceeding 100 million.
It's just that the results are unsatisfactory.
Projects such as Whoopi Goldberg's "American Made" and Fox's "Rising Sun" actually ended well. Although there is no hope of breaking over 100 million, the relatively considerable box office can allow the studio to reap good profits. Projects such as Disney's "Super Mario Bros." or Columbia Pictures' "Phantom Heroes" have resulted in huge production and budget losses for the studios.
Ultimately, movie investing is a risky gamble.
Simon, the cheater, can definitely catch a good hand in advance, and other players can only try their luck. Other Hollywood studios are clearly having bad luck this summer.
In a market with limited capacity, Daenerys Entertainment’s good cards will inevitably suppress other players because of the ebb and flow of one thing and the other.
Without a hit like "Superman", other studios might be able to pick the generals even if their cards are worse. Projects such as "The Last Stand" might even achieve a box office of over 100 million in North America. The reality is that due to the impact of the phenomenal "Superman", the box office of many films is much lower than in history.
The most typical one is "Jue Ling Xiong Feng".
In the original time and space, the US$70 million "Jumanji" grossed more than US$80 million at the North American box office and earned 250 million globally. It basically recovered the production cost and achieved a small profit.
This time, under attack from "Superman", as of July 8, the cumulative box office of "Jumanji" was only 66.39 million US dollars, and the single-week box office volume from July 2 to July 8 was only 1.59 million US dollars. US dollars, it is expected that it will be difficult to even bury the 70 million threshold before the next cut.
And this is just the United States.
"Superman"'s suppression of other Hollywood films in overseas markets is even more obvious.
Even if it has not yet been released in several important box office locations such as France and Germany, in the past month, the cumulative box office of "Superman" in many overseas countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Italy, and Australia, which basically opened at the same time, has also been It quickly broke through the US$300 million mark with unstoppable momentum.
The capacity of overseas markets is also limited.
"Superman" alone has a strong box office of more than 300 million U.S. dollars. The DC movie universe blockbusters created by Daenerys Entertainment have whetted their appetites. Stars such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger, who were originally very popular in overseas markets, Coffee's new films are inevitably left out.
This time, "The Last Stand" starring Stallone, the cumulative overseas box office as of early July was less than 50 million U.S. dollars, and it is expected that it will barely exceed 100 million U.S. dollars after the distribution is fully rolled out. Therefore, the North American box office of "Jumanji" is about 70 million, and the overseas box office is counted as 100 million. The total global box office is expected to be only 170 million US dollars.
By convention, a movie's global box office must reach about three times its production budget to break even.
Obviously, the estimated total global box office of "Jumanji" of US$170 million cannot allow Columbia Pictures to recoup its US$70 million production budget and equally large investment in publicity and distribution. The producers can only rely on video tapes and other channels to slowly recoup the early investment. Huge investment.
As for projects such as "Super Mario Bros." and "Phantom Heroes," the endings were even more bleak.
In the past two years, tough guy action blockbusters starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and other stars have failed continuously, making Hollywood more and more aware that this type of film is gradually being eliminated from the market. trend.
Moreover, special effects blockbusters such as the DC Movie Universe and "Jurassic Park" should be the future of Hollywood. The profits from one DC Cinematic Universe project or "Jurassic Park" are enough to equal the profits of other studios for an entire year.
Considering market demand, many technology companies have begun to get involved in the field of movie special effects software, but compared with Daenerys special effects, there is a big gap.
It can be said that in the next few years, if Hollywood wants to produce special effects blockbusters, it will basically have to cooperate with Daenerys' special effects.
Daenerys' special effects have maintained a posture of external cooperation in recent years, but other film companies are not naive enough to think that Simon will really open up the technology to them. Once a project emerges that threatens Daenerys' entertainment, it is almost inevitable to be suppressed.
Moreover, the scale of Daenerys's special effects at this stage, even including the rapidly developing Australian special effects branch, is actually only enough to meet the needs of Daenerys Entertainment itself and its cooperation projects with other studios. If other studios If you want to get full support for Daenerys' special effects, you don't even need to deliberately find excuses, because you simply can't do it.
For special effects movies, everyone can only catch up a little bit.
At this stage, we still have to consider immediate matters.
Fox has been working on a new movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger recently.
This is a remake of the French film "Totally Feminine" called "True Lies", which tells the story of a federal agent who has to hide his identity from his family for professional reasons.
Fox signed a film contract with Schwarzenegger and James Cameron in March of the year when "Phantom Hero" was still in its advanced stages. Arnold received a salary of US$15 million equivalent to that of "Phantom Hero" this time.
Signing a film contract with a studio in advance before a movie is released is actually a strategy used by many stars.
With the film contract in hand, even if the project fails, there will still be a chance for a comeback.
After all, the probability of a Hollywood movie failing is often much higher than the probability of being a box office hit. Mike Myers' "Dangerous Honeymoon" released during the Independence Day holiday is the most direct case. Myers originally hoped to rely on this new film to prove his box office appeal in order to gain more initiative in negotiations with Daenerys Entertainment for "Toy Fighter 3".
As a result, "Dangerous Honeymoon", which invested US$20 million, only grossed US$5.36 million at the box office in its first week. Columbia Pictures provided as many as 1,731 screens for this comedy. As a result, the movie's average box office was less than US$3,000, which was completely two The project's total North American box office is expected to be difficult to exceed 10 million depending on the fate of the movie next week.
