The new films released in the North American market on November 13th include "Teddy Bear", "Star Trek: Uprising" and "Deadly High School".
"Teddy Bear" has the image of a plush toy and the blessing of Eric's own screenwriting; "Star Trek: Uprising" is an old science fiction series of Paramount; Kevin Williamson of the series.
It can be said that the three new films all have sufficient potential box office appeal.
However, with the outbreak of "Teddy Bear", the opening box office of "Star Trek: Uprising" and "Deadly High School" has been very obviously impacted.
In the three days of the first weekend, compared with the explosive box office of "Teddy Bear" which was 55.41 million US dollars, the box office of "Star Trek: Uprising", which occupied the second place in the list, was only 22.05 million US dollars in three days. Even "Teddy Bear" Less than half of that, but the sci-fi film cost the most to produce of the three new films, at $58 million.
Due to the big difference between word-of-mouth and audience, "The Horse Whisperer", which has entered its second week of release, has not been greatly affected by several new films. The three-day box office of the next weekend was as expected, and the decline remained at a very good 32%. , received an additional $21.86 million, and after ten days of release, the film adaptation of the best-selling book has a cumulative box office of $68.25 million. As long as it can withstand the pressure brought by "Mission: Impossible 3" next week, there is still great hope that the film's North American box office will exceed 100 million.
Kevin Williamson's new work "Deadly High School" did not repeat the word-of-mouth and box office of the original "Scream". It only received 11.63 million US dollars in three days of release, ranking fourth.
From all aspects of analysis, the North American box office potential of this horror film is only about 40 million U.S. dollars. Compared with the production cost of 30 million U.S. dollars and the publicity budget of 10 million U.S. dollars, Colombia can only hope that overseas distribution can recover cost.
Culver City.
In a screening hall in Columbia Studios, the staff is preparing for the screening of a film, and Eric and Columbia Pictures CEO Bill Michanik are also chatting about "Deadly High School".
"Teenage horror films have always had a very broad market potential. The key is to find a reliable script and production team, and of course, cost control. In this regard, "Deadly High School" is a mess, starting from the script The problem arises, audiences don’t like to see a story about a group of unscrupulous teenagers somehow saving the world, they prefer to see these unscrupulous teenagers being killed one by one by a perverted killer, the more brutal the better.”
"Kevin Williamson signed a total of five film contracts with MGM, but last time MGM chose the summer file "" from Kevin Williamson's two new scripts. This is the reason why I Know What You Did Last Summer" and gave up "Deadly High School". It is well controlled at $17 million, which is a big profit. But the current North American box office potential of "Deadly High School" is only $40 million, and the combined production and distribution costs are also $40 million. This is a complete disaster. Bill, I will not pursue the past, but I hope that this kind of thing will never happen again in the future."
While Eric was talking, the door of the screening room was pushed open, and Anne Hathaway, who looked like a small spring onion, appeared at the door holding several cups of coffee, and looked at the two sitting in the front row with big eyes.
Seeing the girl appear, Eric stopped talking and waved to her. Anne Hathaway walked in obediently, handed a cup of coffee to Eric and Bill Michanik, and then held a cup of coffee for herself. With a cup of coffee, he quietly sat down on the other side of Eric, looking timid.
During this period of time, Anne Hathaway still often felt like she was dreaming. Just now at the door, she heard Eric's unceremonious admonition to Bill Michanik, which made her realize again that she was a man. Hollywood power. At the same time, the girl felt an inexplicable sense of pride in her heart. Of course, she will not show these thoughts.
Eric was not in the mood to pay attention to the inner activities of the girl next to him, took a sip of coffee, and seeing that the screening was not ready, he continued to say to Bill Michanik: "By the way, the director of "Deadly High School" is still good, I remember he was a good friend of Quentin's?"
Bill Michanik didn't have much resistance to Eric's words just now. In fact, Howard Stringer and the Japanese Sony executives were more rude to him than Eric at the beginning, and , He also knew that Eric was just talking about the facts, and didn't mean anything against him personally.
Hearing Eric's question, Bill Michanik said: "Yes, before the filming of "High School" started, I also specifically watched his debut novel "The Elegy of a Killer" which cost only $7,000. ", this is a very talented young director."
"Then Colombia can continue to try to cooperate with him," Eric recalled Robert Rodriguez's series of directing works with a very personal style in the original time and space, and said again: "Of course, you should not What I said, I will focus all my attention on cost control. As long as I encounter a good project, I still need to spend money. I just don’t want to see a lot of completely unnecessary waste. Make up your own mind, for Colombia, I will give you enough autonomy, but I also hope to see the corresponding return."
Bill Michanik nodded, and said: "Eric, in fact, I was talking about a project with Robert recently, which is a children's science fiction film, telling the story of a pair of retired secret service children who bravely fought back when they encountered revenge from bad guys. The script is still being written, and I will pass it on to you as soon as possible."
When Eric heard Bill Michanik's description, he immediately thought of the "alternative" "Very Small Spy" series in the works of Robert Rodriguez in the original time and space.
Although I don't know the box office status of this series, but being able to shoot three consecutive films is definitely very successful commercially.
Moreover, Eric's first feeling is that this series should be more suitable for Disney.
However, this idea just flashed through Eric's mind. Columbia is in urgent need of some high-quality film projects to restore its vitality. At this time, it is definitely not suitable to transfer the film personally selected by Bill Michanik to Disney. there.
Anyway, even if you don't participate in the production and distribution of the film, as long as the series is successful, the peripheral operations of the film can still be handled by an experienced Disney team to maximize profits.
