Five Hundred and Fifty-One - Bitter Success
The normal release process of a Hollywood movie is always after it is officially released in the theater market, the movie will take advantage of the popularity to release video tapes, original albums, and authorization of related derivatives, etc. Some of the more popular movies , if it achieves a relatively bright box office, the producers will even have to wait for several rounds of TV premiere rights to be sold before the video tape will be released.
Of course, the movies that can be officially released in theaters only account for a small part of the entire Hollywood production industry. For most small-cost movies, the production company's target is the video tape market at the beginning of production, and there is no chance at all. Shown in movie theaters.
But this definitely does not include a film of the size of "The Dark Knight." Warner Bros. has a complete distribution plan for the film, and it is impossible to kill the goose and lay the eggs. Even the single album related to the movie was for the purpose of marketing the movie that was being released, and on this album, Warner Brothers basically did not plan to make much money.
The movie peripheral store the two teenagers mentioned was only half a block away from the cinema. Zack Snyder and others followed patiently. No one said a word along the way, because if this thing is true, it means that "Batman: Something big happened with "The Dark Knight", which also means that this movie's dream of hitting a higher box office will be shattered in an instant.
"I heard that there is a saying that has been circulating in the industry." Charlize Theron muttered to Ector Henry next to her with some emotion. "I've heard many people say that every big investment and big production in Hollywood will always be accompanied by countless troubles and inexplicable troubles from the beginning of the project to the official release. There are almost no exceptions."
This is indeed like a curse. As long as it is a relatively famous big production in Hollywood, it will encounter inexplicable troubles from the beginning of filming. There are many reasons for this, but after almost every big production is officially released and released, it is true that They all fought their way out of all kinds of trouble and competition.
As long as he thinks about "The Dark Knight", the plot leaks, sequel leaks, etc., Zack Snyder's heart is slowly sinking.
He has been with Wayne for a very long time and has a relatively thorough understanding of this circle. Therefore, he has always known that every successful person is the target of countless people who want to make him unlucky. Sometimes even if he does something right I don't have any interests in doing it, but as long as it makes the successful person unlucky, there are countless people who are willing to do it.
"I'll go in and take a look first. Ector, you call Nina. Whether this matter is true or not, you have to inform the boss. None of us know if there is anything else waiting behind this."
Turning to say something to Ector Henry, Zack Snyder walked a few steps quickly, followed the two teenagers, and walked into the video store that specialized in selling movie peripherals.
After entering the store, he found that there were a lot of movie fans queuing up. The store, which was at most 40 to 50 square meters, was like a sardine with hundreds of people crammed into it. Fortunately, the order was guaranteed, and most people were queuing up to check out. .
Among the people queuing up, there was a very obvious feature, that is, almost everyone was holding a videotape with a simple bat logo printed on it. Seeing this, Zack Snyder almost jumped up in shock.
You know, Hollywood has always had a very strong sense of copyright, and no one would be stupid enough to make such a mistake. Although piracy has always existed in North America, it only belongs to a very small part of the underground, especially since the 1980s. It’s been years since we’ve seen pirated copies being sold in a big way on the market. This is totally not worth the loss for the producers.
Hastily picking up a video tape from the shelf, Zack Snyder squeezed in among the fans in line, listening to these young people chatting excitedly with each other about topics related to "Batman: The Dark Knight". My heart has slowly become colder.
It's very simple. As long as this thing appears on the market, there is no way to remedy it. Even if not much leaks out, it will have a huge impact on the movies being released. And looking at the current situation, what leaks out is There can't be more.
This is just a very ordinary peripheral store. No one knows how many stores like this sell Batman videos in North America!
Without caring about anything else, Zack Snyder casually handed a Franklin to the cashier. He ignored the call for change and turned around and walked out of the store. They had to inform the cashier of the news as soon as possible. to Warner Bros.
"I've already called Nina. The boss is participating in a TV talk show. After that, Nina will tell him everything that happened." Seeing Zack Snyder come out, Ector Henry took a few steps to greet him. He said while taking the video tape from the other party and watching it.
"ok."
Nodding, Zack Snyder looked at Charlize Theron, frowned, and said: "Sally, you go back and rest first. Don't disclose this matter to anyone. Actor and I will go directly to Warner Bros. Brothers Building.”
