Chapter Eight Hundred and Eighty Ninth

Los Angeles.

In the wealthy area halfway up the northern part of Santa Monica, although it was late at night, Amy Pascal was still reading the negotiation materials with Basic Cable about Rainbow Media.

As a woman, although she gave up her high-paying job at Columbia Pictures and helped Drew build Flower Pictures, and thus gained the opportunity to control MGM, one of the seven major film companies today, Amy Pascal did not feel slack because of this. In any field, it is always more difficult for women in high positions to gain recognition than men. After so many years, Amy Pascal has not cared much about other people's eyes, but she still wants to prove to everyone that she is not How much worse than any man.

On the other side of the study, Amy Pascal's husband, Bernard Weinlaub, checked the press release he had just completed, and glanced at the electronic watch on the desk. It was a quarter past zero. Usually at this time, they should have rested, but he also knew that if his wife could not wait for the first day box office data of "Casino Royale" today, it would be difficult for her to fall asleep. Nader Weinraub picked up a book from the table and flipped through it quietly.

Amy Pascal, however, noticed her husband's movements, looked at her watch, and turned around and said, "Bernie, why don't you go and rest first, I may have to wait a while longer."

Bernard Weinraub shook his head and said with a smile, "No, I actually want to know how much box office "Casino Royale" can get on the first day."

Amy Pascal smiled softly without further persuasion, got up and went to the kitchen to make a pot of hot coffee, and poured a cup for herself and her husband.

Bernard Weinraub held up the coffee cup, looked at his wife who was sitting back on the other side, and said, "Judging from today's film reviews, this should be the best-reviewed live-action film in the summer, and you think it can probably hold the title. How much is it at the box office?"

Amy Pascal shook her head. When talking about this topic with other people, she always showed confidence, but facing her husband, she didn't need to pretend to be confident, saying: "This problem is really serious. It's hard to say, two years ago, "GoldenEye" had a reputation of about 8 points in all aspects, but the global box office was only 350 million. This is mainly because the 007 series was not so popular in the most important North American market. This time Although the "Casino Royale" has a better reputation, and there are many other positive factors, we are not sure whether the audience will buy it. In addition, starting from "The Fifth Element" in May, the continuous disappointing low-reputation real people Movies, may also reduce audience interest in Casino Royale."

Bernard Weinraub, a playwright and film business reporter for The New York Times, listened to his wife's somewhat pessimistic rhetoric, thought for a moment, and said, "I think the truth may be the exact opposite of what you think. . The audience's demand for live-action movies is definitely greater than that of animated movies. The continuous impact of bad movies will make the market more hungry for the performance of high-scoring commercial movies.

"

Amy Pascal smiled and said: "I hope the situation will be as you said, but the total investment in the production and publicity of "Casino Royale" is 160 million US dollars, which is equivalent to two times the total investment of "GoldenEye". Times, the pressure on the company is still very high. If the box office performance of "Casino Royale" is not good enough, even if it is only average, some follow-up production plans may not be implemented so smoothly."

"Oh, is that the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy you mentioned last time?"

Amy Pascal nodded, but didn't say anything more. Although it was her husband, she was too inconvenient to disclose the details to the other party.

Bernard Weinraub didn't ask any further questions, and pulled the subject away at will.

Unconsciously, after waiting for more than half an hour, Amy Pascal's mobile phone on the desk finally vibrated. She picked up the phone to connect, chatted with the other side, and gradually raised her eyebrows, still somewhat uncertain. Repeatedly asked for some details.

Bernard Weinraub has heard a set of numbers from his wife's conversation, and raised his eyebrows in equally surprised, although he thinks that "Casino Royale" will perform better than expected at the box office after a series of bad movies in the summer Better, but still didn't expect the first-day box office numbers to be that high.

When Amy Pascal hung up, Bernard Weinraub asked eagerly, "$30.5 million?"

