If the box office of "Gravity" in the first week is just beyond everyone's expectations, when the box office data for the second week of the film is released, the entire film industry, whether in North America or overseas, will no longer be able to calm down.
From November 26 to December 2, compared to the first week, the box office of "Gravity" fell by only a very weak 5.1% in the second week, and it collected another 138.63 million US dollars. So far, "Gravity" has raked in a box office of US$284.69 million in North America in just half a month.
As of December 2, only "Iron Man" and "The Mummy 3" were the only films with a box office of more than 280 million U.S. dollars in North America in 1999. It took only two weeks for "Gravity" to rank third on the North American annual box office list.
Moreover, with the invincible box office trend of "Gravity", it is only a matter of time before "Iron Man" and "Mummy 3" are all overthrown to win the annual box office championship.
At the same time, the box office data of "Gravity" in multiple overseas box office markets where it has been drawn one after another is also extremely eye-catching.
Since this is the first promotion of 3D and imax film screening formats, theater chain operators in many overseas ticket warehouse countries have maintained a wait-and-see attitude. In the end, Firefly Group only realized the opening of 1630 overseas 3D screens and 63 imax screens in the same period.
Although the 100 overseas imax theaters operated independently have all been completed, in order to meet the schedules of different markets, there are another 37 imax theaters that have not been opened for the time being.
However, there were less than 1,700 overseas screens that opened during the same period, and it brought Firefly Group $97.3 million in box office in the first week.
Moreover, with the further spread of word-of-mouth of the film, the overseas box office of "Gravity" achieved an 8.3% decline in the second week, with an additional 105.37 million US dollars in the case of almost no increase in the scale of overseas releases.
In two weeks, the overseas box office of "Gravity" has reached 202.67 million US dollars, and the cumulative global box office has reached 487.36 million US dollars!
In half a month, 487.36 million US dollars, all the commendable box office records in Hollywood, have been dwarfed by "Gravity", even "Titanic" three years ago, did not have such a crazy box office performance.
Many media have even begun to predict whether "Gravity" can break the global box office of 2.23 billion US dollars created by "Titanic" and become the historical champion of the global movie box office rankings.
Facing the madness of "Gravity", no one questioned the commercial prospects of 3D and imax movies at this time.
Therefore, although the end of the year is approaching, a large number of North American and overseas production company executives, theater company managers and low-level film projection equipment suppliers have begun to gather in Los Angeles, trying to get a share of this brand-new film industry revolution.
However, when the entire film industry began to pay more attention to 3D and imax movies than ever before, many people gradually realized that Firefly Group has fully controlled the absolute dominance of this industrial transformation from the bottom projection equipment to the terminal cinema chain.
Burbank.
In a screening room at Warner Studios, more than a dozen executives from Warner, Universal, Paramount and other companies in the industry are watching a 3D movie.
The sample film is a special effects clip of less than three minutes extracted from Universal's "The Mummy 2". It was converted by the 3D team of Light and Shadow Times.
However, when the sample was finished, the lights in the auditorium were turned on, and the faces of the few bosses surrounded by the crowd almost showed expressionless expressions, and the atmosphere around them also seemed quite depressing.
Polarizing 3D movies is indeed not a difficult technology. As early as 1922, some people in the industry had already made related technical attempts.
But just like a five-star chef and an ordinary person who can't cook at all handle the same ingredients, the result will only be very different. Compared with the visual effect presented by the reald technology of the Firefly Group, the three minutes just now Samples can only be described as rubbish.
Richard Parsons took off the 3D glasses in front of him, and adjusted the myopia glasses that had just been covered in them. Although he only wore them for three minutes, he really felt very uncomfortable this time.
Recalling that when he and Michael Eisner went to watch the screening of "Gravity" a month ago, the finely crafted 3D glasses that are very friendly to myopia, Richard Parsons already understood in his heart that Firefly The Syndicate had thrown them too far away.
Everyone was silent for a moment, and Richard Parsons, as the host, spoke first, waving the unimportant people around him to go out.
