Made in Hollywood

In today's day and age, a film that can exceed one billion dollars at the global box office can only be described as extremely rare. In fact, so far, only two films in the world have achieved this, and that is James Cameron's "Titanic" and Duke's "The Fellowship of the Ring".

However, "The Fellowship of the Ring" was affected by various factors such as 911 and the audience. After the first three months of screening, it did not maintain a high trend. After Duke returned to Los Angeles, there were only less than 500 people left in North America. When the family's theater chain broke into this world in 2002, the box office produced every day could only be said to be better than nothing, and continued to show in theaters, the most important thing was for the next Oscar nomination.

Duke and Warner Bros. are well aware that even if the academy cramps, it is impossible to throw a heavyweight award for the first part of the trilogy, so the PR effort is not great, just making sure the film gets key nominations is enough .

The North American box office of "The Fellowship of the Ring" broke through $470 million, and after reaching $470.15 million, it basically stagnated. The single-day box office in North America fell to less than six figures. 10,000 US dollars, but it is difficult to achieve a greater breakthrough.

In early January, the Lord of the Rings concert, co-hosted by The Lord of the Rings Studio and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, kicked off at Chandler Hall in the Los Angeles Music Center. The concert will last until May. The pre-heating of "Taqi Soldiers" is also to continue to create topics for "The Fellowship of the Ring" and to impact the upcoming Oscar nomination list.

"The Fellowship of the Ring" is already recognized as an epic movie masterpiece, and its soundtrack is also epic. This series of concerts has attracted the attention of countless movie fans, and the attendance rate in the first two weeks has remained at 9%. More than ten, even in the first two weeks of Duke and members of the Lord of the Rings crew, the concert was hard to come by.

Not just Los Angeles. In North America and even the entire Western world, many classical music groups that have negotiated cooperation with The Lord of the Rings Studio have opened their concerts one after another, and they have maintained a very high attendance rate.

Taking advantage of another Lord of the Rings boom set off by the concert, The Lord of the Rings Studio officially released the first trailer for "The Two Towers" edited by Duke himself in late January. The official release date of the film has also been determined - the first weekend of the 2002 summer season, May 3rd!

Duke's intention is obvious. With "The Fellowship of the Ring" as the basis, try to let the popularity of "The Two Towers" spread throughout the summer!

At the same time, Warner Bros. also released the latest news about "The Matrix", "Reloaded" will be released on the Independence Day schedule!

Needless to say, these two mega-blockbusters instantly became the most watched films of the summer.

The trailers of the two films appeared on Duke's personal website for the first time, although the latest server was replaced. But in the second hour of the trailer, the site was down again because of the crowd.

After the website returned to normal, in just three days, the two trailers of "The Two Towers" and "Reloaded" were viewed more than 1.56 million times and 1.45 million times respectively, and the message boards under the trailers were almost blown up. .

"I'm looking forward to these two masterpieces. As a Lord of the Rings fan and hacker fan, this will be my happiest summer."

"Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron are still so cool! But why do I feel like Gandalf and Queen Galadriel are having an affair at the beginning of the Two Towers trailer?"

"Gandalf and Queen Galadriel look at each other so dearly. Does Celeborn know that?"

"There are more epic scenes in The Two Towers, the part where Gandalf leads the cavalry down. Really excited..."

"Even if I go bankrupt this summer, I'm going to watch these two movies, and watch each movie at least twice!"

"Twice? Two times is not enough! I dare say that "The Two Towers" will definitely be more exciting than "The Fellowship of the Ring". At least three times!"

"Can I say that I have saved half a year's pocket money and am going to see it five times?"

After the release dates of these two films were announced, the audience who were already looking forward to the films raised their expectations again. However, unlike the enthusiastic audiences, many companies were gloomy, especially they were already negotiating with theaters to avoid the Memorial. Today, a company that plans to put the film in the beginning of the summer season.

"Why May 3rd?"

In the office of Sony Columbia Pictures, Dahe Shinobu suppressed the anger in his heart, "Didn't you say that "The Two Towers" will be played around Memorial Day? Why is the announced date the beginning of the summer season?"

As the executive in charge of Sony's Columbia Pictures distribution business, Dahe Shinobu couldn't imagine that if his company invested $140 million in a super hit, released as originally planned, at the same time as Duke Rosenberg's new film What will be the result of a head-on collision over the weekend?

