Chapter 1011 The Fundamental Gap

Star Wars has become a feeling, a culture and even a belief for Americans. It can be said that as long as the film is made, no matter what the quality is, it is very easy for any Star Wars movie to sell well. matter.

Being in Hollywood, the girl must understand this in her heart, and what she said just now was naturally just a joke. Eric also didn't explain anything, instead focusing on last week's box office figures.

Following the box office of $113.16 million in the first week, due to the lack of any strong new films released last week, the total box office drop of "The Matrix 2" in the second week ended up being 51%. The 51% drop at the box office still pushed the weekly box office of "The Matrix 2" to $55.45 million.

The North American box office of 168.61 million US dollars accumulated in two weeks, although it means that "The Matrix 2" can steadily exceed 200 million US dollars, but it is unlikely that the total box office will exceed 250 million US dollars. At least $50 million less at the box office.

Compared with the original version, although the quality of this sequel has not changed much, it is not too bad. The reason why it is less than 50 million US dollars is that in Eric's opinion, it is mainly due to Amberlin Pictures. Issuing capacity restrictions.

If the sequel is still released by Firefly, the box office will be the same as before.

At the same time, this shortcoming of Amberlin Pictures' distribution capabilities will also bring greater risks to the box office prospects of the third film.

Once the quality of the third sequel is as bad as the original, without the support of strong publicity and distribution resources, the box office will undoubtedly be even more bleak.

Amberlin Films has not announced the schedule of the third film so far, and Eric has not specifically inquired about it, but it is not clear what the specific situation is.

In addition to "The Matrix 2", Disney Pictures' family comedy "Born Together" followed closely. This family comedy starring Disney child star Lindsay Lohan earned $19.15 million at the box office in its first week and received a good reputation. The total box office is expected to exceed $60 million.

Although it can't be compared with any blockbuster in the summer, the production budget of "Born A Couple" is only 20 million US dollars. Even if the distribution cost is included, the box office income ratio is still very objective.

The third place is "The Day After Tomorrow". Due to the weak box office performance of "The Matrix 2" in the second week, the box office drop of "The Day After Tomorrow" in the fourth week of its release narrowed slightly. The Day After Tomorrow dropped by only 46%, collecting another 15.47 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office has reached 219.56 million US dollars.

Although affected by "Charlie's Angels 3", the decline of "The Day After Tomorrow" will expand again this week, but based on the current box office of 220 million US dollars, the total North American box office of "The Day After Tomorrow" is still very hopeful to hit 250 million.

The box office data of films such as "The Mask of Zorro" and "The World of Truman" were a bit lackluster. Eric just swept them away and ate breakfast attentively.

As the most anticipated film by audiences in the summer, the release of "Charlie's Angels 3" immediately caused a frantic pursuit and discussion in the media.

Yesterday's premiere, MGM invited a large number of media, confident in the quality of the film.

The evaluations given by the major media today are also booming.

"Charlie's Angels 3 perfectly continues the unique style of the entire series, while also not lacking in innovative elements. After "007 Casino Royale", MGM once again brought fans a hot and hot visual feast. "—The Hollywood Reporter.

"Smooth plot, wonderful fights, perfect series interspersed... everything is so hearty, perhaps, the only regret I feel about this sequel is that Lucini's 'Dad' is still talking about the trilogy. It's a shame I didn't show up." - Los Angeles Times

"I have to admit, MGM has once again brought fans of the Secret Service Cinematic Universe a perfect piece.

However, the production cost of this film has reached 160 million US dollars, and the scale of its publicity is unprecedented. Unless MGM can reasonably control the production budget of the Agents Cinematic Universe film, otherwise, this huge plan is likely to be dragged down by the increasingly high budget.

The Hollywood trilogy spell, apparently, isn't going away with the huge success of the Agents movie universe. It is said that the filming of "Bond 19" has been repeatedly delayed due to various reasons. Perhaps, every sequel to the agent movie universe will require us to have enough patience. "——"Variety Show"

There are praises, discussions, and analysis in traditional media, which are full of excitement.

On the Internet platform, under the coordinated promotion of Yahoo, the topic of "Charlie's Angels 3" became even more popular.

