Friday, June 17th.
Another box office week has arrived, with "The Dark Knight Rises" entering its third week of release, and box office momentum has slowed further.
The two new films released in North American theaters this week have been planned for a long time. They are the horror film "The Conjuring" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures and "The Conjuring", the sequel to Columbia Pictures' 1991 blockbuster comedy "City Hillbilly". City Hillbillies 2".
As the first installment of the planned 'Conjuring Cinematic Universe', Simon has been personally following up on the project.
The production cost of "The Conjuring" was only US$15 million. After the film was completed, after multiple internal test screenings to confirm media and audience feedback, the film's publicity budget was approved by Simon to reach US$30 million, which is equivalent to twice the production cost.
Hollywood movie promotion budgets are usually only half of the production budget.
As a non-sequel film, Daenerys Entertainment is the only one in Hollywood who has such confidence and courage to invest twice the production budget in one go.
In fact, it is mainly because Simon hopes to open up the market situation of 'The Conjuring Movie Universe' as soon as possible.
As long as it can successfully open up a new movie universe series, this investment of up to 45 million US dollars in a horror film is completely worth it.
Relying on a sufficient publicity budget, "The Conjuring" withstood the strong edge of "The Dark Knight Rises" and still won sufficient audience attention in the previous months.
It’s just that on the Internet platform, the number of views of the "The Conjuring" movie trailer on the Igrit Portal is second only to "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" among a series of heavyweight new movie trailers this summer, and has been rated as 1994 by many entertainment media The most terrifying horror movie trailer of the year.
Although the New World Pictures team adhered to Simon's instructions and did not announce the ambition of the "Conjuring Cinematic Universe" in advance, the gimmick of "The Conjuring" based on the real-life transformation of the paranormal investigators Warren and his wife has been widely circulated on the Internet platform, and is specially recommended by Amazon's online store. Several books about the Warrens' life experiences once entered the best-seller list.
Taking advantage of the opportunity that audience expectations have begun to shift after the release of "The Dark Knight Rises", after intensive promotion in the past two weeks, "The Conjuring" also held a grand premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on June 15.
On June 16, the film’s word-of-mouth ban was lifted.
North American mainstream media gave almost overwhelmingly positive reviews.
"The Hollywood Reporter" praised "The Conjuring" for perfectly tapping into the deepest fears of the audience, making it even more chilling than the psychological horror of "The Ring".
"Variety" also gave a very high evaluation: "One of the most perfect horror films in Hollywood. There is no mystery or deliberate elaboration. The audience feels as if their heart is being grasped by an invisible hand, and they are scared to the end."
Not only that, many media outlets specifically mentioned at the end of their film review articles the slogan on the poster of "The Conjuring" that was almost a gimmick but was actually a very serious one: Heart disease patients, please watch with caution! Most people have a rebellious mentality. Even if they understand that this reminder is a promotional tool for Daenerys Entertainment, many viewers still subconsciously want to verify whether "The Conjuring" can really scare them into having a heart attack.
According to preliminary statistics, the comprehensive media score after the premiere of "The Conjuring" also reached an excellent 8.6 points, which also gave more people the idea of going to the theater to find out.
Movie marketing, in the final analysis, is about finding ways to stimulate the audience's desire to watch movies.
The New World Pictures team's series of promotional techniques have accomplished this perfectly. The audience's tendency to watch the film has been mobilized to the highest level before the film is released on a large scale.
As the most direct competitor this week, Columbia Pictures is tightly holding on to the reputation of "City Hillbilly 2" until the opening day on Friday.
June 17th.
"The Conjuring" officially opened in North American theaters with 2,362 screens.
The opening screen size of "City Hillbilly 2" also reached 2,243.
Then, compared to the overwhelming media praise received by "The Conjuring", the sequel to the comedy movie starring Billy Crystal, which created a domestic box office of 123 million US dollars three years ago, has a direct collapse in media reputation. Friday's comprehensive review The media score was only a pitiful 1.8 points, and few media outlets had good words for this film.
Among them, the film critic of "Newsweek" even scathingly ridiculed "Hillbilly 2" as "a meaningless and shabby sequel. I wonder how the film's creators concentrated on completing such a terrible job."
There is never an absolute positive correlation between the reputation and box office of Hollywood movies.
Because the movie market always has a fixed demand for movie viewing at any time, if there are no other strong movies in the same period, a sequel such as "City Hillbilly 2" that has the popularity of its predecessor can still attract many viewers to buy tickets even if it has a poor reputation. field.
