To a certain extent, "The Ninth District" is also an alternative sci-fi remake of Kafka's "Metamorphosis".

It's just that this time the hero has become, not a humble beetle, but his rough alien prawn.

Because of the investment, the special effects and pictures of the film are a bit miserable, and the alien prawns are typical.

But the highlight of this film is not in the special effects.

Because of the theme of "District 9", which is extremely in line with social trends, and the racial segregation involved, etc., after the release of this film, the media was well received.

"A film with a forward thinking, an allegory about life. ”

"It turns out that sci-fi doesn't have to be star-studded, it doesn't have to be big-budgeted, it doesn't have to be visually appealing, it doesn't have to be outright entertainment. ”

After the film was released, the media had a good reputation, the critics had a good reputation, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes was as high as 95%.

Even Roger Albert gave such a comment - the film put the whole of Hollywood to shame at a time when the summer was about to begin.

Of course, Hollywood doesn't really feel honored or ashamed of it.

Relativity Entertainment, as a producer and distributor, only cares about the commercial income of the film.

The response from fans has been generally good, and although the reputation of "District 9" among fans is not as explosive as that of the media and critics, the average rating of tens of thousands of IMDB users is 7.9.

Such a score, for a commercial movie, although it is not a good reputation among the audience, it can also be called good.

Some fans left a message in the IMDB comment section: "It attracts you from the beginning and makes people want to stop until the moment when the film ends." ”

But in reality, as many fans think this film is wonderful, there are as many fans as they don't like it.

In the middle of the screening of "District 9", there were many audiences who left the theater.

In fact, it is conceivable that this kind of pseudo-documentary and rough production method will be pulled into the theater by publicity and marketing, and there must be many people who don't like it.

ema ScoreIn the survey statistics of theaters, the comprehensive score of the live audience is "B+".

In contrast, the average score of the media included in MetaCritic is as high as 89.

Since the release, the media has unanimously applauded the word-of-mouth, but the word-of-mouth of fans has a more obvious polarization trend, fortunately, most of the people who can be fooled into the theater by the publicity and marketing of the embassy film industry are very interested in aliens or 51 districts.

This prawn-like alien, despite its rough workmanship, exudes freshness.

The miserable life of the aliens in Area 9 is also easy to remind this part of the people of various conspiracies and tragedies in Area 51.

Those who tout "District 9" pull their necks to denounce the degradation of human morality.

Even director Neil Blomkamp did not expect that a commercial film written and directed by himself would have a direct connection with the moral standards of all mankind.

Fortunately, this is not without benefits to the movie, some fans try their best to tout the film to a certain height, and the embassy pictures will push it again, so that people who haven't watched it feel that this is a top good movie, and if you don't watch it, it's a loss.

Film companies are talking about fancy bills, not conscience.

There are too many movies in the history of Hollywood, which may not be very brilliant in themselves, but there are many people who blow them, which is a good movie.

For example, every time it was released, it was claimed to be the best series movie in the series.

As a director and producer, you can shoot and make movies with your conscience, but you must not use your conscience to promote movies.

When a medium and large-scale film project is promoted and promoted, it is estimated that the project party will not be able to count how much fake news or exaggerated news it has.

Things like "20 years of preparation, 30 years of planning" and the like are the simplest and most basic operations.

Thanks to its excellent publicity and marketing, "District 9" received a good box office income on the first day of its release in North America, earning $14.16 million in 3,456 theaters.

It can't be compared with big investment and big productions, but compared to the film's production cost of $30 million, this box office figure is absolutely eye-catching.

It was also the best box office performance of all the films released on Friday.

New Line Pictures' "Hidden Scenes", which opened at the same time, cost as much as $40 million to produce, but the box office on the first day was only $3.67 million.

Such a huge gap means that "Hidden Death" is unlikely to pose any threat to "District 9".

But the box office trend of "District 9" is not very stable, because a considerable number of movie fans are brought into the theater by the promotion and marketing of the embassy films, and they may not like this crude pseudo-documentary science fiction film.

On Saturday, a rest day when the box office should normally rise, some of the negative effects of the "District 9" film itself were directly reflected in the attendance and box office, and the single-day revenue on Saturday was more than 10 percent lower than on Friday, with a single-day revenue of $12.61 million.

However, two days after the opening of North America, "District 9" can already be declared a success, after all, the total investment of the production budget plus publicity and distribution is only 45 million US dollars.

ema Score predicts based on the first-tier market data collected that the final North American box office of "District 9" will inevitably exceed 100 million.

