Hearing what Xiao Nizi said, Eric raised his arm and knocked on the girl's head as usual. With so many things going on recently, he doesn't have the heart to deal with women, let alone two women who are exactly the same.
It was already past eight o'clock in the evening. When I returned to the villa and sent the twins to prepare dinner, Eric checked the fax and took out the press release and several other materials that had been prepared by the Firefly headquarters to be released tomorrow.
Although Eric was full of confidence in the conference room, it was impossible for him to be free of worries. Two heavyweight films, Paramount and Universal, chose to be released before "Saving Private Ryan" at the same time. The purpose was to give Firefly a head-on blow this summer. , the follow-up two films will definitely be greatly affected.
Eric put the press release aside, and first looked at the box office data of the first two films in Paramount's "Beverly Hills Cop" series. The "Beverly Hills Cop" released in 1984 sold for 1,500 yuan at the time. At a cost of 10,000 US dollars, it won a North American box office of 230 million US dollars, and won the box office champion of the year. The follow-up "Beverly Hills Cop 2" also won a local box office of 150 million US dollars. The latest "Beverly Hills Cop 3" can be described as an ambitious work after Viacom acquired Paramount. Although it is a black comedy without special effects and big scenes, Paramount still spent The production cost of 50 million US dollars is equivalent to more than twice that of similar films. According to the more informative box office curve of the second sequel and the growth rate of the Hollywood box office in recent years, Firefly's internal data analysis department predicts that "Beverly Hills Cop 3" will premiere on Wednesday and Thursday plus the premiere. The weekend's three-day total will exceed $50 million.
At the same time, Universal's "The Mummy" is not inferior to "Beverly Hills Cop 3" in terms of publicity. Although this adventure film is similar to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series, although the total investment is only 60 million US dollars, But this is mainly due to the fact that Nicole adopted the form of remuneration as a share and the crew went to Morocco in North Africa to save a lot of money. Without these two cost-cutting measures, the production cost of "The Mummy" would not be lower than 80 million. . Combining Universal's publicity and release model, trailers, and word-of-mouth accumulating from preview screenings, the forecast department gave the box office to reach 50 million U.S. dollars in the first three days of the weekend.
Although both companies have adopted a saturated release strategy with a generally large drop in the second week, they are calculated based on the 40% drop in the second week of "Beverly Hills Cop 3" and "The Mummy". If the data in hand does not change much, the three-day box office left for "Saving Private Ryan" in the first weekend is only about 35 million at most, and the box office for the first seven days is only about 50 million US dollars.
At the same time, after the release of "True Lies" on June 10. The gathering of four heavyweight films, together with the cannon fodder film that wants to share a share of the box office, although the single-week box office will hit a new high, but after the four films are divided, the box office of "True Lies" is likely to be limited to less than 50 million US dollars in the first week .
The next two weeks are Paramount's "Star Trek 7," Warner's "Law Enforcer," and Firefly's own "The Lion King."
Both "Star Trek 7" and "Law Enforcement" are big variables. Eric has some sporadic impressions of "Star Trek 7". Since he has no special memories, it means that the threat of this film is not great.
Warner Pictures was stimulated by Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" box office double harvest. This year's summer, regardless of the overall softness of western films, released two masterpieces of western films, except "Law Enforcement Titans" ", and the other one is the opening work of this year's summer season, "The Gambler Ma Huali", starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster.
However, after the film was released on May 20, it only took $13 million in its first weekend at the box office. Far below the expectations of Warner Pictures, it also withdrew from the competition for the summer box office.
"Law Enforcer" is also a western filmed by Kevin Costner last year. With Kevin Costner's reputation accumulated in "Dances with Wolves", no one can be sure of the "Law Enforcer" What will happen.
Eric has no memory of this movie at all, so there are only two possibilities, one is that the movie just crashed in the original time and space without a sound, and the other is that this is a brand new film influenced by the butterfly effect. Film. Eric really hopes that the result is the former, but looking at the $63 million production budget of "Law Enforcement Titans" and the golden schedule of June 24 given by Warner, Eric feels again. The latter is perhaps more likely.
