Generally speaking, the most competitive summer schedule is often May and June, and July is obviously a battleground for soldiers since the "Independence Day" unearthed the Independence Day schedule. But relatively speaking, August is always relatively deserted, firstly, because after three months of bombardment, the film market has entered a period of fatigue; The second is that August is the holiday season for most people - the real vacation time, leaving the city, coming to the countryside or the island, away from the hustle and bustle, and enjoying the leisurely time. As a result, August is generally relatively quiet.

Of course, August is always a summer season, and it is still more lively than the other months of the year.

This year's August was a bit unusual, with Victor Hugo's "Sixth Sense" debuting in the first week of August, and four films premiering in North America that same week, three of which had more than 2,200 screenings - in other words, they were even more ferocious than "The Sixth Sense"!

Considering the horror film nature of "The Sixth Sense", even the name "Hugo Lancaster" is difficult to drive more box office markets. The reason is simple, unlike action movies, dramas or comedies, some people just don't like horror movies, and even fear and resist, so they can't go to the cinema anyway.

Don't forget that when Hugo decided to take over the filming of "The Sixth Sense", he almost became the object of ridicule in the United States, and many professionals thought that Hugo was carried away by arrogance. Although the success of "Truman's World" later made people's doubts have been reduced a lot, even in the face of the "supernatural sixth sense", people are cautious and do not dare to make a big statement. But it is undeniable that people are still not optimistic about the prospects of the "supernatural sixth sense".

So, this makes the "Psychic Sixth Sense" seem like a very easy target.

Paramount's "Sky Stealing Game" (The. Thomas。 Crown。 Affair)" invited the popular "James Bond" Pierce Brosnan to star, which was released in the first week of August and was released in 2,500 theaters; Universal's 70 million sci-fi comedy "Mystery. Hoping to replicate the success of "Men in Black", it chose to release it in 2,300 theaters in the first week of August; Warner Bros. launched the animated film "The Iron Giant. Iron。 "Giant)" is undoubtedly the biggest highlight of the week, with a 70 million investment, Jennifer Aniston's voice acting, and the scale of 2,250 theaters, everything looks confident.

In the face of so many challenges, the media believe that "Iron Giant" is the strongest seed choice for this week's championship fight, and although the future of "Psychic Sixth Sense" is worrying, relying on Hugo's appeal, it should have a hard fight with "Sky Stealing Game", after all, Pierce is definitely not an opponent to be underestimated. All of this makes this week's North American box office charts full of highlights.

According to the media's pre-estimates, "Iron Giant" is considered to be capable of delivering 30 million to 35 million premiere box office, while "The Sixth Sense" and "Sky Stealing Game" are expected to be around 2,000 to 23 million at the premiere box office.

This prediction continues the previous style of "Truman's world", although the media is not very optimistic about the prospects of the work, but considering Hugo's appeal, the prediction is still relatively pertinent.

The current record for horror movies at the first time is "Ghost Invasion," which was released two weeks ago -- directed by Jane de Bont -- the director of "The Speed of Life and Death" -- with a $33 million premiere that is currently the best in the genre, and only one horror movie has crossed the $25 million threshold at the first half of the box office -- "Ghostbusters 2" released in 1989 - with a $29 million debut.

At present, the top three box office of horror movies in film history are "Jaws" with $260 million, "Ghostbusters" with $242 million, and "The Exorcist" with $232 million, which are also the only three horror movies that have broken the $200 million threshold at the box office. The three films are from 1975, 1984 and 1973, which shows that the peak of horror movies has long passed.

From this point of view, the media's prediction of the opening box office of "The Sixth Sense" is not only pertinent, but also very forgiving, and this prediction can be in the top five or even the top three of the list of horror film premiere box office records. After many lessons, people always add a little caution when making predictions about Hugo's work, especially when "Truman's World" has just made a glorious history.

However, even in such a context, even in the case of the collective encirclement of three works with a more magnificent screen, no one dared to challenge Hugo's strong momentum. "Sky Stealer", "Mysterio" and "Iron Giant" all avoided August 2 and chose to hold their premieres on a different day, because the lessons of history have clearly taught them: works aside, no one in Hollywood is capable of going head-to-head with Hugo when it comes to the premiere of a movie, not even Steven Spielberg.

