Best Movie Star

There was silence in the spacious office. Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman sat opposite each other. On the desk between the two, there was a report that had just been printed out. Their eyes occasionally shifted from the report. He swept over the numbers, and the already twisted brows tightened even more.

The two were silent, and the air seemed to freeze.

All hope, all good predictions, all came to nothing this morning.

Brad Pitt didn't know what to say. His eyes fell on the first-day box office statistics of "Cloud Atlas" again. Even with the advance box office, "Cloud Atlas" only got 367 on the first day of its release. Ten thousand U.S. dollars!

$3.67 million! This is not even a fraction of the box office of "Fast and Furious 4" on the first day!

The good reputation in the preview and the high media evaluation after the premiere gave Brad Pitt too much confidence. As a result, the box office data on the first day was more than dismal, it was a disaster.

The film received several additional investments, and the final production cost reached as much as $120 million.

Now, how much of that $120 million can be recovered?

Brad Pitt dared not think about it. Even though nearly half of the production cost of "Cloud Atlas" was finally completed with external financing, more than half of it came from the Plan B studio and his personal investment.

These are all his money, how much can he get back in the end?

Suddenly, Brad Pitt felt dizzy.

Word of mouth cannot be converted into box office, what is the use of good word of mouth? Cloud Atlas is a $120 million commercial production, not an experimental film.

Natalie Portman lowered her eyes, not looking at Brad Pitt across from him and the stats on her desk, feeling extremely depressed.

Why is it so hard to prove appeal?

Since the "Star Wars" series, she has a huge reputation, but there is no film that can make people's eyes shine at the box office. Just looking at her popularity, everyone thinks that her single film salary should be seven or eight. One million dollars or more, who would have thought that two or three million dollars was already her ceiling?

Who doesn't want to earn a little more money?

Natalie Portman bit her lip lightly. If "Cloud Atlas" fails at the box office, if she takes another film, the remuneration will definitely be further compressed by the producer.

It's unknown if any studios even invited her to star in mainstream commercials.

The knock on the door suddenly broke the silence in the office, and Brad Pitt said hoarsely, "Come in."

A secretary pushed in the door, put another report on the desk, and said, "Boss, this is the Cinema statistic you want."

"Yeah." Brad Pitt nodded slightly.

The secretary turned and left, closing the office door when he went out.

Natalie Portman's originally dull eyes regained some brilliance at this time, she stood up and hurriedly looked at the data on the report, just glanced at it, and sat back in the chair slumped.

"It's over..." She had only one word left in her head.

Brad Pitt picked up the report, looked at it, and his hand suddenly trembled. This Cinema's on-site survey of "Cloud Atlas" shows that the overall score of the theater audience is "D", and Cinema is based on the score of the theater audience. According to estimates, the first weekend box office of "Cloud Atlas" in North America will be around 9 million US dollars, and the final box office in North America will definitely be less than 30 million US dollars.

Cinema's forecast accuracy is extremely high, which is recognized in the industry.

Will the North American box office exceed $30 million? How much money will be allocated to Plan B when the movie goes down? The issuer will also deduct the issue fee and publicity advance...

Using "Cloud Atlas" to overturn the battle is no need to think about it, this film may make his status in the industry further decline.

But Brad Pitt didn't despair, put down the statistics report, and whispered, "There's still overseas."

Natalie Portman looked at Brad Pitt and asked, "What should we do?"

Brad Pitt shook his head and said, "It's okay! Nat, we can afford this failure." He raised his head, his eyes gradually became firm, "We still have "Alien Battlefield"."

He didn't seem to say this to Natalie Portman, but to himself, "Yes! We also have "Alien Battlefield", which is the top commercial production. As long as it can be successful, This loss of Cloud Atlas is nothing at all."

The more he said, the more confident he became. "Andrew Stanton has never failed in the past, and the "Alien Battlefield" series will be as successful as the "Lord of the Rings" series!"

Hearing these words, Natalie Portman's gray mood improved somewhat. She looked at Brad Pitt and suddenly regretted that instead of helping Brad Pitt, she chose to be with Matthew Horner. Cooperation, will "Cloud Atlas" succeed?

Thinking of this, she subconsciously felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't understand what was wrong.

But Natalie Portman feels that she can no longer be tied to Brad Pitt. What if "Alien Battle" also fails?

