Hollywood Drawing

With the arrival of a new working day, Steven Spielberg didn't care about the fact that the media was covering Wayne and "The Dark Knight" on a large scale, and everyone chose to ignore his own "Jurassic Park 2". Although my mentality is unbalanced, I am still steadily carrying out the publicity and distribution plan arranged by Universal Pictures.

Just like this ABC channel talk column, during the subsequent proceedings, even if the host intentionally or unintentionally wanted to provoke a topic between him and Wayne, the good Jewish man did not take up similar topics.

Obviously, in Steven Spielberg's mind, this is not a life-and-death competition. On the contrary, in his mind, as long as "Jurassic Park 2" can maintain its current box office trend, it will be enough to guarantee this success. This film made him and Universal Pictures a huge profit. As for some of the current comments in the media, he basically chose to ignore them.

As if the bombardment and enthusiasm for Wayne and "The Dark Knight" in the media were not enough, at around 4 p.m. on Monday, after confirmation from multiple theater companies, Warner Bros. Today, another piece of blockbuster news was released. As of three o'clock in the afternoon, the North American box office of "The Dark Knight" has officially exceeded US$400 million!

As soon as this news was released, the entire Hollywood fell into silence for a short time, but at the same time, the media's various hypes about Wayne and "Jurassic Park 2" were directly pushed to the top.

Only two hours had passed. In some evening newspapers, titles such as "Hollywood's First $400 Million Mr." and "The First $400 Million Director in Film History" were eagerly placed on Wayne's head. I knew that this day would eventually come, but the moment it actually arrived, it still detonated public opinion throughout North America.

From newspapers and magazines to radio stations, from live TV to online platforms, the figure of "400 million U.S. dollars" suddenly became a hot topic of discussion among the people.

This caused the theater traffic, which originally slowed down significantly after entering the working day, to slowly pick up again in the evening. Herd mentality is the biggest characteristic of human nature. There are people who have never watched movies. They choose to go to theaters because they become curious because of the buzz around Batman.

And this is just the beginning. The marketing department of Warner Bros. noticed this situation immediately. Their latest analysis is that in the next few days, there will be more similar audiences who will walk into the theater to buy tickets out of curiosity and herd mentality. Viewing.

When "The Dark Knight" reached a box office of 400 million US dollars, Wayne basically didn't have any time to react. His personal phone in Nina's hand began to ring continuously, with all kinds of blessings and congratulations. came from the phone.

As the first director in North America with a box office of 400 million US dollars, everyone in the industry knows that even if he is the first to reach this figure, Wayne's name will be firmly written into the history of Hollywood movies. What's more, the movie "The Dark Knight" still has huge market potential. Who can guarantee that the final box office result of this movie will reach 500 million? 600 million?

Faced with the congratulatory calls from friends in the circle, Nina responded politely one by one. However, faced with the sudden large number of media interview requests, she refused them all. Warner Bros. has a complete promotion plan for "The Dark Knight", and they are about to board a plane to Seattle, so there is no way they can stop for an exclusive interview.

The second weekend box office performance of "The Dark Knight" was extremely strong, and "Jurassic Park 2", which was released in its first week, has been firmly dominated by the former for three days, but in terms of volume It is also an out-and-out behemoth. Due to the competition between these two works, all other films in the theater market have simply disappeared. Not even one with a box office of more than one million US dollars has appeared.

It's like the boss and the second child had a fight, and the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth children disappeared inexplicably. Especially after Monday came, along with the huge media reports, the theater market was completely " "Batman: The Dark Knight" dominates the market. Except for "Jurassic Park 2" which still has a certain amount of traffic, other films are basically no longer visible in theaters.

The hot viewing wave of "The Dark Knight" is not just in North America. Just before boarding the plane, Nina also received an email from Warner Bros., which contained rough statistics just released by Warner Bros. The overseas box office results of the first weekend were released, and it was released simultaneously in dozens of countries and regions. This movie also dominated the local theater market as soon as it appeared, and became the first choice of movie fans.

The first to bear the brunt is the United Kingdom, a region with very similar cultural attributes to North America. When "The Dark Knight" was released last Friday, it caused a huge sensation in the British Isles. In addition, Christie arrived in the United Kingdom shortly after. With the promotion of Ann Bell and other major actors, the film grossed US$20.87 million at the box office in the first three days of the weekend, becoming the weekend box office champion in the British Isles cinema market.

