Hollywood Road

On Saturday morning, just as the sun climbed to the horizon, Las Vegas, a city built in the desert, felt hot. In a manor on the outskirts of the city, Ed Mintz left the golf course and walked slowly towards himself Villa.

As he ages, he gradually delegates power in the company. Apart from listening to routine reports every weekend, he rarely intervenes directly in CinemaScore's operations.

Entering the villa, Ed Mintz took the towel handed over by the servant, wiped his hands, and entered the living room.

On the sofa in the living room, a young man was sitting, seeing Ed Mintz, he stood up quickly, Ed Mintz waved his hand, "Arthur, come here."

"Yes," Arthur said respectfully, "Mr. Mintz, I bring the latest statistics from yesterday."

"You go to the restaurant first, whatever you want," Ed Mintz walked upstairs, "I'll change my clothes and listen to your statistics later."

Ten minutes later, Ed Mintz, who had changed his clothes, sat in the dining room of the villa, with a simple breakfast in front of him, and the young man named Arthur was standing opposite him.

Ed Mintz cut off a piece of sausage, stuffed it in his mouth, swallowed it, and said, "Let’s talk about it, what was the surprise in the North American film market yesterday?"

Although the traditional North American summer files will kick off next weekend, and there will be super giants like "X-Men 2", but this week's North American film market should also not be underestimated, with an investment of $40 million in "Sin "City of the City" has received widespread attention in the industry because of its high reputation during the previous trial screenings.

There is also Joe Schumacher's new film "Sniper Phone Booth", which was also released this weekend. After the director brought the "Batman" series into a dead end, his career was almost finished, and he had to switch to independent small production. Can you just turn around? , Is also a highlight of the North American film market this weekend.

"Yesterday, there were only two large-scale movies, namely "Sin City" directed by Murphy Stanton in 2,850 theaters, and "Sniper Phone Booth" directed by Joe Schumacher in 2,418 theaters... …"

Having said that, the young Arthur looked down at the information in his hand, "The audience and professional reputation of the two films are good."

Arthur knows Ed Mintz’s habits, “The other important statistics currently available, the freshness of rotten tomatoes in "Sniper Phone Booth" is 73%, and the IMDB scores an average of 7.6; "Sin City" "It’s better, the freshness of rotten tomatoes is 84%, and the IMDB scores an average of 8.8 points."

"Hmm..." Ed Mintz nodded lightly, not surprised by such data, "What about our statistics?"

Unlike the trial screenings organized by some major studios, CinemaScore's survey is conducted immediately after the audience has watched the screening of the film, and the final box office predicted based on the audience's word of mouth always shows amazing accuracy.

"After the premiere the day before yesterday and the early stage, the audience's overall evaluation of "Sin City" was A+, and "Sniper Phone Booth" was A." Arthur coughed slightly, cleared his itchy throat, and continued. "With the expansion of the screening yesterday, the on-site evaluation of both films has declined. The overall evaluation of "Sin City" is close to A, and "Sniper Phone Booth" has reached A-."

With that said, Arthur also put a document in front of Ed Mintz.

Looking through the information, Ed Mintz asked, "What about the box office performance?"

"Counting the advance show," Arthur quickly replied, "Sin City's first day box office was 14.55 million U.S. dollars. The audiences of the two films overlapped to a certain extent. The relatively poor reputation of "Sniper Phone Booth" was affected. After the shock, only 4.27 million U.S. dollars was received on the first day."

Hearing these box office numbers and looking through the detailed information of the company’s survey and statistics, as a film market forecasting expert with many years of work experience, Ed Mintz immediately had his own judgment, "Sin City" audience ratings The decline is a little bit faster, the audience for the film is narrow, and the North American box office wants to get 100 million US dollars. Miramax and Harvey Weinstein must think of ways to promote and market."

Arthur, who stood opposite, took out a pen and a notebook from his pocket as a magic trick, and recorded Ed Mintz's words accurately.

"Joe Schumacher..." Ed Mintz shook his head, "The two R-rated films met on the same weekend. It can only be said that it was his misfortune. The North American box office drop of "Sniper Phone Booth" was US$40 million. about."

He sighed slightly. Joe Schumacher was once a very talented director. Unfortunately, encountering "Batman" was both Bruce Wayne's misfortune and his own misfortune. He ruined this series, this The series also dragged him down.

