Chapter 592： not up nor down

Monday, December 12.

The North American box office charts are once again easy to list.

The first place in the ranking is the "Magic Kingdom of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" released by Bowei Pictures, with a total box office of 65.55 million US dollars in three days.

Of course, the changes to this list are not surprising to industry insiders, but are somewhat unexpected.

After all, the "The Chronicles of Narnia" series is a splendid masterpiece that was published at the same time as "The Lord of the Rings", but the result seems to be a bit far from the premiere box office.

However, although "The Lord of the Rings" is positioned as magical literature, people who have read the original will be touched by Tolkien's extensive psychological descriptions of scenes and "hard core" strokes that are close to traditional literature.

Therefore, the "Lord of the Rings" series has established its "high-end atmosphere" text tone from the very beginning, and the two are essentially different.

The later "Harry Potter" series starts from the style of childhood and youth, which is more "younger" than "The Chronicles of Narnia" in comparison.

Looking at it this way, "The Chronicles of Narnia" is actually in a very embarrassing situation. It is higher than "high-end" but "Lord of the Rings", and it is not as young as "Harry Potter". The audience is completely locked by both. So although there is still money to be made in the market after the adaptation, and there is no suspense at the top of the list, it is a little bit worse than the adaptation of the two works of the same magic type.

You know, it is normal for "Harry Potter" to break 100 million in the first week, "The Lord of the Rings" is a failure if it does not explode, and this "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is neither comparable.

Whether it is word of mouth, audience reaction or even market performance.

Of course, the first weekend box office of more than 65.55 million US dollars can not be said to be very bad, at least in this December, when the film is being shown, it is temporarily unmatched.

The second place "Mrs. Smith" won $50.21 million, but Paramount was relieved.

It has attracted the attention of industry insiders.

Only on the 9th, 10th, and 11th for three days, "Mr & Mrs. Smith" basically showed an upward box office curve. Although it couldn't beat the magical masterpiece "The Chronicles of Narnia", it was always slightly lower, but it was also the third-ranked "Smith". "Tong Family" throws off a lot.

As for "Goblet of Fire" and "Monster in the Lake", they continued to maintain a downward trend and were very stable.

And with the box office of more than 50 million in the first weekend, it is basically announced that "Mrs. Smith" will be very easy to break through 100 million in North America.

Of course, although the first weekend box office can be used as an important reference target for the final box office placement, it is not absolute.

For example, some first-line masterpieces have plummeted audience reputation, and after watching them, they all feel that they are not worth the ticket price. This is also a situation.

But "Mrs. & Mrs. Smith" doesn't have such hidden dangers.

The reason why I say this is that "Mrs & Mrs. Smith" has gained a firm foothold. Even when the competition in the U.S. film market is the most intense during the Christmas period, it still achieved fairly dazzling results, which shows that the film type is very pleasing;

The second is the contrasting interpretation of the family relationship between husband and wife, which is fresh to the audience and has a good attendance rate.

"New York Magazine" reported: "Mrs & Mrs. Smith" is a film that constantly creates laughs and does not reduce suspense.

"Washington Post" said: In the film's somewhat exaggerated fierce battle, the metaphor of modern marriage can appear.

The "San Francisco Chronicle" criticized: Although the overall look is sleek, it is full of madness and pretentious comics. Apart from these two words, there is no other description.

The popularity of "The Magic Kingdom of Narnia" does not seem to affect "Mrs. Smith" too much. The next week's screening market is still the audience's choice. Those who like magic and a little childishness and those who like comedy and want to be happy are not the same. Do not conflict.

Then the time came to December 14th, when the global masterpiece "King Kong" was released, and dedicated the famous scene "Empire Building Airplane".

When the huge orangutan looked at Naomi Watts and looked at each other affectionately, combined with the feat of jerking off, it has to be said that it is another outstanding version of "Beauty and the Beast".

The drama of the movie is above the standard.

However, perhaps the quality of the "Lord of the Rings" series is there. The word-of-mouth evaluation of Peter Jackson's new work "King Kong" is not high, and it is mostly a joke.

