[Please subscribe after half an hour]
Chapter 759
Thanksgiving in 1995 happened to be November 1st, a week after Eric returned to Los Angeles, and the year-end schedule officially entered the Thanksgiving week.
On November 17, in addition to the Jim Carrey comedy that is still in theaters, Firefly's "Bad Men" and MGM's "Scream" were officially released. In addition, the new films released this week include Warner's "Good Things Come Together" and Sony's "White House Love". Just by listening to the names, you can tell that these are two low-cost romantic comedies in time for the festival.
Towards the end of the year, Firefly Group held various summary planning and outlook meetings. As a media group whose business scope covers various fields such as film, TV, amusement park, music and consumer goods, although the film department is the one with the highest exposure rate, but The share of the operating income of the entire group has dropped to about 20%. After returning to Los Angeles, Eric has been busy with the complicated company affairs accumulated in the past few months, so he is not too concerned about the release of these two low-cost films. , but after the first day of release, I casually flipped through the box office data of the next two films, and left this matter aside.
However, unlike Eric's calm and confident reaction, the media's attention to the two films was beyond everyone's expectations.
Relying on the popularity brought by directing the second Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and with the full support of Firefly Group, Michael Bay's film debut "Jedi Men" exceeded everyone's expectations. The crime-action film, which was produced on a production budget of only $19 million, took in $26.6 million in its first three days, knocking the Jim Carrey comedy out of the top spot in its second week of release.
Criminal action movies with two male lead partners have almost been shot badly over the years, not to mention popular series such as "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Lethal Weapon", there are countless similar movies that are unknown, Almost all the ideas that can be used in this type of film have been used up, and it is difficult to make any more ideas.
However, while achieving a good box office, "Bad Boys" has been abnormally praised by a lot of media. Although the plot of the two male protagonists with sharply contrasting personalities switching identities in this film is considered a small innovation, the media and film critics focused on Michael Bay's shooting style.
"Dazzling car chase shots, sharp editing style, and hot action scenes, Michael Bay is worthy of being an mtv director who wins visually. He made a $19 million low-cost crime action movie with a visual impact of $50 million. Feeling. Although the plot does not deviate from the stereotype of genre films, it is still a popcorn film that can satisfy the audience’s visual enjoyment.”
"The right slow motion, the visually stunning wide-angle scenes and the full-textured color types of the film are full of special beauty everywhere. As a director's work, Michael Bay undoubtedly gave the producer and The audience gave a satisfactory answer."
"..."
It has to be said that Michael Bay's control of the camera's visual senses is excellent to the extreme. However, when Eric saw these comments in the media, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
As an "experienced person", Eric's deepest memory is the "three-axes" shooting method repeatedly criticized by film critics in Michael Bay's previous life.
At this time, most of the views that the media praised Michael Bay were exactly what they later used to criticize Michael Bay repeatedly. Most directors have a strong personal style. For film critics, they often like or hate the shooting techniques of many directors from the very beginning. Few Michael Bay is like this, from liking to hating, and then turning into extreme disgust of.
However, as long as it can bring huge profits to the producers, then, the opinions of film critics, ah, who cares.
Because one of the protagonists of "Jedi Men" is no longer Will Smith, but another black rap singer, so this time there is no "Jedi Men" after, because Will Smith Relying on the fame of other movies, it fell into the embarrassing situation that the sequel could not be launched.
Firefly's production department began discussing the sequel's development plan with Michael Bay after "Bad Boys" was released at the box office for three days in its first weekend.
On the other hand, "Scream" produced by Huahua Films and distributed by MGM, because of the full integration of MGM's spare no efforts in publicity, the three-day box office in the first weekend reached 12.15 million US dollars, the highest in the weekly box office. It only occupies the third place on the rankings, behind Jim Carrey's comedy with a gap of nearly 8 million US dollars at 21.35 million US dollars. It doesn't look like anything special.
Film critics' comments on "Scream" are also polarized. Some people think that the suspenseful atmosphere of this film is very fascinating, but there are also many people who think that this film is a hodgepodge of many old horror films. .
Although Eric privately hinted that Drew could let go of the distribution of "Scream", he is not quite sure why the film will be successful.
Following the three-day box office of $12.15 million in the first weekend, "Scream" once again earned more than $6 million in the box office on the following weekdays, and the total box office in the first week reached 18.63 million.
Therefore, after the first week of screenings, combined with various data such as the box office data of the first week and the word-of-mouth of the film, the film company roughly estimated the total box office of several new films released. After all, it is a popcorn movie and a black comedy. Although directing the second Victoria's Secret Fashion Show made Michael Bay famous, most organizations gave 100 million US dollars to "Jedi Boys" in North America Gross box office forecast. Compared with the total production and publicity costs of less than 30 million U.S. dollars, there is no doubt that Firefly will make very rich profits at the North American box office alone.
As for "Scream", according to the film's first week of box office and polarized reputation, the agency's total box office forecast is only 50 million US dollars, and it is expected that the next week's box office will drop by 30% to 50%. , the total box office figure is far lower than the box office data of more than 100 million US dollars in Eric's memory.
Just when Eric was wondering if it was because of the butterfly effect brought about by his own rebirth, the time came to the next week.
Jim Carrey's comedies, Firefly's "Jedi Boys" and even two romantic comedies released by Sony and Warner that did not stir up any waves, all showed corresponding box office declines according to the normal box office trend predicted, but " The three-day box office of "Scream" in the second weekend was a big surprise.
