Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 501: Good news at the box office

"The Hunger Games" has basically ended its screening in North America, with a cumulative box office of 468 million US dollars. The overseas box office has slowly exceeded 400 million. Compared with "Avengers", the overseas box office results of "The Hunger Games" are relatively average.

The media summarized three reasons.

First, "The Hunger Games" is also distributed overseas by Lionsgate Pictures, which is inferior to Disney and the other five major film studios in terms of channels.

The second point is that the protagonists of "The Hunger Games" are not well-known overseas, and they cannot be compared with the "Avengers" where big names gather.

The third point is also related to the IP of "The Hunger Games". This movie is also adapted from a best-selling novel, but it is very famous around the world compared to "Harry Potter" and "Twilight". In terms of best-selling works, "The Hunger Games" has little influence overseas.

According to the New York Times, sales of the novel doubled after the release of The Hunger Games, and sales in overseas regions once doubled tenfold.

It can be said that this movie made the novel popular, and the success of the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" movies was largely due to the large number of fans of the novel.

In addition to "The Hunger Games", "The Cabin" and "The Complete Guide to Pregnancy", Lionsgate will have three more films released in June, including the French films "Untouchables", "Lawless" and "The Witness Protection Program"

"Untouchables" was released at the end of May and initially caused more than a month of controversy over the racial issues involved in the plot.

Later, under the mediation of the Producers Guild of America, it was screened in six theaters in North America to see what black movie fans thought of the movie. Surprisingly, black movie fans did not think the plot was discriminatory, and instead thought the movie was good.

"Untouchable" has been in theaters for four weeks and has grossed US$30.55 million in North America. This has also brought the film's cumulative global box office to US$480 million. Compared with the production cost of 12 million, it is more expensive than the dark horse movies "Buried Alive" and "The Hunger Games". make money.

Some media broke the news that Link's French film company also participated in the investment of this movie, which means that Link has released three dark horses this year and made more than one billion US dollars with these three movies.

For a time, the number of colleagues who envied, envied and hated Link multiplied, and some people used the racial issues involved in "The Untouchables" to blacken the movie and Link, trying to use this method to criticize Link. Labeled as racist.

However, the legal department of Lionsgate Pictures responded strongly, and more than 30 legal letters were issued.

But it didn't take long for those colleagues to be jealous. "Lawless" was released. This is the fourth film produced by Palm Beach Pictures, in cooperation with Annapurna Pictures, and the production cost was 26 million.

Since the first four films produced by Palm Beach Pictures were all considered dark horses at the box office and received good reviews at the box office, "Lawless" was naturally overrated, and many media believed that this film was also a dark horse.

It’s a pity that this movie’s box office is a bit low. It only took in 12.28 million US dollars in the North American box office in the three days of its premiere. It only made 25 million US dollars in its ten days of release. The overseas box office was also average. It was released in 12 countries and regions in the first week. , the box office was only 8.5 million US dollars.

The film's global box office is expected to be around 50 million. Although this figure will not cause the company to lose money, Palm Beach Pictures, which has produced four consecutive blockbuster movies, has high hopes for its work, and now the fifth film is only It's capital preservation.

For other film companies, capital preservation is acceptable, but for Palm Beach Pictures, capital preservation means failure.

"Haha, I told you that Palm Beach movies can't always be a hit. Sooner or later, they will lose money. Look, what happens now?"

In the Weinstein studios office, Harvey was laughing with a cigar in his mouth, his belly bulging high.

"Harvey, I don't think this is something to be too happy about. Don't forget that "The Master" we co-produced with Palm Beach Pictures hasn't been released yet."

Bob frowned at the newspaper.

"What's the meaning?"

Harvey glared at him unhappily. Starting from the Oscars in February, good news about Link kept coming in the news.

Why did "Buried Alive" become a big hit? Link took advantage of a small chance to make a big profit, making a huge profit of 50 to 60 million.

And that **** Link successfully poached Meryl Streep and cast two enemies, Meryl and Jennifer, opposite each other. That movie was also anticipated by many.

Then there is the blockbuster "The Hunger Games" produced by Lionsgate Pictures, which is a hit and will become the next "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" series. Link and Lionsgate may make billions from this series.

In May, "Avengers" starring Link was a hit. Link became the world's top movie star, with the largest number of fans in the world, and his next movie will earn more than 30 million.

