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If the box office of "Gravity" in the first week was only beyond everyone's expectations, when the box office data of the second week of the film came out, the entire film industry, whether in North America or overseas, could no longer calm down.
From November 26 to December 2, compared to the first week, the box office of "Gravity" fell by only a very modest 5.1% in the second week, collecting another $138.63 million. So far, "Gravity" has grossed $284.69 million at the box office in North America in just half a month.
As of December 2, the only films that grossed more than $280 million in North America in 1999 were "Iron Man" and "The Mummy 3". "Gravity" took only two weeks to reach the third place in the annual box office charts in North America.
Moreover, with the invincible box office trend of "Gravity", it is only time to overturn "Iron Man" and "The Mummy 3" to the ground and win the annual box office championship.
At the same time, the box office data of "Gravity" in a number of overseas box office markets that have been opened one after another are also extremely eye-catching.
Since it is the first promotion of 3D and IMAX movie screening formats, many overseas theater operators in box office countries have maintained a wait-and-see attitude. In the end, the Firefly Group only achieved 1,630 overseas 3D screens and 63 IMAX screens at the same time.
Although all 100 overseas IMAX theaters have been completed, another 37 IMAX theaters have not been opened for the time being in order to match the schedules of different markets.
However, the less than 1,700 overseas screens that opened at the same time brought $97.3 million to the Firefly Group in the first week.
Moreover, with the further spread of the film's word-of-mouth, while the scale of overseas releases has barely increased, the overseas box office of "Gravity" has achieved a reversal of 8.3% in the second week, collecting another $1005.37 million.
In two weeks, the overseas box office of "Gravity" has reached 202.67 million US dollars, and the global box office has reached 487.36 million US dollars!
In half a month, 487.36 million US dollars, all the commendable box office records in Hollywood have been dwarfed in front of "Gravity", even "Titanic" three years ago, there was no such crazy box office performance.
Many media outlets have even begun to predict whether "Gravity" will be able to break the $2.23 billion global box office created by "Titanic" and become the all-time champion of the global box office charts.
In the face of the madness of Gravity, no one at this time questioned the commercial prospects of 3D and IMAX films.
As a result, although the end of the year is approaching, a large number of production company executives, theater company managers, and even low-level film projection equipment suppliers in North America and overseas have begun to gather in Los Angeles to try to get a piece of this new film industry revolution.
However, when the entire film industry began to pay more attention to 3D and IMAX movies than ever before, many people gradually realized that Firefly Group has taken the absolute lead in this industrial transformation from the bottom projection equipment to the terminal cinema line.
Burbank.
In a screening room at Warner Studios, more than a dozen executives from Warner, Universal, Paramount and other companies in the industry are watching a 3D film.
The sample film is a special effects clip of less than three minutes taken from Universal's "The Mummy 2", which was converted from the 3D team of Light and Shadow Times, and the projection equipment was also purchased and assembled by Light and Shadow Times, which is also a dual-camera polarized 3D.
However, when the sample film was played, the lights in the screening hall were turned on, and the faces of several bigwigs surrounded by the crowd in the center almost showed expressionless expressions, and the atmosphere around them was quite depressing.
Polarized 3D movies are indeed not too difficult technology, as early as 1922, there have been people in the industry to make related technical attempts.
But just like a five-star chef and an ordinary person who can't cook at all to deal with the same ingredients, the result will only be very different, compared with the visual effect presented by the Firefly Group's reald technology, the three-minute sample just now can only be described as garbage.
Richard Parsons took off the 3D eye in front of him and helped the myopic glasses that had just been put on them, although he only wore them for three minutes, this time he was really uncomfortable.
Recalling that when he and Michael Eisner went to watch the screening of "Gravity" a month ago, the 3D glasses with fine workmanship and very friendly to the myopic crowd, Richard Parsons already knew in his heart that the Firefly Group had thrown them too far away.
The crowd was silent for a moment, and Richard Parsons, as the host, was the first to speak, waving his hand to signal the inconsequential people around him to go out.
