"The Mummy's Return" landed in the North American market with a super-scale of more than 3,400 theaters, with the foundation laid by "The Mummy", coupled with the effect of large investment and large-scale production and super-large-scale publicity in this era, the first day of release, that is, on Friday of that week, swept away 23.38 million US dollars from North America, which is also the highest single-day box office result in the North American film market since entering 2001.

On Saturday, the single-day box office of "The Mummy Returns" rose by another 15 percent, earning $26.91 million from 3,401 theaters.

In just two days, the film grossed more than $50 million in North America, which can be said to be a commercial success.

But the film's reputation is very average, IMDB's two-day score is only 6.5 points, and Rotten Tomatoes has fallen across the board, with a freshness rate of only 47% and an average score of 5.2 points, compared to "The Mummy", the word-of-mouth decline is quite obvious.

"This sequel keeps adding jokes and showing digital stunts, but forgets the all-important plot. ”

Professional film critics are very unwelcome to this film.

"The film doesn't reach the heights of The Mummy at all, there are huge flaws in the logic of the story, and the main character, Brandon Frazier, is clumsy and very mediocre. ”

"The mistake of "The Mummy Returns" is to abandon the characterization, especially Brandon's character only stays on the surface, only using the plot as a clothesline for special effects and action scenes, and if it weren't for 1999's "The Mummy", this sequel would not have a plot at all. ”

In the Chicago Sun, Roger Albert's op-ed film review hit the nail on the head.

On the Metacritic website, 31 professional media outlets have collected ratings, and the average score of "The Mummy Returns" is only 48 points.

This website is a website that specializes in collecting reviews of movies, TV shows, music albums, and games, and the website will integrate the scores of each review to make a total score as the score of this project, and in a number of short reviews of the project, from the best score to the worst score in the lower order, the best review score is green to the lowest review score in yellow, red arrangement, and therefore, Metacritic scores are often used as a reference by many companies.

Of course, there are still good reviews.

"For most viewers, the film is still a new and magical film. The exciting adventures, majestic battle scenes, excellent computer stunt production, and strong visual impact in the film will shock the audience. ”

This kind of film review is more like a special advertisement from Universal Pictures, explaining the film's biggest selling point in the most concise language.

Regardless of the media and critics' evaluation, the box office hit of "The Mummy Returns" in North America in the first week is an irrevocable fact.

But negative word-of-mouth will affect the box office trend of "The Mummy Returns" next, and it is unavoidable.

"Those people are too fond of picking bones from eggs. ”

In the office of Helen Herman, an angel agency, Matthew sat on a swivel chair and turned back and forth, and said to Helen Herman, "This is a commercial entertainment film, isn't it enough for everyone to laugh and laugh happily after watching it......?"

Helen Herman was not busy, opened the green tea given by Matthew, brewed two cups, placed one on the table in front of Matthew, and said, "Picking bones from eggs? ”

She said to Matthew very seriously, "Don't look down on film critics, when you want to win an award in the future, their criticism will make you useless." ”

Matthew nodded, if he can get a column in the newspaper, he is definitely not an ordinary person, Lao Mei is more concerned about commercial interests, based on what he has seen and heard in Hollywood, if those professional film critics have no value, the newspaper will give a column?

"I just don't think there's any need to be so strict with entertainment movies like "The Mummy Returns". Matthew picked up the teaglass, took a sip, and said, "Isn't the movie good? ”

Helen Herman put down the teacup and said, ""The Mummy Returns is indeed a good film, but good looks don't mean good. She took the initiative to end the topic, saying, "I have received news that the senior management of Universal Pictures has hired a professional research company to conduct a survey of live audiences in hot theaters in major cities across the United States. ”

Matthew was puzzled, "What are you doing investigating this?"

"I don't know. Helen Herman shook her head, "I guess Universal Pictures has something to do." ”

She asked Matthew, "You didn't hear anything about it on the set?"

"Nope. Matthew spread his hands, "I haven't been involved in the pre-publicity, I don't know what they want to do." ”

Even Helen Herman doesn't know, let alone a little actor like him.

"Don't talk about that. Helen Herman sat back at her desk, opened her laptop, and said, "Your character has received a very good response, and many media and fans think that the Scorpion King is one of the highlights of the film." ”

Speaking of these, Matthew was in a pretty good mood, "Is this called giving back." ”

Helen Herman said, "In this circle, there is not always a return on effort. ”

Matthew shrugged his shoulders and stood up to say goodbye, "You always hurt my good mood, I'd better go home and have a drink alone to celebrate." ”

"Hmm. Helen Herman didn't hold back, "Don't bother me in the last two days, I'm planning how to use the repercussions brought by the Scorpion King to create more momentum for you." ”

On the way home, Matthew bought a bunch of the latest entertainment newspapers, returned to his house north of Burbank, and immediately rummaged through the news about himself.