Soon, there were only a few people left in the auditorium, including Michael Eisner, Tom Freston, and the female CEO of Autodesk Software Company, Carol Bartz.
Looking at the remaining few people, Michael Eisner was obviously absent-minded, Tom Freston seemed to be thinking about something, Richard Parsons turned to Autodesk software company female CEO Carol Bartz asked the question he was most concerned about, and said, "Ms. Bartz, based on our current foundation, how long do you think Autodesk will be able to develop conversion software comparable to the Firefly Group's 3D effect?"
Carol Bartz is a middle-aged woman with short haircut and obviously capable. Hearing the words, she replied without any hesitation: "If it's just software, Autodesk can finish it in six months. But Richard De, you have to understand that what you are facing is not just a software problem. The Firefly Group has built a complete 3D movie ecosystem. If you can’t unite and break through each other’s ecological barriers, Hollywood will only be the Firefly system in the future. never mind."
After the incident in May, Shirley Lansing was forced to resign, and Tom Freston, the co-president of Viacom Group, took over temporarily as the CEO of Paramount Pictures. Unexpectedly, it took more than half a year.
Over the past six months, due to well-known reasons, Paramount Pictures has not been able to find a suitable CEO.
From the president of the group to the CEO of the subsidiary, Tom Freston's authority has actually been weakened a lot. His resentment towards the Firefly Group in the past six months has also become more and more serious.
Hearing Carol Butz's words, Tom Freston couldn't help but retort: "Although we are a little behind in time, the resources owned by Firefly Group are not lacking in any of the three of us. I don't think it's your fault It's that serious."
Carol Butz listened to Tom Freston's obviously emotional words, and asked: "If the Firefly Group now invites the films produced by Paramount to join the ranks of reald and imax film sources, will you refuse?"
Tom Freston hesitated, but still shook his head: "No."
Carol Bartz continued: "Then, in turn, if Warner, Universal and Paramount jointly launch a brand new 3D projection system, do you think the four companies of the Firefly system will refuse to provide you with film sources? "
Tom Freston moved his lips, but made no reply.
However, the answer is obvious.
In order to protect the interests of its reald and imax projection systems, the Firefly system will never provide film sources for any new systems launched by the three Warner companies.
Then, this matter naturally presents an obvious one-sided state.
If the three Warners and other Hollywood producers want to share the dividends of 3D and imax movies, they can only succumb to the Firefly system. On the contrary, under the condition that it already has a great advantage, the Firefly system will absolutely not allow the emergence of a second standard that competes with the 3D and imax systems in the industry.
Carol Butz noticed the expressions of the three men beside him, and suddenly felt somewhat self-defeating. She wanted to stimulate these Hollywood bigwigs, but she didn't want to completely destroy their enthusiasm.
As the industry's top design and drawing software company, Autodesk's biggest strategic mistake over the years was that it refused to cooperate with Firefly Group to develop cg software.
Due to the initial mistakes, the film and television special effects industry related to CG production, image rendering, and solutions is basically monopolized by the digital field under the Firefly Group.
At that time, the Firefly Group also set up a special Firefly software company to try to commercialize the software it held.
Because the market capacity of design and drawing software is limited after all, it is far from being able to compare with daily essential software such as the operating system. Even the world's largest drawing software manufacturer like Autodesk has an annual turnover of less than 2 billion US dollars. , the average annual net profit rarely exceeds $500 million.
Firefly Group's film and television special effects software in a single field will only make less profit if it wants to conduct commercial operations. However, controlling Hollywood's special effects production industry chain can bring huge potential advantages to the Firefly system.
Therefore, the Firefly Group quickly abandoned the original strategy and turned to a relatively closed commercial licensing method, unknowingly controlling more than half of Hollywood's special effects production, which made the potential benefits of the relevant software for the Firefly Group far away. Much more than simply selling software for profit.
The final result is that, from the amazing "Terminator 2" Mercury Man to the present, after so many years, the most outstanding CG special effects movies in Hollywood basically come from several companies in the Firefly system.
