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On Saturday morning, Rex Reid left his house early to go to Chatham's Central Street, buy a newspaper, walk into a café, and prepare for morning tea, which is also his habit, he does not have to sit in the newspaper editorial office, only two days a week.

Probably because of the early hours, there were very few people in the café, except for the clerk, as long as there were customers at a table, Rex Reid asked for a cup of coffee, came to his usual place and sat down, opened the newspaper and read it.

I had just finished reading the current affairs news section, and someone walked into the café outside the door.

"Hey, Rex!" Rex-Reed glanced up at him and nodded slightly, "Hello, John." ”

A man named John passed by him, stopped abruptly, and asked curiously, "Rex, are you ready?"

Rex Reid looked at him, puzzled, "What preparation?"

John reminded him, "Aren't you reading the newspaper? Don't you see? The Scorpion King has grossed over $10 million. ”

The relationship between the two sides was quite familiar, and John didn't say anything more, and staggered to the back position.

A clerk came over with the coffee he ordered, happened to hear the conversation between the two people, put down the coffee and took the tip from Rex Reed, and asked cautiously, "Mr. Reed, you're not really going to kiss the donkey's ass, are you?"

Rex Reid glanced at him, and the clerk quickly walked away.

Two people asked the same question in a row, and Rex Reed couldn't help but turn the newspaper directly to the entertainment section, and soon found yesterday's box office statistics report column, and the first place was "Scorpion King"!

This shows that "The Scorpion King" was yesterday's North American box office champion.

He glanced at the number and couldn't help but be slightly stunned, $13.8 million!

Although he was mentally prepared, Rex Reed was still a little surprised, this box office figure is too high, right? Universal's expectation for the whole weekend is only $15 million to $20 million.

It was $13.8 million on Friday, and even if you remove the more than $3.4 million on Thursday, the single-day box office of "The Scorpion King" is more than $10 million, and it is very likely to break through $30 million in three days over the weekend, which is definitely quite successful for a film that costs only $40 million to make.

A brainless popcorn entertainment film, is it really so good? He shook his head, knowing that he was too far away from the young audience as a film critic to measure the psychology of teenagers as the main body of the market.

The phone vibrated suddenly, and Rex Reed took it out and took a look, then answered the phone, "Is there something wrong, Carter?"

The person who called was none other than Carter Hodgson, who had been looking for him some time ago.

"Remind you to ......" A man's voice sounded in the receiver of the mobile phone, "The North American box office of "Scorpion King" exceeded $10 million in the first week. ”

Rex Reid was calm and said, "I see it. ”

Another voice came from the phone, "Don't forget to come to the TV station at night, I'll wait for you in the studio." ”

"Don't worry, I'm a very trustworthy person!" Rex Reed sounded over the other hand, "You contact the TV station and ask them to come to my side to transport donkeys." ”

Hearing that it should come down, Rex Reed hung up the phone, drank the coffee in his cup, and left the café earlier than usual, ready to leave for New York.

He will not break the contract, not to mention that this matter can continue to increase popularity, just for the second half of the 300,000 dollars, it is impossible to give up.

As for face, do critics need such a thing?

In the conference room of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, a group of Universal Pictures executives are holding a meeting.

"Although "Scorpion King" has a poor reputation, the early publicity effect is very good, and the selling point of the film is outstanding, and the advantages are obvious......"

Sean Daniel, who was sitting at the conference table, was somewhat spirited at this moment, "Today's single-day box office is expected to increase significantly compared with Friday." ”

Jett Breton, who was across from him, said, "The Scorpion King's opening weekend box office hit is a foregone conclusion, can we continue to add fuel to the promotion?"

"That fire will burn tonight. "If you have time tonight, you can keep an eye on NBC 2." ”

Laughter erupted in the room.

Philip Crieston, the director of the production department who presided over the meeting, said at this time, "I didn't expect such a film to become the first breaking point of Universal Pictures this year." ”

In fact, everyone's expectations for "Scorpion King" are relatively limited, otherwise the investment scale would not be limited to $40 million.

"The only pity is that ......," Jett Breton said with regret, "the film doesn't have a good reputation, otherwise we could have continued to launch a sequel." ”

Everyone knows that sequels to hit movies are less risky and often more lucrative for Hollywood companies.

The executive from the marketing department continued, "But the reputation of the actor Mozius is very good! Matthew Horner has been praised almost unanimously by the media and fans, and the criticism against him is not without it, but it is negligible!"

