Hollywood Hunter

In the media praise for "Lola Run", the weekend passed quickly.

However, since February 16th is the third Monday in February, President’s Day is one of the federal holidays. By convention, the weekend box office of the new week is calculated from February 13th to February 16th for four days. This is actually an important reason why Orion chose to set the schedule on February 13th.

Tuesday, February 17.

Due to the very busy period recently, Mike Medova, the president of Orion Pictures, has not taken much rest during the past three days of vacation. However, he still rushed to the company early today.

Sitting in the office, thinking about the bumpy experience of Orion Pictures this year, Mike Medova even felt a little aftermath in his heart.

In 1985, Orion produced and released 12 films, and the best-performing "Looking for Susan" only received US$27 million at the North American box office, 9 of which all faced losses.

Due to a series of film box office failures, Orion, who was caught in a serious financial crisis at the beginning of 1986, faced the fate of being taken over by the well-known Warburg Pincus Investment Group on Wall Street. Once the trip took place, the original company management would all be dismissed.

In a critical moment, the company’s CEO Arthur Klim persuaded his friend John Kruger to buy 6.5% of Orion’s stock, bringing the company the most needed working capital, which made everyone’s jobs. Be preserved.

Immediately afterwards, everything seemed to start to go smoothly.

"Back to School" released by Orion's summer archives completely freed the company from the financial crisis with a North American box office of more than $90 million. At the end of last year, the company’s key release of "Field Platoon" had a cumulative total of more than 40 million US dollars as of last week. According to the current box office curve, the North American box office of this movie can easily sprint the 100 million dollar mark.

In addition, in terms of awards, Orion has also gained a lot this year. With the excellent reputation of the three films "Field Volleyball", "Sisters of Hannah" and "Ambition on the Stadium", Orion won a total of 18 nominations at the upcoming 59th Oscar, more than any of the seven majors.

Now, in 1987, Orion seems to have completely inherited the good luck of last year.

At the beginning of the new year, the company picked up a small box office ‘dark horse’ from the Big Seven.

"Lola Run".

Although I haven't seen the box office data for the first weekend, according to various feedbacks in the past few days, Mike Medova has no doubt that this movie will bring a good start to Orion in 1987.

Looking at a document casually, thinking about these things, the secretary knocked on the door: "Mr. Medova, Miss Johnston is here."

"Let her come in," Mike Medova replied, thought for a while, then stood up and asked: "By the way, did the box office data from last weekend arrive?"

The secretary shook his head: "Do you need me to urge you?"

"No, just take me directly to the office later, and also, make two cups of coffee," said Mike Meadow, who had already turned his desk and reached out to Janet who had already walked in: "Johnston Miss, it's still so early today."

Janet smiled and shook hands with Mike Medova, and said, "Aren't you?"

"This is my job, of course I have to work harder," Mike Medova said, motioning to Janet to sit down in the reception area at will, and sit opposite the coffee table, saying: "Usually it is delivered at half past nine. Yes, time is almost there."

Janet also heard the conversation that Mike Meadow had just had with the secretary, and just nodded slightly.

The two sat down. Mike Medova was about to ask about Simon's recent situation, but the office door was pushed open again. The secretary raised a fax in his hand and said: "Mr. Medova, box office, Delivered."

Mike Medova felt that the secretary's tone was a little stubborn, his face was doubtful, and he even had some unpleasant premonitions in his heart, so he just got up and went forward to take the box office report.

Just a glance, Mike Meadowa’s expression also changed, and he turned to ask the secretary: "Are you sure that's right?"

The secretary didn't seem to be relieved, and said: "Me, Mr. Medoire, or I'll call to ask?"

Although it is unlikely that there is a problem with the data in his hand, Mike Medova nodded.

Janet also got up and walked over at this time, and stretched out her hand: "Mr. Medova, can I take a look?"

"Oh, of course," Mike Meadow said, passing the box office report to Janet, "The data should be fine, but it's really incredible, much higher than I thought."

Janet did not answer, but her eyes fell on the box office report in her hand, and she saw the name and box office numbers of "Lola Run" at a glance.

5.51 million US dollars.

not bad.

This was the first thought in Janet's mind. Then the psychology began to calculate, US$5.11 million, based on the 15% fixed box office share that Simon and Orion had negotiated, only the box office of the past four days, I can get back more than US$800,000, even if you count the future payments. The cost of copying is already a payback.

