Hollywood Domination Chapter 180: There are different opinions
For the general public, the entertainment industry in 2006 was calm. Compared with last winter's ups and downs, in the spring of 2006, at least so far, everything is on track, whether it's movies, TV, or gossip news Running smoothly, there are no phenomenal events to talk about - there was a phenomenal "The Devil Wears Prada" in the spring of 2005, but this year, the box office of the major movies is tepid, and there is nothing to stir up The public's general attention, the media's interest in discussion, and these movie fans who are looking forward to excellent works are also beginning to look forward to the arrival of the summer file. After the deserted spring file, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", "Ice Age" will be released in the summer 2" these sequels seem to set off the first wave of commercial films this year, bringing wonderful visual spectacle to movie fans, as well as cool pictures that make people excited to talk about.
—Of course, for the gossip crowd, the reason why the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is attractive is also because in the promotional activities for the release, Jennifer and Josh, who have broken up, will definitely meet again. Whether they will announce their reunion for the film, quickly announce their breakup after the promotional period, or find another new love, has also become a topic of their speculation and attention.
Compared to the silent public, the spring of 2006 was actually full of excitement and events for the unknown side of Hollywood. Or maybe the public has gradually gotten used to it now. Anyway, in this incident, Jennifer Jefferson, who attracted national attention last winter and surprised everyone in February, also occupied the A rather important position.
The matter is still related to a big plan that James Cameron is leading. This plan with an investment of up to 500 million US dollars has actually been very famous in the industry for a long time. After all, such a big move cannot be hidden from others. There is no need to hide it from anyone - Cameron is going to make a $500 million special effects project, and the plot is related to aliens. Everyone knows, so what? Even if you want to plagiarize, you have to spend 500 million U.S. dollars to plagiarize, and it is no exaggeration to say that in Hollywood, if anyone can get such a large budget, that person can only be Cameron. His "Titanic" spent an unprecedented 250 million in the 1990s, and it can be said that he opened up the era of blockbuster films by himself. Before this, no one has ever been able to get such a budget to shoot a film, without it, there would be no 200 million cost of the sequel of "Pirates of the Caribbean"-in fact, nearly ten years later, inflation is now more than 200 million. Movies with a cost of 100 million are still very rare in Hollywood.
500 million US dollars, twice as much as "Titanic", sounds really terrible, but before the launch of "Titanic", many people judged that it could not pay back its money at the box office, and even Fox wanted to recover blood. , and sold part of the distribution rights to Paramount - of course they regretted this decision, so the figure of 500 million US dollars can't scare the Big Six, except that the cash flow is tight because they just ate Pixar , and Cameron just had a conflict with Disney, whether it is Time Warner, Fox, Paramount, Sony, or Universal, they are all very interested in this project. However, Fox's performance on the "Titanic" project made Cameron very dissatisfied-the production process of "Titanic" was not smooth, and after many additional budgets, otherwise Fox would not have introduced Pella in the end. Menglai shared the risk. It is conceivable how much pressure Fox put on Cameron before the film was released, so this time, he offered 500 million from the beginning, and gave priority to contacting the extremely enthusiastic Global Contact . Although the other companies are hot-eyed, they can only hover leisurely under the water, patiently waiting for the many contradictions and mistakes that will inevitably arise in such a large project, and looking for opportunities to profit from them.
The opportunity did come. In April, James Cameron announced that "Avatar" had broken away from Universal. He was looking for a new investor. At the same time, the budget of "Avatar" also surged to 540 million: The heroine has been confirmed to be Jennifer Jefferson. With this film, she officially entered the 20 million club, and the male lead will also be a superstar in the 20 million club.
This news is both worrying and gratifying. On the one hand, Jennifer Jefferson's strong luck in the past few years is like a flash bomb. The box office has gained more confidence, but on the other hand, according to the gossip that spreads quickly, Jennifer will not show her true face in the whole film, but will appear in special effects. Concession, that's why I broke up with Cameron-this is like hiring a master chef with a lot of money, and then asking her to make the simplest fried eggs and bacon!
This news, plus the additional 40 million budget, is enough to make the remaining big companies think about it, and the progress of the "Avatar" project has also come to a standstill. For a big project, this is not surprising , the preparatory work for many films before release may even reach five or ten years. Sometimes the technology is immature, sometimes there are differences of opinions at the top, and sometimes investment cannot be found... Of course, the last point is for James Cameron. He said that it is absolutely impossible for him to be short of money. The only problem is who will give the money and how much he will spend—maybe this big-budget director will lower the price on his own after a few months of cold reception. What about adjusting the budget back to 500 million? Perhaps he will lower his dividend rights to attract capital?
While the remaining four big companies have tacitly left Cameron alone to let him "refresh his mind", many small film companies are also secretly joining forces: dozens of hundreds of small companies jointly invested and pooled 500 million Yuan is actually not a difficult task, but this kind of investment has many disadvantages, and there is no advantage in follow-up publicity, so it is difficult to get the favor of big directors, so they must seize the rare window period now and get investment approval as soon as possible. Try to convince Cameron. After all, no one knows which of the remaining Big Four will act first—there are even rumors in the market. It is said that Jennifer Jefferson is trying her best to lobby Disney to take over the plate, while Robert Iger, who has always loved her very much, is already thinking carefully about it. This matter...