The impact of the matter is far greater than the three of them imagined. For a movie with such huge influence and huge investment as "Batman: The Dark Knight", this is the first time such a thing has happened in the industry, so when Zack Snyder and Zack Snyder Warner Bros. later learned that Bruce Rosenblum had been informed of the situation.
At the same time, Wayne, who was participating in a TV interview in Chicago, learned about Nina's message after leaving the show. He didn't hesitate at all. He didn't even bother to go back to the hotel, and handed over the crew, which was being intensively promoted, to the leadership of Charles Rowan. We directly chartered a business jet and rushed to Los Angeles that same day.
Piracy occurs! This was the first thought in Wayne's mind after getting on the plane. And precisely in Hollywood, this situation is one of the most unlikely to happen. He was very anxious along the way. The movie started off so well. Of course, he didn't want to let his carefully planned actions get ruined because of these inexplicable things. All the hard work was wasted. At eight o'clock in the evening, a Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle stopped at the foot of the Warner Bros. Building in Burbank. Wayne looked tired, took Nina and Sergey, got out of the car, and hurriedly walked into the building, and the elevator went up. The numbers were like his heart, constantly rising little by little.
But when the three of them knocked on the door of the CEO's office, what they saw was very different from what they imagined. Zack Snyder and Ector Henry, together with Bruce Rosenblum and John Gray, , Jeff Robinov, and his secretary, they were sitting in the rest area laughing happily, with no sense of urgency at all.
"I won the bet!"
Before Wayne could say hello to a few people, Bruce Rosenblum saw his figure and immediately stood up excitedly, waving his arms, pointing to the clock on the wall, and said excitedly to the rest of the people: "Still. Before nine o'clock, I won, and you each owe me a bottle of good wine."
"Damn it, I thought that no matter how fast he was, he would still have to wait until midnight to get back!"
Jeff Robinoff stubbed out the cigar in the ashtray, stood up with a murmur, walked up to the three Waynes, shrugged, and said, "We called Charles. He said you didn’t even return to the hotel, but you had already got on the plane and rushed back.”
Seeing the relaxed attitude of these people, Wayne secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that if an irreversible situation really happened, these people would never have the leisure to bet on his return. Now at least he could I'm sure, there must be something behind this matter that I don't know about.
After a gentle hug with Jeff Robinov, he sat on the sofa in the rest area, turned around and looked around at the people who were suppressing their smiles, spread out his hands, and said helplessly : "Tell me, guys, what's going on."
"Look at this."
With a smile on his face, Zack Snyder picked up the video tape he bought today from the coffee table, handed it to him and said, "Take a good look, this thing will definitely give you a huge surprise."
After receiving the video tape, Wayne noticed at first glance that the cover of this thing was very rough, with large black shadows occupying it. But it’s normal. After all, the poster of “The Dark Knight” is also made of darkness. Judging from the black bat pattern on the video tape, it is indeed very confusing.
What’s even more strange is that at first glance, there is no text on the entire cover. There is no production company logo, no actor’s name, no director’s name, and even the name of the movie cannot be found.
"here."
A finger clicked on the bottom of the video tape, and Zack Snyder's voice sounded at the same time. Only then did Wayne notice that at the bottom of the video tape, there was a line of very small letters, which was the name of the film: "The Dark Knight 2" 》.
"What?!"
Raising his head with a confused look on his face, Wayne had no idea what it meant. When several people saw his expression, Bruce Rosenblum couldn't help but laugh.
"Okay, here's the thing..."
Ector Henry was relatively honest, shrugged and started to explain from the beginning. "After we bought this tape, we watched it immediately. To a certain extent, the content in it has nothing to do with "The Dark Knight". This may be regarded as a genius. Marketing, but nothing to do with the content of our films.”
Before he could continue, Bruce Rosenblum immediately continued: "I have already investigated. This is a masterpiece of a new film company established this year called The Asylum. Their founder It turned out to be an executive from Village Roadshow Pictures named David Michael Larter, and this thing was the first project produced by their company."
As Bruce Rosenblum narrated, Wayne also understood why several people were not worried at all, and instead showed uncontrollable smiles. This matter was really too absurd, comparable to a plot that only appeared in movies. , which really made the executives of Warner Bros., who were facing a powerful enemy, feel dumbfounded by punching the cotton.
