The day after the Golden Globe nominations were announced, which happens to be Friday.
With the large-scale release of Sony's "Mr. Sweetheart" and Paramount's "Star Trek: First Contact", it is announced that the most popular Christmas schedule at the end of the year is coming.
MGM’s “Mission: Impossible 2”, which had a strong performance at the end of the year, has accumulated a box office figure of 165 million US dollars in three weeks after the first week’s box office of more than 82 million US dollars, and the total box office of 19 overseas countries has also exceeded 100 million. The US dollar mark has been in the limelight for a while.
Kevin Costner, who had a big stumble in "Future Water World", has returned to the ranks of Hollywood superstars with his strong performance in "Mission: Impossible 2". Although MGM negotiated two sequels at one time during the downturn after the failure of Kevin Costner's "Water World", the launch of "Mission: Impossible 3" will not be too big. However, because "Mission: Impossible" has the most eye-catching box office performance among the three series of the Agent movie universe, it is conceivable that MGM will not be able to do so in the future "Mission: Impossible 4" or even a movie with an in-depth intersecting plot. Avoiding another salary tug-of-war with Kevin Costner. Of course, this is technically a happy annoyance, and any studio in Hollywood is eagerly anticipating similar annoyances.
Firefly's New Line Films' "Rush Hour", which opened on Thanksgiving, grossed US$14.38 million in the fourth week, with a total of US$101.66 million. With the current box office trend, the total box office of "Rush Hour" in North America can reach at least 140 million US dollars.
In the eyes of the outside world, compared with the relatively sluggish box office performance of Firefly's headquarters this year, the new line, which focuses on low-cost films below 30 million US dollars, has performed extremely well.
New Line produced and distributed a total of 16 films this year. If you don’t count “Jedi Men 2” which was transferred to next summer by Eric, the average production cost of the remaining 15 films released is only 16 million U.S. dollars. According to Calculated based on the released films, New Line invested only 240 million yuan in film production throughout the year, which is not much different from the production cost of "Titanic".
But in terms of return rate, New Line's four best-performing films at the box office this year, "Rush Hour", "Seven Deadly Sins", "Death Comes" and "Red Zone", are expected to have a combined North American box office of 350 million U.S. dollars, and the other 11 Movies, although there are many failed films with a box office of only two to three million, the cumulative box office of the ten films has exceeded 120 million.
Usually, low- and medium-budget films often have strong local cultural characteristics, making it difficult for them to make a difference in overseas markets. However, with the help of "Seven Deadly Sins", which is more than twice the domestic box office of US$220 million, the overseas box office figure of New Line's annual release films also reached US$560 million.
According to comprehensive statistics, in 1996, with a production budget of 240 million U.S. dollars, New Line Films achieved a total box office of 1.03 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, not including peripheral income such as video tapes and TV broadcasting rights in the later period, but only in terms of box office. , directly bringing more than 200 million U.S. dollars in profits to the Firefly Group.
"Titanic" only received an insignificant nomination for Best Screenplay at the Golden Globe nomination press conference. The voice of watching Titanic became more and more clamorous.
The news that "Rush Hour" exceeded 100 million at the North American box office happened to appear in the media on the same day as the nomination for the Golden Globe Awards. The annual production budget also appeared in the media's field of vision.
Also with a production budget of about 200 million U.S. dollars, New Line’s 15 medium and low-cost films in 1996 created a global box office of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, while the desperate “Titanic” has an uncertain future at this time. In most people’s eyes , It is almost inevitable that this film will face a huge loss.
This kind of strong contrast has undoubtedly poured cold water on the wave of big investment and big production that has emerged in Hollywood in recent years. There have been a lot of reflective remarks in the media. The latest issue of "Hollywood Reporter" is eye-catching location, dedicated a large-scale report on this.
"Starting in the early 1990s, Hollywood seems to have become more and more obsessed with 'blockbuster' films, and it is undeniable that films such as Jurassic Park, The Mummy, and Men in Black have brought the studios involved Extraordinarily lucrative profits, but we absolutely cannot ignore the failure of such big-budget films as "Cutthroat Island", "Waterworld", "The Heroes of the Mountain" and "Phantom Heroes", which caused disasters to investors and production companies Sexual consequences. The tragic failure of "Cut Throat Island" directly led to the merger of the Disney Group by the still weak Firefly Pictures."
