From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

In 2001, the North American film market was still growing and expanding, but relatively speaking, it had entered a stable phase. All release strategies had gradually matured, with a complete plan from promotion to release.

Generally speaking, the number of theaters screening commercial films at this stage was generally stable at around three thousand. The more theaters, the better was not necessarily true, because more theaters meant higher costs and more revenue sharing with the theaters. Three thousand was a standard number—

"Pearl Harbor", "The Mummy Returns", "Rush Hour 2", etc., all screened in around three thousand theaters.

This year, the film with the most theaters during the summer season was "Shrek", which was released in three thousand six hundred theaters. This indirectly showed DreamWorks' confidence and also targeted family audiences for a comprehensive rollout.

"The Princess Diaries", on the other hand, lacked some confidence. Although it also targeted the family market, Disney only arranged for it to be released in two thousand six hundred theaters.

Overall, film release strategies were formulated and laid out in advance after professional discussions. Although adjustments would be made based on box office performance after the release, these adjustments were usually small-scale.

For example, "The Princess Diaries."

After a strong opening weekend box office performance, Disney added twenty-six theaters on a small scale in mainstream cities such as Los Angeles and New York.

However.

After the second-week box office numbers for "The Princess Diaries" came out, Disney drastically increased the number of theaters by more than four hundred, further expanding the public screening range. This move was very rare in the North American film market.

This week's North American weekend box office chart was completely shuffled.

Champion, "The Princess Diaries", twenty-four million dollars.

Runner-up, "American Pie 2", twenty-one million dollars.

Third place, "Rush Hour 2", nineteen million dollars.

Fourth place, "Rat Race", eleven million dollars.

—There were really too many points to complain about and highlights, and for a moment, I didn't know how to start.

In 1990, "Ghost" defeated "Pretty Woman" to top the North American annual box office chart. Exactly ten years later, Jerry Zucker, the director of "Ghost", and Garry Marshall, the director of "Pretty Woman", once again faced off in the summer season, but this time the results were reversed.

"Rat Race", from Jerry Zucker, brought together a group of comedy superstars, including "Mr. Bean" Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cuba Gooding Jr., etc., costing seventy million dollars to create, hoping to make the audience laugh heartily at the end of the summer season—

After all, comedy always has a place in the summer season.

Unfortunately, this was a dud, losing very thoroughly. The opening weekend box office number of eleven million dollars made Paramount unable to cry.

No one thought that "Rat Race" would flop so badly, completely failing to bring any impact to the box office market; the North American weekend box office chart was still a contest between several old rivals.

However, each one was worse than the last.

"American Pie 2", the second-week drop was as high as 53.2%, even more tragic than "Rush Hour 2" the previous week.

"Rush Hour 2", the third-week drop still couldn't be stopped, continuing to fall by 42.6%, with severe blood loss, and the goal of two hundred million dollars in total North American box office was also in jeopardy.

In such a situation, it can only be said that they were not strong enough. The opponents didn't even need to exert any effort, and they had already crippled themselves, failing to form effective competition. This also became an opportunity for "The Princess Diaries" to take advantage of the situation and reverse the situation.

"The Princess Diaries", in its third week of release, once again proved the power of fairy tales. Even if the word-of-mouth was lower than expected, the correct positioning and excellent publicity still successfully made audiences buy tickets to enter the theater, showing incredible staying power. At this time, the wisdom of Disney's expansion of theaters can be seen.

A drop of 17.8%.

In its third week of release, the weekend box office drop of "The Princess Diaries" actually further narrowed. The three days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday took in twenty-four million dollars in box office, not only pushing the cumulative box office over the one hundred and thirty million dollar threshold in one fell swoop, but also incredibly topping the North American weekend box office chart!

Surpassing "American Pie 2" and "Rush Hour 2" in one fell swoop, winning the box office champion in the third week of release, causing a wave of exclamations throughout North America.

This, this is really too incredible!

People did not expect that the box office of "The Princess Diaries" could exceed 100 million, nor did they expect that the box office number of "The Princess Diaries" could exceed "Runaway Bride", and even more did not expect that "The Princess Diaries" could write such a magical box office curve under the circumstance of a low-key departure.

Amazing, really too amazing.

For a moment, people didn't know how to react. How did all this happen?

However.

This was still not the end.

Amidst shock and bewilderment, "The Princess Diaries" rightfully became the hottest topic in August, even overshadowing "Rush Hour 2"; coupled with the fact that the summer season was coming to an end, the competitiveness of subsequent works obviously declined, making it difficult to launch an effective impact, so that when people went to the cinema, "The Princess Diaries" became the first work to enter their sight.

Three consecutive championships!

"The Princess Diaries" not only topped the North American box office chart, but also strongly retained the championship for three consecutive weeks, continuing its topic effect with an absolutely strong and absolutely popular posture, completely reversing the disadvantage of not being favored before the release.

Although it may seem unbelievable, "The Princess Diaries" did indeed successfully alleviate Michael Eisner's predicament at Disney. This film was becoming a popular phenomenon, replicating Garry Marshall's miracle of "Pretty Woman" back then.

"From Julia Roberts to Anne Hathaway, Garry Marshall once again completed the feat of turning a sparrow into a phoenix."

"Anne Hathaway: The next Julia Roberts?"

"A young girl grows up, Anne Hathaway shows unparalleled big-screen charm."

Everything was as Garry Marshall expected. Anne's big-screen charm was recognized, and this newcomer actress, who was on the big screen for the first time, soared into the sky; at the same time, also as Garry expected, Anson was becoming the chemical reaction of quantitative change to qualitative change in the film, also setting off a media frenzy.

"Everyone is craving Anson Wood."

"The boy behind the mask, Anson Wood is becoming the new generation of Prince Charming."

"Actor or vase, Anson Wood is knocking on the door of Hollywood."

Just right, Sony Columbia was also preparing to launch the early promotion of "Spider-Man", and they were happy to see this happen. They only needed to add a little fuel to the fire, and overnight, Anson's news could be seen everywhere—

Everywhere!

Amidst all kinds of expectations, after "The Princess Diaries" ended its three-week championship run, its momentum remained unabated. The heatwave of the summer season strongly invaded the autumn season, becoming another landscape in the deserted autumn season.