At the North American box office alone, Relativity Entertainment was able to recoup all of its investment in "District 9".

As for the other reactions caused by this film, it is not important in the face of commercial gain.

It is said that since Saturday, some UFO and alien groups that are madly obsessed with Area 51 have been heading to Washington to prepare for a rally to denounce the authorities' conspiracy.

None of this has anything to do with relativistic entertainment.

Then again, is there a better person to blame in this part of the United States than the Washington authorities?

In short, if something goes wrong on this planet, the Washington authorities can't get rid of it.

The chaos and disasters in many parts of the world are indeed related to the Washington authorities.

The American people like to see Washington authorities take the blame, the whole world likes to see Washington authorities take the blame, and even the big groups and corporations in the United States like to see their own interest spokesmen take the blame.

The Washington authorities, who do not take the blame, are definitely not a good government.

The owners of the white house who successfully dumped the pot in history basically did not end well.

In the first three days of the opening weekend of "District 9" in North America, attendance and box office revenue decreased day by day, and the box office trend was not much better than the explosive media reputation.

This also proves that Relativity Entertainment was right not to rush into the extremely competitive summer season of "District 9".

After the opening weekend in North America, "District 9" unexpectedly won the weekend box office, with a box office figure of $37.35 million in three days, more than three times higher than the $11.01 million of "Hidden Death" in second place.

Among the top five at the box office, there are two films of Relativity Entertainment, and "Human Skin Inn 2" ranks fourth with $4.24 million.

This type of horror film is typical of fast-food popcorn, and the long life of theaters is very rare, and according to Embassy Pictures' estimates, it may have to be withdrawn from theaters by the sixth week due to a lack of audiences.

In some ways, this type of horror film is a typical type of make-and-run.

In third place was Paramount Pictures' "Rear Window Horror" which entered the second weekend screening, and the weekend box office of this film was only slightly lower than "Hidden Days", which opened in the first week.

The North American opening weekend box office outpaced the cost of production, and "District 9" was a well-deserved success.

"District 9" can be said to be an outlier among many Hollywood science fiction films, director Neil Blomkamp in order to make the story more real, in the form of a documentary tells the story of aliens coming to Earth to take refuge, and human beings face the panic of higher civilizations, and finally take them in after a series of contradictions.

In the situation that the theme of alien invasion has been used to rot, the reason why "District 9" can stand out is that the director let the original high civilization take refuge under the roof of the low civilization, and bluntly transplanted the contradiction between class and aliens.

That's where Neil Blomkamp excels.

To paraphrase a phrase from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, aliens staying on Earth also have to apply for a temporary residence permit!

Of course, the key to the success of this "copycat sci-fi" film lies more in the publicity and promotion, as well as the freshness brought by the shooting and production methods.

So, when the film came out at the box office on its opening weekend, director Neil Blomkamp approached Ronan to confidently pitch his plans for a sequel, it unsurprisingly failed.

"A sequel has always been on my radar. Neil Blomkamp said that the success of the first part also gave him enough capital: "The second part is still filmed in a style and approach similar to the first part, telling the rest of the story......"

Ronan only asked, "Have you considered investing?"

Neil Blomkamp said directly: "The worldview will become bigger and more open, and the scale of investment in the film will be larger, I have calculated, it will probably require more than 70 million US dollars in production investment. ”

Ronan thought for a while and said, "That's it, Neil, I need time to think about it, and I also need to synthesize the opinions of Shahai Entertainment, and I will get someone to reply to you as soon as possible." ”

Neil Blomkamp didn't get the answer he was looking for and quickly left Relativity Entertainment.

Ronan basically vetoed the project when he heard the production budget, and the success of "District 9" belongs to Hollywood, and when the freshness wears off, it is difficult for a sequel to bring surprises, and the results can be imagined.

Before the new weekend arrived, Sand Sea Entertainment gave Neil Blomkamp a reinstatement, politely turning down his plans for a sequel.

Neil Blomkamp wants to shoot and produce a sequel, so he can only find other companies to work with, provided that he is authorized by Shahai Entertainment.

On its second weekend, District 9 lost its top spot at the North American box office with $33.97 million on the back of Walt Disney's new release of Wonder's Ride.

"District 9" was not stable at the box office, falling by 55 percent the following weekend, dropping to second place with $16.81 million.

Combined with the revenue from the previous five working days, the film has also accumulated $72.8 million at the North American box office.

The North American box office breaking 100 million is not a problem at all.

Before the arrival of the summer season, the North American box office of "District 9" exceeded 100 million, and the figure of $101.35 million also made this alternative sci-fi film a high return.