On Saturday morning, as the sun had just climbed above the horizon and the desert-built city of Las Vegas was feeling hot, Ed Mintz left the golf course and walked slowly to his villa on a manor house on the outskirts of the city.

As he grew older, he gradually decentralised the company, rarely intervening directly in CinemaScore's operations, except for routine briefings every weekend.

Walking into the villa, Ed Mintz took the towel handed by the servant, wiped his hands, and entered the living room.

On the sofa in the living room, a young man was sitting, and when he saw Ed Mintz, he quickly stood up, and Ed Mintz waved his hand, "Arthur, come here." ”

"Yes," said Arthur respectfully, "Mr. Mintz, I bring you the latest statistics from yesterday. ”

"You go to the restaurant first, feel free," Ed Mintz walked upstairs, "I'll go change my clothes and listen to your data later." ”

Ten minutes later, Ed Mintz, who had finished his clothes, was sitting in the dining room of the villa, with a simple breakfast in front of him, and a young man named Arthur was standing opposite him.

Ed Mintz cut a slice of sausage, stuffed it in his mouth, swallowed it, and said, "Tell me, what surprises were there at the North American Film Market yesterday?" ”

Although the traditional summer season in North America will kick off next weekend, and there will be super blockbusters such as "X-Men 2" released, the North American film market this week should not be underestimated, and a "Sin City" with an investment of $40 million has been widely concerned by the industry because of the super high reputation obtained during the previous test screening.

and Joe Schumacher's new film "Sniper Phone Booth", also released this weekend, after the director brought the "Batman" series into a dead end, his career was almost finished, and he had to turn to independent small productions.

"Yesterday, there were only two films that opened on a large scale, Sin City, directed by Murphy Stanton, in 2,850 theaters, and Joe Schumacher's new film "Sniper Phone Booth", which was directed in 2,418 theaters......"

Speaking of this, the young Arthur looked down at the information in his hand, "The audience reputation and professional reputation of the two films are good. ”

Arthur knows Ed Mintz's habits, "Other important stats available so far are 73 percent Rotten Tomatoes freshness on Sniper Phone Booth with an average IMDB score of 7.6, while Sin City is a bit better, with 84 percent freshness on Rotten Tomatoes and an average IMDB score of 8.8. ”

"Hmm......" Ed Mintz nodded slightly, not surprised by such data, "what about our stats?" ”

Unlike some of the biggest studios, CinemaScore's surveys are conducted immediately after the audience has seen a film's screening, and the final box office predictions based on these audience word-of-mouth have always shown surprising accuracy.

"After the premiere and advance screening the day before yesterday, the audience's overall rating of "Sin City" was A+, and "Sniper Phone Booth" was A." Arthur coughed lightly, cleared his throat that was a little itchy, and continued, "With the expanded screening yesterday, the on-site evaluation of both films has declined, the overall rating of "Sin City" is close to A, and "Sniper Phone Booth" has reached A. ”

With that, Arthur also put a document in front of Ed Mintz.

While flipping through the materials, Ed Mintz asked, "What about the box office performance?" ”

"Counting the early screening," Arthur replied quickly, "Sin City grossed $14.55 million on its first day, and the audience of the two films overlapped to a certain extent, and the relatively poor reputation of "Sniper Phone Booth" took a hit, earning only $4.27 million on the first day. ”

Hearing these box office figures, and looking through the detailed information of the company's survey statistics, as a film market forecaster with many years of work experience, Ed Mintz immediately made his own judgment, "The audience score of "Sin City" has dropped a little faster, the audience of the film is narrow, and if the North American box office wants to get 100 million US dollars, Miramax and Harvey Weinstein must think of some ways in terms of publicity and marketing. ”

Arthur, who was standing opposite, magically took out a pen and a small notebook from his coat pocket, and recorded Ed Mintz's words accurately.

"Joe Schumacher......" Ed Mintz shook his head, "two R-rated films suffered in the same weekend, which can only be described as his misfortune, and the North American box office of "Sniper Phone Booth" was about $40 million. ”

He sighed softly, Joe Schumacher was also a very talented director, but unfortunately it was both Bruce Wayne's misfortune and his own misfortune to meet "Batman", he ruined the series, and the series dragged him down.

