Los Angeles. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

In the affluent neighborhood of Santa Monica in the northern part of the mountainside, although it was late at night, Amy Pascal was still reading the materials of the negotiations with the basic cable company about Rainbow Media.

As a woman, although she gave up her high-paying position at Columbia Pictures to help Drew build Flower Pictures, and thus got the opportunity to take charge of MGM, one of the seven major film companies today, Amy Pascal did not slack off at all. Regardless of the field, it is always more difficult for women in high positions to gain recognition than men, and after all these years, Amy Pascal doesn't care much about other people's eyes, but she still wants to prove to everyone that she is not much worse than any man.

On the other side of the study, Amy Pascal's husband, Bernard Wamlaub, checked the press release he had just finished and looked at the electronic watch on the desktop, which was already a quarter past midnight. Normally, at this time, they should have rested, but he also knew that his wife would have a hard time sleeping if he couldn't wait for the box office data of the first day of "Casino Royale" today, and after hesitating for a moment, he didn't disturb his wife, who was reading carefully, Bernard Wamroub picked up a book from the table and looked through it quietly.

Amy Pascal noticed her husband's movements, looked at her watch, turned her head and said, "Bernie, why don't you go and rest first, I may have to wait a little longer." ”

Bernard Weinlabb shook his head and said with a smile: "No, I actually want to know how much box office Casino Royale can get on the first day." ”

Amy Pascal smiled softly, and without further persuasion, got up and went to the kitchen to make a pot of hot coffee, and poured herself and her husband a cup each.

Bernard Weinlabb picked up the coffee cup, looked at his wife sitting back on the other side, and said: "Judging from today's film review, this should be the live-action movie with the best reputation in the summer file, how much box office do you think it will get?"

Amy Pascal shook her head, when talking about this topic with others, she has always shown confidence, but in the face of her husband, she no longer needs to pretend to be confident, said: "This question is really hard to say, two years ago, "GoldenEye", the word-of-mouth in all aspects also reached about 8 points, but the global box office was only 350 million, mainly because the 007 series was not so popular in the most important North American market. Although the reputation of "Casino Royale" is better this time, and there are many other positive factors, we are not sure whether the audience will buy it. In addition, starting with "The Fifth Element" in May, the successive disappointing low-profile live-action films may also reduce audience interest in "Casino Royale". ”

Bernard Weinlaub, a playwright and film business reporter for The New York Times, listened to his wife's somewhat pessimistic rhetoric, thought for a moment, and said, "I think the truth may be the opposite of what you think." The audience's demand for live-action films is definitely greater than that of animated films. The impact of continuous bad movies will make the market more hungry for high-scoring commercial films. ”

Amy Pascal smiled and said, "I hope the situation will be as you said, but the total investment in the production and promotion of "Casino Royale" is 160 million US dollars, which is equivalent to twice the total investment of "Goldeneye", and the pressure on the company is still very high. If Casino Royale doesn't do well enough at the box office, even if it's just average, some of the subsequent production plans may not go so smoothly. ”

"Oh, it's the Lord of the Rings trilogy you talked about last time, right?"

Amy Pascal nodded, but didn't say anything more, although it was her husband, but it was too detailed for her to reveal it to the other party.

Bernard Weinlaub didn't ask any questions, and casually pulled the subject away.

Unconsciously waited for more than half an hour, Amy Pascal's mobile phone on the desk finally vibrate, she picked up the phone and connected, chatted with the other party, gradually raised her eyebrows, and asked some details repeatedly with some uncertainty.

Bernard Weinlab, who had already heard a set of numbers from his wife's conversation, raised his eyebrows in the same surprise, although he thought that after a series of bad movies in the summer, "Casino Royale" would perform better at the box office than expected, but he still did not expect the first-day box office figures to be so high.

When Amy Pascal hung up, Bernard Wainlaub couldn't wait to ask, "$30.5 million?"

