For Hollywood, the summer of 1995 began with "Die Hard 3" released on May 19, but since the official debut of the "Jurassic Park 2" trailer at the beginning of the year at the Super Bowl, the global media and movie fans have been excited. All eyes are on this long-awaited blockbuster.
June 2, the day when "Jurassic Park 2" was released, also became the official beginning of the summer vacation in most ordinary people's minds.
The great success of "Jurassic Park" two years ago was not only reflected in the record-breaking global box office of one billion US dollars, but also made the brand of "Jurassic Park" deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even formed a cultural phenomenon. Although it is difficult for the "Jurassic Park" series to reach the height of "Star Wars" in the 1970s under the background of the gradual rise of CG special effects films, the potential commercial value of its brand still reaches billions of dollars.
Under such a powerful influence, the premiere of "Jurassic Park 2" attracted strong attention from hundreds of media around the world.
Eric rushed back to Los Angeles from New York on the morning of May 31, and began to make final preparations for the premiere of "Jurassic Park 2" the next day.
At 5 pm on June 1, the premiere of "Jurassic Park 2" was officially held at the Los Angeles Music Center.
In the new version of "Jurassic Park 2", Eric used the director Joe Johnston who has worked with Disney on many films. The hugely successful family comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
In the original timeline, Joe Johnston should have been the director of "Game of the Brave" and "Jurassic Park 3". Eric handed over "Game of the Brave" to others, so that Joe? Johnston joined the "Jurassic Park" series in advance. If the second part can be successful as scheduled, he can also let the other party continue to handle the third part.
The star-studded red carpet session lasted for two hours, because the media Q&A was arranged after the film screening, and the time came to 7 o'clock in the afternoon. After the host gave a brief speech, the film officially started in the hall.
The original Jurassic Park 2 was basically Spielberg's game. The plot is weak and messy, and the story advancement still follows the setting of the first character's intentional death. Even later, Spielberg himself admitted that this is his worst film. Although in the original time and space. The global box office of "Jurassic Park 2" still reached more than 600 million U.S. dollars, but the word-of-mouth of the entire series was completely messed up, resulting in the third global box office being only a mere 300 million U.S. dollars.
The new version of the "Jurassic Park 2" script adopts the general idea of the original version, but in order not to repeat the same mistakes and maintain the series' good reputation. The original story frame was completely overturned by Eric.
In the new script, Eric weakened the plot of exploring Dinosaur Island, deleted some branch lines, and no longer adopted the very brainless setting of not being undead. Instead, the story focuses on the first behind-the-scenes company that bribed the park's computer administrator for dinosaur embryos and led to the final disaster. When they successfully captured a Tyrannosaurus rex with great effort, the Tyrannosaurus rex accidentally escaped during the transportation, which caused even more disastrous consequences of Tyrannosaurus rex invading the city.
in the movie. The Tyrannosaurus rex running rampant in the metropolis in order to find its cubs not only shocked the whole world, but also made thousands of audiences in the movie theater exclaim. There is no doubt that this setting is very successful. After all, dinosaurs are very popular in modern times. The resurrection of society is already a very big gimmick, and the plot of Tyrannosaurus rex invading the city is definitely more substituting than the isolated dinosaur island overseas.
The compact storyline makes everyone forget about the loss of time, and the two-hour viewing process can be said to be fleeting. When the Tyrannosaurus rex, which caused a series of disastrous consequences, was finally subdued, the subtitles rose. There was a burst of applause in the music hall.
When the audience and guests who participated in the premiere dispersed, at the subsequent press conference, the reporters who were invited did not talk about the quality of the film, nor did they ask the crew about the box office outlook. Instead, they invariably used the first opportunity to ask questions on a question they had been holding back for more than a year.
"Mr. Williams, I'm a reporter from the Seattle Daily News. First of all, let me say that this is a very good sequel, but we still don't understand why you gave up directing the "Jurassic Park" series?" Reporter In the meeting hall. A female reporter who was lucky enough to get the right to ask questions stared at Eric closely and asked impatiently.
Eric took the microphone from the person next to him, with a faint smile on his face, and said: "I know that everyone has been curious about this question for a long time, but my answer is not much different from the previous announcement of the Firefly Group, and I don't mean to be perfunctory at all. On the one hand, I don't like to do a certain job repeatedly. On the other hand, it is also the main reason, because I am too busy now, and it is difficult to spare a few months to fly overseas Make a film."
"Mr. Williams, does this mean that you will no longer shoot movies yourself?" The female reporter asked again quickly while the microphone in her hand was not taken away.
Eric thought for a while, and said: "To be honest, the first "Jurassic Park" two years ago has reached a peak in my personal career. If a person has achieved something to the extreme, let him It is definitely very difficult to continue to do this with passion and repeat. Will I continue to shoot the next film, the answer is yes, because I am still too young and have a lot of time, but the next one I don't even know exactly when the film will start."
The microphone for questioning was passed to another reporter, who said, "Mr. Williams, I am a reporter from The New York Times. Excuse me, under what circumstances will you continue to make the next film?"
"There are too many, such as projects that I feel can break through myself, or scripts that I have a strong interest in. Of course, there is also a situation where a friend once joked that I am like a chef who opens a restaurant. If the chef is absent for some reason, he can put himself on top at any time. The fact is also true, if the project of the Firefly Group needs me, I can also go into battle in person at any time."
"You mean, can you direct any kind of film project under Firefly?"
Faced with the small trap in this question, Eric shook his head slightly, and said with a smile: "Oh, I don't know about this, but you can go back and look at the types of films I have made over the years."
