American fame and fortune.

Chapter 660 Who will take the blame?

On the second weekend of the summer season, "John Wick 2" was released on a large scale in 3875 theaters in North America. Its popularity finally gave the movie market what it should look like during the summer season.

Warner Bros. dropped the bomb on its first weekend, and the film really set the market on fire.

On its first day of release on Friday, the North American box office grossed US$2924 million, edging out "Pharaohs and Gods" which was just released last week, to top the North American box office rankings.

The latter was affected by the impact of new films and extremely poor word-of-mouth, and it only took in US$263 million on this day.

According to this trend, it will be difficult for "Pharaohs and Gods" to reach US$5000 million at the North American box office.

In sharp contrast, "John Wick 7500", which cost only US$2 million to produce, not only exploded at the box office on the first day of its opening, but also exploded in audience reputation.

From IMDB to movie forums, from Twitter to Facebook, you can see the positive comments left by movie fans everywhere.

"Martin's heart-warming action movie made me so excited throughout the entire movie!"

"Energetic and interesting, this is definitely an epoch-making work of minimalist action movies!"

"After watching this, you don't need to watch other action movies this year. Stallone and Jason Statham should really come over and learn from it. Your style is outdated!"

"Martin once again proved that he is the most capable star in Hollywood, bar none."

With the support of overwhelming audience praise, "John Wick 2" took another step forward at the Saturday box office, with US$3120 million, continuing to top the box office list.

The revenue of "Pharaohs and Gods" fell below $200 million that day.

Three days after the weekend, "John Wick 2" took the top spot at the weekend box office with a box office of US$7855 million!

The epic film, released the week before, plummeted the next weekend, earning only $618 million.

Although Warner Bros. has messed up big investment projects such as "Catwoman" before, the tragedy of "Pharaohs and Gods" created Warner's worst record since entering the new century.

Overseas, "John Wick 2" was released simultaneously in more than 8132 countries outside North America, easily earning US$ million.

The overseas first week of "Pharaohs and Gods" was slightly better than in North America, but it only brought in US$1221 million.

…………

Warner Building, in a spacious office with luxurious decoration.

As the distribution producer of "John Wick", Daniel has been paying close attention to the situation of the sequel. As soon as the weekend box office was released, he got first-hand data.

There are really no surprises. The second part has received a lot of praise and sold well at the box office!

The most important thing is that it also leaves enough suspense for the third part.

Daniel can imagine that the box office of the next film will increase even more.

As for "Pharaohs and Gods", it's okay not to mention it.

He sighed inwardly. Warner Bros. should not give up on cooperation with Martin. If Moses were replaced by Martin as the starring role, it might be a different situation.

Kevin Tsujihara and the new management he brought felt very unreliable.

Daniel looked at the time, took his briefcase and left the office, went to the top floor of the building, and entered the small conference room.

Hamada and Jon Berg also arrived one after another.

Not long after, Kevin Tsujihara entered the conference room, and a four-person meeting about the film business began.

The failure of "Pharaohs and Gods" is a topic that cannot be avoided.

Of course, Jon Berg will not let the responsibility fall on himself, saying: "The lessons learned from this failure are very profound. For the right project, you must choose the right director and actors. Ridley Scott's The style is too stable, and the Christian Bale recommended by CAA has no appeal at all as a leading actor in a first-line major production."

Daniel had already reached a tacit understanding with him and echoed: "I suggest that the company should not use Bell as the leading actor in future medium and large-scale productions. It is best to systematically evaluate the actors recommended by CAA."

Poor Bell, two Warner executives took the blame.

Kevin Tsujihara can currently cope with the pressure from the board of directors and does not want to hold his close subordinates too accountable. He feels that Bell is the best candidate to take the blame. He said: "I will let people inform each subsidiary and be cautious when cooperating with Bell in the future."

Daniel promptly suggested: "Chairman, for some big-budget films, we can definitely invite Martin Davis! Although we will no longer cooperate in terms of distribution, as an actor..."

Kevin Tsujihara was not a broad-minded person, so he raised his hand to interrupt Daniel: "Martin Davis is not the only actor with box office appeal in Hollywood."

He didn't want to discuss this person anymore and moved to the next topic: "Hamada, has the "Green Lantern" film been completed?"

Hamada said: "The soundtrack and front and rear subtitles have all been added, and peripheral goods are being distributed one after another. It is expected that more than 3000 million US dollars of peripheral goods will be sold in the United States by the end of the month."

"Too little." The production cost of the project alone was 2 million US dollars, and the publicity and marketing expenses were over 4000 million. Kevin Tsuji wanted to see a return as soon as possible, and there have been successful cases in this regard before. He said: "I remember that in the first ten days of "The Dark Knight", more than 5000 million US dollars of various peripherals were sold in North America. Your plan was too conservative. You had to sell 3000 million US dollars of goods in the last two weeks. In addition, you had to sell million US dollars of goods. The manufacturer has prepared another $ million worth of goods and can send them to major cities across the United States at any time."

