Hollywood Hunter

With the end of the Independence Day holiday and a new box office week that started on July 9, North American theaters are still three new movies.

Paramount's fantasy comedy "Pointed Alien" starred by the former "Ghostbusters" actor Dan Aykroyd, with 2,117 screens.

Columbia Pictures’ "Justins Who Writes Poems" is an all-black group drama, directed by the black director John Singleton, who was nominated for the best director Oscar for "Neighborhood Boy" last year, and directed by Michael Jackson. The younger sister Janet Jackson starred. The story tells the story of Justin, the hairdresser starring Janet Jackson, tried to get out of underestimation and start life again after her boyfriend was killed by revenge. The film opened with a screen of 1,365 yuan.

Fox's "Golden Arm Boy" is a fantasy baseball-themed family comedy. It tells the story of a young boy who unexpectedly gained power to become a baseball master. The number of screens opened was 1,460 yuan in the first week.

Since the summer vacation, this year's heavyweight movies have basically been registered in theaters.

Including this week’s three new films, the second half of the summer archive except for the "Gannet Assassination Order" co-authored by Daenerys and Warner Bros. next week, no other projects have a deep impression in Simon’s memory, and there is a possibility that the box office may appear dark. Sex is very small.

In fact, this also means that films released before July 9th, as long as the word-of-mouth and popularity are good enough, they are enough to show a very beautiful box office curve in the days following the summer vacation.

However, statistics show that in this summer file, there are only three movies that have been confirmed or are expected to enter the 100 million yuan box office club, namely "Superman", "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Sugar Coated Trap".

Among other Hollywood studios, "Superman" is an alternative that can only be envied and hated. "Night in Seattle" and "Sugar Coated Trap" are quite normal compared to "Sugar Coated Trap".

Of course, all of the three billion-dollar films are produced by Daenerys Entertainment. Even if two of them are considered as cooperative projects, Simon Westero's precise vision of investing in films still makes many people feel complicated.

In fact, there are actually many projects that try to hit the 100 million box office club this summer.

Columbia's "Made in America", Warner Bros.'s "Made in America", Disney's "Super Mario Bros.", Paramount's "The Values ​​of the Adams Family", Columbia's "Phantom Heroes", Colombia's "Honeymoon Dangerous Period" , Fox’s "The Rising Sun", seven movies, either the blockbuster of big investment and big production, or super game IP, or the sequel of the previous blockbuster movies, or the comedy star with the high box office of the previous work. It can be said that whether it is project investment, the main creative lineup or the scale of the announcement, they are all directed at the North American box office to exceed 100 million.

It's just that the results are not satisfactory.

Projects such as Ubi Goldberg's "Made in America" ​​and Fox's "The Rising Sun" actually ended well. Although the billions are hopeless, the relatively large box office can make the studio reap good profits. Projects such as Disney's "Super Mario Bros." or Columbia Pictures' "Phantom Heroes", because of the huge production and budget, only bring nothing to the film company.

In the final analysis, film investment is a risky gamble.

Simon, the cheater, can grab a good hand in advance, and other players can only try their luck. This summer, other Hollywood studios are obviously not lucky.

In a market with limited capacity, Daenerys Entertainment's good cards will inevitably suppress other players because of the trade-offs.

If there is no such thing as "Superman", even if the cards in the hands of other studios are not good, they may be able to pick generals from the short ones. Projects such as "Zhe Ling Xiong Feng" may even achieve the North American box office exceeding 100 million. The reality is that, under the impact of the phenomenal "Superman", the box office of many films is much lower than in previous history.

The most typical is "The Great Wind of Great Mountains".

In the original time and space, the North American box office of "Zhe Ling Xiong Feng", which cost 70 million US dollars, exceeded 80 million US dollars, and the global revenue was 250 million, which basically recovered the production cost and realized small profits.

This time, under the sniper of "Superman", as of July 8, the cumulative box office of "Zhe Ling Xiong Feng" was only 66.39 million U.S. dollars, and the single-week box office volume from July 2 to July 8 was only 1.59 million. The US dollar is expected to be difficult to bury even the 70 million threshold before it goes down.

Moreover, this is only the United States.

The suppression of "Superman" on other Hollywood films in overseas markets is even more obvious.

Even on the premise that several important ticket warehouses such as France and Germany have not yet been released, in the past month, the cumulative box office of "Superman" in the UK, Japan, Spain, Italy, Australia and many other overseas countries that have basically been opened simultaneously The momentum quickly broke through the 300 million U.S. dollar mark.

