Six Hundred and Seventy-Eight - Well, that Certainly Deserves It.

"Wayne Greenberg: I ​​never care about the praise or disparagement of film critics. I shoot my works for North American movie fans..."

"Yesterday, the controversial Wayne Greenberg appeared on "The Daily Show" as a guest. He said on the show that his style has never changed, because he is the one who makes movies that surprise fans. style of......"

"Criticism and provocation are the most critical criteria for becoming a film critic..."

No matter how unexpected the various revelations in the entertainment media are, what Wayne said on "The Daily Show" on Saturday night still occupied a considerable amount of media space, and was published by almost mainstream entertainment media.

Most of the media have an attitude of not being afraid of making trouble, because they all know that at this time, any controversy related to Wayne Greenberg will have countless ordinary people interested in it, and they will open their wallets to pay for the shocking headlines. .

Of course, the most eye-catching news breaking on Sunday morning is also inseparable from him. Bella Grant, the well-known editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times, published a documentary report in the entertainment section, describing in detail everything that Vitali Seduk did on Oscar day.

Later, the local TV station in Los Angeles even played the video information provided by Bella Grant in the morning news column.

In an instant, although the public opinion of the whole people was not reversed, more people felt understanding. No matter which man he is, when his female companion is being harassed with her skirt lifted up in front of him, he will probably be furious.

"On~, I knew Wayne wouldn't do anything for no reason."

In front of a movie theater in the Upper East Side of New York, a boy waved a newspaper in his hand and turned to his female companion sitting next to him and said: "Jennifer, I knew this was it. Wayne did what every man should do." Thing, I swear, if anyone dares to harass you like that, I will kick their ass!"

The Latina brown-haired girl sitting on the bench rolled her eyes. Of course she saw the newspaper her boyfriend waved. What was embarrassing was that she still held two "Godzilla" movie tickets in her hands.

Looking at the boy's excited face and the imperceptible pleading look in his eyes, the girl shrugged and said helplessly: "So, Hank, it seems we have to change our movie-watching plan again?"

"why not?"

The boy named Hank's eyes lit up and he nodded quickly. "Dear, you know that I am a die-hard fan of Wayne's movies. You said not to watch the works of that violent maniac. Of course I am willing to agree with your suggestion. However, now the facts have proved that Wayne is not a violent maniac, nor is he a violent maniac. He is not a pervert, he is just protecting his female companion..."

This is very important. Like other young couples, the two's earliest movie-watching plan was "The Flash". However, after watching the TV program yesterday morning, the girl expressed that she was not willing to watch another work by a violent maniac. , thinking that is supporting the other party's violent behavior.

There are many casual movie fans like them, and of course many people are affected. When faced with a choice, many people have no choice but to choose "Godzilla". Now that the popularity of monsters in North America is still there, people are not interested in monster-type disaster movies. Don't resist.

"ok."

Under Hank's expectant gaze, the brown-haired girl named Jennifer nodded, but with some embarrassment, she took out two "Godzilla" movie tickets and said, "But the movie is about to start, Honey. .”

The goal was achieved, and Hank assured without any hesitation: "It doesn't matter, we can watch Big Monster first, and then watch "The Flash"."

Although the boy was in a very urgent mood, he was still willing to watch Monster with his girlfriend first. In fact, he was still very resistant to this movie in his heart. He was not willing to tell his new immigrant girlfriend that he didn't care about the monster in the book at all. not interested.

Perhaps this is the mainstream thinking of young people in North America. They accept Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" and can be said to be crazy about the lifelike prehistoric dinosaurs in it. As for a monster from a book, what does it have to do with them?

Whether they admit it or not, in the mainstream view of young people in North America, xenophobia is as impossible to eradicate as racial discrimination, but it is even less possible to speak out openly.

At early nine o'clock in the morning, the couple walked into the theater behind them hand in hand, bought popcorn, checked in, and found a seat in the screening hall. Like countless ordinary couples, they whispered in the dark environment while waiting for the movie to start.

"There don't seem to be too many people there. There are obviously a lot of people waiting in the hall..."

The pre-show commercials had already begun to play on the big screen. Using the light of the big screen, Jennifer turned her head and scanned the entire theater and found that the audience was not large. Almost all couples like them occupy every corner of the cinema.

"Maybe those people are waiting to see The Flash?"

Hank squeezed his girlfriend's hand and whispered something in her ear. "It's still too early. I think many people are still hiding under the covers."

There are some questions that he really can't explain clearly. Should he tell his girlfriend, because most viewers have xenophobic habits? Telling your girlfriend they're not interested in stuff from elsewhere? This obviously doesn't work.

However, when more than half of the movie started, the chatter became louder and louder not only from Hank and Jennifer, but also from several other audience members in the screening room. This movie is very different from the monster movie in their minds, but they can't tell what's not good about it. This is the main reason for this situation.