The total investment in production and promotion exceeded 30 million US dollars, but the box office revenue was less than 10 million US dollars. The management of Columbia was in tears.
Mike Myers deliberately delayed signing a third film contract in order to get a higher salary after the success of "Today's Tom Clancy's 2". As a result, the failure of "Dangerous Honeymoon" gave the comedy star a hard time. Ash.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is much smarter in this regard.
Or, it's mainly because Schwarzenegger's salary of up to 15 million US dollars, there is not much room for sale.
The new project contract after "Phantom Hero" was settled in advance, and it is a Pay or Play contract that requires full payment regardless of whether the movie is launched. It can be said that Fox is firmly on the Diaoyutai, which makes Fox extremely uncomfortable.
The consecutive box office failures of "Jumanji" and "Phantom Hero" in the summer have made Fox regret signing Schwarzenegger for this big-budget movie with an initial budget of US$70 million. You know, the film's director James Cameron is notorious for overspending, and Fox is almost certain that $70 million is simply not enough for Cameron.
Because Rupert Murdoch, the boss behind Fox, focuses more on the expansion of television networks and is not very interested in high-risk and low-return film investments, the "Home Alone" series that was a hit at the box office was also With Daenerys Entertainment snatched away, Fox Studios can only be described as tepid in recent years.
This time, if "True Lies", which is conservatively estimated to require an investment of 70 million US dollars, fails, Fox Film President Joe Roth can be sure that he will have no choice but to pack up and get out.
If the project is cancelled, including the investment in the early preparation process and Schwarzenegger's $15 million contract that must be paid, Fox's direct losses will exceed $20 million, which is definitely not okay.
The best way is undoubtedly to find a partner.
The projects in the hands of Hollywood's A-list stars are basically the focus of senior executives of major studios.
Simon is also no stranger to True Lies, and it wasn't like Daenerys Entertainment didn't initially have a chance to sign on to the film.
However, considering that "True Lies" had a budget of over US$100 million in my memory, although it was a hit at the box office, the price-performance ratio was really low.
More importantly, Simon is really sorry for Jamie Lee Curtis, the heroine of the original "True Lies". Curtis is not ugly, but for some reason, Simon always thinks that the other person is a man. Therefore, the dance in "True Lies" that made many young people who were exposed to Hollywood blockbusters for the first time jealous, in Simon's opinion It was really eye-catching, so I chose PASS without even reading the script when I first came across it.
It's no secret that Columbia Pictures tried to partner with Daenerys Entertainment on the Phantom Hero project last year.
The tragic failure of "Phantom Heroes", like the success of projects such as "Superman", has become another proof of Simon's excellent vision in film investment.
This time, when Fox tried to find partners to share the risks of "True Lies", the news that Simon had also passed on the project before unknowingly spread again.
Westeros turned down The Phantom Hero, a project that left Columbia Pictures with a nosebleed.
Now that Westeros has turned down True Lies, what kind of movie could it be
Fox Film President Joe Roth contacted a circle, and even contacted overseas capitals such as Carlock and Constantine who like to take advantage of them, but they encountered obstacles one after another.
As a last resort, I turned to Daenerys Entertainment.
After learning that the studio was in a dilemma due to "True Lies", Rupert Murdoch personally made several calls to Simon. News Corp. could not afford the loss of its $70 million investment. If it were like Columbia Pictures, "Phantom Heroes" suffered a big setback, and Fox Pictures will be seriously injured.
Simon wasn't interested in True Lies, but he knew the project would be profitable overall.
After some deliberation, I finally 'reluctantly' agreed to discuss the possibility of cooperation with Joe Ross.
"True Lies" is expected to be released in the summer of next year. Daenerys Entertainment's two projects for next summer, "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Forrest Gump", are enough to support the company's performance and do not need to Add another True Lies. However, after the 007 series was forced to be shelved by Simon, MGM happened to lack a blockbuster.
After personally fine-tuning the script of "True Lies", Simon also proposed his own cooperation plan.
First of all, the project is a collaboration between Fox and MGM, with each party assuming 50% of the investment.
Secondly, Fox Pictures is responsible for domestic and overseas distribution, but the distribution commission rate is only 8%.
Once again, Arnold Schwarzenegger's salary must be reduced, and the two companies can only offer 10 million US dollars. In addition, the project budget is US$70 million. Once the budget is exceeded, director James Cameron's fixed salary will be cancelled, and he will only receive 10% of the subsequent project's net profit share.
If there is a net profit.
at last!
The key point is that the heroine is decided by Simon himself.
In fact, except for the last point, the other items are just Simon raising prices.
The more demanding the requirements, the greater the pressure on both Fox and Schwarzenegger.
As for the agreement that has been reached, if Schwarzenegger insists on refusing to give in in the end, in Simon's view, this is understandable.
The spirit of the contract must still be observed.
Of course, if the project fails in the future, Schwarzenegger, who now takes a salary of 15 million US dollars but leaves a huge loss to the producer, will not be too happy in Hollywood in the future. If you can take the initiative to reduce some of the remuneration, in the final analysis, you are leaving room for yourself.
If it's too easy to agree to cooperate, it's hard to say that Fox or other Hollywood studios will not react.
Now, with Westeros's requirements being so demanding, and only MGM cooperating with Fox, it's clear that they don't have much confidence in this project.