Chapter 295 Key Weapon
For Disney, the 2001 summer season was a disaster.
Originally, the 2000 summer season was bad enough -
"Gone in 60", "Shanghai Noon", "Turn the World Around", "Business as usual" and other highly anticipated films The performance of the works was lower than expected. In the end, Disney's only summer movie with a box office of over 100 million in North America was the animated film "Dinosaur". This is obviously not the answer to the summer movie that Disney hopes to see.
But I didn’t expect that this year I would be able to continue to push the bottom line and stretch my hips even more!
"Pearl Harbor" is the blockbuster of the year. Not only Disney has given it the highest level of treatment, but the overwhelming publicity has lasted for more than six months; the entire North American region and the entire Hollywood have also paid close attention to it.
Director Michael Bay, who launched his career with "Bad Boys" and "Battlefield", is in charge of directing, and later legendary gold medal producer Jerry Bruckheimer (who later created the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series) ( Jerry-Bruckheimer serves as producer.
Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Beckinsale defeated a number of strong opponents to form the golden triangle of the cast.
The creative team showed great confidence in the film. Faced with the high production costs, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer voluntarily gave up their box office dividends, and the three leading actors also voluntarily reduced their salaries to ensure Every production cost can be spent wisely, but the film production cost is still as high as 140 million US dollars.
This makes "Pearl Harbor" the most expensive war movie ever made.
Even setting aside genre, "Pearl Harbor" was the most expensive movie to make after "Titanic," making it a hot topic for everyone.
Everyone was expecting "Pearl Harbor" to set off this summer's box office frenzy, but unexpectedly, the nuclear bomb turned out to be a dud.
Word-of-mouth has completely collapsed. Not only film critics, but also audiences don’t like it.
The box office results of US$198 million in North America and US$440 million globally may not seem that bad at first glance; but considering the production cost of US$140 million The cost, as well as the publicity costs that Disney refuses to disclose, make this figure particularly shabby.
Excluding overseas distribution, deducting theater chain dividends, plus or minus, Disney not only did not make any money, but may also face a loss of more than 20 million US dollars.
If "Pearl Harbor" at least created some splashes, there were countless discussions surrounding the movie and its actors, and it emerged strongly amidst the criticism, the rental and sales of video discs in the future can also recover some losses for Disney; then another movie The work didn't even have a splash, which really hurt Disney:
"Atlantis: The Lost Empire".
What?
Never heard of it?
It doesn't matter, because there aren't many viewers who have actually seen this movie.
It is worth mentioning that the production of animated films ushered in rapid changes in the 1990s. Studios led by Pixar and DreamWorks were changing industry rules and officially entered the 3D era from the 2D era. Disney, which had always insisted on 2D production, gradually Can't keep up with the industry.
"Atlantis: The Lost Empire", this is Disney's last 2D production in the traditional sense, bringing an end to an era.
The production cost of the film is as high as 120 million US dollars, and a grand and grand premiere was held at Disneyland's headquarters in Orlando, hoping to bring a perfect ending to the 2D animated film.
However.
The final box office results were US$80 million in North America and US$180 million worldwide, which was a huge disappointment.
Although Disney has not released details, industry insiders estimate that the film should bring Disney more than $80 million in losses.
Compared with "Pearl Harbor", it doesn't seem that bad.
The woes of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" have led to Disney CEO Michael Eisner coming under fire.
The board of directors believes that everything stems from Michael Eisner's error in judgment.
This not only led to Jeffrey-Katzenberg, the man behind classic animations such as "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", etc. to break up and leave Disney, United History Steven Spielberg and David Geffen founded DreamWorks.
At the same time, Disney has entered the wrong direction in the progress of the times. It refused to listen to the opinions of Jeffrey Katzenberg and failed to keep up with the times and transferred to 3D production. The strongest field that it was once proud of is slowly becoming The company continues to move forward and continues to grow.
Michael Eisner is in trouble. However, these are all things for the future.
As of July, Disney has failed to reverse last year’s summer slump, and instead has slipped further into an endless black hole.
It was at this opportunity that Eve Wilson and Edgar Cook seized the opportunity and finally let Disney see "The Princess Diaries".
Originally, "The Princess Diaries" wasn't even considered a middleweight.
Firstly, the investment cost is only 26 million.
Secondly, the subject matter type. The box office ceiling of romantic comedies is relatively obvious. So far, there is still no work worth 200 million US dollars.
Among the series of Disney works released this summer, the most are lightweights.
However, things are different now.
After suffering a series of heavy blows, Disney urgently needed to save some face and stop its decline. After rummaging through the trash cans, "Princess Diaries" blessed by Gary Marshall and Julie Andrews easily stood out.
What Eve and Edgar need to do is to remind them:
If you only rely on traditional methods and focus on Anne and Julie, it will be difficult to open up the situation with such publicity; it is better to Consider some different entry points.
For example, Anson.
Last summer, a "GQ" magazine could become the focus of discussion in the industry. Although times have changed and the hot spots have long since cooled down, they can revive the memory again and replicate the same success.
Although Edgar has not yet had the opportunity to watch the finished product of "The Princess Diaries", he knows that Anson's performance opportunities are limited, but this does not mean that they have no room for maneuver.
Movies, combined with magazines.
Edgar hopes that people can see Anson's face as much as possible, become familiar with Anson's face as soon as possible, and highlight the impression through fashion.
So, this is why Edgar specially brought Anson to pick out the costumes for the premiere.
Originally, the premiere was not that grand and formal attire was not required, and the number of press releases was far less than that of the award ceremony. In addition, the protagonist of "Princess Diaries" is Anne- Hathaway, from any point of view, Anson’s dress does not need to be too grand——
Thinking about it from another angle, this is the best time to show Anson's personal taste.
But now, the situation is different.
Edgar still hopes that Anson can show his personal taste on the red carpet, but this fashion taste must bring impact and make people remember it.
Follow up, Eve will follow.
Last year, they did it once at the Emmy Awards.
This time I became familiar with it easily.
After arriving at the destination, he opened the door. When Anson saw the person in front of him, he was stunned without reacting.
The other party said, "When you see me, should you start with an apology before formally greeting me?"
(End of this chapter)