What follows is not Europe and other places, but Australia, which is relatively sparsely populated, ranking second in the overseas box office. After three days of the first weekend, it opened a terrifying box office of 14.6 million US dollars.

In addition to the traditional European countries of the British Isles, Germany has US$5.6 million, France has US$5.45 million, Spain has US$4.32 million, Italy has US$3.75 million, Sweden has US$1.8 million, Denmark has US$1.69 million, and the Netherlands has US$1.45 million...

Many small European countries are limited by population and regional restrictions, and the box office numbers alone are inconspicuous. But when the box office numbers of these countries are added together, when viewed as a whole, people will come to the conclusion that this is the birthplace of film art. , to some extent, has gradually become a new dumping ground for Hollywood movies. The movie has achieved good results in Europe and successfully topped the box office in each region. This fact does not surprise Wayne. After all, if you really count, everyone belongs to the same Western world, although there are many different cultural attributes. But at least in most places, audiences in these areas can understand clearly what is expressed in the movie.

What really surprised him were the two small places in Asia, Bangzi and Benzi. Especially in terms of performance in Bangzi, it earned US$5.6 million in the first three days of the weekend. The same movie-watching phenomenon also occurred in Benzi, taking away US$4.7 million from the theater market in three days.

Putting aside the fact that North America has always been the father of the stick, although this outbreak is a bit unexpected, it is actually not difficult to figure out if you think about it carefully. But the book market has always been a market for weird movies. Hollywood movies here are not the most popular first choice. The movies that often create higher box office results are their localized animations.

So when Wayne saw "The Dark Knight" and the film's uncharacteristically high box office success, he was surprised.

Also, as Los Angeles’ good neighbor, Mexico is a traditional home for Hollywood movies. “The Dark Knight” has triggered a movie-watching frenzy across Mexico since its release. It received a crazy 13.2 million in the first weekend. Dollar.

As the main dumping ground for Hollywood movies in Latin America, Brazil's achievements cannot be underestimated. Latin American audiences' pursuit of Hollywood blockbusters made the film's box office receipts exceed 10 million US dollars in its first three days.

In other smaller overseas countries and regions, the same situation is almost happening. "The Dark Knight" seems to have some kind of magic power. As long as it is released locally, the box office market will completely fall under the iron heel of the dark storm in North America. .

"The Dark Knight" has basically become the local weekend box office champion in all regions where it has been released. Batman has the potential to sweep the world, and the countries participating in the screening of this movie have continued to do so since Monday. increasing.

"It has only been three days since the first weekend of release, and the total overseas box office revenue has already reached 197 million US dollars! Holy s**t!" Nina, who has always shown herself to be calm, couldn't help but grow up when she saw the rough total box office statistics. Mouth. "If you add in the US$400 million that North America has already received, the total global box office of "The Dark Knight" has now reached almost US$600 million!"

No one could blame the assistant lady for exclaiming. Several members of the core team behind the scenes also inevitably fell into a frenzy on the plane after hearing the news.

600 million U.S. dollars, and compared to the running time of "The Dark Knight", this result can be regarded as a starting point. Now everyone is full of confidence in the film and extremely confident that this film can surpass "Joker" and "Joker" at the box office. "Jurassic Park".

This is usually a successful Hollywood movie. After a long period of screening in the theater market, it may not be able to achieve box office figures. However, this is just their starting point. I believe that "Batman: The Dark Knight" will be released after a long period of screening. , the final box office hit will definitely be a new world record.

Wayne also had visible happiness on his face. Of course he knew in his heart that no matter how high his box office results were now, he would not be able to stay at the top of the box office in film history for a long time. As long as December arrives, Until most of next year, the global theatrical market will be dominated by another legend.

But so what? People tend to remember only the first person with outstanding achievements. This "Batman: The Dark Knight" can completely make him an indelible movie memory of this era.

Countless people sneer at Hollywood movies, especially those assembly-line popcorn movies, but for a film director, the most intuitive feeling for the audience to measure whether a film is great is the box office performance, and the higher the box office performance, the more it brings. It must be that the director's work is more widely disseminated, and the connection between the two is inevitable.

In terms of his views on movies, Wayne's standards have never changed. Of course, he will not despise those art films that are truly full of artistic attributes, but he does not know how to shoot such movies. His idea has always been that a movie must be aimed at an audience, and the universal standard for measuring the quality of a movie is its commercial performance.

