Los Angeles.
In the affluent area on the mountainside in the northern part of Santa Monica, Amy Pascal was still reading the negotiating material on Rainbow Media with the basic cable company even though it was late at night.
As a woman, although she gave up the high-paying position of Columbia Film Company and assisted Drew to establish Flower Films, and thus got the opportunity to control MGM, one of the seven major film companies today, but Amy Pascal didn't feel any slack because of this. No matter in any field, it is always more difficult for a woman in a high position to gain recognition than a man. After so many years, Amy Pascal no longer cares much about the eyes of others, but she still wants to prove to everyone that she is not How much worse than any man.
On the other side of the study, Amy Pascal's husband, Bernard Weinraub, checked the press release that had just been completed, and glanced at the electronic watch on the desk. It was already a quarter past zero. Usually at this time, they should have already rested. However, he also knew that if his wife could not wait for the first-day box office data of "Casino Royale", it would be difficult to fall asleep. Nader Weinraub picked up a book from the table and flipped through it quietly.
Amy Pascal, however, noticed her husband's movements, looked at her watch, turned her head and said, "Bernie, why don't you go and rest first, I might have to wait a little longer."
Bernard Weinraub shook his head and said with a smile, "No, I really want to know how much box office "Casino Royale" can get on the first day."
Amy Pascal smiled softly and didn't try to persuade her anymore. She got up and went to the kitchen to make a pot of hot coffee and poured a cup for herself and her husband.
Bernard Weinraub picked up his coffee cup, looked at his wife who was sitting on the other side, and said, "Judging from today's movie reviews, this should be the live-action movie with the best reputation in the summer. How much is the box office?"
Amy Pascal shook her head. When talking about this topic with other people, she has always been full of confidence, but when facing her husband, she no longer needs to pretend to be confident, saying: "This question is really very important. It's hard to say, "GoldenEye" two years ago had a reputation of around 8 points in all aspects, but the global box office was only 350 million. This is mainly because the 007 series was not that popular in the most important North American market. This time Although the "Casino Royale" has a better reputation and many other positive factors, we are not sure whether the audience will buy it. In addition, starting from "The Fifth Element" in May, there have been disappointing live-action movies with low reputation. movie, and may also reduce audience interest in Casino Royale."
Bernard Weinraub, a playwright and film business reporter for The New York Times, listened to his wife's pessimistic tone, thought for a while, and said: "I think the truth may be exactly the opposite of what you think. The audience's demand for live-action movies is definitely greater than that of animated movies. The continuous impact of bad movies will make the market more hungry for high-scoring commercial movies."
Amy Pascal smiled and said: "I hope the situation will be like what you said, but the total investment in the production and publicity of "Casino Royale" is 160 million US dollars, which is equivalent to two times the total investment of "Golden Eye". Times, the pressure on the company is still great. If the box office performance of "Casino Royale" is not good enough, even if it is only average, the implementation of some subsequent production plans may not be so smooth."
"Oh, it's the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy you mentioned last time, right?"
Amy Pascal nodded, but didn't say anything more. Although she was her husband, it was inconvenient for her to disclose too detailed details to the other party.
Bernard Weinraub didn't pursue the question either, and changed the subject casually.
Unknowingly, after waiting for more than half an hour, Amy Pascal's cell phone on the desk finally vibrated. She picked up the cell phone to connect, chatted with the opposite party, and gradually raised her eyebrows, still a little uncertain Repeatedly asked for some details.
Bernard Weinraub had already heard a set of numbers from his wife's conversation, and raised his eyebrows in surprise. Although he felt that after a series of bad movies in the summer, the box office performance of "Casino Royale" would be better than expected. Better, but still didn't expect the first-day box office numbers to be that high.
After Amy Pascal hung up the phone, Bernard Weinlab asked impatiently, "30.5 million dollars?"
