Chapter 1088: 1088

"Before Sunrise" once again achieved an incredible victory. At the time, the "Chicago Tribune" made a $7 million box office prediction for the film, which was already the most optimistic view of the media, and the "Chicago Tribune" estimate was also It was sneered by many media, thinking that it is impossible to get $7 million "before sunrise".

But now, "Before Sunrise" has not only received rave reviews and won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, it has also earned $32 million at the box office in North America, and has created $85 million worldwide in one fell swoop. A million-dollar stellar box office. For an art film, an experimental independent niche film, it can almost be said to be a heaven-defying achievement.

If we start with the subject matter, and then consider the filming techniques and structure of the film, the box office performance of "Before Sunrise" is not inferior to that of "Pulp Fiction".

But Colin Meyer doesn't think so.

Although the "Before Sunrise" results are excellent - and Colin will not deny this, but a vertical comparison of "Before Sunrise" results over the whole time will yield a very different result. . The so-called "long time" here refers to Hugo's acting career.

The mainstream view in Hollywood is to divide Hugo's career into two stages, starting with the Golden Raspberry Awards in January 1992, before the Golden Raspberry Awards and after the Golden Raspberry Awards.

Before the Golden Raspberry Award, Hugo's career curve started from zero, slowly rose, reached its peak during the "Dead Poets Society" period, and then fell sharply, falling directly to the bottom; after the Golden Raspberry Award, Hugo's career from the abyss It began to climb upwards, reaching a high point in the period of "Schindler's List", and finally continued to rise with the great success of two works.

It is precisely because of this intriguing career development curve that Hugo's experience has become a typical representative of Hollywood's "American Dream" and has become the object of worship of countless teenagers.

Colin cuts in from this mainstream view.

If you study it carefully, you will find that after the Golden Raspberry Award, Hugo's career has climbed up step by step. "Schindler's List" is not the highest point, it should be said "Schindler's List" and "Schindler's List" Life and Death" together make up the highest point. The former achieved both fame and fortune, and captured the Oscar for best supporting actor for Hugo; the latter achieved brilliance at the box office and created the highest box office of Hugo's actor career. At the same time, these two works have successively exceeded the box office of 200 million US dollars, and also won the reputation of "Mr. 400 million" for Hugo.

In Colin's view, Hugo's career has entered another stage after the "speed of life and death".

After "Schindler's List", the box office of "Life and Death" once again exceeded 200 million, and then the box office of "Pulp Fiction" fell back to the 100 million level. The terrifying momentum of the new work over the previous one came to an end. If "Pulp Fiction"'s $170,200 box-office figure is still impressive, making the entire downward trend not obvious, then the immediately following "Before Sunrise" completely exposed this situation. .

The box office of "Before Sunrise" fell by 32 million from the 172 million US dollars of the previous work. This can almost be said to be a fatal cliff jump. not on.

In this way, since the "speed of life and death", the box office of Hugo's three consecutive new works has been lower than the previous one, and the downward trend is already clear.

So, Colin's point of view also surfaced, "Hugo's career is facing a terrible downward trend, and has inexorably come to a terrible position."

When the "New York Post" published this article, it really caused an uproar. When almost all the media lamented the success of "Before Sunrise" again, they actually did the opposite, thinking that "Before Sunrise" "It will be a new turning point in Hugo's career, and the downward trend is worrying.

The "New York Post"'s report on the world's biggest scandal this time is really intriguing. In the eyes of the insiders, this report is ridiculous, because Colin ignored the independent attributes of "Pulp Fiction" and "Before the Sunrise", Hugo led two independent films to create such brilliance, not only is it not a sign of a decline in career, but should be a portrayal of continued brilliance-because thanks to these two works, independent films have already entered the North American market, which will be A new starting point that will change the Hollywood landscape in the next decade.

At the same time, because Colin's point of view has no basis, if everyone simply compares the rise and fall of box office numbers, then it is impossible for an actor's work to always be higher than the old one. 400 million, 500 million? This is impossible. Therefore, it is not convincing to use this reason to explain the "downward momentum".

Everyone in the circle knows that the success of a work is measured by the ratio of cost to box office revenue, the influence of the work, the driving force of the follow-up surrounding, etc. It is definitely not a simple and rigid box office number.