Especially for a movie with a huge investment like "The Dark Knight", compromising with business is an inevitable choice. Compared with self-entertainment and independent literary films specially shot for niche movie lovers, They are two completely different forms of expression, so naturally there is no comparison. As long as other movies are aimed at the mass market, whether they succeed or fail, if you ignore the most recognized criterion of box office, it will be pure hooliganism.

When he learned that the total global box office had reached about 600 million U.S. dollars, Wayne's eyes had already surpassed the U.S. 1.074 billion of "Joker" and the U.S. 1.099 billion of "Jurassic Park." Now in his heart There is only one imaginary enemy for him, and that is the big ship that does not exist yet, although he knows that no matter how hard he fantasizes and works hard, he has no chance to achieve such results.

"The Dark Knight" has had the most perfect start in history. If it still aims at a global box office of just over 1 billion US dollars, he will definitely not be willing to accept it.

"Warner Bros. has begun contacting two toy industry giants, Hasbro and Lego, regarding the toy licensing of "The Dark Knight."

When calm returned to the plane, Nina saw that Wayne had no intention of closing his eyes and resting, so she whispered to him and began to report some of the news she had received. "I got the news from John Gray that Hasbro's offer for a ten-year toy license for "The Dark Knight" alone is as high as $45 million!" "Wait a minute!"

Wayne sat up suddenly, his sudden movement startling the assistant lady. However, Nina has followed him for so many years, and she has obviously adapted to his occasional surprises. She knows that maybe one of her inadvertent words gave this man some hint or association.

"Hasbro? You mean the Hasbro that owns Transformers and G.I. Joe?"

"That's right." The assistant lady nodded.

"After getting off the plane, let Jimmy go and investigate." Wayne gently scratched his chin with one hand, with a thoughtful expression on his face, and ordered: "Look at the "Transformers" film and television copyright of Hasbro's toys , are the film and television rights for "My Little Pony" and the film and television rights for "G.I. Joe" still in the hands of Hasbro?"

In fact, he didn't have much hope for these copyrights. Well-known IPs like this, which have long been famous throughout North America and even the world, would most likely have been acquired by production companies in the industry, but in his case In my memory, "Transformers", the most well-known representative of childhood feelings, was not taken over by Bombshell for production until about 2007. As for the year when the film and television rights were sold to Hasbro, it is not clear.

Therefore, he wanted to give it a try and asked Jimmy to investigate. After all, no one knew better than him. If he did not take the opportunity to acquire enough copyrights before the turn of the century, it would cost ten times and a hundred times in the future. With sky-high prices, it will be difficult to obtain high-quality adaptation copyrights of all kinds. By then, the more famous ones, comics and other things that can be adapted into films will have long been divided up by the six giants.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel lucky that as long as these copyrights that Jimmy had obtained one after another in the past two years were adapted into film and television and achieved the desired results, his Greenberg Studio would inevitably become his own. The most important chess piece in the hand, a chess piece that has grown to the point where it can influence Time Warner's major decisions.

"I have to remind you, boss." After Nina nodded in agreement, she thought about it for a while, then looked at his glasses and said in a serious tone: "You have a wealthy and wealthy Blue Sky Studio under your name. This company The studio can only do some outsourced animation rendering work and commercials now, and is far from being self-sufficient. It can be seen that the day of self-sufficiency is still far away.

Greenberg Studio's plan in the next two years is to start investing in multiple movies in a row, and "Lord of the Rings" is destined to be a big hole. If Jimmy continues to follow your wishes, at a price far exceeding the current market price If you buy various film and television copyrights at high prices, you will soon face the problem of whether to sell your shares to subsidize the studio's development plan. "

Smiling softly and shaking his head, Wayne said helplessly: "Don't worry, I promise I won't make you worry about anything."

After saying that, he closed his eyes and entered a state of rest. He actually had rough calculations in his mind, but if he really had the opportunity to buy some copyrights that were destined to be a big success, let alone sell his Internet stocks. Even if he borrows money from the bank, he will buy it.

Objectively speaking, he is no longer the young man who just stepped out of school. He has basically passed the stage where he has nothing to do for money. Look at the "Batman: The Dark Knight" that is sweeping the world. Although he can get a lot from this movie There is a lot of money, but with the success of this movie, as long as he wants a loan, countless banks will line up to send large sums of money. After all, no one will doubt his repayment ability. ?

