Chapter 478: Born Bad
The success of the movie "Wushuang" is not accidental. First of all, the film's cast is very strong.
Which movie can bring in Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise? Plus Charlize Theron.
Moreover, the film is directed by Gilbert Jr., who has the most box office appeal in history. The name sounds very important.
Secondly, the discussion about the film is not low. In order to confirm their views, many viewers repeatedly walked into the cinema.
The outstanding North American box office performance in the first week made Disney and Warner happy, knowing that Little Gilbert will never miss a beat. More importantly, the film's performance in overseas markets is also quite good.
Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Charlize Theron already have a large number of fans and fans around the world.
Little Gilbert's personal appeal is unique in the world, with six billion movie fans worldwide.
Although Hugh Jackman is also popular around the world, Kate Beckinsale is also beautiful. But no matter what, "Van Helsing" cannot compete with "Wushuang" in overseas markets.
How do audiences go to the cinema for a movie? After all, the audience doesn’t know in advance whether the film will be good to watch or not to their liking.
Although there are trailers and reviews from media critics to understand the film, they are ultimately limited.
So the name has become the biggest selling point.
You can imagine that if the two parties changed positions, if Gilbert Jr. was to direct "Van Helsing" and Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron were to star, wouldn't it be much more attractive?
Of course, this kind of substitution can only exist in imagination, but it can illustrate the appeal of the name of a big director plus a superstar.
On a global scale, "Warriors" is far more attractive than "Van Helsing", even though "Van Helsing" has many well-known characters.
After easily winning the box office title in the first week of the summer season in North America, "Warrior" also swept Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and other markets in the same first weekend.
The UK has always been a traditional box office for Little Gilbert's movies. Although Little Gilbert is not British, his movies are always very popular.
Moreover, little Gilbert was canonized by the British royal family. If he is a knight, he is one of his own.
Coupled with the appeal of several major stars, the film achieved a box office of US$14.623 million in the UK in its first week. It doesn’t look as good as the one-day box office in North America, but that’s normal.
If you want to get higher box office, you may need to rebirth the "Lord of the Rings" series.
"Van Helsing" was relatively miserable, only receiving $4.27 million, which was far behind "Warriors".
The French film industry has always called on the French to resist Hollywood movies, but it has never succeeded, and this time is no exception. "Wushuang" grossed US$18.45 million in France in its first week, ruthlessly impacting French local films.
French films quickly announced their surrender, and the speed of "Wushuang" could not keep up with the French's surrender.
In the French market, "Van Helsing" actually achieved good results, with a first-week box office of US$12.538 million, which was enough to satisfy Sky Studio.
It can be seen that the French market is still large and can accommodate two Hollywood movies being released at the same time.
When two Hollywood films were strangled in the French film market, it was the outsider French films that died. I have to say, the unlucky ones are really unlucky.
After losing in two consecutive markets, it seems that "Van Helsing"'s performance in overseas markets has been basically determined, but it just can't beat "Warriors".
However, the situation has changed a little in Germany. The box office of "Van Helsing" at US$16.623 million is quite close to the box office of "Warrior" at US$16.738 million.
This has revived hopes for Sky Studios. Perhaps in other markets, "Van Helsing" has a chance to surpass "Warriors"?
But unfortunately, the performance of the next few markets will tell Sky Studio that you really think too much.
In Italy, "Warrior" actually took in a box office of US$10.23 million, while "Van Helsing" only had a pitiful box office of US$2.35 million.
Italy's La Repubblica commented on the two films, saying that compared to "Warriors", "Van Helsing" is as childish as a kindergarten doll.
Director Stephen Sommers is no match for Gilbert Jr., and the confrontation between the two during the summer season was completely one-sided.
It seems that the Italians also know that the little Gilbert in the summer movie is not easy to mess with, and think that the choice of "Van Helsing" is quite unwise.
It is said that Stephen Sommers was very angry after hearing the report, and he became even more angry when he thought that he would have to take over the filming of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series and still work under Gilbert Jr.
It's as if he couldn't defeat little Gilbert, and then defected to little Gilbert. It's like he recognized the thief as his father.
After the results of the first week of the North American summer season were released, the "Hollywood Reporter" was the first to reveal the inside story.
According to a well-known person within Warner, Stephen Sommers is the final choice of Gilbert Jr. to take over "Pirates of the Caribbean".
The report also said that Gilbert Jr. said on one occasion that the failure of "Van Helsing" had little to do with director Stephen Sommers, and that he still trusted Stephen Sommers' ability.
According to the report, Gilbert Jr. believes that the producer has a much greater responsibility on the "Van Helsing" project than the director Stephen Sommers.
As soon as this report came out, Stephen Sommers felt a little better, but David Ellison was very angry.
David Ellison has been studying Gilbert Jr. to explore the roots of his success. But so many people have studied little Gilbert over the years, but they haven't figured out why.