Early Friday morning, the news that "Charlie's Angels 3" broke the midnight box office record appeared in the headlines of the Yahoo portal as soon as possible. With the current average daily user traffic of Yahoo portal exceeding 20 million, this kind of news Toutiao is equivalent to showing more than 20 million people a soft ad for Charlie's Angels 3 every day.

At the same time, on the Google search engine, which has begun to be popularized among a large number of core Internet user groups, users who search for any keywords related to movies can immediately see the advertisement link of "Charlie's Angels 3", which directly leads to Yahoo! Started online ticketing business.

Of course, MGM will need to pay for advertising in this regard.

However, the effect is also very significant. According to the background monitoring of Google's search engine, more than 130,000 users were affected by search engine advertisements and logged on to Yahoo's online ticketing website to complete the ticket purchase on the day of the release on Friday.

At present, the average ticket price in North America has just reached about 5 US dollars. Although these 130,000 people can only bring "Charlie's Angels 3" a box office income of 650,000 US dollars, however, this is only one day's data. "Charlie's Angels 3" has at least The next month of intensive box office revenue.

Although it is impossible to maintain a box office gain of 650,000 US dollars every day, but for a month, not to mention the potential popularity and income brought by the Yahoo community and Yahoo Movies and other discussion boards to the film, just in terms of the effect of pure advertising, Yahoo's various The platform could also give the film at least an additional $10 million at the box office.

In comparison, the full set of advertising promotion plans signed by MGM and Yahoo cost only $1 million in total, accounting for only one-fifth of MGM's $50 million budget.

There is no doubt that Internet advertising is very cost-effective. The cooperation between Yahoo and MGM can also play a very good role in promoting Yahoo's advertising business to Hollywood.

On the other hand, in major online communities such as Yahoo Movies, the discussion on the topic of "Charlie's Angels 3" is even more lively.

MGM originally planned that if fans couldn't find all the hidden easter eggs involved in "Charlie's Angels 3", it would take the initiative to arrange for someone to throw the topic at the right time.

However, it was only the first day of release, and all the foreshadowings and easter eggs in the film were dug up by a strong group of fans, including the stumbling block plan document from "Brunette".

Many people already know that MGM is already working on a spin-off series "The Fast and the Furious," and the racing movie has been confirmed to be released by the end of the year.

At this time, the "Bourne Bound" easter egg that suddenly appeared, naturally once again attracted strong attention from the media and fans.

On the same day, MGM's public e-mail box for interaction with movie fans received a large number of e-mails asking for information about the "Bourne Bourne" series. Start to listen to the news and try to win opportunities for its artists.

In Eric's plan, the "Bourne Bourne" series will not start preparations until early next year. At this time, in order to avoid affecting the topic of "Charlie's Angels 3", MGM is naturally tight-lipped.

In this carnival-like heat, the next day, "Charlie's Angels 3" announced the film's first-day box office, 26.62 million US dollars.

Including the $12.5 million midnight show, "Charlie's Angels 3" on the first day of release, the box office data reached $39.12 million, far exceeding the cumulative first day of $30.5 million created by "007 Casino Royale" in the same period last year.

Fans who personally created this box office miracle were rejoicing for a while, and MGM CEO Amy Pascal also posted a public thank-you letter to fans on Yahoo Portal.

While the media is amazed, there is naturally no lack of calm views.

"The New York Times" soon published an analysis article, comparing "The Matrix 2", saying that "Charlie's Angels 3" is also similar to a strong fan movie, although the midnight show and the first day of the box office are excellent, but a large number of core fans are in After watching the movie, it will usher in a similar decline as "The Matrix 2".

The management of MGM also understands this truth. However, compared to "The Matrix 2", "Charlie's Angels 3" has better popularity and reputation. This blockbuster, which is biased towards popcorn movies, can obviously attract far more Passerby viewers of the "Matrix" series.

Everyone naturally has more confidence in the box office of "Charlie's Angels 3".

"Charlie's Angels 3" also lived up to everyone's expectations.

After the first day, the film broke the 30 million mark at the box office on Saturday, reaching $31.53 million, and it took in another $25.25 million on Sunday.

In the end, "Charlie's Angels 3" reached $95.9 million at the box office in the first three days of the first weekend, almost breaking through 100 million in the first weekend, and also broke the first weekend box office record created by "007 Casino Royale" last year without any suspense.

