From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Dazed.

A stretch of silence, a stretch of scorched earth, brain short-circuiting, losing the ability to react.

Harry Percy: I've seen this episode!

Following the summer blockbuster season, the same story, the same plot, unfolds once again.

The work led by Anson Wood makes a dazzling debut with a destructive force, breaking records and shining brightly in the film market once more.

Even with all the attention, even with full expectations, or rather, this is the situation the media hopes to see, this is the future Warner Bros. has meticulously planned; but when things actually happen, you can still feel the impact, comparable to dropping an atomic bomb in your head.

Boom—

Just like that, it explodes.

Just before, "Catch Me If You Can" had just written a new history on Wednesday, Christmas Day, with a clamorous noise and everyone shouting, "Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the combination of two swords, is indeed well-deserved."

Immediately after, Anson's flash mob event made a surprise debut, spreading like wildfire across the entire North American continent, with the vast but desolate central region becoming the focus, exploring step by step and igniting market energy.

Moreover, thanks to excellent word-of-mouth and the added value of two top superstars, "Catch Me If You Can" saw its weekend box office take an amazing curve of "Saturday greater than Friday greater than Sunday", emerging as a dark horse.

Generally speaking, for well-promoted films, the weekend box office is often Friday greater than Saturday greater than Sunday, with the energy concentrated on the opening day.

But occasionally, films that have been well-promoted and have already exploded on Friday can rely on word-of-mouth and the impetus of sudden events to see a continued rise in box office on Saturday, which is rare.

For example, "Catch Me If You Can" before us.

First of all, it ushered in the first wave of explosions on Friday.

Friday's single-day box office more than doubled compared to Thursday, proving with its amazing performance that Thursday's decline was just a prelude to a new wave of explosions.

Secondly, Saturday continued to explode in an incredible way.

Although the single-day box office increase was limited, it completely stunned the entire Hollywood, which should be the first time they saw such energy erupting in the Christmas season—

No, it should be the second time. "Titanic" had already exploded once, but "Titanic" was a small but stable continuous explosion, while "Catch Me If You Can" in front of us ignited the volcano directly in one go.

Amazing!

Finally, Sunday still maintained energy output, without a bloodbath, continuing to ignite the market with word-of-mouth and popularity.

History was born just like that.

"Catch Me If You Can" raked in $82 million in its opening weekend, easily breaking the December opening weekend record just set by "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" a week ago, and increasing it by 32% in one fell swoop; at the same time, it also rightfully occupied the third place in the entire holiday season, second only to the two "Harry Potter" series movies.

In addition, the $105 million box office in the first five days of its premiere also surpassed the December opening week record just broken by "The Lord of the Rings 2" last week; but what is truly commendable is that it completed such a feat during the Christmas week when families reunite, and the difficulty factor far exceeded that of "The Lord of the Rings 2".

And!

It was still under the siege of wolves.

Just look at the North American weekend box office chart for the last weekend of 2002 to know.

Champion, "Catch Me If You Can", $82 million.

Runner-up, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", $48 million.

Third place, "Maid in Manhattan", $15 million.

Fourth place, "Maid in Manhattan", $12 million.

Fifth place, "Gangs of New York", $11 million.

In a situation of heroes vying for supremacy and a full-scale melee, "Catch Me If You Can" actually forced a bloody path, and all the other highly anticipated and highly anticipated works failed to withstand the pressure. Except for "The Lord of the Rings", the weekend box office performance was unsatisfactory.

During the summer season, "Spider-Man" took the lead, making a dazzling debut amidst expectations and worries. Despite facing great pressure, there was also a positive factor: the entire market had been waiting, and the restless energy had been waiting for the right opportunity to release, and then the record was born.

This time, however, "Catch Me If You Can" was the finale. The entire holiday season had already experienced a round of bombardment, and the market energy had been released to the point where little remained. Then, it debuted under the circumstances that a group of strong enemies had taken the lead. From any point of view, the film faced a dilemma.

Of course, from another perspective, "Harry Potter" failed to follow in the footsteps of "Spider-Man" to become the second film in history to break $100 million in its opening weekend box office, and "Catch Me If You Can" also failed to write another miracle.

This also officially declares that Hollywood's attempt to build the holiday season into a second summer season has failed again, and this is still a long and arduous goal.

Despite this, the excellent performance of "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", and "Catch Me If You Can" still gives other film companies besides Warner Bros. more confidence. In addition to the summer season, the holiday season can also bring surprises, and the battlefield of major Hollywood film companies is beginning to spread beyond the summer.

Especially "Catch Me If You Can", the investment and production cost of this film is only $52 million, and it swept $100 million in its opening week. Seeing that it will be able to enter the profit model next week, earlier than "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings", this is enough to make all film companies seriously consider the value of the holiday season.

What's more, "Catch Me If You Can" is only in its opening week, and the subsequent box office is still worth looking forward to.

Firstly, the footsteps of Anson's flash mob event are rapidly approaching the East Coast and are coming to an end. Everyone is curious about which city Anson will choose and in what way he will end this epic promotional event.

After all, the event has now become the focus of attention throughout North America. If Anson casually chooses a cinema and ends it hastily, it will inevitably be anticlimactic; but the flash mob event has formed a fixed routine, and how to innovate and bring surprises within the routine is another problem.

Not only the audience, but even Hollywood is curious about how this flash mob event will end. Whether it is a disaster or a surprise, there will be a good show at that time.

The expectation value is still rising, already exceeding a burdensome level, even frightening, and for a while, I don't know whether the impact of this event is more beneficial than harmful or more harmful than beneficial. Anyway, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures are in a state of chaos and cannot help, and both companies have exposed their shortcomings in distribution and marketing.

So, what's next?

Secondly, when all eyes are focused on Anson's promotional activities across the North American continent, good news has also come from Hollywood's base camp in Los Angeles—

The Golden Globe Awards, announce the nominations.