After Monday, under the strong force of Fox Pictures, the media direction of "Butterfly Effect" changed significantly in just a few days.
Compared with media reviews that tend to be subjective, ordinary people are obviously more susceptible to real data.
The box office in the first week was 21.69 million US dollars.
A slight decline of 17% the following weekend.
Average audience rating of 7.7.
All of these undoubtedly show that the quality of the "Butterfly Effect" film is far from being as bad as criticized by film critics. Under the guidance of Fox Pictures deliberately public opinion, the public gradually realized that the one-sided bad reviews of "Butterfly Effect" were probably the result of deliberate discredit.
Subsequently, the New York Post under News Corporation published an article that further convinced many people.
The matter has to be turned back to Simon's sudden media questioning in March. A reporter from the New York Post found out that Mark Horrington, the solo writer who questioned Simon in an article in The New York Times, had recently suddenly Bought a brand new Ferrari sports car.
So, the problem came.
Mark Horrington's past income was not enough to make him pay for such an expensive sports car.
Well.
Where did the money come from?
Was it the extra money that was made suddenly because of being instructed to criticize a certain genius boy?
As a tabloid with a huge circulation, the "New York Post" is well-known for all kinds of unethical news. In order to avoid defamation lawsuits, this article did not directly raise similar questions about Mark Horrington, but the words directed the audience to a certain direction.
Faced with the accusation of the "New York Post", Mark Horrington was very'cooperative' and immediately rebutted, claiming that he bought the sports car in installments and did not pay the full amount, so naturally there is nothing.' Extra money'.
"The New York Times" may not want to take this muddy water again. Mark Horrington's clarification article can only be published in another newspaper, "Daily News."
It's even more lively now.
As we all know, the "Daily News" and the "New York Post", which have similar market positions with similar circulations, have always been rivals. The two newspapers, which are very innocent, are almost completely torn apart and often scold each other. Even the bosses Rupert Murdoch and Mortimer Zuckerman were brought out to be worthless.
Now, with Mark Horrington's clarification on the "Daily News", the two sides are fighting again.
This kind of media tearing is usually difficult to produce results.
Unfortunately, it was Mark Horrington.
Things got worse and worse, and his collection of money to discredit Simon Westeros was inexplicably settled in this torment.
It was so lively until Friday, April 24.
Due to the change in media trends and Fox Pictures' intensified marketing offensive, "Butterfly Effect"'s box office decline in the second week of the whole week continued to narrow compared to the three days of the weekend, only 15%, and another 18.28 million US dollars.
In two weeks, the total box office of "Butterfly Effect" has reached 39.97 million US dollars.
Only this close to 40 million US dollars in the box office has allowed "Butterfly Effect" to squeeze into the fourth place in the total box office of movies released in 1987, second only to "Lola Run", "Lethal Weapon" and Disney in January. "The Cruel Destiny" of
On Simon's side, while busy with a lot of things at hand, he also cooperated with Fox Pictures to be a guest on NBC's "Tonight Show" again, and spent a few minutes discussing the creative inspiration of "Butterfly Effect".
In the contract between the two parties, although Simon has the obligation to cooperate with the promotion of the film, he is actually the kind of person who does not like to show his face very much.
However, when Peter Sanders invited Simon to participate in the talk show, he directly sent a check for 300,000 U.S. dollars, and also stated that the film's North American box office exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars, and Fox Pictures would pay Simon a bonus.
Simon naturally tried his best to cooperate with the other party on the road.
At the same time, after Michael Ovitz's visit, Robert Redford responded the next day, willing to accept a payment clause of $500,000 plus a 5% profit share.
After the party last Saturday, the Madonnas thought about it for a few days and also responded, expressing their willingness to play the roles of little bunny and little pumpkin. The final negotiated condition was that the couple would take $500,000 in salary together.
In addition, Simon agreed to write a song for Madonna's new album in the second half of the year.
To finalize these, "Pulp Fiction" now has three superstars, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and John Travolta. The fame of Madonna and Sean Penn should not be underestimated.
With a budget of US$8 million, such a powerful cast has been assembled. The ecstatic Orion Pictures deliberately held a press conference on Thursday and announced to the public the name of Simon's new work "Pulp Fiction" and a series of performances. List of big coffee.
In the afternoon.
Daenerys Pictures headquarters in Santa Monica.
In Simon's office, Meg Ryan, dressed in an OL dress in a white shirt and black skirt, carefully poured coffee for Simon and Amy, before turning around and going out.
Amy was holding a coffee cup, watching Meg Ryan leaving, and said to Simon: "She seems to be a little scared of you. It is not a good phenomenon to make a woman scared."
In the past few days, Meg Ryan has officially started '9 to 5' at Daenerys Pictures.
Simon just wants to restore Meg Ryan to the state she should be a 26-year-old woman through a regular life, and does not expect her to do any substantive work, so she just arranges her to work with Susan as his secretary outside. .
Hearing what Amy said, Simon, who was looking at the thick pile of actor's materials, just shook his head slightly and said, "It's not afraid, it should be embarrassing."
I 'touched porcelain' twice, which is not awkward.
Amy naturally didn't understand Simon's explanation, but she just smiled without asking.
Seeing Simon lowered his head again to read the actor's profile carefully, and noticed that there was a novel on his desk near him, Amy put the coffee cup back on the desk, and curiously brought the book over.
These days, Simon always has one or two portable books on hand. Amy thinks this is a good habit of his boss, but he doesn't think much about it. At such a young age, he has made achievements that many people can hardly achieve in their lives, and it seems logical to keep reading habits at all times.
Amy even felt that maybe she should take the time to recharge.
Thinking about it, Amy glanced at the name of the book in her hand, "Forrest Gump", the author's name is Winston Grum. Although he didn't know him, the novel selected by the young man opposite would not be too bad, so he opened it with interest.
