Hollywood Hunter

This year's Thanksgiving Day is November 28.

As "Scream 3" ends its third week of screenings, on November 15, the week before Thanksgiving, the first heavyweight film registered by North American theaters is "The Last" produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Boy Scouts.

This action comedy directed by Tony Scott and starring Bruce Willis tells the story of a hapless private investigator involved in a football gambling case.

Bruce Willis’ summer production budget of "Ultimate Condor" with a budget of up to 65 million US dollars failed miserably at the box office. The current "The Last Boy Scout" follows a black-and-white duo brother movie model similar to "Lethal Weapon" with a budget. It also reaches the upper-middle level of 30 million US dollars, so it is crucial for Willis to maintain his position.

However, after "The Last Boy Scout" was opened with 1823 screens, the reputation of media and film critics was not satisfactory. The overall score was only 4.6, which did not even pass.

From November 15th to November 21st, it basically occupies a blank period of one week. The first week of "The Last Boy Scout" was opened for seven days, and the cumulative box office was only 10.72 million US dollars.

On the original timeline, Bruce Willis relied on the "Die Hard" series to become famous, and then he went badly and starred in a series of movies that failed at the box office, and his career gradually fell into the lowest point.

The turning point of the matter was in 1994, when "Pulp Fiction" turned out, Bruce Willis relied on the role of the hapless boxer to once again squeeze into the ranks of films with more than 100 million box office.

After "Pulp Fiction", Bruce Willis's acting career seemed to be renewed. In the following years, he appeared in blockbusters such as "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural" and "The End of the World", returning to the ranks of top stars.

Simon has already filmed both "Pulp Fiction" and "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural" in advance. This time, I don't know if there will be a project to help Willis save the field.

Speaking of which, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, with the completely different box office situation of the two summer films "Ultimate Condor" and "A Few Good People", plus the "Last Boy Scouts" The box office failed, and the coffee position was completely reversed.

Of course, many things are not sure about the next.

After fulfilling the two film contracts signed with Daenerys Entertainment, because of the remuneration issue, he gave up the "Peachy Deal" that was also expected to sell well at the box office, and also rejected the invitation of Van Cleef & Arpels spokesperson. Demi Moore is completely with Daenerys Entertainment cut contact.

Hollywood’s first-tier actresses have always been surplus compared to their peers. The two sides parted ways. Simon is definitely not giving the actress much resources. It is difficult to say whether Demi Moore will go to her original time. The old way of declining online.

On November 22, the Thanksgiving holiday schedule officially arrived.

In addition to the other three very small-scale independent films, there are two heavyweight new films this week. Paramount Pictures’ film "The Adams Family" adapted from comics and TV series has a screen size of 2,411 yuan. The long-awaited "Toy Story" by Nilis Entertainment has a screen size of 2,686 yuan.

The "Adams Family" comics have been serialized in the "New York Times" since 1932, and have been prosperous even after being made into a TV series in the 1960s, so they have a very solid foundation of popularity.

Although the reputation of media critics can only barely be regarded as passing, because of the widespread popularity of this IP, many people have chosen to buy tickets to watch the movie.

In comparison, the disadvantages of "Toy Story" are somewhat obvious.

The first big-screen 3D animated film, this gimmick may be able to attract many people. However, in the traditional concept of most people, animated movies are for children after all.

Disney's traditional 2D animation movies are positioned like this.

After Daenerys Entertainment's internal executives watched "Toy Story", most people gave this 3D animation film a very positive evaluation. However, for Simon's announcement of "Toy Story" as a traditional blockbuster movie Sending is very disagreeable.

The opening scale of 2,686 screens is even more regarded as a waste.

Traditional 2D animation films generally follow a long-term screening strategy, and are aimed at children and derived family audiences. The usual screen size is around 1,000 yuan.

With the opening of "Toy Story", the development of things obviously went beyond the expectations of the entire Hollywood.

The first is the reputation of film critics.

Compared with "The Adams Family", which just barely passed, "Toy Story" is completely overwhelmingly praised. No one of the dozens of mainstream media counted by the Daenerys Entertainment Distribution Department gave negative reviews. In other words, this very alternative 3D animation film in this era has almost achieved a perfect score of 10 points.

