Chapter 501: Full Blowout
Shake, shake, shake.
Hayden's eyes were always fixed on Carter's shaking right leg:
When supporting the ground, he stood on his tiptoes and shook, when he put it on his knees, he held his ankle and shook, and when he lay flat on his back, When I'm on the sofa, my right leg drives my left leg to shake together.
It keeps shaking and can't stop at all.
Originally, Hayden was not nervous, but seeing Carter shaking his legs constantly, the whole world seemed to be shaking, and he became inexplicably irritated.
In fact, Hayden is mentally prepared - at least, he thinks he is ready, the box office of "Star Wars Episode 2" may be slightly lower than expected.
Twentieth Century Fox also realized that the box office blowout on the opening weekend of "Spider-Man" was a special situation. The right time, place and people created a miracle. They missed the opportunity. The opening weekend of "Star Wars Episode 2" wanted to It may be difficult to replicate such a miracle, but you should still look at the subsequent performance -
"Titanic" and "Star Wars: The Prequels" both had lower-than-expected opening box office but relied on long-term performance to rewrite film history records.
So.
Twentieth Century Fox has changed its strategy and released a full release one day earlier. Generally speaking, the opening weekend is three days from Friday to Sunday. Now "Star Wars Episode 2" will be released in theaters from Thursday. The opening weekend is still three days, but the first The weekly cumulative box office cycle is four days. If the situation changes slightly, the media will naturally not be able to directly compare the two movies together.
On Thursday, the single-day box office data was released early -
30 million US dollars.
The very, very outstanding numbers once again prove the appeal of "Star Wars". Even if the premiere has a bad reputation and even if it encounters a head-on impact from "Spider-Man", die-hard fans still rush into the cinema to watch it in real time. Action to show support and send the highest respect to George Lucas.
By the way, during the opening weekend of "Spider-Man", the single-day box office on Friday was as high as 47 million US dollars, easily breaking the first-day box office record in North American film history, directly surpassing "Harry- Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's $32 million opening day box office record has gone up more than a notch.
In terms of horizontal comparison, the opening day performance of "Star Wars: Episode II" was not only lower than "Spider-Man", but even lower than "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", ranking only third in film history.
But it needs to be taken into account that Thursday is a working day, and you still need to go to work tomorrow, which is completely different from the other two works released on Friday. Under such circumstances, "Star Wars Episode 2" is still popular A box office of 30 million US dollars is worthy of admiration and celebration.
Of course, this is the truth; but when Hayden saw the single-day box office data on Thursday, he had a vague hunch:
Maybe, they should lower their expectations a little.
There was no way. The overwhelming negative reviews and unabashed attacks after the premiere severely damaged Hayden's confidence. This was definitely not what he imagined.
So, he convinced himself that he should be mentally prepared, and until now, seeing Carter's nervousness and anxiety, his stomach began to burn.
Bang.
With a sudden movement, Carter stood up, the chair fell back, and the sound exploded. Hayden looked up quickly in surprise.
At this time, they didn't pay attention to the poor chair. Carter answered the phone, put the phone to his ear, and kept asking.
"Are the numbers out?"
They don't need to wait for the "Los Angeles Times". Agents have their own internal channels and can often grasp accurate inside information as soon as possible.
Hayden raised his head and looked at Carter, carefully studying Carter's expression. Those voices and smiles lingered quietly in his ears and disappeared into nothingness. He couldn't help but froze. Inexplicably, the focus of his eyes was on It slowly collapsed like this, and thoughts that I couldn't distinguish were surging in my mind.
Sad? joy? regret? upset? anger?
Hayden couldn't tell clearly, maybe it was more of a kind of confusion and emptiness, as if he was falling from a bungee jump, but he was suspended in mid-air, unable to go up or come down.
"Hayden, Hayden..."
Carter's voice exploded in Hayden's ears from far away, pulling him back to the ground so hard that he broke into a cold sweat.
In the third week of May 2002, the North American weekend box office rankings were released -
The champion, "Star Wars Episode II".
Runner up, "Spider-Man".
Third runner-up, "Infidelity". The ranking is clear at a glance.
As far as the list is concerned, no accidents happened, everything went according to plan, "Star Wars Episode 2" topped the list without any suspense, ending "Spider-Man"'s two-week dominance of the North American box office market; but "Spider-Man" "Xia" did not collapse, it just fell back to the second position and continued to remain competitive.
However, the ranking is not important, there is no surprise; what really matters is the numbers, the specific box office results.
"Star Wars: Episode II" once again proved that it is still the number one traffic in North America. It swept 80 million US dollars in three days over the weekend, triggering a cry of exclamation——
The scolding was followed by the scolding, When it's time to act, ardent fans and die-hard moviegoers still don't give up.
Despite a wave of success on Thursday, "Star Wars: Episode II" still achieved such box office figures during its opening weekend, ranking third in film history after "Spider-Man" and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" , under such circumstances and circumstances, he still delivered a perfect answer.
In the end, "Star Wars: Episode II" grossed US$110 million in box office in its first week of release in four days.
Beautiful!
Everyone at Twentieth Century Fox can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Although it failed to break the opening box office record just set by "Spider-Man"; the movie still withstood heavy pressure and sounded the victory horn, despite all worries. And the tension can finally relax a little after the premiere data is released.
Next, let’s look at the long term.
From any point of view, the box office data of "Star Wars Episode II" is worthy of celebration, but it is only the first step in a long journey. If the movie wants to replicate the previous film's box office results of 400 million in North America and 900 million worldwide, it still needs to be You need to look at your stamina -
your own stamina and the performance of subsequent competitors.
For example, "Spider-Man".
When 20th Century Fox saw the premiere box office data, they all raised their arms and shouted, but the joy was only temporary. Their eyes immediately turned to "Spider-Man", and the smile on their faces stayed at the corners of their mouths.
USD 64 million, a decrease of 33%.
The above are the weekend box office figures for "Spider-Man" in its third week of release.
This number can still easily benchmark the opening weekend box office of other summer commercial movies.
After this figure set a record in film history in the first two weeks, the decline surprisingly continued to be controlled below 35%, recreating a "Titanic"-like miracle.
This number unreasonably breaks all the professionals’ understanding of the rules of the North American box office market and opens a door to a whole new world.
Shocked?
No, it's much more than that.
At this time, if we look back at the North American weekend box office rankings for the third week of May, we can feel the impact more clearly.
Winner, "Star Wars Episode II," $80 million.
Runner up, "Spider-Man," $64 million.
Is this sure?
It is conceivable that one is in the premiere and the other is in the third week, but they are still competing at the same level?
Did "Star Wars Episode II" win? It seems not.
Did "Spider-Man" lose? It seems not.
(End of this chapter)