After the premiere, "Philadelphia Weekly" said without shyness: "The movie seems to want to pay tribute to the classic combination of "Beauty and the Beast", but in fact, after watching it, you will find that this is just after director Jackson couldn't find the north. It's just a self-inflation."

"The old face is replaced with new clothes, but the movie can't be changed. It's not enough. It can be seen that this movie can only be called an energy-efficient entertainment complex. Director Jackson seemed to spend a lot of energy to adapt it, but it finally got out of his control. .”—The New Yorker

"The special effects are good, but the plot is not good. It's a piece of cake." - "Seattle Post"

Sometimes it's a mistake to start too high, because it makes others expect too much of you.

And this kind of expectation is too high. Once the expectation is not met, there will be more resentment under the disappointment.

Strictly speaking, "King Kong" is not bad. If the director is a second- and third-tier director, maybe the public will tolerate, encourage, and admire him more, but the director depends on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Peter Jackson, who has been extremely successful, is destined to become less brilliant for this commercial work that can only be said to be about the passing line.

Moreover, this work is a monster classic that Universal has spent 200 million to turn over. After Legendary Pictures lost Warner's project, it was invested in Universal and began to make joint ventures.

On the first day of the show, North American cinema operators provided 3,568 cinema screens to open the screen, which is a big deal, but the result?

The box office was really unsatisfactory, and it only received more than 9.8 million on Wednesday.

It stands to reason that with such a high investment, Universal is fully promoting it. The overwhelming publicity campaign before the release and the trust of the theaters, how could it be pulled over?

This also shows that it is a terrible thing that the results do not meet expectations, and the duration of nearly three hours is also a nightmare for watching movies.

Among the blockbusters released on Wednesday in recent years, this result can only rank 24th in the historical box office harvest. Compared with the investment of 200 million, it is really shabby.

Universal can't do anything about it, and it has to support it when it gritted its teeth.

After the failure of "King Kong" on the first day, Universal CEO Bob Wright publicly expressed some views, saying that the company is still full of expectations for the film's prospects, and gave an example of the equally slow-moving "Titanic", saying that with the With the progress of the screening cycle, it can also maintain long-lasting results.

You must know that "Titanic" only made $28.6 million in its first week, which is not as good as "King Kong".

The problem is, times have changed, my lord.

The result of "King Kong" is that it did not reach the heavyweight of King Kong, which is very inconsistent. With a long-term screening, wouldn't it die faster?

As a result, "King Kong", which appeared in the first weekend for 5 days, won 66 million box office in North America, which was higher than "The Magic Kingdom of Narnia", which was not in its peak period, and was worthy of the weekly box office champion. .

Compared with other first-line masterpieces, this is an unexpectedly low-key and mediocre start.

What makes Universal even more distressed is that Peter Jackson's directorial compensation for "King Kong" is as high as 20 million US dollars. If the total North American score is less than 200 million, it means that the loss can be calculated.

Although the global box office may be high, as long as it is not ridiculously high, it will be difficult to pay back.

Moreover, Disney is also depressed, and a good movie is afraid of encountering a strong opponent.

"The Magic Kingdom of Narnia" only dominated the theater chain, but it was kicked out by "King Kong", followed by "Mrs. and Mrs. Smith", which will be overtaken if you are not careful.

In short, in the latter part of the Christmas stall, the battle was even more tragic.

Coupled with the successive release of a number of Chong Ao movies, although the number of screens is not large, and the level of slapstick is small, but they can't bear the momentum of others, and they can always find bright spots for publicity.

Whether it's the lavish cast of "The Stones," Diane Keaton, "The Neutral Queen," Sarah Jessica Parker, "The Bachelorette," it's enough to appeal to certain fans.

And, there's Brokeback Mountain.

After three years of honing a sword, director Li Press has made a great story after he got out of the slump, and the subject matter is sensitive enough. As soon as it was screened, it aroused passionate discussions among film critics, and the future of the film was unlimited.

Coupled with "Walking with the Song" and "Petroleum Mystery" in November, this year's Olympic films are all very competitive.