"Weekend Report: 'League of Assassins' Takes the Championship, 'Firefly' Creates a Market Miracle" - Boxoffojo Just this past weekend of August 5-7, a total of 135 films were released in the North American film market, and 2 new films were released on a large scale.

Among them, another action comedy bad film with a small investment was born, and the TV series adaptation film "Justice Striker" with a cost of 50 million yuan received 13%/22%/58% of the three index values on Rotten Tomatoes, and 3,785 theaters received an average of $5,104 per theater and 19.31 million, both word-of-mouth and box office losses. This unsightly opening result has left Warner Bros. another loss this summer, with Jessica Simpson becoming poison for her first appearance on the big screen in a theatrical role, much to the disappointment of her fans.

However, another new film, the poisonous and declining "League of Assassins", has exploded into a good performance! The media and the public feel that they should not be surprised, which is expected, as long as any film has "YOUNG-ANG" in the credit, it is never useless.

"League of Assassins is a fast-paced, crackling, and elegantly action-packed journey tailored to the summer audience. The official one-sentence film review of Rotten Tomatoes sums up the temperament of this movie very well, it does not have too deep thematic significance, does not pursue any artistic connotation, but can bring a nearly 2-hour luxury popcorn enjoyment. Richard Roope of Ebert & Roeper commented: "With some great visuals, some amazing action sequences and some terrific performances, it's going to have its fans. ”

The film is not all popcorn and cola, the sister complex, paternal feud, false master-apprentice relationship and other elements are interpreted by John Woo's lens, like a classical martial arts, and Roger Albert of the Chicago Sun gave a thumbs up: "Slamming, violence and emotion, not a minute was wasted." ”

"John Wu walked out of the quagmire in a furious, intense, bloody, thrilling way, and he not only found himself, but also regained his energy like never before. The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern commented on it, and Elizabeth Wiezman of the New York Daily News gave it a 3.5/5 rating: "Your brain can be interrupted for two hours, but your adrenal glands will be busy." The Los Angeles Times' Sam Adams gave it a 4/5: "It may drag teenagers into too much misanthropy, but it will also hit most male audiences, and this is the most refreshing work of John Wu since directing, the classic two-gun shot!"

Of course, there is credit to the carefully written script of Chris Morgan and others, which is very bloody and ups and downs, without any drag.

In terms of actor performance, James McEvoy seized this opportunity to become famous well, and his impressive performance won praise from many critics and fans, and "Poison Queen" Halle Berry re-exuded a real sex appeal that belonged to her, and the FOX based on her was too suitable for her compared to Catwoman, and Ralph Guzmán of Newsday said: "Once Halle Berry enters the gritty battle, you can't take your eyes off it." ”

"John Wu lived up to the trust of Wonder Young. "When it comes to knowing talents and employing people, no one in the film industry today can compare to Wang Yang. "Basically, when a garbage can is in Wang Yang's hands, he can also dig out gold. ”…… At the end of many film reviews, the part that introduces the background of "League of Assassins", in addition to comic book author Mark Miller, Wang Yang can naturally be seen everywhere. The planning of commercial films can be large or small, and some of the stylistic tones and suggestions laid by it often lead to two films, who can ignore the role he played? In addition to "League of Assassins" itself, as we all know, it is actually Wang Yang's stiff stand on John Woo, betting $100 million on whether the "King of Guns" can make an old man talk about juvenile madness!

The media and the public know this very well, and now they are also admiring this, it is precisely because of these heart-pounding heroism that the magic Yang is so handsome and irreplaceable.

Rotten Tomatoes currently includes 75 reviews of League of Assassins, with a 79%/83% freshness rating from the public and well-known critics, and 81% audience liking (94,827 ratings).

Although it is not amazing, and it is far less than the 94% freshness of "Changing Face" at John Woo's personal peak, compared with the previous "three consecutive smashes" "Wind Whisperer" 33%, "Bulletproof Warrior" 22% (producer), "Memory Rift" 27%, and even "four consecutive smashes" "Mission Impossible 2" did not sell well 57%, after a lapse of 8 years, the king of guns finally tasted fresh red tomatoes again, which is definitely a beautiful turnaround.

