hollywood melon man

Chapter 364 The situation is complete
When the North American summer box office for the first weekend came out, everyone knew that "The Return of the King" had once again become the biggest winner of the summer season.

The Los Angeles Times editorial office was brightly lit in the evening, and all the editors were busy typeset the newspaper to be published the next day.

Although the Internet has been developed for a long time, major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have their own official websites.

But nowadays more people are still used to reading paper newspapers. Maybe one day in the future paper newspapers will be eliminated, but it will not be now.

Editor-in-Chief Claude walked into the editorial office and asked, "What will be the headline on tomorrow's front page?"

One of his editors replied: "It's something in Washington."

"Take it down. We don't care about Washington." The editor-in-chief made a prompt decision: "We put "The Return of the King" on the front page. It's the front page."

Of course the editors understood that this meant that the news about "The Return of the King" would not be on the front page of the entertainment section, but on the front page of the 8-page newspaper.

The editor-in-chief said solemnly: "The film has been a huge success, with North American box office revenue exceeding $1.5 million in its first week, which is a new record and an incredible achievement.

I have never seen such a grand occasion before, and I must participate and witness history."

"Got it!" The editor immediately made arrangements.

The next morning, the front-page headlines of the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times both reported the record-breaking box office success of "The Return of the King."

Two of the three largest-circulation newspapers in North America gave it ample space.

Only The Washington Post has always been biased against Gilbert Jr., not only did it not give him a front-page headline, it didn't even give him a front-page entertainment section.

Not only that, The Washington Post also made strong criticisms.

Previously, Sarah, the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Business Journal, said that The Return of the King would surpass the box office of Titanic, but The Washington Post scoffed.

"The Return of the King couldn't even surpass the box office of The Two Towers. Excessive marketing led to too many viewers going to the cinema, resulting in a lack of follow-up..."

Scarlett read the newspaper to little Gilbert, her hands clenched into fists, and said with some disdain: "Is this newspaper sick? What do you mean by lack of successors?

I see a lot of people going to the cinema on weekdays, so how can there be a lack of follow-up? "

Gilbert raised his eyebrows and said, "Actually, I think what The Washington Post said is not without reason. It is true that the first three days of the weekend consumed too much enthusiasm of moviegoers."

Scarlett asked, "Can The Return of the King surpass the box office of Titanic?"

"I'm not sure," little Gilbert said, even beginning to doubt himself.

In fact, he originally thought that "The Return of the King" would not exceed the box office of "Titanic". Although the weekly box office of "Titanic" seemed not high, it was very strong.

And just as The Washington Post said, "The Return of the King" attracted too many moviegoers to the cinema in its first weekend.

While setting a record for the highest first weekend box office, it also consumed the enthusiasm of too many moviegoers.

Generally speaking, North American audiences have a lot of movies to choose from during the summer. They can usually watch two or three movies in a summer, which means they are at least middle-class.

If you are a blue-collar worker, it is a great achievement to go to the movies once a summer.

But such a high first-week box office also gave Gilbert Jr. some hope. Maybe, maybe "The Return of the King" will create a miracle.

But it must be said that as the pace of modern life becomes faster and faster, one thing that is obvious in the film market is that the screening cycle of a movie has been shortened.

In the 1990s, a hit commercial film would usually stay in theaters for more than 20 weeks, and sometimes more than 30 weeks. "Titanic" for example stayed in theaters for more than 60 weeks.

But nowadays, as the first weekend box office becomes more and more important, accounting for one-third, one-half or two-thirds of a film’s total box office, the release period has been shortened.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that there is no chance because of the short screening period. After all, theaters increased movie ticket prices at the beginning of this year. This is the second time movie ticket prices have been increased since the 1990s.

At the beginning of the millennium, due to the popularity of doomsday rhetoric, many people were living a life of drunkenness and debauchery, so movie ticket prices went up.

The price increase at the beginning of the year was due to the impact of September 9 last year, and movie ticket prices also increased.

So some smart people will discover a fact, that is, once something bad happens, the film market is often the beneficiary.

Maybe many people think that they need to enjoy life while they can, and watch more movies before disaster strikes?

In short, this peculiar phenomenon helped "The Return of the King" create a super high box office record.

Of course, no matter how high the ticket price is, it won’t help if the movie itself is not good.

After its first weekend, ABC invited the crew of "The Lord of the Rings" to the show on Monday.

Gilbert Jr. did not participate. Now that the momentum of "The Return of the King" has been built up, he, as the director, will not participate in the promotion of the third part.

On the show, the film's leading actors Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and others focused on sharing some interesting things during the filming of "The Lord of the Rings".

