In North America, the second box office week of the summer season from May 23 to May 29 ended soon after the hit "Face Change".

In the final first week, the opening of "Face Change" was as high as $79.59 million in advance. This result not only set John Wu's first-week box office record, but also exceeded the expectations of most people inside and outside Hollywood. Before that, based on the first day's results, it was generally believed that "Face Change"'s first-week box office was above $70 million, slightly lower than the 76.15 million first-week "Mission Impossible 2" directed by John Wu last summer.

Even though Simon had the same expectations for "Face Change" series, he would not have invested a huge budget of $100 million more than the previous $10 million, but he was still a little surprised by the first week of "Face Change".

In the first week of nearly $80 million, if the subsequent trend is slightly stable, it is not impossible to hit the local area of ​​$250 million or even $300 million.

Of course, these are basically fantasies. After all, in addition to creativity, the film itself is still a more traditional action movie, not to mention that this is a fiercely competitive summer season. As long as the North American local area can reach 200 million US dollars, Simon will be satisfied. In this way, relying solely on the local and overseas box offices, Daenerys Entertainment is expected to make a profit.

In any case, the first week's earnings are close to 80 million, and the trend of the next week is crucial.

On May 30, the biggest competitor of "Face Change" was the science fiction blockbuster "Fifth Element" directed by Luc Besson. This film produced by Sony this time Disney, which was controlled by Vivendi, was the main film of the year. Compared with the budget of more than $90 million, the expenditure this time also reached US$100 million, because it was the annual main project that Vivendi's new leader Jean-Marie Merrier personally decided, and the marketing was also very popular.

After the premiere was held one day in advance, the reputation of "Fifth Element" was lifted the next day.

Although the comprehensive media score of 7.0 is far lower than the classic 9.2 points of "Face Change", it is not a failure for a commercial film.

However, such relatively mediocre ratings obviously cannot support Vivendi's ambitions, and even predict the film's box office prospects to a certain extent.

When the single-day box office data on May 30 was released, the basic situation was decided.

The highly anticipated "Fifth Element" opened on the screen for 3,186 yuan, and the box office of only $6.19 million on the first day was a failure. In comparison, the box office of "Face Change" on the first day of the next week was still as high as $11.34 million, almost twice that of "Fifth Element".

The time has entered June, and the gap has further widened from the first week of May 30 to June 5.

Because of the mediocre performance of "The Fifth Element", "Face Change" won the single-week box office championship without any suspense, and the box office decline of the next week remained well at 36%, earning $50.93 million again. After half a month of release, the cumulative box office easily exceeded 100 million, reaching $130.52 million.

Let’s talk about “The Fifth Element”. In the first seven days of the first week, this bombshell, which is also a blockbuster of RMB 100 million, had a box office of only $28.27 million.

This is basically consistent with Simon's memory of "The Fifth Element"'s box office performance in North America.

Before any movie is released, the real box office data is difficult to predict, but too many signs can be found based on the results.

In history, "The Fifth Element" was not a failure. Although the box office in North America failed, only earned more than 60 million US dollars in total, it sold 200 million overseas. Coupled with subsequent video tapes and other channels, Sony actually achieved good profits. However, the biggest regret was the failure of the box office in North America.

As for why North American audiences don’t like this movie, it probably starts with cultural differences.

After all, Luc Besson is a French director. One of the major characteristics of this director was that his films were often sold well as films, while the box office of the films directed by himself was very unstable, and many of them even failed miserably at the box office. This is not to say that Luc Besson was not outstanding enough, but mainly because the other party liked to bring his own various knowledge. "The Fifth Element" is quite typical in this regard.

First is the casting of the film.

Disney invited many of the top celebrities in Hollywood, but under Simon's quiet interference, the big names who were close to Daenerys Entertainment basically chose to refuse. In the end, the male protagonist of the film fell on the original Bruce Willis.