However, speaking of which, without the "magical aura", there are really big doubts about whether many large and small filmmakers dare to use him again, but now at this moment of success, John Woo and Halle Berry are undoubtedly salted fish turned over!

The two seem to have expected this, as well as the previous stage of film promotion, whenever John Woo is interviewed, he will say to the media: "I thank Wang Yang a lot for his trust and encouragement to me, I am almost 60 years old, it seems strange to be inspired by a young man in his 20s, in fact, I have long lost my enthusiasm for shooting gunfight action movies, and I feel that I don't need to prove anything anymore, but Wang Yang made me feel that excitement again, he used a line of "The True Color of Heroes", I still remember the feeling at that time. ”

Halle Berry has joked to herself many times: "A few years ago, Miraculous Young handed me the trophy for Best Actress, and then the 'Oscar Queen' curse began, and this time I promised him an invitation to star in "League of Assassins", which should be the end, right?"

This weekend, "League of Assassins" was released in 3,105 theaters, with an average of $12,156 per theater, and a total of $37.74 million in total to rank first on the weekly chart, winning the championship with a not-so-popular result.

This is also the worst opening weekend box office performance of a summer movie in the history of Flame Films, and it seems that it does not have the commercial potential of "The Hangover 2" and "Furious Speed", Paul Degarabbe of ExhibitorRelations said: "The audience still has a great fear of John Wu and Halle Berry, especially Halle Berry is on the blacklist of many people, and "League of Assassins" needs time to prove itself." Flame Films' distribution strategy is very correct, and by building a good North American reputation and prudently distributing overseas, the film will have a bright future. ”

Not to mention the final box office results of "League of Assassins", no one knows, even if it is all messed up, Flame Movies has enough capital to say: "I can afford to lose this money." ”

Coming to the eighth week, "Firefly" relied on Wang Yang's coma incident, and unbelievably broke out with an incredible and sustained performance, with a box office trend of -5%, and an average of $2,814 per theater in 2,650 theaters (-255), which can be described as crazy and swept away a total of 7,457,500 US dollars, ranking fifth! The total box office in North America rose to 623.27 million! In the overseas market, "Firefly" continued to collect more than 10 million US dollars in Japan, making great strides in a further direction.

Week 4 of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory averaged $2,962 per show, week 2 of Gotta Love Dogs was $2,937, week 8 of Batman: Time to War was $528, and week 6 of War of the Worlds was $1,829...... The rescue work "War of the Worlds", which was originally claimed to hit the global box office of 1 billion and 1.8 billion, now has a North American box office of more than 200 million, but it can only be the level of 200 million, even if the overseas box office is added to exceed 400 million, it is still too far away from the goal of that loud slogan. However, it is estimated that all the members of Paramount themselves do not believe that "War of the Worlds" can exceed 1 billion or 1.8 billion, it is just a propaganda slogan, and I believe that they are very satisfied with the current results.

"I'm not going to authorize, Scott, and frankly, I don't want to and won't be involved in any of its work. ”

In the spacious and elegant chairman's office at the headquarters of Santa Monica Flame Film Company, Wang Yang gently turned his office chair from side to side, holding a landline microphone in his left hand, and talked about "The Amazing Director" with Scott Rudin, who called.

For "The Amazing Director", Wang Yang is helpless, emotional, curious and funny, and he is not angry and depressed, because he knows that this is an almost inevitable thing, and he has long heard of who intends to put him on the big screen, he has no ability or idea to control it, and even "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 911" can find producers and distributors, what is Magic Young? As long as there are studios who think it is profitable, "Legend of Silicon Valley" (Steve Jobs VS Bill Gates) and "The Amazing Director" will appear.

The difference is that this time Paramount is real, Scott Rudin is better than those third-rate producers who want to make a quick buck, but Ben Mozridge agreed to Paramount's film adaptation without telling him, which made Wang Yang a little angry, it really shouldn't be my friend! Thinking about it at that time, he was in a coma, and he lost a little bit of anger, but in any case, he would not give "The Fantastic Director" an official license.

