Chapter 344： A good start

At the Relativity Entertainment Company, a female assistant enters the CEO's office and puts documents on Robert Iger's desk.

"Mr. Iger," she said, "this document needs your signature."

Robert Iger took it over and took a look, and said, "You come and take it in half an hour."

When the female assistant was about to leave, he said again: "Emma, ​​get me some copies of today's newspaper."

"Okay." The female assistant left the office.

Robert Iger looked at the file carefully, made sure there was no problem, signed it, and then notified the female assistant to come over.

The female assistant took the documents and delivered the newspaper by the way.

After finishing the work at hand, Robert Iger took the newspaper and turned to the entertainment section to find news related to "Resident Evil".

This is the first film released by the company after he joined Relativity Entertainment, and he is naturally very concerned.

Relativity Entertainment is expanding its industry. This is a channel to create profits, but content manufacturing is also crucial. With excellent content, broad channels can maximize benefits.

Robert Iger watched the premiere of "Resident Evil" and was somewhat worried.

The managerial work experience of ABC TV and Walt Disney has brought Robert Iger excellent work ability and experience, and at the same time, his thinking has been influenced by the style of Disney to some extent.

After spending many years at Disney, the businesses I deal with every day are typical Disney-style works, and Robert Iger will definitely be affected.

It hasn't been long since he left Disney, and a small part of his thinking has not changed.

What Robert Iger worries about is that the scale of "Resident Evil" is somewhat large, and the audience may be affected.

As soon as this thought flashed through his head, Robert Iger shook his head slightly, and instantly thought of the difference between Relativity Entertainment and Disney.

In Ronan's words, Disney can call it Baby Di, and Relativity Entertainment, as long as the film is profitable, it doesn't matter if the film is R-rated, PG-14 or PG.

Robert Iger knows very well that every larger film company in Hollywood is different, and it is impossible for every film company to follow the family-friendly route.

Thinking of this, Robert Iger went to read the newspaper and wanted to see the reaction to "Resident Evil".

Like other films produced by Shahai Entertainment, this is also a project that Ronan single-handedly finalized. The whole company believes that this film will succeed.

Robert Iger didn't know what magic Ronan had. He only knew about the projects Ronan was running. He basically didn't miss it.

The only "Ace Agent" with poor box office and market response has also made great profits in the company's operations.

However, Ronan’s films also have a characteristic. Except for last year’s "The Bourne", other films generally have a poor reputation.

It seems that this "Resident Evil" is the same.

"It is really a thankless practice to shoot an original story under the name of a famous game. The obscure story and procrastinated scenes made this movie a terrible failure."

This is a column commentary by Kenneth Turan, a full-time film critic of the Los Angeles Times.

Robert Iger flipped through other pages of this newspaper. The news related to "Resident Evil" was basically not very good.

"I hope the views of the media will not affect the film market too much..."

Robert Iger put down the newspaper and opened several movie websites that are increasingly influential on the Internet to check relevant reviews and ratings.

The Rotten Tomatoes Index is rotten, and the positive rate is 37%. If you just look at the Rotten Tomatoes Index, it is very doubtful that "Resident Evil" is a super rotten movie.

But the webpage was transferred to the IMDB website, which was scored by ordinary fans. Robert Iger clicked on the "Resident Evil" page. He couldn't help but feel refreshed. IMDB's audience score of 7.3 points, it seems that it belongs to the very high audience score in the zombie category. .

He specifically inquired that as long as the audience rating of such films can reach 6 points, the market response is often not bad.

However, the type of movie adaptation of the game makes people feel uneasy.

Robert Iger didn't worry for long. When the first day of "Resident Evil"'s North American box office was released, his heart basically fell back in his stomach.

On the first day of its release in North America, "Resident Evil" scored 10.16 million US dollars in more than 2,800 theaters and made a good start.

The film that opened on a large scale the same weekend, as well as New Line Pictures’ "Im Coming", this crime film starring Denzel Washington, earned $6.81 million on the first day.

"Resident Evil" on the first day of screenings on Friday, that is the day of the airborne box office leader.

This also made some people in the industry admire the game-adapted movie.

Many feedbacks were sent to Ronan at the same time it was also sent to Robert Iger. Robert Iger saw first-hand market response statistics, and based on years of experience in the industry, he determined that "Resident Evil" would definitely be a success.

Although the increase in the number of film reviews has reduced the Rotten Tomatoes Index of "Resident Evil" to 35%, Cinema's live audience statistics scored "B+", which is extremely beneficial to "Resident Evil".

