Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 308: Rumble in the Bronx box office, Academy Awards ceremony (5K, please subscribe)

After a few days of hard work, Ben Affleck found Link again and said he was ready and wanted to try out the role.

Standing in front of the camera again, Ben Affleck has changed a lot. His expression is cold and his temperament has become calm and restrained. Although his performance still has some problems, it is much better than his initial state.

After Link finished filming a scene, he looked at Ben's shots and decided to keep them.

When Ben Affleck heard Link shout "Pass", he was stunned for a few seconds, lowered his head, clenched his fists tightly, and his body trembled slightly.

"Ben, are you okay?" Ryan asked.

Ben Affleck shook his head, turned his back and said indifferently, "I'm fine! I'm Batman and I will never bow to evil forces."

Ryan was a little worried when he saw his condition. Ben Affleck had changed a lot in recent days. He was cheerful and sunny before joining the crew, but in just a few days he became cold, gloomy, and withdrawn, as if he had a mental illness.

However, he did not persuade Ben to see a psychiatrist for adjustment, because his current condition is suitable for filming Batman.

After Ben Affleck found his rhythm, the filming went smoothly and the progress was accelerated. Most of the plot was completed in more than a month.

During the filming process, everyone was very serious and focused, and Link only left the crew twice in more than a month.

The first time was when Rumble in the Bronx was released in late February. He went to the Film Forum Cinema in Manhattan to attend the premiere to express his support for the film.

"Rumble in the Bronx" performed well at the box office, earning $1736 million in 985 theaters in its first week. Since February is a slow season, this result allowed the film to rank first on the weekly box office chart in North America.

Due to the good quality of the film, Chen Long’s performance in the film is wonderful, and the promotion of Guess Pictures is very powerful.

In its second week, the box office of "Rumble in the Bronx" continued to rise, earning 1319 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was 2304 million US dollars.

Total Film magazine predicts that the film's North American box office will be around 5000 million US dollars, making it the highest-grossing Chinese film in the United States after Way of the Dragon.

The production cost of "Rumble in the Bronx" was only 750 million US dollars, and the box office revenue ratio is expected to be more than 7 times.

At first, Michael Ovitz and Seven Pictures saw that Rumble in the Bronx was a Chinese film and did not think that this kind of film would sell much in North America, so they did not pay much attention to it.

By the second week, the North American box office of "Rumble in the Bronx" exceeded 20 million, and Michael Ovitz and Seven Pictures really began to take the film seriously.

In order to prevent Guess the Movies from making more box office revenue, media outlets affiliated with the seven major media groups began publishing negative reviews of Rumble in the Bronx, describing the film as a Chinese kung fu film with obvious logical loopholes, a confusing plot, and difficulty understanding.

This is to discourage North American audiences from watching this film.

Affected by negative reviews, the box office of "Rumble in the Bronx" dropped significantly in its third week, earning $682 million, a drop of 50%.

After the box office of "Rumble in the Bronx" dropped sharply, seven major media groups arranged for the media to continue to publish negative news about Guess What Pictures.

It is said that the two films released by Guess What Pictures this year failed to achieve outstanding results, which shows that Guess What Pictures is on the decline, but Link still insists on the bottom line of 15 billion market value and is unwilling to lower the price. This approach will inevitably lead to the failure of Guess What Pictures' second round of financing.

"Haha, Link, I heard that Guess What Pictures' two movies didn't perform well at the box office, and the second round of financing is going to fail. This is really depressing news, hahaha~"

On the phone, Michael Ovitz couldn't stop laughing.

"Anything else? If you have something to say, please tell me now. I'm very busy."

Link sat on a folding chair in the director's area, talking on the phone while watching the actors rehearse.

"Haha, Link, guess what? The box office of two consecutive movies of the film company has been lower than expected. Your plan has failed, and the second round of financing will inevitably fail. Are you still insisting on 15 billion and refusing to give up?"

"The box office revenue ratio of 'The Man From Earth' is more than 120 times, and the box office revenue ratio of 'Rumble in the Bronx' is currently 4 times, and will be more than 10 times after the release. Both films have good box office performance, and the company continues to make profits. Under such favorable circumstances, the company's market value will only rise, not fall."

"Humph! Link, stop pretending. Everyone knows your thoughts. In order to increase the box office, you spent millions or tens of millions on publicity. These two movies appear to be profitable, but the actual losses are huge. If you continue to do this, Guess What Pictures will lose more, which is very disadvantageous to both you and Guess What Pictures.

