On Saturday morning, Matthew attended an event on the TMZ website and focused on Alien vs. Predator 2.

The movie is not generally bad.

"Alien vs. Predator 2" has an astonishing reputation, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes is only 12 percent, similar to "the film sucks, and you don't even know why you want to watch it", "sluggish action movie, it looks like a computer game." The reviews are all entry-price, and the bitter sarcasm of those film critics makes Matthew feel that the film critics are still very good to him.

If it's just a bad reputation for movie reviews and a low score on Rotten Tomatoes, it doesn't matter, after all, Rotten Tomatoes are extremely bad, but it's not uncommon for films to be box office hits.

"The audience reputation of this film is also super bad. ”

In the breakout room of the newsroom, Yelena Boyard put a cup of coffee in front of Matthew and said, "You're really lucky that 'I Am Legend' dodged the Francis Lawrence super hole." ”

Matthew said casually, "That's not necessarily, maybe he directed "I Am Legend", and it may be successful." "Alien vs. Predator 2" is only a medium-sized investment, and Francis Lawrence has some say in the production, but in a first-line production like "I Am Legend", he is also a director on location, with Aziva Gosman in it, and there is not much room for his rotten ideas to play at all. ”

Elena Boyar couldn't help but laugh, "Anyway, he's not as good as Guillermo del Toro. ”

"It's true. Matthew first nodded in agreement, and then said, "It's nothing if the film review has a bad reputation, but the audience's bad reputation won't help." ”

"I got a copy of the Cinema Score on-site survey data, how can I say it? The theater audience is not even willing to give a score of 'B-', the highest is to give 'C', and most of them are playing 'D', so it can be said that the audience has reached the point where they can't bear this film. ”

Speaking of this, she couldn't help but shake her head, "The box office of this film yesterday was only more than $3.3 million a day, which is not even a fraction of "I Am a Legend". ”

There is no comparison between the two films at all.

Whether it is the box office or the audience's word-of-mouth, "Alien vs. Predator 2" is not to mention compared with "I Am a Legend", even if it is a typical B-grade film like "Loch Ness Monster" released on the same weekend, the speed of harvesting the box office is higher than that of "Alien vs. Predator 2".

Just after the weekend, a large number of Alien and Predator fans gathered under the Fox Tower in Century City, holding signs in protest - don't let the Aliens and Predators fight anymore, we can't take it anymore.

There were even extreme fans of Alien and Predator who lit director Francis Lawrence's poster burning.

Jim Gianlopoulos, president of Twentieth Century Fox Films, stood by his office window and took in everything in front of the Fox Building.

"John Davis!" he said to the producers of "Alien vs. Predator 2" behind him, "Have you seen the latest box office statistics?"

The man named John in the back wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Look." ”

Jim Gianlopoulos turned around, "It only grossed $9.1 million in its first weekend! What do you think?" Without waiting for the other party to answer, he said in a fierce voice, "$60 million in production costs, $35 million in publicity costs, this is the result you gave me?"

John Davis didn't expect that with Alien and Predator, two of Hollywood's most famous monsters, the box office would be so bad.

"You recommended Francis Lawrence, and you offered to give him some authority. "Jim Gianlopoulos is well aware that someone must be held accountable for such a failure," John, canceling the third installment of Alien vs. Predator. ”

"Okay. John Davis answered.

Jim Gianlopoulos continued, "None of the projects of Twentieth Century Fox can use Francis Lawrence as a director. ”

"Okay. John Davis answered again.

In fact, there is no need for Jim Gianlopoulos to say, and no one will casually use Francis Lawrence as a director anymore.

Jim Gianlopoulos' tone softened slightly, "You submit a report to the board of directors yourself. ”

John Davis nodded slightly, he is the first producer of "Alien vs. Predator 2", and he has also determined that he will use Francis Lawrence as the director against all objections, and the responsibility cannot be shirked.

Who is to blame for this? He walked out of Jim Gianlopoulos's office and shook his head, looking away at Francis Lawrence.

As the new week begins, the fate of many of the films that opened last weekend is decided, and the directors and stars of some of them will have no future in Hollywood.

Francis Lawrence and Paula Barton are undoubtedly part of this.

