Hollywood Hunter

Back home, because of worries about "Wonder Woman" and the development trend of the entire Hollywood film industry, it happened that the two Michaels of the neighbors had been discussing coping strategies for almost all night.

While the whole Hollywood is watching everything about "Wonder Woman" closely, the Simons have already rushed to Australia.

"Superman" has officially started filming recently. The location of this superhero movie is still chosen in Australia.

The difference is that this time the main location is Sydney.

Because of Daenerys Entertainment's connections in Australia, "Wonder Woman" has also achieved simultaneous releases in Australia and North America. During this time, the Australian movie circle is also quite lively.

After attending the premiere of "Wonder Woman", I set off on Friday, June 5, and arrived in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon local time.

For the convenience of taking care of the children, after quitting her job, Veronica no longer lives in a high-rise apartment in the city of Melbourne. Instead, she also bought a villa on the banks of the Yarra River. The nest is not far away.

Raymond Johnston loved this grandson very much, and specially arranged a room for the little guy in the mansion.

When the Simons arrived, they saw a little guy in the baby room of the mansion.

The half-year-old Melbourne Westero can now be able to climb. Compared to the ugly appearance when he was born, he is now white and tender and can't help but hug and kiss.

Janet picked up the child at the first glance when she saw the "little annoying" that she often talked about. After the last Easter, I haven't seen him for more than a month, and the little guy didn't recognize the birth at all, and he cooperated with his mother, um, ah, very tacit.

After the mother and son interacted for a while, Janet gave the child to Simon.

The little guy inherited his mother's beautiful eyes and looked at the man in front of him. Maybe he thought he had seen him somewhere and didn't resist. He also raised his tender little hand and grabbed Simon's collar. Hearing Simon's questioning, "Do you want Dad" or something, he naturally wouldn't answer, but he was also very skilled in replying with two um.

Veronica, whose temperament was much softer than before, was standing next to the family of three, watching Simon and the little guy talking, she still didn't say anything, she just looked at the situation with satisfaction in her eyes. .

After playing around for a while, the little guy soon fell asleep tired.

The baby was still in the crib, guarded by the nanny, and the three of them left the room together.

There was still some time before dinner. In addition to Raymond Johnston and his wife, Anthony Johnston also came with his family. They gathered in the living room of the mansion to discuss some recent events.

After Australia liberalized the control of foreign investment in the telecommunications industry last year, after more than a year of deployment, the Internet access services of the Westeros system and the Eaglet portal have initially established a foothold in this country.

Affected by the Japanese economic recession, Australia's economy has also entered a period of recession.

The emerging Internet industry has risen against the trend, and the Australian government has begun to pay more attention to this area. Of course, there are also the results of the Westeros system and the Johnston family secretly lobbying.

Just last month, the Australian Federal Parliament has just passed a bill related to promoting the development of the Internet industry. The Australian government plans to invest 10 billion Australian dollars in the next five years for infrastructure construction related to the Internet industry. At the same time, the bill also formulated supportive measures in various aspects such as talents and taxation.

Under Simon's secret operation, the US "Information Superhighway Act" has entered the congressional agenda ahead of time. However, if it wants to be passed and implemented, at least it will be next year.

The turbulent Europe has not been completely ended, and there is no intention to take care of this emerging field.

Therefore, Australia's bill on promoting the development of the Internet industry has become the first national policy document in related fields.

Due to the size of its own market, the scale of the Australian Internet industry cannot be too large after all.

However, taking this step ahead of time and taking the lead in the Internet field can definitely bring unexpected benefits to this country.

In addition to the Internet field, Verizon’s Australian branch has also successfully started its mobile communications business in Australia. Although Nokia is temporarily unable to enter North America, it took advantage of this opportunity to cooperate with Verizon’s Australian branch to enter North America in advance. The market lays a technical foundation.

Finally, it is naturally the film industry.

Australia was very supportive of the film industry in the 1980s, and George Miller's "Mad Max" series was produced in this context.