Kane Waxman, the film's producer, said: "I can say that The Lord of the Rings project was the most difficult and exhausting project that Gilbert and I have ever worked on.

We put a lot of effort into making this epic film.”

The program also released an interview with Spielberg, who is recognized as the guide for Gilbert Jr. to enter Hollywood and is also Gilbert Jr.'s self-acknowledged teacher. Spielberg's evaluation is very objective: "Looking at Hollywood, all series of movies have a first one before there will be a second one.

But little Gilbert shot the trilogy in succession, leaving no room for retreat for himself.

Gilbert Jr. mentioned this series to me a long time ago, and I advised him at that time to think carefully about the future and not to shoot such a difficult project out of sheer enthusiasm.

But Gilbert Jr. is very determined. He said that he is a loyal fan of "The Lord of the Rings" and he will regret it for the rest of his life if he doesn't bring this masterpiece to the big screen.

Many people say that "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is the crystallization of the Hollywood film industry, and attribute the success of the film to the advancement of film technology.

That's right, only the technology of today makes it possible to shoot "The Lord of the Rings".

But what I want to say is that talent is the decisive factor in determining the quality of a movie, and it definitely does not just rely on technological advancement.

I would say that if The Lord of the Rings were handed over to anyone else, it would not have been so successful..."

Spielberg rarely came out to be interviewed, and he praised "The Lord of the Rings" movie and Gilbert Jr., which was not surprising to everyone.

This summer, DreamWorks has produced and released movies that have little competition to The Return of the King.

Putting aside commercial interests, Spielberg is undoubtedly a good predecessor and mentor, at least for Gilbert Jr.

Finally, the program also listed a lot of data: "Look at the great work done by the "Lord of the Rings" project team. It took Gilbert more than two years to prepare the script alone.

The preparatory work took two years, and the filming took more than a year. "

"We can use a few statistics to illustrate the incredible job this great film series has done.

6: The six years that Gilbert Jr. and others spent working on The Lord of the Rings.

28: Number of major characters in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

68: Number of scale models produced by Orange Studios for the three Lord of the Rings films.

100: In the early stages of filming, the art department gave Gilbert Jr. more than 100 storyboard sketches every day.

300: The number of layers required for the most complex scene in The Lord of the Rings. A layer is an element that needs to be composited. The more layers there are, the more complex the composite becomes.

350: The number of people who worked on The Lord of the Rings at Orange Studios.

1500: Number of special effects shots in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

5000: Number of extras and horses used to film the Battle of Minas Tirith and the Battle of Black Gate.

48000: The total number of props produced by Orange Studio and the Props Team.

If these numbers are not listed together, people would think that the filming of the "Lord of the Rings" series is actually very simple, but it is not. By listing these data, the public can understand the efforts that Gilbert Jr. has made for this film.

Of course, in fact, Gilbert Jr.’s difficulty is less, after all, he has a reference. Peter Jackson is really crossing the river by feeling the stones and has no confidence.

But even so, such a huge project cannot be taken on by non-Hollywood A-list directors.
Independent film directors look down on directors from the mainstream film industry, especially those who criticize Gilbert Jr.

But if these people were to make "The Lord of the Rings", the trilogy would be a huge flop.

Of course, people in the independent film industry would not think that the film failed. They would only think that the audience was too rubbish and their appreciation level was not high enough to appreciate their great work.

Indeed, audiences really cannot appreciate those neurotic works.

And the film companies will not invest $3.5 million to support an independent film director to shoot three psychotic works.

Although the box office statistics in several regions where the film was released were a bit slow, the first weekend box office statistics for all markets were released by Tuesday of the second week at the latest.

Needless to say in North America, the film grossed $5240.9 million in the UK in its first weekend, setting the highest box office record in the UK's history.

The entire British people love the "Lord of the Rings" movie series. Even the British royal family are fans of the series. It is both unexpected and reasonable to achieve such results.

In France, "The Return of the King" also earned $3223.5 million. Despite repeated boycotts by French filmmakers, honest French movie fans made their choice with their movie tickets.

In Germany, "The Return of the King" earned $3875 million in its first weekend, making it the second largest market in Europe after the UK.

Italy grossed $1557.2 million in its first weekend. Despite the economic downturn, Italian people still like this movie very much.

It is said that in order to go to the cinema to watch "The Return of the King" more often, several Italian young people ate bread distributed by the church for two weeks.

The rest of the market also performed well, with a total of $4223 million.

So, after shocking the entire North American box office, "The Return of the King" once again successfully won the first weekly box office championship in the world during the summer season with a box office of 3.36 million US dollars in its first weekend.

But this is not the end. With the arrival of the next weekend, "The Return of the King" will land in more markets one after another, and the trend is set.

(End of this chapter)