Mike Medova noticed that Janet was only raising her eyebrows slightly, with a satisfied smile at the corners of her mouth. Although she knew that she had just contacted the industry and it was difficult to understand what the box office data of "Lola Run" meant, he still wanted to Wake up the woman in front of you loudly: "This is how you react?"

At the same time, in the same Beverly Hills Century City, Fox Studios, which is less than one kilometer away from the headquarters of Orion Pictures, Ronald Goldberg waved the box office report in his hand to his assistant a little gaffe Loudly questioned: "5.51 million US dollars! How is this possible, is it a mistake on the theater line?"

The assistant was holding the folder in his hand, but he was not as flustered as Secretary Mike Medovar, and replied affirmatively: "Mr. Goldberg, I've called to confirm it, yes."

Listening to the assistant's calm tone, Ronald Goldberg exhaled deeply and waved to her.

The assistant left, and Ronald Goldberg, who sat down again, opened the drawer next to the desk, glanced at the cigar box inside, but closed it again, picked up the box office report again, and scanned it line by line. .

North American box office data for the seventh weekend of 1987.

First place: "Field Platoon"; $12.87 million; Orion.

Second place, "Cruel Fate"; $6.31 million; Bowei.

Third place, "Alive and Inspiring"; $5.99 million; Fox.

Fourth place, "Lola Run"; $5.11 million; Orion.

Fifth place, "Leap to the Peak"; $5.15 million; Warner.

In the top five list, except for the first place, the box office of the current hot "Field Platoon" exceeded 10 million US dollars, the box office of the other four movies does not seem to be much different. However, if you continue to compare the number of screens of several movies, you will find how great the gap is.

Among the five movies, apart from "Lola Run", even Fox's "Amazing", the number of screens reached 932. The other three movies all have more than 1,000 screens, and the opening screen of Stallone’s new work "Leap to the Peak" this time has reached 1,758.

In comparison, the number of screens for "Lola Run" is only 207, which is less than one-fourth of "Curious" and one-eighth of "Leap to the Peak".

However, just with such a trivial 207 screens, "Lola Run" has wildly harvested $5.11 million in the box office, abruptly squeezing into the top five of the North American weekend box office list.

How can this not be surprising.

Moreover, with such a good box office at the beginning, what's next?

You know, Orion is currently only released in several West Coast states and counties, including California, even if this second-tier independent film company is unable to reach overseas markets. However, in the central, eastern and even northern Canada, "Rola Run" has not yet been released.

So, according to this box office momentum continues.

Ronald Goldberg shuddered suddenly and hardly dared to think about it anymore. Many things of the past few months also appeared in his mind.

When Simon Westero finished "Running Laura", he first contacted Fox Pictures. After the film was well received at the Sundance Film Festival, Westeros still tended to hand over the distribution rights to Fox. Until the final film won the Sundance Film Festival, Fox still had the opportunity to win the film.

just.

All these opportunities passed by mistake.

right now.

Oh, God.

What did I miss?

Leaning back in the chair and thinking quickly for a moment, Ronald Goldberg pressed the landline call button on the desk, and his assistant soon came in again.

"You say hello to David Giller. I'm going to watch a rough cut sample of "Butterfly Effect" in the afternoon. Also, another script by Simon Westeros, um, what is it called?"

The assistant expertly reminded: ""Reaper is here"."

"Yes, it's "Reaper Is Coming". You can contact WMA and send the script over. Besides, Simon Westero...

Ronald Goldberg pondered for a moment, before he made a decision, the assistant had already taken the initiative to say: "Mr. Goldberg, Simon Westero is currently in Arizona, participating in the filming of De Laurentiis Entertainment Investment One of his movies is called "Blood Corpse Night"."

Ronald Goldberg was suddenly confused: "Is there anything special about this movie?"

"No," the assistant shook his head, and said, "However, the director of the film is Catherine Bigelow. During the filming of "Lola Run", Catherine Bigelow served as the assistant director of Simon Westero. He should be Return the favor."

Hearing the assistant's words, Ronald Goldberg's doubts about who Catherine Bigelow was flashed in his mind, but he didn't ask any more, just waved his hand and said, "In this case, forget it for the time being. Thing."

No matter how surprised, gloomy, and regretful the film company executives who had the opportunity to get the distribution rights of "Lola Run" in Hollywood, the amazing box office data of the first weekend of "Lola Run" continued to spread quickly, and it appeared a lot in the afternoon. An important section of the Evening News.