hollywood melon man

Chapter 243 Midnight Box Office

The New York premiere looked very lively. The star guest lineup of "The Last Day" also had a lot of stars, but it seemed to be slightly lower quality than the one in "The Matrix".

If "The Matrix" brought together half of Hollywood, then "The Matrix" brought together at most a quarter of Hollywood, and there is a gap in quality and numbers.

Looking at Michael Bay who was interacting with reporters, Martin Bob asked his assistant: "Is "The Matrix" over there?"

The assistant replied: "It's all over. There is news from our insider that the quality of "The Matrix" this time is quite outstanding.

There are a lot of action scenes, explosion scenes, and big scenes. "

What philosophical discussions, religious metaphors, are not important at all. When you hear the action scenes, explosion scenes, and big scenes, you know that "The Matrix" has the attributes to be a hit in summer commercial blockbusters.

Martin Bob frowned. This was the energy of little Gilbert. He seemed to never know what slacking was and would never give him a chance.

Expecting Gilbert Jr. to relax and then beat him seems impossible.

On Michael Bay's side, reporters are giving him a hard time.

""The Last Day" and "The Matrix" were released at the same time. Do you think there is any hope of beating "The Matrix"?"

Michael Bay originally wanted to answer tactfully, but then he thought, this is a head-to-head competition after all, and you can't lose momentum if you lose, so he gave a tough answer.

"I think the hope is very high. The movie has received a good response since its test screenings and is very competitive."

The reporters seemed to be deliberately looking for trouble. Another reporter asked: "Director Michael Bay, if you put it this way, do you think "The Last Day" has the potential to beat "The Matrix"?"

Although he knew that the reporter was deliberately provoking conflicts, Michael Bay, who had a bit of a manic personality, did not shy away and immediately replied: "No one is a consistent winner in the summer season. I think there should be another winner in the summer season. "

The reporters were overjoyed and had already written the titles of various reports. The charm of journalism was fully displayed at this moment.

As expected, the headlines in the newspapers the next day were explosive, and even the UC department was shocked.

After Michael Bay's interaction with the media was over, Martin Bob walked up and talked to Michael Bay: "The premiere of 'The Matrix' is over. The response has been quite good. You have to be mentally prepared."

Michael Bay is still very confident, because after several test screenings and feedback from the premiere, he believes that "The Last Day" will be very popular among movie fans in the summer.

"Don't worry, Martin, I'm very confident that we will win this summer." Michael Bay was full of confidence.

However, this attitude made Martin Bob very worried.

He knows what kind of person Gilbert Jr. is, and he was a pretty formidable opponent during the summer. Judging from the feedback from previous preview screenings, the quality of "The Matrix" is quite excellent.

If you are blindly confident, it will only put the film into crisis without realizing it.

Facing Martin Bob's concerns, Michael Bay is very confident: "I think "The Matrix" still has the potential to beat "The Matrix". Don't forget, "The Matrix" is an R-rated movie."

Yes, although there are many R-rated films that have achieved good results, summer movies have always been dominated by PG-13 ratings.

Even if the quality of "The End of the World" is slightly worse than "The Matrix", it has a larger audience than "The Matrix". What's more, judging from previous feedback, "The End of the World" can be considered an outstanding performance.

Two summer blockbusters go head-to-head, leaving other films trembling.

After the premiere, the two films officially started competing for the midnight show.

At a theater in Chicago, Roger Ebert used his press credentials to get a ticket to a midnight show. He had previously attended a press screening of "The Matrix," but later attended the premiere of "The Last Days."

According to his principles, "The End of the World" falls into the category of bad movies. But years of experience tell him that bad movies like this will always be popular in the summer.

These ignorant viewers never know what film art is.

On the contrary, "The Matrix" made his senses much better. In the past two years, starting from "Saving Private Ryan", little Gilbert has increasingly perfectly combined business and art.

"The Matrix" is such a film, a perfect example of the perfect combination of business and art.

In this film, the audience can find their favorite big scenes, and film critics and art critics can also find some interesting philosophical, religious and other ideas in the film.

While waiting for the film to open, Roger Ebert noticed that the number of viewers for "The Matrix" and "The Last Day" was basically at a 70-30 split.

Those who come to watch movies at midnight are basically die-hard movie fans.

Obviously, Little Gilbert's appeal is more than one level stronger than Michael Bay's, which can be seen at the midnight show.

This is normal, after all, little Gilbert has been on the road to the top since his debut, and he has quite the temperament of an idol director.