In recent years, except for the "Die Hard" series, which is increasingly expensive but has not been able to get better, Bruce Willis has fallen to the second-tier position, and the box office appeal is still to be discussed.

And the heroine.

Such a bombshell, as the number one heroine who is more serious than the male lead, should have chosen a Hollywood first-line actress, at least she should have enough popularity. However, although Mira Jovovich didn't know where she was suffused by Simon's big butterfly, Luc Besson, who has quite the autonomy, still chose another newcomer according to her own preferences.

Apart from its beautiful and hot appearance, it has basically no characteristics, let alone box office appeal.

Although bombshells are not so dependent on actors, if some top big names can participate in a mediocre bombshell, the result may be completely different.

In short, "The Fifth Element" lacks top Hollywood stars with box office appeal, and this is one of them.

The second is the plot.

This original science fiction, which was conceived since his youth according to Luc Besson, is quite complete, but the plot is really a hodgepodge, lacking the refreshing feeling of Hollywood high-concept films being completed in one go.

Speaking of which, whether it is "The Fifth Element" or "Agents" twenty years later, the box office experiences in North America and overseas are almost the same.

Therefore, it can be seen that the North American box office failure of "Fifth Element" is not accidental.

Luc Besson has various private goods, and with big productions and scenes, he can often achieve good results in overseas regions where the film market is lagging behind North America. However, in North America, which has gradually been raised by bombs, it is not so easy to buy tickets to enter the market.

Even more, this has become the general box office trend of many CG special effects bombs later, with mediocre North America and big sales overseas.

Typically, the last few movies of "Transformers" of Blast. The box office of "Transformers" in North America was only 130 million, and overseas sales were still sold at $470 million. It can only be said that audiences outside North America are too easy to satisfy.

In any case, the box office failure of "Fifth Element" made the market space that made "Face Change" sell again the next week.

Then it was June 6, the first full box office week in June, and Daenerys Entertainment's first CG special effects blockbuster for summer was released. In the end, "Tornado", which still cost $100 million, also hit a new high on the screen, reaching 3,573 yuan.

The large-scale premiere was also held in advance. Surprisingly, the comprehensive media score of "Tornado" hit a new low after "Face Change" and "Fifth Element". Under the public relations of Daenerys Entertainment's publicity and distribution team, the comprehensive media score of the film was only 6.3 points, barely passing the qualification.

The comments from Hollywood's Variety Magazine can completely summarize the voices of most media: "A mechanical and stereotypical high-concept movie, with stereotyped characters, and the plot can be guessed from the beginning."

Things suddenly became interesting.

One of the reasons why the just-released "Fifth Element" failed is that it is "too complicated".

Now, the problem with Tornado is that it's too simple.

Fortunately, the suspense did not last long. After June 6, the first day's box office was soon released. The box office of 18.98 million US dollars was even better than "Face Change". Obviously, the audience really liked such a "simple" popcorn movie.

In the full first week, "Tornado" finally earned $86.31 million in the opening box office, easily winning the single-week box office championship.

Affected by "Tornado", "Face Change" in the third week of release began to fall sharply, with a box office drop of 47%, close to halfway. The third week earned $26.99 million, and the cumulative box office was $157.51 million in three weeks. Obviously, the possibility of 250 million is not high, but it is stable to exceed 200 million in the local area.

The production cost of the film is US$100 million, the promotion and distribution expenses are 50 million, and the local 200 million. According to the powerful Daenerys Entertainment, which can currently obtain more than 60% of the box office share ratio from local cinemas, it is enough to recover most of the production costs and can achieve considerable profits overseas, let alone post-production video tapes and other channels.

Then came the Fifth Element.

The first week was not high. The second week was crushed by "Tornado", and the box office fell by 41%, earning $16.69 million, and the cumulative box office was US$44.96 million in two weeks. It is expected that the total local box office was about the same.

The new leader of Vivendi announced his entry into Hollywood last year with ambition. Unexpectedly, the first highly anticipated project ended with such a result. Not only was the sarcastic revelation of the media in North America, but even the local French journalists were quite sarcastic. For a moment, Jean-Marie Merrie was in a mess.