The Hollywood Reporter has not hesitated to comment on "Toy Story" as a "visually stunning and creative epoch-making masterpiece".

Even with the expansion of film review media, although some different voices will inevitably appear, it is conceivable that the comprehensive media score of "Toy Story" is destined to remain above 9.5 points.

Even "Batman: Hour of War" two years ago has never received such overwhelming media praise.

Unlike the original "Toy Story" which was only produced by Pixar and is not a "pro son" of Disney after all, the current "Toy Story" is entirely Daenerys Entertainment's work.

Therefore, the new version of "Toy Story" must surpass the original version in terms of marketing efforts and scale of opening.

Coupled with the phenomenal excellent media reputation, and driven by curiosity, audiences of all ages have bought tickets to enter the venue, which also made "Toy Story" quickly break through the limit of animation movies only for children.

After only three days of painting, "Toy Story" relied on 2,686 screens to easily win a box office of 31.06 million US dollars, and successfully achieved an average of 10,000.

This time, the three-day museum in the first weekend of this time exceeded 10,000, which is obviously different from the previous three-day hall of Halloween "Scream 3".

"Scream 3" was able to surpass 10,000 in the first three days of painting, mainly because of the accumulation of popularity of the first two films and the continued inertia of the audience. The film saw a box office drop of more than 50% in the next week.

Now, "Toy Story" has won $31.06 million in the box office within three days of the first weekend. Relying on the film’s almost perfect score and increasing topicality, this 3D animation film will definitely not appear the next week after its release. 3 "Like a drop.

With close attention throughout Hollywood, the seven days from November 22 to November 28 passed by quickly.

On the second day of Thanksgiving, the first week of "Toy Story" was officially released at the box office. With a box office figure of 46.73 million US dollars, it easily reached the top single-week box office champion position.

In comparison, the equally popular "The Adams Family" had a box office of only $31.17 million in the first week of the painting.

Of course, compared with the production cost of 30 million US dollars, the box office of "The Adams" in the first week of 31.17 million US dollars still appears to be very successful.

The third-placed Bruce Willis action comedy "The Last Boy Scout", under the impact of the two strong new films "Toy Story" and "The Adams Family", the box office fell 37% the following week to only $6.75 million.

According to this box office curve, the total box office of "The Last Boy Scout" in North America is likely to stop at less than 25 million US dollars. Even the production budget of 30 million US dollars will not reach the cost. The defeat is set.

On November 29th, North American theaters once again registered two new heavyweight films.

Last year, "Home Alone" starred in the new film "Baby Little Lover" starring Macaulay Culkin and MGM's new 007 series "007 Golden Eye".

"Baby Little Lover" was invested and produced by Columbia Pictures. In addition to Macaulay Culkin, the film also features two stars, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd. The budget cost reaches 30 million US dollars. Only Macaulay Culkin took away $5 million.

Speaking of it, although a perfect contract was signed in advance, Macaulay Culkin’s salary is also $5 million in "Home Alone 2", which will be filmed in the next year. This makes the 11-year-old actor a No one has become the highest-paid child star in Hollywood.

The two films made about $10 million, and some things are inevitable.

For example, Macaulay Culkin’s bizarre parents, in order to prevent the couple’s various tossings from affecting "Home Alone 2," Daenerys Entertainment even sent a lawyer's letter to the two to warn the couple Don't poke too much negative to the media.

As for the parties, this is destined to be a tragedy.

Even the parents don’t care, no one can be the savior. Perhaps, those who want to save will be regarded as enemies by the profiteering couple.

Simon personally participated in the Los Angeles premiere of "007 Golden Eye" on the Wednesday before the opening of the painting.

The Johnston family took a stake in MGM and became the largest shareholder with 30% of the veteran film company's shares. Of course, it was not that there was not much splash in the beginning.

Many people know that the Johnston family’s stake in MGM is actually equivalent to Simon Westero’s control of the company.

Over the past year, many facts have proved this.

However, before the transaction, MGM was already an asset of Australian capital. The investigation that some people in Washington tried to provoke was also suppressed under the operation of the Westeros system. Many creditors of MGM are also happy to see this. , And even secretly contributed to the flames.

