Chapter 2000: 2000 Powerful Opponent
"The Truman Show" is underway. The National Theater held its premiere with vigor and excitement, where more than 1,500 people gathered, making half of Los Angeles boil; at the same time, another movie was not far away in EL. The Capital Theater holds a grand premiere.
In Hollywood, the eight major film companies are a community of mutual interests and direct competitors, so the relationship between them is always contradictory. In many cases, the major film companies will have a tacit agreement on the schedule of the summer film, so as to avoid a head-on collision and cause mutual losses. For example, "Clash of Heaven and Earth" and "Godzilla" have staggered schedules. Paramount Pictures and Sony Columbia Pictures naturally made such a decision after spying on each other.
However, there will be exceptions: when the film company has no confidence in the work at all, and is in a half-abandoned attitude, and puts it on the summer file just hoping that the strong crowd will drive more audiences into the theater, maybe it will be able to create miracles, At least it can reduce the loss; or when the film company has full confidence in the work and has an absolute advantage even in the face of any opponent, the posture of gods blocking and killing gods, and Buddhas blocking and killing Buddhas, then there will be a strong confrontation between the films released at the same time, No wonder.
This was the case when "Speed" was first released. In the same period, "Hillbilly Conquers New York" and "Heavenly Soldiers" were released together, followed by the menacing "Wolf". A large number of works were crowded in a similar schedule, and fierce competition was launched. It was either you or me in close combat, and finally witnessed the glory of "speed of life and death".
This is also the case this time. Although "The Truman Show" is led by Hugo - Hugo has hardly found any rivals in the North American market in recent years, but considering the special nature of comedy movies, the box office appeal of this movie Definitely not indestructible, so here comes the challenger—the challenge from Warner Bros.!
The work launched by Warner Bros. this time cannot be regarded as a heavyweight, but it should not be underestimated.
Directed by Andrew Davis, who once directed "The Fugitive", which was nominated for Oscar's best picture, with an investment of 60 million US dollars, Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria If - Mortensen (Viggo. Mortensen) starred, just the cast lineup is enough to raise eyebrows.
This work called "Super Perfect Murder (A. Perfect. Murder)" has attracted a lot of attention during the filming stage. The script is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Phone Murder". Case (Dial. M. For. Murder)", the style is known as the combination of "Instinct. Ability" and "Seven Deadly Sins", which is not inferior to "The Truman Show" from the topic point of view.
"Perfect Murder" is a thriller and suspense movie, while "The Truman Show" is a comedy movie. These two types of movies have similar box office pulling power in the summer. It is really difficult to predict which one will win—maybe, Comedy movies will barely have a slight advantage, but the advantages are also very limited.
After the "Perfect Murder" is finalized, many people think that there will be a battle between the two works, even if "The Truman Show" can achieve "30 million opening weekend box office" Won the North American box office champion in the first week of June, but there is bound to be some fighting in the process.
Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer, who knows better than anyone the devastating effect of the Hugos -- "LA Confidential" had been smashing to the top half a year ago -- was planning the premiere of "Perfect Murder." At the same time, after many deliberations, they finally decided on a plan: either to avoid Hugo's limelight, or to face the difficulties and create topics.
They chose the latter.
Warner Bros. personally negotiated with Disney, pulled out their teeth from Paramount Pictures, and won EL with a better location, more audiences, and more complete media seats. Capital Theater; at the same time, Warner Bros. also contacted more than 80 major media, inviting them to attend the premiere ceremony that night, and started the entire publicity battle from April.
Similar to the remake of "Phone Murder", combining the styles of "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Instinct", etc., the buzz is endless, creating an extremely powerful momentum for "Super Perfect Murder". Whether it is the popularity of the topic or the expected value, it has already been able to compete with "The Truman Show".
But on June 1st, the premiere ceremony of "Super Perfect Murder" and "The Truman Show" was held at the same time, and the atmosphere on the scene was completely different, which surprised everyone.
On this lively night, EL. Nearly 400 people gathered at the entrance of the Capital Theater—only less than 400 people, more importantly, more than one third of them were media reporters, and less than 300 moviegoers actually arrived at the scene to give support people. For a general film premiere, it can be considered lively, but for a summer premiere, the scale is too small - even if the entire scene has more than 400 people, it is still quite large in the eyes of outsiders .
