Hollywood Hunter

The end of the Day of Independent Day holiday, a new box office week opened on July 9, the North American theater is still three new films.

Paramount’s fantasy comedy "Pointed Alien" starred in the former "Ghostbusters" actor Dan Aykroyd, and opened a screen with 2117 blocks.

"Justins writing poetry" by Columbia Pictures is an all-black drama series, directed by John Singleton, a black director who was nominated for Oscar for Best Director by "Block Boys" last year. Michael Jackson’s Sister starring Jenny Jackson, the story tells the story of Justins, a hairdresser starring Jenny Jackson, who struggled to get out of underestimation and restart her life after her boyfriend was avenged to death. The film opened with 1,365 screens.

Fox's "Golden Arms" is a fantasy baseball-themed family comedy, telling the story of a little boy who unexpectedly gained divine power and became a master baseball player. The number of screens in the first week was 1460.

Since the summer season, the heavyweight movies of this year have basically entered the cinema.

Including the three new movies this week, in the second half of the summer file, except for the "Goose Assassination Order" cooperated by Daenerys and Warner Brothers next week, other projects have not been too impressed in Simon's memory, and there may be a dark box office. Sex is very small.

This actually also means that the films released before July 9, as long as the word of mouth and popularity are good enough, are enough to get out of a very beautiful box office curve in the days after the summer file.

However, according to statistics, this summer season, only 3 movies have been identified or expected to enter the 100 million box office club, namely "Superman", "Sea Sleepless" and "Sugar Trap".

Among them, "Superman" is completely an alternative to other Hollywood studios that can only envy jealousy and hate. "Seattle Sleepless" and "Sugar Trap" are quite normal in comparison.

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

In fact, there are actually many projects that this summer file tries to impact the 100 million yuan box office club.

Columbia's "Breakfast", Warner Bros. "Made in America", Disney's "Super Mario Bros.", Paramount's "The Value of the Adams Family", Columbia's "Phantom Heroes", Colombia's "Honeymoon Dangerous Period" , Fox's "Sun Rising", seven movies, either a blockbuster with a big investment and a big production, or a super game IP, or a sequel to a previous blockbuster movie, or a comedy big man who got a super high box office in the previous game, It can be said that whether it is the project investment, the main lineup or the scale of the announcement, they are all going to the North American box office to break through 100 million.

But the results are not satisfactory.

Projects such as Ubi Goldberg's "Made in America" ​​and Fox's "Sun Rising" are actually pretty good. Although the hope of breaking 100 million, the relatively impressive box office can allow the studio to reap good profits.Projects such as Disney's "Super Mario Bros." or Columbia Pictures' "Phantom Heroes", because of the huge production and budget, bring to the film company nothing.

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

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

In a market with limited capacity, the good cards of Daenerys Entertainment 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 even worse, they may be able to pick a general in the dwarf. Projects such as "Breakfast" can even achieve a North American box office break of 100 million.The reality is that under the impact of the phenomenal "Superman", the box office of many films is much lower than in history.

The most typical one is "Breakfast".

In the original space and time, the North American box office of "Breakfast" which cost US$70 million exceeded US$80 million.

This time, under the attack of "Superman", as of July 8, the cumulative box office of "Breakfast" was only $66.39 million, 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 the next shift.

Moreover, this is only the United States.

Superman's suppression of other Hollywood films in overseas markets is even more obvious.

Even if several important ticket warehouses such as France and Germany have not been released, the cumulative box office of Superman in the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Italy, Australia, and many other overseas countries has also been drawn in the past month. The momentum of breaking through the $300 million mark quickly.

The capacity in overseas markets is also limited.

It’s just that “Superman” has strongly acquired more than 300 million US dollars at the box office. The DC movie cosmic blockbuster created by Daenerys Entertainment has a good appetite. Stallone and Schwarzenegger, which were very popular in overseas markets, Ka Xin film will inevitably be left out.

This time, Stallone's "Breakfast" has accumulated less than US$50 million at the overseas box office as of early July. It is expected that it will barely break through 100 million after the release is fully rolled out.As a result, Northwest Box Office has about 70 million box offices in North America and 100 million overseas. The total box office in the world is expected 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 break-even.

Obviously, the total box office expectation of "The Unstoppable Mountain" of 170 million dollars in the world can not allow Columbia Pictures to recover the 70 million US dollars of production budget and the equally expensive publicity investment. The producer can only rely on channels such as video tapes to slowly recover the previous Huge investment.

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

In the past two years, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and other stars have continued to lose the blockbuster action blockbuster, making Hollywood more aware that this type of film is gradually being eliminated by the market. trend.

Moreover, special effects blockbusters such as the DC movie universe and "Jurassic Park" should be the future of Hollywood.A DC movie universe project or "Jurassic Park" will bring enough profits to equal the profits 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 movie special effects software, but compared with Daenerys special effects, there is a big gap.

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

Daenerys special effects have maintained the attitude of external cooperation in recent years, but other film companies will not be naive to think that Simon will really open up the technology to them.Once there are enough projects to threaten Daenerys entertainment, it is almost inevitable to be suppressed.

Moreover, at this stage, the scale of Daenerys special effects, even including the rapidly developing Australian special effects branch, is only enough to meet the needs of Daenerys Entertainment itself and the cooperation projects with other studios. If other studios If you want to get the full support of Daenerys special effects, you don’t even need to deliberately find excuses, because you can’t do it at all.

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

At this stage, it is still necessary to consider the matter at hand.

Fox has been struggling with the new movie Arnold Schwarzenegger recently cooperated with.