Allowing Simon Westero to control this company is definitely beneficial to MGM, and the interests of all creditors can also be protected to the greatest extent.

As long as it does not harm its own interests, or even benefits its own interests, capital does not care about monopoly.

The other major studios in Hollywood that are most likely to raise objections were not too optimistic about Simon taking over the mess of MGM. In addition, several other companies have formed close ties with Daenerys Entertainment, even if there is a gap. Paramount also reached a settlement during Daenerys Entertainment’s merger with MCA.

Therefore, MGM fell into Simon's control almost logically.

In the past year, in addition to the summer sales of "A Few Good People", MGM has also reached a number of cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment, including IP image authorization and classic film and video tape distribution, according to the original plan.

In addition, with the support of Daenerys Entertainment, MGM re-signed an agreement with Turner Broadcasting Corporation, which had taken a large part of the company's film and television broadcasting rights.

The method by which Turner Broadcasting Company took away the TV broadcasting rights of a large number of classic films by MGM was inherently controversial. After negotiations between the two parties, although the broadcasting rights were not recovered, the original authorization period will still be fulfilled until 2003, but Turner The broadcaster has also increased the price it pays and has relaxed the terms and conditions that MGM can also sell broadcast rights to other TV networks.

This also means that Daenerys Entertainment's TV stations can also broadcast MGM movies in the future.

All in all, it was only this year that the entire Hollywood could experience signs of improvement in MGM's business conditions.

Macaulay Culkin's "Baby Lover" and "007 Golden Eye", which were born four years earlier, did not hide the light of "Toy Story".

As the Thanksgiving holiday schedule continued, more information was revealed.

Not only the box office of 46.73 million US dollars in the first week, according to the "Los Angeles Times" report, with the release of "Toy Story", the peripheral toys of this 3D animation film are also on sale for a while.

"Toy Story" is just the name of this 3D animation film, and you can see how valuable the development of the film is.

Moreover, after watching the movie, the audience found that retail stores such as Toys R Us have already put a lot of toys related to "Toy Story" on the shelves in advance. Americans have always been very willing to spend money on the periphery of the movie. Similarly, in children I am also very willing to spend money.

Therefore, in just one week, according to rough statistics, the toy sales of "Toy Story" reached 230 million US dollars.

The retailers that originally completed the $200 million distribution ahead of schedule, the best initial expectations also meant that these toys could be sold within one month. However, in less than a week, the retailer had to start stocking again.

Brand cooperation manufacturers such as McDonald's, which signed the agreement of intent in advance, reacted quickly with the boom of "Toy Story" and launched corresponding peripheral products one after another.

Taking into account that there will be a more popular Christmas next, the industry predicts that in the next two months, the sales of "Toy Story" will steadily exceed 1 billion US dollars.

Based on the calculation that Daenerys Entertainment can obtain a net profit of about 15% from the sales of peripheral products, the sales of $1 billion in peripheral sales are expected to bring about $150 million in net income for Daenerys Entertainment.

Obviously, this is just the beginning.

According to the data in Simon's memory, the average sales of peripheral products each brought by the two "Toy Story" is 4.5 billion US dollars.

When the media paid attention to the amazing benefits brought by "Toy Story", their eyes inevitably fell on the Pixar studio.

Of course, it is not that the media has paid attention to this animation studio before, and Pixar, who has won the Oscar for Best Short Film by relying on "Tin Iron Soldiers", is not unknown.

However, most people at the beginning felt that Simon Westeros continued to spend money on an emerging animation type that could not prove its prospects at all.

Now, no one will have similar thoughts again.

With the success of "Toy Story", "Business Week" directly increased the valuation of Daenerys Entertainment by $5 billion, including the value of Pixar itself, and the contribution of 3D animation films to Daenerys Entertainment's consumer goods department And theme park business.

In addition, "Business Week" also extended the topic to the strong synergy between the various business departments within the comprehensive media group.

The success of "Toy Story" drove the growth of Daenerys Entertainment's other major business units, which is undoubtedly the most vivid manifestation of this synergy.

"Business Weekly" predicts that as Daenerys Entertainment's various business units show increasingly strong synergies, the horizontal integration of the US media industry will further accelerate.