Made in Hollywood

"Duke, it's impossible for us to keep putting a lot of resources into one film."

In the Independence Day studio, Twentieth Century Fox CEO Townsend Rothman, who came over in person, explained to Duke, who was sitting next to him sipping coffee, "Independence Day has built up enough momentum, we just need to keep it up. That momentum is enough for now.”

"I understand, Townsend." Duke is not the kind of person who messes around, nor is he stupid enough to think that he is the center of Hollywood. "True Lies" is about to be released, and Fox will definitely shift the focus of publicity.

Townsend Rothman breathed a sigh of relief, obviously not wanting to cause any misunderstanding by Duke, otherwise he wouldn't have to come to Warner Studios from Century City in person.

Yes, he attaches great importance to this young director, unprecedented attention, and even now he does not think it is too much to say that the other party is the first-class director in Hollywood.

Not to mention the splendid box office results of the first two weekends, let’s take a look at the box office results of the two working days the day before yesterday and yesterday. Japan's North American box office has accumulated more than 170 million US dollars, even if God comes, I am afraid that it will not be able to prevent North America from breaking through 200 million US dollars this week!

If such a director is not worthy of attention, what kind of director is worthy of attention? Townsend Rothman always remembered that the other party had also filed an equally popular war-themed script at the Writers Guild!

To say Fox doesn't want to keep investing in Duke Rosenberg's movies is the funniest joke in America.

"Townsend, I have only one request."

Now that there is enough capital, Duke will of course not mention anything. "Before next weekend, the number of theaters of "Independence Day" cannot drop to 2,600."

If there are not enough theaters, no matter how good a movie is, it is impossible to generate a high box office.

"This..." Townsend Rothman seemed a little embarrassed.

After all, "True Lies" is about to be released, and Fox must strive for enough theaters to ensure the income of this big investment and big production.

"I understand that the number of theaters in North America is relatively limited."

Although he understands this, Duke will not give up, and the theater chain can make up for it from other places, "Townsend, have you noticed? Columbia Pictures' "The Shawshank Redemption" released last week at the single-day box office on Monday and Tuesday already It has slipped below $2 million, and there are still 1,600 theaters, why can't we contact the theaters to reduce the size of its release?"

"As long as its box office doesn't improve today and tomorrow..." Townsend Rothman's eyes flashed, "Fox will definitely put pressure on the theaters to reduce the number of theaters for The Shawshank Redemption."

"You can contact Warner." Duke said, "I believe Warner is also happy to see this situation."

There are only so many theaters in North America, and it will not increase too much in a short period of time. 20th Century Fox wants to make "True Lies" a large-scale production, and must have thought about reducing the scale of "Independence Day". Warners don't want to see the situation, if they want to maintain their own interests, the best way is to transfer Fox's knife to other films in the same period.

Except for "Independence Day", "The Shawshank Redemption", which has a relatively large release scale and a relatively poor box office performance, is naturally the best target.

In a highly competitive market, if you want to protect your own interests, sometimes you have to harm the interests of others.

In short, it's a hundred times better to see other people's bad luck than their own bad luck.

When leaving, Townsend Rothman politely invited Duke to attend the premiere of True Lies, but Duke politely declined.

Now the public opinion war with film critics is not over, it is the focus of many media's attention, he will not be stupid enough to go to the premiere to steal others' limelight.

Before the release of "True Lies", the North American film market still maintained the dominance of "Independence Day". On Wednesday and Thursday, it reported $7.43 million and $7.59 million respectively. So far, the North American box office of the film has accumulated. As high as $190.44 million, it has already touched the $200 million threshold, which is bound to be broken this weekend.

On the other hand, Duke’s expectations came true, and after two consecutive days of sluggish box office sales of no more than $2 million in a single day, the theater chain received successive orders from Paramount, Warner Bros., Walt Disney, and 20th Century Fox. The pressure from multiple companies, coupled with the lack of convincing at the box office, despite Sony Columbia's frayed lips and even the CEO's personal appearance, the number of theaters in "The Shawshank Redemption" has shrunk sharply, from 1,600 to more than 900. .

Immediately afterwards, Sony Columbia Pictures reduced the scale of the film's promotion and marketing, and the film was completely useless in theaters. Now Sony is no longer considering whether it can make a profit, but how to do it to reduce the loss.

Duke just paid a little attention and put it aside. If the current trend continues, "The Shawshank Redemption" will inevitably take ten years or more to recover its costs as it once did.

Nothing is convincing at the box office, and just into the weekend, Nancy Josephson came to the news that the copyright commission from London finally nodded and agreed to collaborate with Duke Studios and film rights holder Saul Saz Start a negotiation and take down that masterpiece!

