Hollywood is a circle full of personal heroism. When you can create box office miracles, you will be the hero sought after by everyone, and the whole world will revolve around you.
However, few filmmakers in Hollywood can be treated as heroes forever.
This is another cruel side of Hollywood.
When you can no longer create miracles, it is almost instantaneous to be abandoned by everyone. In the century-old Hollywood, too many people have experienced this strong gap, so there are also many people who will do anything to maintain their own reputation.
That's probably how Steven Spielberg has been feeling lately.
The personal destiny of this veteran filmmaker who became famous with "Jaws" actually took a turn starting in the summer of 1986. Without the emergence of a certain young man, Spielberg's name would still be a Hollywood symbol until the new century.
The strong rise of Daenerys Entertainment Group has changed the fate of almost every filmmaker in Hollywood.
Steven Spielberg was undoubtedly the one most affected.
Because Hollywood's resources are limited after all, the reason why Spielberg has always been prosperous is not only his personal film talent, but the most important thing is that this filmmaker has always enjoyed Hollywood's top resources, abundant Production funds, top-notch production team, generous publicity investment, high-quality film schedule, golden theater resources, and so on.
Now, it's all been taken away by Daenerys Entertainment Group.
Ever since "Run Lola Run", the American public's attention has been attracted by the name Simon Westeros. Even in the first "Jurassic Park" three years ago, many people thought that this was mainly Weiss. Thanks to Trot's discerning eye, Spielberg, as a director and producer, was placed in second place, and later he was kicked out directly.
Since "Jaws" sent the 29-year-old Spielberg to the top of the Hollywood pyramid, this is the first time he has received such treatment in so many years.
However, what makes Spielberg even more uncomfortable is the success of "Jurassic Park 2".
When the first-day box office of "Jurassic Park 2" was released, Spielberg felt very bad. Including the midnight show, the first-day revenue of "Jurassic Park 2" was 28.79 million US dollars. This is already the total first-week box office of many blockbuster films. For For "Jurassic Park 2," it's just one day's income.
In the three days of its first weekend, the cumulative box office of this phenomenal dinosaur blockbuster finally reached US$83.16 million, directly surpassing the seven-day box office of "Jurassic Park" of US$72.17 million in its first week three years ago. The industry generally predicts that "Jurassic Park" 2" will break the single-week box office record of $113 million in the first week of last year's "The Dark Knight Rises" and once again create a new opening box office record.
There is little doubt about this.
So, even though he was very careful, when he went to Paramount Studios for a meeting on Tuesday, June 6, Spielberg was still stopped by the paparazzi who had been watching him for a long time and asked him about the box office of "Jurassic Park 2". The paparazzi were obviously prepared and deliberately stepped forward to block the collision. Spielberg, who was once protected by Hollywood, had not suffered this kind of treatment for a long time. Even though he finally suppressed his emotions and did not get angry on the spot, he was still photographed by the paparazzi. Arrived at the photo of the car with a black face.
The next day, news appeared in the media that "Spielberg left in anger after hearing the box office data of "Jurassic Park 2"."
In any circle, no matter how deep the conflicts between them are, they will not break up easily publicly unless absolutely necessary.
What's more, Daenerys Entertainment is so strong right now, and the media is adding fuel and jealousy to it, as if the two sides are already irreconcilable, which is very detrimental to both Spielberg himself and DreamWorks.
Just like the disagreements over "E.T.", after the film was successful, Spielberg deliberately added "E.T." This clause of not cooperating with the other party was written in the agreement. One can imagine Frank Price's subsequent situation in Hollywood.
This time, if the circle also believes that the contradiction between Daenerys Entertainment and Spielberg is irreconcilable, then whether actively or passively, there may be a phenomenon of choosing sides. With the current situation in Hollywood, those people It’s self-evident which side to choose. When the time comes, DreamWorks will be in trouble.
Therefore, even though he was holding back his anger, under the pressure from other DreamWorks executives and partner Paramount, Spielberg had to quickly react to the gossip and publicly issued a clarification statement, saying There was no conflict between the two parties, and they specifically mentioned that they still have a contract with Daenerys Entertainment for a legacy from the Universal era, and congratulated on the success of "Jurassic Park 2."
Daenerys Entertainment was also very generous and quickly responded in the same way. "Jurassic Park 2" director Michael Bay also praised his senior in an interview with the media.
The storm seemed to have subsided.
