Four Hundred and Ten - Premiere
Everyone in the Burbank Disney conference room looked serious. In two days, the two films will meet head-on. "The Departed" is coming fiercely. There is a chance that a solution can be discussed at this meeting. In the minds of most participants, it is infinitely close to zero.
"Wayne Greenberg's ability cannot be lower than that of Zack Snyder, right?" Michael Ovitz, who was sitting at the end of the conference table, spoke in a low voice, breaking the long-lasting dull atmosphere. "No one can guarantee whether this will turn into another "The Matrix". We can only prepare for the worst."
There is another reason why everyone at Disney feels like they are facing a formidable enemy. The box office of "Twister" has exceeded 100 million US dollars. Although it has passed the peak period of movie viewing, they are now facing the treatment. It's almost a replica of Paramount.
Four weeks ago, when Paramount's big-budget "Mission: Impossible" was released, its competition was not only "Twister" released at the same time, but also the promising "The Matrix".
The final result also proved that, faced with the encirclement and suppression of two major Warner Bros. productions, "Mission: Impossible" has no possibility of making a comeback at the box office.
From this point of view, Paramount has been very lucky. Although "Mission: Impossible" has been under the pressure of "Twister" due to Tom Cruise's huge box office appeal, at least the box office gains are close. With my own expectations, there is not much pressure to recoup the cost at the box office.
Now it's Walt Disney's turn. While facing "Twister", which was released for two weeks and has also been very strong at the box office, it also has to face "The Departed", which opened on the same weekend. Everyone knows that they don't have Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson do have good box office appeal, but they are still far behind the superstars.
"Can we do this?"
Mel Gibson's sudden opening attracted everyone's attention. He looked at Michael Ovitz with a slight frown and said, "Can we increase our efforts to hype Wayne's scandal? I remember once Some media have reported that his crew has been involved in contraband scandals on more than one occasion.”
This method is considered a regular competition method among the six giants. Mel Gibson knows that just like the gossip tabloid under Time Warner slandering itself, this method of smearing each other through the media will not cause a complete conflict between the six giants. Start a war.
As long as you stay in this circle for long enough, you will understand what the situation is between the six majors. The complexity of the relationship between these six giants can be described as a mess. They maintain uninterrupted cooperation and will not let go of opportunities to stumble with each other, but they will maintain the most basic restraint to avoid unnecessary incidents. Restricted vicious competition.
In a big way, the six major powers can be regarded as a community of interests. No matter how they compete internally, as long as there are emerging forces that may threaten them, they will immediately abandon all internal disputes and work together to suppress them with a tacit understanding.
"You can continue, but it won't make much sense."
Ron Howard, who was sitting next to Mel Gibson, shook his head and said with a serious face: "To put it bluntly, Wayne is different from you. Movie fans are more tolerant of movie directors than movie stars. After all, director is a behind-the-scenes job, even if he is a much more special director."
When Mel Gibson heard this, he couldn't help blurting out. "F**K, a weirdo like Wayne Greenberg can be considered a behind-the-scenes job?!"
His rhetorical question represented the voice of most people in the conference room. Although the dark madman was quite low-key in life, he never hesitated to personally promote the movie whenever it was released. The most important thing is that he also has a group of people. The existence of die-hard movie fans can be said to be unique among directors, even surpassing most celebrities standing in front of the stage.
"Okay, no matter what, there's nothing to lose by trying." Michael Ovitz knocked on the table and then stood up. "I would like to remind everyone here that there is no need to overly deify Wayne Greenberg. The test screening reputation does not represent the box office potential. Everything still depends on the reputation of ordinary movie fans after the premiere.
I'm sure that most of the moviegoers that Warner Bros. invited to the preview screening were either die-hard Wayne fans or R-rated film lovers, otherwise "The Departed" wouldn't have had an abnormally high reputation. You must know that these people are just a minority group, and their reactions cannot represent the market at all. "
His words were recognized by most of the people present. Then Michael Ovitz glanced at the faces of everyone in the conference room again and said with confidence: "We have a good foundation for success. I firmly believe that "Ransom Storm" "A large-scale commercial production like this is the most popular trump card among movie fans in this period. At least it won't be a problem to beat a film competing for the Olympics."
"Yes, that's it."
"You're right."
Amid everyone's approval, the pre-screening meeting ended in a strange atmosphere. Ron Howard and Mel Gibson walked out of the conference room together, looking at each other more than once along the way.