"Shit! It's obviously a monster disaster movie, why can't I be interested at all?"

"This movie is far from Jurassic Park!"

"F**k, I fell asleep later, what's the ending?"

When the movie officially ended and fans lined up to leave, complaints about the movie became the focus of the conversation. Not a single one of the few viewers expressed satisfaction with the movie.

Similar situations are happening in theaters in major cities across North America. In fact, the ticket sales of "Godzilla" in the past two days have been pretty good. However, as the screening continued, the reputation among movie fans has obviously declined significantly.

However, fortunately, there is another movie. On Sunday, just like Hank and Jennifer's choice, many young people and passerby movie fans chose to buy "Godzilla" after watching the ones they ordered early in the morning. Movie tickets for The Flash.

The two films have received very different reviews from fans. Most of the fans who have watched "The Flash" said that they were very enjoyable and hearty, saying that even if it is just a simple audio-visual feast, it is completely worth the ticket price.

As the main body closest to movie fans, movie theaters also immediately discovered the gap in reputation between the two films. At the end of the last screening on Sunday, analysis reports were sent back to the headquarters by theater managers across the United States.

On Monday morning, as the sun just peeked out, the city of Los Angeles woke up like a sultry furnace. In the Greenberg Manor at the end of Mulholland Drive, Wayne had a towel hanging around his neck while wiping the sweat on his face. Zhu walked into the restaurant and sat down.

As his work has become busier and busier over the years, he has unconsciously lost the exercise habit he has insisted on for many years. Although his body still looks well-defined and muscular, which is considered healthy in North America where obesity is an epidemic, he can feel it himself. If he doesn't Once you regain your exercise habits, I am afraid that after the age of thirty, the muscle contours on your body will gradually disappear, and you may even develop a potbelly.

"You really don't seem nervous about The Flash's first-week results?"

After scanning Wayne, who was handing the towel to the housekeeper Hela, Naomi Watts looked at each other and Nina, curled her lips and said, "Boy, don't tell me that your ambition has disappeared."

After hearing the woman's sinister teasing, Wayne waved his hand. "The box office of "The Flash" on its first day was close to 40 million US dollars. Even if there is some impact on Saturday and Sunday, it will not be difficult to achieve the goals that Warner Bros. and I set. Nami, please be patient."

As he spoke, he casually took the scrambled eggs and sandwiches brought by Hela, lowered his head, picked up the fork, and put it in his mouth. At the same time, he said in a lucid voice: "Box office news, Nami."

Rolling her eyes helplessly, Naomi Watts flipped through the newspaper, picked up "Premiere" and cleared her throat. “After the start of the North American summer season, the theater market continued to rise last weekend. Following the release of “Collision” released by Paramount Pictures, last weekend finally ushered in two major productions with a cost of more than 100 million yuan.

After creating the great movie "The Dark Knight", Wayne Greenberg, amidst huge controversy, came up with a drastically changed style of "The Flash" this year. The film was released on May 19 (Friday) at It will be released simultaneously in 3,400 theaters in North America.

"The Flash" abandoned its strong dark style and made a major transformation into a purely visual commercial film. The box office revenue on the first day was US$38.48 million. It accounted for 69.3% of the box office of the entire theater chain. It also opened on a super large scale. , achieved a single box office record of over 10,000 yuan, and simultaneously topped the box office championship of the day.

On Saturday, "The Flash" and director Wayne Greenberg suddenly fell into negative reviews, with critics giving the film an ultra-low professional score of an average of 2 points. However, neither the violent scandal nor the ultra-low professional ratings seemed to have too much impact on "The Flash". With the support of young movie fans, mainly between 16 and 30 years old, it once again won the daily box office championship. According to the box office report of the day, Received 35.776 million US dollars!

As the working day is about to begin, it is inevitable that Sunday's attendance will decline. However, "The Flash" is still the best-performing film of the day, strongly suppressing "Godzilla" that was released at the same time in the North American theater market. Winning $21.1 million!

During the first weekend of its official release, "The Flash" even faced a lot of negative news and controversy, still strongly crushed its competitors and took in a box office of 95.25 million US dollars...f**k! Son of a bitch Sony Colombia..."

Halfway through reading, Naomi Watts suddenly angrily slapped the "Premiere" magazine on the dining table, shaking the plates of Wayne, Sergey, Nina and others to their feet. . At the same time, it was accompanied by her constant sharp and foul language.

"Hey, Nami." Wayne was smiling and listening in rapt attention. He was obviously taken aback by the woman's sudden outburst. He raised his head and looked over in surprise. "Damn, why are you crazy?"

"A bunch of smashes. If it weren't for Sony Columbia, the first-week box office of "The Flash" must have exceeded 100 million. They ruined most of your hard work for half a year. Yes, the name Paramount is also indispensable... ..”

