Although Eric is not in Los Angeles, after a long period of publicity, "Toy Story" began a small-scale screening during the internal test of "Cut Throat Island". The novel 3D animation form, warm and interesting plot, and fable-like storyline quickly created a huge sensation in the media.
“…unlike Disney’s fairy tales of princes and princesses, this film tells a story about friendship, about trust, and about finding through the eyes of the toys.”
"... This is a fable for grown-ups. The hero and anti-hero elements are the main content pillars. The collective family feels lively and lively, and there will always be a lot of warmth sublimated. The big story of Buzz and Woody Heroism and simplicity and sincerity can be found in our shadows. A little black humor will not detract from the believable beauty."
"...a brand new form of animated film, Pixar's 3D animation technology will undoubtedly bring about a revolution relative to hand-drawn animation."
"..."
The screening in just one week has almost reached the sum of the influence of all previous publicity. Influenced by the one-sided praise of the media, the confidence of Firefly's publicity and distribution department has greatly increased. Michael Lynn discussed with Eric on the phone. After the series, the budget of "Toy Story" was added again by 10 million U.S. dollars, and the total cost of production and distribution of this film also reached the blockbuster level of 70 million U.S. dollars.
However, Eric knows that as long as "Toy Story" can establish the position of 3D animation in Hollywood, the total cost of 70 million US dollars is definitely worth it. What's more, according to the data in memory, Firefly has enough confidence to recover the full cost of "Toy Story" only by its local distribution in North America. Subsequent distribution through various channels will bring a lot of pure profits to Firefly. the most important is. before that. Firefly has already registered the trademarks of all the toys in this animated movie. Eric is very clear that the profits brought by the franchise of animated characters in "Toy Story" are definitely no less than the box office revenue of this animated movie.
Compared with the fanfare of "Toy Story", "Cut Throat Island" seems to be a lot more low-key. After the internal test, although Disney did not have much confidence in this movie, it did not go to the box office dud. think. Although Disney used reasons such as the need for detailed revisions in the movie. There was not a large range of test screenings, but there was no relaxation at all in terms of publicity such as TV trailers and billboard posters.
Michael Eisner seems to be trying to make up for the lack of quality publicity. Not only did he not reduce the promotional budget of "Cut Throat Island", but he also proposed to increase the budget. As an important investor of "Cut Throat Island", Robert Xie Yi has already determined that "Cut Throat Island" will bring losses, and after so many years in Hollywood, he can also imagine that it is okay for the movie to sell well, but once it fails at the box office. Disney will definitely do everything possible to pass the loss on to him, an outsider. So he refused to pay any more money, and even got into an argument with Michael Eisner.
The proposal to increase the publicity budget came from Michael Eisner. But at this moment, he would definitely not let Disney bear the cost alone, so he took out the sharp weapon of the contract, forcing Robert Shea to take out a budget according to the capital increase ratio. Robert Shea could only swallow this dumb loss. He knew that if he was unwilling to pay at this time, then Disney would have even more reason to pass on the box office loss to him.
According to Disney's predictions, "Cutthroat Island" has a Hollywood blockbuster gimmick with an investment of over 100 million yuan. Even if the plot... well, it is indeed a bit scattered, but there is no precedent in Hollywood history that there is no scattered plot but a big hit. Therefore, Disney optimistically predicts that "Cutthroat Island" can earn at least US$80 million at the box office, and the overseas box office is also expected to reach this figure. After the release of the two important box office channels, although there will still be losses, after the subsequent sales of video tapes and TV broadcasting rights, there must be no problem in recovering the cost within two years.
Even if the subsequent "Toy Story" movie gained a very good reputation, although Disney felt that its monopoly position in the Hollywood animation industry would be threatened, because "Toy Story" and "Cut Throat Island" are two films with completely different audiences. Movies, so Disney didn't feel too much pressure.
Entering the second half of June, the 1991 summer vacation has lasted for a month. This summer vacation started with the sequel of "Fighting Condor 2" released by Fox at the end of May.
At the end of last year, the first part of "Fighting the Condor" with an investment of more than 20 million yuan earned a global box office of nearly 200 million U.S. dollars. The profit was higher than Fox's flagship "Die Hard 2" last year, so Fox couldn't wait. Started the second part. However, the last time I asked Eric to choose a script, I paid 30% of the investment amount, and as a result, Eric got a profit of about 50 million with an investment of more than 8 million, which made Fox feel bad for a while. Bundle. Therefore, Fox, the producer of the sequel, directly pretended to be deaf and dumb about this matter, without mentioning it. Eric was very busy, and there was no specific contract for this matter, and Eric didn't bother to pay attention to it.
After the last one spoofed "Top Gun", the sequel still continued the original style and chose to spoof Sylvester Stallone's "First Blood". But unfortunately, Fox got rid of this sequel. Although the spoof of the sequel is even crazier than the first one, and the cost has increased to 40 million U.S. dollars, but for some reason, the audience just doesn’t buy it. In late June, after three weeks of release, "Condor Condor 2" only grossed $28 million at the box office in more than 2,100 theaters. Failure is a foregone conclusion. Of course everyone is happy with the success of the film, but the surprise is that this sequel failed, and because it failed so thoroughly, a large number of shareholders wrote to the Fox board of directors, condemning the Fox management for leaving Eric behind and developing "Anti-Battle God" alone. Eagle sequel, resulting in the devastating blow to this promising franchise.
Not only "Fighting Condor", one month into the summer vacation, the films released by major film companies have not performed very well. Usually, at this time, the total weekly box office in North America should have exceeded 100 million US dollars. But not until the week before Toy Story hits theaters. The weekly box office is only more than 80 million. certainly. The reason is very clear to all.