Although there are several new films such as "Money Train" and "The Club" that are not outstanding at the box office but still occupy a lot of market share, "Scream" is beyond everyone's expectations. There has been a rebound. Although the decline rate is only a weak 7%, the three-day box office still reached 13.1 million. This reverse decline trend chart that is beyond everyone's expectations indicates that the total box office of this movie will far exceed The $50 million figure originally predicted by the media may even be comparable to "Bad Boys".
Whether it is the media or the Hollywood studios, the reaction to this dark horse at the box office is always surprisingly quick. After all, the media wants news, and the studios want the market.
Therefore, in the next few days, the reason for the magical box office trend of "Scream" was quickly unearthed.
The reason seems surprisingly simple.
"Interviewed teenage viewers said that classmates and friends around them were discussing this movie, and they found this frightening and bloody horror movie very exciting. At the same time, the setting of the movie's story taking place in the group of high school students also made them Full of sense of substitution. A boy interviewed even said: They are tired of the performances of Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and other tough guys on the screen. What they want to see is a movie that is more suitable for their lives, even if it is A horror movie."
"Hollywood often divides audiences aged 18 to 34 into a unified young audience group. Through the movie-watching boom triggered by "Scream", we should find that this age division rule may have to change from now on. A University of Southern California A professor said that the popularity of "Scream" should be influenced by the echo period of the baby boom. After the Second World War, the United States started the first baby boom, with an average of more than 10 million audiences every year. Children were born, and these babies grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and started families and businesses. After the 1970s, they brought a baby boom to the United States again. The impact of the second baby boom, so it is called the baby boom echo period. According to estimates, the number of babies born in the 1970s reached 60 million, and these teenagers between the ages of 16 and 25 will undoubtedly become a batch of A separate group of movie consumers. There is no doubt that the success of "Scream" is largely due to inadvertently catering to the movie-watching needs of this group of teenagers who are in the rebellious period."
On the top of Beverly Hills, Elizabeth, wrapped in a white bathrobe, sat on the balcony in the early morning. After reading the "Los Angeles Times" in her hand analyzing the reasons for the box office success of "Scream", she looked up at Eric who was sitting opposite: "Hey, I suddenly feel a little regretful."
Eric didn't look up, drinking the coffee in his hand, reading the newspaper and asking, "What's wrong?"
""Death Comes" should also be regarded as a teenage movie. I suddenly regretted changing the "Ace Powers" with you. To be honest, the script is getting worse and worse the more I read it."
Eric smiled and said: "Yeah, I also think it's very bad, so I changed it with you."
"Ah bah, you bastard," Elizabeth glared at him, and asked tentatively, "So, have you started making?"
"New Line is going to be released in the summer next year, and the casting has already started. Now it's too late for you to change it back." Eric raised his head and said with a smile: "So, you should honestly make this bad movie. , but no one said that bad movies don’t make money.”
"Hey, you know how to help her, any low-budget horror film can get such a high box office, not to mention helping me choose a few scripts."
Eric shook his head and said, "It really has nothing to do with me this time. The script was chosen by Drew himself, and I didn't interfere at all."
…
…
"Interviewed teenage viewers said that classmates and friends around them were discussing this movie, and they found this frightening and bloody horror movie very exciting. At the same time, the setting of the movie's story taking place in the group of high school students also made them Full of sense of substitution. A boy interviewed even said: They are tired of the performances of Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and other tough guys on the screen. What they want to see is a movie that is more suitable for their lives, even if it is A horror movie."
"Hollywood often divides audiences aged 18 to 34 into a unified young audience group. Through the movie-watching boom triggered by "Scream", we should find that this age division rule may have to change from now on. A University of Southern California A professor said that the popularity of "Scream" should be influenced by the echo period of the baby boom. After the Second World War, the United States started the first baby boom, with an average of more than 10 million audiences every year. Children were born, and these babies grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and started families and businesses. After the 1970s, they brought a baby boom to the United States again. The impact of the second baby boom, so it is called the baby boom echo period. According to estimates, the number of babies born in the 1970s reached 60 million, and these teenagers between the ages of 16 and 25 will undoubtedly become a batch of A separate group of movie consumers. There is no doubt that the success of "Scream" is largely due to inadvertently catering to the movie-watching needs of this group of teenagers who are in the rebellious period."
On the top of Beverly Hills, Elizabeth, wrapped in a white bathrobe, sat on the balcony in the early morning. After reading the "Los Angeles Times" in her hand analyzing the reasons for the box office success of "Scream", she looked up at Eric who was sitting opposite: "Hey, I suddenly feel a little regretful."
Eric didn't look up, drinking the coffee in his hand, reading the newspaper and asking, "What's wrong?"
""Death Comes" should also be regarded as a teenage movie. I suddenly regretted changing the "Ace Powers" with you. To be honest, the script is getting worse and worse the more I read it."
Eric smiled and said: "Yeah, I also think it's very bad, so I changed it with you."
"Ah bah, you bastard," Elizabeth glared at him, and asked tentatively, "So, have you started making?"
"New Line is going to be released in the summer next year, and the casting has already started. Now it's too late for you to change it back." Eric raised his head and said with a smile: "So, you should honestly make this bad movie. , but no one said that bad movies don’t make money.”
"Hey, you know how to help her, any low-budget horror film can get such a high box office, not to mention helping me choose a few scripts."
Eric shook his head and said, "It really has nothing to do with me this time. The script was chosen by Drew himself, and I didn't interfere at all." (To be continued.)