To a certain extent, the Australian actress is indeed right. If there were no sudden scandals and negative reviews from a large number of film critics, "The Flash" would most likely have grossed over 100 million US dollars in its first week at the box office in this era.

It seems that there is not much difference between this film and big-budget science fiction commercial films, but Wayne knows very well that whether it is the editing rhythm or the level of special effects, he is benchmarking against the mainstream commercial films of ten years later, which is equivalent to a dimensionality reduction. blow.

But from a rational perspective, is there any film in Hollywood that has been a hit at the box office without any competition? Obviously it's impossible. Even if there is no conflict with other film companies, they will not just watch you succeed. It is normal practice to harm others without benefiting oneself.

Therefore, Wayne never expected that one of his works would be a smooth success in the theater market.

This principle was taught to him by Jeff Robinoff when he was filming "Joker" in New York. Even after George Lucas became the richest man in Hollywood, invisible troubles such as set fires would still occur. This industry is never a place where talent can lead to success.

"Nami, don't get excited. When have I ever been afraid of competition?"

Just a little bit, Wayne certainly understood the annoyance of the woman standing next to him at this moment, and he, the rightful man, comforted her. "Believe me, Nami, the winner in the end this time will still be me! Someone will pay for the lost box office of "The Flash"."

Even Sergey on the side rarely stopped eating like crazy, raised his big head and said buzzingly: "When has the boss ever lost? Nami, the last thing you need to worry about is the box office results."

"Okay, keep reading. I want to hear what the mainstream media has to say."

Seeing Naomi Watts nodding angrily, Wayne pointed to the magazine on the dining table, picked up the steel fork and continued to lower his head to deal with the scrambled eggs.

The Australian actress stretched out her hand, picked up the magazine again, and read crisply: "This year's "The Flash" continues to promote the entire DC movie series. It is completely different from the previous DC movies in previous years. "The Flash" not only changed the style of the film, , the theme story is also quite different from the comics.

It can be seen from many places that Wayne Greenberg reorganized the birth story of Barry Allen for DC's subsequent movie characters. There is no blood, violence, or darkness in this story. It is more like a large-scale film industry display, with ultimate audio-visual special effects covering every minute of the film.

The slight changes in the story and comics can be said to be compromises that have to be made for the entire DC series. It can be seen that Wayne Greenberg has made great efforts to make the film closer to the imagination of fans. It is understood that the creators of the show wanted to prevent the overall story of "The Flash" from going astray, and even invited Julius Schwartz, the creator of the second-generation Flash Barry Allen, to personally join the creative team.

"God's Coming"

Although the style of this film has changed drastically, it is the same as all previous works of Wayne Greenberg. He not only directed the film, but also served as screenwriter and producer, and as always presided over the post-production of the film. Clip.

According to relevant sources, the soundtrack when Wonder Woman appears in the film’s Easter egg was also composed by this film and television genius. However, according to previous interviews and analysis, the reason why Wayne Greenberg will personally handle the soundtrack this time is most likely because Hollywood's top soundtrack master John Williams did not hesitate to refuse a second interview with him. cooperate.

The top soundtrack master in the industry, after cooperating with him on "The Dark Knight", told the media more than once that no matter how much money Warner Bros. pays, he will never work with Wayne again. Greenberg cooperated. When talking about this topic, John Williams' face didn't look good, as if this cooperation between the two had left a deep enough shadow on him.

Since the release of Wayne Greenberg's first film, every one of his films has received unanimous praise from film critics. This situation is very rare. Almost all well-known film critics in North America have praised "The Flash". 》Carried out verbal and written criticism.

However, there are always exceptions. Todd McKenzie, the gold medal film critic of the "Hollywood Reporter" column, fully affirmed "The Flash". He said in his column that Wayne Greenberg, who has completely let go of all "artistic" baggage and stands solely from the perspective of a movie fan, is using "The Flash" to tell the entire Hollywood what the ultimate audio-visual experience should be. appearance!

However, with the popularity of "The Flash", the film is also facing a lot of troubles. Director Wayne Greenberg's accusations of violence, main actor James Franco's continuous scandal, whether the lack of professional ratings will lead to lack of stamina Wait, wait, everything depends on the market performance after the working day arrives.

Ranking second at the box office last weekend was Sony Columbia's ambitious film "Godzilla," which officially opened on a large scale in 3,000 theaters in North America last Friday. However, this monster from the island country does not seem to be as powerful as Spielberg's Tyrannosaurus rex, and basically cannot block the iron fist from DC.

Three days after "Godzilla" was released, the film produced and distributed by Sony Columbia reported a box office of 37.6 million U.S. dollars last weekend. However, one thing worth noting is that the film's reputation among fans is still declining rapidly. Related authoritative third-party predictions The agency said that if the reputation of this monster disaster movie cannot be reversed by fans, it is likely that the North American box office will not exceed 100 million!

