Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 58

New Chapter!

Chapter 3

Five films, the most expensive being "Walking with the Devil," a $90 million reunion between Harrison Ford and Ravan Phoenix after "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3," about the love affair between Frankie, a young IRA man, and a middle-aged British policeman.

The original "Walking with the Devil" had Harrison Ford partnering with Brad Pitt, and this time, Sony also first approached Pitt with an offer, but Pitt chose "Changing Faces", and then Sony was approached by Keanu Reeves, who didn't like the story and recommended it to his friend Ravan Phoenix.

Ravan Phoenix did not die young from drug overdose again in his lifetime, and a few years ago, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as 'The Joker' in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, which was also a popular youngster. In addition, he worked with Ford on "Indiana Jones 3", which was also a gimmick, and was successfully selected by Sony.

Unfortunately, the whole project was a disaster.

The experience was very similar to that of Waterworld of the Future, which had Kevin Costner's head in the clouds, with disagreements between the director and the lead actors, frequent script changes, and serious delays in the production cycle, etc. In the end, not only did the budget significantly exceed the budget, but the press also received poor reviews after its release. In the end, not only was the budget significantly overspent, but also the press was overwhelmingly negative after its release, with an overall media score of only 3.5, the two lead actors being seriously unhappy with the production process, and the publicity process was clearly negative, and there was also a rumor that Harrison Ford refused to record Saturday Night Live to promote the film.

The results can be imagined.

Add to that the fact that Disney's The Sixth Man and Orion's The Fellowship of the Forgotten were small, low-budget productions without any big names and lacking in conversation, inevitably relegated to the sidelines like last week's The King of Kong, and it was still Daenerys Entertainment's week for Easter.

It's the all-around kind.

In an effort to both take advantage of the Valentine's Day marketing package of three films and to save marketing budgets, Daenerys Entertainment's two new Easter releases, Peter Jackson's "Spectre of Terror" and the new "Hurricane Rescue" starring Jett Lee, premiered on the same day, March 26th, at Universal Burbank's in-house theater.

Moreover, in addition to all the usual advertising campaigns, there were one after another gimmicks surrounding the two films.

Peter Jackson, director of Spectre of Terror, is set to direct the Lord of the Rings series.

Jett Lee demonstrates Chinese kung fu on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Quentin Tarantino openly expressed inspiration to reporters after seeing "Hurricane Rescue".

John Woo's praise for "Hurricane Rescue" on the Jett Lee stage.

Dr. Ming-Na Wen, who played the role of 'Dr. Chen' in "ER Story," once again touched the big screen to share her excitement behind the scenes.

Two pseudo-'newcomer' directors meet at the same premiere for a box office PK.

Blah Blah Blah.

In the end, two medium-budget films costing a combined total of only $55 million gave the impression of a heavy bomb being crushed.

The day after the premiere? The word-of-mouth directly lifted, and the combined media scores of 7.7 and 8.1 for "Spectre of Terror" and "Hurricane Rescue", respectively, made the audience's last worries disappear completely.

From the first day of March 28th, the two films have unquestionably dominated the top two positions at the box office? The first day of March 28th, two films have unquestionably dominated the top two positions at the box office? So much so that they inevitably impacted the old films of last week, such as "The Cable Repairman" and "Fae 2"? The two films with the best word-of-mouth buzz throughout the Easter weekend.

After Easter weekend? Into a new week? The reopened North American stock market is still gloomy, while the movie market is still buoyant.

When the March 28-April 3 box office week ended, the North American single-week box office total also reached a new high going into 1997? It reached $137 million? Basically equivalent to the level of a popular summer movie.

A titanic battle between Ghosts of Terror and Hurricane Rescue? In the first week of PK, the result was not what most people expected? It turned out to be the winner of "Hurricane Rescue".

The film, directed by newcomer Doug Liman, whom Simon has just tapped in the last two years, stars Chinese kung fu superstar Jett Lee. Chinese kung fu superstar Jett Lee starred in this crime action movie with Hollywood stars such as Ming-Na Wen, one of the female leads of "ER Story", and potential actor Sam Rockwell, which cost $25 million and eventually grossed $31.37 million in its first week.

At first glance it appears to be less than the $33.14 million that "Fae 2" had last week, however? The opening screen count for Fae 2 was 2,679? s opening week average was $12,300,000. Because of the inevitably cautious approach to films with Chinese protagonists, the opening of "Fae 2"? Hurricane Rescue" opened to 2,203 screens, with an average of $14,200,000. The opening number was only 2,203 screens, so the average was $14,200,000.

