Amid the media's praise for "Run Lola Run", the weekend passed quickly.

However, since February 16th is the third Monday in February, President’s Day in the United States, one of the federal statutory holidays. According to convention, the weekend box office for the new week is calculated from the four days from February 13th to February 16th.

Time, this is actually an important reason why Orion chose to set the schedule on February 13th.

Tuesday, February 17th.

Due to being very busy recently, Orion Pictures President Mike Medowa did not take much rest during the past three days of vacation. However, he still arrived at the company early today.

Sitting in his office, thinking back on Orion Pictures' rough experience over the past year, Mike Medowa even had a feeling of catastrophe.

In 1985, Orion produced and distributed 12 films. The best-performing film, "Looking for Susan," only earned US$27 million at the North American box office, and nine of them faced losses.

Due to the failure of a series of movies at the box office, Orion, which was in serious financial crisis in 1986, faced the fate of being taken over by the well-known Wall Street investment group Warburg Pincus. Once the company took over, all the original company management would be fired.

At a critical moment, company CEO Arthur Crim persuaded his friend, media tycoon John Krueger, to buy 6.5% of Orion's shares, bringing the company the most needed working capital, and thus everyone's job

be preserved.

Immediately afterwards, everything seemed to go smoothly.

"Back to School" released by Orion in the summer has completely helped the company escape from financial crisis with a North American box office of more than 90 million US dollars. At the end of last year, the company's key release of "Platoon" had a cumulative box office of more than 40 million US dollars as of last week.

According to the current box office curve, this movie's North American box office can easily reach the US$100 million mark.

In addition, in terms of awards, Orion has also gained a lot this year. With the excellent reputation of the three movies "Platoon", "Hannah and Sisters" and "Path Ambition", Orion has won a total of 18 awards at the upcoming 59th Oscars.

nominations, more than any of the seven major companies.

Now, in the blink of an eye, it is already 1987, and Orion seems to have completely inherited last year's good luck.

At the beginning of the new year, the company picked up a small box office ‘dark horse’ from the Big Seven.

"Run Lola Run".

Although the opening weekend box office data has not yet been seen, based on various information feedback in the past few days, Mike Medowa has no doubt that this movie will bring a good start to Orion in 1987.

I was flipping through a document and thinking about these things, when my secretary knocked on the door: "Mr. Medova, Miss Johnston is here."

"Let her come in," Mike Medova responded. After thinking for a moment, he stood up and asked, "By the way, have the box office data for last weekend been sent?"

The secretary shook his head: "Do you need me to urge you?"

"No, just send it to my office later. Also, make two cups of coffee," with this order, Mike Medowa turned around his desk and stretched out his hand to Janet who had already walked in: "Johnston

Miss, it’s still so early today.”

Janet smiled, shook hands with Mike Medowa, and said, "Aren't you the same?"

"This is my job, of course I have to work harder," Mike Medowa said, motioning for Janet to sit down casually in the reception area, and he also sat across from the coffee table, saying: "Usually it's delivered at half past nine.

Yes, it’s almost time.”

Janet also heard the conversation between Mike Medowa and his secretary just now, and just nodded slightly.

The two sat down. Mike Medova was about to ask a few questions about Simon's recent situation, but the office door was pushed open again. The secretary raised a fax in his hand and said: "Mr. Medova, box office,

Delivered."

Mike Medowa felt that the secretary's tone was a bit stuttering, his expression was confused, and he even had some bad premonitions in his heart, so he simply stood up on his own initiative and stepped forward to take the box office report.

After just a quick glance, Mike Medowa's expression also became strange. He turned around and asked his secretary: "Are you sure you're right?"

The secretary's mood didn't seem to have calmed down yet, and he said: "I, Mr. Medova, why don't I call and ask?"

Although he felt that there was little chance of something going wrong with the data in his hand, Mike Medowa still nodded.

Janet also stood up and walked over at this time, stretched out her hand and said: "Mr. Medova, can I take a look?"

"Oh, of course," Mike Medowa handed the box office report to Janet and said, "The data should be fine, but this is really incredible, much higher than I thought."

Janet didn't answer, but her eyes fell on the box office report in her hand, and she saw the name and box office figures of "Run Lola Run" at a glance.

$5.51 million.

Very good.

This was the first thought in Janet's mind. Then she began to mentally calculate that for US$5.51 million, based on the 15% fixed box office share agreed between Simon and Orion, she would be able to get back more than US$80 from just the box office in the past four days.

Ten thousand US dollars, even including the copying fees that will be paid in the future, this is already a return on investment.