However, early this morning, Spielberg was still having breakfast with his family when he suddenly received bad news. CAA was approaching him for the latest science fiction script "Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton. Twister ended up in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.
The success of the consecutive "Jurassic Park" series and the "ER" TV series has made Michael Crichton famous. Many Hollywood studios hope to win each other's latest scripts.
In order to stabilize his position in Hollywood as much as possible, Spielberg took the initiative to postpone the film "Broken Tide" about the history of slave trafficking during this period, and planned to direct a blockbuster again. "Tornado" is exactly what he Fancy project. If it were a few years ago, let alone directing it personally, even if it was just a producer's name, as long as Spielberg opened his mouth, the screenwriters would cry and send the script to him.
All this scenery has become a thing of the past in a blink of an eye.
Obviously, even if DreamWorks and Paramount are willing to call for a higher offer, Michael Clayton is still more willing to hand over the project to Daenerys Entertainment Group. Daenerys's strong technical background in special effects is undoubtedly It can also perfectly present "Tornado" on the big screen.
Michael Clayton’s current position can already enjoy a higher profit share.
By handing the project over to Daenerys Entertainment, the greater the film's chances of success, and the more Clayton can gain as a screenwriter.
Spielberg didn't know about the 'Matthew Effect', but he deeply realized that the resources he could obtain in Hollywood were getting less and less.
CAA headquarters in Century City.
After hearing the news, Spielberg came here from his mansion in Palisade to see if there was any room for recovery. Michael Clayton's management contract was with CAA.
As one of CAA's most important clients, Michael Ovitz personally received him, but Ovitz was helpless in this matter.
In the 1980s, Michael Ovitz could have made Twister a package project and had a big say in which studio the project would be sold to, but that has all changed. The rise of blockbuster movies with huge investment has allowed studios to regain the initiative in film production. The strong Daenerys Entertainment is something that CAA needs to work hard to make good friends with.
Just like this time.
Michael Ovitz also tried his best to bring Clayton and Spielberg together again, but Spielberg's appeal cannot be compared with that of the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group. Forcibly handing over the script to Spielberg would not only offend Daenerys Entertainment, but also risk losing Michael Clayton, a gold client.
Of course, Michael Ovitz is not a snob who likes to act according to the prevailing circumstances.
He carefully explained this regret to Spielberg, and also introduced to him one by one several good scripts of the same type that he had personally selected at the company early. The meeting between the two lasted for an hour, and it was confirmed that there was no hope of recovery. Spielberg Ge can only leave temporarily with the scripts recommended by Ovitz, and he also knows that the CAA president has tried his best.
Today is already June 9th, Friday.
The start of another box office week.
After personally sending Spielberg into the elevator, Ovitz returned to his office and finally had time to pick up the box office report for the past week.
The box office performance of "Jurassic Park 2" that everyone is most concerned about is actually not news anymore.
In the past week, Daenerys Entertainment once again launched a very exciting marketing plan, announcing the single-day box office of the movie "Jurassic Park 2" every day on the official Facebook account. After Ovitz studied it carefully, he found that this marketing plan was absolutely brilliant.
Ordinary people actually do not lack the ambition to create miracles, but most people are often unable to do so.
Daenerys Entertainment's practice of announcing the single-day box office of "Jurassic Park 2" as soon as possible every day makes good use of the public's subtle mentality of wanting to participate in jointly creating a miracle. After the first day's box office is released, it will take the initiative to create a miracle. "Jurassic Park 2", which set a new box office record in a single week, is equivalent to a brand new box office miracle.
At the same time, the public only needs to buy a movie ticket to participate and witness this miracle, almost involuntarily. Many movie fans who had no plans to watch the movie were inevitably influenced by this topical atmosphere to buy tickets. After all, no matter what, "Jurassic Park 2" is a commercial blockbuster definitely worth watching.
Ovitz, who happens to be paying attention to the Internet industry recently, also discovered that Daenerys Entertainment provoked this marketing incident, which also further boosted the popularity of Igrit's Facebook social network.
Kill two birds with one stone.
In the end, during the first seven days from June 2 to June 8, "Jurassic Park 2" had an unstoppable box office trend. Based on the box office of 83.16 million US dollars in the first weekend, it was released for a full week and the cumulative revenue reached 1 29.13 million US dollars, which in one fell swoop increased the first-week record of US$113 million set by last year's "The Dark Knight Rises" by US$16 million.
In comparison, among the series of new films released in the past few weeks this summer, "Die Hard 3", which had the best opening performance, had a box office figure of US$29.88 million in its first week, which was only better than "Jurassic Park 2". The fraction is higher.