In the face of such a dazzling start, even the media who looked down on the next box office trend of this film have to admit that in any case, it is very easy for "Charlie's Angels 3" to break through 300 million US dollars at the North American box office. "The Matrix 2" The box office fell short of expectations, and "Charlie's Angels 3" has become the only film in 1998 that is expected to break the $300 million mark at the North American box office.

As for the global box office, even if it can't break through the global one billion, it is estimated that it is almost the same.

The global box office of the first two "Charlie's Angels" series is around 5.6 billion US dollars, which is not as good as the 700 million global scale of the two consecutive "Mission Impossible" series.

However, at this time, everyone discovered that, with the blessing of the MGM spy movie universe, the "Charlie's Angels" series has completed the transformation like last year's 007 series.

A secret agent movie universe project, so far, it can be said that it has created two super blockbuster series with a global box office of billions. For the "Mission Impossible" series, which had the best box office performance among the three series, I want to break through this. A 'metamorphosis' does not seem to have any suspense.

As a result, the box office of "Charlie's Angels 3" was just released in the first week, and some people turned their attention to "Mission Impossible 3" at the end of the year.

However, some people are happy, and naturally some people are worried.

At the headquarters of Amberlin Films in Culver City, near downtown Los Angeles, everyone looked solemn after seeing the samples of "The Matrix 3" early Monday morning.

Basically, the feeling of everyone in the conference room about "The Matrix 3" is that it is messy and incomprehensible.

However, the two films have already spent a production budget of 300 million US dollars, and it is impossible to continue to invest in reshoots.

After the Wachowskis finished the film, they also had an attitude of no regrets in their lives, and their attitude was resolutely unwilling to make revisions for the third film. In fact, it was difficult to find the focus of the revision.

Everyone was silent for a while. Frank Marshall, a well-known Hollywood producer who was originally named CEO of the integrated Amberlin Films, glanced at Spielberg, David Geffen and George Lucas. He opened his mouth and said, "I think we'd better take advantage of the current popularity and let the third part be released as soon as possible. The end of the year is a good schedule."

After Frank Marshall finished speaking, Spielberg immediately said: "Frank, this is too risky, there will be Star Wars prequels at the end of the year, "Mission Impossible 3", and many popular movies such as "Fast and Furious", I I think it would be more secure to put it in next year’s summer season.”

After Spielberg finished speaking, several others also agreed.

Frank Marshall looked at the people around him who were basically his boss, and felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart. He couldn't help but envy Eric Williams' delegation of power to Katzenberg and other Firefly management.

If it wasn't for the retention of Spielberg and others, and the expectation that Amberlin Pictures would become another major Hollywood studio, Frank Marshall would have left with his wife to set up his own production company.

But now, looking at Spielberg and others, Frank Marshall is clear that Amberlin will never be a big Hollywood studio.

He does not deny the film talents of Spielberg and George Lucas, and admires David Geffen's vision for the media industry, but, fundamentally, none of these people have a strong sense of becoming The ambitions of the founders of the big studios are inherently more emotionally oriented.

Just like the Star Wars prequels series, after the big studios were integrated, Frank Marshall persuaded George Lucas to take back the distribution rights of the Star Wars prequels series from Fox. In his opinion, if he could take back the prequel trilogy The distribution rights of the company are worth it, even if it takes a few years of lawsuits. But George Lucas refused on the grounds that he wanted the film to be released as soon as possible.

In addition, even Spielberg still maintains the character when Amberlin Films was a small workshop, and does not make any concessions to personal interests in film production.

This has led to the films led by Spielberg in the past few years of Amberlin Films, and the related creators have made a lot of money, but the company has habitually lost money.

More importantly, these filmmakers who hold a large stake in Amberlin are unwilling to hand over the operation of the company to his CEO, which makes Frank Marshall often feel that he is more like a chorus. , not the CEO of some big company.

With a sigh in his heart, but things had to be done, Frank Marshall said: "Actually, as long as we move the schedule a little earlier, in early November, we can avoid the competition of those films, and the popularity of the "Matrix" series is also based on Enough to support such a schedule, if you wait until next year, even if you get a good schedule, the box office of this finale will be more variable as the popularity cools down.”