Although it still takes time to negotiate, it has also lifted Duke's spirit. With the popularity of "Independence Day", in fact, he is very clear that after the next film, he must transform. If he continues to bombard indiscriminately, It doesn't take long before the audience gets bored.

At the same time, Duke had a detailed talk with the two screenwriters he hired at the Duke studio, handing over to them the Broadway shows and two previously-documented feature and sci-fi sketches, and began the lengthy process. Modify writing.

The transformation does not mean that it can be turned around. It requires a lot of preparation work. While paying attention to the box office trend of "Independence Day" and consulting some memoirs of the 101st Airborne Division and the Rangers, Duke is also looking at the information about jazz singing and dancing.

The screening of "Independence Day" entered its third weekend. Although the weekend box office result of 24.57 million US dollars was lost to the 28.56 million US dollars of "True Lies", it lost the throne of box office champion, but it rushed into 200 million in one fell swoop. The dollar mark puts Duke in the ranks of the $200 million club.

Looking at the whole of Hollywood, there are only a few members of the $200 million director club.

The media of Time Warner and 20th Century Fox rejoiced at this achievement, wishing to spread the word to every corner of the world, so as to create momentum for the "Independence Day" that was launched in overseas markets, and film critics continued to lash out, believing that "Independence Day" could The big sale is only obtained by Duke with the most shameful means. The film has neither connotation nor artistry, and some are just technical show off and show off.

Even, Roger? Albert asserted in his column - Duke? Rosenberg and "Independence Day" is the biggest hit of next year's Golden Raspberry Awards!

In the Chicago studio, Roger Albert was calling a friend. The man on the other side was John Wilson, the founder of the Golden Raspberry Award.

"John, we have a responsibility and an obligation to remind Hollywood to avoid the over-commercialization of movies! The world needs The Shawshank Redemption, not a shit like Independence Day! Please think about it, my friend, this year There can't be a worse film than Independence Day, and there can't be a worse director than Duke Rosenberg!"

"Roger, I promise, I'll take it seriously, but for a young director..."

Hearing the other party's slightly concerned voice, Roger Albert put on a serious tone, "This is saving Duke Rosenberg's directorial career, we can't just watch a talented young man helplessly. gone astray..."

From the tone alone, it seems that he is really thinking about Duke's directorial career.

Hanging up the phone, Roger Albert sat behind his desk, his gloomy face was extremely ugly, he could pretend not to see the box office of "Independence Day", or he could pretend that he didn't care about the box office of "Independence Day", Look at this film only from an artistic point of view, and seek psychological comfort that it is just a bad film.

However, the young director trampled on the dignity of him and many film critics. Although he spoke less and less after the first weekend, he could see that the other party and the film company behind him were clearly borrowing Their bashing is a movie hype!

Trample their dignity and use their dignity to benefit? How many people can endure this kind of thing?

What's more, Duke Rosenberg's actions also directly affected the interests of the film critic industry, not to mention others, but to say that he himself would have participated in the previews of "Browsing Eyes" and "Grangers in Disguise". , so as to get a lot of income, but after the big sale of "Independence Day" and Duke Rosenberg's smearing of the critics' remarks, the film party canceled the invitation to the film critics...

This is a substantial monetary loss!

How old is it? How many years hasn't there been such a director who openly confronted the film critics?

Brows furrowed, Roger Albert recalled in detail that when they criticized George Lucas, the other party only made a fortune; when they criticized Ridley Scott, the British did not answer a single tough word. ; And James Cameron, who is recognized as the most bad-tempered director in the world, has never really fought against film critics...

Since the 1950s and 1960s, if critics criticized, more than 95% of directors would choose to endure it, or turn a blind eye and ignore it. When the previous two films were released, the professional ratings were not high, and the critics criticized them. There were also a lot of voices, but Duke did not echo, and chose to be silent.

And this time, Duke chose to stand up for the very simple reason. He signed a box office ladder sharing agreement. As long as he can detonate the topic and drive the box office figures, he doesn't care about the feelings of those film critics.

Of course, to be the public enemy of film critics, you must have a strong enough psychological quality, otherwise those sarcastic comments will drive people crazy.

Time is slowly entering the end of July, the North American box office of "Independence Day" has just passed 250 million US dollars, and is trying to climb to 300 million US dollars, and the film's overseas box office has also exceeded 250 million US dollars!

The global box office adds up to $500 million, which is already one of the top box office results in film history. Entering August, even the media that criticized Duke and "Independence Day" before turned the tide and began to put all kinds of praise. Vocabulary is thrown at him, especially the first published "Vanity Fair", the above article makes people laugh and laugh.