The capacity of overseas markets is also limited.

Only "Superman" has a strong acquisition of more than 300 million US dollars at the box office. The DC movie universe blockbuster created by Daenerys Entertainment has raised appetites. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, etc., were originally popular in overseas markets. Ka Xin films are inevitably left out.

This time, Stallone's "Break in the Mountains" has accumulated less than US$50 million at the overseas box office as of early July. It is expected that it will barely exceed 100 million after the release is fully rolled out. As a result, the North American box office of "Zhe Ling Xiong Feng" is about 70 million, and the overseas box office is counted as 100 million. The global box office is estimated to be only 170 million US dollars.

By convention, the global box office of a movie needs to reach about three times the production budget to achieve a balance.

Obviously, the global box office expectation of "Ze Ling Xiong Feng" of 170 million U.S. dollars does not allow Columbia Pictures to recover the 70 million U.S. dollars production budget and the same expensive announcement investment. The producers can only rely on video tapes and other channels to slowly recover the previous Huge investment.

As for "Super Mario Bros.", "Phantom Heroes" and other projects, the ending is even more bleak.

In the past two years, star-led tough action blockbusters such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Silverster Stallone, and Bruce Willis have lost consecutively, making Hollywood realize that this type of film is gradually being eliminated by the market. trend.

Moreover, the special effects blockbuster such as DC Cinematic Universe and "Jurassic Park" should be the future of Hollywood. A DC movie universe project or "Jurassic Park", the profit brought by it is enough to offset the income of other studios for a whole year.

Taking into account the market demand, many technology companies have begun to get involved in the field of special effects software for movies, but compared with Daenerys's special effects, there is a big gap.

It can be said that in the next few years, Hollywood wants to produce special effects blockbusters, basically can only cooperate with Daenerys special effects.

Daenerys's special effects has maintained an attitude of external cooperation in recent years, but other film companies will not be naive to think that Simon will really open up technology to them completely. Once there is a project that threatens Daenerys Entertainment, suppression is almost inevitable.

Moreover, the scale of Daenerys's special effects at this stage, even including the rapidly growing Australian special effects branch, is actually only enough to meet the needs of Daenerys Entertainment's own and cooperation projects with other studios, if other studios If you want to get the full support of Daenerys's special effects, you don't even need to deliberately find excuses for prevarication, because it simply can't be done.

For special effects movies, everyone can only catch up a little bit.

At this stage, we still have to consider the immediate matter.

Fox has recently been struggling with a new film co-authored by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is a remake project adapted from the French film "Total Woman", called "True Lies". It tells the story of a federal agent who had to conceal his identity from his family for professional reasons.

Fox signed a contract with Schwarzenegger and James Cameron in early March when "Phantom Heroes" was still in its later stages, and Arnold received a $15 million salary equivalent to "Phantom Heroes" this time.

Signing a contract with a studio before a movie is released is actually a strategy of many stars.

The film is in hand, even if the project fails, there will be a chance to comeback.

After all, the probability of failure of Hollywood movies is often much higher than the possibility of box office sales. Mike Myers’ "Dangerous Honeymoon Period" launched during the Independence Day holiday is the most direct case. Myers originally hoped to rely on this new film to prove his box office appeal, so as to gain more initiative in the negotiation with Daenerys Entertainment's "Most Stars 3".

As a result, the US$20 million "Dangerous Honeymoon Period" received only US$5.36 million at the box office in the first week. Columbia Pictures provided as many as 1,731 screens for this comedy. As a result, the film’s gallery was less than US$3,000, which was totally two Due to the fate of the end of the week, the project’s total North American box office is expected to hardly exceed 10 million.

The total investment in production and announcements totaled more than 30 million U.S. dollars, in exchange for less than 10 million U.S. dollars in the box office, and the Colombian management could hardly cry.

Mike Myers deliberately delayed signing the third contract in order to obtain higher rewards after the success of "Anti-Wisdom 2". As a result, the failure of "Dangerous Honeymoon Period" gave the comedian a big nose. gray.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is much smarter in this regard.

Or, mainly because of Schwarzenegger's $15 million remuneration, there is not much room to be sold.

The new project contract after "Phantom Heroes" was settled in advance, and it is a PayorPlay contract that requires full remuneration for the movie regardless of whether it is launched. It can be described as sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai, which makes Fox extremely uncomfortable.

