The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1156 Silence
silence.

Russell Crowe made no sound, not even anger.

To be more precise, it should be sluggish.

Because it was so shocking, so unexpected, and so intense, it broke through my limits, and all the thoughts in my mind disappeared completely like a whirlwind.

In the end, there was only endless blankness and a complete loss of the ability to react.

After a long time, Russell finally moved, mechanically turned his head to look at his assistant and smiled.

"This newspaper has been printed incorrectly. Please buy another one."

Assistant: ... "Russell."

Russell's eyes widened, and murderous intent instantly leaked out, "Buy another one. Right now. Don't make me say it for the third time."

Not only Russell, but half of Hollywood is doubting their eyes:
Are you sure there is no error in this data?
The answer is no. It is very cruel but extremely realistic. There are no mistakes, no accidents, and no statistical errors. The data is all normal.

The shock came so overwhelmingly that people didn't know what to say.

"Master and Commander" had everything going for it, and was determined to win. The excellent media reviews were the biggest driving force. Everything was predicting the success of the film, but it turned out to be the biggest dud of 2003.

Is this the event of the year?

The box office on the opening weekend was only 22 million US dollars. Even if the movie relies on word of mouth to make a comeback, it is unlikely to save the movie from the crisis of losses.

An investment of 150 million U.S. dollars, plus more than 20 million U.S. dollars in pre-production publicity, all made the opening weekend box office figures seem like a drop in the bucket.

Now, 20th Century Fox can only pray silently that a "Titanic"-style miracle will happen again, otherwise this will be a real disaster.

How did things take such a turn?
No warning!

No wonder the entire Hollywood is silent. Everyone looks at each other in the dead silence, but no one dares to express their opinions easily.

Before the film was released, North American industry professionals predicted that the opening box office of "Master and Commander" would be between 40 and 50 million. After seeing the good momentum of media reviews, a small number of media outlets even believed that the film had a chance to take in 60 million on its opening weekend.

However, what is the reality?
Twenty-two million dollars. Even a complete novice in numbers can tell that this is a horrific box office number. The media doesn’t even dare to add insult to injury.

Isn't that too cruel?

Perhaps, the era of "naval battle" movies has really come to an end?

All of this is just as absurd and astonishing as what is happening in two other works.

"Elf", starring Will Ferrell, was released last week. It is clearly a Christmas movie, but it was released before Thanksgiving, which is puzzling. The media's overall rating of 66 points also indicates that the situation is not good.

The movie grossed 32 million on its opening weekend, which was a good performance. Compared with the investment cost of 33 million, it was even more impressive.

This week, the movie box office fell only 15.3% in three days over the weekend, continuing its strong performance with incredible performance, and can be called a dark horse.

The box office performance in its second week of release actually surpassed that of "Master and Commander" on its opening weekend. Such performance is enough to make the entire Hollywood collectively speechless.

Will Ferrell, a member of the "Jason B. Jackson" gang, once again proved that he has the ability to carry the box office alone. The movie's cumulative box office easily exceeded 70 million US dollars in two weeks after its release, and it has undoubtedly become one of the winners of this year's holiday season.

People did not expect the first-week box office performance of "Elf", nor did they expect the film's amazing box office performance in the second week - who could have expected that in the midst of such a chaos, such a movie would break through the siege?
If "Elf" beating out "Master and Commander" was shocking enough, then "The Butterfly Effect" debuted with the second-highest weekend box office performance of this year's holiday season, which was enough to make the whole of Hollywood go haywire.

As mentioned before, the current holiday movie market is still full of unknowns, with no clear pattern in box office performance, and major Hollywood film companies have been exploring.

So far this year, it is still difficult to summarize a set of experience from the box office records in November and December.

Currently, the highest record for the opening weekend in November is still held by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers", which grossed $2001 million in three days when it was released in .

This year, during the holiday season, two weeks ago, "The Matrix 3" made it into the top five on this list with a three-day weekend box office of $ million.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Monsters, Inc." and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" ranked in the top four respectively.

Originally, "The Matrix 3" had the potential to set a new record, but Warner Bros. chose to release the film nationwide on Wednesday. Naturally, the data from the three-day weekend and the first five days of the first week were difficult to compare, and the final weekend box office data "only" ranked fifth in the historical list.

Now, it’s the “butterfly effect”’s turn.

In just two weeks, the second film achieved great success, entering the top ten of the historical list of November opening weekends, finishing in sixth place with a slight disadvantage.

Forty-five million dollars is really unbelievable, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is a "brain-exploding sum".

The reason is very simple.

On the November opening weekend box office list, the top five were all works with an investment cost of more than 100 million US dollars, including "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" starring Jim Carrey, which cost an investment of 113 million US dollars.

In other words, although it is the holiday season, these successful works are not much different from those in the summer season and are still typical commercial blockbusters.

However, the "butterfly effect" is different:
The production cost is 10 million U.S. dollars, and the publicity cost... New Line Cinema has not released the data, but the industry estimates that the figure should be less than 2 million U.S. dollars.

It's not even a fraction of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" or "Master and Commander", and not even half of the ultra-low-cost "Elf".

It was precisely this kind of work that turned the tide amid controversy and attention and won a premiere box office of 45 million US dollars, which is eye-catching.

In the first week of its premiere, the "Butterfly Effect" has already entered the profit stage. Regardless of the subsequent box office performance, New Line Cinema can just sit back and count the money.

The impact can be imagined.

Perhaps, someone has boldly predicted that the "butterfly effect" may bring surprises, and never underestimate Anson; but after the media reviews came out, these voices almost all quieted down, and the general view is that the next week may be the standard ending for "Master and Commander" to dominate the box office market.

The results of it?
"Master and Commander" not only lost unexpectedly to "The Butterfly Effect", but even lost to "Elf" which was in its second week of release. Such a scene can be called a horror movie.

"The Butterfly Effect" not only topped the North American weekend box office rankings in the third week of November, but also made it into the top ten in film history in its opening weekend box office.

Then, the noise disappeared.

There was no admiration, no questioning; no cheering, no attack.

Nothing at all.

All the noise and discussions disappeared, and the world finally regained its peace. Thousands of eyes were fixed on this week's North American weekend box office chart, and everyone fell into a long silence. Only the roar in their minds continued to stir.

They all need quiet time.

(End of this chapter)