Chapter 133： Save Duke

"Duke, it is impossible for us to continuously invest a lot of resources in a film."

In the Independence Day studio, Twentieth Century Fox CEO Townsend Rothman, who rushed over in person, explained to Duke, who was sitting next to a cup of coffee, "Independence Day has formed enough momentum, we just need to keep The current momentum is enough."

"I understand, Townsend." Duke is not the kind of stubborn person, let alone think that he is the center of Hollywood, "True Lies" is about to be released, Fox will definitely shift the focus of publicity.

Townsend Roseman breathed a sigh of relief, obviously not wanting to cause any misunderstandings from Duke, otherwise he wouldn't have to come to Warner Studios from Century City himself.

Yes, he attaches great importance to this young director, unprecedented attention, even now that he said that the other party is the best director in Hollywood he does not feel excessive.

Let’s not talk about the splendid and dazzling box office results of the previous two weekends. Let’s take a look at the box office results of the day before yesterday and the two working days yesterday. Monday is 7.86 million US dollars, Tuesday is 7.67 million US dollars. Japan’s North American box office totaled more than 170 million U.S. dollars. Even if God visits, I’m afraid it will not be able to prevent North America from breaking through 200 million U.S. dollars this week!

If such a director is still ±↘ and not worthy of attention, then what kind of director is worthy of attention? Townsend Rothman always remembered that the other party had also filed an equally popular war-themed script in the Screenwriters Association!

To say that Fox does not want to continue investing in Duke Rosenberg's movies, that is definitely the funniest joke in the United States.

"Townsend, I only have one request."

Now that he has enough capital, Duke will certainly not mention anything, "Before next weekend, the number of "Independence Day" theaters cannot fall to 2,600."

There are not enough theaters. No matter how good a movie is, it is impossible to generate high box office.

"This..." Townsend Rothman seemed a little embarrassed.

After all, "True Lies" is about to be released, and Fox will definitely have to fight for enough theater lines to ensure the benefits of this big investment and production.

"I understand that the number of theaters in North America is relatively limited."

Although he understands this, Duke will not give up, and the theater can be found elsewhere. "Townsend, have you ever noticed? Columbia Pictures' "Shawshank's Redemption" released last week had a single-day box office of less than $2 million on Monday and Tuesday, and there are still 1,600 theaters. Why can't we contact the theater? Line side, how about compressing its screening scale?"

"As long as its box office doesn't improve today and tomorrow..." Townsend Rothman's eyes flashed, "Fox will definitely put pressure on the theaters to reduce the number of theaters in "Shawshank's Redemption."

"You can contact Warner." Duke said, "I believe Warner is also happy to see this situation."

There are only so many theaters in North America, and it will not increase too much in a short time. In the twentieth century, Fox wanted to open "True Lies" on a large scale. He must have thought about reducing the scale of "Independence Day." This is a situation that Duke and Warner don’t want to see. If you want to maintain your own interests, it’s best. The solution is to transfer Fox’s knife to other movies in the same period.

Except for "Independence Day", "Shawshank's Redemption", which is now on a larger scale and has a relatively poor box office performance, is naturally the best target.

In a competitive market, I want to protect my own interests. Sometimes it is necessary to harm the interests of others.

In short, it is a hundred times better to see other people's bad luck than your own bad luck.

When leaving. Townsend Rothman invited Duke to the premiere of "True Lies", but Duke politely declined.

Now the public opinion battle with film critics is not over, it is the focus of many media attention, he will not be stupid enough to grab others' limelight at the premiere.

Before the release of "True Lies", the North American film market still maintained the dominance of "Independence Day" on Wednesday and Thursday. Reported receipts of 7.43 million U.S. dollars and 7.59 million U.S. dollars, so far, the film’s North American box office has accumulated as high as 190.44 million U.S. dollars. The threshold of 200 million U.S. dollars has been touched, and it is bound to break through this weekend this weekend.

On the other hand, Duke's expectations came true. After two consecutive days of a single-day box office slump of no more than 2 million US dollars, the theaters have been under pressure from Paramount, Warner Bros., Walt Disney and Twentieth Century Fox and other companies. In addition, such box office has also Without any persuasiveness, even if Sony Columbia smashed his mouth and even the CEO personally went into battle, the number of theaters in "Shawshank's Redemption" still shrank sharply, from 1,600 to more than 900.

Immediately afterwards, Sony Columbia Pictures reduced the scale of the film’s promotion and marketing. The film was completely out of the way in theaters. Now Sony is no longer thinking about whether it can be profitable, but how to make less compensation.

Duke only paid attention to it for a moment, and then threw it aside. If it develops according to the current trend, "Shawshank's Redemption" will inevitably be the same as it used to be, and it will take ten years or more to recover the cost.

