Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 231 A small victory

On June 6, "Speed" produced by Guess Pictures was released amidst many difficulties and obstacles.

The reason it was difficult was that there were three big movies released on the same day:

The first was the comedy film "When the Rednecks Got New York" released by Universal Pictures, starring Woody Harrison and Kiefer Sutherland, with a production cost of $2200 million.

The second is "Beverly Cop 3" released by Paramount Pictures, starring the famous black comedian Eddie Murphy.

The first film in the series was also the first to be released in more than 2000 theaters across the United States, and it grossed $3.16 million worldwide. The second film was released in 87, and it grossed $2.99 million worldwide. The third film was produced by the original team, and it is conservatively estimated that it will gross more than $2 million worldwide.

The third is Disney's comedy film "The Invincibles," which cost $3500 million to produce.

In addition, there are movies such as "The Flintstones", "Madame Crow", "The Crow" and "The Lion King" which will be released next week.

It will be extremely difficult for "Speed" to break through the siege of so many blockbusters and get a good box office result.

Considering that the film cost $3000 million to produce and the publicity budget was as high as $1000 million, many media outlets predicted that the film might lose money, and this could also be the beginning of the demise of Guess What Pictures.

However, after the first week's box office results were released, the box office performance of Speed exceeded everyone's expectations:
In its first week, the film grossed $2147 million in 2075 theaters in North America, becoming the weekly box office champion.

In second place was "Beverly Cop 3," which opened in 2748 theaters and earned $1142 million.

The average daily box office per theater was only US$1337, far below the passing line and far below the expectations of Paramount Pictures and the media.

The film cost as much as 5000 million U.S. dollars to produce. Before its release, in order to suppress "Speed" in terms of momentum, Paramount Pictures increased the film's publicity budget from 500 million U.S. dollars to 1000 million U.S. dollars, and also invited big stars such as Tom Cruise to endorse the film.

In addition, Paramount Pictures' distribution arm has increased the number of theaters screening the film to more than 2700, more than more than the number of theaters where "Jurassic Park" premiered.

The original forecast was that the first week box office would be no less than 3000 million US dollars, but the result was less than half of the forecast.

After the weekly box office results came out, it caused heated discussions in the entertainment industry.

Some people lamented that "Speed" was very competitive. It was able to break through the encirclement and win the championship despite being surrounded by seven or eight blockbusters. It was amazing.

Some envy the good luck of Guess What Pictures, whose "Dumb and Dumber" was a big hit in April and "Speed" was another big hit in May, which was better than the seven major studios and seven major movies.

Some people also feel it is a pity, thinking that the company's new movies will be selling well one after another, so it may live a little longer.

Many media outlets also published articles discussing the gains and losses of the two films.

The magazine "Complete Movie" analyzed the reasons for the box office success of the premiere of "Speed" and found three reasons:
First, the plot design of this movie is brilliant.

There are gun fights and car races, battles of wits and courage between police and criminals, handsome men and beautiful women, love stories between men and women, and the explosion scenes that are the audience's favorite to watch during the summer vacation. It can be said that there are many highlights and rich content. It is a commercial film with a high production standard.

The second is that the casting of the film is relatively successful.

The film's leading actor is Keanu Reeves, who is handsome and agile. He is a popular young actor in Hollywood and one of the most handsome male stars.

The heroine Sandra Bullock has a beautiful appearance and a hot and sexy body, which also conforms to the aesthetic taste of male audiences.

The two of them played a couple and had a strong CP feeling.

After the film was released, it was loved and supported by a large number of young people.

The third is that Guess the Movies spared no effort in publicity and invested a lot of money in television promotion.

These three points are also the main reasons why the box office of "Speed" exceeded media predictions.

The magazine "Complete Movie" analyzed the reasons for the box office failure of "Beverly Cop 3" and found that there were three reasons:

First, as the third film in the series, the plot is too old-fashioned and lacks much new content, which can easily lead to aesthetic fatigue among the audience.
Second, many fresh comedies have appeared in the film industry in the past two years, including warm family comedies represented by "Home Alone", Quentin's black romantic and violent comedies, and Jim Carrey's nonsensical comedies.

Among them, the two comedies starring Jim Carrey were very popular after their release, which shows that the audience's tastes are updating and they prefer new things, while Eddie Murphy's performance in "Cop 3" was too old-fashioned and has been abandoned by the market.

Third, there are too many heavyweight movies this week, all released at the same time. Those with poor quality will also have poor competitiveness, so the box office results will naturally not be too high.

This is also the main reason why the hit series "Cop 3" suffered a box office failure.

To put it simply, "Speed" was too strong and "Cop 3" was too weak, one was a big hit while the other was a flop, both were the choices of the market and the audience.

If this happened under normal circumstances, it would not be big news.

It’s just that these two films were used as weapons by Guess What Pictures and the Big Seven Pictures respectively to compete for the box office market, and they were given other functions and meanings.

