North American box office for a week

June 25-July 1, 2004 -

Movies - Ranking - Number of Weeks - Number of Theaters / Change - Average - Box Office of the Week - Total Box Office -

1st place - 0 (2 days) - 4,152 - 15,476 - 64,255,524 - 64,255,524-

11th place - week 5 - 1089 (+36) - 7,281 - 7,929,009 - 26,414,017-

18th place - week 3 - 73 (+55) - 9,124 - 666,048 - 1,231,151

......

On July 4th, Independence Day, one of the most solemn holidays in the United States, Ye Wei's family went out for a day, very happy, with the current box office table, their family has no financial difficulties, and the standard of living will only get better and better.

The surprise at the box office continues, with 30 million and 40 million, although it is not as good as the number of the opening two days of a super blockbuster, it is already a huge miracle.

Now ifc and Pretong have some regrets, if they had paid more attention to this release, they would definitely have better results, but now they can only remedy how much.

Ye Wei had dinner with Michael Arndt two days ago and talked a lot, he is not the kind of director who hates to sit with screenwriters, and Arndt is not the kind of screenwriter who likes to point out the country, so the two talked very happily.

When Ye Wei talked about that he was looking for a second producer, Arndt recommended two people, Ron Yexa and Albert Berger, the earliest buyer of the script and the original repurchaser.

As early as not long after buying the script, Ye Wei knew that they were not nobodies, the two have been working together in independent films for many years, and they have partnered with the production company "Bona-Fide-Produs", produced and invested, they are all part of the producer list, and have worked with famous directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Alexander Payne, Anthony Minghella, etc., have been to Cannes, to the Oscars, they are well-known independent producers.

There was no doubt about their professional ability, but Ye Wei had other concerns.

"Michael, you know, with their financial resources, they didn't match at that time, not without 500,000, it's that they lost faith in the project. ”

"I know, they haven't actually put it down, and recently asked me to help get in touch, hoping to have an interview with you. ”

Arndt strongly recommends it, and Ye Wei is also a little moved, but first of all, there is a question, are the two of them members of David Linde's gang? You must know that what they are making (with a budget of 16 million) is a project in cooperation with Focus, which is scheduled to be released at the end of next year.

The good news is that when he asked Shams, the two were not members of the "Linde Gang", because they were not minions themselves, and they had relationships with companies such as Miramax, Fox Searchlight, and New Line, and it was just an ordinary cooperation. It's no wonder that during the previous script war, Focus was willing to help scare the two, and it was troublesome to fall into the hands of other companies.

And this is another concern of him, Yexa and Berger are too "luxurious", both of them are in their 50s, with such deep qualifications, they may not be suitable for him.

"They're one of the best A-level independent producers to work with young directors," Shams said. ”

Indeed, 1993 was Soderbergh's third film, when he was a 30-year-old prodigy who had just become famous, Payne's second film after becoming famous, and his debut films with two young directors, Rick Famuiwa and Sam Jones, were not successful.

Now Ye Wei has a famous work, which is the second work, and again, it is naturally favored by the two old guys.

After Independence Day, on the 5th, Ye Wei had an interview with the two, and when the meeting ended, he still couldn't make up his mind.

The two are very enthusiastic and talkative, very good at understanding young people, and very good at controlling young people, one will say "our plan", and the other will say "the production is handed over to us, you will do your best to create", the words are very good, but they are seizing power.

Ye Wei was happy to hear it at first, feeling that he had found it, but suddenly thinking of this, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, the first producer is me!

These two old foxes can make a young director happily hand over power off the set, or even meddle on the set?

The fact is that he is not qualified to direct them at all, and with the old skills and senior experience of the two, they will become the mentors of the crew.

Now that you have a falling out, you can shoot two at any time, and if you sign a contract, you can't do it when the filming period comes, what should you do when there is a creative disagreement? Why doesn't a 16-year-old kid listen?

It doesn't matter what the offline members think, but what about executive producer Gary Gonzman, and what if there were superstar actors like Roberts and Hanks? What would they think, what would they say?

Superstar awkwardness is another situation, and as long as it's working with a superstar, any producer and director has to deal with that situation.

But what's the point of the producer's partner messing with you, these are two producers who are not controlled, not only will they carry out his intentions, but they will also do a lot of other things, and even put a producer's brand on the film that is deeper than the director's brand.

Ye Wei can't like this, he has to be the boss from beginning to end, but he understands that making movies is a kind of collaborative creation, and you can't find some incompetent people to cooperate because you are worried about being divided from power, so you can't get good advice, and it will not be beneficial to the work.