Former Village Roadshow executive David Michael Rattle, together with two other friends, established a film company called The Asylum this year. Their original business strategy was also in line with many companies in Hollywood. Like small and medium-sized film companies, they want to focus on producing small-budget independent horror films, and then slowly accumulate experience and capital for development.
But when they discovered that the popularity of the movie "The Dark Knight" had already detonated the United States before it was released, they decisively chose to modify the company's development strategy.
Only use the revealed title, poster, genre, movie introduction, vague storyline, character experiences, etc. of "The Dark Knight", which are all available to the public, and then quickly use this information to make general guesses content and story plot, while starting to expedite filming.
The most dumbfounding thing is that from the perspective of plot and other aspects, the script and other aspects are purely original and have nothing to do with Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" objectively.
Half a month, only half a month. According to Bruce Rosenblum's investigation, this movie called The Dark Knight 2 only took half a month from preparation to production. They have all seen the content of the movie. Well, the special effects are not even worth fifty cents, and the actors are almost all amateurs. After all, you can't expect a movie that was made in only half a month to have any good effects.
But people are very fast. They had already filmed this movie before "The Dark Knight" was officially released. The Asylum company's goal is very clear, that is, to take advantage of "The Dark Knight" Due to its overwhelming popularity after its release, it was directly released on a specious video tape and made a fortune in the video tape market. "I met the ancestor of the Hollywood cottage industry. This is..."
After listening to the explanations of several people, Wayne lit a cigarette and couldn't help but mutter something in a low voice.
"What?!" Jeff Robinov, who was sitting next to him, turned his head and asked in confusion: "Did you just speak Chinese?"
"It's okay." Wayne quickly waved his hand, checked the topic, and looked at Bruce Rosenblum. "How are you going to solve it? We can't let this company just take advantage of our popularity, right? I guess the fans who bought the video will be hiding at home and cursing."
"The legal department has been notified and a lawyer's letter will be sent to the other party, but..." Bruce Rosenblum made an expression that you know. "Tomorrow morning, we will notify our media and issue a statement to prevent more fans from being fooled."
His intention was very clear. If he wanted to solve this matter, he couldn't stop it in a short time. Since the other party had made up his mind to take advantage of this heat, he must have been prepared to be accused.
Wayne nodded silently. When they mentioned the name of the company The Asylum, he didn't feel anything. But after hearing about the other party's production process and production methods, the memories in his mind were already dusty. The slow ones were also revealed.
This company should be familiar to movie fans on the other side of the Pacific, especially those who hang out on movie forums. It is the ancestor of Hollywood movie copycats. The most powerful thing is that this company has relied on famous copycat productions to grow from its establishment. After more than 20 years of development, not a single movie has lost money. This is the most incredible thing.
A more famous incident is the later release of "The Hobbit" by Warner Bros. This film probably lost more than 100 million US dollars on paper when changing brothers. However, a few days before the release of "The Hobbit", The Asylum was released on the video tape. The market launches Age of the Hobbit!
It can be said that without spending a penny on publicity expenses, it relied on Warner Bros. to promote "The Hobbit" and made a lot of money in the video tape market. Even if Warner Bros. took the other party to court afterwards, it would still be a mess in the end, because the content of "The Age of the Hobbit" is completely original. Yes, it relies on the movie poster, introduction, and genre of "The Hobbit" Original...
Even if the court ultimately ruled against The Asylum, it would only require them to change the title and movie poster, but this punishment would be insignificant because they had already made a huge profit in the video tape and disc market.
And this is not a special case. Before the release of Disney's popular film "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Treasure", they released the video tape of "One Piece". Before "The Da Vinci Code" came out, they released the video for "The Da Vinci Treasures," and before "High School Musical: The Grad" came out, they released the video for "Sunday High School Musical."
There is also "Atlantic Rim" which is similar to "Pacific Rim". Before "Transformers" was released, they had "Transformers" and "100 Million Years Before History" which was similar to "10,000 Years Before History". Universal Pictures also benefited from them. "Battleship" lost hundreds of millions of dollars, thus suing The Asylum's "Battleship". It can be said that this company is a miracle in some respects.