Then Link escaped from danger while filming on the set, successfully defended his title in a boxing match, and the small-budget movie "Untouchable" he invested in became a hit, earning hundreds of millions more.

Not long ago, the little princess of Link's family was born and so on.

There was too much good news related to Link in the first half of the year, not one after another, but one after another.

Every time he watches the news, he becomes numb with anger and depressed.

Now that I have finally waited for some bad news about Link, I am ready to be happy, but this **** Bob actually says not to be happy too early.

Harvey bit his cigar stick and looked at Bob with a ferocious face, asking him to give an explanation.

"Harvey, if Palm Beach Pictures' movies continue to be hits, we don't have to worry. But the box office of "Lawless" is lower than expected. Will there be a surprise at the box office of "Master"? If "Master" fails to be a hit, even If we lose money, our investment will be wiped out, so I don’t think it’s something to be happy about.”

Bob spread his hands and said.

Harvey's expression changed as he heard this, and he glared at Bob fiercely.

"This is all your responsibility. I didn't agree to cooperate with Link in the first place, but you insisted on taking the money to go to him, and now you are worried about losing money on the movie? Damn it, I told you not to cooperate with Link."

Because of that cooperation, many people mistakenly believed that they had a good relationship with Link, which made the partners who originally agreed to deal with Link become less firm. This was all Bob's fault.

"Things have happened, and it's useless to talk about it now. We can only hope that the box office of "The Master" will not be as bad as "Lawless", and preferably it will be as popular as "Bridesmaids"."

Bob said.

Harvey was very unhappy when he heard Bob say this. As Link's nemesis, how could he pray that his movie would be a hit? But if he doesn't pray, his previous investment will be in vain, and Harvey doesn't know how to feel about this movie.

"You've talked to Warner, what's their opinion?"

Harvey asked, changing the subject.

Bob shook his head, "I don't have a clue. They also want to bring down Link and Lionsgate. It's not just Warner Bros., it's the same with the other five major film studios. No one wants to look at Lionsgate as an independent producer." The company steps on them and takes their cake and eat it.

The Big Six are more urgent than us in defeating Link, but what's the use?

Not only "The Hunger Games" has been a hit this year for Lionsgate, but several other movies have also done well at the box office. Now that Lionsgate has money and people, it also has a very sound distribution channel, even if Warner wants to suppress Lionsgate. Chance. "

"No chance at all?"

Harvey didn't want to hear such pessimistic words. "Lionsgate is far worse than Warner Bros. If they are willing to take action, they will definitely dent Lionsgate in the film market."

"The price is too high. President Jeff Robinoff told me that Lions Gate is doing well now and there are no weaknesses that can be exploited, just like Link in the ring, who cannot be defeated.

The only thing we can do now is to make more blockbuster movies, squeeze Lionsgate Pictures in terms of total box office, and force Lionsgate Pictures to invest more money in promoting and releasing movies. For a wholly-owned company like Lionsgate Pictures, Generally speaking, the more you invest, the greater the risk. As long as one or two major productions suffer losses, Lions Gate's capital chain will have problems.

And now Lionsgate has benefited a lot from the big-budget "The Hunger Games". They may invest in more big-budget productions in the future. As long as they are obsessed with big-budget productions, they will always encounter box office bombs in the future. We don't need to take action at that time, Link. There will also be a lot of trouble with Lionsgate. We just need to be patient and wait for the good show. "Bob spread his hands and said.

Harvey frowned, "Wait? If Link is calmer, sticks to the low-cost route, and does not participate too much in big productions, and Lionsgate's financial situation will not be a problem, then how should we watch his show?"

"If Link is really so calm and rational, and has good luck, and we still have to go against him, will it look like we are irrational?"

Bob asked rhetorically.

Harvey's face darkened. He wanted to refute but had nothing to say. If Link was really that powerful, it would be uneconomical to deal with him, but Harvey felt unhappy if he didn't deal with him.

"Hmph, I don't believe that Link will always be so lucky. Just like this "Lawless", he must have hoped for a big hit when he invested in it, but it's a pity that he was wrong."

"maybe."

Bob pointed at the newspaper and said, "This movie was originally a movie by Megan Ellison. She lacked investment, so she asked Link for help. Link probably agreed to invest only after he couldn't push it, so to be precise, this Movies are not among Link’s chosen projects.”

"Where's the master?"

Harvey asked sullenly.

