Thanks to the gap between the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays, North America ushered in the last peak of movie-watching, "Meet My Father-in-law 2" swept the box office of more than 50 million from Monday to Thursday, and won 41 million again in three days of the weekend, and the cumulative box office came directly to 162 million in just two weeks after its release, as if the pent-up enthusiasm of the previous month was completely released in this week. Even Universal Pictures, which is accustomed to being small and big, is overjoyed by this brilliant achievement.

"Killing with a knife" also rode the box office frenzy at the end of the year, and the box office rebounded by 26% over the weekend, even if it was all on the list, it still attracted a lot of attention.

Among the movie-going craze this week, "National Treasure" and "The Incredibles" have risen by as much as 70 percent, but the box office of both works last week has been below 5 million, and even if the increase is amazing, the actual increase is very limited; In addition, the most outstanding table is the "Flyer" who shines in the awards season, which has risen by 33% at the box office this week, and the shocking "Killing with a Knife" during the holiday season.

Relying on the counterattack of this week's box office, "Killing with a Knife" earned 22 million in three days over the weekend, not only firmly occupying the runner-up position in the box office list in the last week of 2004, but also benefiting from the excellent mid-week performance, the cumulative box office achieved a qualitative leap, rushing to 193 million in one fell swoop!

193 million! This number is really too amazing, although it is still not enough to watch compared to "Meet My Father-in-law 2" and "The Incredibles", but for a thriller crime movie, such an achievement is unprecedented, and even if you want to have a follower, it is extremely difficult.

"Pulp Fiction" was born in 1994 and swept the box office of 100 million and 70 million as an independent film, becoming the first crime film in history to break 100 million at the North American box office, but no one could have imagined that in the following ten years, no work would have reached this height.

Now, "borrowing a knife to kill" has not only reached this height, but also the box office of 200 million is close at hand, and now the discussion is not "can" break through 200 million, there is no doubt that the box office of 200 million will be reached next week; Now the question is where it will end up and whether it will be among the 250 million. Even, can you go further?

Every box office rise of "Killing with a Knife" means the promotion of the historical process, which is even more significant than the importance of breaking the shackles of 300 million at the box office of ordinary works, which is not only the success of a movie, but also the hope that the entire film industry sees - proving that crime films still have strong appeal and have unlimited box office potential.

Things have developed to this point, completely detached from people's expectations of "killing people with a knife", and even developed in an unpredictable direction. Not to mention Paramount, even Lance himself did not expect that the effect of online publicity would be so good, that the head-to-head confrontation of "Ocean's Twelve" would burst out with such strong chemistry, and that the feedback from the film market would be so turbulent. This suddenly reminded Lance of a word: the butterfly effect.

A butterfly in the Amazon could trigger a tornado in Texas two weeks later.

The trajectory of history is changing little by little because of him, and Lance realized this after the advent of the "City of God", which is also his purpose - he must take his destiny into his own hands, change the course of history little by little, and then write his own history. However, the explosive reaction of "borrowing a knife to kill" still brought Lance a huge surprise.

For the second week in a row, "Meet My Father-in-law 2" and "Kill with a Knife" have become the main themes of the box office market, but this week's other film works also have their own good performances.

"The Unfortunate Adventures of Raymond Snick", "The Aviator", and "Fat Abbott" all achieved more than 10 million box office, occupying the remaining three positions in the top five, respectively; "National Treasure", "Spanish Maid", "Polar Express", "Ocean's Twelve" and "Phantom of the Opera" ranked sixth to tenth, respectively.

The only thing worth mentioning is that "Ocean's Twelve" rebounded by 12% at the box office this weekend, earning $5 million, and relying on the mid-week movie-watching boom, the cumulative box office of the movie still managed to cross the 100 million threshold, barely reaching 100 million and 2 million. The cost line of 110 million is still in the range of fire, but the fiasco is irreversible, and it just retains some face - the star-studded cast lineup does look like a joke at this time, but if even the minimum standard line of 100 million has not been passed, it is estimated that George, Brad and others will have to avoid the limelight.

No one compares "12 Arhats" and "Killing with a knife" on the same level, but even if "12 Arhats" are compared to "11 Arhats", the results are disappointing. The $100 million box office in North America can only be regarded as a fig leaf, and George, Brad and others don't want to be unclothed, and the overseas box office is their last hope.

After entering 2005, the box office market in the first week of January fell completely silent, and "Killing with a Knife" suffered the largest decline since its release, and the 40% decline seemed to be a heavy loss, but considering that this is the sixth week of the movie's release, this number is not so terrible; Even so, the 13 million weekend box office helped Shun Lì break through the 200 million threshold, and the cumulative box office reached 211 million.

