Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 440 of Fight Club is released.

To accommodate Izumi Sakai and the others, Link had someone buy a vacation villa in a wealthy area of ​​Miami, Florida, for them to stay in first. He would visit them after filming.

"Boss, here are last week's box office figures. Would you like to take a look?"

On the Los Angeles film set, Lewinsky came over with a folder while the crew was having lunch.

"I'm not going to look at it anymore. Just tell me the main points."

Link has too much work. Starting this year, he sometimes doesn't bother to pay attention to which movies the company is showing or how well they are doing at the box office. He only reads the company's reports at the end of the month to understand the company's revenue.

"Boss, our 'Liar Liar' is still the box office champion this week."

Lewinsky opened the folder and gave a brief explanation of last week's North American box office revenue.

This week's box office champion is the comedy film "Liar Liar," starring Jim Carrey. The film was released in mid-March and grossed $4457 million in its opening week in 2845 theaters.

It earned $3749 million in its second week, retaining its title as the top-grossing box office champion.

The company retained its top spot with $2246 million in the third week.

This week marks the fifth consecutive week that the film has topped the North American box office, with a cumulative gross of $1.36 million. It is also the first film to gross over $100 million in North America since 1997.

It topped the box office for five consecutive weeks, demonstrating a very strong performance.

Jim Carrey's fame in the film industry continued to grow, making him a movie star on par with Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, with a film salary of over $2500 million.

Second place goes to Columbia Pictures' thriller "Anaconda," starring Jennifer Lopez, Kari Wool, and Ice Cube, which earned $1661 million this week, bringing its total box office to $3274 million.

The film cost $4200 million to produce.

Including overseas box office and video sales, it was a blockbuster film.

The third place went to Warner Bros.' thriller "1600 Murders," starring Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, and others, which grossed $796 million in its opening week.

Fourth place goes to the art-house film "Girl, Interrupted," starring Sofia Cop, Winona Ryder, and Angelina Jolie. The film was released in early March and has grossed $3251 million so far.

The film had a production cost of $2200 million, and considering overseas box office and video sales, it was a box office hit.

In addition, the film has received very good reviews, winning the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and it also has a chance to be nominated for the Academy Awards next year.

This week, "Zheng Chenggong" earned $141 million in North America, bringing its total North American box office to $3218 million. The distribution department has decided to extend the release date in an attempt to reach the $40 million mark.

"not bad!"

Link nodded after listening.

The box office success of "Liar Liar" in North America, which has brought Guessing Pictures a leading position in the North American film market, puts pressure on the Big Seven studios and forces them to continue their internal strife.

Furthermore, films like "Girl, Interrupted," "Zheng Chenggong," and "Boogie Night" continued to see box office growth, with no films losing money and maintaining a good reputation. This demonstrates that Guess Pictures' films have performed very stably at the box office this year.

"Boss, there's some negative public opinion you should look into."

Lewinsky continued.

Given the strong box office performance of several films released by Guess the Movies in the past two weeks, coupled with the fact that Jennifer Lopez starred in the second-place film "Anaconda" and Diane Lane starred in the third-place film "1600 Murders," the success of these films is noteworthy.

The fourth place is even more outrageous: the director, the female lead, and the supporting actresses are all Link's girlfriends.

In its latest article, Entertainment Weekly quipped that the North American film market is now dominated by Link and his girlfriends, who have become the absolute protagonists in Hollywood, while everyone else has become a supporting character.

Although it was meant as a joke, the evidence is solid. This article caused a lot of controversy after it was published, and most of it was negative.

We need to pay more attention.

Link nodded. "This situation was completely accidental, but what you said makes sense. Next time their movies are released, try to stagger them and don't put them together."

“Boss, this is very difficult. You have dozens of girlfriends, most of whom are popular and talented actresses. They have no shortage of resources, with each of them appearing in two films a year on average, totaling more than 100 films. That means that they appear in one-third of the films released in North America. It is very difficult to prevent their films from being released at the same time.”

Lewinsky shrugged and made a helpless expression.

Link smiled. "It's alright. Michelle and Sandra are pregnant and don't have time to film. They'll all be pregnant for the next few years, so their movies can be released at different times. Anything else?"

"Yes! Fight Club will be released next week. Miramax and our company are jointly promoting and distributing it. Harvey contacted the company, hoping to invest more money in promotion and strive for higher box office results. Mr. Jon Gordon's idea is to follow the procedure. This film is an art film, so it will first have preview screenings in a few theaters, and the promotional investment will be determined based on the box office results of the preview screenings."

“Then let’s do as Jon Gordon says.”

Link waved his hand, finished his lunch, and continued filming on set.

Fight Club opened in six theaters in the US on Friday, grossing $47,200 over the weekend, a mediocre performance. Guess what the film's publicity department plans to do with C-level promotional resources.

Both companies invested $300 million in advertising.

It opened in 471 theaters in its second week and grossed $287 million.

In its third week, the film was shown in 865 theaters and grossed $658 million.

The box office totaled $949 million in three weeks.