It is intriguing that "Speed" unexpectedly defeated "Cop 3" at the box office.

In addition, the third place on this week's box office list is "The Flintstones", which has been released for four weeks, with a weekly box office of 683 million US dollars and a cumulative North American box office of 9463 million US dollars. It is expected that the box office will exceed million next week.

Fourth place went to "The Untamed" which was released this week, with $505 million, and fifth place went to "Redneck Takes Over New York," with $437 million.

The former may lose money, while the latter can barely break even.

"Complete Cinema" magazine had to announce that in this week's box office competition, "Speed" defeated many opponents and won a landslide victory.

The magazine published a cartoon on its cover, showing Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock driving the bus from the movie, violently crashing through several roadblocks with words like "Beverly Cop 3" and "The Independence Day Parade" written on them.

There is a golden 'Winner' label on the front of the car.

"Thank you so much! God, why is this happening?!"

After the weekly box office results came out, Michael Ovitz and several film company executives cursed at the report card.

Before the summer vacation, they made careful plans and arranged for five or six blockbusters to suppress the box office of "Speed", which was equivalent to five or six strong men beating up a young man. In the end, not only did they fail to win, they were all knocked to the ground by the other side.

This is so infuriating.

"Have these audiences never seen a gangster movie? Speed is just an ordinary gangster movie, far inferior to the action movies of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Why do they still want to watch it?"

Michael Ovitz was furious.

It seems like North American audiences are against him. The same thing happened when "The Trap" was released last year. If the audience had been more obedient and supported "The Trap" more, they probably wouldn't have lost.

The same goes for "Speed", which is also good, but not much better than the other movies, yet its box office performance is so much higher.

Michael Ovitz stared at the newspaper, took a few breaths, and called several partners to express his dissatisfaction to them.

When he was initially discussing the crackdown on Guess the Movies, he suggested arranging several blockbusters of higher quality to surround Speed.

These movies sound like blockbusters, but except for "Beverly Cop 3", the rest are not really hits. They are more like movies that were haphazardly put together for money laundering and their quality is very average.

The seven major film studios are primarily responsible for this box office loss to Guess What?

Miguel Goss, president of Warner Bros. Pictures, asked him to stay calm as Disney's blockbuster animation "The Lion King" was released this week and the box office of "Speed" would definitely be greatly affected.

Ovitz was very unhappy. "Speed" made $2075 million in its first week and broke even the next week. The North American box office was at least $6000 million, making it another box office hit.

Despite their joint suppression, the Guess the Movie is still a box office hit.

What is the point of this suppression?
Universal Pictures President Sid Sheinberg said that they are company presidents and senior employees, not owners of the company, and this is all they can do. They cannot lose their jobs by suppressing Guess What Pictures.

Barry Diller, president of 20th Century Fox, asked him to stay calm. The action against Guess What Pictures had just begun. This was a protracted battle. A small loss at the beginning would not be a big deal. He had to believe that the final victory would belong to them.

Ovitz cursed "Shit" and hung up the phone heavily.

This small defeat was not due to his incompetence, but rather to the fact that the alliance members were not united and each had their own plans. How could they defeat the wealthy Link in this situation?

"Michael, Guess What Pictures is developing very fast, not inferior to the Big Seven. We are an agency, and there are more benefits to cooperating with Guess What Pictures. I suggest that we give up the subsequent actions against Guess What Pictures and cooperate with them instead. The company will also benefit from this."

Vice President Jay Maloney said.

"Cooperate with Link? Humph, wait until you become the president of CAA. Now I am the president, and the company must listen to me about its attitude towards Guess What? Pictures."

Michael Ovitz shouted.

Jay Maloney shrugged and said no more.

After Ovitz finished speaking, he realized that his emotions were a little out of control, so he slowed down his tone and apologized to Jamalone.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to improve his relationship with Link at this time, but he can’t. He has already sided with the alliance and has become an important figure in the alliance.

If he suddenly changes his stance and cooperates with Link, what credibility does he have in the eyes of others?

In addition, the current entertainment capital has already set its eyes on the fat piece of meat, Guess What?, and Link is unwilling to share it. Entertainment capital will continue to hunt down Guess What? Pictures, and they will never let such a big piece of fat be taken by Link alone.

In other words, their actions against Link and Guess Pictures have been tacitly approved by the capital side, and they are ready to watch the show.

If he suddenly stopped acting at this time, he would appear incompetent in the eyes of others, which is not in line with his status as the number one powerful person in Hollywood.

In addition, he lost to Link twice in a row, resulting in a considerable loss of funds, resources, and reputation.

If he doesn't win and take back what he lost, he will have a knot in his heart and will not be happy for the rest of his life.

Jay Maloney heard the seriousness of his words and stopped trying to persuade him. He planned to persuade Link again while playing golf tomorrow, telling him to take advantage of the small victory, accept the management of capital, and not make too much trouble.

(End of this chapter)