Hollywood Hunter

Chicago.

The time is nine o'clock in the evening of Central Time. After watching the latest "Rainman", the famous film critic Roger Albert and his friend Jean Siskoll came out of the theater together. Since 1975, Roger · Albert and Jean Siskoll hosted the film critic talk show "Siskoll and Albert" on Chicago local TV station.

Thinking of the recent undercurrents in the circle, Roger Albert with a bitter smile on his face asked his friend: "Jean, what are you going to do?"

Gene Siskoll also hesitated.

A few days ago, some people secretly tried to attack "Death Poetry Society", but the attitude of this force was not too firm, and the quality of "Death Poetry Society" itself was undoubted, plus Daenerys Entertainment’s After a week of strong public relations, "Death Poetry Society" still has a very strong reputation.

But this time, CAA President Michael Ovitz personally called the phone and asked if they were interested in a special interview with Robert Redford on their TV show. The topic was Sundance in January next year. Film Festival.

If a big star like Robert Redford can attend "Siskoll and Albert", the two will naturally be desperate.Then, Ovitz mentioned "Rainman".

Everyone is smart.

Although Michael Ovitz didn’t make certain things on the phone, he was not likely to say clearly that I hope you can give some words to the bad reviews of "Rainman", but Roger Albert And Jean Siskor did not understand how.

However, after watching the movie just now, both of them realized that "Rainman" is definitely a rare and excellent film, far from being so badly rendered by some media during this time.

Roger Albert and Gene Siskoel now have a dilemma.

Although Michael Ovitz only promised benefits on the phone, they did not think that if they ignored each other's wishes, the two would simply lose a chance to interview Redford.

As CAA has accumulated more and more first-line superstars in recent years, this talent agency's influence in Hollywood has even exceeded any of the Big Seven.

Film critics ultimately rely on movies to survive, and it is best to first-hand movie information.

If the two actually give "Rainman" a positive evaluation, then the two of them will likely lose a lot of opportunities to participate in the trial screening of the CAA star's film in the next period of time.

However, if the "Rainman" is given a bad review regardless of the facts, once the overall trend of the film criticism tends to be positive, the credibility of the two will be hit.Film critics rely on word-of-mouth to eat, and there is no shortage of competitors, so the obvious reversal of the right and wrong will definitely usher in the attack of competitors.

The two discussed while walking, and finally finally found a coffee shop. After careful consideration, Roger Albert finally made a decision to postpone the publication of the "Rainman" movie review.If the word-of-mouth of the next film is well received, he can't go against the trend.If the response is mediocre, although this is unlikely, he can also be a'shunshuirenqing'.

Many times, human behavior patterns will always have surprising similarities.

When Roger Albert made the decision to postpone the publication of the "Rainman" film review, many media across North America that had been hit by the CAA had very clever ideas.

So early in the morning on Saturday, many mainstream newspapers in North America appeared to be silent about "Rain Man".

Malibu.

Simon soon saw the first-day box office statistics for "Rainman" after getting up early.

$2.1 million.

Although it is a preliminary estimate, the detailed figures should not be far behind.

However, this number is less than half of the first day of "Scream" during Halloween.The screams are still relatively indifferent, but they still got the first-day box office of $4.5 million at the time, but the first day of "Rainman" was only $2.1 million.

Although the film suffered a lot of criticism in the early stage, Daenerys Entertainment has also invested enough marketing resources.

Simon previously predicted that the first-day box office of "Rainman" should be at least about 2.5 million US dollars, so as to ensure that the film's first-week box office is not less than 10 million US dollars.In this era, the box office of a film was less than 10 million US dollars in the first week. The starting point is too low, and the subsequent box office will not be able to do much.

Right now, the box office at the first day is $2.1 million, and the first week of "Rainman" is probably only about $8 million.

With a start of $8 million, even if Simon no longer has confidence in "Rainman", he doesn't think the film can still get the North American box office with more than $170 million in space and time.