Amy Pascal put her phone back on the desk, breathed a sigh of relief, with obvious excitement on her face, nodded and said: "Yes, counting the 5.3 million in the morning and night show, the box office on the first day was 30.5 million US dollars, my God , 30.5 million U.S. dollars, really unbelievable. I have been thinking, if there are 20 million U.S. dollars on the first day, everyone should be very satisfied. You know, the box office of the last "Golden Eye" was only a little over 9 million on the first day. God, 30.5 million, unbelievable."
Bernard Weinraub heard his wife sighing non-stop, and didn't feel that she had lost her composure at all. As a film business reporter who is very familiar with Hollywood, Bernard Weinraub was no less shocked than his wife. .
You must know that "Godzilla", which performed best on the first day of the summer season, relied on the super high midnight box office data driven by the indiscriminate bombing campaign in the early stage, and the box office on the first day was only 23.75 million US dollars. Even "Finding Nemo", which can be called the biggest dark horse in the summer, still only had a box office of 20.2 million US dollars on the first day.
With its excellent word-of-mouth, "Casino Royale" will certainly not get out of the dismal box office curve of "Godzilla" or "Batman and Robin".
Then, the box office on the first day is 30.5 million US dollars, and the box office on Saturday and Sunday will definitely not be much worse than the first day. Even if the average value of 30 million US dollars per day is used, the box office of "Casino Royale" will reach 90 million US dollars in the first weekend There is no suspense at breaking the 100 million mark in the first week. Even, "Casino Royale" is sure to create a series of box office records again.
Because this box office data was too unexpected, when Amy Pascal got the news, many film company executives and newspaper reporters inside and outside Hollywood were also woken up by the phone ringing in the middle of the night. It was difficult to sleep, and some people even suspected that it was a prank. Countless newspapers in North America even rewrote their press releases overnight.
In the case of the dismal box office of live-action blockbusters in the summer, the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on the first day is undoubtedly a bit dazzling in the eyes of many people. Therefore, the next day, there were even many doubts about the first day of "Casino Royale" in the North American media. Box office news.
However, the reality quickly made these media shut up.
After 30.5 million on the first day, on Saturday, the single-day box office of "Casino Royale" not only did not fall, but hit a new high, reaching 33.85 million US dollars. On the following Sunday, although the box office fell somewhat, the single-day box office was still as high as 26.7 million US dollars.
During the three days from June 27 to June 29, the box office of "Casino Royale" reached an unprecedented $91.05 million in the first weekend. Even "Finding Nemo" was impacted by "Casino Royale", and the box office fell by 40% in the three-day weekend of the third week of its release, only receiving 28.38 million. The box office data of "Batman and Robin" in the second week of its release was even more miserable. Compared with the first weekend, the box office dropped by 63%. "Casino Royale" didn't do as well in its opening weekend.
When the box office data for the first weekend of "Casino Royale" was released, the media, which had been prejudiced against the box office data of the film, had to let go of their doubts in the face of reality, and began to analyze the reasons for the super high box office of "Casino Royale" in the first weekend.
"Perhaps, from the beginning, we far underestimated the commercial potential of the MGM agent movie universe."
"Looking back now, when the new James Bond jumped off a cliff in the first easter egg of "Charlie's Angels", Eric Williams had already begun to lay out this huge movie plan. The subsequent In the sequels of "Mission Impossible", "Charlie's Angels" and "007" series, MGM has been using easter eggs to allow the three major spy movies to interact. The related popularity began to gradually coalesce. Finally, when MGM officially announced the agent movie universe plan, the fans of the three agent series had formed a very large potential movie viewing group.”
"Here, we have to mention another seemingly insignificant incident that occurred during MGM's announcement of the Agent movie universe plan in July 1995. According to media news during that period, MGM paid $2 million Buying out all the rights to 'Spectre' from Kevin McGlory for a price. The twists and turns behind this go back decades, so we won't mention it for now. However, I'm sure Kevin McGrory McGlory will absolutely regret this deal in the future."