Yes, Spider-Man comics are popular in the United States and have a large number of fans all over the world. Marvel's superheroes have also proved they can succeed on the big screen through the "X-Men" series, but superhero movies are not the mainstream of the market. , If it were replaced by other commercial masterpieces, Dahe Ren had the confidence to face him directly, but it was Duke Rosenberg's work!

"Godzilla", which Sony Entertainment had high hopes for, was disgraced by his "The Matrix". Last year, Disney's "Pearl Harbor" avoided him for two weeks, but was still rushed by "The Fellowship of the Ring". All of a sudden, the box office and the surrounding area are far from meeting expectations.

Can Peter Parker compete with Duke Rosenberg?

Thinking of this, Dahe Ren hurriedly shook his head. The entire Sony Entertainment had great expectations for "Spider-Man". For this reason, several edited versions of Sam Raimi were rejected several times, and special reshoots were carried out. Cut out the more sensitive Spider-Man crawling on the Twin Towers...

They have done so much work that there is no room for failure or unexpected factors that lead to failure!

In fact, if it weren't for the influence of 9/11, Sony Entertainment would have already officially announced the release date of the World Trade Center, and it would not have been so passive.

Waved his hand to the assistant, Dahe Ren asked him to go out first, and he had to weigh the pros and cons himself.

But the assistant had just gone out and walked in with another person, Sam Raimi, the director of Spider-Man.

"I heard that Columbia Pictures plans to change the release date of "Spider-Man"?" Sam Raimi asked directly after entering, "Is that so?"

"There is indeed such a plan!" Dahe Ren nodded, "Duke Rosenberg has joined our planned weekend, and it is a very unwise choice for Spider-Man to touch his movie. ."

"I don't see it that way!" Sam Raimi's character was as extreme as his earliest films. "I think..."

Before Sam Raimi finished speaking, the phone on the desk rang. Dahe Ren directly raised his hand to interrupt him, picked up the phone, and after saying a few words, his face became solemn.

The caller was Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Entertainment, and his words were very simple.

"Don't try to beat Duke Rosenberg in the summer season, Dahe, "Spider-Man" must be rescheduled! The farther away you are from that summer madman, the better!"

"I know what to do!"

Dahe Ren also made his final determination. Although Sam Raimi kept persuading "Spider-Man" to touch "The Two Towers", he was not moved at all.

In the end, Dahe got impatient and asked his assistant to ask Sam Raimi out of the office.

Ninety-nine percent of Hollywood directors don't have any say in the release of films, and Dahe Ren doesn't care much about Sam Raimi's thoughts.

Who told you not to be Duke? Rosenberg?

Seeing Sam Remy's figure disappearing from the door of the office, Dahe Ren thought so.

He called his assistant, "Call a meeting to discuss the new release date of "Spider-Man"!"

After the phone call, Dahe Ren gradually made up his mind and learned the lessons of the past. He decided to let "Spider-Man" hide away and release it in June!

"This is the May schedule with the least release of major productions over the years!"

In the car driving to the Regent Hotel, Tina Fey looked at a summer release date and said, "Judging from the films that have been announced for release, we will not have strong competitors in the first half of May. "

"Where's Spider-Man?" Duke asked, looking out of the car window.

Tina Fey handed Duke the form and said, "I got the news yesterday that Sony Columbia Pictures has decided to put 'Spider-Man' in June."

"Good news." Duke breathed a sigh of relief.

As a major shareholder of Marvel, he certainly knew that Sony Entertainment originally planned to release in early May, and he and Warner Bros. were forcing Sony to change the schedule.

Duke laughed at himself, "It seems that the name of the Explosive Maniac is still somewhat useful."

"It's not useful." Tina Fey said honestly, "It just scared off Sony Entertainment directly."

Originally, Duke also wanted to see the effect of "The Lord of the Rings" touching "Spider-Man", and even prepared how to fight each other. He planned to encourage the animation to release a new version of the comics on the eve of the "Spider-Man" release, and change to Peter Parker of the time and space. Will be transformed into a villain who will do all evil...

But as soon as this plan popped out of his mind, Duke realized something was wrong. Peter Parker is one of Marvel's signatures. Although Marvel can't take back the film and TV copyrights, it enjoys nearly 10% of the film's box office profit. revenue share, and can launch new versions of comics and other types of peripherals.

He himself is a major shareholder of Marvel, and doing such a thing is completely damaging his own interests. In the end, he simply used the already hot momentum of "The Lord of the Rings" and his influence to force Sony Entertainment to give up its release in May.

Like Tina Fey said, it's going to be an unusually quiet May schedule, with all the big stuff hiding, not just The Two Towers. (To be continued ~^~)

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