Two Hundred and Ninety-Five-One Hundred and Fifty Million

As May is coming to an end and June is about to enter, this year’s summer season presents a different atmosphere than before.

Normally, as soon as the summer season starts, every weekend will be the beginning of fierce competition. As long as the movies are released at the same time, they are eager to see the red with their bayonets and fight face to face.

However, in the theater market this weekend, "Braveheart", which was extremely popular and controversial before its release, did not stir up any excitement after its release. Apart from the star-studded premiere, it was directly submerged in silence. in the cinema market.

In people's minds, no one believed that "Braveheart" could compare with "Batman Begins", even if Batman was released in its second weekend.

Regardless of the investment scale or the main creative lineup of the two films, almost everyone thinks that these two films are not on the same level.

Just talking about the comparison between directors, Mel Gibson is considered to be at the top of the industry in terms of acting, but his box office appeal is not that amazing. On the other hand, Wayne has not only been creating brilliance in the theater market in the past few years, but he also has attracted a large number of die-hard movie fans.

These die-hard movie fans are his base, and they are the main reason why the film can reach a low box office when it is released.

Even if the actors are taken out, Liam Neeson and others have received sufficient recognition for their performances because of "Schindler's List".

In terms of the box office battle between the two films, Batman has basically no chance of overturning.

"Braveheart" could not match the box office of "Batman Begins". This was expected by many media, but this film starring Mel Gibson was actually suppressed by the always low-key "Die Hard 3" , can only rank third at the weekend box office. This situation is something many people did not expect.

Three days have passed over the weekend. After "Braveheart" opened on a large scale in North America, it has only received an extremely pitiful box office of more than 14 million during this extremely hot period. This result completely gives Paramount no hope of turning around.

In this matter, Shirley Lansing completely complied with business rules. Knowing that the theater company would reduce the screening scale in the second week, she ignored Mel Gibson's objection and directly gave up the follow-up of the film. Xuanfa invests and stops losses in time.

Compared with Paramount, which has no hope, the performance of 20th Century Fox is much better. The box office of "Die Hard 3" has never exploded, and it is in a state of neither plague nor popularity. However, it has performed extremely well in the theater market and has always occupied a certain market share.

After three days of the next weekend, it still achieved a score of US$22.7 million, successfully beating "Braveheart" which opened in its first week, and ranking second in the weekend box office rankings.

The first film on the list is, without a doubt, "Batman Begins." After four working days of preparation, this film once again experienced a strong rebound on Friday.

The young people who had postponed their plans to watch the movie last week because it was difficult to get a ticket, after the next weekend vacation, gathered friends and family to flock to the theater, contributing to the film's healthy and stable box office trend.

On Friday, under the incredible gaze of the media and film critics, it reported a box office of US$15.07 million. The box office saw healthy growth again on Saturday, surging to US$18.07 million, and followed up on Sunday with another US$15.65 million.

After three days of the next weekend, it won the weekend box office championship with 487.

At the same time, the focus of media reports was also on the film's total North American box office. "Batman Begins" exceeded US$150 million in just ten days, reaching a whopping US$152.43 million. .

The extremely strong box office trend of this film has repeatedly led third-party forecasting companies to raise the final box office target of the film in their predictions time and time again.

Even the gambling company in Las Vegas canceled its bet on the film's $250 million box office on Monday and changed it to $300 million.

Unlike the media's aggressive coverage of the film's box office, the attention of Hollywood circles is focused on the peripheral revenue of "Batman Begins." Not only does this film have a strong box office, but its offline profits are even more astonishing.

Although Warner Bros. has not announced subsequent peripheral sales, various companies have speculated through market response that the value created by this part has more than doubled the box office share.

It has to be said that Wayne started the trend of superhero movies in advance, and also made various production companies turn their attention to comic IPs that can be adapted. Sony Columbia was already meeting early on Monday to discuss the possibility of producing Spider-Man. .

Twentieth Century Fox also has the same plan, and the initiator of the plan is Townsend Rothman. He also sets his sights on the heroes he owns.

As an agent, Jimmy was the busiest person this weekend. Countless job offers and invitations to parties and receptions were sent to the new agency almost at the same time.

