American Fame and Fortune Chapter 658

Chapter 658: Box Office Tragedy

With the premiere of "Pharaohs and Gods", the film's reputation can no longer be blocked. Various media columns and film critics' comments are overwhelming.

 That evening, many film critics immediately published their reviews.

  Warner Pictures has done a lot of work. Film criticism is a business, and there are many critics who have praised the film.

“A spectacular epic movie, Bale humanized the historical figure of Moses, and Ridley Scott created another new historical masterpiece.”

“A well-known biblical story is retold in a stunning way!”

“The creative team, led by Ridley Scott and Christian Bale, have shown incredible courage to create a blockbuster that will be a real hit this summer!”

 Rotten Tomatoes, which collects professional film reviews as its scoring standard, has a freshness score of 77% in the first wave of Rotten Tomatoes.

  MTC's comprehensive score is also 66 points.

  On IMDB, which gathers more ordinary movie fans, because the number of viewers at the premiere was insufficient, there was no rating.

 For a summer commercial blockbuster, the reputation seems to be okay.

 But with the rise of social media, the method of controlling movie scores has gradually changed.

　　Many ordinary viewers who attended the premiere posted many related tweets on social media including Twitter.

“The story of the film is what it says in the Bible. Everything is programmed. I can't say it's bad, but I can't say it's good either. The best parts are all in the trailer.”

 “It's clichéd and lengthy, in line with Ridley's consistent standard of epic films over the years.”

 “The plot is protracted and messy, the narrative is confusing and jumpy, bad review!”

 But the audience who watched the premiere is ultimately limited, and Warner Bros. can generally control reviews and guide word-of-mouth marketing.

  The pre-sales of "Pharaohs and Gods" during its first weekend in North America smoothly exceeded US$10 million.

 Then, it doesn't go up very much.

However, there are not many films in this era that can reach 20 to 30 million US dollars in pre-sale box office.

 Warner Bros. is still working on promotion and distribution step by step. For a film of this scale, half of the production cost invested in promotion and distribution is considered a basic operation, and more than 100 million US dollars is considered normal.

 On the first weekend of May, "Pharaohs and the Gods" was released on time in more than 3,800 theaters in North America, with a box office of US$12.15 million on the first day.

This number is neither great nor bad, much better than Ridley's last "Robinson."

But as the number of viewers who saw the film soared, it was too difficult for Warner Pictures to control word-of-mouth.

 The reputation of the audience for "Pharaohs and Gods" collapsed directly.

  The number of IMDB rating users has reached the rating level of 6.2 points!

 The cinemascore theater score, which can best directly reflect the audience's reputation, is only B-.

This often means a box office disaster is about to happen.

 The overwhelming negative reviews almost drowned out the previous positive reviews.

 “Long, ugly, and the plot is incoherent!”

“There is nothing but special effects, so it's better to watch the stories in the Bible.”

“Do Warner Bros., Ridley Scott and Christian Bale want to blaspheme God?”

“Some of Ridley's films are heaven, and some of his films are hell. Unfortunately, this one falls into the latter category.”

　　Social media spreads too fast. At the same time as the plummeting reputation, the film's attendance rate also plummeted.

 Saturday, the box office of "Pharaohs and Gods" dropped sharply, with a revenue of US$7.55 million.

 The video did not open higher, but went lower.

 According to market rules, due to working hours on Monday, the attendance rate on Sunday night will drop significantly, and the box office will inevitably decline again on Sunday.

In the early hours of Monday morning, after Martin fed Elizabeth Olsen, he fell asleep quickly after working hard for many days.

Elizabeth took a shower and brushed her teeth again. After returning to the bedroom, Martin's cell phone vibrated on the sofa.

 She picked up the phone, but did not answer it. Instead, she woke Martin up: "You have a phone."

 Martin wiped his face and answered the phone.

The call came from Thomas, and the latest box office statistics were released.

Elizabeth put on her pajamas and went to the wine cabinet outside to get a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

In the past two days, she has also been paying attention to the box office trend of the movie that Martin was robbed of, and knows that the results are now available.

 After returning, seeing Martin hang up the phone, Elizabeth asked: "Have the box office statistics of Pharaoh and the Gods been released?"

“The opening weekend was US$23.11 million.” Martin took the champagne and glasses from her hand and poured a glass for each of them: “The most optimistic estimate is that the North American box office will be between US$50 million and US$60 million.”

Elizabeth clinked a glass with him: "Isn't this the result we want to see?" Martin drank the wine in the glass, put down the glass and hugged Elizabeth: "I can sleep well tonight."

Elizabeth buried herself in Martin's arms: "I hope those **** who plotted against us won't be able to sleep tonight."

Monday morning, the office of the president of Warner Pictures.

Jon Berg's eyes were red. He hadn't slept well for several nights in a row, and the circles under his eyes almost turned blue-black.

