Chapter 1155 Breaking the news
“Good morning, Russell.”
“It’s still early? It’s almost noon. The sun is good in New York today.”
“Indeed , rare. You just came back from swimming?"
"Yes, there was a magazine cover shoot in the afternoon. Is there a newspaper for today? ?”
"Sorry, they have all been distributed, and there are currently none in the restaurant."
"It doesn't matter, I will ask the assistant to buy one later."
Morning, New York Four Seasons Hotel, restaurant.
Russell Crowe looked relaxed and happy, and his mood was as bright as the rare late autumn sunshine in New York. It is not easy to maintain such a state during a busy and intensive promotional schedule, but it is obvious that he is in good condition——
The spring breeze is proud of the horse's hoof disease.
After a busy and intensive week of promotion, "The Last Day" received enthusiastic praise from the media, even surpassing "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind". All aspects are proving that this movie will create great results and usher in Russell's career A new peak, breaking the ceiling.
Next step?
Twenty million club!
Russell has his sights set on the target.
Two years ago, after winning the Oscar for Best Actor for the first time in his career, the entire Hollywood was discussing the so-called "Academic Curse", that is, after winning the Oscar, he could not accurately determine the follow-up of his career. In terms of development, it is difficult to find an accurate foothold between business and art, so that the career is stuck in a dilemma.
But now?
Russell easily broke the "Old Golden Man Curse". Not only did he successfully break it, but "The Furious Sea" is very likely to create a new career high for him.
Just like Tom Hanks back then.
"Forrest Gump" and "Philadelphia Story" allowed Tom Hanks to win the Oscar for Best Actor for two consecutive years, but then he also fell into some difficulties until "Saving Private Ryan" His perfect return broke the bottleneck, and no one could stop Tom's journey to the top.
Russell believes that he can follow Tom's path and climb to the top of Hollywood, and "The Rough Sea" is the last impact to break the shackles.
He is ready.
Comprehensive media reviews and praise.
Publicity and promotion are in full swing.
Talk shows, premieres, magazine interviews, post-screening meetings in different cities, etc., everything went smoothly.
The next step is the box office numbers.
Perhaps, the box office performance of "Fighting" should be comparable to that of "Gladiator" -
US$187 million in North America and US$460 million globally.
Russell knows that the box office performance of "Gladiator" is indeed very good, and it also has the bonus of the Oscar for Best Picture, but "The Fight" may not have no chance.
After all, "Battlefield" is a true genre blockbuster, with a production cost of as high as 150 million US dollars, which is 50 million US dollars higher than "Gladiator".
So, it’s worth looking forward to.
How much was the initial box office of "Gladiator"?
Russell's memory is already a little blurry, that was three full years ago -
2000. The opening weekend at that time seemed to be 30 million or 40 million; but he accurately remembered that word-of-mouth spread after the movie was released, and the third week was not over yet, and the cumulative box office number had exceeded 100 million.
Now, three years later, the market is different.
Moreover, the overall media review of "The Fight" is much higher than that of "Gladiator".
So, the opening weekend of "Fighting" should be at least 40 million, right?
Disturbing thoughts were surging in his mind, and then Russell saw his assistant and shouted loudly.
"Harry, get me a copy of The Times, or any other newspaper."
The assistant was trying to hide his figure, but was caught directly and hurriedly covered it up The embarrassment in his expression.
"Russell, there are no newspapers in the hotel."
Russell nodded, "Yes, I know. You go out and buy one. I don't know what happened today, but all the newspapers have been delivered."
Assistant: ...He can't say that he is an agent. Did he ask him to hide all the newspapers in the hotel?
So, what now? Do you really go downstairs to the newsstand? It would be suspicious if all the newspapers at the newsstands were sold out.
In the panic, the assistant suddenly thought, "We must go to the studio now. There is a serious traffic jam in Manhattan this time, and we can't be late."
"I'll go after we get to the studio. Buy a newspaper.”
The studio has also been completely cleaned and there will be no mistakes.
At that time, he told Russell that there were no newsstands around the studio, so wouldn’t the matter be solved?
Anyway, they can't let Russell see last weekend's North American box office rankings. They can push this matter back a little bit. The most basic thing is that they need to wait until the magazine shooting ends today before letting Russell know. It would be great if it could be postponed until the evening and Russell could forget about it after a glass of whiskey.
Sure enough, Russell was not suspicious.
“Are you leaving now? Okay, please pack your luggage quickly.”
The assistant let out a long breath and escaped, turned around and ran away quickly, lest he be caught again.
Finally!
Entering the accompanying vehicle arranged by the hotel, the assistant escorted Russell to the car.
Russell glanced casually and saw the driver flipping through the newspaper in his hand.
"Is this from today?"
The air suddenly became quiet.
The assistant's beauty turned pale, she held the luggage in her hand and stepped forward desperately, but her voice choked in her throat and she almost couldn't catch her breath.
"Yes." The driver said, "Do you want to read it?"
Russell, "This is the Times?"
He answered and took the newspaper.
The assistant had already rushed to the door of the car, braked suddenly, grimaced in pain, and closed his eyes tightly, unable to bear to witness a disaster unfolding before his eyes.
However, things happened after all, just one step away and the success fell short.
In the carriage, it was quiet, without any sound.
The assistant opened his eyes carefully, and at a glance he saw Russell sitting there with a dumbfounded face and a heavy face, staring at the newspaper.
No anger, no outbursts.
But this silence is even more frightening. Today may be very long.
North American weekend box office rankings for the third week of November 2003.
First, "Butterfly Effect", 45 million US dollars.
Second, "Elf," $27 million.
Third, "The Furious Sea", US$22 million.
A moment of astonishment.
No one expected that the "Butterfly Effect" would counterattack and become the weekend champion.
No one expected that "The Last Day" would not only lose to "The Butterfly Effect" but also to "Christmas Elf" which was released in its second week. The fig leaf was gone.
No one expected that the opening weekend box office of "The Wild Side" would even be less than half of "The Butterfly Effect". Even the boldest and craziest predictions could foresee that Anson would perform another miracle, but they would not dare to Predicting the scene in front of you can be called a prediction that will destroy everyone with all your heart.
Accidents came one after another; moreover, each one was more exaggerated than the last, and they came one after another and bombarded them wildly. Even the experts in the Hollywood industry were all disappointed, looking at this North American weekend box office ranking. At a loss——
How should it be viewed? How to evaluate?
Completely subverting everyone’s expectations.
The whole world seems to be different, no longer the way people know it.
How did this happen?
Because of this, Russell's agent and assistant tried their best to prevent him from seeing today's newspaper, but they did not expect that they would fall short in the end.
(End of this chapter)