The summer season in North America continues.

The golden June schedule, after "Tornado", three new films will be released on June 13, two of which are bombshells, but unfortunately none of them pose a threat to "Tornado".

The next week from June 13 to June 19, the box office decline of "Tornado", which started with an already stunning start, was once again beyond many people's expectations, with only 26%, earning 63.86 million US dollars. You should know that "Tornado" does not rely on long-term literary and artistic films, but a typical popcorn. With a saturated distribution strategy, the decline of 26% in the next week is very rare, even if it is not a miracle.

Therefore, in just two weeks of release, the cumulative box office of "Tornado" has reached 150.17 million US dollars, equivalent to the cumulative volume of "Face Change" three weeks ago.

Judging from this situation, "Tornado" has a great hope to become the first movie in 1997 to have a local box office of over $300 million.

On June 20, "American Pie" produced by New World Pictures, a subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment, was released.

This film, which once made a big big deal in history, still did not disappoint this time. The production cost of just $10 million. Although the promotion budget also reached $10 million, with a total investment of $20 million, relying on the word of mouth, the film started with a screen size of 2,773 yuan, and earned $34.61 million in seven days in the first week.

Recover costs directly and start making a profit.

However, "American Pie" did not win the box office of the week. "Tornado" still dominated the list. The box office decline in the third week slightly expanded to 35%, and the revenue was still as high as US$41.5 million. The cumulative box office in three weeks was US$191.67 million, which is about to exceed 200 million.

In addition, after earning $15.39 million in the fourth week with a 43% decline, from June 20 to June 26, the decline in the single-week "Face Change" narrowed to 28%, earning $11.86 million. The cumulative box office in five weeks was US$183.99 million, which was only a gap of $16.01 million from the threshold of 200 million. It can basically be passed in the future.

As June is about to pass, more and more people discover that this summer season, from the release of "Face Change" on May 23 until June 26, the box office champion was occupied by films produced by Daenerys Entertainment for five consecutive weeks.

Moreover, the three movies released by Daenerys Entertainment, whether it is "Face Change", "Tornado", and even the latest "American Pie", are firmly ranked among the top five on the list even if they did not reach the single-week box office championship.

Not only that, some media have also noticed that compared with previous years, there are obviously fewer films in other studios this summer. Even though there is no shortage of new films in recent weeks, they are all mediocre works that have not splashed too much. This obviously confirms a certain trend that other Hollywood studios are unknowingly reducing the production of films under the continuous squeeze of Daenerys Entertainment.

Besides, Daenerys Entertainment's three new films, "Face Change" is calculated at 200 million yuan, and "Tornado" is almost the same even if it is less than 300 million yuan. In addition, the three films are expected to exceed 100 million yuan, and the total local box office of the three films is expected to reach 600 million US dollars. According to the industry's annual box office expectations of 6.5 billion to 7 billion US dollars in North America in 1997, these three films are equivalent to getting nearly 10% of the box office share in North America.

It is as powerful as a bamboo shoot.

At this time, the summer vacation has only been half over.

While North America's summer vacation is in full swing, a singing talent show launched by Jiangsu Satellite TV on the other side of the ocean has also begun to attract more and more attention.

The first "Super Girl" started on June 7th. Jiangsu TV broadcasts auditions from this reality show throughout the weekend. During the day, it is a regular audition scene, and in the evening, there is a two-hour selection scene with comments from judges.

The ratings statistics in China are still quite rough at this stage, but in Jiangsu, in the first two evenings selected scenes, "Super Girl" created 41% and 56% of the ratings in the province, squeezing all other municipal and county-level TV stations of all sizes and sizes, quickly showing their strengths.

In the following weeks, the ratings of "Super Girl" rose steadily, and because Jiangsu Satellite TV was already on the stars, it began to attract national attention.
Chapter completed!