Hamada also looked at various data on "The Dark Knight" and said, "I will revise the plan when I get back."

Both Warner and DC are confident in "Green Lantern" and feel that the film can be a hit like "Iron Man" and lead to the entire DC Justice League universe.

Not only these, but all Warner Bros. resources will be tilted towards "Green Lantern".

Kevin Tsujihara has great ambitions. As long as this initial film is successful, he can catch up with Marvel's Avengers movie universe in three years.

…………

Century City, CAA.

Bell carried his bag alone and walked into the agent's office.

The box office failure of "Pharaohs and Gods" was so bad that Warner Bros. stopped all subsequent promotions. After all, no new losses would be incurred if no more funds were invested.

Thinking of this film, Bell felt uncomfortable all over.

If you really want to count, he has screwed up two major first-line productions in a row.

Fortunately, Batman has returned to health.

The assistant told Bell that the agent had gone to a meeting and asked him to wait for a while.

Bell was sitting on the sofa and found a newspaper on the low table on the left. He didn't know who had read it or not taken it away.

A well-known newspaper in the industry: "Hollywood Reporter".

Bell was bored, picked up the newspaper, flipped through it, and found something related to him.

News headline: "Putting Christian Bale's appeal in perspective."

Although he knew that he might feel uncomfortable after reading it, Bell couldn't help but read the specific content.

“In recent years, the most popular male stars in Hollywood include, in addition to traditional actors such as Tom and Will Smith and Johnny Depp, emerging actors such as Christian Bale and Martin Davis.

The former has won the support of many movie fans with the huge success of his two Batman movies, especially "The Dark Knight", and has a vague tendency to become a superstar. However, if he wants to cross the threshold of a superstar, he does not rely on false fame, but real fame. Market achievements.

The two Batman movies seemed to have laid a solid foundation for Bale's stardom, but in fact this foundation was as empty as the clouds in the sky, which looked beautiful but could be broken instantly.

After Bale jumped out of the Batman series, he starred in two first-line productions, namely "Terminator 2018" and "Pharaohs and Gods". The production budget of the former was as high as 2 million US dollars, and the North American box office was only a little over 1 million. The production budget of the latter The North American box office of US$1.6 million cannot exceed US$5000 million. These are two veritable box office disasters!

These two films proved one thing. After leaving Batman, Bale's appeal was mediocre. He did not have the ability to take on the role of a leading actor in a first-line big production. He had not yet reached the threshold of superstardom, and he had already died.

When The Dark Knight was released, fans of Bale and Martin Davis once launched a debate on the Internet to discuss which of the two protagonists contributed more to the film's box office. The former thought it was Bale, since he played a male character after all. The protagonist, while Martin Davis is just a supporting actor.

This debate has continued to this day, and now there is a clear answer. Martin Davis's appeal is more than one step better. Not to mention "Inception", a first-line production with an investment of hundreds of millions, even "Gone Girl" and "Emergency" The various responses of medium-scale investment projects such as "Fast Chase" also overwhelmed Bell's two major productions!

I sincerely suggest that Bell should not touch first-line major productions in the future, that is not your field..."

Really not wanting to read the following content, Bell closed the newspaper and threw it aside.

When he accepted the role of Moses, he knew that "Pharaohs and the Gods" was originally a promising project of Martin Davis. He also wanted to prove that his blockbuster appeal was no worse than that bastard's.

The thought was beautiful, but the result was extremely tragic.

Bale is very aware that the failure of "Pharaohs and Gods" basically cut off his path to Hollywood stardom.

In the future, it will be difficult for companies and production crews to find him to play the leading role in first-line major productions.

The most important point, and the hardest point for Bell to accept, is that he is not as good as Martin Davis!

Thinking of this, Bell's psychological defense showed signs of loosening again, so he quickly adjusted his thoughts and stopped thinking about this.

That bastard Martin has become Bell's nightmare.

The door opened from the outside, and the manager came in. Seeing that Bell's expression was not right, he quickly asked: "Do you want me to send you to see a psychiatrist?"

Bell waved his hand: "No, no, as long as I don't see that bastard Martin Davis, I will recover soon."

The agent understood Bell's psychological crux and said: "Let the past be in the past."

Bell glanced at the newspaper next to him and asked, "Is it possible for me to become a superstar?"

"Yes, but we have to plan slowly." The agent first reassured and then told the truth: "There may be some troubles in the short term. Those first-line projects with the highest pay..."

Bell said: "After filming The Dark Knight Rises, I want to leave Los Angeles, leave North America, and be quiet for a while."

The agent picked up a piece of information from the desk: "Just in time, I have a film project from the East. How about you go over and take a look?"

(End of this chapter)