Chapter 642: Turning the tables around
Vancouver, North Hollywood, is located in a corner, like a paradise, isolated from the world, ensuring a comfortable and comfortable working environment.
Some people may object. Vancouver is not that far away or remote. It is both on the North American continent and is only two hours away by plane. Please do not describe Vancouver as the end of the world like Alaska.
But the reality is that far away from the center of Hollywood, the atmosphere and environment of the city of Vancouver are peaceful and quiet. The hustle and bustle of Vanity Fair has already quieted down on the way to the ice and snow kingdom in the north.
It’s not isolated from the world, but it’s not far away.
While Anson was devoting himself wholeheartedly to the filming of "The Butterfly Effect" in Vancouver, Hollywood was experiencing a new upheaval, and the film industry was once again facing turmoil, which seemed to have nothing to do with Anson -
After all, Anson's foundation is still shallow, and it is not yet enough to shake the foundation of the industry. There is no need to be related to him in everything, he is not that important.
However, in the end, things took a twist and turn, and they were inextricably linked to Anson, confirming once again that he was the most popular bombshell in Hollywood.
Everything has to do with the summer season.
After experiencing a series of chaos and turmoil, this summer's "Spider-Man" turned out to be a surprise, setting a new record and rewriting history, detonating the market, and the billowing heat wave continued throughout the summer, and everyone in Hollywood was It was a joyful and joyful scene.
However, this is not enough.
For Hollywood and Wall Street, the success of one movie and the brilliance of one summer release are not gratifying. What they need is success that can be copied and pasted and produced in an assembly line. What they need is five movies and ten movies in one. With the continuous success of the 100-film project, the summer season has not yet ended, and the company has already set its sights on the summer market next year and the year after.
And.
Autumn season. Holiday stalls. Winter stall.
The autumn season has always followed the summer season, because summer has burned out the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies, because students have returned to school during the school season, and because the film market is preparing for the upcoming consecutive holidays. Gather your strength, the market popularity during this period is always the lowest throughout the year, but this does not mean that film companies will forget about the autumn release.
All the time, movie companies are thinking about how to launch the fall season.
This year, long before "Spider-Man" debuted, major film companies had already planned for the autumn and holiday seasons, looking forward to awakening the market.
To be more precise, film companies are prepared for both things -
On the one hand, major film companies have always focused on the summer schedule, aiming for the strawberries on the cake, looking forward to Welcome success in the summer.
On the other hand, major film companies must be prepared for the continued slump in the summer season. If the summer film market does not explode as expected, what should they do? Will the film companies just quit?
Of course not.
The film companies at the top of the pyramid are all smart and capable people. They will not give up easily, but will lay out their plans step by step.
In their view, the movie market cannot remain sluggish like this. In 2002, movies were still the most popular means of leisure and entertainment. Sooner or later, audiences would return to movie theaters and life would return to normal, if not for summer. , that is autumn or subsequent holidays.
Things are so simple.
So, they don't put their eggs in one basket.
Really skilled chess players will focus on the summer season, but will not put all their efforts into it. They will also plan for the subsequent autumn and holiday seasons——
It is precisely because of this that autumn, which has always been cold and empty in previous years, stalls, this year also received extra attention, warming up the holiday stalls early.
Competition is extremely fierce.
Warner Bros.’s “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” MGM’s “007: Die Another Day,” Paramount’s “Star Trek: Nemesis,” Miramax’s Movies such as "Gangs of New York", New Line Cinema's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", Universal Pictures' "8 Mile", etc. have made their major debuts - intensive bombing and all-out attacks.
The quality, quantity, popularity, and momentum can be deeply felt from different aspects, and the attention of the schedule is not inferior to that of the summer schedule.
Among them, Warner Brothers leads the way.
This summer, Warner Bros. has been completely misfired, which can’t be said to be bad. A “Scooby-Doo” film took in $150 million, and “Austin Powers 3” swept two With US$110 million, it still occupies a place in the fierce competition and is not completely left behind.
But a closer look shows that Warner Bros. chose to take a half-step back in the summer season.
Warner Bros., which has always liked high investment and high returns, actually did not have any productions with an investment of over 100 million this summer, completely giving up its style to "Spider-Man", "Star Wars Episode 2" and other important projects. pound, instead focusing on the layout in the second half of the year. This strategy of staggered travel is a bold one.
One is Warner Bros.'s own "Harry Potter" and the other is New Line Cinema's "Lord of the Rings." These two series are Warner Bros.' current trump cards. Obviously, they hope to find new ways to expand beyond the summer season. , seizing the chaos in the film market this year to re-establish order.
This is the real domineering——
While everyone else insists on working in the summer schedule, Warner Brothers boldly boasts in other schedules It sounded the clarion call to subvert the market structure. After all, it was still unknown whether the summer season could recover.
Once Warner Bros. succeeds, the North American film market structure that has lasted for thirty years will be completely rewritten.
However.
The summer season was a hit, and “Spider-Man” was a success.
So.
Warner Bros. and other film projects have been pushed into an embarrassing situation.
This summer, the market has exploded with incredible energy, setting numerous records and raising the total box office figures for the summer season to a whole new level. This also means that the autumn season is still being squeezed as always.
The situation suddenly became urgent.
The result is not good.
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", which debuted first, has high hopes from countless people. After all, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a super giant that has written countless histories. However, the investment cost of this film The $100 million production underperformed expectations.
Not only did the opening weekend box office fail to capture the momentum and create history, but due to the impact of word-of-mouth, the subsequent box office decline was far beyond imagination, and could even be said to be tragic. The cumulative box office in the five weeks of release has barely exceeded 200 million US dollars.
Logically speaking, a box office performance of 200 million US dollars in North America is already very rare and outstanding. However, the three-day box office figure in the fifth week of release has dropped to 6 million US dollars, which means that 300 million US dollars in North America is completely missing. It's possible——
Compared with last year's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"'s cumulative total box office of 288 million US dollars in North America, it is indeed disappointing.
Even "Harry Potter" still failed to change the market structure. Perhaps Warner Bros. was still too reckless?
Wait, what does this matter have to do with Anson?
The reason is simple. The lower-than-expected performance of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is just the beginning. Other movies have also suffered varying degrees of blows, and then Anson is about to join the melee.
(End of this chapter)