Taking Mayer to the second floor, Eric pushed open the door of a guest room, turned to Mayer, and said, "Hey, you can stay here for the past two days, there should be brand new ones in the bathroom cabinet. Toiletries, if there is anything missing, you have to buy it yourself."
Mayer pulled the suitcase and walked two steps into the room. This is a very spacious bedroom, decorated in bright white, with a separate terrace and bathroom. The big bed, wardrobe, desk and other furniture styles are very simple. But it obviously has a delicate and expensive atmosphere, and there is a 21-inch LCD computer on the desk that is currently rare.
After looking around, Mayer turned around and saw Eric standing at the door, not intending to come in, his expression paused, and suddenly he didn't know what to say.
Eric noticed the change in Mayer's expression and said with a smile: "That's it, I'm going upstairs to the study room, you can do whatever you want. There is a library and entertainment room on the first floor, and a home theater in the basement. If you want to go out for a stroll If so, you can just drive the car that Carter and the others left behind."
Seeing that Eric was leaving, Mayer finally found a topic and said, "Eric, then, do you need me to help you prepare dinner?"
"Oh, there is a Minjiang restaurant in the Jiekou Garden Hotel. You can call to reserve a seat. We can eat there in the evening."
Mayer didn't know the ordering phone number of Minjiang Restaurant, but she didn't ask too much. She could handle such trivial matters, so she nodded.
Watching Eric leave and his figure disappearing at the opposite staircase, Mayer closed the door and stood there for a while before opening his suitcase and starting to pack it up.
Eric didn't pack any luggage. The girl arranged everything in his private life in an orderly manner. This luxury house has a full set of his daily necessities, even the pencils on the desk in the study are placed according to his personal habits. Yes, this is almost his other home.
After setting up Mayer, Eric came to the study on the third floor.
Turning on the computer, Eric clicked the Yahoo browser icon on the desktop of the monitor, and skillfully typed the URL of the Google search engine in the address bar.
The familiar search engine page immediately popped up. In addition to web search, there are other pictures, emails, maps, and a dedicated Yahoo homepage through train. Compared with the original beta version, the official Google search engine has made some fine-tuning. But overall little has changed.
Yahoo's current business focus is still on the portal website. Although it has been determined internally that it will take the search engine as its business focus in the next few years, Yahoo has not promoted the separate Google search engine that has been launched with much fanfare for the time being. After all, Yahoo's upcoming IPO focuses on the concept of Internet media.
After clicking a row of buttons above the search box, Eric logged into his work mailbox directly through the browser to find the box office data report for the new week.
From June 12th to June 18th, the second week of "The Day After Tomorrow" was released. Compared with the first week, the overall box office of the film dropped by 43%. The annual North American movie box office ranked second, and the first one was "Ace Powers 2", which was released on the Easter schedule. The final box office of this spoof film was fixed at 186 million US dollars.
In addition, due to the simultaneous release of most overseas box office countries, the cumulative overseas box office of "The Day After Tomorrow" has reached 226 million US dollars in two weeks. There is no doubt that "The Day After Tomorrow" will be another film with a large overseas box office. Hollywood blockbuster.
Combined with the box office data of the previous two weeks, the Firefly distribution department predicted that the North American box office of "The Day After Tomorrow" would be between 230 million and 250 million US dollars, and the overseas box office would be between 400 million and 500 million US dollars. The overall global box office is expected to be 600 million. to around $700 million.
Although it cannot be regarded as a breakthrough, there is no doubt that "The Day After Tomorrow" can definitely be said to be a global hit. Based on the film's production budget of 120 million U.S. dollars and distribution budget of 50 million U.S. dollars, it is only the global box office. net profit of more than US$100 million.
After glancing at the box office information of other films in the box office data report, Eric turned his attention to "The Matrix 2", which was officially released today.
Although the right to produce the sequel of "The Matrix" was sold, Firefly still retains the right to develop peripheral products of the "Matrix" series.