The consecutive box-office losses of "Heroes of the Mountain" and "Phantom Heroes" during the summer file made Fox regret signing Schwarzenegger for this large-scale production film with an initial budget of $70 million. You know, film director James Cameron is notoriously overspend, and Fox is almost certain that $70 million is not enough for Cameron.

Because Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s behind-the-scenes boss, is more focused on the expansion of the TV network, he is not too interested in high-risk and low-return film investments. Daenerys Entertainment stole it, and Fox Pictures can only be tepid in recent years.

This time, once "True Lies", which is conservatively estimated to invest $70 million, loses, Joe Rose, the president of Fox Pictures, can be sure that he has no choice but to go.

If the project is cancelled, including the investment in the preparatory process and Schwarzenegger’s $15 million contract that must be paid, Fox’s direct loss will exceed $20 million, which is definitely not good.

The best way is undoubtedly to find a partner.

The projects in the hands of Hollywood first-line stars are basically the focus of attention of the top executives of major studios.

Simon is no stranger to "True Lies," and Daenerys Entertainment initially did not have the opportunity to sign the movie.

However, considering the budget of "True Lies" in my memory of more than $100 million, although the box office is selling well, the price/performance ratio is really low.

More importantly, Simon is really obsessed with the original "True Lies" heroine Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis is not ugly, but for some reason, Simon always feels that the other party is a man, so the part in "True Lies" that made many young people who were exposed to Hollywood blockbusters for the first time sighed and sighed, in Simon's view It was really hot eyes, so when I first encountered the script, I chose PASS without even turning it over.

It is no secret that Columbia Pictures tried to collaborate with Daenerys Entertainment on the "Phantom Heroes" project last year.

The tragic failure of "Phantom Heroes", like the success of projects such as "Superman", has become another proof of Simon's outstanding vision in film investment.

This time, when Fox tried to find a partner to share the risk of "True Lie", news that Simon had previously passed the project unknowingly spread again.

Westeros rejected "Phantom Heroes", a project that caused Columbia Pictures to suffer a nosebleed.

Now that Westeros has rejected "True Lies" again, what kind of movie could this be?

Joe Rose, the president of Fox Pictures, contacted him for a while, and there were even foreign capitals like Carlock and Constantine who like to be taken advantage of, but they repeatedly hit a wall.

Finally turned to Daenerys Entertainment's side.

Knowing that the studio was caught in a dilemma by "True Lies", Rupert Murdoch personally made several phone calls to Simon. News Corp. also couldn't afford the loss of $70 million in investment. If Columbia Pictures were in "Phantom Heroes" planted a big somersault, and Fox Pictures was about to break its nerves.

Simon is not cold about "True Lies", but knows that the project is still profitable overall.

After a little bit of a bit, I finally "reluctantly" agreed to discuss the possibility of cooperation with Joe Rose.

"True Lies" is expected to be scheduled for next summer. Daenerys Entertainment’s two projects for next summer, "Batman: The Dark Knight Rise" and "Forrest Gump", are already sufficient to support the company’s performance. Add another "True Lies". However, after the 007 series was forcibly shelved by Simon, MGM just happened to lack a blockbuster.

After personally catching a knife to fine-tune the script of "True Lies", Simon also proposed his own cooperation plan.

First of all, the project is a collaboration between Fox and MGM, each of which bears 50% of the investment.

Secondly, Fox Pictures is responsible for domestic and overseas distribution, but the distribution commission ratio is only 8%.

Again, Arnold Schwarzenegger's salary must be lowered, and the two companies can only give 10 million US dollars. In addition, the project budget is 70 million U.S. dollars. Once the budget is overrun, director James Cameron’s fixed remuneration is cancelled, and he can only get a subsequent 10% share of the project’s net profit.

If there is a net profit.

At last!

The key point is that the heroine is decided by Simon himself.

In fact, apart from the last point, the other items are just sitting on the ground and raising prices.

The more demanding the requirements, the greater the pressure on creators such as Fox or Schwarzenegger.

As for the agreements that have been reached, if Schwarzenegger finally insists on not giving in, it is understandable in Simon's view.

The spirit of the contract must be observed.

Of course, once the project fails in the future, Schwarzenegger, who now takes 15 million US dollars in salary but leaves the huge loss to the producer, will not be too happy in Hollywood in the future. If you can take the initiative to lower some of the pay, in the final analysis, you are leaving room for yourself.

If you agree to cooperate too easily, it is hard to say that Fox or other Hollywood studios will not react.

Now that Westeros is so demanding, and it's just that MGM and Fox are cooperating, obviously they don't have much confidence in this project.