Hollywood Hunter

During this period of time, pressure from the media and political circles did not have much impact on Daenerys Entertainment, which is already a behemoth.

Entering the end of March, Daenerys Entertainment's employee stock subscription plan for the pre-IPO period has come to an end, and all subscription quotas have been honored. The company's film, television, cinema, peripherals, games and other businesses maintained very strong growth in the forthcoming first quarter.

One of the most important movie business, as of last Friday, March 18, Daenerys Entertainment's three labels have released a total of 9 movies in 11 box office weeks in 1994.

"Four Weddings and a Funeral", which opened on Valentine's Day, counted the $5.15 million in the box office of the three days in the past weekend. The total box office of this alternative romantic comedy has reached $80.76 million within five and a half weeks of its release.

It is expected that from March 18th to March 24th, this box office week spanning the Oscars ceremony, the seven-day total box office of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" will be around 7 million US dollars. With the arrival of the Easter schedule, the film will pass the follow-up There is no suspense about breaking through the 100 million box office mark, so it will become the first North American movie to break the 100 million box office in 1994.

On the other hand, as of March 17 last Thursday, the total North American box office for 10 box office weeks in 1994 was US$670 million. Of the total box office of the entire 10-week total of 670 million US dollars, just one movie "Four Weddings and One Funeral" took away 75.61 million US dollars, accounting for 11.1%.

A series of films that opened last year and extended the screening cycle to 1994. Among them, "The Lion King", "Schindler's List" and "In Father's Name" three films, which belong to the first 10 box office weeks of 1994, reached the box office respectively. US$43.56 million, US$55.39 million, and US$18.79 million. Some other projects also contributed US$22.19 million. This part has reached US$129 million, accounting for 19.2% of the box office in 10 weeks.

In addition to last Friday's "Sexy Club" starring Mia Kirschna and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" scheduled for Valentine's Day, the other seven films that are not too heavy have a cumulative box office of 51.76 million US dollars. , Accounting for 7.6%.

There are many bright spots in the seven films.

New World Pictures bought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series copyright to shoot "Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with a budget of 5 million US dollars. After it was released on January 14, it received a total of 23.79 million US dollars.

Gaomen Pictures released a basketball-themed documentary film "Basketball Dreams" on January 21. It earned $7.83 million in the box office with a production budget of only $700,000. This is another example of the documentary-themed release history that Gaomen Pictures is getting better at. A success.

Kevin Smith's "Crazy Clerk", which emerged at the Sundance Film Festival, was bought by Gaomen Films and launched on February 4th. The production cost was US$27,000 and it earned US$5.16 million in six weeks in theaters. It is also a time to take a big shot.

Ron Howard, who was once a die-hard collaborator of Universal Pictures, re-cooperated with Daenerys Entertainment after filming "Ambition of the Earth" with Columbia Pictures and Tom Cruise.

In addition to the recently signed high-budget blockbuster film "Apollo 13", Howard also cooperated with New World Pictures last year to complete a low-cost satire comedy "Media Pioneer" with a budget of only 6 million US dollars. In March It was released on the 11th, and the first week's revenue reached 7.05 million US dollars.

The New World Pictures team responsible for the release of "Media Pioneer" increased the number of screens from 1,017 to 1,531 last Friday. It is estimated that the total box office in North America will be between 30 million and 40 million US dollars, which is a small dark horse.

Simon approved the project casually last year. He never expected the film to be so good at the box office, which also confirmed his idea of ​​keeping Ron Howard firmly under Daenerys Entertainment.

There are successes, and of course there are failures.

Dario Aquido’s new film "Trauma", which was invested by Gaomen Pictures, was completed last year. Because of the poor effect of the film, it was thrown into the unpopular January 28th schedule. The film is in theaters. After staying for two weeks, I was rushed because of poor reputation and no one cares about it. The total box office was only 930,000 US dollars, and the investment of 5 million US dollars was basically in vain.

After Simon signed the famous film producers in the British film industry in his memory last year, he personally chose three projects "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Blood Romeo" and "Love in Love". "In My Heart" has basically been completed, and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" has achieved unexpected success.

However, "Love is in the depths of my heart", which is scheduled for March 4th, has become a bigger wanderer than "Trauma". It has a production budget of 20 million US dollars, a scale of 523 screens, and the box office for only seven days in the first week. At 1.19 million U.S. dollars, the museum barely exceeded 2,300 U.S. dollars, and the total amount of 1.81 million U.S. dollars in two weeks was completely drawn.

As a project that Simon personally decided, the failure of this film has also become the focus of many media discussions, thinking that Simon Westeros has no more magic.

In fact, this completely unfamiliar project in memory is basically considered to be intentional by Simon.