So far, "Murder with a Knife" has once again written history, becoming the first crime movie in film history to exceed 200 million at the North American box office, filling a big gap in the genre film, and realizing an incredible myth without being favored; At the same time, this achievement has also brought out many records, so that "killing people with a knife" has truly gone down in history.

First of all, this is Tom's first work with a box office exceeding 200 million since "Mission Impossible 2" in 2000, which once again allows people to see the peak style of the No. 1 idol in North America; At the same time, this is Tom's fifth consecutive box office work that has exceeded 100 million, and in the long river of movies, there is only one person who can reach this height, and that is "Tom Cruise" - it is himself, he once set this feat in 1992's "Yihai Xiongfeng" to 1996's "Mr. Sweetheart", and then temporarily interrupted because of "Eyes Wide Opening" and "Magnolia", and now, Tom has set this record again, tying his own highest record, deservedly is the most box office appeal actor in North America after Harrison Ford.

Interestingly, this is also Tom's first work since "Mission Impossible 2", with a salary of less than $20 million. Because, at the beginning of the preparations, the ultimate goal of "killing people with a knife" was not the box office, but ...... The surprise just came and caught people off guard.

Secondly, this is Lance's first work as an actor, although it can't occupy a place in the "actor's debut box office list", but the first work has achieved a box office of 200 million, which is enough for people to see his potential - not to mention, from the beginning, Paramount took a fancy to Lance's appearance advantage, and the acting skills are definitely the icing on the cake. It is conceivable that Lance's identity as an actor will get a lot of attention in the future.

At the same time, this is also the second consecutive work of Lance as a director to break 200 million at the North American box office, from "the day after tomorrow" to "Kill with a knife", Lance has shown his ability to control different types of movies, and his ability to attract money at the box office is even more coveted by major film companies. If you add the three Oscar statuettes of "City of God", even if Lance is the hottest director in North America now, it is definitely not an exaggeration!

Within three years, Lance had completed the triple jump, and the rise curve of Chaos Pictures was unstoppable!

After making history, the pace of "killing people with a knife" has slowed down significantly, and after not having the ability to compete for the North American weekend championship, the growth momentum has gradually slowed down. Even so, thanks to the disturbance of the Golden Globe Awards, Oscars and other award ceremonies, whether it is the "Murder by a Knife" work itself, or Tom and Lance as actors, they have received a lot of attention during the awards season, which makes the box office curve of the work fall back, but it shows a long tail.

After the hustle and bustle of January, the silence of February, the recovery of March, and the decline of April, "Killing with a Knife" was announced offline in the third week of April, and the release curve of the 20 weeks before and after is very long, far exceeding the 14 weeks of "Ocean's Twelve", but compared with the 25-week broadcast cycle of the awards season, it is still slightly shorter, mainly because the outbreak of the work in December is too strong, and it has burned a lot of market potential by leaps and bounds, and the later development space is naturally relatively limited.

In the end, the North American box office of "Killing with a Knife" stayed at 240 million, and unfortunately it was not able to cross 250 million, further creating history, but for a work with an investment of 60 million, for a thriller crime movie, such a result is absolutely amazing, triggering a series of chain reactions.

The first is the acquisition of the rights to "Infernal Affairs", Warner Bros. felt the huge potential of crime films, and struggled to find a suitable script; However, due to the fact that works such as "Troy" and "Ocean's Twelve" were dragged down by weak scripts and their results were terrible, Warner Bros. became much more cautious, and finally they locked in the revival of "Infernal Affairs" of Chinese/Guoxiang/Hong Kong films and bought the adaptation rights. This move has also sparked a lot of discussion.

Not just Warner Bros., but all six major Hollywood studios, with the exception of Universal Pictures, have more or less begun to look at the box office potential of crime films. And all of them are inextricably linked to "killing people with a knife" - is this considered an unintentional insertion of willows and willows?

The strong momentum of "Killing with a Knife" in North America has made Paramount enter the profit stage early, and unlike the "City of God", this time the profit dividend is enough to make Paramount overjoyed, and even the failure of "Raymond Snich's Unfortunate Adventure" is not so bad.

Shortly after entering 2005, Shirley Lansing announced his departure from Paramount, and then Paramount announced that Brad Gray would take over as CEO, and it was a surprise that Brad, who was only 47 years old, had no previous experience running a top production company, but took over the helm of Paramount.

But being young, vibrant, and sharp is exactly what Paramount, a century-old tree, needs. (To be continued.) )