Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 363 Supermodel Cindy Crawford

It is the second week since the release of "The Sixth Sense", and the film is still very much discussed in the media and its reputation remains excellent.

However, many media believe that the situation will soon be reversed, and the box office performance of "The Sixth Sense" may drop by more than 50% next week.

The reason is that the annual blockbuster "Cutthroat Island", produced by Carlock Films and co-distributed by Universal Pictures and Fox Films, is about to be released this Friday.

The film is directed by Renny Harlin, whose representative works include "Die Hard 2" and "Clarks of the Valley", and he is one of the top commercial film directors in Hollywood.

The main actors include Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and others.

The movie tells the story of a female pirate Morgan who inherited her father's career and became a pirate leader. She prepared to go out to sea in search of treasure according to a Latin treasure map.

During the treasure hunt, she met another treasure hunter, Sean William, and the two fought a battle of wits and courage with hostile forces and the Royal Guards. After a bloody fight, she and Sean defeated the enemy, left Cutthroat Island with gold and jewelry, and set sail again.

The film took three years to shoot and cost $1.5 million to produce, making it the most expensive pirate film in history.

These are the news that Universal Pictures and Fox Films repeatedly promoted through the media when promoting "Cutthroat Island", attempting to use these things to attract audiences.

When "Cutthroat Island" was first released, this method of promotion was very effective. Many viewers heard that this movie was the blockbuster of the year, the largest-invested pirate-themed movie, and that all the ships in the film were real and cost tens of millions of dollars.

Driven by curiosity, they went to the cinema to watch it.

On its first day of release, "Cutthroat Island" earned $2104 million in 541 theaters in North America, which was a good start.

Just on the second day after the release of "Cutthroat Island", the media exposed a lot of negative news about the film, saying that "Cutthroat Island" was a terrible movie with a very boring plot. Many viewers left early after watching it for less than 30 minutes.

There were also viewers who cursed the distributor in front of the TV camera, calling them liars, and said that "Cutthroat Island" was a terrible movie with a very boring plot and poor special effects, which was not worth buying a ticket to watch.

Some fans also said that they didn't like Geena Davis jumping around on the deck with a sword. She was neither beautiful nor sexy, and her performance was lackluster. It was the worst movie of Geena Davis.

"Complete Movie" believes that the biggest flaw of the film is that the script is not perfect. Many plots seem to be pieced together from fragmented stories, which makes the whole film's plot not coherent enough. Apart from that, this film is also a good pirate-themed movie.

Affected by negative public opinion, the box office of "Cutthroat Island" dropped to 137 million US dollars on the second day. The second day was Saturday, which should have been a day for box office growth.

"Damn it! It must be the people from Guess What? Film Company who are causing trouble. They must have arranged for someone to write these negative news stories."

In the office of Carlock Pictures president, Mario Casar was so angry after looking at the box office data that he started cursing.

Executive producer Lawrence Mark sighed, not knowing how to comfort him.

Some of the negative news about "Cutthroat Island" in the current media is indeed a trick played by rival companies, but the main reason lies in the movie itself.

This movie is just average, not that outstanding. If it was released in the off-season and had no strong competitors, the box office of this movie might be good, but it was released during the winter vacation, and its competitor was the classic thriller "The Sixth Sense".

Comparing the two, even if "Cutthroat Island" is not a bad movie, it will be compared to a bad movie by "The Sixth Sense", and it is impossible for it to be a box office hit.

"Mario, don't be too anxious. Cutthroat Island has only been released for two days. Not many people know about it. With more publicity, the box office may slowly increase."

"How can we not be anxious? This movie cost more than 100 million U.S. dollars. If we lose money, we will all be finished."

Mario Casal pulled his tie and stared at the data in the newspaper with an extremely ugly expression. The current financial deficit of Carlock Pictures is as high as 3.8 million, which is higher than the company's market value. "Cutthroat Island" is the last straw. If the movie is a hit, the company still has hope of reviving. If it is a loss...
"We can't just let this go. I need to talk to Ron Meyer and Barry Diller. Universal Pictures and Fox Films are better at film promotion than Guess What. As long as they are willing to promote it hard, Cutthroat Island still has a chance."

Casal picked up the phone and called Ron Mayer and Barry Diller, asking them to intensify the promotion of "Cutthroat Island" and mobilize more media to promote the film. They must revive the box office data of "Cutthroat Island" and must not let "The Sixth Sense" continue to sell well, and must not let Guess What Pictures continue to make money.

If Guess Pictures becomes stronger, it will become more difficult to deal with, which will be extremely unfavorable to the Big Seven and the entire Hollywood film industry.

Ron Mayer and Barry Diller promised him that they would increase the film's promotion and screening volume.

After hanging up the phone, Casal called the presidents of several other film companies and asked them to help promote "Cutthroat Island" and suppress the movie of Guess the Picture Company, promising that if "Cutthroat Island" became a big hit, they would give them part of the box office revenue.

Some of the seven major film studios agreed, some declined, and some hoped to obtain the copyrights of several films under Carlock Pictures, such as the "Terminator" series and "Total Recall".

Casar also agreed.

The box office performance of "Cutthroat Island" is related to the survival of Carlock Pictures.

He would do anything to make the movie a hit.
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The next day, there was a lot more positive news about "Cutthroat Island" in the media, but it was far less than the positive publicity for "The Sixth Sense".

The reason is that the box office data and potential of "Cutthroat Island" are very average. Increasing publicity efforts will require more investment, which also means that the invested funds will be wasted.