Even, Cinema predicts that the North American box office of this film will be more than 60 million US dollars.

Robert Iger knows very well that with the investment in the production and distribution of this project, if the film can get a box office of 60 million US dollars in North America, plus the box office income overseas will not be very low, it can be recovered only by box office income. This is not impossible to generate profit.

He specifically looked at the fan reviews of statistics. Whether it is a game fan or a zombie film fan, most of them are satisfied with "Resident Evil".

"As a film adapted from the game "Resident Evil", it was made unexpectedly well. The plot of the film always has a mystery, and the heroine's amnesia creates more suspense for the story, making people after reading the beginning. I can't help but want to keep watching."

Many game fans do not seem to have to let the movie follow the game's plot mode as expected.

"When I watched the trailer, I was still angry because of the original heroine and other adaptations, but after watching the film for ten minutes before, I was thankful that the film did not stick to the original settings of the game and added a lot of unexpected and wonderful ideas. How to put it, the plot is very compact, the ups and downs along the way are extremely coherent, and the routine settings are also very imaginative, especially the scene of the laser array shattering people is really cruel, definitely more shocking than a simple zombie bite.

Those who are not fans of the game have a simple point of view.

"Very good-looking zombie movie, very exciting, suspense setting and horror atmosphere, heroine Alice is so handsome."

"Zombies and lickers are in line with expectations. The biggest highlight is the heroine. Alice is so beautiful. It doesn't matter what the plot is. It's worth the fare to watch the beauty Alice beat the zombie!"

"A classic in zombie films, elements such as claustrophobic space escape, zombies, and human choice are all reasonable and not overwhelming. Milla Jovovich's red dress is unforgettable and so handsome!"

"I haven't played games, but this movie is made with a sense of science fiction and action, and it also has the compactness and ups and downs of the movie, which is very good!

Relatively good reviews from movie fans, coupled with the use of zombies as a gimmick, aimed at this type of audience, the performance of "Resident Evil" in the theater is quite impressive.

After winning $10.16 million on the first day, "Resident Evil" not only did not fall at the box office on Saturday, but rose slightly, closing at $10.62 million on the day.

On Sunday, "Resident Evil", like all films, had a certain degree of decline, and received $7.65 million.

In the first week of its North American release, in more than 2,800 theaters, "Resident Evil" earned US$28.43 million, easily surpassing the US$20.75 million of "Immending" and won the North American box office chart.

The box office revenue of the first week has exceeded the production cost of the film, and it can be said that it has achieved great success.

The following Monday was the President’s Day holiday. Due to the holiday effect, Resident Evil’s performance in North America was still relatively strong, with another $6.85 million in a single day, and the North American box office totaled $35.28 million.

In just four days, the game adaptation of the movie cost more than 35 million US dollars.

After Robert Iger got the box office statistics, he was completely relieved that such a seemingly unreliable movie was a big success.

"I have to say that you have a really good eye on the decision of the movie project."

In the office, Robert Iger looked at Ronan and said: "The success of "Resident Evil" has made a good start for us this year."

Ronan said calmly: "It's better to promote and distribute."

Robert Iger suddenly thought of one thing and said: "This project is not only the success of the movie. The book "Zombie Survival Guide" has also been sold very well. Influenced by the movie, it has sold 430,000 copies in North America."

Ronan couldn't help laughing: "Zombie culture is still very marketable, and we can continue to pay attention to the types of zombie films in our future production plans."

I remember that Zach Schneider made a remake of "Dawn of the Living Dead~ and officially started his director career. Looking back to find someone to find out which company the copyright of the old version belongs to.

"Last year, "Tomb Raider" was successful, and this year, "Resident Evil" was a big hit." Robert Iger added at this time: "I heard that many companies in the industry want to follow up with game adaptations."

Ronan said directly: "I have a "Dungeon Siege" ready to be adapted, and the sequel of "Resident Evil" needs to be followed up. Other games are adapted for movies, so we don't want to compete with other companies."

He has already talked to Paul Anderson and Milla Jovovich. Both of them are very interested in the sequel. After a period of rest, they will be involved in the preparation of the sequel.

In Ronan's previous life, someone once commented that "Resident Evil" was a film made by the director to soak the heroine.

Whether it is Alice or "Resident Evil", the influence on the other side of the Pacific is actually so great that many of them appear on the scene.

Ronan intends to continue this series.