This is a remake of the French film "The Complete Woman" called "True Lies", which tells the story of a federal agent who has to conceal his identity from his family for professional reasons.

Fox signed a contract with Schwarzenegger and James Cameron in the early stages of "Phantom Heroes" in March of the beginning of the year. Arnold received a $15 million remuneration equivalent to "Phantom Heroes" this time.

Signing a contract with a studio before a movie is released is actually a strategy for many celebrities.

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

After all, the chances of Hollywood movies failing are often much higher than the possibility of box office sales. Mike Myers' "Dangerous Honeymoon", which was launched on the Independence Day holiday, is the most direct case.Myers originally hoped to rely on this new film to prove his box office appeal in order to gain more initiative in the "Anti-Fight Multi-Star 3" negotiations with Daenerys Entertainment.

As a result, the $20 million investment in "Dangerous Honeymoon" received only $5.36 million at the box office in the first week. Columbia Pictures provided as many as 1,731 screens for the comedy. As a result, the film's museums are less than $3,000, which is completely two. The fate of the next week's file, the project's total North American box office is also difficult to exceed 10 million.

With a total investment of over US$30 million in production and distribution, the box office received less than US$10 million, and the Colombian management was almost crying.

Mike Myers deliberately procrastinated to sign the third contract in order to get a higher salary after the success of "Anti-Intelligence Multi-Star 2". As a result, the failure of "Dangerous Honeymoon" made the comedian hit a nose. gray.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is much smarter in this regard.

Or, mainly because of Schwarzenegger's up to 15 million US dollars in remuneration, there is not much room for selling.

The new project contract after "Phantom Heroes" was settled in advance, and it is a Pay or contract that requires full payment regardless of whether or not the movie is launched. It can be said to sit firmly on the Diaoyutai, which makes Fox extremely uncomfortable.

The consecutive box-office losses of "Breakfast" and "Phantom Heroes" during the summer season made Fox regret that he signed this large-scale production film with Schwarzenegger's initial budget cost of up to $70 million. You must know that the film director James Cameron is notoriously overspending, and Fox is almost certain that $70 million is simply not enough for Cameron.

Because the mind of Fox’s behind-the-scenes boss Rupert Murdoch is more focused on the expansion of the TV network, he is not very interested in high-risk and low-return movie investments. Daenerys Entertainment snatched away, and Fox Pictures could only be said to be lukewarm in recent years.

This time, once the conservatively estimated "Real Lies", which will require an investment of $70 million, fails, Fox Film President Joe Rose can be sure that he only has a way 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 will certainly not work.

The best way is undoubtedly to find a partner.

The projects in the hands of Hollywood's top stars are basically the focus of attention of the senior executives of major studios.

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

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

More importantly, Simon is very distraught about the heroine of the original "Real Lies" Jamie Lee Curtis.Curtis is not ugly, but for some reason, Simon always thinks that the other person is a man, so in the "Real Lies" section, the dance that made many young people who were first exposed to Hollywood blockbusters sighed and sighed in the eyes of Simon. It was really spicy eyes, so when I was in touch with the script, I chose PASS directly without turning it.

It's 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 excellent vision in film investment.

This time, when Fox tried to seek a partner to share the risks of "The Real Lie", Simon's previous news of the same PASS dropping this project unknowingly spread again.

Westeros rejected "Phantom Heroes", a project that left Columbia Pictures with a nosebleed.

Now, Westeros has rejected "True Lies". What kind of movie can this be?

Joe Ross, the president of Fox Pictures, contacted a circle, and even there were overseas capitals like Carlock and Constantine who like to be wronged, but they repeatedly hit the wall.

He had to turn to Daenerys for entertainment.

Knowing that the studio was caught in the "True Lie" dilemma, Rupert Murdoch personally made several calls to Simon, and News Corporation could not afford the loss of $70 million in investment. "Phantom Hero" has a big head, and Fox Films is about to hurt.

Simon does not have a cold for "True Lies", but knows that the project is generally profitable.

After a bit of squeezing, finally "barely" agreed to discuss the possibility of cooperation with Joe Ross.

"Real Lies" is expected to be scheduled for the summer of next year, and two projects of Daenerys Entertainment next summer, "Batman: The Rise of the Dark Knight" and "Forrest Gump", are already sufficient to support the company's performance, and do not need to Add another "True Lies".However, after the 007 series was forced to be shelved by Simon, MGM just happened to be missing a blockbuster.

After making some minor adjustments to the "Real Lies" script in person, Simon also proposed his own cooperation plan.

First of all, the project is a collaboration between Fox and MGM, with each party bearing 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 remuneration must be reduced, and the two companies can only give $10 million.In addition, the project budget is $70 million. Once overruns, director James Cameron's fixed remuneration is cancelled, and only a subsequent 10% of the project's net profit share can be obtained.

If there is a net profit.

At last!

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

In fact, except for the last point, the other few are just Simon sitting on the floor.

The more demanding the requirements, the greater the pressure on Fox and Schwarzenegger.

As for the agreement that has been reached, if Schwarzenegger finally refuses to give in, in Simon's view this is understandable.

The spirit of the contract must still be observed.

Of course, once the project fails in the future, Schwarzenegger, who now takes $15 million in compensation but leaves a huge loss to the producer, will not be too good in Hollywood in the future.If you can take the initiative to reduce some of the pay, in the final analysis, you are also leaving room for yourself.

If it is too easy to agree to cooperation, it is difficult to say that Fox or other Hollywood studios will not react.

Now, Westero's requirements are so demanding, and it's just that MGM and Fox are collaborating. Obviously, they don't have much confidence in this project.