Chicago.

It was nine o'clock in the evening of central time. After watching the latest "Rain Man", the famous film critic Roger Albert came out of the theater with his friend Gene Siscole. Since 1975, Roger Albert and Gene Siscole have hosted the film review talk show "Siscole and Albert" on local TV stations in Chicago.

Thinking of the undercurrents in the circle recently, Roger Albert asked his friend with a wry smile on his face, "Jen, what are you going to do?"

Gene Siscole's expression was also a little hesitant.

A few days ago, some people secretly tried to snipe the "Death Poetry Club", but the attitude of this force was not very firm, and the quality of "Death Poetry Club" itself was unquestionable. In addition, Daenerys Entertainment's strong public relations, after the preview of the week, "Death Poetry Club" still accumulated a very strong reputation.

But this time, CAA President Michael Orwitz personally called over and asked if they were interested in making an exclusive interview with Robert Redford on their TV show, which was the Sundance Film Festival in January next year.

If a big star like Robert Redford can attend "Siscoll and Albert", the two of them will naturally be reluctant to do so. Then Orwitz mentioned "Rain Man".

Everyone is smart.

Although Michael Orwitz did not make clear some things on the phone, he was unlikely to clearly say something I hope you can give someone a bad review of "Rain Man", but how Roger Albert and Gene Siscole didn't understand.

However, through watching the movie just now, both of them realized that "Rain Man" is definitely a rare and excellent film, far from being as bad as some media rendered during this period.

Roger Albert and Gene Siscole are both in a dilemma now.

Although Michael Orwitz only promised benefits on the phone, they did not think that if they ignored each other's wishes, they would just lose a chance to interview Redford.

With the CAA accumulating more and more first-tier superstars in recent years, this talent agency has even surpassed any of the top seven companies in Hollywood.

After all, film critics have to rely on movies to survive, and it is best to be first-hand movie information.

If the two of them give "Rain Man" a positive review, then they may lose a lot of opportunities to participate in the first preview of the film by CAA's stars in the film in the next period of time.

However, if the bad reviews of "Rain Man" are given negligently, once the overall review trend of the film tends to be positive, the credibility of the two will be hit. The critics rely on reputation to make a living, and there is no shortage of competitors. Such obvious reversal of right and wrong will definitely usher in the criticism of competitors.

The two of them discussed while walking, and finally found a cafe and carefully considered it. Roger Albert finally made a decision to postpone the publication of the Rain Man review. If the next word of mouth is one-sided, he would not be able to go against the trend. If the response is mediocre, although this possibility is not great, he can also make a "shelf favor" at that time.

Many times, human behavior patterns always have amazing similarities.

When Roger Albert made the decision to postpone the Rain Man review, many media outlets across North America that were handled by CAA were very clever to have the same idea.

So, early on Saturday morning, many mainstream newspapers in North America saw a silence about "Rain Man" but the situation appeared.

Malibu.

After Simon woke up early, he soon saw the first-day box office data of "Rain Man".

$2.1 million.

Although it is a preliminary estimate, the detailed figures should not be much different.

However, this number is less than half of the first day of "Scream" during Halloween. The schedule of "Scream" is relatively deserted, but it still earned $4.5 million in the first day of the box office, while the first day of "Rain Man" was only $2.1 million.

Although this film suffered a lot of criticism in the early stage, Daenerys Entertainment has also invested enough marketing resources.

Simon previously predicted that the first-day box office of "Rain Man" should be at least about $2.5 million, so as to ensure that the first week of the film is not less than $10 million. In this era, a film's first week of box office is less than $10 million, and the starting point is too low, so it is impossible for the subsequent box office to achieve too much.

Now, the first day's box office is $2.1 million, and the first week of "Rain Man" is likely to be only about $8 million.

With a $8 million start, even if Simon is confident in "Rain Man", he doesn't think the movie can still achieve a North American box office of more than $170 million in the original time and space.

