American Fame and Fortune Chapter 320

Chapter 320: Consecutive No. 1 at the North American Box Office

Before the end of the film festival, the crew of "The Departed" left Toronto and embarked on a promotional tour in major cities across the United States. Wherever the four main creators of the crew went, they attracted great attention in the local area.

During the period, I also went to Scorsese's farm in Massachusetts and took another photo with the old cow.

The video of the trio giving cattle to the director was widely circulated on the Internet and attracted the attention of many young people.

 Scorsese's gangster films have the weakest impact on young people.

 Martin has good appeal among this group.

On Thursday afternoon, in front of the Bayfront Theater in Mallory Square in Miami, people wearing CocCola red T-shirts lined up hundreds of meters away.

 Martin is here tonight signing autographs and selling tickets.

 The theater's five theaters screening "The Departed" in advance were all full.

Young audiences who came to buy tickets continued to join the queue, and the theater manager temporarily decided to free up two theaters for additional screenings.

In Los Angeles, Rachel and Phoebe led a large group of Martin fans, wearing red T-shirts from the CocCola Gods, and marched through Hollywood Boulevard to the front of the El Capitan Cinema.

　　A huge poster of the trio of The Departed hangs above the main entrance of the theater.

 “Martin has finally become a big star!” said Rachel.

Phoebe shouted to the back: "Line up, don't mess around, we are about to enter the venue."

In less than ten minutes, the place had turned into a sea of ​​red, all occupied by members of the CocCola Cult and Martin's fans.

 The two received a small sponsorship from CocCola and the crew, and raised some funds to book the entire El Capitan Cinema to watch the advance screening of "The Departed".

 Media reporters are of course indispensable.

"I have been a fan of Martin since he only starred in "Zombie Gigolo"." Rachel stood in front of the reporter's camera and talked. As the leader of Martin's largest fan group, she is no longer the young and naive person she used to be. Movie fans.

She smiled and said: "I have witnessed Martin's growth along the way. He has finally reached the center of the Hollywood stage. It is really exciting to work with a top director like Scorsese..."

Before he finished speaking, a figure wearing a red T-shirt suddenly jumped in and shouted at the camera: "I love Martin!"

 Another fan flashed into the camera, raised a Coke and toasted to the camera: "The leader is mighty!"

　　It was almost time, so Rachel didn't say anything more and led the fan group into the theater in an orderly manner.

The El Capitan Cinema was packed with seats.

Although Martin fans and CocCola followers, especially the latter, will not rush to buy tickets due to the influence of the gangster film genre, you can find people wearing red T-shirts in every theater showing The Departed in the United States. shirt figure.

 Correspondingly, movie fans who like Leonardo and Scorsese will also go to the venue to buy tickets.

  On Thursday, The Departed took in a box office of $5.12 million from 3,000 advance screenings.

 This is extremely rare for a gangster film.

By Friday, the film had expanded to 3,290 theaters and was fully released in North America.

There was only one "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel" released at the same time, which was not a competitor of the same level.

 The four main creatives, including Martin, are still on a promotional tour across the United States for signatures and ticket sales, and various advertisements and promotions have not stopped.

The production investment of The Departed is as high as US$90 million, which determines that it is impossible for the film to be screened in single digits, and then slowly accumulate word-of-mouth, and then gradually expand the scale of screening.

  Its distribution model is completely commercial.

 On its first day in North America, The Departed took in US$13.05 million, creating Scorsese's best single-day box office performance in his 40 years of filmmaking.

 The four major Hollywood directors of the 1980s, Lucas, Coppola and Spielberg, all achieved miraculous box office results in business, but only Scorsese has always been more successful.

At a bar in Houston, Scorsese treated Martin, Leonardo and Nicholson to a drink to celebrate.

 “Cheers!” Scorsese picked up the beer glass and clinked it with the three **** at the same time.

Nicholson drank it all in one gulp and said: "You old guy is about to retire. I didn't expect that you would be able to bloom a new flower at the box office."

Scorsese was in a very good mood: "What you three have done has attracted attention. Warner originally expected to earn up to 30 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend. Looking at it now, it is not impossible to reach 40 million U.S. dollars."

“The first-weekend box office now takes into account advance screenings.” Martin is learning more and more about the North American film market: “Our film has a strong reputation and it shouldn't be difficult to reach US$40 million.”

Nicholson responded: "Today's movies, the first-week box office is getting more and more scary."

Leonardo added: "If it's a hit adaptation or sequel, just us guys might make over 100 million in the first weekend."

He further analyzed: "Although this film is an adaptation, the original work has basically no influence in North America. It is not much different from the original film. The original is not a sequel. This result can be said to be a box office hit."