Simon noticed Amy's actions and explained while reading the information: "Amy, these days I will ask Jonathan to help me talk about some scripts, novels and remake copyrights, but for the time being, they will be placed on Westeros. You know, there is a lot of money on the books, and we will definitely make these in the future."
Now that he already has a certain amount of capital, Simon has recently begun to implement what he has always wanted to do since returning to this era, and has taken a lot of film copyrights that are destined to be popular in the future.
Looking at the gold mine that can almost be picked up at will, I'm sorry if I don't do this.
Amy nodded with a smile, and said, "I understand."
The slightly ambitious film companies will hoard as much copyright as possible, and Simon does not surprise Amy in doing so.
Daenerys Pictures only has the operating funds borrowed by Simon and the production budget of the two films "Reaper is Coming" and "Pulp Fiction". To do this is definitely powerless and can only be done by Westeros. The company will do it.
While chatting casually, Simon quickly picked out an actress profile, pressed the call button on the desktop, and called Susan Landis in. Noting Amy's curious expression, he handed over the information and said, "Now, this is my Mia."
Amy took the information and glanced at the name.
Nicole Kidman.
Who is this?
This thought flashed through my mind for the first time, and Amy glanced at the photo again and said to Simon: "If there is a videotape, you should at least watch her performance, right?"
Simon shook his head and said, "There is no need to waste time."
With that said, Susan walked in, Simon pointed to the information in Amy's hand, and said: "Pass this actor information to Jonathan and tell that side that they have two days to dig her to WMA. In addition, play Zhu I'm not satisfied with the black actor of L'Ess and the candidates recommended by several companies. I asked them to choose another batch to send. The fame does not matter. Also, the female taxi driver is the same, charming, coquettish and accented. I think I'm very clear. You don't need to recommend the local ones anymore, pick the European ones."
Amy handed the information to Susan, listened to Simon's series of instructions, and shook her head with a helpless smile, finding that it was always difficult to guess the mind of this young boss.
Simon was actually helpless.
After finalizing a group of big names, his budget for selecting other actors is only $1 million, but there is still a large group of characters left in the film.
Among the more important Jules, that is, the role of the original Samuel Jackson, Simon still hopes that the other party can play. But now, Samuel Jackson does not know where.
In this era without the Internet, it is not so difficult to find an unknown person.
Even Mia was up and down.
Simon originally wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to try, it didn't matter if it was expensive.
However, after a simple trial, Simon discovered a very serious problem.
John Travolta is close to 1.9 meters tall, but Michel Pfeiffer is just over 1.7 meters tall. The height difference between the two of them, when they stand on stage, the composition is directly crooked, how can they perform that classic swing dance.
After Michelle Pfeiffer, Simon added a height restriction of more than 180cm in the casting conditions.
"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled to start filming in July, and Simon has too much work to do. After a simple selection, I chose Nicole Kidman, who was once very familiar.
When he waited for Susan's office, Simon glanced at his watch and asked the opposite Amy, "Isn't it three o'clock?"
Amy also looked at the time and said, "Or, I'll ask someone to call."
As he was talking, the office door was knocked again, and Meg Ryan probed in and said, "Mr. Westeros, Ms. Pascal, and Mr. O'Brien are here."
Hearing this, the two stood up and greeted them together.
The office door.
A middle-aged, round-faced white man of about forty years old also walked in at this time. He extended his hand to Simon and Amy apologetically and said, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Westeros, and Ms. Pascal. There are some minor situations."
Listening to the typical British accent of the middle-aged, Simon walked over, smiled and shook hands with the other person, and said, "It's okay, Danny, just call me Simon."
Amy also shook hands with each other and introduced.
Simon motioned for Meg Ryan to bring in another coffee, and the three sat down in the reception area and couldn't help but look at each other.
The middle-aged man named Dennis O'Brien is a film producer, and the original Beatles guitarist George Harrison co-run a film company called Handicraft Pictures.
George Harrison founded the film company in 1978 to fund a friend of his.
Later, the film made by Harrison's friend earned US$20 million in the box office at a cost of US$4 million only in North America. Handicraft Pictures was out of control for this reason. Later, he also launched "Time" starring Sean Connery. "Robbers" and other big-selling movies have gradually become a well-known independent production company in the UK over the years.
but.
Handicrafts Film Industry just planted a big somersault last year, it was the "Madonna and Sean Penn" starring "Maddou".
The US$17 million budget and the final US$2.31 million North American box office may not be enough to cover the publishing costs of MGM Pictures.
Due to the overheating of the global economy in recent years, a large amount of capital has poured into the film industry. The handicraft film industry did not go bankrupt due to the failure of "Madonna". Instead, it was connected to Daenerys Pictures through the relationship of Madonna. "When Harry Met Sally" became interested.
The success of "Butterfly Effect" once again solved the deadlock in "When Harry Meets Sally" that had never been noticed before. In the past week, not only many second- and third-tier film companies, but also the seven major film companies have basically re-expressed their interest in When Harry Meets Sally.
However, Simon now has other plans.
It is impossible for Daenerys Films to establish its own distribution channel in the short term, so the announcement of "When Harry Meets Sally" naturally still has to cooperate with the Seven Majors. But in terms of production, in order to maintain absolute control over the entire project, Simon plans to invest together with some independent filmmakers.
In this way, as long as a portion of the funds can be obtained first, the entire project can be launched.
When Simon completes the operation of stock index futures in the second half of the year, Daenerys Pictures can inject follow-up funds into the entire project. At the same time, due to the success of the two films "Lola Run" and "Butterfly Effect", even if it is a cooperative investment, Daenerys Pictures has enough confidence to demand more revenue sharing.