Although everyone agrees that Matthew's appeal has played a huge role, no one can ignore Warner Bros., the driving force behind the scenes, and the operating conditions of the six major film companies are actually different.

In the 7 years since 2000, Warner Bros. Pictures has been the most dominant in the box office market, and when major companies count the box office performance of the year at the end of each year, Warner Bros. Pictures is almost always ranked in the top three, and in 2001, 2004, 2003 and 2006, Warner Bros. Pictures was the owner of the largest share of the North American box office that year, and generally could grab more than 15% of the share.

Disney is closely behind, but at the moment Warner is still one position ahead of Disney.

Warner Bros.'s entire media group has invested huge resources in "I Am Legend", and the powerful media empire behind it has concentrated on promoting "I Am Legend" after the failure of "The Golden Compass", coupled with Matthew's series of eye-catching measures, so that they have a suitable theme to play, and the publicity and promotion are truly known to passers-by, and the film market, which has been like a backwater since Thanksgiving, has also gathered enough energy for the box office volcano explosion.

In some ways, Matthew and the crew of "I Am Legend" also have to thank "The Golden Compass" for its failure.

At a meeting on Sunday, Warner Bros. Distribution's Dan Feynman enthused: "It's good to do business with Matthew Horner, he's the best box office superstar in the world today. ”

Warner Bros., meanwhile, put Nicole Kidman on a blacklist for commercial big-production collaborations.

"The American audience has never liked this Australian woman. ”

Coming out of the Warner building in Burbank, Helen Herman said to Matthew as she walked, "It was during the two years of her divorce from Tom Cruise, and the public's sympathy made her a little better, but she quickly reverted back to her prototype ......"

Matthew only came back from New York last night, didn't sleep well at all, and stretched, "Whatever." When he got to the car, he pulled the door and got into the car, leaned back in the seat, waited for Helen Herman to get in the car from the other side, and said, "I'll make up for sleep, and call me when I get there." ”

Next, I will be interviewed by "Vanity Fair", "Vanity Fair" is ready to make him the cover character of next year's New Year's magazine, although the cover of "Vanity Fair" is not as influential as "Time Magazine's Person of the Year", but there are also a number of media resources in the entertainment industry.

He was also selected as a nominee for Time magazine's Person of the Year, but Helen Herman had already received definite information from Warner, and Time Magazine's 2007 Person of the Year was ***.

Although Matthew is very confident, he also knows that his influence cannot be compared to such an existence as ***.

Helen Herman didn't mean to let Matthew rest, and said directly, "You go back to rest at night." ”

"Something?" asked Matthew, looking at her.

"The Screen Actors Guild sent you a notice. Helen Herman's tone was still as steady as ever, "I want you to be ready to strike." ”

Hearing this, Matthew had a headache and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Helen Herman didn't think much of it and said, "Your first identity and profession is that of an actor, so you have to keep up with the pace of your union. ”

Matthew nodded, "I see, you can look at the reply." ”

Helen Herman also advised, "If the two actors' unions, the directors' union, and the screenwriters' union are all planning to go on strike, and someone asks about it, don't say too much, you must be cautious." ”

"The unions aren't going to really strike, are they?" asked Matthew curiously.

If the union is not a decoration, if it really wants to go on strike, it can cause the entire industry to shut down, and if the actors' union, the directors' union and the screenwriters' union strike at the same time, Hollywood will also be paralyzed.

"As far as I know......" Helen Herman said lightly, "there should be no strike in the Actors Guild and the Directors Guild, and the Producers' Union has already begun negotiations with these two organizations to reach a new agreement by January at the most." As for the Writers Guild......"

She shook her head, "The Producers' Union has rejected the terms offered by the Writers Guild, and the first two negotiations between the two sides ended in a breakdown. ”

Matthew instantly understood, "The writers are going on strike again." ”

Twenty years ago, there was a writers' strike in Hollywood, and then the Producers Union signed a twenty-year deal with the Writers Guild.

"A writers' strike is hard to avoid. Helen Herman sees it very thoroughly, "Screenwriters see themselves as important, and think that they are the most important part of film and television production like actors and directors, but others obviously don't see it that way, differences cannot be easily resolved in a short period of time, and the only way for the writers' union to fight for their rights is to strike." ”

Matthew thought for a moment and asked, "If the writers do strike, which side am I on?"