However, this kind of policy support is still far inferior to the promotion of a series of blockbuster movies in Australia.

In the original time and space, just because of the "Lord of the Rings" series, not only has New Zealand become the Middle-earth world that fans all over the world yearn for, this small southern hemisphere has also become one of the world's most famous film production bases.

The situation in Australia is almost the same as that in New Zealand.

Except for "Wonder Woman", which could not be filmed in Australia due to framing, a series of projects in the DC film universe, "Batman: Hour of War", "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "The Flash", were all filmed in Australia, including A lot of post-production work is also done directly here.

Driven by the DC Cinematic Universe series, Australia quickly formed a film industry chain with Melbourne as the core. Coupled with Australia's generous tax rebate measures, some other Hollywood studios are increasingly inclined to make films here. .

Australia’s Internet industry, mobile communications industry, and film industry are all booming. A series of companies in the Westeros system happen to have occupied a pivotal position in these areas in Australia.

This is actually a kind of penetration.

The next step of the Westeros system is to capture the shell of the Johnston family and get involved in Australia's core mining resources.

After completing this layout, Simon will have a significant influence on this country.

June is the winter in the southern hemisphere, and cities such as Melbourne on the coast are not too cold.

The couple spent a weekend in Melbourne, and on Sunday they went skiing in the nearby mountains. On Monday, Simon rushed to Sydney's "Superman" crew to follow up the filming of the film.

The straight-line distance between Sydney and Melbourne is about 700 kilometers, which is just a take-off and landing of a private jet. Therefore, when working in Sydney during the day, Simon will basically fly back to Melbourne at night.

At the same time, North American box office data about "Wonder Woman" kept coming.

With the support of excellent word of mouth, "Wonder Woman" got 19.21 million US dollars in the box office on the first day of painting.

Subsequently, in the first weekend three days, the box office number of this superhero movie reached 61.39 million US dollars.

When Simon returned to North America after his week of work in Australia, the box office for the first week of "Wonder Woman" was officially released: $91.12 million!

Stimulated by "Wonder Woman", in the week from June 5th to June 11th, the total single-week box office of the North American theaters reached 162.86 million US dollars.

However, more than half of the weekly box office share was slashed by "Wonder Woman". In the previous few weeks, movies such as "Deadly Weapon 3", "Nuns Are Crazy" and "Ambition of the Earth" appeared in the box office. The box office fell by 30%.

Because word-of-mouth is far inferior to "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Nuns Are Crazy", and the subject matter is not pleasing to the audience, the start of "Earth Ambition" starring Tom Cruise has been much lower than expected, and the decline this week has been even worse. Reached 46%, compared with 15.62 million dollars in the first week, the box office left only 8.39 million dollars in the following week.

It earned 24.01 million U.S. dollars in two weeks, and the single-week box office has shrunk to just over 8 million U.S. dollars. Even if the subsequent box office decline eases, the total North American box office of "Earth Ambition" is expected to hardly exceed 50 million U.S. dollars.

However, the total budget invested by Columbia Pictures for this project is 90 million US dollars.

Even without considering the time cost, "Earth Ambition" still needs to get about 60 million US dollars in the box office in North America before it can recover all the investment through subsequent overseas distribution, video tape channels and TV platforms.

The box office in North America is less than 50 million U.S. dollars, which means that it is difficult for Columbia Pictures to recover all the total cost of 90 million U.S. dollars during the entire effective film release cycle of this film for 5 to 7 years.

Obviously, Hollywood will not be able to get involved in similar subjects for a long time in the future after being taught by "Ambition of the Earth."

Tom Cruise's declining popularity was also severely impacted by the failure of "Ambition of the Earth".

Next, the Hollywood actor can only return to the low budget field.

It’s true that low-budget movies can be made big with small ones. However, of the hundreds of low-budget films in Hollywood every year, less than one-tenth of them can be made big with small ones.