Amy Pascal put her phone back on her desk, exhaled relaxedly, with obvious excitement on her face, and nodded: "Yes, counting the 5.3 million in the midnight show, the first-day box office was $30.5 million, oh my God, $30.5 million, it's unbelievable." I've been thinking that if we can get $20 million on the first day, everyone should be very satisfied. You must know that the box office of the last "Golden Eye" on the first day was only a little over 9 million, oh my God, 30.5 million, incredible. ”

Bernard Weinraub heard his wife sigh incessantly, and did not feel that she had any gaffes, as a film business reporter who was very familiar with Hollywood, Bernard Weinraub's heart was not much less shocked than his wife.

You must know that "Godzilla", which performed best on the first day of the summer file, only had a box office of $23.75 million on the first day with the ultra-high midnight box office data driven by the indiscriminate publicity offensive in the early stage. Even "Finding Nemo", which can be called the biggest dark horse in the summer file, still had a box office of only $20.2 million on the first day.

With its excellent word-of-mouth, "Casino Royale" will certainly not get out of the dismal box office curve of "Godzilla" or "Batman and Robin".

Then, the box office on the first day is $30.5 million, and the box office on Saturday and Sunday will definitely not be much worse than the first day, even if according to the average value of $30 million per day, the box office of "Casino Royale" will reach a high of $90 million in the first weekend, and there is no suspense about breaking 100 million in the first week. Even, "Casino Royale" is sure to set a series of box office records again.

Because this box office data was so unexpected, at the same time that Amy Pascal got the news, many film company executives and newspaper media reporters inside and outside Hollywood were also woken up by the ringing of the phone in the middle of the night.

In the case of a bleak box office of live-action blockbusters in the summer, the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on the first day is undoubtedly a bit dazzling in the eyes of many people, so the next day, there were even a lot of news in the North American media that questioned the box office injection of "Casino Royale" on the first day.

However, reality quickly silenced these media outlets.

After 30.5 million on the first day, on Saturday, the single-day box office of "Casino Royale" not only did not fall, but hit a new high, reaching $33.85 million. The following Sunday, although the box office fell somewhat significantly, the single-day box office was still as high as $26.7 million.

In three days, from June 27 to June 29, "Casino Royale" grossed an unprecedented $91.05 million in its opening weekend. Even, even "Finding Nemo" was hit by "Casino Royale", and the box office fell by 40% in the three days of the third week of its release, receiving only 28.38 million. The box office data of "Batman and Robin" in the second week of release was even more miserable, compared with the first weekend, the box office fell by 63%, and only $15.73 million was collected in the three days of the second weekend, and the cumulative box office in ten days of release was 75.2 million US dollars, which was not even as good as the box office of "Casino Royale" in the first weekend.

When the box office data of "Casino Royale" was announced, the media, which originally had prejudices about the box office data of the film, had to start to put aside doubts in the face of reality and began to analyze the reasons for the super high box office of "Casino Royale" in the first weekend.

"Perhaps, from the very beginning, we far underestimated the commercial potential of the MGM Agent Cinematic Universe. ”

In retrospect, when the new James Bond jumped off a cliff in the first Easter egg of "Breaking Bad," Eric Williams had already begun to lay out the layout for this huge film project. In the subsequent sequels to the "Mission Impossible", "Breaking Bad" and "007" series, MGM has been using easter eggs to make the three spy movies interact, and through this subtle subtlety, the originally unrelated popularity of the three spy series began to gradually merge. Eventually, when MGM officially announced the Agent Cinematic Universe plan, fans of the three major Agent franchises had formed a very large potential movie-going group. ”

Here, we have to mention another seemingly trivial incident that happened in July 1995 when MGM announced the Secret Service Cinematic Universe project, according to the media information during that period, MGM bought out all the rights to the "Ghost Party" from Kevin McGlorey for $2 million. The twists and turns behind this incident go back decades, so let's not mention it for now. However, I'm sure Kevin McGregory will definitely regret this business in the future. ”