Compared with the long-term operation of videotapes and TV broadcasting rights, the benefits of the peripheral products of the film are almost carried out at the same time as the release of the film.
The release of "The Matrix 2", no matter what the result is, will definitely bring a wave of sales peaks for related peripheral products. Although the peripherals of the "Matrix" series are not as rich as animated films or "Jurassic Park" and other films, Firefly earns this part of the income very easily, and hardly needs to invest any marketing resources.
Although Eric didn't specifically ask, the assistant office still sent the organized information about "The Matrix 2" to his e-mail.
Eric opened the email, and saw the box office data of "The Matrix 2" at $9.95 million in the midnight show at first glance.
The midnight box office, which was close to US$10 million, once again broke the midnight box office record in North America. Last year, Eric's "007: Casino Royale" had a midnight box office of only US$5 million.
However, Eric is not too surprised. The 007 series has become a symbol of popular film culture. Although it is very well-known, there are not many diehard fans. Therefore, there will not be too many viewers who are willing to stay up late to watch the midnight show.
But the "Matrix" series is different. The stunning performance of the first part of the film directly made this series a god, and gathered a large number of diehard fans. It is not difficult to understand the high box office of the midnight show.
However, "The Matrix 2" broke the record at midnight, and there are also factors of the natural growth of the North American film market. Not to mention "Star Wars Episode 3", which will be released at the end of the year, even if it is "Charlie's Angels 3" half a month later, it may break this record again.
After glancing at the annotation attached under the midnight show data, Eric turned to the comments of the film, which was what he cared more about.
The email first listed the praise of "The Matrix 2".
"I love this film and recommend it wholeheartedly. It just lacks some of the things that moved me in the first film." - New York Observer
"Compared to the first film, the Wachowski brothers are more mature." - "Salon"
"You don't have to understand the depths of the Matrix franchise to enjoy it with ease." —The Hollywood Reporter
"Although some new elements have been added, the film is no longer as amazing and exciting as the first one." - "Variety Show".
Although it was well received, Eric clearly felt that the evaluation of "The Matrix 2" by many media and film critics can only be regarded as approval, but from these words, it definitely cannot be regarded as the rave reviews of the first film. This argument is also in line with Eric's memory of the previous version and his feelings after reading the two sequel scripts of the Wachowski Brothers.
After reading the positive reviews, Eric skipped the series of brief negative reviews below, found a longer review, and read it carefully.
"Given how well the Matrix franchise got off to a good start, you're bound to have the same expectation for the sequel, right?"
"However, many people may be disappointed, at least, I personally feel this way. In this sequel, many good ideas and highlights of the first film have been diluted, and it can even be said to leave a bad one. Part of it. Although the film still looks cool on the surface, it is actually far inferior to the first one. Some vague and obscure philosophical thinking deliberately added by the Wachowski brothers are just mystifying in my opinion. I really Disappointed with everything in this film, everything seems to go off the rails, leaving a bunch of so-called hot action scenes back and forth."
"The first film will always be a movie special effects milestone. It changed the special effects movie forever, and it also brought us a philosophical proposition about reality and illusion that can be pondered for many years. However, this sequel clearly began to flow. Because of the vulgarity, considering that this is a two-episode series, it is hard for me to imagine what the third part will be like, maybe it will give us a worse ending. If you are a fan of the "Matrix" series, you must Wouldn't like to see this happen. However, considering that Firefly Group sold the production rights of the film in order to avoid shooting according to the two sequels scripted by the Wachowski Brothers, it is difficult for me to think about the second sequel. What are the expectations for the third part?"
North American film critics are more professional, that is, they basically do not spoil the audience in advance.
After reading this review, Eric couldn't see the film critic's plot analysis of this sequel, but thinking about how he felt when he saw the Wachowski brothers' script, he could roughly guess what the other party was. Feeling.
At the end of the email, after statistics, the overall score of "The Matrix 2" is only 7.3, which is far worse than the 8.7 of the first part.