Soon, only a handful of people were left in the screening room, including Michael Eisner, Tom Fromton, and Carol Butz, the female CEO of Autodesk Software.
After a few glances at the remaining people, Michael Eisner was obviously a little absent-minded, Tom Forreston seemed to be thinking about something, Richard Parsons turned to Carol Butz, the female CEO of Autodesk Software, and asked the question he was most concerned about, and said: "Ms. Butz, with our current foundation, how long do you think Autodesk will be able to develop a transformation software comparable to the 3D effect of the Firefly Group?"
Carol Butz, a middle-aged woman with short hair and an obvious smart air, replied without hesitation: "If it's just software, Autodesk can do it in six months." But Richard, you have to understand that you're not just dealing with software at all. Firefly Group has created a complete set of 3D film ecosystem, if you can't unite to break through each other's ecological barriers, Hollywood will only have the final say in the Firefly system in the future. ”
After the incident in May, Shirley Lansing was forced to leave, and Tom Foreston, as co-president of Viacom Group, temporarily took over as CEO of Paramount Pictures.
For most of the past six months, Paramount Pictures has not been able to find a suitable CEO for well-known reasons.
From the president of the group to the CEO of the subsidiary, Tom Foreston's authority has actually been weakened a lot. His resentment against the Firefly Group has become deeper and deeper in the past six months.
Hearing Carol Butz's words, Tom Priestton couldn't help but retort: "Although the time lags behind, the resources owned by the Firefly Group are not lacking in the three of us, and I don't think the matter is as serious as you say." ”
Carol Butz listened to Tom Fromton's obviously emotional words and asked rhetorically, "If the Firefly Group now invites Paramount's films to join the ranks of RealD and IMAX sources, will you refuse?"
Tom Fromton hesitated, but shook his head: "No." ”
Carol Butz added: "So, on the other hand, if Warner, Universal, and Paramount jointly launch a new 3D projection system, do you think the four Firefly Systems companies will refuse to provide you with the source of the film?"
Tom Foreston's lips moved, and he didn't reply.
The answer, however, is obvious.
In order to protect the interests of its RealD and IMAX projection systems, Firefly will never provide film sources for any new systems launched by Warner III.
Then, this matter naturally presents an obvious one-sided state.
If the three Warners and even other Hollywood studios want to share the dividends of 3D and IMAX films, they can only succumb to the Firefly system. On the contrary, the Firefly system will never allow a second standard in the industry to compete with 3D and IMAX systems, where it already has a huge advantage.
Carol Butz noticed the expressions of the three men beside her, and suddenly felt a little self-defeating. She wanted to stimulate these Hollywood bigwigs, but she didn't want to completely knock them off.
As the industry's top design and drafting software company, Autodesk's biggest strategic mistake over the years was its refusal to cooperate with Firefly Group to develop CG software.
Due to the initial mistakes, the film and television special effects industry related to CG production, image rendering, and solutions is basically monopolized by the digital field under the Firefly Group.
At that time, the Firefly Group also set up a special Firefly software company to try to commercialize the software in its hands.
Because the market capacity of design and drawing software is limited after all, it is far from being comparable with the daily essential software such as operating systems, even the world's largest graphics software manufacturer such as Autodesk has an annual turnover of less than $2 billion, and the average annual net profit rarely exceeds $500 million.
Firefly Group's film and television special effects software in a single field, if you want to carry out commercial operations, the profit will only be less. But controlling Hollywood's special effects production industry chain can bring huge potential advantages to the firefly system.
As a result, Firefly Group quickly abandoned its original strategy and turned to a relatively closed commercial licensing method, unknowingly controlling most of Hollywood's special effects production, which made the potential benefits of related software far greater than simply selling software for profit.
The final result is that from the amazing "Terminator 2" mercury man to the present, so many years have passed, and Hollywood's best CG special effects movies have basically come from several companies in the Firefly system.