Ranked third last weekend was the sci-fi blockbuster "Collision" produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was affected by the release of "The Flash" and "Godzilla" and ranked first in three days last weekend. Here, it only received a pitiful box office of 5.7 million U.S. dollars, and the total box office in North America will exceed 100 million. It can be said to be the first example of this summer's high opening and low closing..."

The films that came next were basically low-cost productions and posed almost no threat to "The Flash". Naomi Watts simply put down the magazine in her hand and looked up at the woman who was wiping her mouth with a silk scarf. Wayne.

"If nothing else, "Collision" and "Godzilla" won't pose much of a threat to us." Seeing the woman staring at him with big eyes, Wayne shrugged and said very relaxedly: "I'm thinking about it now. Yes, not only must we take advantage of the rest of the June schedule, but we must also make some people pay a sufficient price.”

"It's weird, boss."

Nina on the side pushed up the glasses on her face and asked doubtfully: "Obviously "Jurassic Park" has withstood the crushing of "Batman: The Dark Knight". This year, North American monsters are even more popular. "Godzilla" "But they were unable to fight back against "The Flash"? They did a lot of work this time."

Normal people may wonder about this. They are both monster movies, but "Jurassic Park" is facing "Batman: The Dark Knight". Even so, Tyrannosaurus Rex still received a lot of box office.

Anyone who is sane will never compare "The Flash" with "The Dark Knight". It stands to reason that even if it is to gain popularity, "Godzilla" should not only have such a small box office.

"It's not because the scene of "Godzilla" is not big, nor is it because North American audiences suddenly don't like monsters." Shaking his head with a smile, Wayne explained: "Except for part of the impact caused by Warner Bros., its box office was miserable. The fundamental reason is simply because it doesn’t look good!”

Faced with this answer, the two women curled their lips together in tacit agreement. This sentence sounds like nonsense to them. Of course it doesn't look good if the box office is not good. Could there be other reasons?

"Well, because this monster movie doesn't suit the taste of mainstream North American audiences." Wayne spread his hands and joked: "Because it's too big!"

Maybe this is a joke, but more likely it is the root cause. One thing I have to say is that Godzilla, this monster, became famous earlier than Tyrannosaurus Rex. It is a well-known monster that is rarely good in books. It is also bigger and is rampant around cities that are more familiar to the audience. But why? Even so, why don’t audiences like this monster?

The fundamental reason is that it is too big. Big size means a bigger scene, but it also allows many narrative details to be ignored, like the lucky photographer who survived the film.

To give a simple example, if the monster is too huge, there is no way to arrange for the protagonist to face the crisis alone. Because this monster is so big and destructive that no human being is allowed to face it, so the war machine army can only intervene early.

As a monster movie and a disaster movie, it is precisely because Godzilla is too powerful and a fictional image that it completely loses the opportunity to show the cruel details of reality. Therefore, the entire film can only follow the fictional rhythm and fall into an awkward narrative dilemma.

If you are careful, many fans will have concluded that whether it is "Jurassic Park" or other similar films, the strength of the enemy and ourselves will be strictly controlled within an acceptable range by the director, so that the human characters can With constant focus, there are endless conflicts and dramas.

Take "Jurassic Park" as an example. Even the largest and cruelest Tyrannosaurus rex only needs a few cars, four people, and a mobile toilet, which can bring more than fifteen minutes between them. High-rise screen shots. What if it were Godzilla? Just one kick and it's all over...

The atmosphere in the Greenberg Manor restaurant was extremely relaxed, but even the air in the Sony Columbia headquarters office in Los Angeles seemed stagnant.

"...Give up that Ukrainian reporter, withdraw the legal team we provided, and get back the money paid to him. Damn it, it doesn't mean much whether this little guy is looking for trouble or not. ." The CEO glanced at Paul who was sitting across from the desk, waved his hand helplessly and whispered in a low voice.

"Isn't it a little too early to give up now?"

No one expected that "The Flash", which was facing countless troubles, could still have a terrifying box office performance. What's more, no one expected that "Godzilla"'s reputation among movie fans had completely collapsed. "I heard that the venomous snake Bruce Rosenblum has already threatened to make Vitali Seducuk's life worse than death. Why don't we discuss it with Paramount again..."

The CEO of Benziyi slapped his desk angrily. "Baga, let him die then."

Little people are always so sad. When you lose your use value, no one will care whether you live or die.

If Wayne sees this scene, he will definitely understand deeply what the CEO of the island country does. There is no way, people have this tradition, right?

For example, he was once very confused as to why even Xiao Anan, who had retreated, was mercilessly sprayed to death by trolls on the street. Until a netizen gave an answer, "Because even though this guy has been withdrawn, he still wants to ban pornographic movies." Well, I have to say, it really deserves it.