Compared with the excellent situation created by the first film, the score of 7.3 can only be regarded as barely passing.
After reading the email in front of him, Eric put the "Matrix 2" matter behind his head. It's still the same sentence, since it's already poured out, it's useless to pay more attention.
The US$300 million income Eric earned from the production rights of the sequel to "The Matrix" was directly invested in the Shamrock Fund. Even if the overall value of the stocks held by the Shamrock Fund is US$16 billion, the original money has doubled. When the stock is sold off one after another next year, the proceeds of the $300 million may exceed $1 billion.
Amberlin Pictures has invested more than 600 million US dollars in principal for the two sequels of "The Matrix". Even if the global box office of "The Matrix 2" reaches 1 billion US dollars, the box office of "The Matrix 3" is still excellent, but considering With the huge investment in the early stage, it is absolutely impossible for these two sequels to bring profits to Amblin Films to reach 1 billion US dollars.
After closing the "Matrix 2" email page, Eric continued to check the unread emails in his work mailbox, and soon saw a good message from Katzenberg himself.
After grinding for a full year, Cameron finally plans to start the production of "Spider-Man".
Katzenberg said in the email that he had just discussed the general details with Cameron and Jon Landau yesterday afternoon, and at the end he jokingly asked Eric if he would choose the heroine of "Spider-Man" himself.
Although far away from Los Angeles, Eric has been paying attention to the progress of the rough cut of "Iron Man". He and Joss Whedon will talk about the editing details of some films by phone or email almost every day. It is expected that Eric will return to Los Angeles, " The first rough cut of Iron Man is about to be completed, and it is about to enter the most important stage of special effects production.
Compared with "Iron Man", the progress of the "Spider-Man" project is horribly slow. If Cameron really delays for too long, Eric will have to change directors. He can't let "Spider-Man" delay the entire project. The progression of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fortunately, Cameron is now finally getting to work on it.
As long as the project enters the substantive production stage, Cameron will not be able to slow down even if he delays.
Thinking of this, Eric picked up his mobile phone and directly dialed Cameron in Los Angeles.
The call was quickly connected, and Cameron was in Firefly Studios. After a few pleasantries, the two chatted about "Spider-Man". From the script to the special effects to the starring candidates, they chatted for an hour. Eric just hung up the phone.
According to the plan in Cameron's words, "Spider-Man" will complete the preliminary preparations such as casting and scenography in the second half of the year, and the filming will start at the beginning of next year, and it will only be released in the summer of 2000 at the latest. within the tolerable range of grams.
After finishing the call with Cameron and processing work emails for a while, the sky outside the window darkened unconsciously.
After flying around for more than half a month, Eric's biological clock also began to be a little confused. When he noticed the time, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening.
After turning off the computer, Eric left the room. The darkened villa seemed very quiet. After going down the circular corridor from the third floor to the second floor, he saw the light in the small living room downstairs, and walked down the stairs. , Mayer sat on the couch in the small living room, watching TV visibly absent-mindedly.
The sound of the TV was very low, and Eric could not walk lightly. Mayer soon felt someone approaching, turned his head, smiled shyly, and said, "Eric, I was just thinking about when to call You are suitable."
"Hungry, let's go," Eric said, and when Mayer stood up, seeing that she was still in a light gray professional suit, he said, "Do you want to change?"
"Okay," Mayer nodded, and said, "Then wait a moment."
Eric walked into the small living room, sat down on the sofa, and waited patiently for five or six minutes before Mayer changed into a very bright fiery red knee-length dress and went downstairs.
It is difficult for most women to hold up red clothes, but wearing this set of clothes on Mayer suddenly made the girl who was still a little young suddenly a little more like a strong woman in the workplace.
Eric couldn't help but look a few more times, and exclaimed, "It's beautiful."
"Thank you." Upon hearing Eric's words, Mayer, who was a little nervous, relaxed, and said, "Then, let's go."