The power relations in the film production are really a complex thing.

did not make a decision on the spot, and that night Ye Wei called Li An, who was filming in Canada, to ask for some advice.

"Do you know why Shams and I have been working together for so many years?"

Hearing Li An's meaningful rhetorical question, Ye Wei was stunned, because you are partners in the cabinet? It turns out that he wants to be crooked, Li An replied to himself: "I hate not to hire people who worked with last time." I used to say how grateful I was to them, and I was going to make a new film, but I didn't use them anymore, which is probably the thing I hate the most. ”

Ye Wei suddenly had a lot of new feelings and thoughts, "An, thank you for the reminder, I know what to do." ”

Because Ang Li was very busy, he was about to say goodbye after chatting a few words, but Ye Wei suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Wait, I heard that you almost worked with Julia Roberts back then?"

It was a phone call two days ago that Emma said and she found it amused, saying "our collaboration is like a 'finally'. ”

"Oh yes, it was during the six years when I was out of work after graduating from NYU, when I was working on a bloody thriller with a budget of 2 million and invited Julia Roberts to play it, and I almost started to start pre-production, and the producer and distributor suddenly couldn't negotiate it, and it still didn't work. Later, she went to act on that schedule. ”

Ye Wei is also very interesting, sometimes history is so funny, think about what would happen if that film was made back then?

First of all, although a number of well-known actresses refused to play the heroine "Vivian" because she was a prostitute-girl, Julia Roberts, who was still a small role at the time, would not be "Vivian", she would be the heroine of Ang Lee's feature film debut, and another actress played "Vivian", so it was a smash hit.

Then, Ang Lee makes a bloody thriller! He really can't imagine what it will be like, the world has missed a master of horror?

That film may or may not have made Ang Lee and Roberts a success. But they still managed to make a career.

The good news is that Roberts does not reject working with Chinese directors, Ang Lee was just a star student in his 30s who had not proven himself, but she dared to trust Ang Lee at a critical period of her career (just because she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and became famous), and she had a good eye and would trust anyone who was talented.

But it was 22-year-old Roberts, so Ye Wei didn't ask Li An to have any experience in dealing with Roberts, it was useless, at that time and now Roberts were two people.

"Ann, if you have any connection with Roberts, please give me a few more compliments. ”

"Hehe, we don't have contact. ”

"Uh-ok, it's nothing, thanks. ”

......

The next day, Ye Wei gave Yexa and Berger a "no" reply, on the grounds that the positioning of the right was inconsistent, and the partner had already been decided.

Didn't sue them, Peter-Heller!

Yes, as an independent producer, Peter Heller is far from the level of two old guys in terms of industry status, ability and experience, and has almost been killed, but he is not a waste. In the production process of the remake, he showed excellent ability and diligence, otherwise he would not have been the second producer of a 30 million cost film.

And they have had a happy cooperation, Ye Wei's intentions and wants, Heller can always do it faithfully and efficiently, which is the ability he values most as the second producer.

It's not enough to have one Hele, you need someone who can say something useful to the producer, and the production team needs more people.

So Ye Wei also determined the candidate for the third producer, recommended by Shams, Mark-Foligno (Mark-Foligno)!

Foligno is a British producer in his early thirties, a newcomer in the industry, and has only worked as a planning and producer of a small-budget thriller, and after the film was directly introduced to the disc market, the evaluation was not high, and it only scored 6 on IMDB.

But after Ye Wei communicated with him, he found that he actually had a lot of ideas, his talent could just make up for Hele's shortcomings, and Heeller's execution ability could also make up for his immaturity.

And because Foinho is just a "Brit with no qualifications" in the film industry, there is no problem with power.

There's no right or wrong to create conflict, it's like putting a bunch of superheroes together, and now they're going to deal with a bad guy, they're definitely going to have different methods, Batman wants this, Iron Man wants that, and then Superman comes in, and he can fight so much that he can break through the earth.

Unlike the military, police stations, courts and other institutions with a clear hierarchy, the hierarchy and order of the film industry are easily chaotic, and big-name actors dare to say to the director, "I think it's right to act like this, you either accept it, or I won't act", what can the director do? When it comes to post-editing, the producer says, "You can't cut it like this, we want business!" What can the director do?

During the production process, the producer said to the producer, "Most of you will lose money if you shoot like this, let's lose less, minus 10 days from the shooting date!", what can the producer do? The producer told the director again, and the director was half angry and left, "This can't be filmed, I won't shoot, don't sign my name!"

