Chapter 1293: The Stars and the Moon
North America.
A box office week spanning New Year's Day, "Titanic", which was released for the third week, officially replaced "The Flash 2", and became the focus of attention and discussion in the American and even global film and television circles.
Or because of the film's miraculous box office performance.
In the box office week from December 26, 1997 to January 1, 1998, "Titanic", which still achieved 4 box office declines despite the strong box office pressure of "The Flash 2" in the next week, with the increase of word of mouth and popularity, It further fermented and fell again by as high as 11. In its third box office week, it successfully overturned the much-anticipated "The Flash 2" to the ground, and its single-week income went from 62.35 million US dollars in the first week to 63.94 million in the second week. In the third week, the U.S. dollar directly counterattacked to 70.92 million U.S. dollars.
In three weeks, both Daenerys official and the industry media generally predicted that this ultra-high-budget blockbuster with a local box office of about 150 million US dollars, the cumulative box office quickly reached 196.21 million US dollars.
Breaking 200 million is imminent.
In comparison, "The Flash 2", which was released in the second week, not only regretted not being able to break through 100 million in the first week, but also fell by 41% after "Titanic" took the limelight in the second week, with a single-week income of only 57.61 million US dollars. It was released for two weeks, with a cumulative box office of 155.49 million US dollars.
$150 million in two weeks is a success for most other movies, but for "The Flash 2", it is not satisfactory.
Since the box office week from December 26 to January 1 is still in the popular holiday cycle, before that, Warner Bros. predicted that the box office drop of "The Flash 2" in the second week is likely to be only about 30%, even if it is based on the first week. Calculated at 97.88 million US dollars, the next week's income should also be around 70 million.
In general, facing the anomaly of "Titanic", "The Flash 2", which was released for two weeks, has been suppressed and swallowed at least 20 million US dollars in the box office.
This is still a fairly conservative estimate.
If there is no "Titanic", "The Flash 2" is almost the only Christmas file, and it occupies the most popular two-week schedule. It is not impossible for this super blockbuster DC movie universe to break through 200 million box office in two weeks.
Now, with "The Flash 2" earning 150 million yuan in two weeks, and facing the follow-up impact of "Titanic" with undiminished popularity, not to mention that Warner's official heart initially hoped to replicate last year's "Wonder Woman 2" local impact 4 Even if it is the 300 million box office threshold that the industry generally believes is easy, it may not be able to cross it.
With such a box office, of course there will be no losses, and it is even certain that they can make a lot of money. However, for the ambitious Warner, it is indeed a cold water.
Especially "Titanic" also comes out of Daenerys Entertainment.
Another expectation of Warner Bros. and even Time Warner's parent company General Electric for "The Flash 2" is that through the success of this project, it will more or less take back some of the initiative of the DC movie universe.
The success of "Titanic" is simply a silent mockery.
Daenerys does not rely on the DC movie universe, does not rely on the "Jurassic Park" series, or even Pixar's 3D animation, just make a blockbuster casually, which can crush you to death.
Of course, several other major Hollywood studios will not laugh at Warner for this.
At least Warner Bros. has maintained its presence under the pressure of "Titanic". What about the others?
It's just the Christmas file that opened on December 12 last year. Whether it's MGM's "The King of Fighters 2", Sony's "As Good as It Gets" or DreamWorks' Paramount's "Mouse Catcher", the box office data is due to two The crushing of the super-blockbuster looks unsatisfactory.
After all, there are only so many markets, and only so many people watching movies at the same time.
Going forward, "Shakespeare in Love", which was originally planned to be the focus of Gaomen Films' 1998 awards season, was released on December 5, and the situation is quite embarrassing.
After the first week of screenings, in the following three large-scale box office release weeks, because the limelight was dominated by "Titanic" and "The Flash 2", "Shakespeare in Love" had almost no sense of existence, and the cumulative box office in four weeks Only $17.09 million.
