Chapter 503 A Star Is Born
To some extent, Hayden is right -
"Star Wars Episode II" missed its moment.
After waiting for the premiere box office data to be released, if they follow up with the "Ticket Stub Operation", their intention to gain popularity will be too obvious. Not only will they not be able to achieve the publicity effect, but they may also become the target of complaints from netizens, and even It may further arouse resentment and self-defeatingly push the audience away.
It is better to maintain the attitude and continue the consistent attitude and stance since the premiere, at least not to end up in the dilemma of Zhu Bajie looking in the mirror and not being a human being.
Twentieth Century Fox had the same idea.
When they calmed down and prepared to follow up on the "Operation Ticket Stub", the trend of public opinion had quietly changed, and they realized that they had missed the opportunity and fell into passivity.
Obviously, there are too many weird things happening in this summer season, which cannot be judged according to common sense. Twentieth Century Fox is not fully mentally prepared.
And, to make matters worse, the 2002 World Cup is coming as scheduled.
Although the impact of the World Cup on the North American continent is limited, rugby is the number one sport in North America. As for football, let alone comparing it to rugby, it is still not comparable to baseball, ice hockey, and basketball; but no matter what , the World Cup is still a carnival feast every four years.
Naturally, the number of people in theaters will inevitably be affected. Not only "Star Wars Episode 2", but "Spider-Man" is also unable to avoid market turmoil. The summer market, which has just recovered, has been hit again.
So——
At this time, "Star Wars: Episode II" was limited by its own reputation, and its subsequent box office performance was significantly lower than expected, although there was a small wave during the Memorial Day weekend. The movie-watching frenzy kept the box office decline at a good level in the second week, but then the impact of the World Cup forced the movie's weekend box office to collapse. After being severely damaged, it never recovered.
The decline far exceeded expectations and completely deviated from market predictions.
Twentieth Century Fox made one wrong step after another, blindly believing that the miracle of "Star Wars Prequels" could be copied and pasted into the second part of the series:
Even if the reputation collapses, it can still sweep thousands of troops.
But they made the mistake of seeking the sword in a desperate situation and ignored the objective fact that the market has been changing.
The poor reputation of the first part of the series did not stop the audience from entering the cinema, because they were affected by the filters and feelings of "Star Wars" and bought tickets to enter the cinema without even noticing the reputation of the movie.
However, now that we have come to the second part, the situation is completely different.
After buying tickets and entering the theater, they shouted that they were fooled. This time, passers-by and ordinary movie fans did not rush. Instead, they waited patiently for word-of-mouth to come out and refused to pay for their feelings.
In other words, only the target audience such as die-hards and diehards are still willing to enter the cinema and are happy to do so.
When passers-by and the audience realized the poor reputation of the movie, their enthusiasm for buying tickets was hindered; and 20th Century Fox missed the opportunity to promote and failed to open up the situation, so the subsequent box office trend of the movie also suffered. Attacking from all directions, it is impossible to replicate the unparalleled trend of the previous game.
To be precise, "Star Wars: Episode II" has lost its halo and has become the same as other ordinary summer commercial movies. There is no difference. From the discussion popularity to the box office data, everything is synchronized with the summer craze. Transformed into one of the thousands of mediocre ordinary genre films.
By the time 20th Century Fox realized the predicament and tried to repair it, it was already too late. Obviously this was the result of a series of mistakes.
In the end, "Star Wars: Episode II" accumulated a box office of 302 million US dollars in North America, barely and thrillingly crossing the 300 million threshold; including other countries and regions, the global box office settled at six 45 million US dollars, continuing the lack of enthusiastic box office performance of the "Star Wars" series in overseas markets. Of course, the movie is still successful. The production cost is controlled at 115 million US dollars. Coupled with Twentieth Century Fox's careful promotion budget, "Star Wars Episode 2" still easily achieves profitability. The production of the third part of the series has already Put it on the agenda as soon as possible.
However, there is no harm without comparison. Compared with the box office performance of "Star Wars Episode 1" that set countless records, the performance of the second part of the series fell by two levels, and even became a major talk This is definitely not what 20th Century Fox wants to see.
Can this be regarded as the turning point in the fate of "Star Wars" that fell from the altar?
It is rumored that George Lucas was under great pressure, had trouble sleeping and eating, and even seriously considered giving up the development of the third part of the series.
This is also true.
Although George Lucas still directed "Star Wars: Episode III", this was his last directorial work. He has entered semi-retirement since 2005 and has never been in charge of a director. He still works more as a screenwriter, Active behind the scenes as a producer and technical advisor.
The pressure of being famous is evident, and even a big boss like George Lucas is no exception.
Twentieth Century Fox is also in a gloomy mood. When they were preparing to produce the "Star Wars" prequel series, they had the idea of making easy money, but they never expected that it would be a roller coaster ride. It's almost going to explode.
When the year-end box office data of 2002 was released, looking back, there were many reasons why the box office performance of "Star Wars Episode II" was far lower than expected, such as the work itself, publicity strategy, encounter with the World Cup, etc. , but one thing that is undeniable is the sniping of "Spider-Man".
This work was once considered to be a suicide squad that pioneered the way during the downturn. Even if it is not cannon fodder, it is estimated that it will be difficult to make a difference; but it unexpectedly breaks out of the way and overturns the entire summer movie with great brilliance——
It not only withstood the pressure to write history and broke the shackles of the North American box office market in one fell swoop; it also faced "Star Wars Episode II" head-on and did not fall behind.
To be precise, it’s not just that it doesn’t fall behind. “Spider-Man” used the traffic of competitors to turn it into an opportunity for itself to break through the ceiling. At one time, it rubbed hard against “Star Wars Episode 2” and completely shook it off. Entanglement, the number one trafficker in North America, unbelievably ran away at full speed.
History is written like this.
No one expected "Spider-Man" to have a good start, no one expected "Spider-Man" to overturn "Star Wars Episode II", and no one expected "Spider-Man" to be able to dominate the world. Chasing the all-time high.
Exclamations came one after another, and even in the World Cup, "Spider-Man" was mentioned without exception, which can be seen from the success index.
$400 million in North America? Or, $500 million in North America?
No.
USD 600 million in North America——
The second film after "Titanic" directly raised the benchmark to a whole new level. Even "Star Wars Episode 1" was equally disappointed. Eclipsed.
The whole of North America witnessed the birth of a superstar!
(End of this chapter)