So I advise you to be smart and accept the $6 million offer from the investment companies to finance 50% of the shares. If you don't do this, I bet that before next year, Guess the Movies will go bankrupt and become a wave on the sea, and so will you. "

"Bet? How much? Do you dare to play 1 million US dollars?"

Link asked calmly.

"You! Who wants to make a bet with you, Link? I'm kindly reminding you that this is your last chance to save Guess What? Pictures. Don't be stubborn."

"You don't even dare to bet $1 million, so you think you can be my opponent?"

"you"

Before Michael Ovitz could start swearing, Link hung up the phone early and continued to instruct the actors in rehearsal.

After being despised by him, Michael Ovitz used the media to frantically suppress "Rumble in the Bronx". In its fourth week of release, the film only grossed 237 million US dollars in North America, with a cumulative box office of 3223 million US dollars. The North American box office is expected to be around 4000 million, which is lower than the expected 5000 million, causing millions of losses to Guess Pictures.

However, when the seven major media groups suppressed the box office of "Rumble in the Bronx", they also wasted a lot of media resources. If they continue to suppress it, the seven major media groups will suffer greater losses, causing obvious losses to shareholders and causing dissatisfaction among shareholders.

The suppression by the Big Seven studios won’t last long.

This is why Link is not afraid of Michael Ovitz's threats.

In mid-March, Link took a second leave of absence from the crew and returned to Los Angeles to attend the 67th Academy Awards.

After a three-hour awards ceremony, films released by Guess What Pictures won six awards.

"Seven" won Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

"Good Will Hunting" won Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

"Speed" won Best Sound Effects and Best Sound Editing.

Guess What Pictures had 6 films shortlisted this year, received 22 nominations, and ultimately won 6 awards.

Although this achievement is not as good as that of Paramount Pictures, the distributor of "Forrest Gump", it has won more awards than several other major film companies.

Link also won the Best Editing Award for "Seven Deadly Sins".

When he stepped down from the stage, Quentin glared at him with jealousy. This bastard won the Golden Globe Award at the age of 23, which was one step faster than him.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't even win the Best Screenplay Award."

Originally, the two had a bet on who would win the screenplay award, and in the end, the Best Original Screenplay went to "Good Will Hunting" and the Best Adapted Screenplay went to "Forrest Gump."

Neither of them won.

Quentin snorted and turned to Harvey, "Why didn't Pulp Fiction win an award?"

"Pulp Fiction" received 8 nominations, but now that the award ceremony is almost over, it has not won a single award.

Quentin was not happy about this.

Harvey Weinstein also frowned. According to his plan, the film should have won at least one award, but it got none out of 8 nominations.

"Quentin, Pulp Fiction could have won the Best Original Screenplay Award, but it met Good Will Hunting, which was more inspirational and in line with mainstream values. This is probably why the judges voted for this movie."

"What about the other awards? None?"

"Don't worry, maybe there will be one."

But in the end, Pulp Fiction didn't win any awards.

However, Miramax's Bullets Over Broadway won the Best Supporting Actress award, and The Madness of King George won the Best Art Direction award.
18 out of 2 is not bad.

But Harvey, like Quentin, was very dissatisfied with the result.

During the award public relations stage, he spent more than two million US dollars on the four nominated films, which was more than the seven major film studios spent, but in the end he only won two trophies, and the benefits were far less than the expenditure.

Harvey called an acquaintance on the Oscar committee to inquire about the situation.

After some investigation, I found out that the reason why Miramax's films did not win more awards was because of Guess What Pictures.

In order to win the award, Guess What Pictures spared no expense in public relations and publicity, investing seven or eight million dollars in total.

Thanks to the strong public relations of Guess Pictures, many judges voted for Guess Pictures' films in several evenly matched awards.

This is also the reason why Guess Pictures won 6 awards this year.

"800 million!"

Harvey Weinstein shook his head. Spending 800 million to buy a few unimportant technical awards was not a good deal.

In Hollywood, only someone as wealthy as Link would do this.

But no matter what, Guess What Pictures' award also affected Miramax's interests. Harvey did not intend to let it go so easily. He called Michael Ovitz and told him the inside information.

After the 67th Academy Awards, the media reported on the winners of this year's Oscars.

The movie "Forrest Gump" won 13 out of 6 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and other awards, becoming the biggest winner of this year's Oscars.

The film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, is also the film company that gained the most.

Ranked second is Guess Pictures, with 22 wins out of 6 nominations.

