As the night fades and the sun climbs into the West Coast sky for the first time in July, the city of angels is once again in a state of silence, the competitive film industry is back in a silent battle, and the weekend before the New Year's holiday officially ushered in one of the most important productions of the entire Christmas file, Independence Day.

Although the midnight slot was released in the early hours of the morning, it was a special show for sci-fi action fans, and for most ordinary movie fans, Friday day was the beginning of their movie-watching.

As the sun rises, the midnight box office statistics are also over, and the box office figures of the films that have just been released this weekend have reached the hands of the corresponding companies at the fastest speed, and then they have been tossed and turned in front of many well-intentioned people.

In the Fox Building in Century City, Nicole Kidman had just entered the office, and Drew Barrymore, the executive producer of "Independence Day" on behalf of Fox, walked in.

"Good news, Sister Nicole!" Drew seemed anxious to share his joy with others.

"Say it, Drew. ”

From Drew's face, Nicole had already guessed something, "Did the midnight box office exceed expectations?"

United America and Twentieth Century Fox expect a midnight show of $4.5 million, which is almost a midnight performance that can only be achieved by the first-rate grossing film in North America.

"It's not just more than expected!" Drew patted the report in his hand, as if trying to restrain his excitement, "$7.75 million! Nicole, we broke the record! This is the best midnight box office result ever in North America!"

"What?" Nicole stood up, as if in disbelief, "Breaking the record?"

"Yes!" Drew nodded affirmatively, "William's work has set an incredible box office record!$7.75 million, surpassing the $7.54 million of 'Batman Returns'!

Hearing Drew's confirmation, Nicole calmed down, after all, she had been in charge of Fox for nearly a year, and made a gesture to Drew who was still standing over there to sit down, and walked back and forth twice behind the desk.

Generally speaking, the first-day box office of a film can reach about three times that of the midnight show, so according to this calculation, the first-day box office of "Independence Day" can reach $20 million?

The corners of Nicole's mouth turned up, and an imperceptible smile appeared, as if her lover had created a new miracle!

William always surprises!

"Drew, you call William immediately......"

Just when Drew wanted to stand up, Nicole suddenly raised her hand to stop him, "No, I'll fight it myself!"

After speaking, she directly dialed Wang Jie's number.

Since the sun rises, Wang Jie's mobile phone has been ringing non-stop, and the release of the midnight box office and the performance that broke the North American record have made him receive a lot of calls to congratulate him on the relationship with the Bellagin.

The top management of United States, the top management of Twentieth Century Fox, the CAA agency, the team of lawyers and accountants who worked for him, the star of several films he directed and his agent, and even the head of the public relations agency who didn't know how to get his number, etc.

The pursuit of success is one of Hollywood's eternal themes, and although it was only a midnight hit, it was very clear that these people were unanimously optimistic about "Independence Day".

"Nicole, Fox's media needs to continue to increase their publicity efforts! Celebration party? Don't rush this, you can ...... it later."

On the yacht off the coast of Santa Monica, Wang Jie had just hung up Nicole's phone when the phone rang again.

"William, well done!"

It turned out to be George Lucas who called, Wang Jie said a few words modestly, and Lucas's voice sounded in the receiver again, "Your results today far exceeded everyone's expectations, and Spielberg is not as good as you." You may be Hollywood's number one commercial director, but keep a good attitude!"

"I understand, Lucas. ”

Although making these movies has a deep relationship with his accumulation and learning in this life, Wang Jie understands how these movies came about, and he is naturally not arrogant and proud, "I know what to do." ”

"Congratulations, young man, for setting a new record. ”

After the two talked a few more words, they hung up the phone, Wang Jie put away the phone, looked at the other side of the yacht, across a small table, Scarlett Johansson sat in a children's chair, holding a bucket of ice cream, and seemed to be eating happily.

"Why don't you go to the activities organized by the acting school?" asked Wang Jie, turning his head.

"The school only invited a winter camp organized by an unpopular director!" Scarlett Johansson pulled a tissue and wiped the cream off her mouth, "You are the best director in Hollywood, I think I can learn more from following you than by attending the winter camp." ”

"Thank you, dear, I didn't expect you to compliment me so much. ”

Hearing Wang Jie's casual words, the little girl put down the ice cream, got off the children's chair, went around to Wang Jie's back, took a can of beer from the box, pulled it away vigorously, and sent it to Wang Jie.

"It's a rarity. Wang Jie took it and muttered.

Raised his head and took a big sip, the cold feeling dispelled the stuffiness in his heart, Wang Jie burped comfortably, and when he put down the beer can, he found that Scarlett was still looking at him.

"Did something happen, Scarlett?" asked Wang Jie.

"The ......" Scarlett rolled her eyes and pointed to the beer can, "Can I taste it?"

"Wait until you're sixteen!" Wang Jie glared at her, Scarlett pursed her lips and muttered in a low voice, "Stingy, I knew it would be like this, it's not like I haven't drunk it." ”

"What did you say?" said Duke.