Did it still fail?

After breakfast, he arrived at the company as usual, because most of his weekdays were spent on "Batman", and Simon took advantage of the weekend's opportunity to handle some company affairs as much as possible.

Sitting in the office, Burbank quickly spread the news of "Rain Man"'s media feedback report and the news that many mainstream media collectively "don't" today. Simon sent away the female secretary Susan Landis, who had been wandering in front of him more and more attentively these days, and then opened the media feedback report.

Simon had just finished reading the report when Jennifer pushed the door open.

Although newspapers such as "Variety Show" and "Hollywood Reporter" did not publish film reviews at the first time, in North America, which has more than 2,000 newspapers, the news about "Rain Man" naturally cannot be completely banned.

Overall, the reviews of "Rain Man" are much higher than those of the previous "Death Poetry Club". The Los Angeles Times, a well-affiliated relationship with Daenerys Entertainment, praised the film as "a touching and warm masterpiece."

Putting down the document, Simon noticed that Jennifer carefully placed a stack of scripts in his arms in front of him, relaxed his expression and joked: "What are you doing so careful? Worrying that I will suddenly transform and eat you?"

Jennifer pushed the script at Simon, looked at Simon seriously across from his desk and said, "I went to the cinema last night to watch "Rain Man". The audience around him liked it very much."

Simon did not answer Jennifer's topic, and noticed that the female assistant was still pressing her fair little hand on the script, and reached out to press it on it, but Jennifer subconsciously escaped, looking at the lost big hand with a slightly red face, and said, "This is not good."

Simon turned his palms over and turned his palms upwards, and said with a smile: "I'm going to lose a lot of money soon, please comfort me."

"It shouldn't be that much." Jennifer said this, hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and patted Simon's big hand. He thought Simon would take it away and twist it. The man didn't do this, so she took back her hand as if nothing had happened, looking at the stack of scripts she had just sent, saying: "You seem to have rejected the project "Rocket Expert". There are several other scripts that you have eliminated. What are you going to do now?"

Simon withdrew his hand and said, "Send it to someone."

Jennifer wondered: "Who should I give it to someone?"

"Give it to anyone who wants it," Simon said without hiding it too much, "Maybe I'm a little suspicious, but you'll know it if you try it."

Jennifer understood and said, "You mean, a commercial spy?"

Simon nodded and said, "Okay, just ignore these things and concentrate on doing your job well."

When Janet heard Simon say this, she knew that he just didn't want to touch these dark sides of the business by herself, and she didn't mean to distrust her. She pursed her lips and said, "I can help you."

"Of course," Simon said confidently, "but there are some things you don't need to do. Now, go back to your office."

This tone of coaxing the little girl made Jennifer feel sweet and dissatisfied. When he turned around obediently and walked out, he couldn't help but say, "I'm not a little girl."

Simon waited for Jennifer to leave, took the stack of scripts, picked them up, and selected them two.

One is "Rocket Expert" that Simon planned to be the "Sand" last year, and the other is "Firebird Attack" which imitates "Top Gun".

In my memory, both of these films are high-budget failed works.

The original Rocket Expert was produced by Disney and burned more than $60 million in production and promotional expenses, but the box office in North America was only more than $40 million. Although it is not an absolute failure, such a project that occupied a large amount of funds and the best-quality period did not meet expectations, which was a heavy blow to Disney.

Another movie "Firebird Attack" tells the story of the Apache helicopter team. Simon remembered it only because this movie wanted to continue the glory of "Top Gun". Although he couldn't remember the detailed budget and box office figures of the film, he remembered the result of the failed box office of this project clearly.

If someone is really using commercial espionage, if these two projects are sent out, once all fail, at least a large film company can replace several senior executives.

Simon carefully added misleading comments to the two scripts. Half an hour later, Amy knocked on the door and came in. Simon put the two scripts away in the filing cabinet at her feet, and then left the company headquarters with Amy.