No matter "Cloud Atlas" or "Alien Battlefield", she didn't pay a dollar for the production cost, but as the heroine, the failure of two consecutive starring big productions was a fatal blow to Xingtu.

The phone on the desk rang, and Natalie Portman's thoughts became clearer as Brad Pitt answered the phone.

Now it's time to prepare for another!

She thought of the script she saw in the hands of Rachel Weisz, the black swan role that Darren Aronofsky prepared for Rachel Weisz.

Darren Aronofsky wants to use this film to let his fiancee hit the Oscars.

Natalie Portman made up her mind instantly, and called Rachel Weisz when she turned around, asking Rachel Weisz to ask Darren Arono for her under the pretext of wanting to play a supporting role and asking for advice Fsky to meet.

Let Rachel Weisz be there, try Darren Aronofsky first, and get his contact information if possible.

A supporting actress? How could she look like a supporting actress.

Natalie Portman sat here without saying a word, no longer thinking about "Cloud Atlas", but concentrated on thinking about how to deal with Rachel Weisz and Darren Aronofsky next.

Now that you have encountered setbacks in business, you can change your route a little and hit Oscar first.

As for Brad Pitt on the opposite side, isn't this so-called partner just used? After using it, what's the value?

If "Alien Battlefield" succeeds, Brad Pitt still has value, if it fails...

Natalie Portman didn't pay attention to what Brad Pitt said on the phone because she kept thinking, and she didn't recover until Brad Pitt hung up the phone and made a slight noise.

Natalie Portman found that Brad Pitt's face was even more ugly.

"What's wrong?" she asked concerned.

Now that "Battlefield" hasn't come out yet, Brad Pitt still has value to her.

"A bunch of **** with no business reputation!"

Brad Pitt's face was not very good-looking, and he said slowly, "Just now, Disney called, and they were negotiating with Bowei International. The more than 20 overseas publishers who wanted to introduce "Cloud Atlas" have all terminated unilaterally. negotiated."

Natalie Portman immediately realized the crux of the problem, "What about the overseas box office of "Cloud Atlas"?"

"It doesn't matter." Brad Pitt waved his hand. "They are distributors in East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, not the traditional overseas ticket warehouses of Hollywood movies."

He sighed deeply, "Overseas box office fell short of expectations."

Natalie Portman didn't answer, because this is an obvious thing, North America is seriously lower than expected, let alone overseas.

Why did the two dozen overseas publishers unilaterally terminate the negotiation? Not a terrible first-day box office.

Not only Natalie Portman and Brad Pitt, but few in Hollywood could have imagined that the Wachowskis' new work would be so dismal.

The production cost is 120 million US dollars. The director is the Wachowski siblings who have had the brilliant trilogy of "The Matrix". The hero and heroine are the famous Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman. These names, the box office of "Cloud Map" is too high to say, why should it exceed 10 million on the first day?

But it didn't even make $4 million at the box office on the first day.

The figure of 3.67 million US dollars, let alone last week's North American box office champion "The Hangover", even "Fast and Furious 4", which entered its fifth screening weekend, has a single-day box office of 4.52 million US dollars. Pressed the head of "Cloud Atlas".

As soon as the box office was released on the first day, everyone knew very well that what was waiting for "Cloud Atlas" could only be a box office tragedy.

What more people didn't expect was that after the premiere of "Cloud Atlas" on Friday, the box office on Saturday did not rise because of the rest day, but fell sharply.

Saturday ~www.readwn.com~ the film made less than $3 million in a single day.

After it was released for two consecutive days, as the number of people who saw the movie gradually increased, the industry also had a clearer understanding of the fiasco of "Cloud Atlas". Perhaps this is really like what Roger Albert said. One of those films that is ambitious, but can't stand the fact that most of the audience can't understand it, or it takes a lot of effort to understand it.

A movie, even if it has a genius-like setting, a subversive frame structure, and a single line and a shot can reflect profound philosophical thinking, it will not be enough for the audience to understand.

Maybe such a movie will become a classic in the future, but it is difficult to sell at the moment.

If "Cloud Atlas" were an independent small production, the situation would be much better, but the commercial film that invested hundreds of millions of dollars was never intended to be recognized in the future.

Three days after the first weekend, "Cloud Atlas" only scored 9.2 million US dollars in North America, and the box office failure has become a foregone conclusion.

As for peripheral income, isn't it a fool's errand to want to sell high prices in terms of discs, online broadcasting and TV rights for a film with such a bleak box office?