However, this time "Hillbilly 2" directly bumped into "The Conjuring" which has a very good reputation, not to mention "The Dark Knight Rises" which is still very popular in the third week of release. For viewers, whether they choose the new film "The Conjuring" or watch "The Dark Knight Rises" which is definitely worth the ticket price, it is obviously more cost-effective than watching a bad movie with a media score of only 1.8. .
As a result, "City Hillbilly 2", which had a production budget of up to 40 million U.S. dollars and was expected to recoup at least 30 to 50 million in box office without fierce competition, was directly overwhelmed by "The Conjuring" and "The Dark Knight Rises."
June 17th to June 23rd.
"The Dark Knight Rises" easily achieved three consecutive crowns. After last week's box office halving, the film's decline narrowed to 27% this week, collecting another 47.51 million U.S. dollars. The cumulative box office reached 240.23 million U.S. dollars, becoming the first in 1994. This is a movie with a domestic box office of over 200 million US dollars.
"The Conjuring" ranks second on the charts.
Even though it was expected, the film's opening box office results clearly exceeded many people's expectations.
In its first seven days, "The Conjuring" opened with a box office of US$42.39 million, becoming the second movie in 1994 to have a box office of over US$40 million in its first week. Prior to this, apart from the phenomenal "The Dark Knight Rises", the highest opening box office performance this year was only $36.61 million for "Stargate".
Many media outlets exclaimed after the film's box office figures were released that "The Conjuring" would become another "The Sixth Sense" or "The Exorcist." Simon has no such extravagant expectations. To be precise, "The Conjuring" tends to be a perfect commercial movie and a model of classic marketing operation. It has not reached the phenomenon-level movie viewing trend of "The Sixth Sense" a few years ago and the earlier "The Exorcist".
Even so, with only a box office of 42.39 million US dollars in the first week, Daenerys Entertainment has already recovered a large part of the total investment of 45 million US dollars. There is no suspense about the film's local box office exceeding 100 million, and it can even reach 150 million to 200 million. billion dollar range.
Simon personally intervened and approved a publicity budget equal to twice the production cost. The most fundamental expectation is that the "Conjuring Cinematic Universe" will get off to a good start. As for the box office, it is best to exceed 100 million. If it cannot exceed 100 million, as long as it can reach the hot-selling level of 60 million to 80 million US dollars, the project will be considered qualified and the series can proceed smoothly.
Now, North America alone has a box office potential of 150 million to 200 million U.S. dollars. The film's global success is just around the corner. Daenerys Entertainment has directly achieved a great start in the 'Conjuring Cinematic Universe'.
After the first week's box office was released, Simon instructed New World Pictures president Danny Morris to start promoting the concept of "The Conjuring Cinematic Universe" to warm up the first spin-off of the series "The Haunting of the Morgue" for Halloween at the end of the year. .
"City Hillbillies 2" ranks third on the list.
However, compared to the box office success of "The Conjuring", the opening box office of "Hillbilly 2" can only be described as dismal. In the first seven days of its first week, this sequel to a comedy movie, which cost US$40 million to produce and invested US$20 million in promotion and distribution, only recovered US$9.25 million at the box office, with the average box office barely exceeding US$4,000.
The most striking comparative data is that the total box office of "City 2" in the first week and seven days is not even as good as the opening day of "The Conjuring". This opening film in the Conjuring movie universe only achieved great success on the day of its release on June 17. It took in a box office of US$9.73 million.
After Sony personally took over the operation of Columbia Pictures, it began to change the profligate style of Peter Cooper's period. This "City Hillbilly 2" was cautious in the project establishment and promotion, but in the end it could not escape the fate of another failure.
"Speed of Life and Death" ranks relatively firmly at No. 4 on the list.
In its fifth week of release, the film's box office dropped by 24%, taking in another US$8.31 million, bringing the total box office to US$88.49 million.
"Mobilization of Heavenly Soldiers" ranked fifth.
Disney's comedy film, which tried to replicate the success of "Good Morning Vietnam," saw a box office drop of 26% the next week. However, due to such a low start, the box office in a single week was only US$6.11 million. After two weeks of release, the film's cumulative box office was US$14.31 million, and its average theater average has also dropped to a low of US$3,412. The number of screening screens will be significantly reduced in the next week.
In addition to the top five on the list, it is worth mentioning that Daenerys Entertainment's "Stargate" was released on May 13. The film successfully crossed the 100 million yuan box office threshold this week, with a single-week revenue of 4.13 million US dollars. , the cumulative box office reached 100.69 million US dollars.
