Chapter 615: vampire

Universal Pictures has high hopes for "Van Helsing". The production cost of this film is as high as 160 million U.S. dollars, and the public publicity and distribution budget is 100 million U.S. dollars. The high investment of a total of 260 million U.S. dollars also shows the high investment of Universal Pictures. confidence.
High income also means huge cost recovery pressure.
Contrary to Ronan’s expectation, according to the news he received, during the internal screening of Universal Pictures, the market prospects of "Van Helsing" were quite optimistic, and some people even thought it would be no less than the three "Lord of the Rings" The magical production of the song.
Universal Pictures’ confidence comes not only from the film itself, but also partly from director Stephen Sommers.
Speaking of Stephen Sommers, one has to talk about the two box office bombs he created, "The Mummy" and "The Return of the Mummy". The former was a big hit in 1999, and the North American box office totaled more than $155 million, while the latter The myth of a sequel movie was staged. In the first week of the show, the box office set a box office record of US$68.1 million in North America, and finally the global box office totaled US$429 million.
In addition, Stephen Sommers was the screenwriter and producer of "The Scorpion King" in 2002. The film topped the North American box office with 36.1 million in the first week of its release. Later, the global box office also reached 15100. Ten thousand U.S. dollars.
Such a brilliant record makes people have to have confidence in Stephen Sommers.
Ronan didn't see "Van Helsing" and was not sure if this film would change.
However, the success or failure of "Van Helsing" does not have much impact on Relativity Entertainment. At most, "Shrek 2", which will be released in the next weekend, will be affected.
"Underworld 2", also starring Kate Beckinsale, was not only released in the first two months of "Van Helsing", but by the end of April, it had already been downgraded in North American theaters.
The North American box office of this film finally stopped at 88.74 million US dollars.
Next, the "Underworld" series will undergo a period of cold storage, even if "Van Helsing" fails, it will not affect this series for the time being.
Probably because of the previous copyright transactions of the "Hulk" and "Fast and Furious" series, Universal Pictures and the NBC Group behind it, specially sent Ronan a premiere invitation.
Ronan also went to see the premiere of "Van Helsing".
At the huge premiere, fans and media reporters were enthusiastic, and Universal Pictures obviously invested heavily in holding the premiere.
Nowadays, in Hollywood, it has become the norm to invest more than three million dollars in the premiere of first-line blockbuster films, and even the huge premiere of individual films can cost up to five million dollars.
Most of the premieres in Hollywood will be selected in popular locations in first-tier cities. The rent alone is a huge expense.
It is getting harder and harder to attract people to stop at the premiere with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The characteristics of the eyeball economy are particularly evident in the entertainment industry.
Ron Meyer has resigned from the newly formed NBC Universal Entertainment Group. Ronan and the new senior executives of Universal Pictures are not familiar with him, so he said hello and greeted him casually before entering the theater.
Compared with the other five of the six major companies, Universal Pictures has not been able to cause problems for Relativity Entertainment in recent years.
Universal Pictures and NBC Television have merged two large companies. Just think about how much work there are, how difficult it is to handle personnel and business relationships. NBC Universal Pictures will take at least two years to complete the internal integration.
During this period, Universal Pictures did not have much energy to actively suppress other companies.
To a large extent, Vivendi has tossed Universal Pictures this circle, which also means that Relativity Entertainment has one less blocker.
In fact, since the beginning of the new century, the six major companies have had several internal problems, that is, the 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Sony Columbia Pictures are relatively stable.
Disney's infighting intensified, Universal Pictures frequently changed hands, and Paramount Pictures' production business had a major problem...
While thinking about this, Luo Nan thought about how Relativity Entertainment should use the situation and seize the opportunity to break through the tacit and loose encirclement and suppression circle of the six major companies.
The possibility of the once giant Walt Disney appearing is becoming less and less, and Robert Iger and Marvel have both fallen into the hands of Relativity Entertainment.
The rest of this year will be used to digest and reorganize Marvel Entertainment, develop Netflix, and new development plans, and it will wait until next year at the earliest.
Otherwise, the internal instability of Relativity Entertainment will make the seemingly loose capital chain tight.
A big selling movie has brought huge cash flow to Relativity Entertainment, but the funds are not unlimited.
Netflix made a profit last year. This year’s disc sales and leasing business has developed more rapidly. However, network sharing and the upcoming streaming media business are both expensive. It is very difficult for Netflix to maintain no loss in 2004.
Ronan will not have more profit requirements for Netflix for the time being.
