In the eyes of the audience who like it, "Watchmen" is definitely not inferior to the existence of "The Dark Knight".

In terms of popularity, the former is far inferior to the latter.

"Watchmen" is arguably the most stylish of all superhero comics, and the film is also lofty in terms of content and theme, not as vulgar as ordinary superhero movies.

Even, the depth of the subject matter surpasses Christopher Nolan's two Batman.

However, there is a fact recognized by the entire film industry that cannot be ignored, once the film is tall, it will face a situation of high and low.

Especially superhero movies with a particularly strong commercial taste.

"Watchmen" had a good start, above Warner Bros. expectations, but the drop the following weekend was also unexpected.

The drop of nearly 70 percent is not thrilling.

The box office of $17.81 million the next weekend also announced that there would be no miracle behind "Watchmen", and the North American box office had no chance of exceeding $200 million, even if it exceeded $150 million, it was a small probability event.

The film alone cost $130 million to make.

Faced with such a situation, the Warner Bros. bigwigs couldn't help but discuss Zack Schneider again.

"As far as the current situation is concerned, there is no possibility that "Watchmen" will recover its costs through the box office. Diego Harris, CEO of DC Comics, said: "Strictly speaking, this film is not a success, and we ...... about director Zack Snyder"

Zack Schneider was recommended by Charles Rowan, Warner Bros.'s most senior and successful producer, saying: "But 'Watchmen' didn't fail either! ”

He glanced at Kevin Tessohara and said: "Look at the various word-of-mouth statistics of "Watchmen", IMDB has a rating of 8.2 points, the overall evaluation of the media is extremely high, the critics are biased towards the positive, and Roger Albert even said that this is the best sci-fi movie he has ever seen. ”

Diego Harris's doubts have not been dispelled: "There is no necessary connection between the word-of-mouth and the market of many films. ”

Charles Rowan spoke again: "It's a small number of movies! Art films with a good reputation may not do well at the box office, and they will also gain offline chats, and from the time they are released or even the project is established, they are destined to lose money." But commercial films with a good reputation, even if the box office is not good, will be successful offline. ”

He knows who the real decision is, and said to Kevin Tsohara: "Watchmen has also been affected by objective factors, because of the copyright dispute of Twentieth Century Fox, which led to a lot of publicity and marketing that we launched based on the release in early March, and the negative impact of postponing the release is objective. ”

Diego Harris can't deny this, and it was also expected by Warner Bros. and DC Comics before the release of "Watchmen".

Changing the release schedule of a movie, especially before the release, is a taboo for film release.

When Kevin Tsohara heard the name of Twentieth Century Fox, he couldn't help frowning slightly, combined with News Corporation's pursuit of the entire Warner-like acquisition, he only felt that the Murdoch family was a bunch of rotten people.

Originally, he belonged to the faction of Time Warner that resolutely resisted News Corp. mergers and acquisitions, and now with "Watchmen", not only does he not have any good feelings for the Murdoch family and its News Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox, but also has a strong sense of disgust.

Charles had a point. Kevin Tsohara still leans towards Zack Schneider: "The positive reviews for Watchmen far outweigh the negatives, and the visual style is similar to The Dark Knight, and Zack Schneider is still our first choice when Christopher Nolan refuses to work with us. ”

Diego Harris still said: "But the box office trend of 'Watchmen' ......"

Kevin Tsohara asked, "Diego, The Dark Knight has grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, and has any superhero movie ever done that?"

"It's only The Dark Knight. Thinking about the success of the film, Diego Harris said from the bottom of his heart: "It was a great success. The future Justice League Cinematic Universe, as well as the entire DC comic book adaptation, should indeed follow this model and style. ”

Kevin Tessohara said, "Isn't that the solution to your doubts? In terms of Hollywood right now, apart from Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder, is there any other director who has this style?"

Diego Harris finally nodded, it is indeed too early to talk about the success or failure of "Watchmen", and the comics themselves have the problem of high and low music, and the current situation of the movie is not the responsibility of the director alone.

And there is one thing that Zack Schneider appreciates very much in the filming and production of "Watchmen", Zack Schneider is a person who respects the creation of DC Comics very much and tries to make the film adaptation conform to the original book as much as possible.

Just like in the past, when faced with the choice of director, the management of Warner Bros. was deeply affected by the success of "The Dark Knight", even if the box office results of "Watchmen" were quite average, they still chose to trust Zack Schneider, who insisted on the dark wind.