Did it still fail?

After breakfast, I rushed to the company as usual, because most of the working day was spent on Batman. Simon had to take advantage of the weekend to handle some corporate affairs as much as possible.

Sitting in the office, Burbank also quickly passed the news report of "Rainman" and many mainstream media's collective "dumb fire" news today.Simon sent away the female secretary Susan Landis who had been lingering in front of him more and more attentively these days, only to open the media feedback report.

When Jennifer pushed the door in, Simon had just finished reading the report.

Although newspapers such as "Variety" and "Hollywood Reporter" did not publish film reviews in the first time, in North America, which has more than 2,000 newspapers, the news of "Rainman" is naturally impossible to be completely blocked.

Overall, the film review of "Rainman" is much higher than the previous "Death Poetry Society". The Los Angeles Times, which has a good relationship with Daenerys Entertainment, praised this film as a "heart-warming warmth." masterpiece'.

Putting down the file, Simon noticed that Jennifer carefully placed a stack of scripts in front of him, relaxed his expression and ridiculed, "Why are you so careful? I'm worried that I will suddenly transform and eat you?"

Jennifer pushed the stack of scripts towards Simon, and looked at Simon seriously across the desk: "I went to the cinema last night to watch "Rainman", and the audience around liked it."

Simon didn't take this topic from Jennifer, noticing that the female assistant still pressed the little white hand on the script, reached out and tried to press on it, but Jennifer escaped subconsciously, looking at the big empty hand with a red face. :"this is not good."

Simon flipped his palm over his palm and smiled, "I'm about to lose a lot of money, please comfort me."

"Yes, not so much." Jennifer said so, hesitating a little, but still reached out and patted Simon's big hand.She thought she would be caught and squeezed by Simon, and the man didn't do it. She took back her hand casually, looking at the stack of scripts she just sent: "The project of "Rocket Expert", you seem to be early. It was rejected, and there are several other scripts that were eliminated by you. Now what do you want these projects to do?"

Simon withdrew his hand and said, "Give it away."

Jennifer wondered: "Who gives it away?"

"Give it to anyone who wants it," Simon didn't hide too much, and said: "Maybe I'm a little suspicious, but, just try it and you will know."

Jennifer understood and said, "You mean, commercial spy?"

Simon nodded and said, "Okay, you don't need to ignore these things, just concentrate on doing your job."

Janet heard Simon say this, knowing that he just didn’t want to touch the dark side of the business himself, and didn’t mean to trust her, pursed his lips and said, “I can help you.”

"Of course," Simon said firmly, "but some things don't need you to do, now, go back to your office."

This tone of coaxing the little girl made Jennifer feel sweet and dissatisfied. When she turned obediently and walked out, she couldn't help but say: "I'm not a little girl."

Simon waited for Jennifer to leave, took the stack of scripts, picked them, and selected two.

One is the "Rocket Expert" that Simon planned to take down as "Sand" last year, and the other is the military theme film "Firebird Attack" that imitates "Zhuangzhi Lingyun".

In memory, these two films are high-budget failures.

The original "Rocket Expert" was produced by Disney, which burned more than 60 million US dollars in production and distribution costs, but the North American box office was only more than 40 million US dollars. Although it is not an absolute failure, this one occupies a lot of money and the most. The box office of the high-quality project did not meet expectations, which was a heavy blow to Disney.

Another "Firebird Attack" tells the story of the Apache Helicopter Team. Simon only remembered it because it wanted to continue the glory of "Aspirational Cloud". Although I don't remember the film's detailed budget and box office figures, this He failed to remember the result of the box office failure of the project.

If someone is really using commercial espionage, these two projects will be sent out. If all of them fail, at least a large film company will be able to replace a few senior executives.

Simon seriously added a misleading comment to the two scripts. Half an hour later, Amy knocked on the door and Simon put the two scripts away in the file cabinet at his feet. Mi left the company headquarters together.