"And this year, the Firefly Group, which has always been invincible in big-budget films, seems to be accompanied by the unprecedented investment of 215 million US dollars in "Titanic", and encountered an 'epic disaster accident' like that in 1912. Film companies such as New Line Films and Miramax, which mainly focus on medium and low-cost productions, have quietly grown and eroded the film market share by relying on prudent and steady production strategies.”
"In particular, New Line, a subsidiary of the Firefly Group, leveraged a global box office of more than $1 billion with a full-year production budget comparable to that of "Titanic." As of the first week of December, North America 1996 Among the annual cumulative box office of US$5.9 billion, New Line’s box office share reached 7.8%, which is almost the same as that of Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures, two established film companies.”
"As a creative industry, Hollywood must, of course, use some high-budget investment projects to innovate and explore film production techniques and special effects technology, so as to provide audiences with better film and television content. But at the same time, We also have to reflect, perhaps, Hollywood needs to go back to the "tent pole theory" strategy once proposed by Mr. Barry Diller, use a small number of blockbuster movies as tent poles, and prop up a large number of "curtains". Budget movies, this is the most orthodox way of survival for Hollywood film companies. Conversely, if a film company wants to survive only by relying on a few 'tent poles' and ignoring the existence of the 'curtain', it is conceivable that when the 'wind and rain' What a miserable scene it will be."
After the "Hollywood Reporter" article was published, a large number of media began to echo it.
Eric is in New York, but he also saw this article for the first time.
Although he has recently thought about the development trajectory of Firefly in recent years, Eric still scoffs at the views expressed in this article.
The prevalence of big-budget movies is almost an inevitable trend in the development of Hollywood, because this type of movie not only has a strong natural influence, but also, such as "Jurassic Park" and other types of movies, not only can bring box office, video tapes and TV shows It can even form a whole lucrative peripheral industry chain involving peripheral toys, computer games, franchise licensing, etc. This kind of potential commercial return is unmatched by low- and medium-budget films anyway.
Even if most low- and medium-budget films are successful at the box office, the exploration of their commercial interests often stops at videotapes and TV broadcasting rights, while medium-budget productions such as "Bad Boys" and "Rush Hour" have the potential for sequel development. After the success of the first film, the production budget of the sequel will undoubtedly double, and it will inevitably enter the ranks of big-budget films.
No matter what the outside media say, no matter how anxious the management of Firefly is, no matter how gloating other Hollywood film companies are, the release date of "Titanic" is still approaching day by day.
In the last week, "Titanic" launched a more intensive trailer bombing on the TV network under the Firefly Group, and huge posters of "Titanic" began to be erected at eye-catching landmarks in major cities in North America. Long, Xiao Lizi and Rachel Weisz and other film creators have appeared on mainstream North American talk shows. Although Eric did not directly participate in the final stage of "Titanic" promotion, he spent almost two or three times a day in Southampton. For an hour, communicate with Firefly's management, distribution department and creative team in all aspects.
On December 19, the rough statistics of the box office data for the first week of the Christmas file were released. The two new films released this week, "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Mr. The box office of the first week, according to the box office trend of the two films, will not have much impact on the next release of "Titanic". The comedy "Martian Plays with the Earth", which will be released at the same time as "Titanic", is also not very threatening. After all, although it is starring Jack Nicholson, a veteran Hollywood acting superstar, but whether it is production budget or pre-screening word-of-mouth Neither the scale of publicity nor the scale of "Titanic" can be compared.
Although other Hollywood film companies have the intention of attacking "Titanic", they still have a bit of fear after all, and they will not directly collide with "Titanic" with heavyweight films. The biggest enemy of "Titanic" is actually whether the film itself can be strongly welcomed by the market like the original time and space, creating the original box office miracle.
The final opening scale of "Titanic" is 2,770 theaters. Although Firefly hopes to reach more than 3,000 theaters, because "Titanic" lasts more than three hours, and the industry's one-sided view of this film, many theaters The theaters that did not cooperate closely with Firefly all refused to arrange films for "Titanic".
