Universal Pictures has high hopes for "Van Helsing," which has a production cost of $160 million and a public distribution budget of $100 million, totaling $260 million, which also shows Universal's confidence.

High revenues also mean significant cost recovery pressures.

Contrary to Ronan's expectations, according to the news he received, in the internal test screening of Universal Pictures, the market prospects of "Van Helsing" are quite optimistic, and some people even think that this will be a magical production no less than the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Universal's confidence comes not only from the film itself, but also in part from director Stephen Sommers.

When it comes to Stephen Sommos, we have to talk about the two box office bombs he created, "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns", the former was a big hit in 1999, grossing more than $155 million in North America, while the latter staged the myth of a sequel movie, setting a box office record of $68.1 million in North America in the first week of release, and finally reaching a total global box office of $429 million.

In addition, Stephen Sommers was the writer and producer of "The Scorpion King" in 2002, which topped the North American box office with 36.1 million in its first week of release, and later reached $151 million worldwide.

With such a brilliant record, one has to have confidence in Stephen Sommers.

Ronan didn't see Van Helsing, and wasn't sure if the film would change.

However, the success or failure of "Van Helsing" does not have much impact on Relativity Entertainment, and at most, "Shrek 2", which will be released the next weekend, will be affected to a certain extent.

"Tales of the Night 2", also starring Kate Beckinsale, was not only released two months before "Van Helsing", but by the end of April, it had been fully released in North American theaters.

The film's North American box office eventually stalled at $88.74 million.

Next, the "Tales of the Night" series will have a period of refrigeration, and even if "Van Helsing" fails, it will not affect the series for the time being.

Probably due to the previous relationship between the rights of the "Hulk" and "Fast and Furious" series, Universal Pictures and the NBC group behind it sent Ronan a premiere invitation.

Ronan also went to see the premiere of Van Helsing.

Fans and reporters alike were enthusiastic about the grand premiere, and Universal Pictures clearly invested heavily in hosting the premiere.

Nowadays in Hollywood, it has gradually become the norm to invest more than $3 million in the premiere of first-line blockbusters, and even the huge premiere cost of individual films can reach $5 million.

Most of Hollywood premieres will be in popular locations in first-tier cities, and all kinds of rents alone are a huge expense.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested in the premiere, and if you don't come up with some novelty, it is getting harder and harder to attract people.

The characteristics of the eyeball economy are especially obvious in the entertainment industry.

Ron Meyer had left the newly formed NBCUniversal Entertainment Group, and Ronan was not familiar with the new executives of Universal Pictures, so he said hello and said a few casual words before entering the theater.

Compared with the other five of the six major companies, Universal Pictures has not been able to cause problems for Relativity Entertainment in recent years.

With the merger of two large companies, Universal Pictures and NBC Television, you only need to think about it for a little to know how much work there is, how difficult it is to deal with personnel and business relationships, and it will take at least two years for NBCUniversal to fully complete the internal integration.

During this period, Universal Pictures did not have much energy to actively suppress other companies.

To a large extent, Vivendi tossed Universal Pictures, which is equivalent to one less obstacle for Relativity Entertainment.

In fact, since the beginning of the new century, several of the six major companies have been plagued by internal problems, that is, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Sony Columbia Pictures are relatively stable.

Disney's infighting intensified, Universal Pictures changed hands frequently, and Paramount Pictures' production business went into big problems......

While thinking about this, Ronan thought about how Relativity Entertainment should take advantage of the situation and seize the opportunity to break through the tacit and loose encirclement circle of the six major companies.

The likelihood of the once-giant Walt Disney is shrinking by the day, with both Robert Iger and Marvel falling into the hands of Relativity Entertainment.

The rest of the year will be used to digest and reorganize Marvel Entertainment, develop Netflix, and the new development plan will have to wait until next year at the earliest.

Otherwise, Relativity Entertainment will be internally unstable, and the seemingly loose capital chain will also be tightened.

The blockbuster movies have brought huge cash flow to Relativity Entertainment, but the funds are not unlimited.

Netflix made a profit last year, and its disc sales and rental business has grown more rapidly this year, but the network sharing and upcoming streaming business are both expensive businesses, and it is rare for Netflix to sustain itself in 2004 without incurring losses.

Ronan won't have any more profit requirements for Netflix for the time being.

As the movie began to show, seeing Hugh Jackman's familiar face, Ronan stopped thinking about work and focused on the movie, just watching an interesting film to relax.

