Chapter 874 Chapter 874

The summer of 1994 in the United States seemed to be extraordinarily hot, and the eyes of the whole world were focused on this football "desert". The football World Cup is about to take place, and football fans from all over the world flock to this land, igniting the summer heat early.

In addition to football, the annual summer season has reignited the war. After the summer season of fierce competition this summer kicked off, the entire North American film market has been pushed to the scorching peak. One after another wonderful masterpiece will debut. , hoisted the audience's appetite early before the arrival of the summer season, making people full of infinite expectations for this summer.

"Forrest Gump", "True Lies", "The Lion King", "Browsing Pursuit", "The Flintstones", "Wolf", "Gambler Ma Huali"... a bunch of preparations The high-profile works will all land on the summer market this year, and this is only a work with an investment of more than 45 million US dollars.

In addition to this large number of works, there are also works that have the potential to achieve outstanding box office results, such as "Life and Death", "Geezes in Disguise", "Beverly Hills Detective 3", and "Hillman Conquers New York". Competition, the whole summer season can be described as exciting and exciting.

The 1994 summer season was kicked off by "The. Crow," by Lee. Small. Son of the Dragon Li. The works starring Guo Hao have already made a lot of noise in the filming stage, Li. Guohao was shot to death during filming, which detonated all the media comments.

Counting down the Chinese actors who have a strong influence in Hollywood, Li. Small. Long deserves the top spot, and his influence in the United States is unrivaled. "The Crow" was adapted from a graphic novel, which attracted a lot of attraction during the preparation stage, and was written by Li Guo. The starring Hao Lai became the subject of heated discussions, and as a result, such an amazing accident happened during the filming.

The advent of "The Crow" was a disaster. In the end, this work originally scheduled to be released in October 1993 was postponed to 1994. After careful consideration by the distribution company Miramax Pictures, it was put into the summer file and opened. This year's summer season is on.

In the third week of May, "Crow" officially landed in the North American market, easily winning the weekend box office champion in North America with a box office of 11.7 million, marking a good start for this year's summer season. It is worth mentioning that "The Crow" defeated the work "When a man falls in love with a woman".

"When a Man Loves a Woman" belongs to Tracy Jacobs' work in the preparatory stage, but after several twists and turns, it was produced by Jon. Taking over the whole set, Meg Ryan was invited to play the role, and the actor locked the well-known Andy Garcia (Andy. Garcia) who relied on "The Godfather 3".

"When a man falls in love with a woman" was screened last week, and achieved a good record of 34,000 US dollars at the box office of a single venue. This week, it was expanded to 1,300 theaters, but the results were not satisfactory. With a weekend box office of 9.4 million, it can only be ranked second after "The Crow".

After the debut of "Crow", the summer season of 1994 officially entered the melee mode. After "Gambler Ma Huali" won the championship for a week, it did not continue to be strong as expected; then "The Flintstones" held its premiere After that, he beat "Beverly Detective 3", which premiered at the same time, and "Gambler Ma Huali", who performed well last week, and won the championship.

Then, entering the first week of June, the summer season ushered in the first wave of climax.

A total of three films were released on the first week of June, and they were still three works that were very close in strength. This week's box office competition was also hailed as the first highlight of the 1994 summer season.

Disney's Touchstone Films invested $40 million in "Renaissance", a typical comedy film directed by comedy-born Penny. Marshall, her most famous work It is undoubtedly "Flying Beyond the Future" starring Tom Hanks. The actor chose Danny. DeVito, who has solid comedy skills. Blood Road has strong confidence. The film will be shown in 1,800 theaters.

Universal Pictures, which started with comedy and is famous for its comedy, is the main battlefield that Universal Pictures cannot give up every summer, and this year is no exception. What Universal Pictures is best at is to be small and big, and among Hollywood movies, the most likely to achieve high box office with a small cost is the supernatural and comedy. Of course, in the past year, the biggest achievement of Universal Pictures is "Xin Xin". Dele's List", which can be called the pinnacle of Xiaoboda's work - although cost control is not the original intention of Universal Pictures at all.

"The Hillbilly Conquer New York" was the first shot of Ron Mayer's first summer after taking office at Universal Pictures. It invested 20 million US dollars and invited Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland to take the lead. The same It will also be shown in 1,800 theaters. It can be seen that they hope to collide with the "General Mobilization of the Soldiers" and seize the market.

Among the three works released this week, the most innocent is "Life and Death".