Because Wang Yang, as an industry insider, knows better than Steve Jobs and Bill Gates what a movie is, and who Scott Rudin is, in the appropriate words of John G. Dunn's "The Studios and the Monsters": "Overweight, arrogant, unkempt beard, huge roaring laughter, thug in the thug, incredible cruelty, incredible humor, a happy demon ......"

"The Amazing Director" is not a biopic or documentary, but a feature film adapted from a short story. If Paramount feels that the audience buys it, he can even treat him the way "21 Points" bleached Jeff Ma. And this kind of drama film with a tone of "youth, restlessness, and sexuality" will become complicated and complex things become more complicated after team discussion and artistic processing; in order to make the story more dramatic and more discussive, it is normal to delete and modify.

All in all, the beginning, development and ending of the film will be realistic, but all the details in it, including the characters involved and the personalities of the characters, are dramatized, which means that Jessica can be deleted, and the heroine of "Ghost Record" can be replaced with Rachel, all for the sake of "it should be like that" at the time of creation, for the box office and awards. Wang Yang knows that no matter what he says, Wang Yang in "The Amazing Director" will still be the product of directors, screenwriters and others, if he needs to be a playboy, he will be a playboy, if he needs to be a geek, he will be a geek, of course, the biggest possibility is to focus on public image.

"That's a shame, Fabulous Jan, your story is really fascinating...... You don't want to participate, and I understand that. ”

The voice of Scott Rudin, a 47-year-old gold producer who debuted in the 80s and is now one of Hollywood's heaviest gold producers, has played with both mainstream commercial and controversial art films. In recent years, he has participated in the production of a large number of successful films such as "Truman's World", "Miracle Boy", "All the Time", "Rock School", "Stealing Hearts", etc., many of which are the identity of the first production producer.

In Rudin's view, "The Fantastic Director" will be the kind of movie that is a blockbuster and has the ability to hit the Oscars, and he can't help but be nervous. Scott-Rudin asked again, "So do you have any suggestions?"

"I suggest that I want a Chinese actor to play me. Wang Yang's tone was extremely serious, the country uses Asians to divide ethnic groups, but of course he wants Chinese Americans to play Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, etc., which makes people feel weird. Scott Rudin, over there, didn't dare to promise: "We do our best." Wang Yang pursed his lips unhappily and continued seriously: "Also, it's very important! I know that you have collected information about my high school years, and Mozridge also mentioned my high school girlfriend, and I went crazy because of the loss of her, so it's not difficult to find out, isn't it?"

Wang Yang smiled, in fact, his love history has already been exposed by the gossip media who dig into the ground, especially since the opening of "500 Days with Shamo", from "White man, her name is Helen, they have a very good relationship" to some love events have been excavated, maybe a friend betrayed him. Helen's cool face loomed in front of him, and Wang Yang said sharply with a warning: "I hope you don't disturb her! She's married, don't make so many things happen! As for the movie, I guess the most is some flashback shots, just delete this person!"

"Jan, you know these are not for me to decide, it depends on what the screenwriter and director ......think in the future" Scott Rudin still can't guarantee that this gay fat man is actually a "demon in Prada", who once drove away 30 assistants in 15 months, and his crazy and rude roar is his trademark, but as an old fritter-level producer, he naturally has a way of dealing with big shots, at this time Rudin is laughing happily: "And it's unlikely to delete her, that's a key point." ”

"What key? Rudin! You know that as soon as the film is filmed, there will be people who believe that it's all true. Don't embarrass my wife, my friend, or ex-girlfriend, OK?" Wang Yang sat up straight with a wave of anger, about this matter, he was most afraid of this! "The Fantastic Director" is not a Disney youth movie, it aims for the Oscars, so why does he miss Helen, Jessica is a relationship double, or he has a sexual relationship with Rachel...... You must know that in Mozridge's story, he does not have Bill Gates like Steve Jobs, so the friendship, fighting, love contest, fraud and betrayal between two young and restless girls are likely to become one of the focuses. Jan + Jessica + Rachel, isn't this a gossip selling point that attracts fans? At the same time, according to the drama skills of the successful party in reality, which belongs to the treacherous camp, the actor who plays Jessica needs to train his bad smile.

