Hollywood Domination Chapter 284: The Hell schedule of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

"It's so annoying! Why hasn't Christmas come yet!"

In an apartment in Southern California, with a muffled "bang", a pillow was smashed against the wall, the down filling fluttered, and it fell like snowflakes. Harry bent down and picked it up. My own 'love pillow' frowned at this uninvited guest, "Jon, if you want to open your eyes and it's December 24th, you just need to say, you No need to signal me - I'm happy to help you."

"I wish you could knock me out, and it will be a week after I open my eyes," Jon rolled his eyes at Harry, adjusted his posture on the beanbag sofa, and opened his eyes to Harry. Opening his hands, Harry frowned and threw the pillow to her again, "Come on, honey, beat me unconscious with your big stick, use your housekeeping skills, do Don't hold back."

Harry rolled his eyes at her and said gruffly, "Thanks for the pun, ma'am, but your sloppy look doesn't interest me in any way - sexually. Interest, or interest in beating you, you are so decadent now that I feel that beating you is useless, I can even just sweep you out of the door and throw you into the garbage truck."

He turned around and picked up the coffee cup on the coffee table, went back to the computer table and sat down, typing something crackling on the keyboard, Jon turned his back to him and raised a **** in response, "Please, You went to college too, Harry, and a girl should be allowed to relax after exams week."

"When we talk about relaxing, we mean parties, parties, and beach parties." Harry frowns and amends a figure, "Instead of hanging out illegally at a poor programmer's house and drinking up Had his best coffee."

"You should blame the airlines, or the heavy snow in New York—" Jon bickered with Harry with great interest, but she suddenly sighed again, losing the interest in 'teasing' Harry, "Actually Still blame j.j, I'm waiting like crazy, I'm not interested in anything now - honestly, I can't wait, I'm dreaming about "Week with Marilyn"."

"Okay," Harry said slowly, he put down his work, pushed the chair away from the computer, and assumed the posture of chatting, "I know you've been holding back for a long time— Tell me, what makes this movie so special compared to J.J's previous works?"

Jon regained her spirits. She turned over on the lazy sofa, propped her hands, and looked ready to go, but before she spoke, she suddenly said with some hesitation, "But your Work—"

"My colleagues in the company have already started the testrun, and my work has basically been completed." Harry shrugged, "Let's talk, I'm really curious—the last time I paid attention to these lace news, Jennifer I just won the Venice Film Festival."

During the five months from July to December, he has been working overtime for a project of the company. Watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony with Jon.

"Yes, yes." When talking about Jennifer's great achievements in early September, Jon became excited, "The first actress in history to win the Venice reelection, but this is just the beginning of everything. This film almost killed all the film critics in Europe. Montreal and Toronto have all won awards. So far, Jennifer has not lost the crown of best actress. Of course, for us, this awards season is the only one. It's just started, but now everyone is saying that this year's Bafta - the British Oscars must be her, even "Monroe" will get the best film, Venice will give the best film to "The Wrestler", Toronto and Montreal will have one Favored "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and one gave glory to "Monroe", but everyone said that at Salvi's home in the UK, he would definitely win the award for best film, or even best director It's not impossible."

Speaking of the now-famous director, Jon became excited again, she threw the pillow into the air again, and shouted ventingly, "Oh my God, I get emotional when I talk about this-I really don't like it." Understand why the paparazzi are so obsessed with what kind of coffee Britney and Lindsay Lohan drank today, instead of photographing those we are really interested in, since "Monroe" won the award in September, How popular is Salvi on the Internet? His K fan homepage has more than 300,000 followers, but we just can’t see his new photos. I don’t know where he went. Is there any female now? Friends—we don’t know anything at all! We don’t even know what kind of relationship he and j.j are now, and whether they are in love or not.”

"But I saw that you often post po articles about him on your K." Harry took a sip of coffee and said sourly, "If I didn't know you that well, I would almost think that you have completely Falling in love with him, I have left j.j behind."

