From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

The year 2002 finally came to a close, ushering in a brand new year.

“People” magazine daringly featured Anson on the cover of its second issue in 2003, using concise and sharp keywords to highlight the main point: “The Next Superstar.”

Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio burst onto the scene and became the last superstar of the century, Hollywood has been waiting for the birth of the next one.

From the three young stars of “Harry Potter,” to Orlando Bloom, who made a fleeting impression in “The Lord of the Rings,” to Hayden Christensen of “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,” the media has repeatedly tried to unearth the superstar potential of these young people.

Until now, an actor with superstar qualities has made a dazzling debut, completely dominating the 2002 film market with overwhelming force.

Then, impatiently, they raise their arms and shout.

Everything is simple and intuitive, just like on Wall Street, numbers don't lie—

The year-end box office charts for 2002 are freshly released.

First, North America.

Champion: “Spider-Man,” $600.68 million.

Runner-up: “Catch Me If You Can,” $377 million.

Third place: “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” $339 million.

Clear at a glance, no need to elaborate.

In such a year, a year of fierce competition and frequent blockbusters, a year in which major film companies put on their makeup and displayed their unique abilities, a year of blossoming flowers and contending voices, a year in which sequel films piled up and possessed powerful combat capabilities, such a result actually occurred.

Without a doubt, this was something no one had anticipated before entering 2002.

No one anticipated that “Spider-Man” would top the annual box office charts in a history-making manner, almost single-handedly completely subverting the summer season.

Even more unexpectedly, “Catch Me If You Can” was able to rise unexpectedly and bring another surprise, giving Hollywood a thorough education inside and out—

By the way, Sony Columbia made a fortune through “Spider-Man”; but DreamWorks' profits from “Catch Me If You Can” were more than double that of “Spider-Man.”

Then, history was born like this:

In 1982, Steven Spielberg's “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Indiana Jones” occupied the top two spots on the North American year-end box office charts, becoming the first artist to achieve such a feat since official box office statistics began, as a director.

In 2002, exactly twenty years later, someone replicated this feat. Countless people once firmly believed that this was an unrepeatable record, but they never thought it would actually happen. This time, it was an actor. Anson Wood.

Seventh: “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” $223 million.

Eighth: “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” $210 million.

Ninth: “Men in Black II,” $190 million.

Tenth: “Ice Age,” $176 million.

There are only three non-sequel works, and all of them are heavy-hitting sequels. After the previous works gained word-of-mouth and popularity, the sequels were brought in with great fanfare. The fierce degree of head-to-head competition is enough to make people gasp.

Of course, there are also surprises hidden here.

The unknown Blue Sky Studios launched its first animated feature film “Ice Age,” and made a stunning debut, writing good results, with both word-of-mouth and box office success, becoming a dark horse worth noting this year.

But the real dark horse of the year should be the romantic comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which had a production cost of only five million US dollars. Relying on word-of-mouth publicity, the cumulative box office number unbelievably broke the two hundred million threshold, undoubtedly becoming the biggest surprise of the year—

This is the highest-grossing film that has never topped the North American weekend box office charts.

If it weren't for “Catch Me If You Can” writing another miracle on Christmas, all the glory would have belonged to this “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” when summarizing the year.

Looking at it from another perspective, “Catch Me If You Can” defeated the annual box office dark horse “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” defeated the most anticipated film of the year “Star Wars: Episode II,” and defeated the most talked-about film of the year “Harry Potter,” rightfully occupying the runner-up spot in the annual box office charts with a gesture that wrote the history of the winter season.

Anson deserves the credit.

In fact, this is not the first time—

People still haven't forgotten last year, Anson's first appearance on the big screen, “The Princess Diaries.” This fairy tale film still wrote good box office results, and made Anson the Prince Charming in the hearts of countless girls.

In other words, Anson has maintained a brilliant undefeated box office record so far; and, not only is it undefeated, to be precise, it should be said that it is a complete victory, a great victory, sweeping the army, enough to make everyone envious.

No wonder “People” magazine couldn't wait to put Anson on the cover, no wonder the entire bustling Hollywood's eyes were all focused on him.

Undoubtedly, Anson has successfully occupied a place at the top of the pyramid, making a dazzling debut like a comet, focusing all attention.

As of now, I'm afraid Leonardo's momentum can't compare to Anson's.

In addition, this is still not all.

Secondly, the global market.

In North America, Anson took one step at a time, rising rapidly to the first tier with a triple jump; but overseas, the pace may be slightly slower, after all, he was not able to become famous overnight like Leonardo.

However, this is also relative, because Anson's soaring speed in the global scope is already terrifying enough, and one really can't ask for more.

Maybe the only thing that can be compared horizontally to topping the North American year-end championship with the second film of his career and the first film as the protagonist is...the Harry Potter trio.

Last year, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” topped the global box office charts.

This year, “Spider-Man” became the global box office champion.

This result is not surprising. After all, the fifth feat in history to break the $1 billion global box office mark had already reserved the annual championship early on.

With 1.27 billion US dollars, temporarily ranked second in film history, a mere global year-end box office champion is naturally within reach.

In this way, Anson strongly swept the North American and global year-end box office championships, undoubtedly; this is the most well-known face on the big screen this year, not only in North America, but also in overseas markets, all initially recognized this face, and finally became the reason for them to go to the cinema to watch "Catch Me If You Can", helping the latter to break into the top ten of the global year-end box office charts in one fell swoop.