On June 21, "Toy Story", which has experienced overwhelming publicity and good word-of-mouth accumulation, opened in 2,400 theaters in North America. Although this figure seems a bit insignificant, it averages an astonishing $50,000 per game in less than 30 theaters.
Because there are no competitors in this summer file. In the first three days, "Toy Story" earned 30 million US dollars at the box office. After a week, the box office accumulated to 47 million, easily exceeding the production cost of the film.
As the first 3D animated film, "Toy Story" achieved such amazing results as soon as it debuted, causing a huge sensation in Hollywood and even the whole world. And Pixar, which has always been unknown, has quickly become the focus of attention of the entire Hollywood. Many professional magazines have evaluated the potential shown by "Toy Story", if it chooses to go public. The animation studio won't be worth less than a billion dollars.
The media quickly unearthed the fact that Eric bought Pixar from Jobs for $20 million. At this time, Jobs was still struggling to manage his next computer company. Facing the reporter who suddenly appeared in front of him and asked about his feelings, Jobs, who heard the cause and effect, remained silent.
However, in private, Jobs quickly called Eric who was far away in Punk City. After expressing his congratulations to Eric, the boss of Joe did not hesitate to seize this opportunity and expressed the hope that Eric would be the next Provide an order.
After "Toy Story", Pixar will definitely expand again. Jobs' computer company also produces professional-level computers. Hearing Jobs' request, Eric readily agreed without thinking about it. Let's make a human investment in advance for the future layout of Apple, although there is little hope of appreciating it with Jobs' character. As the Apple company with the largest market value in the world in the future, Eric did not intend to let it go from the beginning, but now is not the best time to join Apple, and Eric does not have enough funds and energy for the time being.
A week after "Toy Story" was released, on June 28, after a huge premiere, "Cutthroat Island" was also released on a large scale in 2,500 theaters in North America.
Compared with "Toy Story" which was screened with great fanfare to accumulate word-of-mouth, although "Cut Throat Island" has successively invested 35 million US dollars in promotional funds in various promotional channels, it has only held a few public test screenings, and the invitations are also limited. All are media and film critics who have a good relationship with Disney. After getting the benefits of Disney, these people are of course impossible to speak ill of "Cut Throat Island", but they are also impossible to brag about this movie with great fanfare, otherwise they will be slapped in the face in the future. Therefore, the film reviews of "Cut Throat Island" appeared in newspapers, and the focus of writing was basically focused on the grand scenes and beautiful scenery of this movie. As for the plot, basically not many people were willing to talk about it.
Although the news that the investment of "Terminator 2" exceeded 100 million came out first, "Cutthroat Island" was the first Hollywood blockbuster to be released with an investment of over 100 million. Therefore, on the day of the film's release, many people had great expectations for this movie fans walked into the movie theater, so, on the first day of the film's release, "Cut Throat Island" won the box office of 9 million US dollars.
But then the situation took a turn for the worse. After the movie was released, it was impossible for Disney to control the word-of-mouth and public opinion of "Cutthroat Island". On the second day, there was an overwhelming crusade against "Cut Throat Island" in the media, and even many famous film critics unceremoniously made sharp criticisms, saying that "Cut Throat Island" was an "expensive visual garbage" piled up with 100 million dollars. '.
Some ordinary movie fans who were interviewed after watching the movie expressed their extreme disappointment with "Cut Throat Island", claiming that it is a scattered comic strip without a plot.
The film industry in North America has been developing for nearly a hundred years. Because of the low ticket prices, watching movies in the United States is a very popular entertainment activity. In addition, there are many choices, which means that in this mature market, bad movies are Not much living space at all.
Therefore, on the second day after its release, the box office of "Cut Throat Island" dropped sharply the next day, falling to more than 5 million US dollars, and fell again to only more than 3 million on the third day.
In the first three days, "Cut Throat Island" earned a box office of 17 million US dollars. If you don't look at the box office trend, this result is not too miserable.
But three days later, the attendance rate of "Cut Throat Island" has slipped to the edge of being forced to withdraw. After the first week, the total box office of "Cut Throat Island" has accumulated to 20 million, that is to say, in four days on weekdays, The film only got a poor box office of 3 million. In the second week, 1,000 theaters directly canceled the film, which had no attendance rate, and the remaining 1,500 theaters could only grit their teeth without tears because they signed a two-week reflection contract with Disney. persist in.
I don’t know if it’s because of the poor quality of “Cut Throat Island” and the fact that the publicity in the early stage against “Toy Story” and “Terminator 2” aroused the audience’s rebellious psychology. In the second week of Toy Story's release, the box office not only did not decline, but increased. After the second week, "Toy Story" once again won a box office of more than 49 million US dollars, although it took advantage of this summer. , but this kind of achievement of almost breaking 100 million in two weeks once again made many people breathe a sigh of relief.
"Terminator 2" has been promoting with a cost of over 100 million gimmicks before, and this time fans have become more cautious. Therefore, on July 3, the first day of "Terminator 2"'s release, the box office was not very good. There were only more than 8 million, but Cameron's meticulously crafted thrilling plot and the appearance of liquid metal robots made "Terminator 2" quickly win a lot of praise. After 8 million on the first day, they got 14 million in the next two days. The total score of 33 million US dollars in the three days of the weekend even surpassed the previous "Toy Story".
As for "Cut Throat Island", it once again won a box office of more than 5 million U.S. dollars in the second week. With an income of 25 million U.S. dollars, the total investment in the production and distribution of this film reached 140 million U.S. dollars. Because of the one-sided negative reviews of word-of-mouth, the overseas distribution of "Cutthroat Island" was forgotten. Rights income is even better than nothing, therefore, Disney and Robert Shea will jointly bear a huge loss of up to 120 million. (To be continued..)