Moreover, as usual, Cruise can only fail twice at most.

If the subsequent two consecutive films do not sell well, the other's popularity will fall.

The three movies that have been released in the DC Cinema Universe, "Batman: Hour of War", the first week box office of 82.39 million US dollars; "Batman: The Dark Knight", the first week box office of 101.07 million US dollars; "The Flash", the first week The box office was 72.86 million US dollars.

The first week of "Wonder Woman" in these four movies is second only to "Batman: The Dark Knight".

Moreover, "Batman: The Dark Knight" obviously has a sequel's popularity bonus. If this factor is not considered, only the first song will be counted. "Wonder Woman" is in the three movies of "Batman: Hour of War" and "The Flash" Among them, it is undoubtedly the highest.

As a DC movie universe project that was not optimistic because it was a heroine superhero movie, the first week of "Wonder Woman" really surprised many people.

In the original agreement, "Wonder Woman" was jointly invested by Daenerys and Warner Bros. Daenerys was responsible for the distribution.

Even with half of the investment in this film, Terry Semel complained half-truth about Simon's eccentricity in a phone call with Simon.

"Wonder Woman" can exceed 90 million US dollars in the box office in the first week of the painting, and it is almost certain that the total box office in North America has broken through 300 million US dollars.

In the first part of the three series, although the North American box office of "The Flash" reached 250 million US dollars, it is obviously the lowest in both the opening and the expected box office.

Compared to "Superman", who rushed to Australia to take a seat in Australia as soon as filming started, Simon was simply ‘ignorant’ to the original "Flash".

Moreover, the comparison between "The Flash" and "Wonder Woman" is not only at the box office, but also the sales of peripheral products of the two projects are also very different.

With the hot release of "Wonder Woman", the simultaneous release of the original soundtrack was just a week away, and it was due to Diana Prince's own background music that caused a big sale. 870,000 copies were sold in seven days. It’s no problem that the total sales of the company exceed 10 million.

The sales of the character dolls and the weapons and props of Wonder Woman in the movie far exceed the original "Flash".

Among them, 10,000 sets of limited edition full set of Amazon women warrior figures, although priced as high as $1,000, were still sold out within a week, but this item brought in $10 million in revenue.

Is Simon eccentric?

Of course.

At the beginning, Simon hoped to exchange half of the investment rights in "Superman" for half of the investment rights in "The Flash" and "Steel Bones". This was actually a very cost-effective business, but Simon's proposal was eventually rejected by Warner.

In order to maintain the unity of the DC movie universe, Simon still accepted these two superheroes. As a producer with a strong voice, Simon actually put enough energy into these two projects.

However, it is not realistic to make him treat "The Flash" and "Steel Bones" like "Batman", "Wonder Woman" and "Superman".

After the first week, on June 12, the North American cinema once again registered two new films, namely "Brother Difficult" produced by Warner Bros. and "Remade Warrior" released by Samsung, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures.

"Brothers and Brothers" is a comedy, and "Remade Warrior" is an action movie starring two male stars, Du Fu Longer and Shangge Yunton.

However, only from the perspective of the scale of the paintings, the two films are basically cannon fodder left behind after "Wonder Woman". The number of opening screens of "Brother Difficult" is only 1140 yuan, and the number of opening screens of "Remade Warrior" is only 1281 yuan. Draw the screen. The combined opening scale of the two films is not as good as "Wonder Woman."

Warner Bros. and Columbia’s thoughts are probably that they neither want to give up this summer file nor have confidence in these two films, so they chose this release strategy.

However, under the crushing popularity of "Wonder Woman", the two films that were originally used as cannon fodder failed to splash any water after they were released.

At the end of the second week, the box office of "Wonder Woman" dropped only 25%, and received another $68.39 million.

In two weeks, the cumulative box office of this superhero blockbuster has reached 159.51 million U.S. dollars, directly surpassing all the movies released in 1992 and ranking first in the annual gross box office list.