However, after the awards ceremony, Entertainment Weekly revealed that it had received inside information that Guess What Pictures had spared no effort in public relations during the second round of Oscar voting, through sending emails, holding film screenings, celebrity parties, and other means, and ultimately won 6 awards.

According to people familiar with the matter, Guess What Pictures spent more than 1000 million US dollars on these six awards, which means that Guess What Pictures bought 1000 awards with 6 million US dollars.

After this news was exposed, it attracted a lot of attention and heated discussion in the entertainment industry.

Some media did the math on behalf of Guess the Film Company, wondering whether it was worthwhile to spend 1000 million to buy five technical awards and one supporting actor award.

The result of the calculation is that it is not cost-effective. The benefits brought by six unimportant awards to the movie box office will not be too much, about a few million.

It is difficult for Guess Pictures to recover this investment in the box office market. Some media also analyzed that the reason why Guess Pictures did this was to boost performance, to improve the corporate image and popularity of Guess Pictures in this way, to attract the attention of investors, and thus complete the second round of financing.

The media believes that Guess What Pictures did is right, but the effect will not be very good because Link's offer was too high.

In addition to these, many media outlets accused Link and Guess What Pictures of spending a large sum of money to bribe judges during the Oscar selection period.

This seriously interferes with the fairness and impartiality of the Oscar selection process.

The Academy should take back all the awards won by Guess What and punish them.

For example, films produced by Guess the Movies Company are banned from participating in awards competitions for five years.

However, thanks to the strong public relations efforts of Guess What Pictures, these negative reports did not cause much waves.

The reason is that all three films have the strength to win awards. Seven ranked first in the North American box office of the year, and it was a great success in both word-of-mouth and box office. It only won 8 awards out of 2 nominations, and they were technical awards, which is not too much.
"Good Will Hunting" also has a very good reputation. Before the Oscars, some media claimed that if there was no "Forrest Gump", "Good Will Hunting" would have a chance to win the Best Picture. Now it only won the Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, which is also reasonable.

When "Speed" was released, many media praised the film's excellent sound effects and said it was very exciting and thrilling. Now it has won the Best Sound and Best Sound Effects awards, which is well deserved.

There were even media outlets that spoke up for Link, saying that "Seven" was no worse than "Forrest Gump." The film failed to win the Best Picture award due to its subject matter, but was fully qualified to win the Best Director award based on its quality and artistic level.

The Oscar jury did not give the Best Director award to Link because he was too young and lacked experience, not because he lacked ability.

Some film critics also think that "Good Will Hunting" is a classic and should have won more awards.

Under the hedging of the two public opinions, Michael Ovitz and others' plan to take this opportunity to attack Guess What Pictures and Link's public image failed.

At the same time, due to media coverage and the boost from the Oscars, the box office of "Se7en", "Good Will Hunting" and "Speed" all increased to varying degrees.

Among them, "Se335en" had the largest growth. Two days after the Oscars ceremony, it earned a total of 600 million US dollars in North America. It is expected that this wave of box office increase will not be less than 1200 million US dollars. Including overseas regions, the increase will not be less than million US dollars.

Considering the box office growth of "Good Will Hunting" and "Speed", I guess the studio has a great chance of recovering this investment.

"Damn it, why is this bastard always so lucky!"

When Michael Ovitz saw in the newspaper that "Se15en" had re-entered the top at the box office this week, he couldn't help but swear.

"Michael, besides reporting negative news about Link and creating public pressure on him, do you have any other means to deal with him?"

Harvey Weinstein asked.

In his opinion, the reason why Michael Ovitz and the Big 7 Pictures failed to destroy Guess What Pictures even though they teamed up many times to deal with it was that their methods were too mild.

He wished Michael Ovitz had a tougher approach.

The reason why he wanted to deal with Link was not only because he was suppressed by Link at the Academy Awards, but also because Miramax's profits last year were far below expectations. The main reason was that Guess Pictures performed too well and took up too much of the box office share, which Miramax Films could not get.

If Miramax wants to grow and make more money, it must grab box office revenue from the Big Seven Pictures and Guess What Pictures.

Since the Big Seven studios are too powerful, Guess What Pictures became the best target.

"Harvey, don't worry. The summer vacation is coming soon. I have made careful arrangements with the Seven Major Studios this time. We are going to attack the movies of Guess the Movies from all directions. No movie of Guess the Movies will be a big hit."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, I'm 100 percent sure."

Michael narrowed his eyes and smiled confidently.

"Link, the newspapers said you spent more than 1000 million US dollars on Oscars publicity. Is that true?"