"Those are all his previous photos, but now they have been dug out again," Jon waved his hand, "In fact, these photos were more or less posted by someone before, but they were published in "Monroe" Afterwards, he became completely popular, and now people say that he will be the next Wes Anderson, the next Patrice Jaap—you don’t know how many praises this movie has received now, from Canada to the UK, from France to Italy, the scans of the newspapers that those netizens put up are unreadable, and I can’t even tell you how many compliments you get for reciting it—you know, it’s actually September, October, from Venice It has been almost four months now, and there has been a new hot spot since then, and now the newspapers are keen to calculate her net worth - they are all calculating how rich she has become after "Twilight" ——"

She shrugged, "Of course, that's very good, but I have to admit to you, Harry, what I want to see most is more information on "Monroe", and with the premiere , Trial screenings are held in various places, and more and more people have watched the movie, which is simply too maddening. Among the audience's movie reviews, I can't watch the ones with spoiler warnings, but I can't watch the ones without spoiler warnings Those, it's even more itchy to watch, almost all of them are wailing how beautiful j.j is, what's the second half of the story is so beautiful,', 'I hope the movie will be released to the public soon, I can't wait to watch a few more Times', these feelings are really annoying!"

As he spoke, he became a little emotional again, and Jon thumped the pillow a few times, "But the most annoying thing is that I am so enthusiastic about participating in the event, but I didn't even get a ticket for a trial screening , this is simply unfair!"

Harry really wanted to ask Jon if he was suffering from PMS syndrome, but he didn't dare—and he was indeed aroused by Jon's statement, so he continued to talk about this topic, "Although J.J seems to never miss a shot, but is this work her most highly rated so far? Hearing you say it like this, almost no film critics have given a bad review?"

"Yes, although the previous literary films were well received, it doesn't mean that there are no controversies," Jon also said that the more he wanted to watch "Monroe", she said angrily "It's like "Michael Clayton", some film critics feel that the plot is dull, and J.J's performance is a bit hysterical—a bit too much. As for "The Fifth Sally", there are also objections that the performance is too much and exaggerated, However, this work is still 100% positive so far. The freshness of the film critics on Rotten Tomatoes is as high as 95%, and the score on imdb is also a super high score of 9.2. They all say that this is the biggest highlight of this year—that sentence How do you say it? 'A panoramic film', I remember that Brad Pitt fans went to the forum to protest, because many people brushed k and r: Fortunately, "Monroe" This year I don’t want to go for the leading actor award, otherwise Brad Pitt would have no chance at all. But I think this sentence is true, you know, I also like Brad, but all I can think about right now is " Monroe" - I really want to go to the cinema to see how beautiful she is -"

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In Jon's eloquent and excited narration, a week seemed to fly by, and soon, Christmas, the most important family festival for Americans in a year, came to the North American continent, and with people all over the country Americans packed their bags and went home for the holidays, and the most important Christmas-New Year schedule at the end of the year is coming as scheduled, igniting the long-awaited passion of movie fans. Usually it’s deserted, and on weekdays morning and afternoon, there’s even a long queue at the gate of the crowded movie theater. No matter how bad the movie is, as long as it catches the right audience, it will have a certain box office. Of course, this year’s Christmas schedule is not Not lonely, in addition to festive movies, romantic movies and other mid-to-low-cost productions that hit the genre film market, there are also award-winning mega-productions with heavyweight stars, all of which are selected at the end of the year, in order to leave readers with more The deepest impression is that this also makes a group of movie box office experts busy around, wishing to grow a pair of arms: from the mid-year film festival to the awards season and nomination season at the end of the year, almost all award-winning blockbusters They have already completed their appearances and public relations. The awards season is here. Although the nominations for several heavyweight awards have not been announced yet, people in the circle actually know the specific situation, and they are the only ones who don't know. It is how the box office performance of these award-winning films will be. This is not a decisive factor for winning an award, but it is also quite important. If the box office performance is very good, it will be a very powerful plus point for competing for awards, so Whether it's the film company, the actors themselves, or even the film critics who are keen to predict the results of the awards, they all set their eyes on this Christmas schedule, wanting to see the film that has been left far behind by "A Week with Monroe". Will "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" reverse the situation a little bit at the box office and catch up a little...

"Give me a copy of "A Week with Marilyn Monroe", thank you." In front of the ticket booth, this voice can be heard constantly, followed by an unbelievable exclamation, "—whatever, all sold out ? But I bought a ticket for the 10 o'clock show tomorrow morning!"

"Yes, sir, all the tickets for tomorrow are sold out," the conductor's polite voice spread apologetically to the waiting area, "Yes, I know that tomorrow is Christmas, and according to common sense, people always I will go home for a reunion instead of going to the movies—however, the tickets are really sold out, and the tickets for the day after tomorrow have not yet gone on sale. If you want, you can come to the theater at noon tomorrow, when we will release the movie tickets, or you can buy them online..."