"Back to the topic, while buying the copyright of 'Spectre', the three film companies of MGM, Flower Pictures, and DreamWorks were merged into one under the control of Eric Williams, and the three major agent series With "Spectre" as the ultimate villain, starting from "Mission: Impossible 2", the cross-integration plan of the agent movie universe was officially launched. Until the release of "007 Casino Royale", the MGM agent movie universe has actually already relied on "Charlie's Angels". 1", "Mission: Impossible 1", "007: GoldenEye", "Charlie's Angels 2", and "Mission: Impossible 2" have laid a solid foundation for popularity. "007: Casino Royale" has exploded box office data , it is precisely these three special agent movie series that already have a strong box office appeal, and after several years of popularity and integration, they are even more powerful in the box office realization."
This article on the "Hollywood Reporter" deeply analyzed the deep-seated reasons for the high box office of "Casino Royale". Search whether there is a blockbuster series that can build a movie universe in its movie copyright database.
Although Firefly's plan to create a Marvel Cinematic Universe has not been officially announced, this news is no longer a secret in the circle. Inspired, a producer under Warner Bros. quickly submitted a proposal to the group's senior management to establish a DC The report of the movie universe, unfortunately, "Batman and Robin" has just experienced a disastrous failure, and Warner Bros. will not be able to launch a DC comic film in the next few years. The report that the producer stayed up late to write was directly thrown into up the litter box.
While the "Hollywood Reporter" analyzed the reasons for the box office of "Casino Royale", when the first week of "Casino Royale" ended, another important Hollywood magazine "Variety Show" also published its opinion on the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on its official website .
"'The audience expects a good movie. If the film company only has the ambition to catch up with the box office of "Titanic" but does not pay the sincerity of "Titanic" to keep improving, then they are doomed to fail." Eric Williams This sentence when answering a reporter's question at the London premiere of "Casino Royale" is undoubtedly the truest comment on the box office performance of this summer's live-action blockbuster."
"Of course, when any film company invests tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in a film, it is impossible not to want to make this film well. But as we all know, since the birth of the film, the size of the production budget has never been related to the The quality of the film is not directly related. The ability of screenwriters, actors, directors, producers and other film functionaries all have a strong impact on a film. Before "Casino Royale", two other ambitious films " Both Godzilla and Batman and Robin have a production budget higher than that of Casino Royale. But among these films, only Casino Royale has perfectly realized all the elements that a commercial blockbuster should have, smooth Plots, hot scenes, elaborate lines, three-dimensional characters, etc. Through "Casino Royale", Eric Williams, who has been in charge of the director after four years of silence, once again perfectly demonstrated his ability in directing and film Amazing talent in production. In four years, when we thought that this man who had relied on "Home Alone", "Ghost Story", "Tornado", "Jurassic Park" and other films to climb to the top of Hollywood step by step After young people have accumulated a huge amount of wealth, they will retire and enjoy life, relying on the redefinition of a 30-year-old veteran spy series like the Phoenix Nirvana, Eric Williams once again showed us What is the return of the king."
"Although "The Lion King 2" and "Finding Nemo" performed very well at the box office in June, this does not change the market position of live-action films as the mainstream demand of the film public. A series of mediocre, poor, or obscure live-action movies in the summer of the best seasons, time and time again, hit the confidence of movie fans to enter the cinema. According to statistics, from the beginning of the summer file on May 30 to before the release of "Casino Royale", compared with Last year, the number of movie-watchers in North America fell by 18% in four weeks, and this is not excluding the two big animated films "The Lion King 2" and "Finding Nemo."
"However, although I have been disappointed with the live-action movies in the summer, but as a must-have entertainment in people's lives, the demand for movie fans has not disappeared. The release of the well-known "Casino Royale" just filled the summer. A large number of market vacancies accumulated in the early stage. Therefore, in the eyes of everyone who was surprised and even questioned, "Casino Royale" broke the record with a terrifying box office of 30.5 million US dollars on the first day, 91.05 million US dollars in the first weekend, and 117.51 million US dollars in the first week. broke all the box office records in Hollywood.” (To be continued.)