At the end of the meeting, the participants leave to go about their work.

Kevin Tsohara returns to the office to find out the settlement agreement between Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox on "Watchmen," and the more he looks at it, the more unhappy it becomes.

Twentieth Century Fox has made it clear that it is taking advantage of the danger of others, and "Watchmen" has already set up a project to prepare for filming, and has been promoting it on a large scale since last year, even if there is really a copyright dispute, why didn't you Twentieth Century Fox come to the door earlier? But wait for the film to be released in less than two months!

This is simply pushing "Watchmen" off the cliff, leaving Warner Bros. and DC Comics with no way back but to accept Twentieth Century Fox's terms.

Twentieth Century Fox wasn't in that style before, and since James Murdoch came to Los Angeles from England to take the helm of Twentieth Century Fox himself, the company has become aggressive.

Even Kevin Tsuhara has to admit that Twentieth Century Fox made a move this time, and the timing was right.

Warner Bros. has suffered a huge financial loss this time, and maybe someone on the board of directors will attack him and ask him for an explanation.

Kevin Tsohara pressed the intercom and called the assistant up.

"Keep people staring at Twentieth Century Fox. Kevin Tsohara is of island descent and has a sinister side of the islanders: "The situation is ...... every three days. No, it will be summarized every two days and sent in time. ”

The assistant understood what he meant, and immediately said, "Yes! ”

Beverly Hills, Century City, Fox Tower.

James Murdoch looked at the latest weekend's box office bulletin and said, "Jim, this time is a good job. ”

Jim Prologis modestly said: "The main thing is that the timing you picked was too good, so that Warner Bros. had no time to use the power." ”

"'Terminator' belongs to Twentieth Century Fox. James Murdoch has never been a person who swallows it silently when he loses: "We had been thinking about working with Warner Bros., and we were lending it to them for the sake of friendship. As a result, not only did they not admit it, but they also bit us in turn. ”

Jim Prologis answered: "It's also an oversight on my part. ”

James Murdoch waved his hand: "It's none of your business, it's Warner Bros. who broke the rules of the game." ”

Hearing the words "rules of the game", Jim Prologis couldn't help but quietly glance at James Murdoch, as if the person in front of him had never taken the rules of the game seriously and trampled on all kinds of rules.

However, with News Corp and the Murdoch family, it shouldn't be a big deal, right?

Jim Prologis is, after all, a Fox executive on the surface, and he doesn't particularly know what James Murdoch does, otherwise he would certainly not have such thoughts.

James Murdoch said again: "Warner Bros. side, you have to keep an eye on the follow-up box office share of "Watchmen", don't let them do anything. ”

Warner Bros. not only has to vomit after eating Twentieth Century Fox, but Twentieth Century Fox has to take an interest from Warner Bros.

Jim Prologis hurriedly said: "I will, the set in the circle is no problem to deal with outsiders, Twentieth Century Fox will not give Warner Bros. a chance." ”

James Murdoch then asked, "Also, how is the release of the summer movie arranged?"

"It's been arranged. Jim Prologis simply introduced: "Starting in May, Twentieth Century Fox has a new film released every month. May is the ...... of Robin Hood"

Twentieth Century Fox no longer has much hope for this film, in order to reduce losses and avoid the impact of the failure of previous epic films, the schedule of "Robin Hood" was deliberately adjusted from last year's holiday file to this year's summer file, so as to use time to dilute the audience's memory.

James Murdoch asked, "What about the disaster movie, Superstorm?"

Jim Prologis said: "In June, in order to avoid James Cameron's new film "Avatar", it was scheduled for mid-June. ”

"James Cameron. James Murdoch thought of his old rival Relativity Entertainment: "I remember that in the propaganda of Relativity Entertainment, it was claimed that Avatar invested $500 million. ”

Jim Prologis thought for a moment and said: "This is for external propaganda and hype, and the specific amount of investment is not very clear for the time being." ”

James Murdoch nodded slightly and asked, "How many movies does Relativity Entertainment have in the summer file?"

Jeep Prologis recalled and said: "The beginning of the summer season is "Iron Man 2", followed by "Avatar", "Fast and Furious 4", "Alice in Wonderland", "The Clover Files", and there seems to be animated feature films......"

He emphasized: "There is definite news that Avatar is Relativity Entertainment's number one movie project today!"