After this period of operation, Daenerys Entertainment has successfully obtained the mountainside plot in Malibu. Simon and Amy agreed to check it out in person today.

The two came to the parking lot. Amy didn't drive, but got on Simon's Land Rover.

After the car started, it was inevitable to talk about "Rainman", and Amy talked about another thing: "Yesterday was the last deadline of the contract. Orion did not call the share of "Pulp Fiction". we."

Out of considerations such as tax avoidance, Simon's and Orion's cooperation in "Pulp Fiction" completely went through the company channel of Daenerys Entertainment, not personal cooperation with him.

According to the original contract, Orion needs to settle the share of Daenerys Entertainment due within one month of the "Pulp Fiction"."Pulp Fiction" is downgraded on November 17, yesterday was December 16, and the last day of the working day. Under normal circumstances, Orion must definitely divide 10% of the box office to pay to Danielle before this day. Silk Entertainment.

Starting from "Rola Run", the subsequent "Death is Coming", "When Harry Meets Sally" and other projects, obviously due to the good cooperative relationship in the future, several movie companies have not defaulted. The share of Daenerys Entertainment should be paid.

Simon is very aware of the current status of Hollywood film companies defaulting on the division of independent producers, but he did not expect his company to suddenly face this situation.

However, he was not surprised.

Counting a "Stolen Heart" released yesterday with "Rainman", Orion released a total of 17 movies this year.

According to the data seen in the morning, the first day of "The Heart Thief" was only 1.2 million US dollars at the box office, which is obviously another failed work.Prior to this, in addition to "Pulp Fiction", the best box office in the other films was only the baseball star biographical film "Millions of Golden Arms" starring Kevin Costner, the North American box office was 50.88 million US dollars.

Moreover, among all projects, there are only five films with a box office in North America exceeding US$20 million.

According to the rapidly rising film production costs in recent years, North America’s box office is US$20 million, and Orion can ensure full cost recovery through subsequent omni-channel operations. Below US$20 million, even if you can pay back, it will take a long time to operate, which is basically The above is a loss.

In a comprehensive calculation, all 17 films of Orion this year can ensure that only 5 films are returned, and the other 12 films are basically loss-making in the short term.

After fulfilling the contract of "Pulp Fiction", Daenerys Entertainment's chances of cooperating with Orion in the future are very slim, and most of the projects in the year have suffered losses. At this time, Orion can only rely on default to maintain operations.

Thinking about this, Simon asked Amy: "Did Mike Medova call you?"

Amy nodded and said, "He said Orion can't get the money right now, I hope we can postpone it for a month."

Simon smiled. Since he started to default, a month later, Daenerys Entertainment should still not get it: "Is it okay to share other projects?"

"No, Fox has settled the box office share of "Instinct", a total of 32.29 million US dollars, and the major TV networks will basically settle the accounts before the end of the month."

Simon thought for a while and said, "You keep staring. Orion is no longer delayed for a few months. Everyone knows their situation, but if it has been maliciously delayed, we will file a lawsuit."

The two said that the car soon reached the hillside that was about to be used to build Daenerys Entertainment Studios.

Busy, two days passed quickly on the weekend.

"Rainman" US$2.1 million on the first day, the box office at the first week is expected to be only US$8 million. Even at a 20% weekly drop, the North American box office for this film may only be over US$30 million, compared to US$40 million. Total investment, Daenerys Entertainment's loss seems to have become a foregone conclusion.

However, to everyone's surprise, after the first day of 2.1 million, the following two days, "Rainman" single-day box office has been showing an upward trend against the market, which should have fallen from the Sunday when the box office declined on Saturday, and even appeared A reverse situation.

When the box office was released in the first weekend, the media was surprised to find that the box office of "Rainman" had reached 7.28 million US dollars in the first three days of the first weekend, which was close to the media's general seven-day box office forecast.