This is a collection of monsters from Universal movies, and it can even be called a monster version of the Avengers.

Van Helsing, Dracula, werewolves, vampire brides, and Frankenstein all appeared, and each had a lot of scenes.

Like the previous blockbusters, the main plot of this "Van Helsing" is not much different from the one Ronan has watched.

Just like once, Ronan felt that the film was not bad.

Ronan From the point of view of pure audiences, although this movie is not very exciting, it is also very interesting, and in his opinion alone, it is not even inferior to the two "Mummies".

Maybe after the two "Mummies", the audience's expectations for Universal monster movies have risen, or maybe there is no foreshadowing before, and the production method of a smorgasbord of monsters is difficult for the audience to accept.

The response after the premiere of "Van Helsing" was not very good.

For a summer commercial film with such a huge investment, word-of-mouth and evaluation are false, and everything must be reflected in the box office in the end.

On its first day of release in North America, "Van Helsing" earned $19.5 million in nearly 4,000 theaters.

This result is not bad, but compared to the investment in the film, it is not much better.

By Saturday, the box office of "Van Helsing" did not explode, nor did it bring a bonus due to the rest day effect, and the box office of $19.64 million had already made Universal Pictures' executives feel a chill.

Combined with the film's not-so-outstanding reputation, including Universal Pictures, in fact, I already have a judgment on "Van Helsing" in my heart.

As soon as Monday arrived, the new box office charts were released, and "Van Helsing" unsurprisingly topped the North American box office charts, with a $51.7 million opening weekend box office.

For a medium-sized film, $51.7 million is definitely a box office hit, but in the face of a production cost of $160 million and a $100 million publicity and distribution budget, it is too low.

And as the audience who saw the film increased, the reputation of "Van Helsing" also rotten, from the plot of the film to the monster to the main actors such as Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, they all became the target of criticism from the audience and the media.

Especially Kate Beckinsale, "Van Helsing" almost announced that Kate Beckinsale's fate with Hollywood first-line production has come to an end.

This British rose, before it blooms in Hollywood, has withered.

Stephen Sommers and Hugh Jackman are not having a good time, and if the box office trend behind "Van Helsing" does not improve, the pressure brought by the huge investment will make the two enter the blacklist of many Hollywood studios.

Hugh Jackman is better, after all, there is Wolverine in the back.

But the failure of this "Van Helsing", and the style and aura brought by the two "Mummies", Stephen Sommers must have lost everything.

The former executives of Universal Pictures who remained at NBCUniversal Entertainment Group will also have a harder time, and Ron Meyer, who decided to promote the project, has resigned, and there must be other executives responsible for it.

The failure of a top-level big production to settle accounts has always been a reserved item for street movies in Hollywood.

Maybe a large number of people will be swept away by NBC.

The only hope for the film's creators and Universal Pictures is that "Van Helsing" can maintain a stable enough box office trend, and the final North American box office will be as high as possible.

After all, the box office of "Titanic" in North America in the first week was only more than 28 million US dollars.

But with the arrival of the second weekend of the summer season, all the hopes accumulated are just a bubble.

The box office of "Van Helsing" plummeted 60 percent the following weekend from its opening weekend, earning only $20.7 million in three days.

Ten days after its release, the super-production has just grossed $85 million in North America.

Those who follow this film know that "Van Helsing" is bound to lose money, and may even incur huge losses.

Even if you get income through a long-term operation model, how many years will it take to recoup your investment? 10 years, 20 years, or 30 years?

How much will the cost of time be calculated, and how much will the currency depreciate at that time?

In contrast, Shrek 2, produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios and distributed by Embassy Pictures, bloomed this weekend.

The first "Shrek" caused a huge sensation.

Two years of TV broadcasting and offline DVD rental and sales have cultivated a larger audience, and these all exploded in the opening weekend.

The quality of "Shrek 2" is not much better than the first part, but thanks to the sequel effect, it grossed $115.26 million in 4,210 theaters in its North American opening weekend.

This also set a record.

The $115.26 million box office mark marks the first ever time in the North American film market that an animated feature film has opened to the $100 million mark.

Although the brilliance is DreamWorks Animation Studios, Embassy Pictures, as the distributor, can also make huge profits on this animated feature film.

To a certain extent, Embassy Pictures has also successfully incarnated as a vampire lying on the studio in the upstream of the industrial chain.