After Monday, with the strong efforts of Fox Pictures, the media trend about "The Butterfly Effect" changed significantly in just a few days.
Compared with media film reviews that tend to be subjective, ordinary people are obviously more susceptible to the influence of real-life data.
The first week's box office was US$21.69 million.
The following weekend saw a slight decline of 17%.
Average audience rating of 7.7.
All of this undoubtedly shows that the film quality of "The Butterfly Effect" is far from being as bad as critics criticized it. Under the deliberate guidance of public opinion by Fox Pictures, the public gradually realized that the one-sided negative reviews of "The Butterfly Effect" were probably the result of someone deliberately smearing it.
Subsequently, the New York Post, owned by News Corporation, published an article that further convinced many people of this.
The matter still goes back to March when Simon was suddenly questioned by the media. A reporter from the New York Post discovered that the independent writer Mark Hollington who originally published an article in the New York Times questioning Simon suddenly suddenly Bought a brand new Ferrari sports car.
So, the problem arises.
Mark Hollington's previous income was simply not enough for him to afford such an expensive sports car.
So.
Where does the money come from
Was it because he suddenly earned extra money because he was ordered to criticize a certain talented boy
As a gossip tabloid with a huge circulation, the New York Post is famous for all kinds of unethical news. In order to avoid defamation lawsuits, this article did not directly challenge Mark Hollington at all, but the words guided the audience in a certain direction.
Faced with the accusations from the "New York Post", Mark Hollington was very cooperative and immediately refuted, claiming that he bought the sports car in installments and did not pay the full price, so naturally there was no " Extra money'.
The New York Times may not want to wade into this muddy water again, so Mark Hollington’s clarification article could only be published in another newspaper, the Daily News.
It's even more lively now.
As we all know, the "Daily News" and the "New York Post", which have similar market positioning and similar circulation numbers, are sworn enemies. The two newspapers, both of which are very unscrupulous, are almost completely at odds with each other and often exchange insults. They will also bring out the other party's bosses Rupert Murdoch and Mortimer Zuckerman and reduce them to nothing.
Now, with Mark Hollington clarifying on the Daily News, the war is back on.
This kind of media rip-off usually rarely leads to anything.
The unlucky one was Mark Hollington.
The matter got bigger and bigger, and the fact that he received money to smear Simon Westeros was inexplicably confirmed during this quarrel.
It's going on like this until Friday, April 24th.
Due to the change in media trends and Fox Film's relentless marketing offensive, "The Butterfly Effect"'s box office decline in the second week continued to narrow compared to the three weekend days, only 15%, and it collected another US$18.28 million.
In two weeks, the total box office of "The Butterfly Effect" has reached 39.97 million US dollars.
With a box office of nearly 40 million US dollars, "The Butterfly Effect" has already ranked fourth in the total box office of released movies in 1987, second only to "Run Lola Run", "Lethal Weapon" and Disney's January release "Cruel Fate".
Simon, while busy with a lot of things at hand, also cooperated with Fox Films to once again be a guest on NBC's "The Tonight Show" and spent a few minutes discussing the creative inspiration of "The Butterfly Effect".
According to the contract between the two parties, although Simon has the obligation to cooperate with the promotion of the film, he is actually the kind of person who doesn't like to be in the public eye.
However, when Peter Sanders invited Simon to participate in the talk show, he directly sent a check for US$300,000. He also stated that the North American box office of the film exceeded US$100 million, and Fox Pictures would pay Simon another bonus.
The other party was so polite, so Simon naturally tried his best to cooperate.
At the same time, after Michael Ovitz's visit, Robert Redford responded the next day, willing to accept remuneration terms of US$500,000 plus 5% profit sharing.
After last Saturday's party, Madonna and her wife thought about it for a few days and responded in the same way, expressing their willingness to guest star as Bunny and Pumpkin. The final negotiated condition was that the couple jointly received a salary of US$500,000.