Amy Pascal put the phone back on the desk, let out a breath of relief, with obvious excitement on her face, nodded and said, "Yes, counting the 5.3 million at the midnight show, the box office on the first day is 30.5 million US dollars, my God. , $30.5 million, it's unbelievable. I've been thinking that if it can have $20 million on the first day, everyone should be very satisfied. You know, the last "GoldenEye" box office was only over 9 million on the first day, God, 30.5 million, incredible."

Bernard Weinlaub heard his wife's constant sighs, and did not feel that she had any gaffe. As a film business reporter who is very familiar with Hollywood, Bernard Weinlaub's shock was no less than his wife's. .

You must know that "Godzilla", which performed the best on the first day of the summer season, was only $23.75 million on the first day with the super-high midnight box office data driven by the indiscriminate publicity campaign in the early stage. Even "Finding Nemo", which can be called the biggest dark horse in the summer, still only made $20.2 million at the box office on its first day.

With excellent word of mouth, "Casino Royale" will certainly not come out of the bleak box office curve like "Godzilla" or "Batman and Robin".

Then, the box office on the first day is 30.5 million US dollars, and the box office on Saturday and Sunday will definitely not be much worse than the box office on the first day. Even if the average value of 30 million US dollars per day is used, the box office of "Casino Royale" will reach 90 million US dollars in the first weekend. There is no suspense to break through 100 million in the first week. Even, "Casino Royale" is sure to set a series of box office records again.

Because this box office data was too unexpected, when Amy Pascal got the news, many executives of film companies and newspapers and media reporters in and outside Hollywood were also awakened by phone ringing in the middle of the night. Some people were confused and some people were excited. Sleepless, some even suspected it was a prank, and countless newspapers in North America rewrote their press releases overnight.

Under the circumstance that the box office of the summer reality blockbuster was bleak, the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on the first day was undoubtedly a bit dazzling in the eyes of many people. Therefore, on the second day, there were even many questions in the North American media on the first day of "Casino Royale". Box office flooding news.

However, the reality quickly shut up these media.

After 30.5 million on the first day, on Saturday, the single-day box office of "Casino Royale" did not drop, but hit a new high, reaching 33.85 million US dollars. On the following Sunday, although the box office fell slightly, the single-day box office was still as high as 26.7 million US dollars.

During the three-day period from June 27 to June 29, "Casino Royale" reached an unprecedented $91.05 million at the box office in its first weekend. Even "Finding Nemo" was hit by "Casino Royale", and the box office decline expanded to 40% on the third weekend of its release, only 28.38 million. The box office data of "Batman and Robin" in the second week of its release was even more miserable. Compared with the first weekend, the box office dropped by 63%. The next weekend only made $15.73 million in three days. Casino Royale had a worse opening weekend.

When the first weekend box office data of "Casino Royale" was released, the media who were originally prejudiced about the film's box office data had to put aside their doubts in the face of reality and began to analyze the reasons for the high box office of "Casino Royale" in the first weekend.

"Perhaps, from the start, we far underestimated the commercial potential of the MGM movie universe."

"In retrospect, when the new James Bond jumped off a cliff in the first Charlie's Angels egg, Eric Williams had already started laying out the layout for this massive movie project. Subsequent For several "Mission: Impossible", "Charlie's Angels" and "007" sequels, MGM has been using Easter eggs to interact with the three special agent movies. The popularity of the association began to gradually merge. Eventually, when MGM officially announced the agent movie universe plan, the fans of the three agent series had formed a very large potential moviegoing group."

"Here, we have to mention another seemingly trivial incident that happened during MGM's announcement of the Agent Cinematic Universe program in July 1995. According to media sources during that period, MGM paid $2 million to the public. The price of buying out all the rights to Spectre from Kevin McGrory. The twists and turns behind this go back decades, let's not talk about it. However, I'm sure Kevin McGrory will definitely regret this deal in the future."

