Chapter 1982： trade at a loss

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In the fifth week of December, the last week of 2008, the North American box office charts featured "Marley and Me," "Bedtime Story," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Action Target Hitler," "Zhu No," "Mr. Nice," "Seven Pounds," "Romantic Rat," "The Day The Earth Stood Still," "The Shining Man," and "Slumdog Millionaire" were a top 11 list.

In addition to the $36 million box-office surprise of "Marley and Me", what had to be said between "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and Evan Bell became the hottest topic.

It is no longer news that Evan Bell originally wanted to play "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" but was rejected by David Fincher. David Fincher rejected Evan Bell and chose Brad Pitt. In fact, there is not much to question about the choice. After all, Brad Pitt and David Fincher have collaborated on such masterpieces as "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Fight Club", and Brad has lost his youthful appearance. -Pitt has also been challenging for breakthroughs in acting in recent years, which is indeed worth watching.

But now after the release of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", it presents a rather embarrassing situation. The film's reputation is mixed. The so-called differences here are not caused by the central idea of ​​the film, but more because of the controversy caused by the quality of the film. The comprehensive score of the media is only 68 points, which is really not a satisfactory number.

The media that gave praise believed that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" shaped the best live-action epic since "Forrest Gump"; In seventeen minutes, it did not show enough attractiveness to make people drowsy, and the amazing charm originally contained in the story was bland, like a boring cup of plain water.

Similarly, Brad Pitt's performance has also been divided into different comments, some think it is the best performance of Brad Pitt's career, and some think that Brad Pitt ruined such a potential classic. 's masterpiece.

In fact. The mixed reputation of a work is also the proof that the film has received widespread attention. "Perfume" may have faced such a situation at the beginning. In any case, the overall trend believes that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indeed Oscar's favorite traditional route, and it may also surpass the sketches "Juno" and "Slumdog Millionaire" to become the Oscar nominee. The biggest winner, after all, this work has very strong strength in all aspects.

If that's all, then it's a good thing for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". But at this time, "Juno", which was released simultaneously, showed a thriving situation, and the light-heavy style pushed the charm of the movie to its peak. People can't help but wonder, if Evan Bell starred in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", what kind of scene would it be? What kind of spark can the collision of Evan Bell and David Fincher produce?

The best thing about Evan Bell's acting skills is that he can not only dig out the connotation of the role, but also integrate his own field with the role. To form a unique new image, such as Captain Jack Sparrow, such as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, such as the Joker, it can be said that no one can identify the same role as Evan- Bell's more unique imprint. In addition, the spark between Evan Bell and the director is always expected.

So, instead of wanting to draw an acting distinction between Evan Bell and Brad Pitt, people are curious about what kind of chemistry there will be between Evan Bell and the role of Benjamin Button. This is the most anticipated.

Not to mention Evan Bell's appeal at the box office. Although Brad Pitt is a top actor, his best box office performance in recent years is "Mrs. Smith". In addition, there is no The works that can come out, but Evan Bell is different, not only the awards and word of mouth, but also the amazing performances at the box office, not to mention the "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" that swept thousands of troops this summer. .

Do a calculation like this. Paramount Pictures apparently made a loss-making business. David Fincher and Brad Pitt invested $150 million. As a result, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" only had 26 million in its premiere; while Evan Bell's "The Dark Knight" during the summer vacation invested 185 million, and its premiere was 176 million. Not to mention word of mouth, the frontal competition of the work is also a complete victory for a commercial blockbuster such as "The Dark Knight", and the clown played by Evan Bell has won endless praise. Such a direct comparison really makes people have to cast their eyes.

Naturally, the topic of "If Evan played..." became a lingering cloud over "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". With comparisons, there are naturally highs and lows. Even if public opinion is unintended, people's expectations for Evan Bell have affected both Brad Pitt and David Fincher.