In addition, Simon also agreed to write a song for Madonna's new album later this year.
After finalizing these, "Pulp Fiction" now has three superstars joining Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and John Travolta. The fame of Madonna and Sean Penn cannot be underestimated.
With a budget of US$8 million, such a powerful cast was assembled. The ecstatic Orion Pictures held a press conference on Thursday to announce the title of Simon's new film "Pulp Fiction" and a series of participating actors with great fanfare. List of big names.
In the afternoon.
Daenerys Studios headquarters in Santa Monica.
In Simon's office, Meg Ryan, who was wearing a white shirt and a black skirt and looked like an OL, carefully poured coffee for Simon and Amy before turning around and going out.
Amy held the coffee cup, watched Meg Ryan leave, and said to Simon: "She seems a little afraid of you. It's not a good sign for a woman to be afraid."
Meg Ryan has officially started working 9 to 5 at Daenerys Films these days.
Simon just wanted to restore Meg Ryan to the status of a 26-year-old woman through a regular life, and did not expect her to do any substantive work, so he just arranged for her to serve as his secretary outside with Susan. .
Hearing what Amy said, Simon, who was looking through a thick stack of actors' information, just shook his head slightly and said, "It's not fear, it should be embarrassment."
I've hit myself twice, it would be weird if I didn't feel embarrassed.
Amy naturally didn't understand Simon's explanation, but she just smiled and didn't ask any questions.
Seeing Simon looking down at the actor's information again and noticing a novel on his desk near her, Amy put the coffee cup back on the table and took the book over curiously.
These days, Simon always has one or two portable books at hand. Amy thought this was a good habit of her boss, but didn't think much about it. At such a young age, he has made achievements that are difficult for many people to achieve in their lifetime. It is completely logical to maintain the habit of reading at all times.
Amy even felt that she should probably take some time to recharge her batteries.
Thinking in her heart, Amy looked at the name of the book in her hand, "Forrest Gump", the author's name is Winston Groom. Although I didn’t recognize it, I thought the novel chosen by the young man across from me was not too bad, so I opened it with great interest.
Simon noticed Amy's movements and explained while reading the information: "Amy, these days I will ask Jonathan to help me negotiate some scripts, novels or remake rights, but for the time being, they will be placed with the Westeros Company. . You know, there is more money on the books there, so we will definitely produce these in the future."
Now that he has a certain amount of capital, Simon has recently begun to implement what he has always wanted to do since returning to this era, and grab the copyrights of many film projects that are destined to be popular in the future.
Looking at the gold mines that can be picked up almost casually, I would be sorry for myself if I didn't do this.
Amy smiled and nodded, "I understand."
Film companies that are slightly ambitious will try their best to hoard as many copyrights as possible, and Simon's doing so does not surprise Amy at all.
Daenerys Pictures only has the operating funds that Simon borrowed originally and the production budgets for the two movies "Dead Man" and "Pulp Fiction" on its books. It is definitely beyond its capabilities to do this, and it can only rely on Westeros. The company will do it.
While chatting casually, Simon quickly picked out an actress' information, pressed the call button on the desktop, and called Susan Landis in. Noticing Amy's curious expression, she handed over the information and said, "Now, this is my Mia."
Amy took the information and looked at the name.
Nicole Kidman.
Who is this
This thought flashed through her mind for the first time. Amy glanced at the photo again and said to Simon: "There is a videotape. You should at least watch her performance, right?"
Simon shook his head and said: "There is no need to waste time."
With that said, Susan walked in. Simon pointed to the information in Amy's hand and said: "Send this actor information to Jonathan and tell them that they have two days to recruit her to WMA. In addition, as Zhu I am not satisfied with the black actors recommended by several companies, so I asked them to choose another batch and send them over. Fame does not matter. Also, the same goes for the female taxi driver. She is charming, coquettish, and has an accent. I I think I made it very clear. There is no need to recommend the local ones, pick the ones from Europe.”