Compared with the aging Joe Schumacher, Murphy Stanton is definitely a rising star in the directorial world, with a very personal shooting and production style that makes him stand out in today's heavily homogeneous Hollywood; On the basis of his personal style, he appropriately integrates Hollywood blockbuster elements to ensure the market value of his films, and will not be marginalized by the market because his style is too unique.

The most important thing is his age, he is only twenty-three years old this year, far from entering the creative boom of a director, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is still in the starting and groping stage of a director, but at this stage he has walked quite steadily, completely step by step, laying a solid foundation for the future.

If he was older, more mature in his production concept and style, and transferred to the mainstream film industry, what kind of achievements would he create?

Ed Mintz can't wait to see what a promising future this young director has!

While Sin City and Sniper Phone Booth didn't form a tight rivalry this weekend, Ed Mintz was completely on the former, Joe Schumacher was on the decline, and Murphy Stanton was on a meteoric rise, and the two were not comparable at all.

However, there are many problems that Murphy Stanton wants to solve if he wants to truly become a first-line director, such as the audience range of his films and style has always been a problem, and he wants to really step into the ranks of super directors, rather than like Quentin Tarantino, the audience of the film can never be ignored.

Just like Ed Mintz thought, whether it was the previous "Terror Planet" or the current "Sin City", it is definitely not a popular film, Murphy himself knows this, but he has studied this type of film the most, and he can find the most suitable film at this stage, which is also "Sin City", with his previous qualifications, it is extremely difficult for people to invest more than 50 million dollars in production costs.

Rather than taking too big a step and triggering a series of negative effects, it is better to move forward one step at a time.

The summer season is about to begin, and most fans are poised to save up money and energy for the release of a super-blockbuster like X-Men 2, and the relatively small number of audiences entering theaters this weekend has to do with both the imminent hot summer season and the style of Sin City itself.

The media and film critics have given the film super high ratings, and Roger Albert even gave two thumbs up, which can attract a considerable number of passers-by into the theater to a certain extent, but this does not change the fact that most mainstream audiences have difficulty accepting the film.

"Sin City" got a pretty good box office result on Friday, but the data from Miramax's statistics quickly spread to Murphy, according to the statistics obtained by several research agencies hired, the audience who walked into the theater to watch the film on Thursday and Friday was mainly fans of comics, Murphy's fans and supporters of Robert Downey Jr., James Franco, Jessica Simpson and Jessica Alba, accounting for nearly 70% of the audience.

Murphy is well aware that, broadly speaking, Sin City is not only a typical genre film, but can even be classified as a fan movie.

North American fan movies in this era are not a thing of the past, and Sin City's R-rated rating also determines that it is unlikely to be the typical teen fan movie of the future "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games".

In the North American summer season, under normal circumstances, a mainstream commercial masterpiece with a new release, non-fan orientation and sequel, because Friday is still a working day, often the second day of release, Saturday, will become the highest single day at the box office, but "Sin City" is not in this ranks.

Since Saturday morning, the 2,850 theaters showing "Sin City" have all seen their attendance drop to varying degrees, but fortunately, the decline has decreased, at least better than "Sniper Phone Booth," which was released the same weekend.

Joe Schumacher's film, which Murphy has also seen, is indeed quite good, but the film is ill-fated, the original release date was set for November 2002, but at that time, the sniper tragedies in Washington and Maryland were one after another, the public reaction was extremely strong, and the risk of the film's release increased exponentially, and Twentieth Century Fox had to move to this year.

This is definitely a typical case of the film being affected by the social environment in which it is located, and the schedule collides with "Sin City", which also makes the road to the release of this ill-fated film even more bumpy.

But the North American film market is like this, there are so many films that enter theaters every year, and if you don't encounter this one, you will encounter another, which is an extremely competitive market.

Affected by the impact of "Sin City", which is also an R-rated film, and the audience reputation of "Sniper Phone Booth" is not particularly prominent, the box office on Saturday inevitably declined, and only received more than $3.6 million on the day.

Because the first day consumed a relatively large number of fans, "Sin City" also lost its output on Saturday, but the media, film critics and audience reputation were relatively strong, and the decline was not large, at $12.15 million.

On Sunday, because the next day was a weekday, the evening box office would be affected by tomorrow, and the single-day box office of both films fell again, and as the new week arrived, the morale of CAA, which provided the packaging service for "Sin City", soared. (To be continued.) )