"Ghost in Masquerade" earned more than 37 million US dollars at the box office in the first week, far exceeding its production cost of less than 30 million US dollars, and there is almost no suspense for the total box office to exceed 100 million US dollars.
Compared with MGM, which only released one movie in the summer and got less than 10 million US dollars at the box office, tg's performance will definitely attract the attention and covet of many people. Compared with MGM, tg's box office report card in the summer of 1992 was much better than Paramount, Universal and Fox.
The main focus of Paramount's summer file is Harrison Ford's action film "Patriot Games", but this movie only got a box office of more than 80 million, while the situation of Universal and Fox is similar. The summer files of the three major film companies There are no films that have grossed over 100 million at the box office.
As for the "rich and powerful" Sony Pictures, although Tom Cruise was invited to create "The Prelude", due to various reasons, the total box office of this movie has also stopped at around 80 million seats. It can reach the budget cost of the film, and the impact of the failure of the North American local box office market is often a series of impacts. Because the box office of "Dark War Prequel" is not ideal, overseas box office and peripheral copyright sales will be greatly affected. This project It will once again bring huge losses to Sony Pictures.
A week after "Grandmaid in disguise," Disney's "Crazy Nuns" stepped on the tail of the summer season and landed in more than 2,100 theaters in North America. The release of this comedy almost announced the end of the summer season, and then The films released are basically films that the film companies don't pay much attention to but want to try their luck at the end of the summer vacation. The chances of dark horses appearing in these films are very small.
no doubt. "Tornado" became the biggest winner of the entire summer, with an expected total box office of 300 million US dollars plus the subsequent "Grandmaid in Masquerade", the total box office of Firefly's summer film will exceed 400 million US dollars. If several Disney films are counted, then, based on the current annual box office total in North America, the box office of Firefly Pictures has exceeded 10% of the total annual box office in just one summer. If Firefly is a listed company For the company, perhaps the stock price has risen a lot at this time.
but. While the North American entertainment media was buzzing, Eric had already left Los Angeles, after attending the premiere of "Grandmaid in Disguise". He soon flew to the Hawaiian Islands.
Because of Jerry Bruckheimer's excellent preliminary work, when Eric arrived in Hawaii, Dr. Hardmond's experimental base, the gate of Jurassic Park, the power grid to block dinosaurs and other set facilities had all been completed, and at the same time. Two other small film crews also filmed the corresponding amber excavation and dinosaur archaeological scenes in the amber mines in Dominica and Red Rock Canyon National Park in California.
"Eric. Look, it's here," Jerry Bruckheimer pointed to a deep, dense forest passage: "Kauai doesn't have the kind of terrain you need, but the conditions here definitely meet the conditions. We only need to spend It takes one day to transport the corresponding equipment and shoot.”
At this time, the two were discussing the scene of the Tyrannosaurus rex chasing the jeep. Because there is no convenient terrain on Kauai Island, Jerry Bruckheimer found the corresponding scene on the nearby Oahu Island, which also belongs to the Hawaiian Islands. scene.
"If you choose this place, you will definitely need to make some changes to the surrounding environment, otherwise you won't be able to shoot at all. Will the Hawaii state government agree?" Eric looked at the very primitive forest environment in front of him and asked suspiciously.
"I've considered this a long time ago, and they said it's okay," Jerry Bruckheimer showed a determined expression to Eric.
Eric smiled and didn't ask any more questions. The two got into a jeep together. After the driver drove, Eric stretched himself. Although he only arrived in Hawaii yesterday, today he and Jerry Brookhay Mo ran all over the shooting locations, and tomorrow will carry out some preliminary trial shooting work.
The shooting of large-scale movies is like fighting in ancient times. It is a matter of consuming manpower and material resources. Therefore, it is impossible for Eric to take too much time to rest. The production team of hundreds of people eats a lot of money every day. Expenses urged Eric to get to work as soon as possible. Although with Eric's net worth, he would definitely not be able to waste it, but if he really did this, he would no longer be a qualified director and producer.
After the jeep arrived at the pier in Oahu, the two boarded a small yacht and returned to Kauai. Island, Jerry Bruckheimer smiled and said to Eric: "Eric, maybe you can try to buy a small island."
"Do you have a private island?" Eric asked curiously. The trend of buying a private island has now risen, but Eric has little interest in it.
Jerry Bruckheimer shook his head and said, "Not yet, but I will occasionally think about it."
Jerry Bruckheimer, as a gold medal producer who has been famous for more than ten years, is not inferior to Hollywood's first-line stars. Therefore, there is no financial problem in buying a private island.
"Actually, I don't think it's worth buying a small island. If it's too close to the land, the privacy is often not guaranteed. If it's too far away from the land, and it's isolated overseas, then the infrastructure is a big problem, unless the cost is irrelevant. Put in, otherwise don't think about living too comfortably on the island."
Jerry Bruckheimer looked slightly thoughtful when he heard Eric's words.
Eric went on to say: "If it were me, I would rather buy a mountain. At that time, I would bring my friends to the foot of a towering mountain and point to the cloud: Look, this mountain is mine."
Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't help laughing as he imagined the picture Eric had drawn.
After the yacht gradually moved away from Oahu Island, Jerry Bruckheimer looked at a group of assistants on the deck, winked at Eric, and the two got into the cabin.
"Eric, according to the current box office trend of several movies, the box office of Firefly Pictures should exceed 500 million US dollars this summer, right?"
Eric knew Jerry Bruckheimer wouldn't say this for nothing. Nodding silently, he and Jerry sat down by the seat near the window.