After all, after years of accumulated experience, the film company can almost make a detailed assessment of the film's quality and box office prospects before the film is released. Although I often look away. But this kind of assessment is like a weather forecast. There is no guarantee of accuracy, but the chance of deviation in the general direction is not high.
If the box office performance of "Legator" is really worthy of its production cost and schedule, then the box office of "The Lion King" will also be affected by unpredictable.
With the platform given by Eric over the years, even if Drew, who was already very shrewd, did not repair nine tails, he must have seven or eight. It's just that the girl is less and less showing her shrewd side around Eric. Of course, she knew the current situation well. Seeing Eric frowning in thought, Xiao Nizi came over docilely and said, "Eric, why don't I put "Mission: Impossible" and "Museum Wonder" together?" The distribution rights of "Night" and those copyrights should be returned to Firefly?"
Drew's voice broke Eric's contemplation. He glanced at the data analysis data in his hand. Eric smiled self-deprecatingly at the thought of gains and losses just now. He has so many "good cards" in his hand, even if this round is really If you lose, it's impossible to affect too much, just make a comeback. He hugged Xiao Nizi and kissed that white and tender face, Eric smiled and said: "Of course not, these are all our small coffers, and no one will give them to you. By the way, "Forrest Gump" is ready How is it?"
Xiao Nizi huddled in Eric's arms and said: "Hanks' salary has been negotiated, 8 million US dollars, but he hopes that we can provide enough Oscar public relations resources in the future. In addition, the godfather also likes this script. , Amy and I visited his house last week, and he specially helped invite Robert Zemeckis, and Robert has agreed to take over the project."
Tom Hanks signed "Saving Private Ryan" with a salary of 10 million. Eric knew that the reason why he dropped his salary was probably because he regarded "Forrest Gump" as an Olympic film. Hanks will soon be forty years old, and his desire for an Oscar winner has become more urgent. If it weren't for "Saving Private Ryan", Hanks would probably take over the filming of "Philadelphia Story" just like the original time and space. Although history has been biased. But with his outstanding performance in "Saving Private Ryan" and the following "Forrest Gump", it is not impossible to repeat the miracle of winning two consecutive Oscar winners.
Hearing that director Robert Zemeckis was a matchmaker with Spielberg, Eric also became curious and asked, "What film is Steven preparing recently?"
"No. The Godfather only served as the producer of a few films. I heard that he and David Geffen plan to set up a new studio, just like the United Artists led by Chaplin. It is only responsible for the production and does not involve Publishing," Drew said here, shaking his head, and said: "But I don't think this plan will work at all. If you don't do the publishing yourself, you will be restrained by the Seventh Congress."
Eric thought that this space-time "Jurassic Park" fell into his own hands, and Katzenberg was honestly staying at Disney. Spielberg probably wouldn’t want to start his own business anymore. He didn’t realize that this matter should be led by David Geffen, who owns his own records. And the production company, with a net worth of more than 2 billion US dollars, left Time Warner last year, and Eric rejected him to join Firefly. It is estimated that David Geffen then had the idea of establishing a large studio.
Thinking of Xiao Nizi's last words, Eric asked, "You wouldn't say that in front of Steven, would you?"
Drew giggled and shook his head. Said: "I'm not a fool, the godfather excitedly wants to do something big, I'm not asking for trouble when I say such things.",
Eric smiled, although Xiao Nizi has gotten closer to Spielberg in recent years. But it is true that it has not reached the point of saying such a thing.
Although he caught up in the car for a while, Eric had a quick rest after eating the dinner prepared by the twins.
The next day, before dawn, Eric was awakened by a rapid phone ringing.
After dazedly touching the microphone and putting it to his ear, Katzenberg's excited voice came immediately: "Eric, the company just got the news, can you imagine, 1.72 million US dollars, only 1.72 million Dollars, lol."