Philip Claiston nodded and said, "It's in our interest to give people a preliminary assessment of the 'Scorpion King' sequel, a series." ”

This is agreed by almost everyone, and with a sufficiently popular male protagonist, the sequel has the most basic guarantees.

After discussing this aspect, Sean Daniel suddenly proposed, "In the market research we conducted, Matthew Horner received praise from more than sixty percent of the interviewed audience, and I think that if we can get Mozius's figures and dolls on the market in advance, I believe that the sales situation must be good, and this will continue to stimulate the promotion of the film." ”

Philip Claiston thought for a moment and agreed to Sean Daniel's suggestion, saying, "Communicate well with Matthew Horner and get him to cooperate with our plan." ”

In the afternoon of the same day, Matthew received a notice from Universal Pictures, and he had no opinion on this, first, because it was part of the work stipulated in the contract, and secondly, the figures and dolls used his image, and he had the right to benefit from the image rights.

There are relevant laws and regulations in this regard, such as the figure of Ronald Spears in "Band of Brothers" launched by HBO, he has a share, although it is limited to the problem of sales, the money is not very much, but now it is thousands of dollars.

Compared with the salary, this money is not a lot, but this is also limited to the type of characters and TV series, and the audience who likes "Band of Brothers" is afraid that there will not be many people who like such things as figures.

"The Scorpion King" is different, this itself is a film aimed at teenagers, and teenagers are often blind and impulsive in their consumption of their preferences.

After dinner, Matthew didn't do any more routine exercises, first turned on the computer and looked, on the entertainment section of many websites, you can see news and reports related to "The Scorpion King", he deliberately went to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB two websites to go around, with the increase in the number of professional film reviews and the sharp rise in the audience who have watched the film, both the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes and the IMDB score are continuing to decline.

The freshness of "Scorpion King" on Rotten Tomatoes is only 57% left, and the average score is only a pitiful 5.3 points, which can be said to have a poor reputation on Rotten Tomatoes.

On the IMDB side, the average viewer rating has also been reduced to 6.0......

No matter how you look at it, the reputation of the film "Scorpion King" can no longer be described as mediocre, and it can gradually be classified as a poor stage.

But after several years of understanding, Matthew also knows that Hollywood's commercial films, Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB have a very poor reputation, and there have always been many films that hit the box office in the first weekend, and these word-of-mouth effects are more affected by the later trend of the film rather than the box office in the first week.

The ratings of these two websites do not have as direct an impact on the box office as they seem.

As the leading actor, Matthew is still relatively clear about some of the crew's strategies, and what the crew and Universal Pictures are striving for is the box office explosion in the first three weeks or even the first two weeks of the film.

This kind of film is originally a fast-moving consumer goods, and after 20 days of screening, the potential consumption of the theater market is basically the same.

After flipping through the webpage for a while, Matthew saw that the time was about the same, turned off the computer, sat in front of the TV, turned on the TV and switched directly to NBC Channel 2.

On the TV screen, the familiar host takes the lead, and after a few short opening lines, the famous film critic Rex Reid is invited.

"Rex ......" host said, "Yesterday, "The Scorpion King" exceeded $10 million at the box office. ”

"I saw it!" Rex Reed still didn't change his vitriol style, "but I still have to say, this is a bad movie!"

The host asked curiously, "In your eyes, "The Scorpion King" is useless?"

Rex Reid shook his head, "No!" he said solemnly, "I want to apologize to Matthew Horner, his character is brilliant, he did a great job." ”

The person who can agree to participate in this hype is certainly not a brainless fool, he is clearly pandering to the mainstream voice.

"Presumably Matthew Horner will be happy to hear you. The host pulled the topic back again, "Remember what you said last week that the box office of "Scorpion King" could exceed $10 million in the first week......

"I'll kiss the ass!" Rex Reid took the initiative and said generously, "I can't guarantee anything else, as a critic, I've always done what I say!"

The host was deliberately surprised and asked, "Rex, are you really going to kiss the ass of a donkey?"

"Of course, I can't miss the appointment, can I?" Rex Reed offered his way, "I've had the donkey Matthew Horner give me brought over......"

Soon, someone led a gray donkey into the studio, and under the watchful eyes of countless viewers, Rex Reed kissed the donkey's ass firmly.