This work was originally scheduled to be released next week, but it was thought to be easy to bully, and was forced to adjust the schedule in early May. During the entire promotion period, it was also bombarded by competitors. Before the movie was released, it was generally badly viewed by the media. On the one hand, the work itself did not have enough highlights to attract audiences. On the other hand, the publicity after the adjustment of the schedule did not reach the expected goal, which was undoubtedly a fatal blow to the box office. , not to mention that there are also two comedy films in the same period.

"Life and Death" invested 28 million yuan, but it was actually an action movie. After "Terminator 2" and "True Lies" created the feat of investing over 100 million yuan, the investment in action movies has generally risen. To more than 50 million, or even 60 million is not surprising. But the cost of "life and death" is so cheap, what does it mean? Means the explosions, action, drag racing scenes of the movie will be disappointing.

Of course, 20th Century Fox is not stupid either. They were willing to increase the "speed of life and death" for a week after careful consideration, and they must have been mentally prepared.

First of all, the main competitor of "Life and Death" in the first week of June is comedy, at least it has more chances to win than "Wolf" in the second week of June. "Wolf" is a fantasy, action, and horror genre. "Speed ​​of Life and Death" is a head-on confrontation, so relatively speaking, choosing two comedies as competitors will not be diverted at least in terms of the market.

The second is the strong appeal of Hugo. The miracle of the Oscar ceremony is vivid in our minds. The subsequent Cannes Film Festival has made Hugo's peak myth. Now the tour of "Road to Glory" is still in full swing. The audience that walks into the cinema for Hugo's sake is going to be huge. Of course, "The Wolf" stars Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer, and both comedy films are slightly less appealing, which must be taken into account.

Finally, 20th Century Fox's publicity strategy, the publicity for "speed of life and death" actually focused on the excellent quality of the film, and played "reminiscent of the excitement and excitement brought by traditional classic action blockbusters".

In the process of publicity, they have been emphasizing that the current action movies have fallen into a vicious circle of "Terminator" type, and the big scenes headed by explosions and racing cars have become the core of action movies, but instead bring action movies to people. The thrills are weakened. It used to be heroes against bad guys. Now it’s heroes against bombs, pistols, and futuristic warriors. Action movies put on an illusory mask and make people feel unreal. But "speed of life and death" strips away all the tediousness and returns to the essence.

"Let you experience the thrilling moments happening around you", this slogan has also become the loudest slogan in the publicity process.

It has to be said that this kind of publicity strategy has indeed whetted the audience's appetite and opened up a new world. In terms of momentum, it surpassed the "Wolf" that will be released next week, attracting more attention.

Of course, this approach is also a double-edged sword. Because people have high expectations for the film, they must have more excellent quality to give back. Otherwise, after the premiere has achieved a good box office, the decline in word-of-mouth in the next week will bring about An avalanche of chain reactions at the box office. Therefore, generally speaking, film companies will not take this method of drinking poison to quench thirst. Unless...confidence, or a last resort.

At present, most people think that 20th Century Fox belongs to the latter.

But no matter what, the final number of theaters for "Speed ​​of Life" was locked at 2,110, which not only broke through the 2,000 mark, but also exceeded the two competing works. It can be seen that 20th Century Fox has some The plan to break the boat and sink the boat, if it fails, it will become a benevolence.

In the face of actions like 20th Century Fox, many media have ridiculed that, anyway, "Life and Death" only invests 28 million, even if it loses money, it will not be too miserable. They think that 20th Century Fox is a broken jar. , there is a kind of helplessness and ridicule that is indignant but unable to fight back.

The most important thing is that the release of "Speed ​​of Life and Death" also created a topic. Since "Smell the Fragrance and Know a Woman", Hugo has created five consecutive film word-of-mouth myths, deducted from winning praise in Cannes but not officially in the film. The "Pulp Fiction" released in North America, the other four films also won the box office, and after "Righteous Sea Heroes", the box office exceeded the threshold of 100 million for three consecutive films, such a feat is not inferior to Tom Cruise. .

People will never forget that at the beginning of the year when Hugo took over the filming of "Speed ​​of Life and Death", the "Los Angeles Times" boldly predicted that the film had the ability to bring the box office to a height of 100 million US dollars. This idea caused huge controversy at the beginning. Now, the answer is about to be revealed: Can the "speed of life and death" continue Hugo's strength? Is it the continuation of miracles, or the shattering of myths?