As a result, on August 2, only one work in the United States, "The Sixth Sense", held a premiere ceremony!

Nearly 400 journalists from more than 180 media outlets surrounded the center. At the entrance of the National Theater, such a grand occasion almost made people return to Dorothy Chandler Hall on the night of the Oscars, even when the world premiere of "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was held, the scale of the scene was staggering.

Many fans who participated in the movie premiere for the first time were even more dumbfounded, looking at the grand scene in front of them in disbelief, unable to make any effective reaction at all. This parched the mouths of the other three productions, which premiered this week, and although they had been trying to convince themselves that "the premiere relied on Hugo's appeal, which was not directly related to the work", they still could not contain their inner tension and worry.

In fact, even the reporters who came to the scene couldn't help but be amazed, this is the "sixth sense of supernatural", not the "Star Wars prequel", but the lively scene at the scene is not inferior, this is also the first time they really feel the attraction of Hugo.

Nicholas McKenna walked briskly to the end of the red carpet and looked for his assistant in the crowd, "Hey, Nick, any news?" Nicholas greeted with a smile when he saw someone on his right, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and shook his head, "I don't have any news." ”

After speaking, he continued to walk forward quickly, but before he could take three steps, two more people came over in a group, "Nick, you actually asked the assistant to come over first, and you were late, is there any inside story?" Nicholas could only smile wryly again and shook his head, "I'd like to have an exclusive, but won't the answer be revealed when he shows up later?" Nicholas gestured to the two men and proceeded.

In the crowd, he finally saw his assistant, standing next to him was James Rattle, a reporter for "American Weekly", Nicholas quickly greeted him, and quickly explained, "Quick, set up my camera, in ten minutes at most, they will be on the scene." ”

Without any stopping, everyone started to get busy. After being busy, Nicholas began to point at the camera, observing the light and environment of the scene, and the assistant standing next to him looked at James and then at Nicholas, and finally couldn't help it, "Nick, is there any news?" ”

Nicholas glanced at his assistant speechlessly, "This is the twenty-first person who has asked me the same question since I arrived at the scene. The assistant laughed embarrassedly, but the expectant gaze still did not waver, Nicholas opened his mouth, but found that James next to him actually leaned over, and a wave of helplessness came up, "I don't have any news, Joe doesn't answer the phone, and Samora doesn't answer the phone, so don't ask me again." ”

The assistant was inexperienced, and his face was full of disappointment, while James chuckled, "I don't think Hugo's personality should have deliberately avoided it, because he knew that we would definitely not let him go." ”

"So what if he's worried that we're blurring the focus, not focusing on the movies, but about the lace news, deliberately going against us?" Nicholas's rhetorical question made James choke, and his face was full of helplessness.

Everyone is concerned about the same question: Will Hugo appear on the red carpet with Charlize today? This is the first public event after the two people have established a relationship, and people are looking forward to the release of "Beautiful Mind", and the two will definitely appear together, but now that "The Sixth Sense of the Spirit" is the first to appear, naturally no one wants to miss it.

This is one of the important reasons why the news media who arrived at the scene today are so exaggerated, and the closer the red carpet time for the premiere is getting closer, everyone is getting more and more anxious. Just as James and Nicholas guessed, almost everyone tried to guess Hugo's thoughts, and even though everyone knew that Hugo would reveal the answer on the red carpet in a while, there was still no way to control their excitement and excitement.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the end of the red carpet, and both Nicholas and James looked towards the end of the red carpet. At this time, the premiere had not officially begun, and their first reaction was that producer Katherine Kennedy or M. Knight Shyamalan appeared on the red carpet, which was considered a warm-up for the red carpet, but they didn't expect that when they turned their heads, they saw a black extended limousine parked at the beginning of the red carpet.

Without waiting for everyone to continue speculating, the air at the scene suddenly condensed, and then reached the boiling point in an instant, bursting with amazing energy like a stormy wave, and the roars of more than a thousand fans in the audience tore a black hole in the entire sky, and the endless crimson sunset poured down, like a milky way waterfall, roaring.

It was Hugo who appeared! And also...... Charlize!