In the end, I can only conclude my research by saying that little Gilbert has unparalleled film talent, and come to the conclusion that little Gilbert is a genius.
The same goes for David Ellison. He knew that little Gilbert was obsessed with Chinese culture. My favorite book is "A Dream of Red Mansions" among the four classic Chinese classics, and I also like to read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.
So David Ellison learned a lot and bought the English version of "Dream of Red Mansions" to read because he couldn't understand Chinese. He also bought "Sun Tzu's Art of War", drank Chinese tea, and used Chinese tea utensils. Drinking tea was a normal daily behavior for little Gilbert, but it became a ritual when visiting David Ellison, who also specially invited a tea master from the island country.
This is how David Ellison imitates Little Gilbert's behavior in order to understand what Little Gilbert is thinking and thus look for opportunities to defeat Little Gilbert.
As an outsider, David Ellison must win over representatives of traditional Hollywood forces in order to survive in Hollywood. Little Gilbert is his chosen target.
These behaviors cannot be hidden from others, and they are common knowledge in Hollywood.
So when The Hollywood Reporter reported that Gilbert Jr. said he was incompetent, David Ellison was so angry that he smashed an expensive tea set.
He knew clearly that the words were definitely not from little Gilbert, but he was still very angry.
When little Gilbert heard about this, he was leading the film's promotional roadshow with the creators.
At Pioneer Plaza in Seattle, the creators had just finished interacting with fans and returned to the hotel to rest. Tomorrow the creators will leave Seattle and head east to promote.
Gilbert Jr. and Charlize Theron were in a car, and of course Ivanka was in the car.
Ivanka got the news from others and reported the situation to Gilbert Jr.
Little Gilbert nodded after listening: "It seems that Solomon's strategy is good. I guess David Ellison is already very upset at this time."
Charlize Theron didn't know yet and asked with concern: "Is this an arrangement from Disney Vice President Solomon?"
"Yes," little Gilbert explained: "Solomon and I mentioned that he leaked the information through the "Hollywood Reporter". And it is expected that David Ellison will not be able to calm down, and then there will be fun to watch."
"Yes," Ivanka said, somewhat admiring little Gilbert.
Although this perverted and stinky boss always stares at her long legs, he is really capable.
Ivanka continued: "David Ellison is very arrogant, but he is also very smart. He knows that the way to become famous in Hollywood is to find an opponent to defeat, and then defeat him."
"So David Ellison picked Gilbert Jr.? He wants to beat Gilbert Jr. in the summer and make himself famous in Hollywood?"
Charlize Theron thinks David Ellison is sick. Where will anyone challenge Gilbert Jr. in the summer?
"It's not necessarily a victory," little Gilbert saw clearly: "As long as there is a close situation, it will send a very positive signal.
You must know that over the years of my success, I have accumulated a lot of opponents.
As long as David Ellison shows the potential to beat me, these people will immediately rally around him and help him successfully take root in Hollywood. "
Charlize Theron expressed that she is not well-educated and stupid: "Oh my god, you guys in Hollywood are so dirty."
"???" Little Gilbert asked with a question mark on his head: "My dear, you are also in Hollywood."
Charlize Theron didn't care, she hugged little Gilbert's arm and said coquettishly: "I have you, I don't need to use my brain, I can just relax and film."
Little Gilbert smiled and stroked Charlize Theron's short golden hair.
Charlize Theron felt she looked more beautiful with short hair, so she kept her hair short. Not to mention, little Gilbert liked it very much, and she did smell like a queen.
"Ahem," Ivanka rolled her eyes, interrupted the show of affection between the boss and the third wife, and made her own suggestion.
"Boss, I suggest you send a set of porcelain and tea to Stephen Sommers."
Little Gilbert's eyes lit up: "What a great idea, you can do this.
I remember that I gave Stephen Sommers the set of Jingdezhen porcelain and the West Lake Longjing tea, the ones my Chinese friends gave me. "
Ivanka said that she knew it and would make arrangements as soon as she got back.
Little Gilbert thought for a moment and said, "By the way, give David Ellison another book!"
"What book?"
"The Tao Te Ching, remember, it must be the Chinese version."
Ivanka secretly thought that her boss was really bad, but she still called someone to find a Chinese version of the Tao Te Ching.
Charlize Theron was very curious: "Why did you give him a copy of the Tao Te Ching? Do you want David Ellison to practice morality?"
"No," little Gilbert laughed: "I just had a bad taste and wanted to know how David Ellison would react when he received this book."
"Oh!" Charlize Theron nodded, and then asked: "What is this book about?"
"I'm sorry, dear." Little Gilbert spread his hands and said, "Although I understand Chinese, I don't know what this book is about."
Charlize Theron was speechless for a moment, and looked at each other with Ivanka. Both of them felt that little Gilbert was really bad.
(End of chapter)