Nicholas McLaen has had a headache lately, because "The Seven Deadly Sins" is about to be released, he is a little unclear about the plans of New Line Films, and he is a little unsure about the direction of the report.

Last year, "Vulgar" was released in October, creating countless miracles, and the reason why it caused so many exclamation points is because the autumn file is the most depressed schedule of the year. Since the summer season has just ended in August, the market has been over-consumed, and the film market has been accumulating strength for the holiday season for the next nearly three months, so the entire autumn season is sluggish, especially in September.

Compared with October, September is even more of a chicken rib, because immediately after the summer file, the audience is already in a relatively tired state after three months of summer file, not to mention, the wonderful works of the summer file are endless, and the major production companies have also consumed most of their energy. So in September, on the one hand, the film company did not launch good works, and on the other hand, the audience's appetite was nourished by the summer file, and the film market for the whole month was almost invisible throughout the year.

Of the twelve months of the year, January and September are always the lowest at the box office.

So far, among the films released in September, the highest-grossing premiere is "Freddy's" released on September 13, 1991. dead:the。 final。 nightmare)" and its box office record was just $12.96 million.

This shows the depression and slump in September, and in many cases, the number of weekend box office winners in September was only five million, and such a bleak number was even worse than in January.

New Line Films has scheduled the release of "Seven Deadly Sins" in September, although there are not enough competitors to put pressure on it at this time, which is a big positive; But the sluggishness and emptiness of the market simply could not pull the box office. In this way, the "Seven Deadly Sins" seem destined to become cannon fodder.

But the problem is that New Line Films' actions are not like this. "Seven Deadly Sins" invested $30 million, was scheduled to be released in 2,500 theaters, and also set a grand premiere, not to mention the attention brought by the movie cast. Judging from these series, New Line Film Company still has ambitions, hoping that "Seven Deadly Sins" will achieve good results.

What's more, no one can ignore the most important factor: Hugo! Including "Before Sunrise", Hugo has confirmed his absolute dominance now with box office numbers again and again, but the problem is that this time Hugo appears as a supporting role, and it is really ambiguous that Hugo's ability can play several levels. Ambiguous issues.

The confrontation between Hugo and Brad has been hyped by the media since the confrontation between "Schindler's List" and "Farewell to Lovers" the year before, and this time is different from any previous confrontation, this is an acting duel between two actors on the same stage in the same work.

Compared with the previous confrontation, what the platform of "Seven Deadly Sins" shows is the acting skills and depth of the two actors, or the contribution value of the two actors to the connotation and wonderful Cheng dù, this face-to-face competition will undoubtedly increase the expectations of the movie. Like the "Night Vampire" at the end of last year, the discussion about Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt hasn't gone away.

In such a situation, the box office trend of the "Seven Deadly Sins" suddenly became blurred, so what kind of outlook should everyone make for the box office? Continue to believe in Hugo's box office appeal, or are you constrained by the box office slump in September? This made everyone hesitate.

This is one of the contradictions.

And then there's the question about Hugo. Nicholas was a little unsure about the direction of the story.

In the past 60 days, the aftermath of the Hugo affair has not yet dissipated, and the release of the song "Apologize" has made the uncrowned kings hold back. In this case, there was a disconnect between Nicholas and the news of Endeavour Elite Agency - he knew that this was the result of Rick's deliberate blockade of the news, but in the end he led the "Los Angeles Times" to be on the cusp of the storm, as the media closest to Hugo in the past few years, this time the "Los Angeles Times" failed to stop the spread of the "National Inquirer" gossip in the first place, and was strongly condemned by the public.

In fact, it is conceivable that reporters are bound to have many questions to ask Hugo, because in the whole course of the incident, Hugo did not show up from beginning to end, did not respond positively and did not blame the media, the premiere of "Seven Deadly Sins" will be Hugo's first appearance on a formal occasion in several months, and there are too many things that reporters want to ask, from the "death row walk" to the filming situation, from the details of the accident to Hugo's current situation, from Hugo's views on the whole incident to the deep intention of "apology"...... Even an interview may not be able to cover everything.

But the embarrassing part is that now that reporters are a little cautious in their words and actions, and everyone is afraid of touching landmines, this is not the moment to be reckless, and a little attention will only turn the gun again in the anger that has been diverted to the "National Enquirer" and Anthony Bond Stewart. Therefore, how journalists grasp the scale is another strict question.

