In the third week of January 2014, the North American weekend box office charts were released!

"Drunken Country Ballads" has reached the top strongly!

Even if people have secretly expected such a result, even if people are looking forward to such a result, when the box office data is really hot, everyone is still completely stunned, and they can't even exclaim, they can only watch the scene in front of them in amazement.

How did this happen?

The week before, "Drunken Country Ballads" was screened in 350 theaters, and the box office data of a single theater fell to 22,000 US dollars, and the downward trend is very obvious, but industry experts have conducted various aspects of analysis, such a trend is normal, and even this trend still proves the strong market potential of "Drunken Country Ballads", but people can't imagine exactly: what is the concept of so-called potential?

This week, "Drunken Country Ballads" was screened in 3,100 theaters, and the box office data for a single theater was still as high as 18,000 US dollars! Compared with the data of the previous week, the decline arc is almost negligible, and in a second, people have an illusion: Is this still the first and second week of the screening stage? But if you look at the data of the theaters again, you will be completely stunned and really dislocated.

From 350 theaters to 3,100 theaters, the box office of a single theater has hardly lost much data, what does it mean?

This means that the expansion effect of the central region has far exceeded expectations, or the potential of the art film market in the cross-strait region has far exceeded imagination. Whether it is the former or the latter, this can be called a major discovery, especially thanks to Sony's classic special screening method, which highlights this change and has become a key case of competition in the entire film market!

Imagine if "Fight Club," "Mulholland Drive," "Memory Fragments," and other unique and brilliant productions could find their place in the art theater chain and succeed in box office numbers, rather than hoping for a boom in the videotape market, how could studios not be willing to invest in the production of these works, and how could David Fincher not find investors willing to work with?

Amazing!

Absolutely amazing!

Such a single-hall box office and such an expansion curve are even comparable to commercial films in the summer season, and it is almost a miracle for art films! The case of "Drunken Country Ballads" is undoubtedly special, and it may never be copied, but it may be copied. The only thing that is certain now is that this work is bound to attract more eye projections, just like the "classic cars" of 2008.

In 2008, the famous old cowboy director Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a work, "Classic Car", and the old man even participated in the creation of the soundtrack himself, which can be said to have put a lot of effort into this work. At that time, Clint won the Oscar for Best Director for the second time with "Million Dollar Baby", but then he was questioned because of "Father's Flag" and "Letter from Iwo Jima".

The two films look at the Battle of Iwo Jima before the end of World War II from the perspective of the United States and Japan, respectively, and Clint wants to discuss the damage of war from the different positions of different countries, but it is clearly too ambitious, and the effect presented is far less than expected, which has sparked criticism.

Although Warner Bros. used a timely emergency PR ploy to eventually win Clint an Oscar nomination with "Letter from Iwo Jima", Clint's ideas and creativity were challenged in many ways, and there are many similarities with the Coen brothers' preparation of "Drunken Country Ballet".

In 2008, Clint filmed two works, "Changing Child" and "Classic Cars", the former sparked a lot of discussion because of Angelina Jolie's joining, and the latter was simply ignored.

From the subject matter of the work, the content to the method and style, etc., "Classic Car" is not the work of the academy, not to mention the Warner Bros. who is responsible for the production and distribution, and even Clint himself does not pay much attention to it, and there are many rumors during the filming that he is ready to quit the crew, and he has spent a lot of experience discussing the preparation of other works with Steven Spielberg and others.

In fact, the "classic car" received a very good reputation after its release, winning the Best Foreign Language Film award at awards ceremonies such as the Japan Academy Film Award, the French César Award and the Italian Guardian Award during the awards season, but again, Warner Bros. did not put much effort into the release.

Unexpectedly, the movie quietly completed the counterattack step by step, and finally the North American box office reached 148 million, and the global box office reached 269 million, and the production cost of the movie was only 33 million.

Although "Classic Car" was not able to get any nominations above the Oscars because it was too late and "Changeling Suspicion" stole all public relations resources, the excellent box office made this work a very special work in Clint's career.

Now, the same seems to be true of "Drunken Country Ballad"!