The key thing is that no matter how they are sued by the Big Six, they never lose money on every movie. Netizens on the other side of the Pacific call this company that specializes in making bad movies the ancestor of Hollywood copycat movies, even better than the art films of the San Fernando Valley. At least those female artists in the San Fernando Valley make superhero art films and pay royalties to production companies...
"I have to go back and take a nap. I haven't had a good rest during this period." Wayne looked at the video tape on the table and shook his head in a dumbfounded way. He didn't have any great illusions about Warner Bros. suing the other party. He I know the moral character of this company very well. This is a strange company that has been taken to court by the six giants in turn, but it is still going strong and has existed for more than 20 years.
"It's almost midnight." Bruce Rosenblum pointed to the clock on the wall and said, "Why don't you wait for the box office of "The Dark Knight" today?"
"Forget it, since everyone is back, I want to go back and rest early."
After waving to a few people, Wayne took Nina and Sergey and left the office without hesitation. His mood had been tense all day long. After learning about this videotape incident, he would not treat himself badly. After the movie caused some harm, the tight strings in my heart relaxed. Now I just want to go back and have a good sleep.
"Boss, do you want to find a way to warn that company?" In the car heading towards Beverly, Sergey turned around and asked with a gloomy expression.
"Forget it, let them be."
This is a company that strives to survive by being completely shameless and completely throwing its bottom line into the Pacific Ocean. Wayne can only feel a strange sense of joy when he thinks about it.
This incident was just a minor episode for Wayne. After a day of rest at the manor, he was going to meet up with the crew again to continue with the rest of the publicity plan.
The reason why several Warner Bros. executives have not returned home from get off work so late is that they are waiting for Wayne, who can't wait to get on the plane, and they are waiting for the opening day of "Batman: The Dark Knight" the following weekend. box office.
And it’s not just Warner Bros., including Universal Pictures, who are staring at the box office. I don’t know how many companies and people in the industry are also staring at the upcoming box office, and even theater companies are also staring at it. Which film achieves better results is related to the film scheduling strategy of the online company after the weekend.
"Jurassic Park 2 has its first weekend in the North American theater market. After a day of screening yesterday (Friday), it reported a box office of US$32.5 million, plus US$12.4 million from advance screenings on Thursday." The first-day box office of "Jurassic Park 2" was US$44.9 million. According to the predictions of many third-party authoritative forecasting agencies, the first-week box office of this movie will not be less than US$120 million. The box office of "Jurassic Park 2" The box office exploded on the first day, earning nearly 45 million U.S. dollars in the North American theater market in just one day. If viewed individually, this achievement can definitely be considered a success, but this masterpiece opened on the first day. , still ranked second on the single-day box office list.
After a week of fermentation, "The Dark Knight" experienced a strong rebound in the box office in its second weekend after its release. The film once again ignored the market rules. After receiving 16.46 million US dollars on Thursday, it received $16.46 million on Friday. It soared to 47.5 million US dollars that day, beating the newly released "Jurassic Park 2" to win the box office championship that day.
So far, the total box office of "The Dark Knight" has reached 332 million U.S. dollars. This is the fastest film in Hollywood history to exceed 300 million U.S. dollars. Many authoritative forecasting agencies have stated through the media, The minimum box office of this movie will not be less than 450 million US dollars. It will not be too difficult to surpass "Joker" and the first "Jurassic Park" in 1993..."
"450 million U.S. dollars! 450 million U.S. dollars!" Putting down the half-read newspaper in his hand, Universal Pictures CEO Ron Meyer crossed his arms and leaned on his chair. As he murmured to himself, he was In the conference room, people began to discuss this terrifying number one after another.
No one expected that "The Dark Knight" would rebound at the box office on Friday after a full week of screenings and consuming the enthusiasm of a large number of movie fans. This was after "Jurassic Park 2" Achievements completed under sniper fire. The emergence of such a situation also completely disrupted Universal Pictures' promotional plans.
Ron Meyer still couldn't believe it, even though he had received a specific box office a few hours ago, which was close to 45 million US dollars. For "Jurassic Park 2", this was completely Meeting Universal Pictures' expectations also means that if nothing unexpected happens, this movie should be able to bring large profits to Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg.
However, this wonderful box office performance, when compared with competitors, success seems so bitter. His prediction for "Jurassic Park 2" was quite accurate, but his prediction for "The Dark Knight" The prediction was obviously outrageous.