Even if the script was revised after the project was finalized, it still failed to escape the fate of a fiasco at the box office, but Simon was happy to see it in his heart.

In any case, Daenerys Entertainment really needs some loss-making projects to prove that Simon is not omnipotent. Reluctant to look like a blockbuster with a budget of more than 50 million U.S. dollars, a middle-lower project of 20 million U.S. dollars is just right.

Finally, there is a B-level sci-fi thriller "Puppet Life" produced by New World Pictures, which tells the story of aliens invading the earth's parasitic human body, with a production budget of 5 million US dollars. It will start painting on February 4th at the same time as "Crazy Clerk". , The cumulative box office of 5.19 million US dollars before the downgrade. The film's North American box office is temporarily losing money, and it can be easily recovered through overseas distribution and video tape sales, which is tepid.

Taken together, the main "Four Weddings and a Funeral", a series of old films last year, and 8 new films as of March 17th, accounted for 37.9% of the total box office share of $670 million in the first 10 weeks. Hollywood All other studios can only share the remaining 62.1%.

This is not even a cooperative project such as "Mission: Impossible", and MGM is one of the seven major Hollywood companies whose actual control is also controlled by Simon.

Seen from childhood.

It can be said that Daenerys Entertainment's dominance of Hollywood with more than one enemy has been completely stabilized.

Simon handles the recent affairs of Daenerys Entertainment in the studio office, and the results of the Oscar awards at the Dorothy Chandler Theater in downtown Los Angeles also continue to be heard.

Spielberg's "Schindler's List" is in full swing, winning multiple pre-tech awards such as the best soundtrack, best editing, and best art direction. The phenomenon-level animated film "The Lion King" also won the most Good score and best original song are two figurines.

Around eight o'clock, Simon's personal cell phone rang.

Catherine Bigelow called.

Catherine had just had dinner in Santa Monica with some friends, and tried to contact Janet to no avail, so she called Simon.

We have known each other for many years, both as friends and intimacy. The relationship between the Simons and Catherine remains the same. Women have lived in New York in the past two years. Simon and Janet used to gather with Catherine on the East Coast for most of the time. Janet in particular. Few photos appeared in the media. They were shopping and eating with Catherine in Manhattan and were followed by paparazzi. Shoot.

Simon deliberately pretended to be pitiful on the phone and said that she was still working overtime. Janet went to Australia, and she was lonely, lonely, cold, and pitiful.

I could feel Catherine's helpless expression on the other side of the phone, but she was still concerned about asking if she would bring Simon a dinner.

of course yes.

Catherine arrived in about twenty minutes, and when she entered the door she carried a small take-out box with food.

Simon, buried in the pile of documents, looked up from behind the desk. The woman habitually had long hair and shawls, and her delicate face was not immersed in the years. She was wearing a light gray high-collar ladies windbreaker. The bottom of the windbreaker showed a section of washed jeans and her feet. With leather boots on her, her tall and slender figure is matched with this dress, the royal sister is full of fan.

Seeing the little man looking at herself unabashedly as always, Catherine glared at him with some irritation and asked: "Why are you still working so late?"

Simon closed a document in front of him and put it aside, and laughed at himself: "Work hard to get richer."

Thinking of all the recent media about him, Catherine didn't know how to speak for a while, so she had to hand over the takeaway in her hand: "Salt and pepper shrimp, the restaurant where I just ate is very good, and I use it as a snack for you."

Simon didn't say anymore that he hadn't eaten dinner, got up and took the box, turned out from behind the desk and walked to the reception area to sit down, opening the box and asking, "Who did you have dinner with?"

Catherine sat on the sofa next to Simon, still habitually straight back, a pleasing posture, looking at Simon eating with soft eyes, and said, "Rockwell and the others."

Simon nodded.

I understand that all filmmakers in the New York circle, Alexander Rockwell, Allison Anders, Whit Stillman, etc., are sitting in the Chandler Theater at this time, looking forward to the best foreign language of "The Wedding Banquet" Ang Lee, the winner of the film award, is also a member of the New York Gang.

Li's award for the best foreign language film this time has won nine out of ten, and, counting the time, now the award results have probably been released. When Catherine was here, Simon did not call the girl A outside to ask.

Catherine did not continue this topic, but said: "Last week Jenny said that after I came here, I would eat together. Why did I suddenly go to Australia?"

Simon said, "I miss home, go back and have a look."

Catherine looked at Simon suspiciously and asked carefully: "A conflict?"

The recent things about men, especially the little goblins in London, she has seen specially, they are really the embryos of the top beauties.

Think about his temperament.

It's ridiculous.

If you are yourself, you must be very angry.