Studios like Universal and Fox saw that the film would lose money and were more conservative in investing in its promotion.

On the contrary, "The Sixth Sense" set a record at the box office in its first week. Guess What Pictures was more confident and confident in its promotion, investing up to 1000 million US dollars in the second week of promotion.

The morale of "The Sixth Sense" is high in the public opinion field, while the morale of "Cutthroat Island" is getting lower and lower.

In comparison, the media influence of "Cutthroat Island" is not even one-tenth of that of "The Sixth Sense".

In its second week, "The Sixth Sense" earned $3277 million in 7141 theaters, a drop of less than 15%, and its North American box office also reached $1.59 million.

"Cutthroat Island" earned $2104 million in 1127 theaters in its first week, which is about one-seventh of "The Sixth Sense".

After the weekly box office results came out, American public opinion was in an uproar. On the one hand, people were amazed that the box office of "The Sixth Sense" was high enough, with $1.6 million in two weeks and a box office revenue ratio of 4:1, which had already locked in the annual box office champion throne in advance.

Meanwhile, Cutthroat Island, which was released at the same time, cost 1.5 million to produce, but only grossed 1127 million U.S. dollars in its first week, suffering losses in both reputation and box office. According to the current box office decline, the North American box office of the film will not exceed 3000 million U.S. dollars, with a box office profit-loss ratio of 5 times, and has been booked as the film with the largest loss of the year.

The amazing thing is that these two movies were released at the same time.

"1.6 billion!!"

When Harvey Weinstein saw this number, his eyes turned red with envy.

Last week he predicted that the film's North American box office would be around $2 million, but in just one week, the box office of "The Sixth Sense" has already approached $2 million.

Under this circumstance, "The Sixth Sense" will have a North American box office of at least $4 million, and its global box office will probably not be less than $8 million.

"8 million!"

If this was a Miramax movie, the company would not only be able to make up for all its losses with the box office share of this movie, but it would also be able to revive the company and become the eighth largest in Hollywood.

Unfortunately not.

Harvey envied Link for dozens of seconds, then he restrained his expression, picked up the phone and called Link.

After the call was connected, he laughed out loud in his most hearty voice, "Link, congratulations, The Sixth Sense is a big hit, you and Guess What? will make hundreds of millions of dollars, it's so enviable."

"Thank you! The box office performance of The Sixth Sense was indeed beyond my expectations. I didn't expect it to be such a hit."

Link's voice on the phone was calm and peaceful.

Harvey curled his lips and asked, "If you weren't confident in this movie, would you have changed the ending?"
"Haha, you have a good script, strong directing skills, and you know the audience's preferences. It's reasonable that this movie is a big hit. You are also very lucky. When The Sixth Sense was released, a terrible movie like Cutthroat Island was released. You deserve to make money."

"Well, my luck is indeed not bad, but my ability is more powerful, isn't it?"

Link ruffled the fluffy blonde hair of Cindy Crawford, who was kneeling in front of him, and shook it gently a few times.

Cindy Crawford looked up at him and blinked, the charming look on her face becoming more intense.

"Haha, yes, you are very capable, no one will deny that. Link, we talked about this in the cafe last time. Miramax Films will cooperate with Guess What Films on behalf of Disney. Can this cooperation be carried out in advance?"

Harvey said enthusiastically.

"Not for the time being. Our cooperation with Columbia Pictures has not ended, and we are temporarily unable to cooperate with other film companies to make films."

The last time Link discussed with Ovitz and Harvey, they would collaborate again after Guess What Pictures and Columbia Pictures completed their 10-film collaboration, which was expected to be after 97.

"Link, Miramax Films is in a bad situation right now and needs to invest in a few hit movies to turn things around. For the sake of our friendship, how about giving them a hand?"

Harvey became humble.

Link leaned back on the sofa and raised his waist comfortably. "Harvey, you should know that any movie investment has risks. Guess What?'s movies are not 100% guaranteed to be box office hits. If you pin your hopes of making money on Guess What?'s movies, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed."

"I know that investing in movies is risky, and I never thought that a movie I cooperated with Guess Pictures would definitely be profitable. I just hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with you. Even if the investment fails, I can accept it."

Harvey spoke earnestly.

"Is that so?"

Link raised his waist comfortably, thought for a while, and made a suggestion.

Guess What Pictures and Miramax each gave each other three scripts planned to start filming next year, and then each chose one from the other's project script and invested in each other.

"Okay, that's a great idea. I'll have someone deliver the scripts and materials for the upcoming filming later, and you can pick whatever you want."

Harvey said excitedly.

"Don't be so anxious, it will be fine before the end of the year."

"Haha, Link, I really want to work with you now. I can't wait."

"Okay, whatever you want."

Link hung up the phone, picked up the beautiful Cindy Crawford and placed her on the dining table.

Cindy Crawford had just finished attending the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. She was wearing a diamond-studded bra worth $150 million and had her long golden brown hair loose, showing off her tall, sexy, curvy figure, with a slim waist, plump hips and long legs.

She has the charming temperament of a top supermodel, as well as the understanding and selfless dedication of a divorced woman.

Link couldn't get enough of her.

And Cindy Crawford was also deeply impressed by his superb directing skills.

Under his super-telephoto giant lens, Cindy Crawford screamed her lines loudly. Even though she is 178 cm tall and works out regularly, she still performed very well.

There were several times when I immersed myself too deeply in the character and fainted with my eyes rolled back.

(End of this chapter)