In the third week of January, "Drunken Country Ballads" grossed 55.8 million yuan on the weekend, and in seven weeks of release, it accumulated $90 million at the North American box office.

This is the best weekend box office performance of "The Hobbit 2" since its release in the third week of December, and the figure of 55.8 million and the 73 million in the opening weekend of "The Hobbit 2" seems to be not far off.

This is absolutely against the sky!

Not to mention the weekend box office of 50 million, in fact, before the official release of the movie, all industry insiders, including Sony Classics, estimated the total North American box office of "Drunken Country Folk" at 20 million US dollars, and if it can enter the awards season boom, then the cumulative box office may be able to hit 50 million.

Not a projection, but an impact.

Just the words show the current state of art films.

It's not that industry insiders underestimate the Coen brothers and Lanley-Hall, but the box office curve of "Drunken Country Ballad" is really too unexpected. Just like the works of "Juno", "Little Sunshine Beauty" and "Classic Car", they are outliers outside the normal rules, jumping out of the rules and creating incredible miracles.

It is no exaggeration to say that the weekend box office data of 55.8 million yuan is definitely a well-deserved excellent performance in the four schedules of autumn, holiday, winter and spring, and even in the summer season, it is definitely a member that cannot be ignored.

What's more, it's the same for commercial films. What's more, it's an art film?

That kind of shock, that kind of stunned, that kind of shock, that kind of shock, words simply can't accurately describe the mood of the entire North American market, maybe foul language would be more appropriate.

According to the blowout of the box office this weekend, as well as the curve of the past six weeks, the total box office of "Drunken Country Ballads" in North America can be on par with 150 million, and it is even possible to challenge a higher level of line, depending on the box office decline curve in the next few weeks, what else can I say?

For a work with an investment of only 11 million dollars, for an independent art film that is a little unsuitable even for awards season, and for a work that can break 20 million at the North American box office and will be snickering, the results achieved by "Drunken Country Ballad" are enough to make the entire industry look at it with envy.

Sony Classics has completed a huge gamble of profit, and more importantly, the distribution rights of "Burst Drummer" are also in their hands, and now other film companies can only stare at them with envy and jealousy.

Rumors, Universal Pictures executives shocked. On the regular board of directors, someone jointly impeached Ron Meyer, and he needed to make an account. Otherwise, Barry Meyer is a lesson for him.

But envy is envy, this is just an "accident" after all, just like "Juno", "Little Sunshine Beauty", "Classic Car", the whole industry pays more attention to convention, as if the success of "Iron Man" has evolved into the success of comic movies, and it is like the 3D movie frenzy caused by "Avatar". If the unexpected cannot be turned into the norm, then the industry will never focus on the "accident".

So, can the accident of "Drunken Country Ballad" be replicated?

With a top performance of 50 million in the weekend, "Drunken Country Ballads" easily defeated a group of competitors and topped the North American weekend box office charts in the third week of January!

This week, "Zuozhou Self-Help Brothers" became a shiny dark horse, with a measly $25 million production cost, but it exploded into a $41 million opening weekend box office in the middle of a deserted schedule, and the word of mouth was so good that if it hadn't been for the "drunken country ballads", it would have easily been crowned champion.

"Robbing a Nut Shop" became an unexpected surprise, and although it cost 42 million to make, it earned $20 million in its opening weekend without effective publicity.

"The Verge" seems to have never gone wrong in becoming a cannon fodder tragic and sad premonition, the opening weekend only achieved 15 million, and the word of mouth is also a mess, in the face of 60 million production costs, it is now possible to announce in advance that it is facing a loss.

It only ranked fifth in this week's weekend box office charts.

The only thing to be thankful for is that there is also "Hercules" behind the "Verge". The latter ushered in a cliff-like drop of 61% in the second week of its release, and the cumulative box office in the two weeks of release was only 14 million, which was even worse than the box office data during the screening of "Drunken Country Folk".

I have to say that there is a reason why everyone is trying to avoid the autumn and winter stalls.

The performance of the North American box office market in the following week once again proved this point of view, and another work Waterloo, a bloody fiasco, truly interprets the meaning of "miserable".