That's not a failure for an awards-season literary film, as the film cost only $25 million to produce.
The problem is the positioning of this project.
Award winning film.
The typical operating strategy for award-winning films is to continue to receive various nominations and awards during the period from the announcement of the nominations for the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards in December to the holding of the Oscars in March and April of the following year, including Various trade union awards and association awards during the period repeatedly stimulated the audience to buy tickets and enter the arena, forming a long-term trend, accumulating less and more, and finally a double harvest of box office awards.
Right now, with the phenomenal reputation of "Titanic" all the way back and the prestige of directly winning 8 Golden Globe nominations, it is conceivable that "Shakespeare in Love" will not be able to perform at all in the next awards season.
Or maybe.
That is, "Titanic" and "Shakespeare in Love" are produced by two companies. Then, the producer of "Shakespeare in Love" can stir up various topic disputes. For example, "Titanic" is just a commercial film that lacks connotation. Is the box office high? It means that you are eligible to win awards and so on, so you can get your position.
It's a pity that two films come from one family.
Even with Daenerys' current label structure, the two movies cannot be considered brothers, but cousins, but the company will not allow the occurrence of a "brother rivalry" to happen. After all, the trend of "Titanic" is really good. If it can shine again in the awards season,
There is hope for a box office miracle, in which case Shakespeare in Love would have to be abandoned, and Simon would not have sanctioned the use of controversial marketing tactics that would have affected audiences' perceptions of Titanic.
Los Angeles.
The time comes to January 3rd, Saturday.
After the screening on January 2, "Titanic" earned US$10.13 million in a single day, making the local box office of the film break through US$200 million, reaching US$206.34 million.
Daenerys also officially hosted a grand celebration party for the "Titanic" crew.
At seven o'clock in the evening, Lena Kane, who got two invitations easily through Linda Vargas because of her relationship with someone, took Jessica Chastain to this long-famous mountain on time The mansion, deliberately stopped for a while at the gate full of reporters, allowing themselves to be recognized as "Ghost Story" female supporting clients to pose for a moment before the two women entered the mansion.
The celebration party was said to start at 7 o'clock, but after entering the door, I realized that many people had already arrived early.
Still using her own identity label, Lena was able to go upstairs to the main villa to meet and chat with several bigwigs from Daenerys Entertainment, say hello, and talk about "The Blair Witch".
Daenerys has obviously started to promote the official website of the 'Blair Witch Incident'. Recently, this incident has gradually become a very popular online supernatural event.
Not only that, but the Sundance schedule for "The Blair Witch" has also been arranged.
This year's Sundance Film Festival will open on January 15 and last for 11 days until January 25.
In order to allow enough time for "The Blair Witch", the film will have its Sundance premiere on January 24, which is Saturday, followed by a total of 4 media and audience screenings.
Moreover, Sundance is also quite cooperative with the confidential marketing strategy here.
The 14th Sundance, which announced the main competition shortlist in early December last year, only announced a film with only a code name. The code name of "Blair Witch" is "bproject", which translates to "b project". ", or "Project b", but for those in the know, of course, "the blairitch project".
In fact, if there is no explanation, there is no problem with "bproject" as a movie title. The Sundance official even explained that the movie comes from New World Pictures, the name is just a code name, and the content is kept secret, so it caused a lot of heat discussion, and even controversy.
The upstairs living room of the villa.
Seeing Lena Kane talking about it, the few people who knew that this was their boss's new favorite did not neglect, after all, this girl is quite likable and capable.
Danny Morris, president of New World Pictures, said: "The plan for the online marketing of "The Blair Witch" remains unchanged, and we will increase our promotion efforts next week. However, Lena, you must also be mentally prepared. The focus of online platforms is also on "Titanic", which will definitely have a great impact on the topic of "The Blair Witch".
