Vol 2 Chapter 559: DreamWorks Crash

Throughout June, Duke has been busy preparing for "Iron Man". While working, he will also pay attention to the box office performance of "Batman: Hour of War" from time to time. After all, the better the foundation of this film, the second one. The outbreak at the time of the show will also become more violent.
After George Lucas’ "Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith", the North American film market in June welcomed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's "Smiths". "," DreamWorks Animation Studio’s masterpiece "Madagascar" and Spielberg’s "World War", plus the aftermath of two hot films in May, the market is more competitive.
The box office of "Batman: Hour of War" is inevitably showing a downward trend, but overall the decline is fairly stable. In the entire June, a total of 36.28 million US dollars was received. By the time July came, the film The box office in North America has reached 239.07 million U.S. dollars, and breaking through the 250 million U.S. dollar mark is basically a foregone conclusion.
In overseas markets, "Batman: Hour of War" has been released in more than 90 countries and regions, with an overseas box office of 235.66 million U.S. dollars, and a global box office of up to 474.73 million U.S. dollars. It doesn't take much to exceed 500 million U.S. dollars. time.
However, compared with Dukeqi ℃∮, the overseas box office performance of his film, "Batman: Hour of War" is slightly flat. Under normal circumstances, the most popular North American movies such as action, science fiction, magic and war are popular. The overseas box office is often 1.2 to 1.5 times or more than the North American box office.
"Batman: Hour of War" tends to be dark and realistic. After leaving the North American market, it still affects the audience's senses.
In other words, the movie is relatively a little more complicated and not fun enough.
But such results are enough to satisfy Warner Bros. and Duke. After all, this is a restart that has suffered a miserable failure. Such box office numbers have proved that Batman has gained a new life.
Even the top Warner Bros. executives have decided that when Duke makes the second Batman movie, the production cost will not be capped.
of course. This is also relative, because Duke is not James Cameron. Although the films directed by him have always been large-scale productions, they are not the bottomless type of director.
This is all for the future. How can Batman's second movie have to wait until "Iron Man" is released.
One movie a year is also Duke's limit. If the speed is increased, he cannot guarantee the quality, and the other members of the team cannot afford it.
Except for box office sales. The peripheral sales of "Batman: Hour of War" are equally gratifying. After nearly two months of screening, sales of various related products in North America have exceeded 130 million U.S. dollars, and overseas sales have also sold nearly 80 million U.S. dollars, especially It is comics. After Batman was resurrected from the big screen, various versions of Batman comics instantly became best-selling products. The performance of dc comics in June increased by nearly 30% from the previous month.
Then there is the Batmobile. This car is wild and cool enough from the beginning of May to the present. The various versions with different configurations have sold nearly 400 vehicles together, bringing huge revenue to Lamborghini and Warner Bros.
According to the contract signed by the two parties, Duke, in addition to owning 20% ​​of the box office share, can also get 8% of Batman's various peripheral income.
A big-selling movie, the income it brings is amazing.
In Hollywood, film companies simultaneously invest in three to five major productions. Often as long as there is a big sale, the investment can be recovered and even profits can be made. Even those movies that lose money in the short term, if not too bad, will be operated offline in the long-term. It may also be profitable.
Of course, Duke’s movies are not in this category. His movies, even the worst at the box office, can recover costs at the box office and basically achieve profitability.
A big event happened in Hollywood in July.
"Escape from the Clone", which was released on the Independence Day holiday, was like "Kings of Heaven" and "The Heroes of the Air" released in May. It suffered a double loss of word of mouth and box office. The production cost of this sci-fi movie was as high as $126 million. The masterpiece only received more than 12 million U.S. dollars in the first week, and it dived directly to 5 million U.S. dollars the next weekend. The North American box office is bound to be difficult to exceed 50 million U.S. dollars, and huge losses are a foregone conclusion.
As if it was the last straw that overwhelmed the camel, "Escape from the Island of Clone" exposed the various crises of DreamWorks in trouble, even David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jay. The personal relationship between Frie Katzenberg has also come to the brink of division.
The wolves from the outside looked around, and there were many internal crises. Once wanted to become the dream factory of the new Hollywood giants, it came to a turning point of fate.
By mid-July, earlier than Duke had remembered, DreamWorks officially announced bankruptcy and reorganization, closing down heavily loss-making departments including records and TV series, and no longer releasing independently produced films.
