Superstar

\"&　　 Columbia Pictures bought the global distribution rights of "Before Sunrise" with one million US dollars, which attracted a lot of media attention. After all, "Pulp Fiction" is still in theaters now, and "Before Sunrise" "A lot of topics have been gathered, but at this time, it was naturally infinitely fermented.

With this move by Columbia Pictures, all the news media immediately became lively, and everyone was discussing: What height can the box office "before sunrise" reach?

This is a very difficult problem, even the box office forecasting experts seem a bit hesitant.

The origin of the "Before Sunrise" Sundance Film Festival and the attributes of independent films are all signs of box office decline.

Although the "Pulp Fiction" being released has created miracles one after another with a destructive posture, objectively speaking, apart from "Pulp Fiction", independent films are currently unwelcome in the entire American film market. Independent films It's still too niche and too limited. This is even more so when it is concentrated on the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance has entered its eleventh year since its establishment. The most successful work was last year's "clerks".

"Crazy Store Clerk" is a work written, directed and acted by the unknown soldier Kevin Smith (.), and is also his debut as a screenwriter, actor, and director. This independent film costing only 27,000 US dollars has become one of the most important works in the history of American cult movies. Twenty years later, it is often seen in the top ten and top twenty classic cult movies. To its shadow.

"Crazy Clerk" landed at the Sundance Film Festival last year and won the Filmmaker's Trophy, and then won the Mercedes-Benz Award and the Best Overseas Film Award when participating in the Cannes Film Festival. If it weren't for "Pulp Fiction", it would be too popular. , This work will have a better prospect. But even so, two decades later, "Crazy Clerk" and "Pulp Fiction" became the masterpieces of independent films in the special year of 1994.

After the release of "Crazy Clerk", the gross box office revenue was US$3.2 million. Although not high, the profit was considerable compared to its ultra-low cost of US$27,000. More importantly, this work performed very well in the video tape market, and it was still very popular until the turn of the millennium.

So far, the $3.2 million created by the "crazy shop assistant" is the highest box office among all the works that came out of the Sundance Film Festival, and Quentin Tarantino, who also came out of the Sundance Film Festival The North American box office of the debut "Falling Dog" was only 2.8 million U.S. dollars, while Steven Soderbergh's famous work "Sex, Lies and Videotape", which was born in Sundance, had a North American box office of 2.4 million. Dollar.

It is worth mentioning that "Sex, Lies and Videotape" was released after winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but the box office is still not satisfactory.

From this perspective, the box office prospects "before sunrise" are really not optimistic. Sundance Film Festival’s excellent independent film, this title is difficult to allow "before sunrise" to occupy too much advantage on the road to the box office. On the contrary, it may become a factor preventing audiences from entering the movie theater: because people will think it preconceived. This movie is too niche, too special, too weird, I might not like it.

So, "before sunrise" can you get a box office of more than 2.5 million at the cost line? This seems to be a problem that does not require much thought.

But to put it another way, Hugo has repeatedly won in the past three years, and the winning rate of the works is 100%. From the beginning of "Scenting Fragrance and Knowing Women", every movie has won the box office, although the box office of "Pulp Fiction" ended up with 172 million U.S. dollars did not allow the title of "Mr. 400 Million" to further develop into "Mr. 600 Million", but since "Yihai Xiongfeng", Hugo has surpassed the North American box office for five consecutive works. The momentum completely confirmed what is meant to be surpassing the sky.

"Before Sunrise" is Hugo's first screenwriter, and won many praises from audiences and professional film critics at the Sundance Film Festival. Will this again become a decisive factor for the outstanding performance of the movie box office?

No one will forget that "Before Sunrise" is a love movie. Another love movie in 1992, "Night Sleep in Seattle", was to complete a counterattack in one fell swoop when everyone was not optimistic. It not only replaced " "Beautiful Lady in Wind and Moon", won the No. 1 box office box office in the history of romantic comedies; and also created a box office of 189 million US dollars that is almost unattainable for romantic movies.

Imagine that Julia Roberts and Richard Gere benefited from the chick movie "Pretty Beautiful Lady" and jumped directly into the top ranks, especially Julia; it can be speculated that Hugo and Meg Ryan were due to this movie. The status gained by the movie. After that, Hugo won the title of "People" Weekly the world's sexiest man for two consecutive years, and became the representative of the most perfect lover among countless women.