However, now that it has woken up, Oakel definitely does not intend to give up this part of the market easily.
After organizing the language, Carol Butz said to Friston again: "Although the ecological barriers created by the Firefly system are difficult to break, in my opinion, you must do so. Otherwise, Warner, Universal, and Paramount will always have to watch the Firefly system continue to reap the lucrative profits of the Hollywood film industry. As far as I know, the total box office in North America last week was 196 million, but just the movie "Gravity" divided $138 million, accounting for 70%, which is already a very dangerous signal. ”
After Carol Butz finished speaking, Tom Foreston didn't show any of the excited expressions she wanted to see, and if he can be in the position of a senior executive of a big Hollywood company, he will obviously not be the kind of person who is easily moved.
Richard Parsons said: "Ms. Butz, I think let's just talk about what we need to do. ”
Carol Butz said: "It's very simple, first of all, the three of you must give up the momentary gains and losses, and get rid of the influence and control of the firefly system as much as possible. ”
"We've been trying to do that," says Tom Fromon, "otherwise we wouldn't be together today." ”
"But you can do so much more. Just like movie special effects, Autodesk's software is actually very good, if you can completely abandon the technical dependence on the digital field in the future, Autodesk will get more opportunities for technical improvement and optimization, and you can completely get rid of the limitations of the firefly system in terms of special effects.
Richard Parsons interrupted Carol Butz and said, "Ms. Butts, we should be discussing 3D movies today. ”
"It's all the same, isn't it?"
Michael Eisner listened to the discussion, argument, and bargaining of the three, and suddenly had a feeling of unhappiness.
The strength of the Firefly system lies in the absolute control of Eric Williams over the companies within the system.
Even Twentieth Century Fox is almost unreservedly submissive to the interests of the entire Firefly system. In May, Eric Williams announced the closure of Paramount's Blockbuster chain, and Twentieth Century Fox followed up with a statement without hesitation.
But for Warner, Universal and Paramount, it is difficult to truly hold together and compete with the Firefly system.
Several people discussed it all morning, and although they came up with some plans, they couldn't make any decisions in the end. Because Michael Eisner is not the one who can make a decision after all.
After everyone had lunch together, Michael Eisner said goodbye to the group and got into his car.
No sooner had the car left Warner Studios than Michael Eisner called Katzenberg again.
Rather than passing the time with a few seemingly detached allies, it is better to turn to the side that can really bring you benefits.
Katzenberg is not at the Firefly Group headquarters in Burbank, but at Firefly Studios in Preavista.
With the success of 3D and IMAX theaters, Katzenberg has been busy in recent days.
At noon, he had just eaten with Richard Gelford, the head of IMAX, and was walking in the studio with him while talking about business, when Katzenberg received a call from Michael Eisner.
After a brief chat with Michael Eisner and an agreement to have dinner together tomorrow night, Katzenberg said to Richard Gelford beside him: "You can tell those IMAX theater directors that there is definitely no copy of "Gravity", and it is too late to make a 2D-IMAX version now." However, next month, the company can provide them with a 2D-IMAX copy of The Lord of the Rings, but the share must be calculated on the basis of 70% Firefly, which is not negotiable. ”
With the box office explosion of "Gravity", IMAX theaters such as museums and science museums in North America and overseas have also begun to hope to share in this profit.
However, except for the new IMAX theater of the Firefly Group, which can choose to play 2D and 3D formats, most of the other IMAX screens are in 2D form. In addition, many institutions that own IMAX screens are not profit-oriented, and in the original distribution plan, Firefly Group directly chose to exclude this part of IMAX theaters.
But now, because Firefly Group's own IMAX screening theater is completely hard to find, the company has to consider this part of the resources.
Not for "Gravity," of course, but for "The Lord of the Rings," which will be released next month.
Due to the strong box office trend of "Gravity", it is impossible to give up too many 3D and IMAX screening rooms in the short term, and the first part of "The Lord of the Rings", which will be released next month, is facing very serious scheduling problems.