"The Master was Joaquin Phoenix's investment in Linkarat. I'm not sure whether he did it for Joaquin's sake or because of the script."

Bob said hesitantly, stroking his fat chin.

Harvey cursed Damn Link. Originally, he had read the script of "The Master" and felt that it was not very profitable, so he did not invest. Later, Link chose to invest, and Bob went up with the banknotes to ask for cooperation.

Now it seems that they were deceived by the title of Link’s Gold Medal Movie Investors, so much so that they lost their basic judgment when investing.

This was an amateurish mistake.

Boom, boom, boom!

The assistant knocked at the door.

"What's up?"

Harvey asked shamelessly.

"Boss, this is the box office performance of this week's premiere, including Lionsgate's "The Witness Protection Program."

The assistant handed over a document.

It was also Harvey's request that he need to know the box office performance of every Lionsgate movie. Today is the day when the premiere box office of "Dark Lady 2" will be released.

He took it and glanced at it, his face suddenly turned ugly.

This week's box office champion is "Teddy Bear" starring Mark Wahlberg, with a box office of US$54.41 million in its first three days. Compared with a cost of 50 million, this movie is undoubtedly a blockbuster movie.

The runner-up at the box office is the animated film "Brave" released last week, with a box office of US$52.16 million this week and a cumulative box office of US$130 million. The results are also good.

Ranked third is the autobiographical movie "Magic Mike" starring Channing Tatum, which grossed 36.12 million at the box office in its first three days. Compared with a cost of 7 million, it is also a box office dark horse.

Ranked fourth is Lionsgate Pictures' "Dark Lady 2," which grossed US$26.51 million at the North American box office in its first three days. The film cost 20 million to produce and made back its money within three days of release. There is no doubt that, Link and Lionsgate could make a killing again with this low-budget film.

Counting "Buried Alive", "The Hunger Games", "The Cabin in the Woods" and "The Untouchables", among the movies released by Lionsgate this year, five movies have already been blockbusters or blockbusters, and the remaining few movies have average box office. Enough to protect capital.

In the first half of this year, among the five films discovered by Weinstein, only "The Artist" and "The Iron Lady" were blockbusters. The other three films had small box office losses. In the first half of the year, the total box office of the films released by Weinstein Films was only 2.4 100 million, which is much less than Lionsgate’s 780 million.

Thinking of this, Harvey couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.

"Harvey, what's wrong with you? Do you want to call the doctor?"

Bob saw that his face was sweating.

"No! I'll go to the set to check it out."

Harvey threw down the documents with a sullen face and asked the driver to drive to the studio. This year, Weinstein Films' movies lagged far behind Lions Gate in terms of box office performance. If this continues, by the end of the year, Lions Gate may not even have a quarter. nor.

He felt uneasy sitting in the office and felt more at ease staying on the set and watching.

Bob picked up the documents on the table and took a look. He had to envy Lionsgate Pictures' ability to make money, although Lionsgate Pictures' total movie box office in the first half of the year was smaller than Sony-Columbia, Warner Pictures, Disney, and Universal.

However, most of the films released by Lionsgate are low-cost films, with production costs much lower than those of the six major film studios. The investment is small and the profits are large. This is the profit method that all film companies dream of.

Bob shook his head. Maybe he should talk to Link and find ways to strengthen cooperation.

—

At this time, Link also saw the premiere box office data of "The Crazy Witness Protection Program" and was a little surprised.

He has seen this movie. Although the plot is funny, the quality is average.

I thought that the sequel of this kind of movie would barely break even, but I didn't expect that it would be able to make back its money at the premiere box office. According to this situation, the North American box office is more than 60 million, and Lionsgate Pictures can earn at least 30 to 40 million on this project.

very good.

Subsequent installments of this series can also be continued.

At the same time, he also saw "Magic Mike" starring Channing Tatum. The North American box office of this movie is estimated to be more than 100 million, and it is destined to be a big hit, including "The Boys" starring Channing Tatum in March. , with a North American box office of 130 million.

Channing Tatum is very popular this year.

The Lionsgate film "The Vow" also stars Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams.

Affected, the box office situation should be better.

Lionsgate may be able to score another movie with a box office of over 100 million in North America.

However, Lionsgate Pictures has become a thorn in the eyes of many people. The more they strive upward, the greater the pressure they will endure.

For this reason, in addition to training and raising children, Link will also continue to read scripts, read best-selling books, and try to find more good film projects.

(End of chapter)