"It's such a pity," Lena sat upright on the sofa near the door in a rather respectful posture. Hearing this, she sighed, and then smiled again: "However, "Titanic" is really a surprise. I have watched it three times in time, and I have learned a lot from the perspective of a filmmaker, and I really look forward to seeing Mr. Cameron next time."
The online viral marketing plan of "The Blair Witch" was determined years ago, and it still needs to participate in Sundance. It is impossible to cancel it temporarily, and now it can only be implemented step by step.
Even the schedule in early February could not be adjusted.
Because Daenerys' 1998 film list has already been lined up, almost to the extent of several carrots, unless "The Blair Witch" is willing to delay its release until next year.
If this is the case, the various arrangements in advance will be in vain.
Now, I can only do my best to obey the destiny.
After we chatted for a while, a staff member knocked on the door and came in to remind James Cameron to arrive. Amy Pascal got up upon hearing this and planned to welcome him out. With the current momentum of "Titanic", 1 billion in the world is conservative, and Cameron deserves Amy to stand up and greet him.
However, Danny Morris and Ella Deutschman, who were also in this living room, continued to sit.
There is no need to rush up.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Steven Spielberg or George Lucas, who were in their prime, might have brought together the big studio executives. Now, at least for Daenerys Entertainment In other words, its executives have enough confidence to face any filmmaker, whether it is a big director or a big star, and there is no need for all kinds of flattery in the early years.
Even if it's "Titanic", everyone feels recently that if it wasn't for the boss's almost indulgent indulgence in this project two years ago, the movie's box office miracle at this time probably wouldn't have happened.
Therefore, as this project became more and more successful, what everyone admired more was his own boss who was still in Australia at this time.
This is vision.
Lena did not stay like Morris and the others, but was slightly behind Amy and took Jessica downstairs together.
Then I saw a picture like the stars arching the moon.
Under the bright lights in the night, on the lawn of the backyard where many guests had already gathered, a large circle of people had gathered around James Cameron who had just arrived, and the core was Amy and Cameron who were chatting. Many are also familiar faces in Hollywood circles.
After all, Daenerys has the confidence to be calm, but in Daenerys
Other Hollywood studios, which were almost out of breath under the pressure of silk, did not have the confidence.
The circle in front of him is probably the most vivid embodiment of James Cameron's recent encounters.
Cameron, who was under tremendous pressure during the production of "Titanic" and grew a lot of gray hair, was also in high spirits at this time, bringing a new girlfriend, chatting and laughing with everyone around him.
Lina and Jessica couldn't squeeze in the two little shrimps, so they could only watch enviously from the outside for a while, and saw Linda Vargas and another Hollywood bigwig Tom Han not far away Max and Lena walked over together.
When I came closer, I happened to hear Linda introducing a project to Hanks.
"The story tells about a man who is tired of marriage and divorces his wife. He accidentally got an Aventure mobile phone. After experiencing a series of women, he finally realized the true meaning of love and life. The idea comes from the movie that was just released in China on January 1st two days ago. A movie, very interesting, Jim, I think you can make a leading actor."
"A remake of a Chinese movie, Linda, are you sure?"
Linda Vargas and Lena who walked in nodded, and continued to Hanks, who was obviously suspicious: "Actually, it is a film company established by the boss in China, and the script was finalized by Simon himself, including this time. The remake is also Simon's decision. Heh, I even suspect that Simon himself wrote the idea, but he doesn't admit it."
When Tom Hanks heard Linda say this, he immediately looked at it squarely: "Linda, can I read the script first?"
"There is no script," Linda shook her head, and said, "However, there is a copy of that movie here. If you are interested, I will send someone to send it to you when I have time. The boss specially asked someone to make English subtitles. You can definitely watch it." Understand."
Hanks thought for a while and said, "Just tomorrow, which happens to be Sunday."
"no problem."
When Hanks walked away, Lena immediately said: "Linda, that movie, copy, can I watch it too?"
Linda smiled and shook her head: "No, Lena, there is only one copy, and I can only give it to Hanks if Simon tells me."