On the other hand, Daenerys Entertainment's low-brow comedy "Phantom", released during the Easter period, was officially released this week. The film has been released in North American theaters for 11 weeks, with a total domestic box office of 97.63 million US dollars, only 2.37 million US dollars away from breaking 100 million. Thousands of dollars difference.
However, neither Simon, who personally intervened in the film's release, nor the other management of Daenerys Entertainment are regretful that "Planet" failed to achieve over 100 million.
Even on purpose.
And not just to stifle Jim Carrey's momentum.
Mainly because so far in the first half of 1994, even excluding "The Dark Knight Rises", which was released by Warner Bros., there have been three movies in the North American market with local box office exceeding 100 million, including the Valentine's Day movie "The Dark Knight Rises." "Four Weddings and a Funeral," summer starter "Stargate" and DC's super blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises," two of which are entirely owned by Daenerys Entertainment.
As for the most dazzling "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises", no one will ignore the phoenix rising from the ashes logo that follows the Warner title during the film's theatrical screening.
If "Phantom" also achieves a box office of over 100 million, it will be almost equivalent to Daenerys Entertainment having produced 4 local blockbusters with a box office of over 100 million this year.
If it's just like this, it's okay.
The key is that no other Hollywood studio has had a blockbuster with a box office of over 100 million so far.
From the beginning of the summer season to now, several films such as Warner Bros.'s "Marvelous", Disney's "The Go-Go" and Columbia Pictures' "City 2" all have the ambition to hit the billion-dollar box office club, but it's a pity that , either born at the wrong time, or too disappointing.
Simon can't possibly buy box office for others just to make his own house look less dazzling, right
Therefore, we can only 'start' from ourselves.
Directly withdrawing "The Detective" and limiting the local box office of the film to within the 100 million yuan threshold. Two and a half movies that have exceeded 100 million yuan will always appear less dazzling than three and a half movies that have exceeded 100 million yuan.
However, this kind of 'little action' can only keep Daenerys' entertainment low-key for a while.
With the box office momentum of "The Conjuring", there is no doubt that the domestic box office will quickly exceed 100 million. Not only that, but there is also a potential super blockbuster coming out on July 1st, "Forrest Gump". After "Forrest Gump", there is also the 'half' of "True Lies", which is a film co-produced by Daenerys Entertainment and Fox.
Doing the math, this is another two and a half parts.
As for other film companies, Simon specially sorted out the summer film list after the box office of "The Conjuring" was released.
In addition to several movies related to Daenerys Entertainment, the next more important movies include "Beverly Cop 3" produced by Paramount on June 24, and "Beverly Cop 3" produced by Columbia on July 1 starring Jack Nicholson. On July 8, Warner Bros. produced the romance film "I Love Trouble" starring Julia Roberts, and Paramount produced "The Pursuit" starring Harrison Ford on July 22. etc.
Among them, only "The Pursuit" in Simon's memory achieved a box office of over 100 million.
However, this time, it will be "The Wire" starring two movie kings, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, that will directly collide with "Pursuit" on July 22. This is another movie Film produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
The previous "Hot Wire" was placed in the unseasonable Christmas season at the end of the year. Although it did not achieve a box office of over 100 million, it was still a hit.
This time, as one of the most classic police films in Hollywood history, "The Wire" was released in the summer. Although the opening date is relatively late, the end of the summer season when competition is no longer fierce is just right for this film to be close to the same length. The three-hour movie relied on word-of-mouth to slowly harvest the box office and experienced a series of blockbusters. Many viewers were happy to enter the theater to savor the peak showdown between the two veteran movie kings.
Therefore, "The Pursuit" VS "The Wire", the two strong forces collide. Even though "The Wire" has a short film length disadvantage, it cannot threaten "The Pursuit", but squeezing the other party's box office space is inevitable.
To be fair, Simon very much hopes that "Pursuit" can achieve a local box office of over 100 million, and he does not even mind slightly suppressing the promotion momentum of "The Wire" for this purpose.
As a result, there are four films that have exceeded 100 million ostensibly released by other film companies in the summer, "The Dark Knight Rises", "Speed", "True Lies" and "The Pursuit", which coincides with Daenerys Entertainment's four billion-dollar club films, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Stargate," "The Conjuring" and "Forrest Gump," are on par, and everyone will enjoy the scenes better.
However, if "The Pursuit" is not as good as "Marvel", Simon will have nothing to do.