The movie began to show. Seeing the familiar face of Hugh Jackman, Ronan stopped thinking about work and focused on the movie, just as relaxing as he watched an interesting movie.
This is a big collection of monsters in the Universal movie, and even a monster version of the Avengers.
Van Helsing, Dracula, Werewolf, Vampire Bride, Frankenstein, etc. all appeared, and each had a lot of roles.
Like the previous blockbusters, the main plot of this "Van Helsing" is not much different from the one that Ronan has seen.
Just like before, Ronan felt that the film was well shot.
Ronan, from the perspective of a pure audience, although this movie is not very exciting, it is also very interesting. From his point of view, it is no less than the two "Mummy".
Perhaps after the two "The Mummy", the audience's expectations for the Universal Monster movie have increased; or perhaps it has not done any preparation before, and it is difficult for the audience to accept the production of a monster hodgepodge.
The response after the premiere of "Van Helsing" was not very good.
For a summer commercial film with such a huge investment, word-of-mouth and evaluation are false, and everything must ultimately be reflected in the box office.
On the first day of its release in North America, "Van Helsing" earned $19.5 million in nearly 4,000 theaters.
This result is not bad, but compared to the investment in the film, it is not much better.
On Saturday, the box office of "Van Helsing" did not break out, nor did it bring a bonus due to the holiday effect. The box office of $16.4 million has already made the seniors of Universal Pictures feel chills.
Combined with the film's not-so-good reputation, including Universal Pictures, in fact, they already have a judgment on "Van Helsing" in their hearts.
As soon as Monday arrived, the new box office rankings were released, and "Van Helsing" unsurprisingly topped the North American box office rankings. The box office of the North American opening weekend was 51.7 million US dollars.
When it comes to a medium-scale investment film, US$51.7 million is definitely a big box office figure, but in the face of a production cost of US$160 million and a publicity and distribution budget of US$100 million, it is too low and too low.
And with the increase in the audience who saw the film, the reputation of "Van Helsing" has also deteriorated. From the plot of the film to the monsters to the main actors such as Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, they have become the object of criticism from the audience and the media. .
Especially Kate Beckinsale, "Van Helsing" almost announced that Kate Beckinsale and Hollywood first-line production fate has since ended.
This English rose has not yet bloomed in Hollywood, but has withered.
Stephen Sommers and Hugh Jackman are not having a good life. If the box office trend behind Van Helsing does not improve, the pressure brought by huge investment will make them blacklisted by many Hollywood studios.
Hugh Jackman is better, after all, there is Wolverine.
But this "Van Helsing" failed, and the elegance and aura brought by the two "Mummy", Stephen Sommers will inevitably be lost.
The former executives of Universal Pictures who stayed at NBC Universal Entertainment Group will have a tougher life. Ron Meyer, who decided to promote this project, has resigned, and there must be other executives responsible for it.
The failure of top-level productions has always been a reserved project in Hollywood movies.
There may be a large number of people who will be swept out by NBC.
Including the film's creators and Universal Pictures, their only hope is that "Van Helsing" can maintain a sufficiently stable box office trend, and the final North American box office will be as high as possible.
After all, the box office of "Titanic" in North America in the first week was only more than $28 million.
But with the arrival of the second weekend of the summer vacation, all the hopes accumulated were nothing but a bubble.
"Van Helsing"'s box office for the next weekend plunged 60% from the first weekend, and only won $20.7 million in three days.
Ten days after its release, the North American box office of this super-large production just reached $85 million.
Those who follow this film know that "Van Helsing" will inevitably lose money and may even cause huge losses.
Even if income is obtained through long-term offline operation, how many years will it take to recover the investment? ten years? Twenty years? Or thirty years?
How to calculate the time cost? How much will the currency depreciate at that time?
In contrast, this weekend, "Shrek~EbookFREE.me~" produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios and released by Embassy Pictures showed infinite brilliance.
The first "Shrek" has caused a huge sensation.
Two years of TV broadcasting and offline DVD rental and sales have cultivated more audiences, which all broke out during the opening weekend.
The quality of "Shrek 2" is not much better than the first one, but due to the addition of the sequel effect, the North American premiere weekend sold $115.26 million in the box office in 4,210 theaters.
This also set a record.
The box office of 115.26 million US dollars means that in the North American film market, for the first time in history, an animated feature film has exceeded the 100 million US dollar mark.
Although it is the dazzling DreamWorks Animation Studio, Embassy Pictures, as the distributor, can also get huge profits from this animated feature film.
To a certain extent, Embassy Pictures has also successfully transformed into a vampire in the upper reaches of the industry chain, lying on the studio.