In a flash of these thoughts, Wang Yang couldn't help but take a deep breath, and while Scott Rudin was in a hurry, he said with great seriousness: "You'd better not provoke me, if that happens, I won't do nothing, at least I'll snipe it." ”

"Fabulous Young, I'm so sorry! If "The Amazing Director" offended you, I'll apologize to you right now. Scott Rudin hurriedly calmed Wang Yang's anger, the young director's murderous words frightened this gold medal producer, look at "Sin City", but he was beaten by the sudden appearance of "Ghost Record 3" and couldn't win a championship, "Magical Yang's Fury" is not easy to bear. Scott Rudin's sincerely, "It's a really good story, Wonder Young, you're a legend......!" You should learn to get used to these, and we're not the only ones who want to make your saga. ”

Wang Yang scratched his hair helplessly, pillowed his right hand with a plaster cast on the desk, and frowned: "Scott, I don't want to disturb your creation, I'm not such a stingy and narrow person, I'm still curious about what this movie will look like, I will watch it with my family in the future." He paused and said, "I don't care, you can do whatever you like, but please don't bring women in." ”

Scott Rudineven claimed to be justified, but didn't promise anything. Wang Yang suddenly exhaled in frustration, knowing that he was mostly talking nonsense, and the other party would not be restrained by his few threats, especially the cunning and murderous Rudin, especially "The Amazing Director" is a big company with a big investment, look at the evil Bill Gates in the small investment "Legend of Silicon Valley"! He can only say with peace of mind: "Some things need to be done in moderation, and you also have a family." ”

"Yes, yes, I understand your worries, miraculous ...... Our ultimate goal is to make a classic movie. Scott Rudin tactfully expressed his inability to guarantee.

I know! Wang Yang rolled his eyes, and at this time the mobile phone suddenly rang, and he simply ended the call unhappily: "OK, then there is nothing to say, so be it! I hope Wang Yang on the screen is handsome enough in the future." But in fact, Wang Yang doesn't think anyone can play him well, he is so handsome...... Think about the painstaking casting experience of "MIT-21-TEAM", even if the casting scope of "Fantastic Director" involves the whole of North America, judging from the situation of Asian actors in their 20s, maybe it can be found, or maybe not.

"It's a shame I met you too late, otherwise Natalie Portman would be on screen, it's funny. ”

Listening to Natalie's laughter on the other side of the phone, Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders with a smile: "If that's the case, it's a good idea to find Alan Peggy to play you." Natalie sighed: "Can't you find a super model to play?" Wang Yang disagreed: "That's cheating consumers." The two laughed a few times, and Natalie asked curiously: "Did you give them any advice?" Wang Yang shook his head and said: "No, my suggestion is not useful, let it be!" Natalie snorted and got down to business: ""500 Days with Shamo" is going to be launched this week, but I still have a lot of Shamo's mentality problems that I haven't figured out. ”

"Tell me what's wrong?" Wang Yang talked to Natalie about one question after another, and he didn't end the call until the meeting time came. Hearing the meeting, Natalie immediately remembered something, and asked with great interest: "What kind of dog movie is going to be made by Flame Movie? Is Yorkshire the protagonist? How is Charlie from my family?" Wang Yang got up and walked out of the office, and smiled at his mobile phone: "I'm afraid it's not Yorkshire, this time the target is all large dogs." ”

In the bright conference room, the long conference table sat around the high-level executives of the flame movie, Wang Yang was the chief as the chairman, and Mark Slunt and others sat on either side.

"The rights to shoot 'I Am Legend' are still with Warner Bros. Mark Slunter's face was embarrassed, and Wang Yang glanced at everyone thinking about something: "Is there a way to buy it?"

(To be continued)