Chapter 364 The Trend Has Been Set
The moment the first weekend box office of the North American summer season was released, everyone knew that "The Return of the King" had once again become the biggest winner of the summer season.
At night, the Los Angeles Times editorial office is brightly lit, and all editors are busy formatting the newspaper that will be published the next day.
Although the Internet has been developing for a long time, major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have their own official websites.
But now more and more people are still accustomed to reading paper newspapers. Maybe paper newspapers will be eliminated one day in the future, but it will not be at this time.
Editor-in-Chief Claude walked into the newsroom and asked, "What will be the headline tomorrow?"
One of my editors replied: "It's a matter in Washington."
"Remove it, we don't care about Washington." The editor-in-chief made a quick decision: "We put "Return of the King" on the front page, it is the front page headline."
Of course my editor understands. This means that the news about "The Return of the King" will not be placed on the front page of the entertainment section, but on the front page of the eight-page newspaper.
The editor-in-chief solemnly said: "The film has been a huge success, with the North American box office exceeding US$150 million in its first week. This is a new record and an incredible achievement.
I have never seen such a grand occasion. I must participate and witness history. "
"Got it!" The editor immediately made arrangements.
Early the next morning, the front pages of both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times reported on the record-breaking box office performance of "The Return of the King."
Two of the three largest newspapers in North America by circulation gave it ample space.
Only the "Washington Post" has always been biased against little Gilbert. Not only did it not give a front page headline, it didn't even give it a front page in the entertainment section.
Not only that, the "Washington Post" also made strong criticism.
Previously, Sarah, the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Business Journal, said that "The Return of the King" would surpass the box office of "Titanic", and the "Washington Post" scoffed.
"The box office of "The Return of the King" cannot even surpass that of "The Two Towers". Excessive marketing caused too many viewers to enter the cinema, resulting in a weak follow-up..."
Scarlett read the newspaper to little Gilbert, clenching her little hands into fists, and said with some disdain: "Is this newspaper sick? What does it mean that the newspaper is weak?
I see that there are also many people who go to the cinema on weekdays. How come there is no follow-up? "
Little Gilbert raised his eyebrows and said: "Actually, I think what the Washington Post said is reasonable. It did consume too much enthusiasm from movie fans in the first three days of the weekend."
Scarlett asked: "Can "The Return of the King" surpass the box office of "Titanic"?"
"I'm not sure," little Gilbert himself was a little doubtful.
In fact, he originally thought that "The Return of the King" would not surpass the box office of "Titanic". Although "Titanic"'s weekly box office does not seem to be high, it is very strong.
As the "Washington Post" said, "The Return of the King" attracted too many movie fans into the theater during its first weekend.
When it set a super high first weekend box office record, it also consumed too much enthusiasm from movie fans.
Generally speaking, North American audiences have a lot of summer movies to choose from. They can usually watch two or three movies in a summer, and they are at least middle-class people.
If you are a blue-collar worker, going to the movies once a summer is a big deal.
But such a high first-week box office also gave little Gilbert some hope. Maybe, maybe "The Return of the King" will create a miracle.
But it has to be said that as modern life becomes faster and faster, one thing that is obvious in the film market is that the screening cycle of a film has shortened.
In the 1990s, a big-selling commercial movie could usually stay in theaters for more than 20 weeks, and longer than 30 weeks. For example, "Titanic" stayed in theaters for more than 60 weeks.
But now, as the first weekend box office becomes more and more important, accounting for one-third or even one-half or two-thirds of a film's total box office, the screening period has also been shortened.
Of course, this does not mean that there will be no opportunities if the screening cycle is short. After all, at the beginning of this year, theaters also increased movie ticket prices. This is the second time since the 1990s that movie ticket prices have been increased.
At the beginning of the millennium, due to the popularity of doomsday talk, many people were intoxicated, so the price of movie tickets increased.
The price increase at the beginning of the year was due to the impact of September 11 last year, and the price of movie tickets also increased.
So some smart people will discover the fact that once something bad happens, it is the film market that often benefits.
Maybe many people think they need to enjoy themselves in time and watch more movies before disaster?
In short, this strange phenomenon helped "The Return of the King" set a super high box office record.
Of course, if the movie itself is not impressive, no matter how high the movie ticket price is, it will not help.
After the first weekend, ABC TV station invited the "Lord of the Rings" crew to appear on the show on Monday.
Little Gilbert did not participate. Now that "The Return of the King" has gained momentum, he, the director, will not participate in the promotion of the third film.
On the show, the film's leading actors Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and others focused on sharing some interesting things during the filming of "The Lord of the Rings".
The film's producer Kane Waxman said: "I can say that the "Lord of the Rings" project was the most difficult and most energy-consuming project that Gilbert and I have ever worked on.