Now, "Before Sunrise" is another love movie, and it has been praised by countless film critics as discussing the true meaning of love. Coupled with the partnership of Hugo and Charlize, two golden boys and girls, people have reason to think about this work. Expect more. Then the movie box office is naturally worth looking forward to.

These are two different angles, and two completely different answers will be produced. It may be a big box office victory or a bleak box office. This kind of contradictory speculation is really embarrassing for experts.

In addition, what is interesting is that before "sunrise", Hugo has already created the first $100 million box office in Hollywood film history for five consecutive sales, becoming the first person in history. Everyone is curious: Hugo is continuing to create The myth of the 100 million box office, pushing one's continuous box office to break 100 million to the sixth and seventh? Or does the record come to an abrupt end, and the two-year high-speed development state that "Yihai Xiongfeng" started temporarily is one paragraph higher?

Objectively speaking, reporters look forward to the first possibility, but more hope to see the second. It's not gloating-of course this mentality also occupies a large part, but Hugo's long-term strength has turned into a kind of fatigue, making people expect this situation to be broken.

This is human nature, just like in sports. When a dynasty is established, people are certainly excited, but more people will hope to see the dynasty fall. Because a victorious general will make the game lose suspense, and the charm of the competition will be reduced, and fierce competition and contention of a hundred schools of thought will make the game more exciting-fans who like players other than the victorious general can blossom.

Beginning in 1992, Hugo's career has continued to rise for three consecutive years. It can almost be described as a "sweeping" posture. It seems that every time a Hugo work is released, it means success. This is actually a kind of aesthetic fatigue for reporters and audiences.

Reporters can't help thinking: When will failure come? In other words, it is not a failure, at least a pause or a slowdown. When will it occur?

Under such circumstances, a work such as "Before Sunrise" has become Hugo's latest work, which is indeed a very interesting thing. It is not a commercial blockbuster with a $100 million investment, nor is it an art film with the potential to sweep awards, but an independent film full of personality and experimentation. It seems that Hugo's continuous upward momentum for three consecutive years is in danger and will be disillusioned at any time. .

So, the reporters were all excited in an instant, like a shark smelling blood. Not against Hugo, just pure "unpopular psychology" at work.

In this way, "Before Sunrise", a work that was difficult to make a difference in the box office, its box office performance has become the focus of countless media discussions. This is really a very interesting phenomenon. Of course, this issue has also become a thorny subject that experts are difficult to judge and unpredictable. Should we continue to believe in Hugo’s box office appeal, or believe in the obstacles of the entire independent film environment?

Obviously, more experts believe in the latter. Hugo's strength alone is difficult to contend with the entire environment. What's more, film critics who have watched "Before Sunrise" in Park City also know that this is not a work that can win the box office. The successful route of "Pulp Fiction" is not so easy to replicate.

After Columbia Pictures announced that "Before Sunrise" will be officially screened in seven theaters on February 3rd, eight media outlets made predictions about the box office performance of "Before Sunrise" in the blink of an eye.

Since "before sunrise" is only a spot-screening, it is naturally meaningless to predict the box office of the weekend. All eight media outlets predict the box office of a single library. But these eight media outlets did not see the big media such as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, which is really intriguing.

Obviously, it is impossible that the "Los Angeles Times" is not paying attention, so what is the reason? Is the box office too tricky for them to make accurate judgments, or is it because even Nicholas McLenna is soft-mouthed and he can't believe that this time the box office will still be successful "before sunrise"?

But no matter what the reason, these big newspapers really did not make any predictions ~ www.readwn.com~ Among the eight media, three are national media, "USA Today", "Chicago Tribune" and "New York" The Post"—all media that are not very friendly to Hugo.

"USA Today" believes that "$3,000 in a single library is their highest expected value. This is also the best compliment to Hugo Lancaster-it is not easy for his screenwriting debut to reach such a level." Obviously, they are not optimistic that miracles can be performed "before sunrise".

The comments of the "Chicago Tribune" maintained the usual ironic and humorous style, "Maybe the single-library box office in the first week of the screening can get 18,000 US dollars, but the total box office of this movie must get Lancaster. A fraction of the special pay is not an easy task."

They are very confident about the box office of the single-library "before sunrise", and they are mainly betting on the appeal of Hugo. Of course, when the movie is shown on the art theater line, the independent attribute of "before sunrise" is instead. It will become an advantage, so it is normal for the results to be optimistic during the screening period.

But obviously, they still maintain a pessimistic attitude towards the final box office "before sunrise", expressing this view in a ridiculous way.

As for the "New York Post", Colin Mailer has no reason to support Hugo. .