Giving up distribution rights means that DreamWorks completely bows its head in front of the six major companies. Everyone in Hollywood knows that only labels with broad distribution channels can stand at the forefront of the entire industry. Although DreamWorks can be reorganized, the dream after reorganization The factory is no longer the dream factory originally conceived by the Big Three.
Looking back, Duke still vaguely remembers the glorious scene when DreamWorks was founded in 1994.
Three Jewish geniuses, David Geffen, Jeremy Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg, at the time, at the suggestion of Robert Zemeckis, finally decided to establish a film company independent of Hollywood. At the time, they may not have thought about failure.
These three people have many similarities. They are all Jewish, have no complete university education experience, are full of creativity, and have huge personal resources.
At that time, many people who were dissatisfied with the big company's dominance of Hollywood also placed high business expectations on the newborn of DreamWorks. They hoped that these three heavenly wizards would also have characters with massive resources and create a new Hollywood pattern .
When DreamWorks was founded, Spielberg held a business dinner at home. Duke still remembers that because of the increasing number of admirable guests, Spielberg's wife even went to the store outside to buy linen tablecloths as supplements. .
What a sharp contrast between the glory then and the current situation.
Why did DreamWorks fail? The six major Hollywood companies are a factor that cannot be bypassed. They and those close to them, such as Duke, have never relaxed their encirclement and suppression of DreamWorks.
Of course, regardless of the external environment and management factors, the failure of DreamWorks is also inseparable from the disparate temperament and focus of the three founders.
To put it simply, what is it like to have these three people of different temperaments have breakfast together?
Duke has heard Tom Hanks mention more than once-David Geffen's words are usually very short and gentle. Katzenberg is a ‘substantial problem’, and he will strictly control the meeting time within 22 minutes. And Spielberg has the mindset of a cartoonist, he can draw anything on paper and then turn it into reality.
For example, when discussing something with someone, David Geffen would say,
We think you are great. If you can join us, it will be perfect. If you can’t, we still think you are great. Baton'. And Katzenberg would say, ‘you are great, let’s talk about why there are 17 reasons why you should work with us’. Spielberg would say, ‘I like your performance in the film five years ago, that is the part where the platypus dances by the table, and if you can do that, it means you can do anything.’ This is how they meet, and it will definitely end in 22 minutes.
The ideas of the three people are very different. If DreamWorks develops smoothly, these are not problems. However, in a crisis, the collision of different ideas brings about contradictions. As DreamWorks gradually sinks into the quagmire, this is derived from ideas and The contradiction in work will eventually inevitably evolve into a personal contradiction.
As a result, the Big Three split, and DreamWorks' ability to deal with external crises was weakened.
From the ending of DreamWorks, Duke also sees another future for him. If after the initial success, he does not choose to continue to cooperate with Warner Bros., but ambitiously independent development, what point will he go to? I am afraid it will only be worse than DreamWorks.
The failure was accompanied by either a Jedi counterattack or an even more disastrous failure. DreamWorks simply did not have the ability to counterattack. After announcing bankruptcy and reorganization, the Big Three finally parted ways.
David Geffen completely bid farewell to the DreamWorks system and the Hollywood film and entertainment industry, carrying hundreds of millions of fortunes to devote himself to his charity.
Jeff Katzenberg took the power of DreamWorks Animation Studios, leading the only profitable department of the entire DreamWorks system, and continued to compete with his rival Michael Eisner and his old rival Disney Animation.
Steven Spielberg has become the new owner of the separate DreamWorks live-action film studio, but this director, who has never participated in the DreamWorks financial meeting, is not a qualified operator and is currently looking for Appropriate distribution partner.
In a short period of time, the once Hollywood's seventh largest film company fell apart, and the characteristics of the rule of Hollywood giants became more obvious.
Although he is a bit embarrassed about the fate of DreamWorks and the Big Three, Duke will not have too much sympathy. After all, DreamWorks collapsed earlier than before. His appearance is one of the important reasons. He personally defeated DreamWorks people. , There is no qualification and need for sympathy.
Of course, Duke will not regret it, if there is another chance to come back, he will still not stand by the side of DreamWorks.
After paying attention to the fate of DreamWorks, Duke continued his own preparatory work. After several large-scale auditions, the crew has delineated the candidate for the heroine in a relatively small range. (To be continued...)
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