We have made a lot of efforts to complete this epic masterpiece. "
The program also released an interview with Spielberg. He is recognized as the guide for little Gilbert to enter Hollywood, and is also Little Gilbert’s self-acknowledged teacher. Spielberg’s evaluation is very objective: “Looking at Hollywood, all A series of movies will only have a second one after the first one.
But little Gilbert shot three consecutive films, leaving no escape route for himself.
Little Gilbert mentioned this series to me a long time ago. At that time, I advised him to think carefully about the future and not to shoot such a difficult project based on enthusiasm.
But little Gilbert is very determined. He said that he is a loyal fan of "The Lord of the Rings" and he will regret it for the rest of his life if he does not put this masterpiece on the big screen.
Many people say that the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is the crystallization of the Hollywood film industry, and attribute the film's success to the advancement of film technology.
This is true, and only the technology of this era provides the possibility of filming "Lord of the Rings".
But what I want to say is that talent is the decisive factor in how a movie is, and it definitely does not just rely on technological progress.
I want to say that "The Lord of the Rings" would never have been so successful if it had been put into the hands of anyone else..."
Spielberg rarely came out for interviews, and he also praised the "Lord of the Rings" movie and little Gilbert. No one was surprised.
This summer, there is little competition between the films produced and distributed by DreamWorks and "The Return of the King."
Putting aside the calculations of commercial interests, Spielberg is undoubtedly a good senior and mentor, at least to little Gilbert.
Finally, the program also listed a lot of data: "Look at the great work done by the "Lord of the Rings" project team. It took more than two years for Gilbert to prepare the script alone.
The preliminary preparations took two years, and the filming took more than a year. "
“There are a few numbers that illustrate the incredible work that this great film series has done.
6: 6 years, the time when Little Gilbert and others worked on "The Lord of the Rings".
28: The number of major characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
68: The number of scale models produced by Orange Studio for the three "Lord of the Rings" films.
100: In the early stages of filming, the art department had to show little Gilbert more than 100 storyboard sketches every day.
300: The number of layers required for the most complex specific scenes in The Lord of the Rings. A layer is an element that needs to be synthesized. The more layers there are, the more complex the composition will be.
350: The number of people who worked on "The Lord of the Rings" at Orange Studios.
1500: The number of stunt shots in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
5000: The number of extras and war horses used to film the Battle of Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Black Gate.
48,000: The total number of props produced by Xiangcheng Studio and the props team. "
These quantities are usually not listed together and I would think that the filming of the "Lord of the Rings" series is actually very simple, but it is not. Listing these data, the public can understand the efforts that Gilbert Jr. put in for this movie.
Of course, the difficulty is actually lower for Little Gilbert. After all, he has a reference. Peter Jackson is really crossing the river by feeling the stones and is not sure.
But even so, such a huge project cannot be won by non-Hollywood first-line directors.
Directors in the independent film circle look down on directors in the mainstream film circle, especially independent film directors who criticize Little Gilbert.
But letting these people make "Lord of the Rings" guarantees that the trilogy will be a hit.
Of course, people in the independent film community would not think that the film was a hit. They will only think that the audience is too rubbish and does not have enough appreciation level to appreciate their great works.
Indeed, the audience cannot appreciate those insane works.
And the film company will not invest US$350 million to support an independent film director to shoot three insane works.
Although box office statistics are a little slow in several regions where the film was released, the first weekend box office in all markets will be released by Tuesday of the second week at the latest.
Needless to say, in North America, the film earned US$52.409 million in the UK during its first weekend, which is the highest box office record in the UK's history.
The whole British people love the "Lord of the Rings" movie series, and even the British royal family is a fan of the "Lord of the Rings" series. It is unexpected and reasonable to achieve such results.
In France, "Return of the King" also earned US$32.235 million. Although French filmmakers have repeatedly resisted, honest French fans made their choice with movie tickets.
In Germany, "Return of the King" grossed US$38.75 million in its first weekend, making it the second largest market in Europe after the United Kingdom.
The box office in Italy in the first weekend was US$15.572 million. Despite the economic downturn, the Italian people still like this movie very much.
It is said that in order to go to the cinema to watch "The Return of the King" more times, several young Italians ate bread distributed by the church for two weeks.
The rest of the market also performed well, with a total of US$42.23 million received.
Therefore, after the North American box office shocked the entire North America, "The Return of the King" once again successfully won the world's first weekly box office championship in the summer with a box office of 336 million US dollars in its first weekend.
But this is not the end. With the arrival of the next weekend, "Return of the King" will be launched in more markets one after another, and the trend is set.
(End of chapter)