Chapter 508 508 Box Office Blowout
"Schindler's List" was originally planned to be expanded in only 250 theaters in its fourth week of release, but in the past two weeks, the changes in the situation have caught Universal Pictures by surprise.
The release of 250 theaters is obviously unable to satisfy the audience brought by this storm of public opinion. Even if all the audiences flock to these theaters, even if the theaters are broadcast 24 hours a day, there is no way to satisfy the influx of people. From the third week onwards, audiences in the theaters have continuously asked Universal Pictures to speed up the pace of expansion, and even a petition signed by 10,000 people was sent to Universal Pictures, expressing the sincere wishes of the audience, which made Universal. The film industry had to temporarily change its expansion plans.
After no new films were released last week, the North American film market this week ushered in three new films with large-scale premieres, which also squeezed the expansion space of "Schindler's List", allowing Universal Pictures had originally planned to expand the film directly in 1,000 theaters and had to slow down the expansion. In the end, the film was expanded in 700 theaters, which was barely enough to satisfy the rush to the theaters due to the frenzy of public opinion. audience, which also makes this week's box office competition an open-ended competition.
Two sequel films premiered in more than 2,000 theaters this week, "Wayne's. World. 2" and "Sister. Act. 2: Back. In .the. Habit)", the previous works of these two films have achieved very impressive box office results, and the producers undoubtedly have strong confidence when the sequel comes, and the large-scale premieres can also show their confidence.
Another large-scale film was a true-story adaptation, "Geronimo: An. American. Legend," which was chosen in 1,600 rooms. Theatrical release, director Walter Hill (Walter. Hill) directed the classic works "The Long. Riders (The. Long. Riders)", "Alien. 3 (Alien. 3)" The screenwriter column can also see him in the column The name, but the actors are lacking in starlight. The only thing worthy of the media hype is probably the rivalry between Joseph Gibbs' actors, because Matt Damon is in the movie.
In fact, Joseph is still not the top agent in the circle, but the two actors Nicolas Cage and Hugo Lancaster have indeed won a lot of attention for Joseph. This time Matt's role is the first job he won under Joseph and the second official role in his acting career.
Generally speaking, it is very normal for actors under the same agent to compete, and the more confrontations, the better the ability of the agent. But this time Matt met Hugo, who was climbing a new peak in his career. It had to be embarrassing. However, the release scale of "Gronimer: An American Legend" has exceeded 1,500. It can be said that, Victory is still unknown.
On December 13th, after the North American box office chart for the second week of December 1993 came out, the media swarmed in amazement. This was an unexpected but reasonable result!
"Schindler's List" was expanded in 700 theaters. As a result, it swept the box office of 13.3 million US dollars in three weekends with a single-house box office data of 19,000 US dollars!
For a film that has been released in its fourth week, this is almost an unrepeatable number against the sky, more than three times the million-dollar box office last Thursday. Such a box office increase has made almost every theater chain. All red eyes. In fact, this weekend's box office is not inferior to the opening box office of many movies. You must know that in the early 1990s, there were not so many works that could swept the 10 million level at the weekend box office. This further underlines the incredible box office blowout of "Schindler's List" this week.
However, it makes sense. In the past three weeks, the influence of "Schindler's List" has almost no dead ends, not just Jews, not just interested in war movies audience, the coverage of the film has reached the effect of many commercial film promotions.
In particular, the recommendation of President William Clinton made "Schindler's List" have a different flavor in the public's mind, and the promotion of the film in the world was unprecedentedly smooth. Among them, Germany, Poland, Israel and other countries can't wait for the release of "Schindler's List", which is definitely a situation that makes Universal Pictures very happy.
And the strategy of promoting the film under the title of "Spielberg's most artistic and commercial work ever" has obviously hit the audience's excitement, not to mention sociologists and professional film critics' opinions on the film. The theme, the tireless praise for Hugo's performance.
Even viewers who are dismissive of the movie will want to walk into the theater to see it for themselves, before seeking more excuses to criticize the movie.
Under the stimulation of various objective and subjective factors, "Schindler's List" unexpectedly ushered in a volcanic blowout at the box office in its fourth week of release, and the weekend box office of 13.3 million US dollars also This brought the film to $25 million at the box office four weeks after its release!