"Back to the topic, while buying the copyright of the 'Ghost Party', the three film companies of MGM, Flower Pictures, and DreamWorks Productions merged into one under the control of Eric Williams, and the three major agent series took the 'Ghost Party' as the ultimate villain, starting from "Mission Impossible 2", officially launched the cross-integration plan of the Agent Cinematic Universe. Until the release of "007: Casino Royale", the MGM Agent Cinematic Universe has actually laid a deep foundation of popularity with five movies: "Breaking Badgy 1", "Mission Impossible 1", "007: GoldenEye", "Breaking Bad 2" and "Mission Impossible 2". The explosive box office data of "007: Casino Royale" is the embodiment of the more powerful box office reality of these three spy movie series, which originally had strong box office appeal, after several years of intermingling and merging in popularity. ”

This article in The Hollywood Reporter profoundly analyzes the deep-seated reasons for the high box office of "Casino Royale", and this article makes Hollywood's mind that has not cooled down after being stimulated by the box office of "Titanic" become hot again, and they have begun to search for whether there are blockbuster series in its film rights library that can build a cinematic universe.

Although Firefly's plan to create the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not been officially announced, this news is no secret in the circle, inspired by a producer under Warner Bros. quickly submitted a report to the group's top management on the establishment of the DC Cinematic Universe, but unfortunately, "Batman and Robin" has just experienced a fiasco, and Warner Bros. will not be able to start DC Comic movies in the next few years, and the report written by the producer who stayed up late was directly thrown into the trash by Time Warner executives.

While The Hollywood Reporter analyzed the reasons for the box office of "Casino Royale", when the first week of "Casino Royale" ended, another important Hollywood magazine "Variety" also published its opinions on the super high box office of "Casino Royale" on its official website.

"'Audiences expect good movies, and if studios only have the ambition to catch up with the box office of "Titanic", but do not pay the sincerity of "Titanic", they are doomed. This sentence of Eric Williams when answering reporters' questions at the London premiere of "Casino Royale" is undoubtedly the most authentic commentary on the box office performance of this summer live-action blockbuster. ”

"It is true that when any film company invests tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in a film, it is impossible not to want to make the film well. But as we all know, since the birth of films, the amount of production budget has never been too directly related to the quality of the film, and the ability of screenwriters, actors, directors, producers and other film functional figures has a strong impact on a film. Before "Casino Royale", the other two ambitious films, "Godzilla" and "Batman and Robin", both had a production budget that exceeded "Casino Royale". But among these films, only "Casino Royale" perfectly realizes all the elements that a commercial blockbuster should have, smooth plot, hot scenes, elaborate lines, three-dimensional characters, etc. With Casino Royale, Eric Williams, who is back in charge after a four-year hiatus, is once again a perfect example of his amazing talent as a director and filmmaker. In four years, when we thought that this young man who had relied on films such as "Home Alone", "Ghost Love", "Tornado", "Jurassic Park" and other films step by step to the pinnacle of Hollywood, after accumulating a huge fortune, would retire to enjoy life, relying on the phoenix-like redefinition of a 30-year-old secret agent series, Eric Williams once again showed us what is called the return of the king. ”

"Although both animated films "The Lion King 2" and "Finding Nemo" performed very well at the box office in June, this does not change the market position of live-action films as the mainstream demand of the film public. However, in this summer file, which should be the best schedule for live-action movies, a series of mediocre, shoddy or obscure live-action movies have hit fans' confidence in entering the cinema again and again. According to statistics, from the start of the summer season on May 30 to the release of "Casino Royale", compared with last year, the number of moviegoers in North America in four weeks has dropped by 18%, which is still without excluding the two animated movies "The Lion King 2" and "Finding Nemo". ”

However, although there has been a continuous disappointment with live-action movies in the summer file, as a necessary entertainment activity in people's lives, the demand of movie fans has not disappeared. The emergence of the word-of-mouth "Casino Royale" just filled a large number of market vacancies accumulated in the early part of the summer file. As a result, in the eyes of everyone's surprise and even doubt, "Casino Royale" broke all Hollywood box office records with a terrifying box office of $30.5 million on the first day, $91.05 million on the first weekend, and $117.51 million in the first week. (To be continued.) )