Helen Herman said with a blushing face, "When the time comes, we'll look at the direction of the wind and decide which side to go towards." ”

Matthew gave her a thumbs up, "You're in good hands." ”

Inside the Warner Building, Jeff Robinoff, president of the film division, and Dan Feynman, director of distribution, stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the conspicuous Maybach Mercedes fade away.

"I expected 'I Am Legend' to be a box office success. Jeff Robinoff retracted his gaze and said, "But I didn't expect such a film to exceed 100 million at the box office in the first weekend!"

Although it was only halfway through Sunday, everyone knew that "I Am Legend" had an easy first weekend of $100 million.

Dan Feynman let out a hoarse laugh and then said in the same voice, "Who made this a one-man show by Matthew Horner." ”

Jeff Robinoff has been at the helm of Warner Films for many years, but at this moment he can't help but shake his head, "One movie after another, full of negative reviews, can be successful." ”

"Haven't you heard of it?" Dan Feynman said a consensus among many people, "It is widely recognized in the industry that sci-fi action blockbusters starring Matthew Horner have super 'review immunity', so it doesn't matter what film critics say about 'I Am Legend'; ”

Jeff Robinoff had heard of it before, so he nodded slightly.

This success was also a big help to his own performance, so Dan Fei did not hesitate to incarnate "Matthew Blow", and said, "Actually, it's all about the two most reliable syllables in today's film industry: Matthew Horner! So, what does it matter what the critics say? Will the audience not watch the film because of their harsh words?"

He shook his head, "No! no...... The audience will still be eager to watch and find that Matthew Horner's character and performance, as always, are to their liking. ”

"Dan, I have an idea. Jeff Robinoff suddenly said, "If we apply for an Oscar for "I Am Legend", can we get a few valuable statuettes back? Once it wins the award, the film will make even more money in the future. ”

Dan Feynman thought for a moment and said, "You can declare it and give it a try." However, Jeff, there is one thing I need to remind you that the academy people don't like Matthew Horner very much, and Matthew Horner is not interested in the Oscars, so he can't be active in public relations, and probably won't invest in Oscar promotion. ”

Jeff Robinoff nodded, then pondered for a while, and then said, "Go and declare first, and then you go and communicate with Helen Herman, this is the Oscar." “

"Hmm. Dan Feynman answered first, and then said, "I don't think there will be any results." ”

In fact, when the test screening was held, he talked to Helen Herman about this, and Helen Herman, the woman, was not interested in it at all.

The agent's attitude directly reflects the customer's attitude, and no one in the circle knows that Matthew Horner has never participated in independent literary films and has always been lukewarm to the Oscars.

Just as Dan Feynman dialed Helen Herman to make an appointment to meet, Matthew had already entered the Vanity Fair studio and took the cover photo.

Compared with women, men are simpler in this regard, and Matthew is now well-capitalized, and he has already communicated with "Vanity Fair" and will not take any large-scale photos.

Vanity Fair magazine is famous in North America, but at its very least, it is an entertainment gossip magazine, such as near-naked photos of celebrities or other super-large images, which often appear on the cover.

Matthew was limited to half an hour for the shoot, and then went to a specially set up location on the side of the studio, where the interview was conducted one-on-one with Nancy Joe Sells, the famous female reporter of Vanity Fair.

Now is the most intensive promotion stage of "I Am Legend", and there are many interviews like this, and Matthew has a lot of itineraries.

In the pre-screening promotion, he and Warner Bros. used a lot of unconventional publicity methods, such as the real estate gift event and the hype of the presidential campaign, etc., but now that the box office has exploded, everything is going smoothly as expected, and there is no need to continue with unconventional means, and the next thing is to run the notice step by step.

Soon, Nancy Joe Sells asked the first question, "Matthew, do you find it challenging to take on "I Am Legend"?"

"Taking on the film was a challenge in itself, and when you think about it, there are about 80 pages of script in which it's just me and a dog. Matthew paused for a moment to think about it, and then said, "It's not easy to play a one-man show alone, when you don't have an external stimulus and no one to talk to you, you lose the concept of stimulus response......"

The interview lasted into the evening, and after the interview, Tina Brown, the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, invited Matthew and Helen Herman to dinner to talk about the articles to be published after the New Year, and Matthew did not return to Horner Manor until about ten o'clock in the evening.

The release weekend of "I Am Legend" is coming to an end, and a new week is coming soon.