There was also a burst of light laughter from the audience. After a while, another questioner said: "Mr. Williams, I am a reporter from The Hollywood Reporter. Excuse me. The film you directed has achieved commercial success that is difficult for others to match. When do you plan to make an impact?" Where's the Oscar for best director?"
Eric would like to ask a question, if you have become the President of the United States, do you still care about the Boy Scout medal
However, if you answer this way. It will definitely be widely interpreted by the media as Eric Williams's public disdain for the Oscars. Although he really thinks this way in his heart, Eric will never say it in public.
Pretending to hesitate for a moment, Eric said into the microphone: "Well, this is the last question about me personally, and if the next question has nothing to do with "Jurassic Park", I will not answer it again. So, for your question, I think it's going to be a very long story."
Everyone in the arena was stunned for a moment. Immediately realizing the veiled ridicule of the film school in Eric's words, they all laughed.
As we all know, Eric is only 25 years old now, and in the history of Oscars for more than half a century, no director has ever won an Oscar statuette before the age of 30. Therefore, if Eric shows his intention to hit the best director, then there will definitely be a protracted chasing game between him and the academy. It is conceivable that in order to maintain its authority, the Film Academy will never succumb to the various auras on Eric's head, and even for the ratings of the awards ceremony. 100% will be more harsh on Eric's Olympic film.
Even, Eric can imagine that if he wants to win an Oscar, he will probably replace Xiao Lizi. Become a stalker of every Oscar.
Xiao Lizi has now followed the historical track and set foot on that big ship, so it is better to leave it to him to make jokes for movie fans.
After the premiere, "Jurassic Park" was officially released in North American theaters, and the number of opening screens broke the record again. reached 3,500.
One can imagine the pressure on Joe Johnston to take over such a sequel to a movie that once created a box office myth. Therefore, he did not have the playfulness of Spielberg in his previous life, and invested a lot of energy in this sequel, although In the end, the production cost was overrun, but it was clearly worth it.
"A more compact plot and more refined special effects make people unknowingly spend two hours of intense excitement in the theater. There is no doubt that Joe Johnston has handed over a satisfying job for this sequel. answer sheet.” Los Angeles Times
"The setting of Tyrannosaurus rex rampant in the city is amazing. Even in the theater, watching the crowd being chased by the Tyrannosaurus rex on the screen, I can't help my heart beat faster, and I feel like I'm running away." daily news
"I originally thought this would be a regular sequel, but while continuing the style of the first film, the breakthroughs made in the plot and special effects are surprising. People began to think about whether we should be more in awe of nature and less destructive." "New York Times"
Compared with the one-sided negative reviews of the previous sequel, the critics have basically given positive comments on this new version. With the good reputation and the number of opening screens of 3,500, the film achieved 31.7 million in a single day on the first Friday. US dollar box office, easily breaking all previous single-day box office records.
That was followed by $33.5 million on Saturday and $29.8 million on Sunday.
In the end, when adding the $5.6 million box office at midnight on the night of the premiere, everyone was surprised to find that "Jurassic Park 2" once again created a new first weekend record with a box office of $100.6 million. Billion box office record.
At the same time, under the operation of Firefly Group's powerful distribution channels, "Jurassic Park 2" was simultaneously released overseas in 22 countries and regions, and the box office in the first weekend also reached 60 million US dollars in three days.
The global box office of $160 million in three days easily exceeded the entire production and distribution costs that Firefly spent on this sequel.
Many people can't even imagine what kind of height this film will reach again.
For Eric, seeing this box office report card, the last trace of anxiety in his heart was completely dissipated. At the same time, he was also 100% sure that the sequel to "Jurassic Park" in his previous life was really screwed up by Lao Si .
In fact, this kind of situation is not too unexpected for Eric. The huge popularity accumulated in the first film, coupled with the equally excellent quality of the second film, and the further expansion of the North American and global film markets, even if the box office does not reach the The first Gundam is definitely not too bad.
Moreover, "Jurassic World", which was restarted after "Jurassic Park" was put on hold for many years in the previous life, has a box office of US$600 million in North America and US$1.6 billion worldwide, which is enough to prove how strong people are in this dinosaur series blockbuster.
In Culver City, Los Angeles, inside the film and television base of Columbia Pictures.
A black Lincoln slowly parked in front of an office building of the studio. Sony America's CEO Howard Stringer had just got off the car, and the new Columbia Pictures CEO Bill Michanik came up to him.
Bill Michanik is also a veteran of Hollywood. He once worked in three companies: Paramount, Disney, and Fox. When he was at Disney in the mid-1980s, Bill Michanik single-handedly led the distribution of Disney classic animation video tapes. Worked and created a series of beautiful sales performance. In the late 1980s, he jumped to Fox as the vice president.
After Fox appointed Joe Ross as president, Bill Michanik had already begun to brew a job-hopping plan.
Sony scouted for months after dropping Michael Ovitz at the helm of Columbia, a position that eventually fell to Bill Michanik.
In fact, it is not that there are better candidates for Columbia, but after the events of Peter Cooper and Jon Peters, Sony has become very cautious in its decision to delegate power to the managers of the film companies, so a group of more outstanding Hollywood During the negotiation process, the manager withdrew from the competition for the position of the head of Colombia because of Sony's various restrictions.
Howard Stringer and Bill Michanik warmly embraced and greeted each other, and they walked towards the office building together.
Bill Michanik followed Howard Stringer step by step, and said, "Howard, you should have seen the box office report of "Jurassic Park 2", right?"
"Of course." Howard Stringer nodded: "I came here today just to talk to you about this matter. The headquarters just sent me a project. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with "Jurassic "Park 2" has great potential." (To be continued.)
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