"Back to the topic, at the same time as the purchase of the 'Spectre' copyright, the three film companies of MGM, Flower Pictures, and DreamWorks Productions merged into one under the control of Eric Williams, and the three special agent series With 'Spectre' as the ultimate villain, starting from "Mission Impossible 2", the cross-integration plan of the agent movie universe was officially opened. Until the release of "007 Casino Royale", the MGM agent movie universe has actually used "Charlie's Angels" 1", "Mission: Impossible 1", "Golden Eye of 007", "Charlie's Angels 2" and "Mission: Impossible 2", which have laid a solid foundation of popularity. "007: Casino Royale" has exploded box office data , it is these three secret agent movie series that originally had a strong box office appeal, and after years of mutual fusion of popularity, the more powerful box office becomes the embodiment of the real power."

This article in The Hollywood Reporter deeply analyzes the deep-seated reasons for the high box office of "Casino Royale". This article makes Hollywood's minds that have not cooled down after being stimulated by the box office of "Titanic" warm up again, and they start one after another. Search your movie rights library to see if there are blockbuster series that can build a movie universe.

Although Firefly's plan to create the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not been officially announced, this news is no longer a secret in the circle. Inspired, a producer under Warner Bros. quickly submitted a proposal to the group's executives to establish DC The report of the movie universe, unfortunately, "Batman and Robin" has just experienced a fiasco, and Warner Bros. will not be able to start the DC comic film in the next few years. The report written by the producer stayed up late was thrown directly into Time Warner executives. the trash can.

While "The Hollywood Reporter" analyzed the reasons for the box office of "Casino Royale", when the first week of "Casino Royale" ended, another important Hollywood magazine "Variety" also published its views on the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on its official website. .

"'Audiences expect good movies, and if studios only have the ambition to catch up with 'Titanic' at the box office, but don't show the sincerity of 'Titanic', they are doomed to fail.' Eric Williams Those words in answering questions from reporters at the London premiere of Casino Royale are undoubtedly the truest comment on the box-office performance of this summer's live-action blockbuster."

“It is true that when any film company invests tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in a film, it is impossible not to want to make the film well. But as we all know, since the birth of the film, the size of the production budget has never been related to the size of the production budget. The quality of a movie is not directly related. The abilities of screenwriters, actors, directors, producers, and other filmmakers have a strong impact on a movie. Before "Casino Royale", the other two ambitious films "Casino Royale" Godzilla and Batman and Robin have more production budgets than Casino Royale. But among these films, only Casino Royale perfectly achieves all the elements that a commercial blockbuster should have. Plot, hot scenes, elaborate lines, three-dimensional characters, etc. Through "Casino Royale", Eric Williams, who returned to the helm after four years of silence, once again perfectly demonstrated his role in directing and filming Amazing talent in production. In four years, when we thought that this man who once relied on "Home Alone", "Ghost Story", "Tornado", "Jurassic Park" and other films stepped to the top of Hollywood step by step After accumulating huge wealth, young people will retire and enjoy life, relying on a phoenix-like redefinition of a 30-year old secret agent series, Eric Williams once again shows us What is the return of the king?"

"Although the two animated films "The Lion King 2" and "Finding Nemo" performed very well at the box office in June, this does not change the market position of live-action movies as the mainstream demand of the film public. However, in this should be the most popular live-action movies The summer season of the best season, a series of mediocre or crude or obscure live-action movies, has repeatedly hit the confidence of fans to enter the cinema. According to statistics, from the beginning of the summer season on May 30 to the release of "Casino Royale", compared with Last year, four-week North American attendance dropped 18 percent, and that's not to mention the two big animated films, The Lion King 2 and Finding Nemo."

"However, despite the continuous disappointment of summer live-action movies, as a must-have entertainment in people's lives, moviegoers' demand for movie viewing has not disappeared. The well-known "Casino Royale" was born, just to fill the summer season. A large number of market vacancies accumulated in the early stage. Therefore, in the eyes of everyone who was surprised and even questioned, "Casino Royale" broke through with the horror box office of 30.5 million US dollars on the first day, 91.05 million US dollars in the first weekend, and 117.51 ​​million US dollars in the first week. All the box office records in Hollywood." (To be continued.) //The 3D floating dazzling mobile game "The Great Master of the People" adapted by Tiancan Tudou is open beta, book lovers who want to play, please pay attention to the WeChat public account to download and install (hand Search for sykfdq in the game, press and hold for 3 seconds to copy)