At eight o'clock in the evening, Eric finished discussing with Katzenberg the publicity strategy for the first week of the release of "Titanic", hung up the phone, and stopped thinking too much about the film.
The personnel affairs are exhausted, and the next step is to listen to the destiny.
Throwing the phone casually on the coffee table in the living room, Eric reached out and picked up his daughter who was watching TV beside Joanna with her beautiful blue eyes unblinking, and said, "Xia Xia, it's not good to watch too much TV. Daddy will read you a bedtime story?"
Hawaii struggled a little in Eric's arms, eyes still fixed on the TV screen, and said in a dissatisfied tone: "But, Dad, I'm not sleepy."
"Kevin has already gone to bed, you should go to bed early, you will be sleepy after listening to a bedtime story," Eric said, and Emma, who was sitting next to Drew, also got up and ran over, saying that she wanted to listen to it together. A bedtime story, and stretched out his hand for Eric to hug while blinking his big eyes.
Emma will be five years old soon, but the little guy seems to have a tendency to repeat the smallness of his previous life. Although he is two years older than Hawaii and Kevin, he is only a little taller than Hawaii at this time.
Eric picked Emma up easily, walked towards the bedrooms of the little ones one by one, and asked, "So, what do you want to hear?"
The TV disappeared from sight. Seeing that the situation was irreversible, the little Hawaiian face reluctantly turned to Eric and said, "Dad, bedtime stories are so boring. Can I read "Encyclopedia"?"
Eric said helplessly: "Baby, in that case, Dad will probably fall asleep first."
Hearing this conversation between the father and daughter, Joanna and the others on the sofa couldn't help chuckling.
Eric has been under a lot of pressure recently, and they don't know it, except that the box office prospects of "Titanic" are bleak, because Firefly's Clover Holdings has a sudden impact on popular technology stocks in the Nasdaq market within three months of the end of the year. A large investment of US$1.5 billion. Recently, with the company’s financial statistics at the end of the year, the news was announced. Eric had a dispute with David West, a member of the board of directors and one of the shareholders of Firefly Group, in Manhattan a few days ago. Buffett also passed Confusion and dissatisfaction were expressed on the phone.
At this time, listening to Eric's relaxed conversation with his daughter, Joanna and the others knew that Eric's mentality was not too much affected by the recent series of events, and they were all relieved a little.
Woke up very early the next day, looked at the watch on the bedside table, it was just after seven o'clock, and the sky outside the window was still not bright.
There was no sleepiness anymore, Eric carefully left the little girl who was snuggling in his arms, put on his clothes lightly, and walked out of the bedroom.
The snow that fell last week has not completely melted away, and today's sky has become gray again.
The maids in the manor have already started preparing breakfast, and today's newspaper has been placed on the coffee table in the living room. Eric sat down on the sofa and flipped through it one by one.
These days, the topic of "Titanic" has experienced too much saliva, and the media seems to be a little tired. Although the large-scale painting started last night, because it was the middle of winter, coupled with the long "Titanic" At three hours long, it is inevitable that many people will give up watching the midnight show. There are not many movie reviews about "Titanic" in the newspapers today, and the overall evaluation is almost the same as that of the screening stage. A detailed analysis of media trends must wait for the report of the Firefly marketing department. Eric only has a few newspapers at this time. , and no general trend can be seen.
It was nearly eight o'clock, and the twins Joanna and Natasha also got up one after another. Eric had just put down the newspaper and walked into the gym when his mobile phone rang.
The call was made by Katzenberg himself from Los Angeles. It was only five o'clock in the morning in Los Angeles, but this was not a problem for Katzenberg. It's Katzenberg, and the other one, of course, is not Eric, but Robert Iger. Compared with Katzenberg's five hours of sleep a day, Robert Iger seems to be more ruthless. He sleeps at 4:30 every day. get up.
The two talked on the phone for more than ten minutes. Eric temporarily put down his morning exercises and came to the study.
A huge white writing board is habitually hung on the entire wall of the study.
At this time, 'Titanic' is written on the top of the clipboard, and a table is listed below.
Picking up the black fountain pen next to him, Eric calmly wrote down the midnight box office figure of "Titanic" in the first grid: 1.56 million US dollars.
Calm and calm. (To be continued.)