Sitting behind his desk, he saw the latest statistics.

 The North American box office in its first week was US$23.11 million!

If the reputation is good, counterattack is not impossible. The opening weekend of "Titanic" in North America was only US$28 million.

 But the reputation collapsed, IMDB dropped to 6.0, and Rotten Tomatoes plummeted from 77% to 43%.

 The situation completely collapsed.

 This was Jon Berg's first major project worth hundreds of millions of dollars after taking office, but he messed it up.

 The phone on the desk rang at this moment.

　　But it was Kevin Tsujihara, who had just assumed the role of CEO and chairman of the group, calling.

Kevin Tsujihara asked directly: "What happened to "Pharaohs and Gods"? Isn't this a project that Martin Davis is optimistic about, and you tried every means to intercept it?"

Jon's first thought was to shirk responsibility: "It is true that Daniel intercepted this project and pushed it to my side. He believed that the project that Martin Davis was optimistic about was extremely operable..."

“Don't talk about this yet.” Kevin Tsujihara said: “Failure is not terrible, but you must learn from experience and lessons to avoid similar failures in the future.”

Jon said: "It won't happen again."

Kevin Tsujihara asked: "Is it okay for you guys to cooperate with DC Films on "Green Lantern"?"

"The film is progressing smoothly and is well-produced. It will create a good start for the DC superhero movie universe." When it comes to other projects, Jon's confidence is back: "Hamada and I agree that this will be a A masterpiece beyond "Iron Man"!

 Kevin Tsujihara said: “Regarding Pharaohs and Gods, a report will be submitted this week.”

Jon responded and quickly hung up the phone.

 He breathed a sigh of relief. With Kevin's support, the pressure on the group company would be less.

  The project "Pharaohs and Gods" was very reliable from the production team to the actor team. The story itself has an extremely wide audience. In the end, the film was the final edit completed by him and the editor together. Why did it fail so miserably?

Jon was lost in thought, picked up the phone, and called Daniel.

 Not long after, Daniel arrived at his office.

Jon asked: "Are you sure these projects you are promoting were given to you by Martin?"

 What do you mean I push? Daniel is also a veteran, and when he heard it, he understood that Jon Berg was shirking responsibility, saying: "I took the project from Martin Davis and handed it over to the company. Warner Pictures is responsible for the specific production!"

Jon knew now was not the time for infighting and asked: "Are these really the projects that Martin Davis is optimistic about?"

"It is definitely his favorite." Daniel is confident in this point: "I have known Martin Davis since he was a young actor and know him very well. He was initially interested in cooperating with Warner on these projects. Later, You know the matter."

 Jon thought of a possibility: "Would Martin deliberately trick us?"

Daniel shook his head directly: "Impossible. Who can guarantee 100% success or failure before a movie is produced? Don't forget, Martin also hired Ridley Scott as the director of his new film. What does this mean? He believes in Ridley Scott's directing ability and has great confidence in him.”

Remembering that the other party just wanted to put the blame on himself, he specifically added: "Maybe there was something wrong with the final editing of the film."

"You..." Jon's dark circles became darker: "We are summarizing experiences and lessons learned and identifying shortcomings in our work. We are not passing the buck to each other."

Daniel has been thinking these days: "We invested sufficient funds, massive resources, and one of the best production teams in this project, but we still encountered failure. I think the key to the problem is obvious."

Jon also thought: "Martin Davis?"

"Yes, Martin Davis!" Daniel said: "I have dealt with Martin and Louise Meyer, the producer who supports him, for many years. Even if the project is handed over to them, there will be no comparison. Ridley's better production team, in addition to what the two of us just said, the key lies in the male protagonist.”

 Jon understands what he means: "Christian Bale's character and commercial appeal are not as good as Martin Davis's."

Daniel said: "It turns out that the difference is too big. The Dark Knight is not obvious yet. "Terminator 2018" and "Pharaohs and Gods" fully prove one thing. Christian Bale does not have the ability to carry the box office."

Jon agreed: "The success of the two new Batman movies actually has little to do with Bale's personal appeal. After all, he is one of the two most popular superheroes in North America."

He made a decision: "In the future, all medium- and large-scale investment works of Warner Pictures will not use Christian Bale as the leading actor. I will submit a proposal to the head office. It is best not to use other production companies under Warner." use."

Daniel said: "He has messed up two megproductions in a row. In the future, no one in Hollywood will use him as the leading actor in a first-line commercial production."

The two people quickly reached a tacit understanding, and all the responsibility for the failure of the film was passed on to the creative team, including Bale and Ridley. Then they would let people release the news, saying that Ridley and Bale were difficult to get along with on the set, and the post-production was messed up. some type of.

Jon also thought of another big production due to the failure of this project.

 (End of this chapter)

Chapter end