  Martin said: "I hope the final box office in North America will be twice the cost line."

 For a director of Scorsese's level, the contract he signed must have a profit-sharing clause. He couldn't help but said: “If this is the case, I can safely have a seventh child.

Nicolson knows the old man: "The test tube technology is very advanced."

Scorsese said with emotion: "As decisive and unrestrained as you were when you were young, you will have to work harder when you get older."

Leonardo said naturally: "So, I have never considered getting married." Martin completely agreed: "After all, so many beauties like us, we must be responsible for them, and we cannot let them bear the reputation of destroying marriages."

Scorsese and Nicholson were both shocked by this man's shameless face.

Leonardo asked: "What have you experienced? To become like this?"

"Same as you." Martin said lightly: "I just walked a little too much into the canyon and abyss."

 The creative quartet moved from Texas to Louisiana, and "The Departed" collected another $14.89 million in North America on Saturday.

  Scorsese's personal record for the highest box office in a single day only lasted for one day before it was broken.

The Departed has topped the North American box office chart for two consecutive days, and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" can't even be seen from behind.

This Sunday passed, and as everyone expected, "The Departed" took the top spot on the North American box office list with a box office of 42.82 million US dollars.

The second-ranked film "Germany", despite its huge IP influence, was still completely crushed and did not even reach 20 million US dollars.

 Accordingly, Scorsese created the best box office opening in his career as a director.

 In terms of word-of-mouth, "The Departed" has been wildly popular in North America and is extremely strong.

 Rotten Tomatoes freshness remains at 93%, the MTC average score is 87, and the IMDB score is 8.6. These are guarantees of a stable box office trend.

Most importantly, according to cinemascore theater audience scores, The Departed has an average score of A, and the North American box office is expected to be around US$180 million.

 Many North American media have praised the film and believe that this film has become Martin Scorsese's masterpiece along with "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas".

 This movie, a big-budget and heavily promoted movie, is already certain to be a success.

Both producers and distributors have seen the hope of recovering costs through box office alone, and have stepped up their efforts to promote the film's overseas release, finalizing its release in multiple markets including Asia, Europe and Latin America this week.

This week, the creative team of four is still running promotional announcements across the United States and is very busy.

 They are the most direct beneficiaries of the film's huge sales and word-of-mouth success.

Even Nicholson, a semi-retired old guy, can make a huge addition to his pension.

Want to be a qualified bastard, but how can you do things without money?

　　People who are running for a living every day have no time or energy to do things.

 While Martin was in Chicago, he received a call from Thomas.

"Let me tell you some good news. Ali held a special meeting for you on Monday to compete for prizes." Thomas's voice was full of joy: "The company assigned two other people, together with me and Natasha, to form a public relations team. All the members of the team Fees and expenses are entirely the responsibility of the company.”

Martin asked: “How's the PR push going on with the Los Angeles critics?”

Thomas replied: "Los Angeles film critics, led by Kenneth Turan and Todd McCarthy, greatly praised your performance in The Departed and each published articles in their columns."

 He ​​did not forget to take credit: “Of course, our targeted public relations also played a role.”

Martin reminded: “Don't forget to contact us for an exclusive interview.”

“Entertainment Weekly, I have made a reservation with your neighbor Gillian Flynn.” Thomas said quickly: “The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair interviews are in progress, so it's not a big problem.”

 During the awards season, increasing exposure as much as possible is the basis for winning awards.

Thomas also reminded Martin: "Your famous friends, also mobilize as much as possible."

Martin said: "I have contacted him. If we wait, it will not be too late for them to speak out in December."

The two parties quickly hung up the phone, and Martin continued to engage in the road show.

 Large-scale publicity and strong good reputation have allowed The Departed to maintain an extremely stable box office trend. The North American box office only dropped 40% in the second weekend, and the North American box office reached 86.78 million US dollars.

The film also achieved consecutive box office wins in North America.

North America is close to breaking the 100 million mark.

Similarly, films that are big box office hits in North America will not perform too badly overseas. The Departed earned US$32.78 million in its first week overseas.

But the box office mainly came from the Latin American and European markets. In the East and Southeast Asian markets where it was released at the same time, the film encountered a box office and reputation failure.

 This is also the place where "Infernal Affairs" has the greatest impact.

With this high-quality film that is more in line with local aesthetics and focuses on beauty, "The Departed" naturally turned into a vulgar and foul-mouthed film.

 Various negative reviews are endless. Just like "The Departed" has no market in North America, "The Departed" also has very little box office in the East Asian market.

Even South Korea, the back garden of Hollywood movies, had less than 1 million US dollars in box office in the first week.

 Several other markets are even worse.

 (End of this chapter)

Chapter end