This is the second contradiction.

The uncrowned king has always done whatever he wants, regardless of it, and moved forward bravely, but in this special sensitive period, especially once the topic involves Hugo, just like the previous report on Michael Jackson, reporters feel that their hands and feet are restricted, and this feeling is really like a fire, unbearable. What's even more terrifying is that if Hugo launches a counterattack, it will be an absolute nightmare for the uncrowned kings.

Even Nicholas had a headache at this time.

In fact, the first contradiction is relatively less intractable, and the entire media view is clearly divided into two factions.

One is represented by the "New York Post", "Houston Chronicle", and "USA Today", their point of view is very simple, when thriller, suspense, and plot works meet a gloomy September, it can almost be said to be a suicide situation, if the "Seven Deadly Sins" is placed around Halloween, or around February when the audience of suspense and thriller themes is relatively concentrated, then it is still possible to create a good result. But in September, this is really not a suitable reality.

What's more, the "decline theory" put forward by the "New York Post" at the beginning of the year has reappeared, and the downward momentum of Hugo's two consecutive works since "The Speed of Life and Death" has been unstoppable, and the news during the filming of "Death Row Walk" is the best footnote - Hugo has been pressed to the brink of collapse by pressure at this time. Therefore, the "Seven Deadly Sins" is likely to suffer a total collapse, or even a worse box office than "before sunrise" - which would be a ruined result relative to the cost.

The New York Post even said: fortunately, Hugo is only a supporting role.

The other is the supporters represented by the "Los Angeles Times", "New York Times", and "Washington Post", and their views are also very simple, the combination of Hugo with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is indeed worth looking forward to, and the three actors who have good acting skills play against each other, which is even more exciting. Although September is relatively cold, in the absence of competitors, all audiences will go to the cinema for Hugo, but can maximize Hugo's box office appeal, which is the wishful thinking of New Line Films.

Moreover, with the news of the clarification of the crew of "Death Row Walk", the crew of "Seven Deadly Sins" also confirmed the rumor that Hugo experienced a performance bottleneck during filming, indicating that from "Seven Deadly Sins" to "Death Row Walk" This is a series in one go: Hugo is making a breakthrough in acting. Even if some people think that Hugo failed to break through the bottleneck, the "Los Angeles Times" has absolute confidence in Hugo, which is bound to become a major attraction of the movie.

The Los Angeles Times said it was looking forward to seeing Hugo reappear as an eye-catching example in Schindler's List.

However, both the declining and supportive factions are a bit conservative in terms of the final box office forecast, neither side wants to talk to death, both seem a little lacking in confidence, and both agree that the Hugo incident in August may bring about a series of negative effects, which is a negative factor for the box office.

The New York Post believes that the film's opening weekend box office should be around $6 million, and it is no problem to win the weekend box office in a cold schedule like September, and there is a lot of hope for sprinting to the cost line, but it will be very difficult to make a profit.

The Los Angeles Times made a forecast of 13 million at the box office of the film's premiere, believing that the film is very likely to break the current September box office record of "Ghost Street 6", although the long-term box office of the film still depends on the quality of the work, but they expressed confidence in Hugo's vision of choosing the script, believing that the film is very promising to achieve 80 million US dollars at the box office.

It can be seen that after the turmoil in August, the uncrowned kings have temporarily reined in their sharpness, and they are waiting for the opportunity to rise again. The news media have been suppressed, which is an impossible situation, because they are part of society, and all they need now is an opportunity, an opportunity to forget the past and start anew, nothing more.

As for the second contradiction, Nicholas has not sorted out his own thoughts, until the premiere scene, he did not think of what to use when interviewing Hugo for a while. Objectively speaking, this is a problem that almost every uncrowned king needs to face, not only the content of the question, but also the wording of the question must be carefully used, and it is obviously impolite and rude to call it "neurotic" directly like the "National Enquirer", and no one wants to be classified into the "Antonine Party" at this juncture.

Nicholas rubbed his aching temples, the premiere of "The Seven Deadly Sins" was obviously the most difficult interview since he became a reporter, but he didn't have time to think about it anymore, because there was a noise from the far end of the red carpet, no matter who it was, in short, there were crew members arriving on the scene, and he needed to get into combat mode.