In collaborative creation, everyone can have different opinions, and when there is a dispute, there is only one thing that determines the outcome of the battle: power.

This is a common face no matter whether you make a film at school, make a film in Hollywood, or shoot anywhere.

But now, in this production team, Ye Wei is the absolute boss.

But it's not that he doesn't have a boss, like executive producer Gary Gozman, maybe Hanks will also have the title of executive producer, if Roberts joins, he will probably have an executive-producer, they can all be bosses, but they are not very in charge.

There's also the title of associate-producer who buys hearts, and James Shams has already booked one.

Ye Wei asked Master Jiya if she wanted one, and she said with disdain: "Even if this is the case, I won't be your Xiaomi's, let's die." ”

The main thing to do is the three of them, and if they are nominated for Best Picture in any award in the future, they are the three who can sign "the dominant production activity".

......

"You say, you are serious? Weige, you really choose me!?"

After Peter Heller received Ye Wei's call, he was shocked, completely unexpected, a good thing suddenly fell on his head! Unbelievable, there are too many producers who want to cooperate with viy now, and there is definitely no shortage of first-class producers in the team, viy actually chose him! What is the reason!?

"It's you, man, I've figured it out, the equipment is new, and the partner is old. This is a common opportunity for us to prove that we are capable of more than that!"

"Thank you! I will, I will......" Heller asked with a flash of excitement, "Do I have a chance to take a stake?"

He also has a production company, "Heller-Highwater-Produs", which he has participated in before, but they have all been bought and sold at a loss, and his lack of equity participation is his eternal pain, largely because he has not fought for it, thinking that it is just a DVD movie that he has made, and that it is correct not to participate in it, and this is the mistake of his life. He didn't want to do it again.

"There's a chance. Ye Wei smiled and said that using shares as the producer's production fee is a regular practice of independent filmmaking, which saves money and allows producers to work hard, "Specifically, we have to communicate with Pretong and DreamWorks, and I think you can participate in 3%-5% of the shares." ”

"Okay, okay. After hanging up the phone, the middle-aged man couldn't help but shout out, lucky!!

You have to inform Maurer immediately, listen to Weige's tone, the photography team is likely to continue to use the team!

It would be a fool to bury this opportunity because of other film offers.

......

Marc Foligno was also stunned by the sudden flying of the lucky pie, it was incredible, one moment he was just one of the four co-producers of the new project (300,000 pounds budget), and the next moment he became the third producer of the new film of the prodigy!

Although it is still early to sign the contract and may be exchanged at any time, what a rare opportunity to show off your talents!

On the other hand, Gonzman understood Ye Wei's intention of choosing an old partner + newcomer, and he sighed at his sophistication and expressed his support for it. VIY's golden phoenix is worthy of being trusted, and he is not an idler himself, he can directly serve as a producer if necessary, and he doesn't need others to lead the way for VIY.

I didn't take office before because I lacked confidence in Ye Wei, and I had a new project to cooperate with IMAX Company, and I was in the post-production system, so I didn't want to be too busy, and now I'm a little embarrassed, let's take a look.

Some were happy, others were depressed, and Jeksa and Berger couldn't understand why the kid had decided to do that!

"Ron, did we say something wrong? He looks so happy!"

"I don't know, that kid must be worried that we will take over the project, and now the young people are getting better and better. ”

"It's not the young man now, it's him, from the time he buys back the script to this time, he has played us again and again, cunning boy! Hey, do we still want to continue lobbying?"

"Forget it, such a power-hungry and self-proclaimed smart person, it's not interesting to cooperate with him, and the script is actually not so good, forget it. Let's focus on doing well, they're the point. ”

"I'm very interested in what kind of producer he will find, not even us, I hope he won't regret it, hey!"

"We've given him a chance, forget it. ”

......

The production team has finally made a preliminary decision, it has really made a lot of progress, Ye Wei is in a good mood, this night another person came to the landmark cinema to watch a movie, I have seen it a few days ago, the sister chapter of the classic romance film in 1995.

As soon as he sat down in a position in the middle of the theater, the audience was quite full, and he suddenly received a familiar text message: "What are you doing?"

Ye Wei was a little speechless, and he was a little used to it, so he replied to Christine casually: "Watch a movie." ”

"What movie?"

“。 ”

"Is it pretty?"

"If you bother again, it won't look good, and if you don't bother, it will look good. ”