Compared with the aging Joe Schumacher, Murphy Stanton is definitely a rising star in the director circle. His very personal shooting and production style makes him stand out in today's severely homogenized Hollywood; On the basis of his personal style, he also appropriately integrates Hollywood's best-selling elements to ensure the market value of his films, and will not be marginalized by the market because of his unique style.

The most important thing is his age. This year he is only twenty-three years old, and he is far from entering the prosperous period of a director's creation. It is not too much to say that he is still in the beginning and exploration stage of a director, but he is gone at this stage. It's quite stable, and it's completely step by step, laying a solid foundation for the future.

If he were a little older, had a more mature production philosophy and style, and moved into the mainstream film circle, what kind of achievement would he create?

Ed Mintz can't wait to see, this young director has a bright future!

Although "Sin City" and "Sniper Phone Booth" did not form a fierce competition this weekend, Ed Mintz is completely leaning towards the former, Joe Schumacher is going downhill, and Murphy Stanton is soaring. Both There is no comparability at all.

However, Murphy Stanton wants to truly become a first-line director, and there are still many problems he wants to solve. For example, the audience range of his films and styles has always been a problem, and he wants to truly enter the ranks of super directors, not like Kun. Like Din Tarantino, the audience of the film can never be ignored.

Just like Ed Mintz thought, neither the previous "Horror Planet" nor the current "Sin City" are definitely not popular films. Murphy himself knows this, but he studies the most It is this type of film that can find the most suitable film at this stage, and it is also "Sin City". With his previous qualifications, it is extremely difficult for people to invest more than US$50 million in production costs.

It is better to move forward one step at a time, rather than being too broken and causing a series of negative effects.

The summer vacation is about to begin. Most of the fans are also ready to go, saving money and energy to prepare for the release of a super blockbuster like "X-Men 2". The number of audiences entering the theater this weekend is relatively small, which is not only popular. The summer file of "Sin City" is coming soon, and it is also related to the style of "Sin City".

The media and film critics have given super high ratings to the film. Roger Albert even rarely gave the film two thumbs up. To a certain extent, these can attract a considerable number of passers-by audiences into the theater, but this has changed However, it is difficult for most mainstream audiences to accept the fact that this film.

"Sin City" got quite dazzling box office results on Friday, but the data from Miramax was quickly passed to Murphy's side. According to statistics from several survey agencies hired, Thursday’s advance The audience who walked into the theater to watch the film during the night and Friday, including comic fans, Murphy fans and Robert Downey Jr., James Franco, Jessica Simpson, and Jessica Alba's supporters are the main ones, and the number accounts for nearly 70% of the spot-checked audience.

Murphy knows very well that in a broad sense, "Sin City" is not only a typical genre film, but can even be classified into the ranks of fan movies.

North American fan movies in this era are not the future, and the R-rated rating of "Sin City" also determines that it cannot become a typical teenage fan movie like "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" in the future.

In the North American summer season, under normal circumstances, a new, non-fan-oriented and sequel mainstream commercial masterpiece, because Friday is still a working day, often the second Saturday of the show will become the highest box office number. A single day, but "Sin City" is not among the ranks.

Since Saturday morning, the attendance rate of 2,850 theaters showing "Sin City" has decreased to varying degrees. Fortunately, the rate of decline has decreased, at least better than the "Sniper Phone Booth" screened on the same weekend.

Joe Schumacher’s film was also seen by Murphy. It was indeed quite good. However, the film had a ill-fated date. The initial release date was set for November 2002. However, there were successive sniper tragedies in Washington and Maryland at that time. The public reaction was extremely great. Strongly, the risk of film release increased exponentially, and 20th Century Fox had to move to this year.

This is definitely a typical case of the film being affected by the social environment in which it is located, and the schedule collided with "Sin City", which also made the road to the release of this ill-fated film even more bumpy.

But this is the case in the North American film market. There are so many films showing in theaters every year. If you encounter this one, you will encounter another one. This is an extremely competitive market.

Under the impact of the same R-rated film "Sin City", and the audience reputation of "Sniper Phone Booth" was not particularly prominent, the box office on Saturday inevitably declined, and only received more than 3.6 million US dollars that day.

Because the first day consumed more fans and audiences, the output of "Sin City" on Saturday was also declining. However, the media, film critics, and audience reputations were relatively strong, and the decline was not large, and it was reported to receive 12.15 million US dollars. .

On Sunday, because the next day is a working day, the evening box office will be affected by tomorrow. The single-day box office of the two films dropped again. With the arrival of the new week, the morale of CAA, which provides packaging services for "Sin City", has skyrocketed. .