From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Vancouver, the Hollywood of the North, nestled away like a secluded paradise, guaranteeing a peaceful and comfortable working environment.

Perhaps some might disagree, arguing that Vancouver isn't that remote or isolated, still being on the North American continent, only a two-hour flight away. Please don't depict Vancouver like Alaska, as if it were the end of the world.

But the reality is that, away from the heart of Hollywood, the atmosphere and environment of Vancouver are indeed peaceful and tranquil. The hustle and bustle and ostentation of the world of fame and fortune quiet down on the road leading to the icy kingdom in the north.

Not completely isolated, but close enough.

While Anson was wholeheartedly immersed in the filming of "The Butterfly Effect" in Vancouver, Hollywood was undergoing a brand new upheaval, with the film industry once again experiencing turmoil, seemingly unrelated to Anson—

After all, Anson's foundation was still shallow, not yet enough to shake the industry's core. There was no need to associate everything with him; he wasn't that important.

However, as things turned out, everything eventually became intricately linked to Anson, once again confirming that he was indeed Hollywood's rising star.

Everything was related to the summer blockbuster season.

After a series of chaos and turmoil, this year's summer blockbuster season saw the sudden emergence of "Spider-Man," which ignited the market by breaking records and rewriting history. The roaring heatwave swept through the entire summer, and everyone in Hollywood was jubilant and filled with joy.

But this was not enough.

For Hollywood and Wall Street, the success of one film or the glory of one summer blockbuster season was not enough to celebrate. They needed reproducible and streamlined success. They needed the continuous success of five, ten, or a hundred film projects. Even before the summer blockbuster season ended, their sights were already set on the summer blockbuster seasons of next year and the year after.

And.

The fall season. The holiday season. The winter season.

The fall season has always followed the summer blockbuster season, partly because the summer has already exhausted the audience's enthusiasm for movies, partly because students return to school for the new semester, and partly because the film market is brewing and accumulating energy for the upcoming continuous holidays. The market's heat during this period has always been the lowest of the year, but this doesn't mean that film companies forget about the fall season.

At all times, film companies are also considering how to ignite the fall season.

This year, even before "Spider-Man" appeared, major film companies had already laid out their plans for the fall and holiday seasons, hoping to awaken the market.

The matter is that simple.

Therefore, they will not put all their eggs in one basket.

Truly brilliant chess players focus their attention on the summer blockbuster season, but they will not bet everything on it. They will also plan for the subsequent fall and holiday seasons—

Precisely because of this, the usually deserted and empty fall season has also received extra attention this year, warming up for the holiday season early.

The competition is particularly fierce.

Warner Bros.'s "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," MGM's "Die Another Day," Paramount's "Star Trek: Nemesis," Miramax's "Gangs of New York," New Line Cinema's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Universal Pictures' "8 Mile," and other films made a grand appearance—

Intensive bombardment, full-scale attack.

From different perspectives, such as quality, quantity, heat, and momentum, one can deeply feel that the degree of attention to the season is not inferior to the summer blockbuster season at all.

Among them, Warner Bros. took the lead.

This year's summer blockbuster season saw Warner Bros. completely misfire. It can't be said to be terrible. "Scooby-Doo" grossed $150 million, and "Austin Powers in Goldmember" swept $210 million. They still occupied a place in the fierce competition and did not completely fall behind.

But a closer examination reveals that Warner Bros. chose to take a half-step back in the summer blockbuster season.

Warner Bros., which has always favored high-investment, high-return projects, did not have any works with investment exceeding 100 million this year, completely giving the limelight to heavyweights such as "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones." Instead, they focused on planning for the second half of the year. This strategy of staggered travel can be described as bold.

A "Harry Potter" from Warner Bros. itself and a "Lord of the Rings" from New Line Cinema, these two series are Warner Bros.'s current trump cards. Obviously, they hope to open up a situation outside the summer blockbuster season in a different way and seize the chaos in this year's film market to re-establish order.

This is true dominance—

While everyone else is obediently and diligently working in the summer blockbuster season, Warner Bros. is boldly blowing the horn of subverting the market pattern in other seasons, after all, it was still unknown whether the summer blockbuster season could recover at that time.

Once Warner Bros. succeeds, the North American film market pattern that has lasted for thirty years will be completely rewritten.

However.

The summer blockbuster season exploded, and "Spider-Man" succeeded.

Thus.

Warner Bros. and other film projects were pushed into an awkward situation.

This summer, the market burst out with incredible energy, breaking countless records and raising the total box office numbers for the summer blockbuster season to a new height, which also meant that the fall season was still squeezed as always.

The situation suddenly became urgent.

The result was not good.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which was the first to appear, was highly anticipated by countless people. After all, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" wrote countless histories as a super behemoth. However, this work with an investment cost of 100 million US dollars performed below expectations.

Not only did the opening weekend box office fail to seize the momentum to create history, but also the subsequent box office decline was far beyond imagination due to the impact of word-of-mouth, which can even be said to be tragic. The cumulative box office for the first five weeks of release barely exceeded 200 million US dollars.

In theory, a box office performance of 200 million US dollars in North America is already very rare and excellent, but the weekend three-day box office number in the fifth week of release has fallen to 6 million US dollars, which means that 300 million US dollars in North America is completely impossible—

Compared with the cumulative total box office of 288 million US dollars in North America for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" last year, it is indeed disappointing that it has regressed instead of progressing.

Even "Harry Potter" still failed to change the market pattern. Perhaps Warner Bros. was too reckless?

Wait, what does this have to do with Anson?

The reason is simple. The underperformance of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is just the beginning. Other films have also suffered varying degrees of setbacks. Then, Anson is also about to join this melee.