Chapter 530 The Heat Gap
"Satomi, sit down and have breakfast."
Cameron Diaz greeted her warmly, and Satomi Ishihara was embarrassed to sit at the dining table, like a shy little daughter-in-law.
Ivanka glanced sideways over there and concentrated on the breakfast in her hand.
Little Gilbert, who was sitting at the main table, had eaten well and had finished his meal and was reading the newspaper.
"It seems that the public opinion of "Kingdom of Heaven" is not very good. The box office at midnight was only 3.47 million US dollars, and the newspapers were basically full of criticism." Little Gilbert said.
Ivanka added: "The performance of "Kingdom of Heaven" at the premiere was terrible, and the audience had no reason to support a movie that was not good to watch.
Warner will naturally not miss this opportunity, and other companies have also fallen into trouble. "
Gilbert Jr. said: "The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film for being filled with battle after battle throughout its two hours.
And these battles are so mixed together that the audience can't expect to get anything else from the movie except tattered, old clothes and long, dirty hair. "
"It's very fitting," said Cameron Diaz: "Sofia said that she went to the premiere and saw the film basically like this."
"Also, here's Roger Ebert's criticism. His is longer. I'll read it to you."
Little Gilbert turned out the "Chicago Sun-Times" and read: "The greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses of epic films are undoubtedly revealed in "Kingdom of Heaven."
The advantage is that it has spectacular scenes, and this kind of visual appeal can often transcend national boundaries and cultural barriers; the disadvantage is that spectacular scenes often conflict with the development of drama.
Because drama usually comes from the conflict of characters' personalities, and the scene will cover up these factors, just like the contradiction between trees and forest.
The individual trees are the driving force of the drama, but the forest has a powerful presence and a selling point. It is not impossible to see the forest again for the trees, but it will be a little more difficult.
This comment is interesting, as it seems to be giving advice to Director Scott. "
Ivanka bit the bread and said: "Roger Ebert still saved Ridley Scott's face and did not criticize him, otherwise his mouth could kill Ridley Scott."
"Maybe it was Gladiator that left a deep impression. At that time, Roger Ebert also said that Ridley Scott was one of the best directors in Hollywood. You can't slap him in the face now, right?" Came Ron Diaz said.
"That's right." Ivanka agreed.
Of course, it’s not that there have been people who said bad things about “Kingdom of Heaven”. For example, the New York Times said:
""Kingdom of Heaven" was well filmed. Ridley Scott's technique of describing the personal hero's perspective is still sophisticated. The actors' performances also really contributed a lot, and the plot and dialogue design are also profound.
In the film, the confrontation between the Crusaders and the Muslims in Jerusalem, the three days and three nights of legion fighting, is grand, and the love story between the male and female protagonists is also worth watching.
So why didn't the film achieve the desired reputation? Simply put, there have been too many films of this type in recent years. I can't wait to take out all the production of several years.
Epic films are somewhat similar to war films. Compared with the majestic atmosphere of "Lord of the Rings" and the real cruelty of "Saving Private", there is no breakthrough in the scenes, and the degree of shocking the soul is naturally greatly reduced. "
The New York Times believes that what happened at the film's premiere and the poor performance at the midnight show have little to do with the quality of the film itself, but rather due to aesthetic fatigue caused by too many films of the same type taking root in recent years.
The New York Times also cited "Batman Begins" as an example, saying that Gilbert Jr. did a great job.
He used a new production concept to produce Batman movies and gave the Batman series new life.
More importantly, breaking away from the production methods of previous superhero blockbusters is one of the reasons why the film performed well at premieres and midnight screenings. Ridley Scott arrived at the 20th Century Fox Film Headquarters in Century City early in the morning.
He got the midnight box office data, and the midnight box office of $3.47 million stung his eyes. It would be okay if it were an ordinary film, but the investment for "Kingdom of Heaven" was US$130 million.
This midnight box office is absolutely unacceptable for a blockbuster film with an investment of over 100 million.
But what can Ridley Scott do? Twentieth Century Fox didn't listen to him.
Rejecting his own version of three hours and fourteen minutes, he cut the film into pieces, leaving only two hours and twenty-five minutes in length.
In this way, the theater schedule can produce one or two more films every day, but the whole story becomes fragmented and no longer complete.
Ridley Scott looked at the midnight box office of "Batman Begins" again, which was $7.73 million, a satisfactory result.
But don’t forget, this is a movie franchise that’s already died once, and this midnight box office means the Batman movie is alive again.
Of course, it may also be because Gilbert Jr.'s personal box office appeal is too strong.
Whether this series can actually survive depends on the box office performance on the first day or even the first week.
However, the film's reputation from preview screenings to premieres and after the midnight show was much better than "Kingdom of Heaven", which is obviously a good sign.
Good news for "Batman Begins" means bad news for "Kingdom," and Ridley Scott has been feeling bad since yesterday.
After little Gilbert here finished breakfast, he asked Ishihara Satomi: "Satomi, do you want to go to the studio with me, or stay at home."
Satomi Ishihara whispered: "I'll follow you to the studio!"
"Okay," little Gilbert agreed.
The four of them took a car and came to Xigua Studio to handle work. At this time, a Batmobile parade was held simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York.
The Los Angeles side consists of a fleet of sixteen tanks, plus sixteen stunt drivers wearing bat suits, which attracted the attention of many people.
The motorcade started from the Chinese Theater and passed through famous streets and landmarks in Los Angeles such as the Avenue of Stars, Sunset Boulevard, and Hollywood Boulevard.
The same goes for New York, starting from Times Square and passing through Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, Central Park, Madison Square and other areas.
Both parades attracted tens of thousands of spectators, and were followed up by several television stations. NBC even broadcast the entire event live.
Starring Christian Bale and Liam Neeson attended the Los Angeles scene, while actors including Jennifer Connelly and Gary Oldman attended the New York one.
It can be said that this parade has completely attracted the attention of movie fans, and its popularity easily surpassed "Kingdom of Heaven".
This is even more obvious on the Internet. On the watermelon social networking site, more than 600,000 related entries about "Batman Begins" have been forwarded and shared, while there are only more than 110,000 entries about "Kingdom of Heaven".
On the watermelon video sharing website, the number of views of the final trailer of "Batman Begins" has exceeded 2 million, and the number of views of "Kingdom of Heaven" has exceeded 2 million.
In the latest hot search list on Banana search, "Batman Begins" has five entries in the top ten, while "Kingdom of Heaven" has only one.
This one is still tenth. The reason why it is on the list is because the film dissatisfied the audience and was scolded in the trending search.
(End of chapter)