What makes other studios even more uncomfortable is actually the box office performance of other films impacted by "Jurassic Park 2" this week.
The first-ranked "Jurassic Park 2" had a box office of US$129.13 million in its first week.
However, the second place star Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep starred in the new film "The Bridge", which was well received by word of mouth, but the audience was not as good as "Jurassic Park 2". There were too many intersections, and the box office drop in the next week still reached 36%, with the single-week box office falling from US$15.8 million at the beginning to US$10.13 million.
If there were no "Jurassic Park 2", with the comprehensive media score of "Bridge of Lost Dreams" reaching a classic level of reputation of 9.0 points, the local box office is expected to have a very beautiful long-term development, and the total box office is expected to reach more than 70 million US dollars.
Now, judging from the box office of the next week, even if the decline next week will slow down significantly, since the single-week box office has fallen into the US$10 million range, it will probably only earn about US$30 million in the future. The cumulative local box office of the film should be 55 million. About US$15 million, a decrease of at least US$15 million.
In fact, the experience of "Bridge of Lost Dreams" has been pretty good. The production cost of this feature film was only 24 million US dollars, and the promotion and distribution was only 10 million US dollars. Just from the local box office, Warner Bros. can basically recoup all its investment, and overseas and subsequent channels can easily achieve profits.
Immediately afterwards, there is "Ghost Horse Elf" which ranks third on the list.
"Ghostbusters," which opened at the same time as "Die Hard 3," also performed well at the box office in its first two weeks.
The first week’s revenue was US$25.71 million, a drop of 29% in the second week, and a revenue of US$18.19 million.
However, as expected, this summer family movie, which was expected to have a long run at the box office, encountered "Jurassic Park 2" in its third week of release, which was also aimed at audiences of all ages, and was inevitably cut in half. The box office dropped by 52%, causing the box office of "Elf" to drop to a low of US$8.61 million in a single week.
A total of US$52.51 million has been accumulated in three weeks. Based on the theme of "Elf", even if the subsequent decline slows down, the local box office will only be about US$70 million.
The worst thing is "Die Hard 3".
Starring Bruce Willis, this US$90 million action blockbuster took in US$29.88 million in its first week. The box office dropped 37% the next week, taking in another US$18.79 million. Subsequently, in the third week of its release, it was strongly crushed by "Jurassic Park 2". The box office of "Die Hard 3" plummeted 56% in the past week, with a single-week box office of only 8.26 million US dollars.
After three weeks of release, the cumulative box office of "Die Hard 3" was US$56.93 million.
As a typical popcorn commercial film, the single-week box office has only left 8.26 million US dollars. Even if the subsequent decline will slow down slightly, "Die Hard 3" will probably only earn about 15 million US dollars in the follow-up. It is expected that The local box office grossed just over US$70 million.
The local box office expectation of US$70 million, which is the same as that of "Elf", is actually not too much of a failure.
However, the total production and publicity costs of "Die Hard 3" of US$130 million are too high. Even if the overseas performance is better, and the global box office is calculated as US$200 million, Fox will still be unable to avoid huge profits in the short term. Loss ending.
Without "Jurassic Park 2," both "Die Hard with a Vengeance 3" and "Ghostbusters" are very likely to break through the 100 million yuan box office threshold.
In Simon's memory, this is also true.
Now, just for these two films, the domestic box office has shrunk by a total of 60 million U.S. dollars. Adding in "The Bridge" and other films such as "Love in Paris" and "The Secret Service" that are still in theaters at the same time, it can be estimated that " Jurassic Park 2 took at least $100 million from all of those projects.
This does not include projects such as "Braveheart" and "Pocahontas" that will be released in the following weeks.
The box office in the first week has already reached 129 million U.S. dollars. Coupled with the better reputation than the first film, it is only a matter of time before the local box office of "Jurassic Park 2" exceeds the first film's score of 356 million U.S. dollars, and even hits 4 Billions of dollars are not impossible.
You know, this summer movie is not the phenomenon of "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Forrest Gump" being juxtaposed last year. Daenerys Entertainment's other movie "Apollo 13" this summer, It’s okay to be a big seller, but it’s definitely not a phenomenal product.
The local revenue is expected to be US$400 million. In addition to the gain brought about by the film itself stimulating market demand, perhaps half of it comes from the box office potential of other films.
One goes down and the other goes up.
It’s still the same situation.