After this period of operation, Daenerys Entertainment has successfully obtained the mountainous land in Malibu. Simon and Amy made an appointment today to check it out.

The two arrived at the parking lot, and Amy did not drive, but got on Simon's Land Rover.

After the car started, I inevitably talked about "Rain Man", and Amy talked about another thing: "Yesterday was the last deadline for the contract, and Orion did not send us the share of "Pulp Novels" to us."

For tax avoidance and other considerations, Simon and Orion's cooperation on "Pulp Novel" completely went through Daenerys Entertainment's corporate channel, not his personal cooperation.

According to the original contract, Orion needs to settle the share that Daenerys Entertainment deserves within one month of the release of "Pulp Novel". "Pulp Novel" is on November 17, yesterday is on December 16, and the last day of the working day. Under normal circumstances, Orion must pay 10% of the box office share to Daenerys Entertainment before this day.

Starting from "Rolla Run", the subsequent projects such as "Death is Coming", "When Harry Meets Sally", are obviously due to the good cooperative relationship in the future, and several film companies have not yet owed the share of Daenerys Entertainment.

Simon is very aware of the current situation where Hollywood film companies are habitually arrears to share the share of their own producers, but he didn't expect that his company would suddenly face this situation.

However, he was not surprised.

Including the movie "The Big Young Master" released yesterday and "Rain Man", Orion has released a total of 17 movies this year.

According to the data I saw in the morning, the first day of "The Big Master of Stealing Heart" had a box office of only $1.2 million, which was obviously another failed work. Before that, in addition to "Pulp Novel", the best box office among other films was the baseball star biopic "Million Golden Arm", starring Kevin Costner, with a box office of $50.88 million in North America.

Moreover, there are only 5 films in all projects with a box office of over $20 million in North America.

Based on the rapidly rising film production costs in recent years, the box office of North America is $20 million, and Orion can ensure that all costs are recovered through subsequent omni-channel operations. Even if the cost is less than $20 million, it will take a considerable operating time, which is basically equivalent to a loss.

According to comprehensive calculations, all 17 films of Orion this year can only ensure that they can make a profit of 5, and the other 12 movies will basically lose money in the short term.

After fulfilling the contract for "Pulp Novel", Daenerys Entertainment's chances of cooperating with Orion in the future are slim. Most projects suffer losses throughout the year. At this time, Orion can only rely on arrears to maintain operations.

Thinking of this, Simon asked Amy: "Have Mike Medouva called you?"

Amy nodded and said, "He said Orion can't afford the money now, and hopes we can delay it for a month."

Simon smiled. Since he started to default, Daenerys Entertainment should still not get it in a month: "There is no problem in other projects, right?"

"No, Fox has settled the box office share of Instinct, a total of $32.29 million. Major TV networks will basically settle accounts before the end of the month."

Simon thought for a while and said, "You keep watching. It's okay to delay Orion for a few months. Everyone knows their situation, but if it keeps maliciously delinquently, we will file a lawsuit."

As the two said, the car soon arrived at the hillside that was about to be used to build Daenerys Entertainment Cinema.

In a busy day, the weekend is over.

"Rain Man" on the first day is 2.1 million US dollars, and the box office is expected to be only 8 million US dollars in the first week. Even at a 20% weekly decline, the North American box office of this film may be only more than 30 million US dollars. Compared with the total investment of 40 million US dollars, Daenerys Entertainment's losses seem to be a foregone conclusion.

However, what surprised everyone was that after 2.1 million on the first day, the single-day box office of "Rain Man" continued to rise against the market in the next two days. It was even a counter-down decline compared to Sunday when the box office was down on Saturday.

When the box office of the first weekend was released, the media was surprised to find that in the three days of the first weekend, the box office of "Rain Man" had reached US$7.28 million, which was close to the media's general box office forecast for the seven-day first week.
Chapter completed!