After leaving Disneyland, the two of them were not in a hurry to separate. Instead, they walked to the coffee shop across the street. They both knew that there were some problems there that Michael Ovitz could not ignore with a few words.
"'Ransom Storm' has only opened in more than 2,800 theaters. Michael Ovitz and John Brown's work in the theater alliance has not played any role at all."
After the two sat down, Mel Gibson looked at the passers-by outside the window and said with a sarcastic sneer on his lips. "Even if they didn't get the same number of theaters as "The Departed", I already regret joining this project. The level of chaos at Disney far exceeded my initial expectations."
"If you want a similar opening to "The Departed", unless Michael Eisner personally calls the three major theater companies to fight for it." Ron Howard shook his head. His mood was not as low as Mel Gibson's. , just simply dissatisfied with Disney’s distribution work.
"Even if Michael Eisner personally fights for it, I am afraid that the number of opening screens of "Ransom" will be difficult to compare with "The Departed". In the past few years, Wayne Greenberg's movies have been given to theater companies It has brought in too much revenue. Even if the commercial attributes of this film are not outstanding, they will first ensure that Wayne has the number of opening screens. Who can guarantee that this film will not be a big hit?"
As he spoke, he looked at the Australian movie star, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued: "The specific performance of the two films will depend on the premiere in two days. It is too early for us to worry now."
"I hate that fucking lunatic," Mel Gibson muttered softly. "Jewish as shit..."
There are only two days left until the film is released. Disney and Warner Bros. are now in the same boat. Intensive and crazy promotional advertisements are emerging one after another. Each of them has begun to bombard the land of North America through its own media and other large and small media.
The happiest group of people in this situation are the movie fans who are ready to go. This year’s summer movie is particularly exciting. The past few weeks have fully proved that the release of big movies together is a great event for movie fans. A movie viewing feast.
Two days flew by. After intensive publicity and good distribution work by Warner Bros., on the evening of June 18, "The Departed" was like most movies premiering in the Hollywood area. Foley's Hollywood Chinese Theater.
The tit-for-tat premiere was staged again. At the same time, the grand premiere of "Ransom Storm" was also held at the Temple Theater in Los Angeles.
"You actually came here from New York? It's really rare."
There was a huge crowd in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. It was still relatively early and no movie stars had appeared on the red carpet yet. But next to the second-floor window of the theater, the famous film critic Todd McCarthy was looking at the people who appeared next to him with a look of surprise. Familiar faces.
"I hope this masterpiece, which is called Wayne Greenberg's R-rated film, can give people enough surprises." It was David Denbigh, the famous film critic of "The New Yorker" who spoke, with a smile on his face. With a look of anticipation, he also looked outside at the red carpet show that was about to begin.
David Denbigh completely missed the internal preview screening of "The Departed" due to distance and other reasons. The reason why he happily agreed to Warner Bros.'s invitation this time was because he wanted to see this film as soon as possible.
"David." Todd McCarthy thought for a moment and said after careful consideration: "In my opinion, this film is indeed worthy of Wayne Greenberg's masterpiece of noir films, but the flaws of the film are also relatively obvious. , forget it, just wait until the movie starts and watch it yourself."
Todd McCarthy has always been careful about his choice of words. In his eyes, the advantages and disadvantages of "The Departed" are very obvious. If you only look at it from an R-rated movie with a Clut attribute, this movie can be said to have violent aesthetics. is a masterpiece, but in his heart, he still feels that "The Departed" is too far behind when compared with "Joker".
"Ha." David Denby glanced at the other party's face in surprise. At this moment, his curiosity about the film became even stronger. "At least I can tell from your tone that this is not a bad movie, right?"
"here we go......"
At this moment, hundreds of movie fans gathered in front of the Grand Theater suddenly let out a roar like a tsunami, because the first person to walk on the red carpet was the film director Wayne.
Usually whenever he attends an event that requires a formal female companion, Wayne is always accompanied by Naomi Watts. This is something that both his fans and media reporters are used to.
It was the same tonight. The Australian actress wore a gray off-the-shoulder evening dress, and her whole body was completely restored to her pre-birth glory. Wayne, who was wearing a black suit, walked onto the red carpet radiantly.
Although the fans screamed one after another and the flash lights in the media area illuminated the entire theater, the two of them showed no intention of slowing down. They walked through the red carpet at a very fast speed and went directly to the prepared media interviews. district.