The box office performance was rather mediocre, lacking the potential to be a blockbuster. Increasing promotional efforts might recoup production costs, but making a profit would be very difficult. "Why? Why is this happening?"

“Link personally selected this film and was even prepared to direct it himself, but he didn’t have the time, so he handed it over to David Fincher. How could a film like this lose money?”

"Why did the movie project that Link personally approved lose money? Someone tell me!"

Harvey Weinstein was shouting angrily in his office, with box office brochures scattered all over the floor.

"This may be an accident."

Bob Weinstein didn't know how to answer.

This film cost $4200 million to produce, with Guess what? Studios and Miramax each contributing half.

To recoup its costs, the film needs to gross over $6000 million at the North American box office.

However, Fight Club only grossed a little over nine million after three weeks in theaters.

Even if it continues to be shown for several more weeks, it will be difficult for the North American box office to break 5000 million.

In other words, their investment will go down the drain.

"This is impossible! This movie was chosen by Link. Any movie he approves of will be a box office hit. Why would this movie lose money?"

Harvey roared angrily, his face grim.

The Fight Club project looks promising; the script has potential, the director is up-and-coming David Fincher, the main cast includes popular actors Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, and the female lead is Angelina Jolie.

These individuals are among the most outstanding young actors in the entertainment industry in recent years.

They also performed well in the movie.

With their promotional efforts also going well, the film's box office should have been much higher than this.

But the numbers on the document are real.

According to feedback from the marketing department, audiences disliked the film after its release, finding the story too depressing, lacking in entertainment value, and its overly complex narrative structure leading to a confusing story that was incomprehensible to the average viewer.

Simply put, the film's theme is too profound and dark, making it unsuitable for mainstream audiences.

However, the film received positive reviews, with many professional film critics praising it in newspapers, calling Fight Club one of the best art films of the year and the most exciting male-oriented suspense thriller to date.

Ultimately, the marketing department concluded that the film was critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful. They advised reducing advertising spending and relying on word-of-mouth to gradually recoup costs, as investing too much capital in advertising could result in even greater losses.

"Could this be a conspiracy by Link?"

Harvey slowly calmed down, smoking and muttering to himself, "Over the past two years, we've done a lot of things to him. He must have known we were involved. Out of revenge, he deliberately used this kind of movie to lure us into a trap. We were too naive. We were completely unsuspecting when we worked with him and fell into the trap he had set without any precautions."
Yes, that must be it. Link knows our company is short of money and deliberately uses this method to waste our funds, making us invest a lot of money in the two film projects we are working on with Guessing Pictures.

"Once these two movies lose money and our company's debt increases, Disney will definitely be unhappy with us and kick us out! That's for sure! Link is a truly insidious, cunning, despicable, and shameless bastard!"

Bob Weinstein frowned. "Is that so? You personally selected 'Fight Club' and 'Evita' from multiple film projects. Link didn't specify which one we should invest in."

Furthermore, *Fight Club* is quite good; it's an art film of above-average quality. Although its box office performance hasn't been ideal so far, considering overseas box office and video sales, we still have a chance to recoup our costs, so it shouldn't be considered a trap.

"No! You don't understand, this is a trap! Last year, Guess the Movies released 13 movies, and 6 of them grossed over $100 million at the North American box office. This shows that they have a good eye for choosing movies and a high percentage of blockbuster films. But our collaboration with Fight Club didn't make a big splash. This must be a conspiracy."

Harvey gestured and retorted vehemently.

"What can we do? We chose the movie ourselves, and the joint promotion was your decision. Now that it's losing money at the box office, we can't ask Guessing Pictures for compensation. If Fight Club loses money at the box office, they will also lose some funds."

Harvey's face darkened upon hearing Bob's words.

Bob is right. Investing in movies is risky. Investors need to bear their own profits and losses. Even if the movie is a box office flop, they can't cause trouble for Guess Movies after its release.

"That's Link's most insidious side; he made us suffer huge losses but we couldn't even tell anyone."

Harvey said angrily.

Bob did not respond. Harvey became very anxious and often got angry after Miramax's debt increased, especially after receiving information about Guessing Movies and Link, which made things worse.

“This matter must be told to Ovitz. Miramax is a subsidiary of Disney, and they cannot stand by and watch Miramax be deceived.”

Harvey picked up the phone and called Michael Ovitz, but after a few words, Harvey's expression worsened, and he ended the call in less than a minute.

"What did Ovitz say?"

Bob asked.

Harvey gritted his teeth, his greasy, fat face contorted into a hideous grimace. "That bastard doesn't care, he wants us to handle it ourselves, and he tells us not to be hostile towards Link, to treat Link with friendliness and respect! Damn it! Michael Ovitz is a traitor, he wants to truly side with Link!"

"Perhaps Ovitz is right. Link is now worth over ten billion US dollars, the fifth richest person in the world. We are no match for him, nor do we deserve to be his opponent. Continuing to maintain hostile behavior will not do us any good."

Bob said tactfully.

Harvey's facial muscles twitched, and his eyes held an unconcealable hatred and anger.

(End of this chapter)