This really surprised everyone. Even if "The Truman Show" is led by Hugo, such a huge gap is beyond imagination!
Compared with the surging tide. National Theatre, el. The Capital Theater can almost be said to be "empty", and even the reporters from major media seem to be less interested. The supporting fans all seemed weak, making one have to wonder if these fans were extras that Warner Bros. paid out of their own pockets for.
Not to mention the reporters, even the staff of Warner Bros. couldn't help shaking their heads, but in the face of the hot spots that have been surging recently, they have nothing to do. Even Barry can only admit with a wry smile that in terms of promotional selling points, the entire Hollywood currently wants to compete with Hugo, and he can count on one hand.
Faced with such a situation, the "Super Perfect Murder" crew is also under tremendous pressure-this is not a good sign for the next box office trend.
However, Michael Douglas doesn't mind this. He has been active in Hollywood for nearly three decades—including more than two decades on screen. He is used to similar situations and doesn't mind at all. Those details; Andrew Davies has been in the industry for more than twenty-five years as a photographer, and more often behind the scenes as a director, even when "The Fugitive" was at its peak. It was also very limited, so he didn't feel too much abnormal.
But for Gwyneth Paltrow, this is unacceptable.
The great success of "Seven Deadly Sins" gave Gwyneth a first taste of popularity. Relying on the strong family connections, Gwyneth's career development is even smoother. In the past two years, Gwyneth has been shooting non-stop She has participated in nine movies, seven of which are absolute heroines, and her rising momentum can be said to be the highest in Hollywood, and thanks to the enviable love story with Brad Pitt before, Gwyneth is even more Surpassing Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, and Cameron Diaz has become the most powerful actress of the new generation in recent years.
If Charlize hadn't won the Best Supporting Actress trophy at the 70th Oscar, Gwyneth's strength would have continued.
Within this year alone, Gwyneth will have six works released, and three works have been released in the first half of the year, but the three works can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, with no merits or faults. This also makes the other three works released in the second half of the year crucial-two of which are starring Gwyneth, one is "Shakespeare in Love" which will be released at the end of the year, and the other is "Supernatural Love". The Perfect Murder".
However, now Charlize not only took the lead in winning the Oscars ahead of a group of new-generation actresses, but also showed unlimited potential at the box office. In the past two months, it seems that the whole of Hollywood has been singing the praises of Charlize, allowing everyone to witness the inspirational story of this beautiful woman from South Africa who made it to the top. This is a torment for Gwyneth, even a humiliation!
Not only because Charlize took away the light that should belong to her, but also because of the man named Hugo beside Charlize. Just thinking of the name "Hugo" made Gwyneth feel like she was going to lose control of her emotions. Therefore, "Super Perfect Murder" must not fail, it must succeed, this is her best chance to regain her own light! Not to mention the head-to-head confrontation between "Super Perfect Murder" and "The Truman Show", which makes this summer file competition a confrontation that absolutely does not allow any mistakes!
Gwyneth has reason to have confidence in "Super Perfect Murder". First of all, "The Truman Show" itself is trapped in comedy themes, and its competitiveness itself is not strong. Even Hugo, it is impossible to change the precipitation of the North American film market. The taste of watching movies for thirty years has created an impossible miracle; moreover, "Super Perfect Murder" itself definitely has the ability to dominate the summer file.
Michael Douglas is far more seasoned and experienced than Hugo, with contacts in every corner of the circle; Gwyneth's appeal is slightly better than Nicole Kidman's, and the resources are much richer; director Andrew is also The veteran director who has won an Oscar nomination has no doubts about his ability to control; coupled with the fact that the film is adapted from Alfred Hitchcock's classic script, the story is absolutely guaranteed.
All of these make the "Super Perfect Murder" have the conditions for success! Even though the news media and most viewers put "The Perfect Murder" as the challenger because of Hugo, Gwyneth will not accept anything other than victory over "The Truman Show." other results.
But when Gwyneth arrived at EL in a limousine. When the Capital Theater arrived at the scene, she was completely shocked by the empty house in front of her eyes, and the disbelief on her face almost made her lose her manners!