Although no one has directly expressed this meaning, the subtext seems to be saying that Brad Pitt is not as good as Evan Bell, which makes Brad Pitt very embarrassed. After all, he has been in the entertainment industry for nearly 20 years. A veteran artist, who gave the best performance of his career, but was still considered inferior to Evan Bell, which made Brad Pitt hold back.

As for David Fincher, people think he's too strong, so it's a bad decision to reject Evan Bell and choose Brad Pitt. This immediately made David Fincher furious, but he said whatever he wanted, "I rejected Evan at first, and I didn't plan to let him play in this work. I think Brad is very good, he will do it again. It's good, he's doing a great job, and I think he definitely deserves an Oscar nomination." David Fincher is defending not only his decision, but his favorite.

In an instant, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" stood on the opposite side of Evan Bell, which involved "Juno", and people were joking that maybe this year's awards season will end up being the showdown between these two works . This is not the situation Paramount Pictures expected, at least, Brad Gray and Evan Bell did not intend to have a bad relationship.

Fortunately, Evan Bell did not mean to mess with the media. When he was promoting the album "Five", he was also asked this question, and he directly said, "Brad is a very good actor, I I think his performance in the movie is very good." When faced with the reporter's question about "What do you think about the role of Benjamin Button", Evan Bell smiled and said, "You trust me. , I have to say thanks, but I never felt like I was omnipotent and capable of any role, so, I guess, I didn't know what would have happened without Benjamin Button. Maybe better, maybe more Bad, isn't it?"

In the face of Evan Bell's goodwill, David Fincher and Brad Pitt also released a corresponding friendly. However, the pattern of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" against "Juno" in the media has inevitably formed, which also makes this year's awards season initially show a situation of traditional college factions and anti-traditional personality factions.

In addition to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Action Target Hitler" is disappointing and is barely a satisfactory situation; "Revolutionary Road" has no fanatical supporters, with mainly middle and upper evaluations, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's acting was well-received, but the film as a whole was mediocre.

After entering the first week of 2009, the entire movie market has cooled down, the awards season has ended, and the box office competition has entered a cold winter with the increasingly cold northern hemisphere, so the North American movie market is completely depressed. . In such a situation, "Marley and I" won the North American box office championship with a weekend box office of 24 million US dollars, while "Juno", which was widely released in 2,400 theaters in the United States, took nine With a single-hall box office of a thousand dollars, it won the box office of 21.6 million dollars in three days over the weekend and returned to the runner-up position in the North American box office chart.

In front of the box office of "Juno", "Bedtime Story" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" all failed. Even though the theaters far exceeded "Juno", they all fell on the North American box office charts. Behind "Juno" This also highlights the embarrassment of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", which makes the media very excited.

The miracle of "Little Sunshine" has been carried forward in "Juno". At this time, the cumulative box office of "Juno" has reached 80 million US dollars, exceeding the 110 million that "Little Sunshine" made in North America. Dollar grades don't seem to be an issue at all.

The expansion of "Juno" has not stopped. In the second and third weeks of January 2009, the expansion continued to a small extent, and the theater chain finally fell behind in 2,800 theaters. Although I haven't bought the threshold of 3,000, but for a sketch that only invested 7.5 million, this screening scale is enough to show the audience's enthusiasm for it.

In the second week of January, the weekend box office was 15 million, ranking fourth at the North American box office; in the third weekend, the box office was 13 million, ranking sixth in the North American box office... "Juno" has been on its way to the top ten in the North American box office. It lasted until the first week of March, and the screening line was very long. It was not officially released until the second week of July, and it was released for 28 weeks before and after.

In the end, "Juno" made a box office of 220 million US dollars in North America. This data not only far exceeded "Little Miss Sunshine", but also with the title of Gotham Award for Best Picture, it immediately became an independent work. The new benchmark, and in comparison with the cost of 7.5 million US dollars, has become another classic case of Eleven Studio's small and broad.

Since then, before the title of director Evan Bell, there has been an additional modifier: miracle.

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