From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

In March 2004, later hailed as the "inaugural year of the new summer blockbuster season," the spring season of March and April also gained momentum due to the ripple effect.

Every year when spring arrives and flowers bloom, the cinemas also present a brand-new look.

Of course, accompanying this was the gradual decline of market potential in August, the tail end of the summer blockbuster season, once again validating the law of conservation of energy.

But that's another story. In March of this year, the North American film market, still in the exploratory phase, indeed brought some topics and surprises.

On one side, "Dawn of the Dead" issued a call to zombie film subculture enthusiasts, with the remake attempting to reawaken the fervor for zombie movies after many years.

Unexpectedly, zombie movie enthusiasts who had been lurking for a long time surfaced one after another, and the gradually gathering momentum brought a small surprise. Despite being a niche culture, it made Hollywood deeply aware that there was a reason why genre films could thrive in the DVD rental market for so long.

Subculture is subculture, but zombie movies are still categorized as horror movies —

In Hollywood, no one can underestimate the deep and vast audience base of horror movies; a blockbuster horror movie appears every now and then.

Perhaps, this time it's "Dawn of the Dead"?

On the other side, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" stirred up huge waves in art-house and independent theaters.

Perhaps Charlie Kaufman's appeal as a screenwriter wasn't enough, but the collaboration between Anson and Kate Winslet successfully brought the film into the public eye.

Especially Anson.

Anson, who quietly changed the public's stereotype with "The Butterfly Effect" and "Elephant", Anson, who expanded his influence through the Grammy Awards, Anson, who was absent from the Oscars to devote himself to filming and shape a professional image, and Anson, who once again ignited heated discussions with the special deluxe edition of "Midsummer Midnight".

One step, then another.

Over the past three months, the topics and discussions surrounding Anson have never cooled down, continuously and powerfully occupying the public's focus. Countless streams of attention, like trickles of water merging into the sea, all fell on "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", completely igniting the spotlight.

And this time, Anson, standing in the spotlight, succeeded once again.

The film's excellent word-of-mouth spread from audiences to the media, from passionate movie fans to professionals, winning countless attention through word-of-mouth:

Everything, as Roger Ebert saw, three works, three levels of improvement, from quantitative change to qualitative change, the emergence of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" was indeed just right.

Indeed, Charlie Kaufman's works have always had low box office performance; indeed, the market promotion of independent art works still faces many challenges, but don't forget that works like "When Harry Met Sally" always have a small group of loyal supporters —

To some extent, they have something in common with zombie movie subculture supporters.

Two works, two genres, two market positions, yet they wonderfully complemented each other, subtly pulling the film market's attention away from the Oscar-winning works and back to the newly released works in the slightly chilly season of early March, causing a small wave of movie-going enthusiasm.

This is a good thing, a one hundred percent good thing, a surprisingly good thing.

In fact, before the release of "Dawn of the Dead" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", a major event that shocked the entire year had already occurred in the North American film market this year:

The last week of February, the weekend of the Oscar Awards ceremony, was also the weekend of the release of the special deluxe edition of "Midsummer Midnight", a film that held its official premiere, a film that had endured countless controversies and impacts from production to distribution to the publicity period.

"The Passion of the Christ".

This film, directed by Mel Gibson, had been standing in the eye of the storm of controversy since the production stage, and as the film's trailers were gradually revealed, the controversy surrounding the film continued to heat up.

The reason?

Just look at the movie title to know.

Mel Gibson's bloody depiction of Jesus' betrayal and suffering sparked an unprecedented cultural war in Hollywood.

Although Mel held internal screenings before the film's release, inviting authoritative religious figures to watch it to ensure that the film did not violate religious doctrines and was faithful to the Bible before daring to release it; however, the film still dropped a bombshell among religious figures, triggering huge waves of opposition and resistance.

The most serious thing was that in the IMDB system, as early as three months before the film's release, countless loyal believers stated that this work was full of loopholes, not only demanding that the film company prohibit the screening, but also demanding that the general audience boycott the film.

Amazing! Horrifying!

"The Passion of the Christ" swept away all R-rated movie box office records in a devastating manner, and the final box office for the first five days of the premiere landed at 125 million US dollars.

Extremely popular.

Such a level of explosive performance is completely comparable to the sweeping data of "Spider-Man" igniting the summer blockbuster season two years ago. "The Passion of the Christ" was not even released in the summer blockbuster season, but in the period between the winter and spring seasons, it still burst out with such energy, completely subverting people's cognition.

Of course, the entire Hollywood clearly knew that this film could not be judged according to common sense, and there were too many complex reasons behind the box office surge.

Despite this, "The Passion of the Christ" still took in a box office of 370 million US dollars in North America in an incredible manner, and even more harvested 611.1 million US dollars worldwide, undoubtedly becoming the box office champion of R-rated movies in film history.

Not to mention R-rated movies, even among all movies, it can fiercely occupy a place.

When "Dawn of the Dead" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" were released, "The Passion of the Christ" had just won the three-week championship of the North American weekend box office charts, and the widespread controversy had not dissipated —

On the contrary, it should be getting more and more intense.

The two films debuted against such a background. To some extent, "The Passion of the Christ" had already focused and enlivened the spring season market and completed the warm-up. The crowds of people entering the cinema were a scene that had not been seen in any March in previous years, which was also a positive signal.

Then, good news came.

On Friday, "Dawn of the Dead" had a single-day box office of 10.8 million US dollars!

It exploded a little!

For "Dawn of the Dead", which only had a production cost of 26 million US dollars, such a box office performance was a surprise, especially after the heavy blow from the media's comprehensive review, the market reaction brought a positive signal, and the audience proved their support for zombie movies with practical actions.

The entire crew of "Dawn of the Dead" cheered up and down.

Zack Snyder clenched his fists and shouted: Oh yeah! I knew it, I knew it! What beautiful minds and eternal sunshine, all get out of the way, smear your face!