From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Twenty years later, with the increase in movie theaters, rising ticket prices, and the prosperity of the market, it became increasingly common for films to break $100 million in North American box office numbers during their opening weekend. Not to mention breaking $100 million, but even works that grossed $200 million or more on their opening weekend have appeared one after another. But currently, this is not the case.

In 2001, the North American weekend box office still generally hovered around $40 million. To this day, no work has been able to break through the $100 million mark for its weekend box office numbers. In people's eyes, this is an insurmountable barrier.

So, what level is the $67 million opening weekend box office number for "Rush Hour 2"?

Number one in this year's summer season.

You read that right, and you didn't misread it—

The opening weekend box office performance of "Rush Hour 2" narrowly surpassed "The Mummy Returns" and "Planet of the Apes", and easily crushed works such as "Pearl Harbor", "Jurassic Park III", "Shrek", and others, to top the highest opening weekend box office number of this year's summer season.

Amazing!

Even though "Rush Hour 2" was surrounded by attention before its release, the actual opening box office data still caused an uproar. No one expected that this sequel film could explode with such energy, and in August, no less, igniting the film market.

"The peak of the summer season arrives late, is the highest peak of 2001 actually in August?"

"'Rush Hour 2' dominates the box office, taking the lead in breaking summer season records."

"The golden duo laughs at the heroes, reaping $67 million to be crowned North American weekend champion."

"Word-of-mouth collapses, but audiences still buy it, the sequel film continues Rush Hour."

"The forgotten, abandoned, and let-down August proves that summer is not over, 'Rush Hour 2' tops the charts, single-theater box office refreshes this year's record."

Shock, admiration, adulation—

Who would have thought that the opening weekend box office champion of the 2001 summer season would be "Rush Hour 2"?

Of course, the summer season is not over yet, there are still three weeks to go, who knows, maybe there will be more surprises later? But at least for now, "Rush Hour 2" has indeed dropped a bombshell, which has made all the attention focus on the first week of August.

At the same time, the more amazed people are that "Rush Hour 2" overcame all unfavorable factors to write a new high for the 2011 summer season, reigniting the flames of war at the end of summer and detonating market energy once again; the more they cannot ignore the achievements created by "The Princess Diaries", and even praise is not enough to accurately describe it, it is just pure… attention.

Generally speaking, market capacity is relatively fixed. The cake is only so big. If a movie takes the largest piece, the market share of other works will naturally decline, and the box office performance will inevitably be affected. This is why major film companies are accustomed to staggering release times.

However!

But!

"The Princess Diaries" went against the tide, showing energy no less than "Rush Hour 2", reaping $35 million in box office over the weekend, taking away more than half of "Rush Hour 2's" box office numbers in a dignified manner. With its unparalleled performance, the entire North American market was shocked and stunned. You could clearly hear the noisy sounds filling the entire world, even more unexpected than "Rush Hour 2".

"Rush Hour 2" was able to refresh the best performance in the North American weekend box office market this year. The surprise is still traceable, after all, it is a sequel film with a huge audience base, but what about "The Princess Diaries"?

Unfavorable publicity in the early stage, fierce competition in the later stage, coupled with its own theme targeting a specific audience market, so that the focus of publicity had to be placed on Julie Andrews, who is not the protagonist. All signs indicate that the film may face severe challenges, but the opening weekend still achieved amazing results.

What level is $35 million in box office?

First of all, there is no doubt that it is the most outstanding work that has not topped the weekend box office champion this year, and it is not in the same league as other runners-up.

Secondly, this weekend box office number ranks eighth in this year's summer season. If it were released in other seasons, the weekend box office champion would be easily won.

Such performance is absolutely amazing.

For a while, people didn't know whether they should be amazed that "Rush Hour 2" withstood the impact of "The Princess Diaries" and achieved such a performance, or whether they should be amazed that "The Princess Diaries" created such a good result in the battle between "Rush Hour 2" and "Planet of the Apes". All words became pale and weak.

"Garry Marshall casts his magic again, writing a fairy tale for this summer."

"For ten years, from 'Pretty Woman' to 'The Princess Diaries', fairy tales still shine on the big screen."

"Anne Hathaway and Anson Mount shine together, 'The Princess Diaries' gets off to a good start."

"Withstanding the pressure and handing in a perfect answer sheet, 'The Princess Diaries' successfully landed."

"A stroke of genius, how did 'The Princess Diaries' break through the siege?"

Amidst the noise, the attention of major media outlets also focused on "The Princess Diaries", and the discussion was even more popular than "Rush Hour 2":

Everyone is curious, how can such an ordinary, simple, and even clichéd fairy tale story make audiences willing to walk into the cinema?

Bob Iger is also curious about this.

As the Chief Operating Officer of Disney and the current second-in-command of Disney, Bob is very busy, very, very busy. He has no time or energy to care about the box office performance of a movie. They need to start from the overall situation; but this time, the situation is slightly different, special times require special handling.

Michael Eisner needs a fig leaf, and also needs a focus to divert the topic—

If "The Princess Diaries" can play such a role, that would be great.

At the premiere, Bob went there with the attitude of treating a dead horse as a living horse, but he didn't expect that the topicality of the night unexpectedly brought some hope.

From a global perspective, the North American film market this year lacks family-friendly movies, which is a big background. Before "The Princess Diaries", the last work targeting the family market was "Cats \u0026 Dogs" in the first week of July, but the movie's terrible quality made the audience not too interested.

In other words, from June to July to August, the family market has never found a suitable movie to vent its energy.

It is precisely because of this that Bob believes that "The Princess Diaries" may be able to occupy some advantages.

However, the actual opening box office numbers still brought unexpected surprises. "The Princess Diaries" not only withstood the pressure, overcame the squeeze of "Rush Hour 2", reversed the disadvantages of media reviews, and handed in a good answer; and it was also above expectations. The performance of $35 million is impressive.

Now, "The Princess Diaries" can indeed alleviate some of Michael Eisner's pressure, and even… can play a greater role.

So, Bob appeared, personally appearing in the cinema.