"Schindler's List" is only a small-cost production with an investment of only 22 million, but in the step-by-step expansion process after the screening, it took the lead in exceeding the standard of the book cost, and the next film was even more There is hope to create good results in major awards ceremonies. It is conceivable that the income of the film is definitely far beyond expectations.
Recalling that when Steven was preparing for this work, the major film companies were hesitant, and Universal Pictures even cut Steven’s budget several times for this reason, saying, “It’s better to donate money instead of shooting this movie. "To the Holocaust Museum" completely angered Steven, so much so that Steven refused his salary in anger, and relying on his own appeal, the cost of the film was directly compressed to about 20 million. Now, the movie has achieved such an amazing success, but it has made Universal Pictures' position a little embarrassing. After all, Steven is not a small director who can be bullied by anyone.
Just as everyone was marveling at the incredible miracle that "Schindler's List" did this week, the National Jewish Association announced another statement from Steven Spielberg, who passed himself All royalties from the film, along with additional honoraria promised by Universal, have created a foundation dedicated to documenting and preserving the written and recorded testimonies of survivors of planned genocides and massacres around the world, including this massacre.
Obviously, Universal Pictures also realized that it had made a mistake and paid Steven additionally, but this was an insult to Steven, and he did not hesitate to set up the Havoc Foundation with all the proceeds (Shoah). In an interview, Steven said, "It's my conscience, I can't take any proceeds from this movie, otherwise it's blood money."
In the face of Steven's reaction, the public relations department of Universal Pictures will not sit still. They donated two million dollars to the American Holocaust Museum in the name of the company, and said that this is the heart of the entire crew. At the same time, Universal Pictures also announced the remuneration of the cast members. Steven did not take a penny. The three leading actors only took a symbolic $1 million as their remuneration. At the same time, the three leading actors donated this part of the remuneration to Steven's just-founded Havoc Foundation.
Originally, people were still discussing how much money Steven, Hugo and others gained from the film "Schindler's List". This was obviously another successful investment, but the enthusiasm was directly extinguished. Many reporters were even more surprised by Hugo's ultra-low salary. Hugo only joined the crew for a price of one million dollars, which was beyond the expectations of many people.
It must be known that Hugo's current worth has easily exceeded 10 million yuan, and even during the period of filming "Schindler's List", it should be at the level of 6 million. It can be seen that the rumors that Hugo only accepts paychecks that have been circulating in the past few months have once again proved their absurdity.
The box office blowout of "Schindler's List" apparently exceeded the predictions of countless experts, which completely disrupted the North American weekend box office charts for the second week of December.
The three newly released works were treated indifferently, and "Schindler's List" counterattacked and won the championship this weekend! It is a pity that "Fighting Wisdom and Many Stars" is the runner-up only behind the data of 150,000 US dollars; "Skinny Daddy", which is in its third week of release, has strong stamina and holds the third runner-up position. This week, the weekend box office of these three works exceeded 10 million, which is a rare outbreak in December.
"Nuns Are Crazy 2" and "Gronimer: An American Legend" didn't perform as well as they could, leaving them in fourth and fifth place.
The counterattack of "Schindler's List" is undoubtedly the biggest highlight this week, and it has also become the most authentic and direct portrayal of the entire frenzy of public opinion. Another focus of attention this week is "farewell to the sentient days", but unfortunately it is not good news.
Although "Farewell to You Qingtian", which was caught in malicious hype, tried to further attract the audience with the expansion, but the audience did not buy it at all. Not only did the expansion fail to play any role, but the box office plummeted by nearly 50%. It only grossed $700,000 at the box office in three days over the weekend, and it was released for six weeks and accumulated a total of 13 million at the box office.
This is definitely bad news for "Farewell to the Sentient Heaven". The book cost of 15 million is almost within reach, but it almost declares the shatter of the dream. The gap between these two million is almost an insurmountable gap.
Right now, the only hope for "Farewell to Sentient Days" is to win at awards ceremonies like the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and then rely on the video rental market to recoup costs -- not turn a profit. Under such huge pressure and blow, Columbia Pictures reluctantly announced that "Farewell to the Sentient Days", which was only released for six weeks, was offline ahead of schedule.