"I have seen the movie release schedule of Firefly and Disney, and the schedule at the end of the year. Firefly will also release three films, "Speed", "Aeroplane" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in cooperation with Sony, and Disney will release another one. The box office of cartoons has always been very stable, so the box office figures won at the end of the year will not be much worse than those of the summer vacation. Coupled with the box office accumulation of small and medium-sized movies in non-popular schedules, the box office share of Firefly Pictures this year is very likely. Much more than Warner. Up to 30%."
Eric had almost heard some of the meaning in Jerry Bruckheimer's words, and asked with a smile: "Jerry, did someone ask you to help pass the message?"
Jerry Bruckheimer nodded: "Mr. Martin Davis of Paramount. You know, I have been working with Paramount before."
"What does he want?" Eric asked bluntly.
Jerry Bruckheimer smiled and said, "If you agree, Mr. Davis will come to meet you in person. As for what you want to talk about, it's not my concern."
"Okay, I'll give Mr. Davis a call sometime," Eric nodded.
What Jerry Bruckheimer meant just now is obvious. The performance of Firefly's film is too impressive, which will definitely cause a rebound from several other film companies. Martin Davis asked Jerry Bruckheimer to spread the word at this time. Just wanted to work with Firefly, after all. In the case of a win-win situation, few people will actively choose to be hostile.
"Eric. Personally, I think you can separate Pixar Animation Studios and Digital Realm from the Firefly system and set up two separate companies."
Eric smiled and shook his head: "Jerry, I managed to condense the firefly into a whole, how could I take the initiative to remove the hands and feet?"
Jerry Bruckheimer was stunned for a moment, and seemed to think that what Eric said made sense, but felt that something was not quite right.
Eric didn't look at Jerry Bruckheimer's expression, turned his head and looked at the sea outside the window, and said indifferently: "Since the 20s and 30s when all the heroes came together, Hollywood has become accustomed to the structure of the Big Six, the Big Seven, or the Big Eight. , but it does not mean that this should be the norm in Hollywood. In the United States, GM can dominate, Bell can dominate, Esenck Mobil can dominate, and even Wal-Mart, which has only been established for 30 years, can dominate Dominance, if this is the case, why can’t Hollywood dominate alone?”
When Jerry Bruckheimer heard this, he faintly felt a slight cracking sound. He has been in Hollywood since the early 1970s, and it has been nearly twenty years now, and he has also become accustomed to the Hollywood scene without knowing it. A state of co-existence. However, Eric's words made Jerry Bruckheimer realize that this kind of rule is not unbreakable.
"Eric, why does Hollywood maintain this pattern of coexistence?" Jerry Bruckheimer asked almost subconsciously.
Eric thought for a while and said: "Probably because of the ups and downs in performance. The film industry is different from other industries, such as Wal-Mart. They have developed a distribution system that is ahead of their peers, so they have dominated the entire United States in just thirty years. , when Wal-Mart has already occupied the market, even if other rivals completely imitate Wal-Mart's model, it is impossible to reach the scale of Wal-Mart. But film companies are different. After all, the strength of a film company is measured by the box office of the film, and the film The box office is the most unstable thing. Maybe a film company will produce multiple hit movies within a certain period of time, just like Barry Diller took over Paramount for a few years, but because of various The reason is that that situation will definitely not last long, and other film companies are not idle, and may produce high-grossing films from time to time, so that if you come and go, it will be difficult to achieve a dominance situation."
After saying this, Eric smiled confidently and said: "But in Firefly, this situation will definitely continue, so, one day, I will let them get used to certain things."
Jerry Bruckheimer followed with a smile, but he didn't agree with Eric's words. Since the performance of other film companies will fluctuate, how could Firefly not appear
…
Eric didn't take the words of Paramount's Martin Davis through Jerry Bruckheimer too seriously. Firefly has now developed into a fairly stable state of mind. Such a big film company, relying on those crooked ways The method is definitely unbeatable. If you want to defeat a film company, you can only rely on the film to speak.
But if it is compared to movies, Eric is confident that Hollywood does not have the strength of that movie company.
However, he did not ignore Martin Davis' message. That night, Eric called Martin Davis in Los Angeles, and agreed that the two parties would find time to chat. Look at the sincerity of Paramount.
Eric knew that when MGM was ignored, Disney was swallowed up by Firefly, and Universal and Columbia were acquired by Japanese consortiums, the only option for outsiders who wanted to get involved in Hollywood was to acquire Paramount.
According to the memories of previous lives and some information collected before, after Viacom's Redstone failed to compete with Eric for Disney, he directly transferred his target to Paramount, and Barry Diller left Fox. After starting his own business for a period of time, he soon decided to return to Hollywood, joined forces with several companies, and began to test the shareholders of Paramount.
Although Paramount's performance in the past few years is not very good, but with such a shell, as long as it can get high-quality film projects, Paramount may rise again at any time, so Martin Davis does not have much Selling Paramount Mind.
But unfortunately, Paramount is a listed company. Although Martin Davis is the company's largest shareholder, if other film companies adopt a hostile takeover to annex Paramount, in the case of Paramount's poor performance, , Paramount's other shareholders are likely to agree to the other party's high-priced acquisition and choose to cash out at a high price.
It is estimated that this is also the reason why Martin Davis suddenly contacted Eric. When the Japanese acquired Columbia and Universal, the two film companies had a brief cooperation with Firefly and achieved good results. Although the last two All the companies were sold, but it cost the Japanese a lot of dollars.
And Martin Davis' mind is very clear, he just wants to improve Paramount's performance and prevent other shareholders from choosing to sell the company. With the film market in Eastern Europe gradually opening up and the annual box office in North America continuing to grow, Martin Davis's desire not to sell Paramount is understandable. (To be continued..)