In these turbulent undercurrents, the time has entered June, and the promotion of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is getting more and more intensive. Compared with the "simple" promotion of the first premiere 3 years ago, this time, Disney has spent a lot of money on "Pirate 2", the trailer for the Super Bowl final, the spray painting of the bus, the huge advertisement of the landmark building, the creative statue, the pre-campaign interview, the viral marketing, including the network secretly operated by the puppeteer Marketing... These are all publicity methods that cost money to spend, and an insider can tell at a glance. Although they are all produced by Disney, "Pirate 1" is completely picked up children, and "Pirate 2", There is no doubt that it must be Robert Iger's biological child.
Given Jennifer Jefferson's strong traces of Iger, it is not surprising that Disney treats her this way. In the second part, there is also a substantial increase in the number of scenes, and the number of scenes is even close to that of Johnny Depp. She has surpassed Josh Blanche to become the second leading role. Her nickname of "Little Disney Princess" is already extremely stable. However, what kind of box office results will the sequel of "Pirates 2" achieve, and what will be the final word-of-mouth of her performance? Very rarely, before the premiere, all these are still in suspense.
——This is a very rare situation. Generally speaking, the success or failure of a film is basically formed from the moment the final cut version is born. The film studio will invite some authoritative film critics and audiences to attend the external preview After the screening, it is very likely that these opinions will be used to modify the finished film. If it is a director's work without final editing rights, at this time, the film crew may even forcibly edit the film. But in general, the word-of-mouth of the internal screening probably hints at the final quality of the film. Before the release of many big bad movies and blockbusters, people in the industry will know that their performance is unlikely to be too good. Many data analysis agencies The same is true for the first-day estimates.
After the internal preview, "Pirate 1" was the type that was bad-mouthed. Disney's confidence was so low that it arranged a Wednesday schedule, basically admitting that 'this is our blockbuster'-they didn't even A trial screening was held. Before the premiere, no outsiders had seen the finished film of "Pirate". Of course, everyone knew the final result, and the market slapped Disney in the face forcefully. But "Pirate 2" can't be treated like this. There is no shortage of trial screenings and screenings. Visually, more than a dozen film critics and hundreds of audiences have tried it, but their feedback is very polarized. For the plot , Some people think that it is "extremely boring, compared with the previous one, it is the difference between heaven and hell", and some people think that it is "careful and exciting, rich in imagination".
For Jennifer Jefferson's performance, there is also a polarized situation. Film critics have mixed praise and criticism, "Jennifer Jefferson broke through again, and the action scenes are pleasing to the eye", "Jennifer was definitely in that accident She broke her mind in the movie, she shouldn't have taken the sequel at all' - this kind of evaluation makes people feel at a loss, and the audience has different opinions on this. Some people praise it, while others feel that Jennifer's performance is inferior to "The Fifth Sally", which makes the data analysis agency somewhat at a loss as to what to do with this film. Should they raise expectations or lower the forecast numbers? Nobody knows.
In any case, this pro-son enjoys the treatment of the annual masterpiece: simultaneous global release, premieres around the world, and up to 4,000 movie theaters... In order to create momentum for the film, Disney also invited various Fang Xingxing attended the premiere held in Disneyland on June 24. In addition to the main actors, there were Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Bell, Natalie .Portman and the 'Governor' Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny's friend and famous director Tim Burton's family, and...
The jet plane stopped gliding quietly on the private apron, and soon, the gangway was lowered, and Jenny leaned against the side of the limousine, raised her sunglasses, and watched coolly from the cabin. The black-haired man who came out, when Christopher came to her, she stood up straight, "so, should I thank you for flying back to support me?"
"Should I thank you for finding an excuse for me to ask for leave?" Chris hugged Jenny with a smile, and kissed her on the lips, "I miss you so much, how about you?"
"Too busy to think about." Jenny said with a smirk, she opened the car door, "Please, big star."
"Cool," Chris whistled, looking at the gorgeous decorations inside the car, "Is this Perrier-Jouët? Yeah, you really miss me too."
He said affirmatively, got into the car, and poured wine for the two of them. Jenny shook her head with a smile, bent down and ordered to the cab, "Drive slowly."
She also got into the car, closed the door, and the extended Lincoln limousine carefully made a turn, left the airport slowly at a very suitable speed, and drove towards its destination in the scorching sun ——Disneyland in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
At the same time, celebrities in costumes with different mentalities also drove from downtown Los Angeles to this dreamland with rolling castles. Although their desires are different because of their different positions, their curiosity is the same—people's focus is no longer on Johnny Depp, they are thinking about Jennifer Jefferson .
It is said that the Oscar queen is an unfortunate curse. It takes at least a period of memorization to win the award, and even the careers and families of many female stars will be ruined. Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman... unlucky actresses abound in the new millennium, but what about Jennifer Jefferson? Can she survive this curse? Will "Pirates 2" hit the street or be a hit?
Will the magic end, they thought, or will it continue to work miracles? Is Jennifer Jefferson going to another level, or is the best period of her life already behind her and starting her downhill?
This question can only be answered by the market, only the entire United States—no, audiences all over the world.