During this period of time, he had to deal with the harassment from his old club CAA while also finalizing various matters for the new company. He could not stop the tasks assigned by Wayne. It could be said that he was too busy to keep his feet on the ground.

"The Blair Witch deal is settled."

Early on Monday morning, Jimmy rushed to Greenberg Manor, faced the customers who were eating breakfast, and began to report the results of his work during this period.

"Universal Pictures reached a deadlock in the first negotiation when faced with our $40 million offer. Then I released the news that I wanted to sell the rights, showing my attitude of selling to other companies."

Wayne picked up the milk and took a big sip. He hummed slightly and focused most of his attention on breakfast.

After so many years of working together, no one knows agents better than him. His performance in other jobs may be mediocre, but when it comes to money negotiations, Jimmy is a psychological expert. So now that this matter has been settled, the proceeds from selling the copyright will definitely not be lower than his heart's price.

"Okay." Jimmy originally wanted to sell it off. Unexpectedly, neither of the two people who were eating showed any curiosity, which made him a little helpless and continued: "The final transaction price was US$34 million. Universal Pictures bought out all subsequent rights to "The Blair Witch Project." Including offline distribution rights for this film.”

Wayne nodded with satisfaction. "Very well, what does Harvey Weinstein say?"

"Of course he agreed. That fat guy had the same idea, which was to realize and squeeze out the potential of the film as soon as possible."

"Also." Jimmy continued: "After we signed the contract, Ron Meyer, CEO of Universal Pictures, found me and hoped to invite you to attend Universal Pictures' anniversary reception."

"Push it for me."

Wayne reached for a tissue, wiped his mouth, and lit a cigarette. "I will go back to the farm for vacation in two days and have a good rest. If there are any invitations like this, I will reject them all."

Jimmy nodded and asked curiously: "So you are not involved in anything about "Batman Begins"?"

"Yes, I don't plan to do any specific work this year. I will only plan to launch two projects at most."

As he spoke, Wayne ignored Nina who was still eating breakfast, got up and walked towards the living room with the dog.

"Batman Begins" was launched simultaneously in overseas theater markets the following weekend. The crew also finished their promotional work in North America, got on a plane and headed to a new battlefield, and attended the UK premiere on Friday.

While the crew is starting promotions in Europe, Wayne is planning to return to the farm to live for a while. Otherwise, when the crew returns to Los Angeles, the film's celebration party and the work arrangements for Zack Snyder and others will be divided up. energy.

As for not appearing in the media and not participating in all subsequent publicity tasks, he didn't think it would have any impact on the film's trend.

The situation has basically settled now. From May to early June, except for "Braveheart" and "Die Hard 3", there were no heavyweight opponents or slightly larger investment projects. They all also avoided the release date of "Batman Begins" two months ago.

As long as it is confirmed that these two films are not a threat, it means that "Batman Begins" can dominate the beginning of the summer season, a prime period for several weeks.

"How is Batman's film schedule this week? Hasn't it dropped?"

After coming to the living room and sitting down, Wayne stroked the golden retriever's big head and casually asked the agent while holding a cigarette in his mouth.

"No." Jimmy has also been keeping an eye on the trend of the film, which is related to Wayne's final income, and also to his own part of the income.

"Currently, our films account for more than 50% of the screenings in theaters, basically all during prime time, and the rest are other films."

After hearing this, Wayne felt even more relieved. After the time entered the 1990s, Hollywood film companies and theater companies were clearly separated. Every time they signed a screening contract, they basically gave up the exclusivity clause.

This also means that although "Batman Begins" has the largest screening scale and the largest number of screening screens, it will inevitably overlap with the other two films in most theaters.

This is also one of the sources of violent conflicts in the film. Currently, the filming rate of "Batman Begins" is over 50%, and most of the screening times are prime evening screenings.

This item widens the gap with its competitors, and the situation created is that "Batman Begins" will only arrange competitors' films in the remaining time slot.

The reason why this situation occurs is entirely determined by market performance. There are almost no favors to talk about. Films with better early performance will be able to obtain better screening resources, and better screening resources will give the film Bringing more box office revenue is a completely endless cycle.

The focus of theaters is customer flow. They only look at box office results, followed by other things.

As long as this kind of film schedule is formed, unless the reputation of "Batman Begins" collapses and the box office drops off a cliff, competitors will have no hope of making a comeback.