Nothing is convincing with box office results. Just entering the weekend, news came from Nancy Josephson that the copyright agency from London finally nodded and agreed to collaborate with the Duke’s Studio and the film copyright holder Saul Saz. Start negotiations and take down that huge story!

Although it takes time to reach a conclusion, Duke's spirit is also refreshed. With the popularity of "Independence Day", he actually knows very well that after the next film, it must be transformed. If the bombardment continues, It won’t take long for the audience to get bored.

At the same time, Duke had a detailed discussion with the two screenwriters hired in the Duke’s studio, and gave them the play purchased from Broadway, as well as two archived feature films and science fiction films. Modify the preparation.

Transformation does not mean that you can turn around. It requires a lot of preparation work. While paying attention to the box office trend of "Independence Day" and consulting some memoirs of the 101st Airborne Division and Rangers, Duke is also looking through information about jazz singing and dancing.

The screening of "Independence Day" entered its third weekend. Although the weekend box office score of 24.57 million US dollars was lost to the US$28.56 million of "True Lies", it lost the box office champion, but it rushed to 200 million. The dollar mark. Put Duke into the ranks of the 200 million dollar club.

Looking at the entire Hollywood, there are only a few members of the $200 million directors club.

The media of Time Warner and Twentieth Century Fox were delighted by this achievement, and could not wait to spread it to every corner of the world, so as to build momentum for the "Independence Day", which was successively launched in overseas markets, and film critics continued to lash out. I think that "Independence Day" can be a big hit, but Duke used the most shameful means to obtain it. The film has neither connotation nor artistry, and some are just technical shows and shows off.

Even Roger Albert asserted in his column that Duke Rosenberg and "Independence Day" are the biggest hot spots for the Golden Raspberry Awards next year!

In the Chicago studio, Roger Albert is calling a friend. The person on the other side of the phone is John Wilson, who is the founder of the Golden Raspberry Award.

"John. We have the responsibility and obligation to remind Hollywood to avoid excessive commercialization of movies! What the world needs is "Shawshank's Redemption", not "Independence Day" such a bad movie! Please think about it, my friend, this year There can be no film worse than "Independence Day," nor can there be a director worse than Duke Rosenberg!"

"Roger, I promise, I will seriously consider it. But for a young director..."

Hearing the slightly worried voice of the other party, Roger Albert changed into a serious and earnest tone. "This is saving Duke Rosenberg's career as a director. We can't just watch a talented young man go astray..."

From his tone alone, it seems that he is really thinking about Duke's career as a director.

Hanging up the phone, Roger Albert was sitting behind his desk with a gloomy face that was so ugly that he could pretend not to see the box office of "Independence Day". You can also pretend that you don't care about the box office of "Independence Day" and only watch the film from an artistic point of view, seeking the psychological comfort that it is just a bad film.

However, the young director viciously trampled on the dignity of him and many film critics. Although after the first weekend, he made fewer and fewer voices, he could see that the other party and the film company behind him were clearly using their criticism to make a movie hype!

Have trampled on their dignity and still use their dignity to benefit? How many people can bear this kind of thing?

What's more, Duke Rosenberg’s behavior has directly touched the interests of the film critic industry. If you don’t talk about other people, just say that he would have participated in the preview screenings of "Burning Eyebrows" and "Ghost in Disguise". , Which made a lot of money, but after the sale of "Independence Day" and Duke Rosenberg's remarks to discredit the film critics, the film crew cancelled the invitation to the film critics to preview...

This is a substantial monetary loss!

How many years has it been? How many years have there been no directors who openly confronted the film critics?

With his eyebrows furrowed, Roger Albert recalled in detail that when they attacked George Lucas, the other party just made a fortune in silence; when criticizing Ridley Scott, the British did not respond with a strong word. There is also James Cameron, the most stinking temper in the director’s world, who has never really confronted film critics...

From the 1950s and 1960s, if critics criticized, more than 95% of directors would choose to endure, or ignore them. When the previous two films were released, the professional ratings were not high, and critics criticized them. There were also a lot of voices, but Duke didn't have any echoes, and chose silence.

But this time, Duke chose to stand up for a simple reason. He signed a box office ladder-sharing agreement. As long as he can ignite the topic and boost box office numbers, he doesn't care about the feelings of those film critics.

Of course, to become a public enemy of film critics must have a strong enough psychological quality, otherwise those ironic comments can make people crazy.

Time slowly enters the end of July. The North American box office of "Independence Day" has just passed 250 million U.S. dollars, and when it is trying to climb toward 300 million U.S. dollars, the film's overseas box office has also exceeded 250 million U.S. dollars!

The global box office adds up to 500 million US dollars, which is already one of the top box office results in film history. In August, even the media that previously criticized Duke and "Independence Day" have turned their heads and started to praise all kinds of praise. The vocabulary was thrown at him, especially the first published "Vanity Fair", the above article made people laugh. (To be continued...)