"Just let me know as soon as the script comes out," Eric nodded. Seeing that the staff finally announced at the door that the movie could be screened, he waved his hand casually and continued to say to Bill Michanik: "Speaking of which, we have to The production cost of the movie I saw was $1,000 lower than Robert’s "The Elegy of a Killer". The whole process only cost 3,500 pounds, which is about 6,000 dollars. It is said that the director spent a year, using every Saturday I insisted on filming during my free time at work. In September, this film also won the best debut award at the San Francisco Film Festival.”
Following Eric's narration, the lights in the projection hall dimmed.
On the big screen, the movie didn’t have a title, and a pair of hands wearing gloves appeared directly in the black and white screen. After a moment of scattered shots, the name of the movie appeared on the screen: "Follow".
Christopher Nolan, "Following."
Many things in this world always seem very strange.
For example, the last time Eric asked people to collect scripts in the UK, he originally wanted to find Guy Ritchie's "Two Smoking Barrels", but he found another once famous script, "Memory Fragments". The names of the screenwriters are a pair of brothers, Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan.
The note given by the British branch is Christopher Nolan's debut "Following", which is the one currently being screened. According to the data, not only the San Francisco Film Festival, but also many other independent film festivals have received very good responses.
Eric has basically seen Nolan's works in the original time and space. Of course, the most impressive one is the "Batman" trilogy.
As for other works such as "Memory Fragments", "White Night", "The Prestige", etc., Eric used to be a director. Although he can feel the special thought that Nolan spent on these works, it is difficult to be like those who died. Die-hard moviegoers enjoy these movies as much.
However, although he is not too interested in Nolan's films other than "Batman", Eric will not let it go when he encounters it. Moreover, after thinking about it these days, Eric even has an idea in his heart. A complete plan, that is "Batman".
In the original time and space, Nolan's "Batman" trilogy is absolutely amazing in terms of box office and work quality.
But at the same time, the success of Nolan's "Batman" trilogy also had a very 'profound' impact on Time Warner's DC comic universe. Influenced by the trilogy of "Heroes", in order to fight against several works of the Marvel Universe, DC has almost all embarked on a very unsuccessful dark route, and even some have become so mad that most of the screens are dark.
Although works such as "Superman: Man of Steel" are not strictly considered commercial failures, it is obvious to all that the DC movie universe lost its direction after Nolan's "Batman" trilogy.
After last year's box office and word-of-mouth failure of "Batman and Robin", Warner Bros. will definitely fall into a period of silence in the adaptation of DC comics, but there is no doubt that if there is any film company in Hollywood that owns the comic book adaptation The potential for Marvel to compete is definitely DC under Time Warner.
Once Marvel's next "Iron Man", "Spiderman" and even the entire Marvel movie universe flourish, it is conceivable that Warner will definitely follow up immediately.
Well, if there is no "constraint" from Nolan's "Batman" trilogy this time, even if Warner's internal low execution factors will delay the advancement of the entire DC Comic Universe, as long as Time Warner's executives respond, DC Movie Universe It will still be a huge threat to Marvel.
In the past, as Marvel and DC began to compete fiercely, there has been a very obvious trend of flooding the comic film market. If this trend is not curbed, the audience will gradually feel bored one day, and eventually lead to The decline of the entire comic film market.
Now that the plans for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe have been advanced, just in case, when Eric discovered Nolan, he quickly made up his mind and continued to push Nolan to make DC's "Batman" series.
As long as the DC comic universe can be firmly marked with Nolan's mark again, and with the constant internal disputes in Time Warner, Eric believes that within ten or eight years, DC will definitely not want to return to the right path again.
Of course, on the other hand, Eric definitely does not intend to do such a 'good thing' for nothing.
Regardless, Nolan's "Batman" trilogy has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. Although DC, which has the entire Time Warner as its backer, will never give up the copyright of "Batman" easily, but under the disastrous box office failure of "Batman and Robin", by then, the Firefly system will not get involved in Warner's copyright at all. It is very easy to just participate in a part of the investment and get huge profits from it.
Come to think of it, no senior executive at Time Warner would ever think that Eric's act of participating in investment and sharing risks without copyright and bringing Warner back to life in the silent "Batman" series is actually poaching a role for Warner. Bigger pit.
How can there be such a bad person.
Eric considered these things in his heart, and on the screen, "Follow", which was only 70 minutes long, was played quickly.
After the lights came on, it was almost noon.
Eric brought Anne and Bill Michanik to the in-house restaurant of Columbia Studios, and after ordering lunch, Eric asked Bill Michanik: "So, Bill, what do you think of the movie just now?" How about it?"
"It's a very interesting non-linear narrative," said Bill Michanik. "It's just that it seems a little too focused on skills. If you analyze it carefully, there is actually nothing worth recalling in the plot."
Eric nodded in agreement, and smiled again: "However, this is actually a kind of talent. Not everyone can produce such a good quality film at such a low cost. For new directors, They don’t have enough resources to invite stars or make big scenes, so they can only spend more time on storytelling skills. Isn’t it the same with Quentin’s "Pulp Fiction"?"
Bill Michanik smiled and said, "So, Eric, what do you plan to do by letting me watch this film?"
"There is another script called "Memory Fragments". The narrative style is similar to this "Following". However, the story is more detailed and complete." Eric said without going around the corner, "I will fly directly to New York later. , so I didn’t bring it to you. However, I have asked my assistant’s office to send the script to your e-mail. You can take a look at it when you go back. My request is to find this director and sign three movies with him The film contract, tied him firmly to the Columbia Pictures chariot. As for his film style, it may not be easy to achieve commercial success, but as long as the publicity strategy is appropriate, such a director with a strong personal style is still very popular. It is easy to get a large number of diehard movie fans."
After saying this, Eric finally added with an unclear smile: "As for the future, we will talk about it in the future."