The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 293 Midsummer is coming
Summer is coming quietly.

It is the hottest, laziest and most comfortable time of the year. After the long and dreary winter and the lingering and wet spring, people finally can’t wait to leave the room, open their arms and plunge into the golden sunshine, temporarily letting go Enjoy a short vacation from the stress of life.

For the kids, it's summer vacation.

For adults, this is where annual leave should be spent.

Especially for areas such as the United Kingdom, Northern Europe, and Canada, which do not experience the blessing of the sun for many years, summer is the only expectation of the year, and they spend their days and nights looking forward to summer vacation.

Thanks to the inherent advantages of weather and holidays, summer has undoubtedly become the highlight of the year for major businesses. The discount season from July to August every year is packed with people, and the movie market is no exception.

"Jaws" in 1975 and "Star Wars" in 1977 came out one after another. They tapped into the huge potential of the film market with shocking gestures and completely changed the position of films in the commercial market. The concept of summer movies officially landed in North America. Market positioning, marketing, etc. have all developed, and the North American film market has matured and scaled step by step.

After more than 20 years of preparation, the positioning of the North American film market is becoming more and more clear and the divisions are becoming more and more detailed. The concepts of spring, summer, autumn, holiday and winter have been formed. Film companies of all sizes have taken shape. You can arrange the schedule according to the positioning of your work and the target audience.

Among them, the summer box office frenzy is undoubtedly the absolute focus of the year.

Judging from the numbers, the box office data of the summer season can account for 50% or even 60% of the annual box office revenue in North America. Whoever wins the summer season wins the world.

Naturally, the summer vacation has become a battleground for military strategists.

After "Iron Man" led the summer box office rankings in 2008, comic book adaptations have fully occupied the big screen and become the absolute king of the summer season.

The reality is that most of the adaptation copyrights of novels, comics, and games are in the hands of large film companies with higher risk-taking capabilities, so the summer season has gradually become a game for those at the top of the Hollywood pyramid.

But looking back to 2000, the summer movie season is also very lively, but it is not a game for a few people. Some small film companies and even independent film companies will also find new ways to choose to release their own works in the summer movie, so that audiences can watch them on the big screen. See more different options.

A hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, which also makes audiences more willing to choose to go to the cinema in summer.

The summer season officially kicks off from the second week of May and lasts until the end of the first week of September.

To be precise, in North America, the second Friday in May is Arbor Day and the first Monday in September is Labor Day. Therefore, the summer period should be from Arbor Day to Labor Day.

During this period, you can see top commercial blockbusters with investment of over 100 million almost every week. Sometimes you can even see three, four or even five movies that are worth looking forward to in one weekend. The competition is so fierce that you can use a bayonet to see the success. To describe it in terms of hand-to-hand combat, this is a life-and-death war.

How to choose a schedule, avoid major competitors, choose direct competitors, and eliminate indirect competitors is a complex topic.

The game between the major film companies is full of sparks, overt and covert attacks.

This year is no exception.

In the summer of 1999, "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" made a strong debut, leading a group of strong opponents to set a new record for the total summer box office.

Despite the high expectations, the 2000 summer season was under huge pressure and performed mediocrely. The North American box office of the summer box office champion "Mission: Impossible 2" was only half of that of "Star Wars Episode I", and the total cumulative summer box office figure also dropped by 1%. This is the first time since 5 that the cumulative summer box office figures have not shown an upward trend.

To be honest, a 5% drop is not a serious decline number, and it is far from a wake-up call, but it still gives the film market a yellow card. A warning.

The North American film market, which has been rising for ten consecutive years, is finally showing signs of slowing down, which is a wake-up call for major film companies.

Therefore, after the 2000 summer season came to an end, major film companies have already begun to prepare for the next summer season in full swing. It is conceivable that the competition for this year's summer season has already started from the early stage of publicity.

In the bustling sight, "The Mummy Returns" made its debut, officially kicking off the 2001 summer season.

Subsequently, "Shrek", "Pearl Harbor", "Fast and Furious", "Tomb Raider", "Artificial Intelligence", "Jurassic Park 3", "Operation Swordfish", "Moulin Rouge" and so on The works are meeting the audience one after another. There are disappointments and surprises, successes and failures, unpopular and hot spots. It is very lively.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle, "The Princess Diaries" produced and distributed by Disney made a low-key appearance and joined the party where everyone was having fun together.

To be honest, among the bombardment of top stars and blockbuster works, a featherweight work like "Princess Diaries" can't find its direction or focus at all. Even Disney has to lower its standards. Expectations.

Romantic comedies still have a loyal audience market in these years, but they are far from what they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In those years, there were a large number of new American sweethearts and traditional handsome guys. Romantic comedies were always able to achieve good results. However, these years still need to rely on the blessing of superstars, otherwise the genre of movies has suffered from aesthetic fatigue.

An intuitive statistic is that in the past three years, only three romantic comedies have crossed the US$100 million threshold in North American box office, namely "Watching Women," "Runaway Bride," and "Notting Hill."

The first film starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt; the latter two starred Julia Roberts - no wonder she can become the first actress in the history of Hollywood's "20 Million Club".

And "Princess Diaries"?

Although Gary Marshall is at the helm and has re-proven himself with "Runaway Bride", the cast is all newcomers, so that the focus of the film's early promotion had to fall on Julie Andrews. Not enough for a romantic comedy.

What's more, this is a summer season, and there are strong enemies all around.

"Princess Diary" is finally scheduled to be released in the first week of August, avoiding the worst-hit areas in June and July, but it is still trapped in a dangerous predicament surrounded by wolves:

The first week is the premiere of "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", the next week is the arrival of "American Pie 2", and the same week also requires a head-on confrontation with "Rush Hour 2".

Disaster. In one word, it is really difficult.

Disney said that it has sincerely tried its best. This summer's schedule is too dense and crowded, and it took a lot of effort to find such a schedule:
"War for the Planet of the Apes" is science fiction, "Rush Hour 2" is action, and "American Pie 2" is comedy - and a "sex" comedy. The audience market of these works does not overlap with "Princess Diaries". Maybe "Princess Diaries" "Being able to win breathing space in such a difficult situation, carve out a bloody path and write great results.

As a result, Anson, who finished the long filming of "Spider-Man" and took off his suit, didn't even have time to take a breath; he was already immersed in the pre-publicity of "Princess Diaries" non-stop, like a spinning top, unable to stop at all.

For Anson, this is a whole new world.

(End of this chapter)