Taking a sip of Coke happily, Alan Morrison, the film critic of "Empire" magazine, took a somewhat superior look at the crowd queuing up to buy tickets: These audiences can tell at a glance that they are not core movie fans, after all, as long as they are Audiences who like movies will know that if you want to watch Jennifer Jefferson's movie on the first day, you have to buy tickets online in advance. This kind of walkin ticket buying method is definitely not suitable for premieres This is especially true on weekends, if it hits a holiday, and if you come a little later, they may all be sold out.

"Judging from the samples in this theater, at least "Monroe" has completely defeated "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"...It seems that Brad Pitt may not even beat his ex-wife, "Marley and Me" The box office is also surprisingly good..." His eyes flicked aimlessly over a pair of young men and women beside him (this little girl named Jon should be a loyal fan of Jennifer Jefferson, since From just now, she was so excited that Alan felt a little noisy), Alan thought about the final box office ranking of this week, "It won't be a situation where two films solely owned by Big Dream lead the Christmas week? If so, then It can be said that the Sixth National Congress has lost all face..."

Compared to Jon, who has little knowledge, reads newspapers and magazines more, and is excited with those compliments, Alan is obviously much more knowledgeable. He also has a deeper understanding of how much leading advantage "Monroe" now occupies in the awards season-it can even be said that if it weren't for the fact that Jennifer Jefferson just won a best picture award last year, the former If she has won two Oscars for acting at the same time in a few years, if it is really too much limelight, according to the attitude of these international film festivals, the high evaluation of film critics, and the clear tendency of the outpost awards, this year's "Monroe" may be able to start from the most From Best Actress to Best Director and Best Movie, all you need to do is to find a good public relations company, and even Salvi Tucci's low-key personality can't hinder his Oscar for Best Director. Lu, maybe he can really become the youngest and most junior best director in history, let alone Jennifer Jefferson's best actress, it is absolutely guaranteed, and there is no possibility of any accidents.

"It would be great if Jennifer only won one Best Actress back then... Now it seems that the two Oscars back then have actually become her hindrance." Thinking of this, Alan felt somewhat regretful in his heart He murmured, "If she hadn't won an award, no matter if it was Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway, or Meryl Streep, they would all be out of action this year, and they would all have to make way for her. It's a pity... ...I heard that Weinstein has already planned to force Winslet to report for the supporting role, and it seems that this year he is also full of confidence, and he is going to 'appoint' a best actress for the Oscar..."

Oscar's knowledge is too profound, and the water is too deep to see clearly. As a film critic, Alan certainly knows some gossip, but he is not very clear about the inside story. Jennifer won the third Academy Award for acting earlier than Meryl Streep seems a little too much, so he is not too dissatisfied with this point, but after thinking about it for a while, he began to think that he is most concerned about In fact, it is also the most concerned issue in Hollywood now-"Although from a political standpoint, George and Brad are undoubtedly on the side of the majority, but Hollywood is indeed Hollywood, and Jennifer does have a naive side in politics , but I have to say that in all aspects, she really trampled the pair of good brothers to death. Needless to say, in last year's "Michael Clayton", George was so angry, and this year's Brad I'm afraid it's also a terrible internal injury. Originally, in terms of expectations before the awards season, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was regarded as the most popular Oscar, and Fincher's compromise with Oscar. But a breakthrough performance combined with special effects is also a big gimmick, and with strong PR, the awards may not be hopeless, but now, everyone is talking about Monroe, and those who are not talking about Monroe are talking about it "Twilight", almost no one remembers his planb and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". In fact, this is not very fair to him. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed a good movie, at least It's better than "Twilight" - this is really weird, how did this useless film get such a high box office? It is even popular overseas? Is it really as the legend says, the girl There is a bit of magic that turns gold into gold, or does she really have a natural intuition for picking blockbusters? - Could it be true what they say? It is said that Ron Perlman is now obedient to her, and even pulls her Entering Marvel, let her earn the wave of gains before the stock price rose before being acquired, because she successfully predicted the downfall of Lehman Brothers, which allowed her to avoid a huge loss... Anyway, this girl is really crazy Is it—a company that has only been established for five years or six years? This year's box office share, even if "Iron Man" is not included, is at least 400 million in China. In addition to the 200 million of "Twilight", " Monroe and Marley and Me, as long as there are no accidents, they can always have a domestic box office of 200 million. According to the annual trend of the past few years, 400 million has already occupied 4% of the market share. , This is already a terrible number. Even if it is the top six, if it encounters a bad year, it can only get 10%. As long as any of the next two movies is a little hit, it will be 5%. With a market share of 6%, it even leaves those established independent film companies far behind..."