Unlike the soy sauce in "Band of Brothers", he played the ultimate villain in "The Mummy Returns", and many newspapers mentioned the Scorpion King when reporting "The Mummy Returns".

For example, "Entertainment Weekly" gave "The Mummy Returns" a column report, and there was a sentence in it that Matthew watched it more than ten times - in this mediocre film, the biggest highlight belongs to the Scorpion King played by Matthew Horner, this evil and domineering character coexists, and his appearance is amazing and unforgettable.

In Universal Studios, the office area of Universal Pictures, more than a dozen people are gathering in a conference room to discuss.

"We should continue to launch a sequel to The Mummy series as we did two years ago. ”

Jett Breton, Associate Director of Production at Universal Pictures, said, "Instead of shifting goals and directions. ”

Several people next to him were nodding, and one of them chimed in, "Judging from the current situation, "The Mummy Returns" is a big hit at the North American box office, and the final North American box office may exceed $200 million, so there's no reason why we shouldn't make a sequel." ”

The person presiding over the meeting was Philip Clryston, the director of the production department, who turned to look at Sean Daniel on the other side of the conference table and said, "Sean, you're the producer of this series, what is your opinion?"

"I think you have to be cautious in making a sequel!" Sean Daniel's face was serious, and no one in the room knew the series better than him, "I need to admit that the reputation of "The Mummy Returns" is not good, and it can even be said that it is a little poor, the reason why the box office of the film is not bad is mainly because of the good foundation laid by the first part, and the high box office of "The Mummy Returns" consumes the popularity and support accumulated in the theater screening and videotape market of "The Mummy" in two years. ”

He looked at a few people across from him and said, "'The Mummy Returns' is very likely to consume the accumulated enthusiasm of most fans, and if we launch a third part, it will spread the negative word-of-mouth impact to the maximum." ”

He and Stephen Sommers never considered filming a sequel to "The Mummy Returns" from the beginning, and the two of them didn't know what to do next, and if they were forced to shoot, the risk of failure would be greatly increased.

Although the two had differences before, they still agreed on matters of interest

Jett Breton was a little unwilling, "We're going to give up this series? It's a shame not to make a sequel to such a high-grossing movie." ”

"It's not about giving up, it's about temporarily mothballing!" Sean Daniel clearly had an idea, "We use the time to let the film continue to ferment in the disc and videotape market, attract more fans, and then wait three to five years for the negative word-of-mouth to have less impact, and when the audience's expectations are restored, it will be better to launch a sequel." ”

Seeing Jett Brayton on the other side preparing to speak again, he preemptively said, "I also want to draw your attention to one thing, the problem of the actor Brandon Frazier. ”

Jett Breton thought of the bad reviews that Brandon Fraser had incurred, and swallowed back what he wanted to say.

Sean Daniel continued, "Brandon Fraser has poor self-discipline and obvious physical fortune, which may be more obvious in the next two years, we are making an action-adventure movie, not a comedy, and it is impossible to have a fat man in the lead role. Some of the bad reviews for "The Mummy Returns" came from Brandon Frazier, and fans don't seem to like him anymore, so let's start the sequel production now, do we use him or not? Use him, the second film is a big hit, how much will he get paid for the third part? 20 million dollars? Is he worth that salary? The risk may increase exponentially!"

"That's a real problem. Director Philip Claston also saw a lot of criticism of Brandon Fraser in the newspapers, "An actor that the audience doesn't like can affect the whole film." ”

"So, we might as well wait and see. Sean Daniel proposed, "If Brandon Fraserken takes the initiative to work out and does well in the subsequent films, we can let him continue to be the leading actor when we start the "Mummy" series again! If it is worse than it is now in a few years, we will give him up, doesn't O'Connor have a son? We will speed up the timeline of the film and let O'Connor's son when he grows up play the leading role, so that the sequel can also be connected to the previous work. ”

"Hmm. Superintendent Philip Claston nodded slightly, "This is indeed the safest way to go." The "Mummy" series is now our key monetization project, and it can't be ruined. ”

Jack Brayton thought for a moment and asked, "Just seal the set like that?" ”

Sean Daniel continued, "That's the second thing I'm going to say, Stephen Sommers has a new perspective on the series. ”