Amy handed the information to Susan and listened to Simon's series of instructions. She smiled helplessly and shook her head. She found that it was always difficult to guess what her young boss was thinking.
Simon was actually helpless.
After settling on a group of big names, he only had $1 million left in the budget to cast other actors. The film currently has a large group of characters that are still missing.
Among them, the more important one is Jules, the role played by Samuel L. Jackson in the original version. Simon still hopes that he can play the role. But right now, Samuel L. Jackson is nowhere to be found.
In this era without the Internet, it is not that difficult to find an unknown person.
Even Mia had a lot of twists and turns.
Simon originally wanted to let Michelle Pfeiffer try it, and it didn't matter if it was a little more expensive.
However, after a brief audition, Simon discovered a very serious problem.
John Travolta is nearly 1.9 meters tall, while Michelle Pfeiffer is only over 1.7 meters tall. With such a height difference between the two of them, once they stood on the stage, the composition was completely distorted. How could they possibly perform that classic swing dance.
After Michelle Pfeiffer, Simon added a height of 180cm or above to the casting conditions.
"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled to start filming in July. Simon still has too much work to do. After a simple selection, he chose Nicole Kidman, who he was very familiar with.
Waiting in Susan's office, Simon glanced at his watch and asked Amy across from him: "Didn't it say three o'clock?"
Amy also looked at the time and said, "How about I have someone call and ask."
Just as he was talking, there was a knock on the office door again, and Meg Ryan poked her head in and said, "Mr. Westeros, Ms. Pascal, and Mr. O'Brien are here."
After hearing the words, the two stood up together and greeted him.
At the door of the office, a middle-aged white man with a round face in his forties also walked in. He stretched out his hand to Simon and Amy very apologetically and said, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Westeros and Ms. Pascal." , we encountered some minor situations on the way.”
Simon listened to the middle-aged man's typical British accent, smiled, shook hands with the other person, and said: "It's okay, Danny, just call me Simon."
Amy also shook hands with the other party and exchanged greetings.
Simon motioned to Meg Ryan to bring in more coffee, and the three of them sat down in the reception area, looking at each other involuntarily.
The middle-aged man's name is Dennis O'Brien, a film producer who runs a film company called Craft Pictures in partnership with former Beatles guitarist George Harrison.
George Harrison founded the film company in 1978 to finance a friend of his.
Later, the film produced by Harrison's friend cost $4 million and earned $20 million at the box office in North America alone. As a result, Craftsmanship Films was out of control, and later released "Time" starring Sean Connery. With successful films such as "The Robbers", it has gradually become a well-known independent production company in the UK in recent years.
but.
Craft Pictures just suffered a big setback last year, with the movie "The Devil" starring Madonna and Sean Penn.
It was produced for US$17 million, and the final North American box office of US$2.31 million may not be enough to cover the publicity expenses of the distributor MGM Pictures.
However, due to the overheating of the global economy in recent years and the influx of large amounts of capital into the film industry, Handicraft Pictures did not close down due to the failure of "The Devil". Instead, it contacted Daenerys Pictures through Madonna's relationship, but I became interested in "When Harry Met Sally".
The renewed success of "The Butterfly Effect" solved the deadlock that had previously been ignored by "When Harry Met Sally". This week, not only many second- and third-tier film companies, but also the big seven have basically re-expressed their interest in "When Harry Met Sally."
However, Simon now has other plans.
It is impossible for Daenerys Pictures to establish its own distribution channels in the short term, so the announcement of "When Harry Met Sally" will naturally require cooperation with Seven. But in terms of production, in order to maintain absolute control over the entire project, Simon plans to co-invest with some independent film producers.
In this way, as long as some funds can be obtained first, the entire project can be launched.
When Simon completes the stock index futures operation in the second half of the year, Daenerys Pictures can inject follow-up funds into the entire project. At the same time, due to the success of the two movies "Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect", Daenerys Pictures also has enough confidence to ask for more revenue sharing.