Jon blamed the media for shifting the focus to Jennifer's film company. This is actually a bit angry. After all, for the industry, the shock caused by "Twilight" is too great. This movie, with a production cost of only 40 million, has grossed 170 million since it was released on the 21st of last month. Although it was impacted by the Christmas blockbuster, it will definitely not be a problem to break through 200 million when it is released— —Since its distribution strategy is not a costly global synchronization, it is still difficult to say how the global box office will be, but it is certain that the domestic box office alone, the big dream has already made a lot of money, and this is not the point: the point is "The Twilight Saga" is a four-part series. After this one is finished, there will be the next one, the next one, and the next one. And from the experience of "Harry Potter", the box office of the first part It's just the beginning, and the box office will continue to rise for the next few movies.

Now, the term ip is still relatively new to Hollywood, but many film critics have noticed this and realized the power of this name ip. Adaptation, in addition to the box office of the movie, can at least bring in a turnover of one billion yuan, and it also means hundreds of millions of profits for Dameng. The company founded by Jennifer Jefferson has been frequent in the past few years. It appeared at the beginning of Jennifer's movie, but it was not until this one that it really became a blockbuster and was discovered by everyone: this company not only holds part of the copyright of Jennifer's work, but more importantly, it now independently owns such a high-quality IP, its future can be said to be promising, and Jennifer Jefferson's net worth and status will undergo a qualitative change because of this!

From the moment Jennifer Jefferson became famous, she was the best spokesperson for the American dream. She was a miracle girl and God's favored darling. People in the industry have long been accustomed to look at Jennifer from the perspective of a legend For things related to Jennifer, they have adjusted the startle threshold to be relatively high, but even so, they still have difficulty in coordinating with Jennifer Jefferson, and they don't know what attitude to use to face her The success—this is simply beyond the reach of human beings. A 27-year-old young girl, she is very good at acting, looks beautiful, and is very rich. This is actually not uncommon in Hollywood, even if she lives Living in the nicest room, wearing the most expensive clothes, sleeping with the most famous and handsome men, these are nothing to Hollywood, but if she not only won three Oscars, but also has extremely A blockbuster commercial film, an award-winning literary film, and now there is even a promising production company. What's more, if she has already started to play capital games and traded with a Wall Street tycoon like Ron Perelman How about going to friends and being favored by both Robert Iger and Jeff Robinoff? How should you look at her? You don't know how to define her at all. For the industry, this girl is simply extraordinary. Even if she will be a big servant from the next movie, but to be honest, with the height she has reached now, she can already become a legend.

On Christmas Eve, the cinema is always relatively empty according to common sense, but now it is full of audiences waiting for the midnight show of "Monroe". Alan looked around and wondered absently how many people were there Watch "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Maybe there won't be too many, after all, the audience of this film has no sense of hunger, unlike the audience of "Monroe", who have been dreamed of since seeing the trailer. Lu's beauty is hooked. I remember that trailer set a record of breaking through one million in the fastest time on YouTube, right? It was hailed as the best trailer of this year. After that, the search volume of "Monroe" Directly doubled seven times, this is the power of beauty and special effects-visual spectacle is even more useful than film critics' reputation, it is definitely the biggest factor in determining the midnight show and the box office on the first day. However, this is also because it has a good marketing The team, after Jennifer got Venice, released the trailer at the time when the attention was the highest. The timing was very sophisticated—Dream really doesn’t look like a new company! Who is its CEO? Cesare Vijay? Is that the name? But he seems to be new to the job, and he has been Jennifer's agent before... He doesn't look like the person who leads these miracles, he is more like Jennifer's mouthpiece and old housekeeper ——Could it be that these marketing strategies are also formulated by Jennifer? This is impossible... But anyway, judging from the current crowd, the midnight box office of "Monroe" may be the first of Jennifer's literary films. It might even be strong."

Thinking of this, Alan couldn't help but burst out laughing: "4000 theaters opened, this can't be called a literary film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a special effects blockbuster, and it only dared to be released in 2900 theaters. From this point of view, the box office on the first day is destined to be dominated by "Monroe". Brad probably can only compete with Aniston for the top two—but, having said that, the box office was set a year ago. At that time, everyone bypassed the Christmas schedule for the sake of "Benjamin". Only Dameng was not afraid of death and set the two new films on the Christmas file. At that time, everyone thought that Dameng would kill each other. Let's share the leftover cake from "Benjamin". What I didn't expect is that "Marley and Me" will continue to grab the remaining market of "Benjamin". Those who love to watch beautiful actors go to "Monroe" ", those who love to watch visual spectacle went to "Monroe", and those who loved to watch love stories went to "Monroe". "With Me" is so thin, who would have imagined that it was originally regarded as its world, and the major theaters have shifted gears to avoid the confrontation. The Christmas time will actually become the time for Brad's death... In fact, he should have shifted gears. The decision should have been made after the screening, and honestly, there's no shame in it."