However, now that he has come to his senses, Okerte definitely does not intend to give up this part of the market easily.
After organizing the language, Carol Bartz once again said to Freston and the others: "Although the ecological barrier created by the Firefly system is difficult to break through, in my opinion, you must do this. Otherwise, Warner, Universal, Pai The three Ramons will always be able to watch the Firefly system continue to gain the most lucrative profit in the Hollywood film industry. As far as I know, the total box office in North America last week was 196 million, but it was only "Gravity" Movies alone took up 138 million US dollars, accounting for 70%, which is already a very dangerous signal."
After Carol Butz finished speaking, the three of Tom Freston did not show any uplifting expressions that she hoped to see. Obviously, they will not be the kind of executives who are easily slapped. moving people.
Richard Parsons said: "Ms. Butz, I think we should just talk about the specific measures to be taken."
Carol Bartz said: "It's very simple. First of all, the three of you must give up the temporary benefits and get rid of the influence and control of the Firefly system as much as possible."
"We've been trying to do that," said Tom Freston. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today."
"But you can actually do more. Just like movie special effects, Autodesk's software is actually very good. If you can completely abandon the technical dependence on the digital field, Autodesk will get more technical improvements and optimizations. Chances are, the few of you can completely get rid of the restrictions of the Firefly system in terms of special effects.
Richard Parsons interrupted Carol Butz and said, "Ms. Butz, we should be discussing 3D movies today."
"It's all the same, isn't it?"
Listening to the discussions, disputes, and bargaining of the three, Michael Eisner suddenly felt a bit dispirited.
The reason why the Firefly system is powerful lies in Eric Williams' absolute control over the companies in the system.
Even Twentieth Century Fox almost unreservedly obeyed the interests of the entire Firefly system. In May, Eric Williams announced the blockade of Paramount's Blockbuster chain store, and 20th Century Fox followed up and issued a related statement without hesitation.
But for Warner, Universal, and Paramount, it is as difficult as ever to really hold together and compete with the Firefly system without reservation.
Several people discussed this all morning. Although they came up with some plans, they failed to make any decisions in the end. Because Michael Eisner and the others are not the ones who can make a decision after all.
After everyone had lunch together, Michael Eisner said goodbye to several people and got into his car.
As soon as the car left Warner Bros. Studios, Michael Eisner called Katzenberg again.
Instead of spending time with a few seemingly incompatible allies, it is better to turn to the side that can really bring benefits to you.
Katzenberg is not at Firefly headquarters in Burbank, but at Firefly Studios in Playa Vista.
With the great success of 3D and imax theaters, Katzenberg can be said to be very busy in recent days.
Just after noon, he had dinner with the head of imax, Richard Gelford, and was walking in the studio with him while talking about business, when Katzenberg received a call from Michael Eisner.
After a brief chat with Michael Eisner, and agreed to have dinner together tomorrow night, Katzenberg said to Richard Gelford next to him: "You can tell the person in charge of the imax theater that "" There is definitely no copy of "Gravity", and it is too late to make a 2d-imax version. However, next month, the company can provide them with a 2d-imax copy of "Lord of the Rings", but the share must be taken according to Firefly 70% calculation, there is no room for bargaining on this point.”
With the box office explosion of "Gravity", museums, science and technology museums and other imax theaters in North America and overseas also began to hope to share the profits in this regard.
However, except for the newly-built imax theater of the Firefly Group, which can independently choose to play 2D and 3D formats, most of the other imax screens are in 2D format. In addition, many institutions with imax screens are not profit-oriented. In the original release plan, Firefly Group directly chose to exclude these imax theaters.
But now, since Firefly Group's own imax auditorium is completely hard to find, the company has to consider this part of resources.
Not for Gravity, of course, but for The Lord of the Rings, which is due out next month.
Due to the strong box office trend of "Gravity", it is impossible to give up too many 3D and IMAX screening halls in the short term. The first part of "Lord of the Rings", which will be released next month, is facing very serious film scheduling problems.