Michael Bay has only made his debut a few years ago, and the quantity and quality of his works cannot be compared with Little Gilbert.

In fact, Michael Ovitz and Martin Bob had already anticipated this, and mentioned this when communicating with Sony Columbia Pictures. It doesn’t matter if you lose a little at the midnight show, the important thing is to see if you can win back later.

Today I went to watch the midnight screening of "The Matrix". Roger Ebert mainly wanted to see the audience's reaction and write a film review when he got back.

As the famous Little Gilbert fan known to the outside world, Roger Ebert will of course be on the side of "The Matrix" during the summer.

After the midnight show started, Roger Ebert followed the crowd into the theater and watched "The Matrix" for the second time.

On the headline of the entertainment section of the Chicago Sun-Times the next day, Roger Ebert commented: “Throughout film history, ‘The Matrix’ is a very special film.

I've never seen a film that blends so many elements without seeming disjointed. Exploring the virtual and real worlds, as well as religious metaphors, all bring people a sense of pleasure in watching movies.

Audiences who don't understand don't have to worry, because this film creates many action scenes that are unprecedented and unparalleled in Hollywood.

In short, you must go to the cinema to watch this movie, it is beyond your imagination. "

After praising "The Matrix", Roger Ebert changed the subject and began to criticize "The Last Days."

“The movie may make you nervous, but it can also make you nauseous, with a migraine-like roar. It’s spectacular and noisy, but there’s nothing new about it.

The entire film is an absurd doomsday comedy, with no trace of the struggle and shining glory of humanity under the apocalypse.

All in all, I don’t recommend watching this movie during the summer season. "

After the review, Roger Ebert gave "The Matrix" two thumbs up, the highest rating. And "The Unforgettable Tribulation" got two thumbs up, the lowest rating.

If Roger Ebert brags about "The Matrix" because of his status as a Little Gilbert movie fan. Kenneth Turan, who has always been critical of Little Gilbert's movies, also praised it, which explains a lot.

In his film review, Kenneth Turan praised the topics discussed in "The Matrix" and believed that "The Matrix" reached a new milestone in science fiction movies.

However, in order to maintain the character, Kenneth Turan finally criticized it. He felt that "The Matrix" had too many insignificant action scenes and explosion scenes.

The film would have been better if it had delved deeper into philosophical topics.

As for "The End of the World", Kenneth Turan criticized the film completely, thinking that watching this movie is a complete waste of time, and it is recommended not to watch it.

In this era when Internet media is not yet developed, although the Internet has taken off, film critics plus traditional newspaper media are still very influential.

Big film critics like Roger Ebert and Kenneth Turan can influence the movie-watching choices of hundreds of thousands of people in the early stages.

Due to the superposition of a series of factors, "The Matrix" took in US$790 million in midnight box office, successfully beating the US$592 million in the midnight box office of "Armageddon".

The midnight box office gross of $790 million also became the midnight box office record for an R-rated movie.

In the early morning in Los Angeles, Robert Egger was at home, drinking fragrant coffee and reading the newspaper, which contained countless reports about "The Matrix".

"Dear," Robert Eger's wife came over, holding a fax in her hand: "The midnight box office data is out, can you guess how much it is?"

Robert Iger made a very cooperative guess: "I guess five million dollars?"

"Dear," the wife winked mischievously: "You guessed wrong, it's 790 million US dollars. Congratulations, Touchstone Pictures has released another hit movie."

Robert Egger was slightly startled when he heard this data. He did not expect it to be so high.

But then Robert Iger said: "This is indeed higher than expected. As long as the box office reaches 45 million US dollars in the first week, it will reach expectations."

"I guess Lisa won't agree with what you said. She thinks the film will have a box office of US$60 million in the first week." The wife laughed.

Lisa is the daughter of Robert Egger and a big fan of Little Gilbert.

"Where's Lisa? Why didn't she come to breakfast?" Robert Egger asked.

"She," the wife complained, "went out early in the morning and said she had an appointment with her friends to stay at the cinema today."

Robert Iger burst into laughter. His daughter has a fanatical star-chasing side, but she doesn't like any Hollywood stars. Instead, she likes the director Gilbert Jr. who is behind the scenes.

The last time she watched "The Sixth Sense", Lisa watched it three times and cried every time. But she probably won't cry this time. The movie "The Matrix" will make her very excited.

And when Robert Iger was complaining about his daughter and enjoying breakfast, many theaters in prosperous areas were already packed and exploded.

The popularity of "The Matrix" has even reached a level of popularity that is not considered an R-rated movie, which surprised everyone.

(End of this chapter)