After observing the sales of movie tickets, Alan stood up leisurely and went home to enjoy a Christmas dinner. He didn't return to the movie theater until it was close to 10 o'clock, when the midnight show was about to start. Unsurprisingly, he was at the bottom of the list—the young couple who sat with him before were indeed at the top, but this was not surprising, since the two of them obviously planned to give up Christmas dinner at that time, in order to Picking a good seat is the priority.

Estimated the number of people in my heart, and confirmed that the four halls in this theater should be full of seats for the midnight show of "Monroe". Alan nodded secretly, feeling his breathing quicken: "Although Regardless of the box office of "Monroe", 2008 will be the year of j.j, but judging from the current scene, it is obvious that the box office of this film will break through the previous most optimistic estimates..."

Although I have watched it twice before, which is enough for ordinary movies, but for "Monroe", Alan felt that he hadn't seen enough. He didn't want to appreciate Jennifer's beauty and Salvi The superficial beauty composed of the beautiful scenery in the lens, for film critics, this kind of beauty is certainly distracting, but you can get out after watching it once. He prefers Salvi The sense of rhythm, the skill of storytelling, this is what he saw in the second time watching the film: the middle level connotation, what he wants to ponder, delve into and taste this time is the director's thoughts and outlook on life, the deepest level In the world of light and shadow, he seeks spiritual resonance with the director—the first level satisfies his eyes, the second level satisfies his brain, and the third level satisfies his soul. Regarding this movie, Alan agrees with Derek very much. It is a "panoramic" masterpiece, which brings great surprises on these three levels and makes people want to watch it again and again. Tasting it repeatedly, that's why he was interested in running to the theater on Christmas Eve to observe the details related to the movie.

Of course, Alan, who was at the end of the line, did not choose a good seat. When he passed the sixth row, he glanced at the young couple—they seemed to have found a friend. The fat geek keeps talking, it seems that they are all fans of Jennifer, because the geek wears a T-shirt with Jennifer's face-however, this information does not enter Alan's brain, it is just an instinctive observation and feedback , He found an empty seat in the corner and settled down, let his mind roam around wildly, quietly waiting for the movie to start.

"I really want to know what Jennifer is doing now. It seems that after "Nine" is finished, she has no voice. She hasn't come out to the current award ceremonies... The last time I heard about her, it was still I heard from Warner's friends that she is working on the script of the superhero girl... Another project that was originally not expected to hit the market. After having her, or after the box office myth she created, everyone is vying for it. " After the Twilight Saga, I feel that admiration and superstition towards her are almost becoming a trend, even if what she wants to film is a piece of shit, there will probably be people scrambling to invest in it now..."

"Also, is this girl and Salvi really in a relationship - I wouldn't believe it if their marketing team made a big fuss about it, but right now the entire awards season media has no system She has hyped up this scandal so much, which makes me a little suspicious. Could it be that she went on vacation with Salvi? That's fine, with her as his muse, Salvi will definitely make some very good films. After that, their relationship should come to an end. Speaking of which, Jennifer has never lacked handsome guys. Who told me before? What did Jennifer already have with that Cesare? .Vejri got married in secret—maybe it’s been a year since she broke up with Christopher, but she hasn’t dated again. Even such absurd rumors have started to have a market...Maybe, this girl should really open up her relationship , make a new boyfriend, and meet everyone's expectations..."

Besides thinking about things, Alan couldn't help thinking about gossip, but of course he didn't pay any real attention and affection to these things. All disappeared from his mind, Alan was focused and sharp, staring at the screen with all his attention, and was ready to watch the movie professionally.

However, although he has already entered the state of watching movies, even though he has watched the movie twice, when Monroe turned around to the sound of music and made her first appearance in front of the camera, Alan still couldn't bear it. Amidst the gasps and exclamations that filled the theater, she softly sighed, "She is so beautiful!"

His mind was involuntarily drawn and fluctuated, but under Alan's intentional control, he soon settled down again, paying attention to the progress of the plot: After watching the movie, played by Simon Roemer Colin looked like a dream, stood up happily, walked out of the theater, jumped into a brand-name car, and drove to his country house...