However, in the eyes of readers, the "New York Post"'s distinctive reporting stood out among the "boring and uninspired" reports, attracting everyone's attention, and more importantly, many readers also thought that Colin's point is interesting and thought-provoking. Because Colin listed a lot of strong evidence in the article.

"How many records does a 'Before Sunrise' end the Hugo record: five consecutive works have exceeded 100 million at the North American box office, six consecutive works have exceeded 100 million at the global box office, five consecutive works have won the North American weekend box office champion, and seven consecutive works have ranked in North America The top three box office charts (Note: "Hudson Eagles" ranked second at the box office during the opening weekend), and the box office of four consecutive works is higher than the previous one.

In the three years of Hugo's countless brilliant years, a series of records came to an abrupt end in "Before the Sunrise".

Not only the box office, but also in terms of word of mouth, Hugo is also in a dilemma. Although 'Before Sunrise' won the Silver Bear Award for Best Director in Berlin, it has nothing to do with Hugo himself, whether as a male The protagonist is still a screenwriter, and Hugo has not been able to obtain the corresponding praise. This also means that since "Smell the Fragrance and Know a Woman", Hugo's rapid exploration of acting skills has entered a bottleneck after "Life and Death" and "Before Sunrise".

what does that mean? It means that Hugo is facing a dilemma. On the one hand, his career is brilliant, but on the other hand, he has lost himself in the colorful glitz, and he is likely to fall. And "before the sunrise" is this alarm bell. The curse of the Oscar statuette did not develop last year, but it showed a clue in 'before the sunrise'.

"Before the Sunrise" is like a "deadly moment"-style warning, allowing people to see the dilemma behind Hugo's brilliant career. This is a fact, an undeniable fact. "

Although the "New York Post" has blurred a point in the report, the record of "four consecutive works higher than the previous work" was ended as early as "Pulp Fiction", but this does not affect Colin's report. The credibility of - is the word, because this report has been recognized by many readers.

Many people believe that the New York Post is right on the fact that, although the works have been successful, from "Speed ​​of Life" to "Pulp Fiction" to "Before Sunrise", the momentum of Hugo's selection of works has indeed increased. It's getting more and more incomprehensible, and it's also reminiscent of the "New York Post" report before the movie was released. Colin said at the time that Hugo was blinded by his excellent results and has become more and more arrogant. , so that the direction is lost, and "before sunrise" is likely to become a wake-up call.

Now, Colin's "prediction" has come true.

This is the difference between a layman and a layman. No layman would believe the New York Post's report, and would even laugh at it; but layman readers are convinced that a large series of data and factual analysis are absolutely reasonable. There is evidence. Especially those viewers who didn't like "Before Sunrise" were amazed by Colin's point of view. This is how the media creates public opinion.

As a result, the "New York Post" became completely prosperous, and its sales peaked again, rising by 10 percentage points, and the highest sales record in the eight months created by the newspaper before "Before Sunrise" was released again. a piece.

Not only that, but the "New York Post" has received the support of many readers this time. Everyone expressed concern about the future development of Hugo. What's more, several local newspapers have also recognized the "New York Post". Viewpoints, related reports were carried out with similar viewpoints, so the "Hugo's career decline theory" actually spread in the United States.

This... is really a situation that makes people laugh and cry. "Before Sunrise" obviously created a miracle, but it became the main culprit in the collapse of Hugo's career in people's eyes. Richard Linklater expressed his innocence.

The "New York Post" finally raised its eyebrows. In Hugo's one-and-a-half-year confrontation, it took the upper hand for the first time in history, and even won the support of readers, which continued Colin's good mood. A very long time.

At the end of the report, the "New York Post" said, "Although the prosperity of Hugo's career can still be felt, the hidden dangers behind it make people have to start worrying, maybe the next work will usher in" Hudson's Eagle'-style collapse has made Hugo's efforts and struggles over the past three years in vain. We can't help but start to worry, has Hugo realized this kind of crisis? Or, Hugo has learned anew Modesty? He needs to get that good quality back."

The tone that kept thinking about Hugo won the "New York Post" a large number of readers, and also made Rick Rosen feel heavy pressure on the shoulders. This time, the "New York Post" can be described as menacing.