Courteney Cox asked as she flipped through the newspaper in her pajamas at the dining table in Jennifer's apartment in New York.

"No, about six million."

Link said while eating breakfast.

"That's a lot of money. Can't you win an Oscar without spending money on PR?"

Jennifer Aniston, wearing a sling, rests on his shoulder.

"Sure, but this way the chances of winning the prize are higher."

"Spending money on Oscars PR is also a form of movie promotion."

Phoebe Lisa Kudrow said, "After winning an Oscar, the box office and video sales will increase. The newspaper said that after winning the Oscar, the box office of Seven increased by more than 5 million, and the global box office is expected to increase by 10 million. The box office of the other two movies will also increase, which shows that the money spent on Oscar public relations is worth it."

"Using 600 million in public relations funds to exchange for or million in box office revenue is like gambling," said Courteney Cox.

"It's a bit risky, but these three movies made money, so we have enough money for promotion. Another point is that compared with the movies released by the seven major studios, independent film companies have fewer resources to promote their movies. The Oscars have high ratings and are a top promotion platform. This is why independent film companies are more enthusiastic about Oscars publicity than the seven major studios."

Link said.

The three women nodded.

In fact, there is another reason why Link spared no expense in publicity. In the system's box office subsidies, the box office subsidies will be greater if the movie wins an award.

The box office subsidy given at the end of the preview of "Se2.6en" was times.

After a lot of publicity and the promotion of the Simpson murder case, as well as the film winning the Palme d'Or and the Oscar, the box office subsidy has now increased to 2.8 times.

The probability of this kind of investment paying off is extremely high, which is why he is not afraid of spending money.

Secondly, the Academy Awards have had public relations problems since its inception, but the Academy has never banned it. The reason is that film companies spend money on public relations to show that they value the Academy Awards. The more they spend, the more they value it, which raises the status of the Academy Awards in the film industry.

The Academy would love to see this, too.

Therefore, Link will continue to promote the Oscars within the rules in the future and win more awards.

Jingle Bell!
The doorbell rang.

Jennifer Aniston put on her coat and went to open the door, only to see Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer walking in arm in arm.

"Why are you here?"

"Hey, Jennifer, don't be like this. We talked on the phone. We were here today to discuss the script. Did you forget?"

Matthew Perry waved the script in his hand.

"I didn't forget, I just didn't expect you to come so early."

"Are you having breakfast? That's great. We haven't either. Let's join in."

Matthew Perry and the other two followed them to the restaurant and suddenly saw Link sitting at the main seat, with Jennifer, Courtney and Lisa sitting on both sides, like a family of four.

The three of them looked at each other, winked at each other, and laughed.

"Hi~ Link, good morning!"

Matthew Perry greeted with a cheeky smile, and the other two followed.

Link smiled and greeted them as well.

After the first season of "Friends" was broadcast, the six of them all became stars. Jennifer Aniston was a first-tier star, and the other five were second-tier stars. However, compared to Link, they were far behind in both fame and status.

Link asked about the filming of the second season of "Friends".

After breakfast, Link said goodbye to a few people and returned to the "Batman" crew to film.

After he left, Matthew Perry looked at the three women with a look of disappointment, "It's been a year, why are you still messing around with Link?"

"What do you mean by fooling around? Don't talk nonsense. We are just having a normal relationship."

Jennifer Aniston said dissatisfiedly.

Courtney and Lisa nodded in agreement.

"Oh my god! You three and Link are dating alone, can this be considered a normal relationship?"

Matthew Perry asked, eyes wide.

“I don’t think this is a good idea either.”

David Schwimmer glanced at Jennifer furtively, and there was one thing he didn't understand very much.

Jennifer is so beautiful, she is 25 years old this year. After the first season of "Friends" was released, she has become the national sweetheart and a top star in the entertainment industry. She has no shortage of fame or money. For someone like her, there is no need for her to continue to fool around with Link, a playboy.

"This is our private matter, stay out of it."

Jennifer Aniston said impatiently.

"Yes, I know you mean well when you say this, but we're doing great things with Link and we enjoy doing this, so don't worry, okay?"

Courteney Cox laughed.

"I have never regretted dating Link, especially since we are three good friends together. There is nothing better than this."

Lisa Kudrow smiled while holding Jennifer and Courtney's hands.

The three of them looked at each other and smiled knowingly. Everything was said without words.

Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc also looked at each other, their eyes full of disbelief and deep envy.

(End of this chapter)