Eric looked at his watch, it was not yet four o'clock, and secretly sighed Katzenberg, a lunatic, don't workaholics need to sleep, so energetic.
Gently got off the bed, pulled the thin blanket for the little girl in her sleep, and Eric walked out of the bedroom with the cordless phone. Although he had realized something, Eric asked again: "What 1.72 million?" Dollar?"
"Of course, the box office on the first day of "Beverly Hills Cop 3" was only 1.72 million US dollars, only 30% of the expected first day of 6 million US dollars. Paramount originally hoped that this sequel could hit 200 million box office. Come on, the total box office may not necessarily be 50 million US dollars, as long as "The Mummy" can't get out of the box office curve of "Jurassic Park", our box office potential of "Ryan" will not be suppressed."
Hearing Katzenberg's confirmation, Eric lost all sleep in an instant, and at the same time understood why Katzenberg was so energetic. Hearing the faint voice on the other end of the phone, Eric asked: " Jeffrey, you are not in the company now, are you?"
"Of course, Michael is also on his way here. I just want to inform you that you have other work today, so you don't need to come here. I will call you as soon as I have anything to do," Katzenberg said. , and said: "Paramount originally wanted to cover up this news. It took more than two hours for the duty manager of the data department to get the exact data. We are now contacting the media to further expand the influence of this news. Although It’s a bit late for the morning paper, but ABC’s morning news will focus on this message, and there will be special film review articles in the evening papers of major cities today, even if “Beverly Hills Cop 3” is only a temporary failure, we It also has no chance of turning the tables.”
After hanging up the phone, Eric immediately felt relieved. As Katzenberg said just now, even if "Beverly Hills Cop 3" is only a temporary box office failure, the subsequent one-sided bad reviews will make the film even more difficult. The movie has no chance of turning around at all. Although Universal and Paramount have a faint intention to jointly target Firefly in this matter, Eric believes that Universal must be doing the same work. After dawn, there will be a lot of negative news about "Beverly Hills Cop 3" in the media, and the bleak box office of "Beverly Hills Cop 3" on the first day of 1.72 million US dollars also left Paramount without any refutation Excuse.
Once the United States loses, as a black comedy with a good reputation, don't expect overseas box office. Although the box office revenue of movies in Hollywood's current comprehensive statistics accounts for only 30% of the total revenue, and other peripherals as high as 70%, but that is also in the case of a movie with good quality. If it hits the street and forms a domino effect, then this movie will also be uninterested in the video tape and TV broadcast market. Based on the US$50 million North American box office of "Beverly Hills Cop 3", this comedy, which costs close to US$100 million in production and distribution, may eventually bring Paramount a loss of no less than US$50 million. For Lei Shidong, who is ambitious and wants to make a big splash in Hollywood, this loss is enough for the old man to hurt for a while.
Then only "The Mummy" is left, and only this movie, even if "The Mummy" explodes, it will no longer have a suppressive effect on "Saving Private Ryan". As long as "Saving Private Ryan" plays its normal The box office level, under the guidance of Firefly, will be able to form a healthy competitive relationship with the subsequent "True Lies" in terms of word of mouth and box office. The defeat of "Beverly Hills Cop 3" is like the opponent suddenly lost an important piece in a game of chess, and Firefly immediately gained the initiative again.
Excited, he didn't have any thoughts of going back to sleep. Eric got dressed and went downstairs ahead of time. He went to his basement study to deal with some accumulated emails from yesterday, and left after the window turned white. Study room, plan to exercise.
As soon as the automatic door of the study opened, Eric saw the twins walking down the stairs side by side.
The two sisters were wearing identical black vests and shorts, which accentuated the slender waist and long legs that are typical of Slavic girls. Their blond hair was tied into ponytails, their oval faces were delicate and round, and their blue eyes looked large even without eyeshadow. Their noses and The mouth is very petite, with a different kind of innocence between the thin eyebrows and thin lips.
Seeing Eric who suddenly appeared after the automatic door opened, the twins stopped in unison and shouted in unison: "Boss." (To be continued.)