"Nothing. ”

Scarlett put her hands behind her back, shook her upper body, returned to her children's chair, and continued to mumble, "Stingy, stingy......"

Hearing these words like a wizard's spell, Wang Jie almost laughed and pointed to Scarlett's cup, "Just one bite!"

"Hmmm......"

The little girl nodded busily, and after Wang Jie poured a beer at the bottom of a cup, she took it and drank it directly, looking at Wang Jie with a blank eye, "Is it okay to do it again?"

Wang Jie would not be deceived by her disguise, shook his head, and just as the phone rang again, he simply ignored the little girl who looked pitiful.

Wang Jie is in a very good mood here, and with the record-breaking midnight box office results, he feels that the whole person is relaxed.

Facing east from Santa Monica, in a mansion in Beverly Hills, considered one of the most luxurious residential areas in the world, the atmosphere is extremely oppressive, with several servants acting lightly for fear of provoking the anger of the old man sitting on the living room couch.

The old man is none other than Sean Connery, who seems to have turned into a beast that chooses people to devour after answering a phone call.

$7.75 million!

A figure that amazed and outraged him!

Even, Sean Connery has no doubt that when today's single-day box office is released, it will be a number that makes him angry, even if he did something last night!

"Brave Death Island" was a box office hit, when he was deep in the mud and couldn't make a strong counterattack, but now he can't watch the guy who once did something to him continue to succeed, and those who offended him must pay the price, which is the simplest reason.

It's just, can professional film critics really stop "Independence Day"?

Sean Connery's eyebrows furrowed tightly, although he didn't go to see "Independence Day", but from the news from United America and Twentieth Century Fox, the two companies held a high-level meeting after the box office came out at midnight, and it is said that the publicity fee for "Independence Day" will be increased from the original $25 million to $35 million!

Obviously the market has given them a lot of confidence.

Indeed, 93% of the audience at midnight has a positive rating of A-grade praise and it is worth it!

Even if Sean Connery can't wait to see "Independence Day" completely lose money, he has to admit that such an audience reputation is terrifying, and if there is a word-of-mouth box office conversion rate like "Brave Island", the final box office of this movie will definitely stop at a terrifying number.

If all this he deduced comes true, Wang Jie will stand in the position of the first director in Hollywood, and he will become the target of many stars in the future, and an outdated character like him, what will he do against him in the future?

"It's just a midnight box office! What if it's $20 million on the first day? It's never uncommon for movies to go high and go low! You're not going to make it!"

Sean Connery's sinister voice showed the anger in his heart, he really didn't have any evidence, but these bad things that happened to him didn't need evidence at all!

"You're not going to make it!"

He picked up his mobile phone and dialed Jack's phone number in public relations, and the news from the phone made Sean Connery calm down a little, and according to Jack's words, he asked the maid to hurry up and send today's newspaper over, with freshly baked movie reviews on it, and the three million dollars he threw out played a huge role!

The maid brought a large stack of newspapers and magazines, and Sean Connery flipped to the entertainment page, his eyes showing a hint of joy.

"Is Director William a sadist?"

This is the eye-catching headline that Sean Connery saw in Roger Albert's film review column after opening the "Chicago Sun-Times", which also made him feel inexplicably comfortable.

"I watched "Independence Day" in the theater at midnight last night, and I couldn't stand the abuse of the noise and explosions, so I had to leave early, this is a film that completely exceeds the bottom line of human patience, the plot is mundane, the climax is cheap, there are countless loopholes, the logic is confused, I hate it very, very, very, very much......"

In the long film review, Roger Albert not only belittled "Independence Day" to the extreme, but also gave a thumbs up on behalf of a bad movie, and only gave the film an ultra-low rating of 2 points!

After reading Roger Albert's film review, although he knew that it had his own half a million dollars, Sean Connery's mood still changed a lot, and then opened more newspapers.

"Director William is a standard demon, he can destroy the audience's best impression of the movie, his work never cares about your soul, only your wallet, the humans in "Independence Day" saved the planet, but they can't save this bad movie!"

David Denby of The New Yorker was extremely sarcastic about Independence Day, giving the film a pitiful 1, while The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy was slightly better than him, giving the film a 3.5 points!

"Independence Day tests the audience's patience with unscrupulous dialogue and flamboyant clichés for most of the time, and as a punishment, everyone involved in the film, including director William, should do some community service!"

Similarly, film critics in other media did not mean to let go of this film.

"Before watching William's movie, you have to take anti-motion sickness medicine, "Independence Day" is full of boring explosions and noises, of course, for director William, not blowing up a large city center in the first act of the film, maybe it is very restrained!"

Relatively speaking, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times is relatively polite, although his score of 5 is not even the passing line, but he is the highest rated among the top film critics.

"Independence Day is a small step for a sci-fi action movie, but it's a giant step into the abyss of stupidity!"

—Chicago Tribune

"Who is the worst film of the year? The answer is obvious – Independence Day!"