"Alien vs. Predator 2" was released in more than 2,800 theaters in North America for three days, but only received $9.1 million at the box office, ranking only sixth on the latest North American box office list.

Not to mention compared with "I Am Legend", even typical literary films like "Juno" are ranked in front of it.

In contrast, Matthew's "I Am Legend" still performed well this past weekend, earning $49.5 million in three days the following weekend, continuing to lead the North American box office charts, followed by "Erwin and the Chipmunks" at $21.08 million, and "Charlie's War" starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in third place, with the two superstars' new films performing mediocre, with less than $12 million on the books.

The fourth and fifth places were occupied by "Juno" and "Loch Ness Monster" respectively, both grossing around $10 million.

"I Am Legend" leads the film market and is very obvious.

Two weeks after its release, the film's North American box office exceeded $200 million, with a total of $211.63 million, approaching the $300 million mark step by step.

At the same time, "I Am Legend" also spent its first weekend in more than 50 overseas markets, stimulated by the North American box office explosion, which was also excellent, approaching $100 million in just a few days.

"I Am Legend" easily exceeded $300 million at the global box office, which is already the biggest hit in this holiday file.

There is no doubt that "I Am Legend" is getting further and further on the road to success, while "Alien vs. Predator 2" falls straight off a cliff.

At the beginning of the new week, the average scheduling rate of "Alien vs. Predator 2" instantly dropped to less than 5%, and many theaters with fewer theaters even arranged only one screening a day, or in the morning when the audience was at its lowest......

Cinema Score also released its public forecast again, believing that the North American box office of "I Am Legend" is expected to hit $350 million, and the North American box office of "Alien vs. Predator 2" will not exceed $30 million.

The failure of "Alien vs. Predator 2" will be unlucky for both the director and the starring, and it will also affect the further development of these two monster series by Twentieth Century Fox.

At the same time, some seemingly unrelated companies have been affected.

Matthew goes to Warner Bros.' Christmas reception party when he gets a message from Zack Snyder.

Zack Schneider has been planning "Watchmen", and Warner Bros. has consulted with him several times to discuss the feasibility of Batman going to war with Superman, but the failure of "Alien vs. Predator 2" made Warner Bros. immediately dismiss such an idea, thinking that the two classic characters are too risky to fight together on the screen.

Hearing this, Matthew didn't say much, and could only secretly sigh that Warner Bros. missed an opportunity.

Maybe after the release of "Iron Man" in May, the Warner Brothers will change their minds.

Matthew has had a lot of contact with the top management of Warner Bros., who also have big goals and outstanding abilities, and there are great producers like Charles Rowan below, but they always make decisions that make people feel stupid.

To this day, Warner Bros. is still Hollywood's best-performing studio......

Such a position, I don't know how long they can hold it.

In the words of Aziva Gosman, Warner Bros.'s management, at times, is too trusting of co-producers and directors and is too fond of interfering directly in filmmaking.

Although not highly educated, Matthew also knows that the balance of power is an art, and if it is not mastered well, the results will often be bad.

2007 is coming to an end, and 2008 is coming.

By the time Matthew boarded David Ellison's private jet and headed to London, Hollywood was already in chaos and a writers' strike was inevitable.

As Helen Herman had predicted, after the expiration of the agreement with the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild, the Producers' Union reached a new, mutually acceptable profit-sharing agreement with the two organizations before they could go on strike, while similar demands from the Writers Guild were rejected without hesitation.

As a result, the Eastern Screenwriters Guild and the Western Screenwriters Guild successively sent emails to their respective members, calling for strikes.

Since 1988, Hollywood has once again gone on strike with screenwriters.

The impact of the writers' strike is still obvious, and many projects have had to be suspended, such as "Angels and Demons", "007 Quantum of Solace", "The Chronicles of Narnia 2", "The Hobbit" and "The Adventures of Tintin" and other first-line big-budget projects in the pipeline, all of which have come to a temporary standstill.

Although the two crews on Matthew's side completed the script, they were also somewhat affected, anyway, Christmas and New Year were coming, he and David Ellison simply gave the two crews a long vacation, and all the work was carried out after the New Year.

He and David Ellison were in London to see the Victoria's Secret show.

However, before going to the Victoria's Secret show, Matthew first contacted Emma Watson to prepare to visit the class.