Mike Medowa noticed that Janet just raised her eyebrows slightly, with a satisfied smile on her lips. Although he understood that she had just come into contact with this industry, it was difficult for her to understand what the box office data of "Run Lola Run" meant, but she still wanted to

Wake up the woman in front of you loudly and say: "Is this how you react?"

At the same time, at the Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills, less than a kilometer away from the Orion Pictures headquarters, Ronald Goldberg waved the box office report in his hand and looked at his assistant with some gaffes.

He questioned loudly: "$5.51 million! How is this possible? Did the theater chain make a mistake?"

The assistant was holding the folder in his hand, but he was not as panicked as Secretary Mike Medowa. He replied with certainty: "Mr. Goldberg, I have called to confirm, yes."

Listening to the assistant's calm tone, Ronald Goldberg took a deep breath and waved his hand towards her.

The assistant left, and Ronald Goldberg, who sat down again, opened the drawer next to his desk, glanced at the cigar box inside, then closed it, picked up the box office report again, and scanned it line by line.

.

North American box office data for the 7th weekend of 1987.

No. 1: Platoon; $12.87 million; Orion.

Second place, "Cruel Fate"; $6.31 million; Bowie.

No. 3: "The Show"; $5.99 million; Fox.

Fourth place, "Run Lola Run"; $5.51 million; Orion.

No. 5, "Over the Top"; $5.15 million; Warner Bros.

In the top five list, except for the currently popular "Platoon", which has a box office of over 10 million US dollars, the box office of the other four movies does not seem to be much different. However, if we continue to compare the screening screens of several movies

If you look at the quantity, you will find out how huge the gap is.

Among the five movies, in addition to "Run Lola Run", even Fox's "The High School" has a screen count of 932. The other three movies all have a screen count of more than 1,000. Stallone's new film "Over the Top"

》This time the screen size of the opening has reached 1758.

In comparison, the number of screening screens for "Run Lola Run" is only 207, which is not even one-fourth of the number of "Brilliant" and one-eighth of "The Peak".

However, with such a meager 207 screens, "Run Lola Run" has a crazy box office harvest of 5.51 million U.S. dollars, and it has squeezed into the top five of the North American weekend box office list.

How can this not be surprising?

Moreover, it has received such excellent box office results at the beginning, so what’s next?

You know, Orion is currently only distributed in a few West Coast states and counties, including California, even though this second-tier independent film company is unable to reach overseas markets. However, "Run Lola Run" can be found in central, eastern and even northern Canada.

Not released yet.

So, let this box office momentum continue.

Ronald Goldberg suddenly shuddered slightly and almost didn't dare to think about it anymore. Many things in the past few months could not help but come to mind.

When Simon Westeros completed "Run Lola Run", he first contacted Fox Pictures. After the film received good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, Westeros still preferred to hand over the distribution rights to Fox until the end.

The film won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, and Fox still has a chance to win the film.

only.

All these opportunities were missed.

Now.

God.

What did you miss?

After leaning back in his chair and thinking quickly for a moment, Ronald Goldberg pressed the call button on the landline on his desk, and his assistant quickly came in again.

"Say hello to David Giller and the others. I'm going to take a look at the rough cut of "The Butterfly Effect" this afternoon. Also, there's another script by Simon Westeros, um, what's it called?"

The assistant reminded skillfully: ""The God of Death is Coming"."

"That's right, it's "Death Is Coming". Please contact WMA and send the script over. Also, Simon Westeros..."

Ronald Goldberg pondered for a moment, but before making a decision, his assistant already took the initiative: "Mr. Goldberg, Simon Westero is currently in Arizona, participating in the filming of De Laurentiis Entertainment Investment

A movie called "Bloody Night"."

Ronald Goldberg was suddenly confused: "Is there anything special about this movie?"

"No," the assistant shook his head and said, "However, the director of the film is Kathryn Bigelow. During the filming of "Run Lola Run", Kathryn Bigelow served as Simon Westeros's assistant director. He should be in

Return the favor."

After hearing the assistant's words, Ronald Goldberg's mind flashed to the question of who Kathryn Bigelow was, but he did not ask any more questions. He just waved his hand and said: "In that case, let's forget it for the time being. You go and do what you just said."

It’s something about that.”

No matter how surprised, gaffe-like, and secretly regretful Hollywood film company executives who had the chance to obtain the distribution rights for "Run Lola Run" were, the astonishing box office figures of "Run Lola Run" in the first weekend spread quickly and appeared on many TV screens that afternoon.
Chapter completed!