Simon smiled and shook his head: "This is not true. Don't expect Jenny to give you a chance to get in."

Catherine looked around, there was nothing to throw around, so she could only lift her leg and kick him slightly.

Simon went next to him without hiding, and changed the subject: "How's the script preparation for "Detroit"?"

After receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Director by relying on Simon's "End of the Road", Catherine has not made any more films in the past two years. She occasionally helped her friends to serve as a producer while investigating some of the modern American history that is enough to make people reflect. Famous historical events, from the Detroit riots in 1967 to the Iran Gate in 1979 to the Los Angeles riots in 1992, and so on. Women also focused on the Black Hawk fall of the US military in Somalia last year.

To a large extent, Catherine is a leftist anarchist.

However, although Catherine's lens images are often full of violence, the views are not extreme.

This is probably related to the growth experience. As an only child from a rich middle-class family, she has not encountered many setbacks and social injustices since she was a child. Therefore, Catherine's works in the early days of filming inevitably carry a bit of "sorrow for new words." Pretending to be sharp.

Catherine's personal style didn't really mature until many years later in The Hurt Locker.

Among several topics, Catherine wanted to film the Los Angeles Riots.

It was just that Simon was dissuaded by the fact that the time point was too close to judge the incident objectively from the perspective of bystanders. As for the Iranian Gate and the Fall of Shadows, this kind of film is likely to go abroad to be filmed, which is too dangerous, and it is too dangerous at this stage. Sensitive, and finally selected "Detroit" in Simon's memory, which Catherine once filmed.

Catherine saw Simon ask about this, and said, "I have started looking for actors."

Simon just picked up a salt and pepper shrimp from the takeaway box, and heard the words: "I've written it, when will I show it?"

Catherine shook her head directly: "I won't show it to you."

"Um, I'm an investor."

Catherine looked at the deflated appearance of the little man, smiled at the corner of her mouth, and explained, "After seeing it, you have to make a lot of opinions."

Simon vowed: "I promise not to mention anything this time."

Catherine insisted and repeated: "I won't show it to you."

"..."

Simon actually understands that Catherine has always had a guilty conscience about her previous Oscar nomination for "The End of the Flower". In the past two years, she deliberately stopped herself, just wanting to accumulate more and gain recognition with her own strength as much as possible. .

The main reason for refusing to let Simon read the script was that he didn't want him to help himself.

Catherine is a very strong woman in her bones, but the stronger the woman, the stronger the man is, she is often defeated.

Just like Simon.

In terms of movies, Simon, who has inherited the life-long talent experience of more than a dozen filmmakers, is really enough to get rid of the distance that most Hollywood filmmakers are too far away. In this regard, Catherine can only be regarded as just stepping on the threshold. If Simon was asked to help her read the script, Simon would naturally put forward opinions after discovering the problem. The key points are definitely correct. If you didn’t hear it, it’s fine. Once you listened to it, Catherine, who was strong but not stubborn, felt that she was very difficult. Accept his suggestion.

Thinking about this, Catherine suddenly asked: "Are you not going to make movies anymore?"

Simon told the truth: "I don't know either."

At this stage, there is no project that can give Simon any interest in directing himself. Moreover, with his position in Hollywood at this time, it is better to be in control behind the scenes. If you continue to go to the stage to direct the film, it will inevitably become a loss. Big toss.

Feeling the emotional response from Simon that it was difficult to say, Catherine sighed in her heart.

Life is like a boat on the river.

The scenery on both sides of the strait may be better or worse, but after all, it will not stay the same, nor will it be the same.

Simon didn't hurt the spring and the autumn. In fact, even if the assassination was really successful a few days ago, it was just for himself that there was really no regret in these years.

Throwing the empty takeaway box into the trash can, Simon got up and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. After returning, he said to Catherine: "The award ceremony is about to end. Come to the Melisandre party with me. It will be very lively there. ."

Catherine didn't want to go too much: "There is nothing to talk about."

"Why don't you call Rockwell and a few of them, and, how come there is no one? Are you very familiar with Li? He may have won the best foreign language film award now, so I must congratulate him.

Simon said, already walking to Catherine, reaching out to pull the woman up.

Catherine opened Simon's hand, but she had no choice but to get up and still said: "It was already an appointment. If Li wins the prize, everyone will gather together tomorrow night."

"Oh, I will be free tomorrow night too, so let's go together."

Catherine followed Simon to the door and said, "Don't go."

Simon smiled and said, "Worry about our two things being exposed, are they gossiping?"

Catherine did not answer, and planned to stop talking to the little man next to her within a minute.

Where do you need to gossip.

Because of him, no man has even dared to chase her in recent years.