In order to be able to invite Eric to the premiere of "Fighting Condor", Fox deliberately moved the premiere forward to the day before "Ghost Detective", but Eric did not plan to attend the premiere of "Ghost Detective", No matter how sincere Fox is, it is impossible for him to attend the premiere of "Condor Condor". It was already interesting enough for them to use their fame to promote them in oblique ways.
As "Rocky 5", which MGM-United Artists placed high hopes on, the production cost was as high as 60 million, the release canvas is the largest among the three films, but the box office was released on the first weekend, and the result surprised many people.
The most promising "Rocky 5" is actually the one with the worst performance. The previous sequel of this series raked in 300 million US dollars worldwide, so "Rocky 5" has a full 2,000 screening canvases.
But in the first three days of the weekend, "Rocky 5" only got 14.35 million box office, with an average of less than 7,000 US dollars per game. You know, the average per game of the previous sequel "Rocky 4" reached 15,000 US dollars in the same period.
Not only the attendance rate is extremely low, but also the reputation of "Rocky 5" is extremely poor. The box office statistics agency directly lowered the box office expectation of this movie to 50 million. There is no possibility of recovering the cost, and the media have also predicted this. The movie could very well be the end of the Rocky franchise.
≡→, and "Ghost Detective", which was released in more than 1,900 theaters, is only a little better than "Rocky 5", and has received more than 15 million box office. However, this thriller comedy imitating "Ghostbusters" also did not gain a good reputation .
In comparison, the most surprising thing is "Fighting the Condor" released by Fox. This almost "random" movie has received a very low evaluation from the filmmakers. Even many excited conservative film critics regard this film as a blasphemy of classic films.
But unexpectedly. This very novel spoof movie situation has been welcomed by a large number of audiences. In the first three days of the weekend, the film earned 25 million at the box office in more than 1,900 theaters. This figure is just the same as the cost of the film. If the film does not have a big drop in the box office, it may even become another box office hit for Fox this year. million-dollar movie.
So far, Fox's only summer film "Die Hard 2" has achieved a box office of 110 million this year. However, the production cost of "Die Hard 2" is 70 million U.S. dollars, and the combined announcement and distribution is close to 100 million U.S. dollars. Even though it did well overseas, Die Hard 2 didn't make much money.
Although "Fighting Condor" has Eric's 30% investment, Fox must still take the lead. With overseas distribution and subsequent video tapes, this spoof movie will easily bring more than 100 million US dollars in profit.
Therefore, after the three-day box office was released in the first weekend, Fox immediately announced the production plan for the sequel.
While Fox was ecstatic, the mood of Hollywood colleagues was rather complicated. Originally, the box office of "Ghost Detective" was not ideal, and they thought it would be Eric's first Waterloo. But the results of "Fighting Condor" surprised everyone.
Investigated in detail. It was quickly discovered that most of the funding for "Ghost Finder" came from an independent production company called Good Line Films, Good Line Films. Hearing this name, most people seemed to understand something, and then thinking of the Black Ant Film Company that Eric had suddenly established in the first half of the year, they realized that there might be a problem inside Firefly.
However, Eric has not spared time to care about movies in recent days. On the eve of Thanksgiving, after the multinational coalition forces deployed more than 600,000 troops in the Middle East, they quickly issued an ultimatum to the Saddam government. , requiring Saddam to withdraw from Iraq before January 15, 1991.
But Saddam immediately gave the United Nations Army an extremely tough response, saying that he would 'fight to the end'.
After the news was revealed, the crude oil futures market started a new round of shocks.
In my memory, the Gulf War broke out on January 17, two days after the ultimatum was issued. Eric believed that even if his little butterfly instigated something, the time would not be too bad.
In order not to attract too many people's attention, Eric did not fly to New York this time, but Chris came to Los Angeles.
Just like the last time most people did not think that Iraq would use force against Kuwait, this time, speculators still prefer that after the war breaks out, it will be as protracted as the first two wars in the United States. Once this happens, the price of crude oil will rise again. Soaring higher, so speculators have already started building large long positions following the ultimatum.
Facing Eric's bearish view, which is different from ordinary people, Chris did not have too many doubts this time, but the situation this time is also very different from before August. Before August, the price of crude oil has been rising slowly. Invasion of Kuwait, it suddenly soared to a high of 40 US dollars.
But now, in the face of an imminent war, the crude oil futures market will become more volatile and unpredictable. There are still two months between now and the outbreak of the war. Any piece of sensitive information may lead to a sharp rise or fall in crude oil prices, and using the original ten-fold leverage is tantamount to death.
After some discussion, the two unanimously decided to use 2 billion US dollars of funds to adopt a relatively safe five-fold leverage, and the remaining funds will be used as a reserve deposit.
On the one hand, this can minimize the risk, but on the other hand, Eric wants to invest all his funds, but the futures market is so large, and five times leverage to support 10 billion US dollars is already the limit . If billions of dollars are all invested with high leverage, there will be no banks that can guarantee tens of billions of dollars.
Chris stayed in Los Angeles for two days and left quickly, and Eric also put his mind on the most important thing. Even when it was Thanksgiving with that little girl in Drew, Eric didn't stop related deployments.
Although the federal government's statutory Thanksgiving holiday is only one day, companies usually have a holiday from Thanksgiving Thursday to the following Monday. Fireflies are no exception, and in 1990 Thanksgiving fell on November 22.
Monday, November 26.
Due to the release of several new films on November 22 and 23, the box office of "Rocky 5" dropped by as much as 55% in the second weekend, and only received less than 7 million box office, while "Ghost Detective" also dropped by nearly 50% , this movie with an investment of 40 million is likely to lose money, but "Fighting Condor", under the attack of several new films, still won the box office of 16 million in three days on the weekend of the second week, and the total box office has reached more than 4700 Ten thousand.
This day happened to be Firefly's year-end meeting. When he arrived at the company early in the morning, Robert Shea was keenly aware that something was wrong with the company's atmosphere. He thought it was a mockery of the failure of his "Ghost Detective" at the box office. Therefore, he also made an excuse to lose his temper with a staff member.
At nine o'clock, when everyone arrived, the meeting officially began. (To be continued..)