It's conceivable that if The Hurricane would have had the same number of screens as Fae 2, i.e., a slight drop in the embassy? The opening box office would have easily surpassed the first week of Fae 2 as well.

Ghosts of Terror regrets the second place on the list.

With 2,563 screens to spare, Spectre of Terror grossed only $28.37 million in its first week of box office receipts, barely reaching $11,100,000 on average.

Of course, this is by no means a failure.

As for the opening box office of the two new films, they did not pull away from last week's "The Cable Repairman" and "Xenomorph 2," mainly because of the fierce competition this week.

The third-place Fae 2, also due to similar reasons, fell 49% in its second week, earning $16.9 million and bringing its total box office to $50.04 million.

The fourth-place finisher, The Cable Repairman, remained in the same position, dropping 53% in its second week and falling even harder than Fae 2, taking in $12.72 million and $39.79 million in total box office. The film's total budget for production and distribution happens to be $50 million, and even if the overseas and local budgets are the same, Daenerys Entertainment can only look forward to the follow-up channels to recover the full cost.

In fifth place is Sony's "Walking with the Devil.

After all, it's a $90 million super bomb, and even if everyone says it's bad, many people will want to see how bad it is, which is why it made $11.49 million in its first week.

Of course, comparing $11.49 million in its first week of sales to $90 million in production costs, Sony's current head, Norio Taga, would probably have to cover his chest with both hands to feel less bad.

Culver City.

Inside the VIP room of an AMC theater chain near Sony Pictures City.

When the lights came on, the two people in the screening room did not get up, but rather looked at each other without speaking.

The two men, John Kelly, the current chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, and Chris Lee, the president of Columbia Pictures, had just seen a screening of "Hurricane Rescue," starring Jett Lee.

It's already Saturday, April 5.

Simply put, the last few days have been difficult for both of them because of the box office failure of "Walking with the Devil". Even though today is Saturday, they were called to the studio office in the morning, and were beaten up by Norio Oga, the head of Sony in Japan.

However, the two of them were actually feeling a little bit angry.

John Kelly, who had worked at Warner for many years and participated in the production of hit films such as "The Exorcist", signed a contract with Sony only last year, and at the same time recommended Chris Lee, who is also a Hollywood producer, to partner with him to take charge of the business of Columbia Pictures.

Walking with the Devil, on the other hand, was a project that was finalized before their arrival.

Frankly, the chaos of the film's production had something to do with the tumultuous transition of power at the top last year, but neither of them felt they should take too much responsibility for it.

Because they were not given much power from the start, thanks to Peter Cooper's signature, it was akin to dancing with iron shoes.

Otherwise, Sony wouldn't have been unable to recruit better executives in recent years, such as some of the top executives at Daenerys Entertainment who have been headhunted for a long time and whom Sony has tried without success. The two of them, though they will never admit it, are really only second-rate executives in Hollywood.

They do not have enough financial and personnel power, just like Sony's senior marionette puppets to do things like, can put a big studio to manage the strange.

After a moment of silence, John Kelly, who was still recalling in his mind the splendid fight in the movie, had to be a little shocked by the Chinese kung fu: "Chris, what do you think we should do next?

Chris Lee smiles sadly, remembering the movie he just made.

In this "Hurricane Rescue", Daenerys Entertainment has apparently taken the model of last year's Jack Sing's "Peak Time" and managed to differentiate it. Jett Lee's kung fu style is realistic and violent, far from the witty antics of Jackie, and Sam Rockwell's white male counterpart is so weakened from his role as Chris Tucker in Peak Time that it's okay to call him a man.

However, the role still achieves the film's color balance very well.

In other highlights, "Hurricane Rescue" is a well executed, city-wide manhunt without a single point of urination, which is undoubtedly another key to its success.

The emotional resonance between the different races is once again achieved, with family ties at the core, and risking everything for loved ones.

Then there's Jet Li's transformation from a mediocre Vino Chinese man into a bloodthirsty killer who makes the entire human trafficking mafia in this film cringe, and fits the common Hollywood popcorn movie template that everyone has a superhero dream.

Finally, there's Chinese kung fu, which has been back in vogue in recent years.

All together, the film is a godsend if it doesn't work.

Chris Lee certainly understands the crux of John Kelly's question: can Sony follow suit?

Absolutely.

Chris Lee happens to have worked with the Hong Kong film community, and there are many kung fu stars on the other side of the world who are happy to work with Hollywood, however, whether or not they can do it to the extent that "Hurricane Rescue" did is the key question. As we all know, Hollywood inherently increases the risk by several levels for other types of films besides black and white. It's hard to say whether it would have failed more completely if it had just followed the trend.