When the overseas box office of "The Dark Knight" was announced by Warner Bros. through its media the next day, the media began to speculate extensively on how long it would take for this movie to surpass "Joker" and "Jurassic Park" ", and many media have carried out speculation activities beyond time in newspapers, and continue to use the popularity of the movie to create topics to attract readers' attention.

With the attention of the media and many film professionals in the industry, the North American box office of "The Dark Knight" has surged forward while firmly suppressing "Jurassic Park 2". After entering the second working day after the release, the box office on Monday finally fell below 10 million U.S. dollars. The film received 9.62 million U.S. dollars that day. The North American box office officially exceeded 400 million U.S. dollars, and the total box office reached 408.64 million U.S. dollars.

Everyone knows that this is the normal box office trend, but it is far from the end of the box office for "Batman: The Dark Knight." In the following three days, during countless media carnivals in North America, "Batman: The Dark Knight" Taking another US$8.75 million, US$8.4 million and US$8.15 million, the North American box office accumulated US$433.94 million!

Within two weeks of its official release on the theater market, the film has already become the undisputed champion of the North American box office chart, and with the arrival of weekends, it continues to create its own box office miracles.

Until now, all kinds of unbelievable praises have been placed on Wayne's head by the media without reservation. This is a box office miracle that has never happened in Hollywood. Everyone knows that it will probably become the most difficult to be praised. Broken records.

The following weekend is also the last weekend for "The Dark Knight" to dominate the theater market. Then there will be other big-investment films released, such as "My Best Friend's Wedding", a Sony Columbia film ’s summer romance film masterpiece.

"Wayne Greenberg, that dark lunatic, the North American box office of this movie should be over $500 million!"

In an office at the Sony Columbia headquarters at 10202 West Washington Avenue in Los Angeles, Paul, the director of the circulation department, dropped the newspaper in his hand and sighed in a low voice. "Shit, this will be a record that is almost impossible to break, that lunatic!" Sitting on the other side of the office rest area is a rare yellow man in this circle. He is short and slightly slender. He is bloated and wears a suit, which always gives people a slightly disharmonious impression, and he is the descendant CEO of Sony Columbia.

"Paul, no, no, no." Dahexiong obviously heard the other party's whisper, and immediately stretched out a hand to shake it left and right, looked at the other party with a serious expression, and said: "What we need to pay attention to is not "The Dark Knight", Wayne Greenberg's dark superhero that wreaked havoc on the world, has yet to be successfully imitated by anyone."

Looking at the CEO in confusion, Paul thought he was worried about their release of "My Best Friend's Wedding" next Friday. He shrugged and said, "Don't worry, "The Dark Knight" has been released for nearly three weeks. The crazy screenings in North America have basically released the market potential. No matter how high the box office is in the future, it will definitely have to be accumulated over a long screening time. It will not have too much influence on our movies. Besides, , the two films have completely different audiences.”

After the continuous test screenings held by Sony Columbia, "My Best Friend's Wedding" performed very well both in terms of ratings from film critics and word-of-mouth from the audience, and the production cost of this film was less than US$50 million. The project is the purest romantic film, and there is no life-or-death competition with the superhero Batman.

After several test screenings of this film, Sony Columbia internally gave it an A-level market rating, indicating that this film has every chance of breaking out at the box office. This type of romantic film usually has a longer screening life. The company Internally, we are very optimistic about the profitability of this movie.

"No, Paul." Unexpectedly, Dahexiong shook his head again. This time he simply put down his finger and tapped lightly on the corner of the newspaper Paul had just thrown down. "This is what we need to pay attention to."

"Jurassic Park 2?"

Looking at the box office bulletin of "Jurassic Park 2" in the corner of the newspaper, Paul frowned and picked up the newspaper again. The report above is very clear. After a full week of screening, "Jurassic Park 2" has now achieved a box office of 135 million US dollars, and its almost daily box office is only slightly lower than "Batman: The Dark Knight".

According to data released by several third-party forecasting companies in newspapers, the final North American box office of this sci-fi thriller with dinosaurs as the protagonist is around US$200 million. This weekend, "Jurassic World 2" will also It has landed in dozens of overseas theater markets. Also due to the squeeze of "The Dark Knight", the global box office is predicted to be between 500 and 600 million US dollars.

It is now obvious that this sequel to Steven Spielberg is not on the same level as "The Dark Knight" at the box office. But looking at it the other way around, this sequel The achievements that "Jurassic Park 2" has achieved so far cannot be classified as unsuccessful.