- "Village Voice"

"In 'Independence Day', director William turned all the actors into mindless robots, and you have to praise William for one thing - he has the ability to bring great actors down to the same heights as him!"

- "Rolling Stone"

"noisy", "stupid", "evil", "unbearable", "hopelessly garbage disposer"...... Film critics in North America have used all sorts of vicious words about "Independence Day."

Seeing these movie reviews, Sean Connery showed the heartiest smile in the past year, and the smile was extremely bright.

"Excellent reviews. ”

It was impossible for film critics to ignore such a large-scale bad review, and it was impossible for Lianmei and Twentieth Century Fox not to pay attention, and Wang Jie only had a leisurely morning and rushed to Industrial Light and Magic in Burbank, and Wang Jie and the production and distribution department held a special meeting for this purpose.

"You're waiting here. ”

Bringing Scarlett Johansson into his office and stuffing her with two DC comics, Wang Jie advised, "Don't run around, or I'll send you home at night." ”

"Are you going to discuss how to deal with those villains?" Scarlett took the comic and looked at Wang Jie.

"You know a lot. Wang Jie smiled.

"You're my brother...... she wrinkled her nose and waved her little fist hard, "Of course I have to care about you!

Nodding, Wang Jie rubbed the little girl's blonde hair affectionately, turned around and walked out of the office, and walked into the conference room next to it, where there were already many people seated, and after Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore arrived, a brief meeting was quickly held.

"The film's audience reputation, the current attendance, and the approximate box office figures have exceeded our expectations. ”

There was no long-winded speech, the meeting went straight to the point, and Drew was the first to speak, "But the professional reputation of "Independence Day" has encountered relatively big trouble, and almost all professional film critics are criticizing our films, according to current statistics, the comprehensive score of film critics is currently only 3.8 points!"

After Drew's words, the conference room fell into a brief silence, film critics' reputation is indeed not the key factor in the success or failure of commercial masterpieces, and the professional reputation in the past only played a role in propaganda and agitation, but no one can deny that top film critics, including Roger Albert, can influence a group of audiences, which is likely to have a certain impact on the box office trend behind "Independence Day".

A few top film critics may not have much effect in criticizing a movie, after all, there are other film critics waving their flags and shouting, and now all the top film critics have spoken out jointly, even Wang Jie, who is the least to see them, has to pay attention.

"According to the information we have gotten. ”

Nicole said, "Someone is behind the PR of "Independence Day" ......"

With that, she turned her head to look at the side, "Or William." ”

Wang Jie smiled at him, but he didn't have any worries.

"Our PR department should take action......"

"Warn those critics to block their free ticket privileges if necessary......"

Hearing the response opinions put forward one after another, Wang Jie never spoke, perhaps when it comes to professionalism, he is far inferior to many people here, but when it comes to the knowledge of low-reputation and high-box office films, I am afraid that all the people here together are not as many as him.

The original version of "Independence Day" is a typical representative of ultra-low professional reputation and ultra-high box office, and in the new century, such films are endless, if they are placed ten years later, film critics don't care about negative evaluations at all, even if they speak out collectively, the Internet water army alone can drown them......

In this era when the Internet is not developed and the information is relatively not fluent, the influence of film critics is definitely much greater than in the future, but when Wang Jie mentioned to Lianmei that film critics were excluded from participating in the test screening, he actually expected that there might be the current situation, and in fact, there was a certain amount of preparation, and the method was put into the future, without any peculiarities, but when the voice of film critics was still loud enough, it was by no means that other directors dared to do it casually.

"Critics' criticism isn't necessarily a bad thing. ”

When the conference room began to be silent again, Wang Jie suddenly spoke, "On the contrary, it is a place where we can hype and exploit!"

Without waiting for everyone to say anything, he looked to the side, "Drew, are there any statistics on the age of the audience?"

"There's a statistic for midnight and morning sessions. Drew flipped through the documents in front of him, and then said: "According to statistics, the audience of "Independence Day" is mainly 15 to 35 years old, of which 17 to 25 years old account for 67% of the moviegoers!"

"In other words, audiences between the ages of 17 and 25 are the mainstream audience of "Independence Day"!" Wang Jie looked around and continued: "I don't know if you know what people of this age group think? I am 24 years old this year, and I am still at this stage, and I think I still know more about young people today. ”

Everyone looked at it, Wang Jie didn't have the idea of selling Guanzi, and said directly: "This is the most rebellious stage, I don't believe in any authority, I will always question the authoritarian point of view, this is also a very curious stage, I am full of interest in new things, I have the adventurous spirit to try everything, and I often have the determination to implement it......"

"Actually, this is also a group that is difficult for film critics to influence!"

The voice gradually slowed down, but Wang Jie's words were unusually clear and loud, "Film critics attacked us with a professional eye! We can directly respond in another way, fans lack channels to make their voices heard, why don't we let the voices of fans who like "Independence Day" appear in the mainstream media?"