Made in Hollywood

As the sun rose on Friday, another competitive weekend kicked off. Just like last weekend's collective slam and slander of "Independence Day", professional film critics once again collectively spoke out, praising "The Shawshank Redemption" and almost turning the The best reviews of this year have been thrown on the head of this film, and it is almost impossible to say that it is the first in film history.

Almost similar to last week's bashing, the critics' praise was placed on the theatrical market without a frenetic chain reaction.

Maybe the film's cast lacks appeal, maybe the title with a hint of religion is unpleasant, maybe the genre and subject matter of the film is not suitable, or maybe it's because the critics criticized "Independence Day" last week and the audience likes to show it. The after-effects, the market response of "The Shawshank Redemption" can only be described as unusually dull.

Friday night is often the first peak of weekend movie viewing. MXEB's market researcher Parker walked into a theater in the downtown commercial plaza early to observe the first-line market reaction of "The Shawshank Redemption".

After 7:30, the number of people entering the theater increased significantly. Through a long period of random interviews and data obtained from the theater chain, Parker gradually had a preliminary impression of the film under investigation—the situation was not very good.

It is very obvious that although "Independence Day" entered its second weekend of release, it was still strong, accounting for nearly half of the viewing ratio!

Of course, this is also expected by the distributor and their company. The previous data feedback of "Independence Day" was there, and no one would be foolish enough to think that "The Shawshank Redemption" can compete with this film in the box office market.

It is normal for the film to fail "Independence Day". Why is the audience ratio only comparable to "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump"? The latter two have been in theaters for a few weeks, and The Shawshank Redemption is only in its first week!

Just when Parker was thinking so, a screening of "The Shawshank Redemption" ended, and the sparse audience came over from the theater. He hurriedly greeted him and started a routine random visit.

"The film is very exciting and infectious, and the plot is very good..."

Like some viewers who asked during the day, the young man he stopped was full of praise for the film, and Parker asked again, "Would you recommend it to the people around you, or bring your family and friends to watch it again?"

"No!" The young man gave the answer without any hesitation, "Absolutely not!"

"Why?" Parker asked quickly.

"This film is too heavy, and it makes people feel uncomfortable. Even if you watch tragedy, you can often find joy in it."

The young man frowned tightly, "But The Shawshank Redemption is very depressing. People around me go to the theater for entertainment, and they definitely don't want to feel this atmosphere."

Afterwards, Parker asked several viewers, some of whom had a similar opinion and thought the film was great, but would not recommend it to others.

"Independence Day" has consistently outpaced films released in the same period in Friday's box office, attendance and audience numbers, and Duke got detailed data from Independence Day Studios early Saturday morning.

The box office is bound to rebound over the weekend. Although it is not particularly strong, "Independence Day" received $15.57 million in a single day, taking the lead this weekend.

In second place is the just-released "The Shawshank Redemption", which earned $5.12 million in a single day, beating the $4.78 million of "The Lion King" and the $4.27 million of "Forrest Gump", taking second place. name.

In Duke's view, as long as the single-day performance of "The Shawshank Redemption" can be maintained, it is possible for the box office to exceed US$15 million or even US$20 million in the first weekend, which may change the fate of the big fight.

However, this movie, dubbed the best and the strangest movie of all time, cannot be measured by normal movie rules at all, and even the most daring evaluation agency could not have expected its box office trend that did not conform to normal rules at all.

According to the general situation, professional word-of-mouth is booming, and it will definitely play a certain role in publicity. Coupled with the already good audience word-of-mouth and normal weekend release rules, "The Shawshank Redemption" should usher in a small outbreak on Saturday, at least It surpassed Friday's box office, but what took everyone by surprise happened. The film's audience reputation and professional ratings were on the rise, but the box office plummeted.

On Saturday, "The Shawshank Redemption" fell more than 50%, and the one-day box office plummeted to $2.24 million, while "Independence Day", "The Lion King" and "Forrest Gump" became relative beneficiaries , raked in $16.34 million, $8.22 million, and $7.43 million, respectively, breaking all the new films released this week.

This is a subversive schedule. "Independence Day" was downgraded to worthless by film critics, but it continued to be a big hit. "The Shawshank Redemption" was elevated to a high level in film history, but no one cared about it. ...

If this situation is only a short-lived occurrence, perhaps the audience will not care, but the media under Time Warner and News Corporation have been hyping it up, and it is difficult to not attract attention. The disturbance of the past ten days is enough to make very slow fans. Recognize the fact that the movies critics tout may not be for them, and the movies they love will not be appreciated by critics.

Hollywood's major companies recognize another fact - the relationship between film critics and the market is at most five cents.

That is to say, this weekend, no film critics were invited to participate in the previews of "Browsing Eyes" jointly invested by Paramount and Universal Pictures and New Line Pictures' "Monster in Disguise". The interests of this vampire industry are obvious. touched.

Also this weekend, "Independence Day" started its overseas tour and was the first to land in overseas markets such as the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Spain, and Australia. The reaction of the film was like a remake of North America. Countless foreign film critics criticized wildly.

"Independence Day is an amalgamation of several alien invasion films with a theme that reflects American aggression!" - Le Figaro, France.

""Independence Day" reflects the delusion and ambition of director Duke Rosenberg's Great Americanism!" - Spain "Marca".

"The pre-war speech of the President of the United States in the film is the most sensational dialogue in Hollywood history!" - BBC

"Duke Rosenberg is crazy. He wants to rape the world with a sci-fi blockbuster. He actually wants to change the National Day of all countries to July 4th!" - British "The Times".

This film, this short weekend, Duke has caused a sensation far more than the sum of the past few years. Film critics all over the world have set off a frenzy to criticize him, and Independence Day Studio has used News Corp. The media all over the Western world spread Duke's rebuttals of the film critics, which aroused the excitement of the film critics in the Western world.

Criticizing Duke has become politically correct in the film critic world, and even some film critics who want to defend him have to be cautious.

Duke did not remain silent because of this, but continued to build momentum for publicity and hype, he said in an interview with the famous "World News Weekly".

"I don't feel bad about the guns and arrows shot by the critics, anyone has to embrace the idea of ​​the free market, if people don't want to buy my product, then I won't make it again, but the audience has repeatedly shown that they I love watching my work, and even if the critics don’t like it, I will still consider the needs of the audience first.”

As if afraid that the fire is not big enough, Duke also deliberately said, "I work as hard as I can, I'm glad to see that the audience except the critics like this movie, then let's ignore those critics, I Movies are made to please the audience.”

Critics gritted their teeth and issued the most venomous and vicious attacks on Independence Day's continued popularity, but they couldn't stop Independence Day from setting off a Jurassic Park-like movie-watching frenzy in the release area.

In North America in particular, the louder the critics were, the more Independence Day's box office numbers rose, and the more they praised The Shawshank Redemption, the less popular the film was.

When the new weekend box office was released, the North American film critics fell silent for a while, and then set off a bigger wave of criticism, but these all seemed so pale in front of the box office figures of "Independence Day".

The North American box office of "Independence Day" reached US$42.96 million in the second weekend, not only killing all the films released in the same period, but even exceeding the first-week box office figures of most films. The film's North American box office accumulated to US$159.89 million. Duke has reaped another North American film history record - the fastest breaking $150 million!

This result is of course the title of the North American weekly box office chart!

Standing on the highest point and looking down, there is no shadow of the newly released film in the second or third positions. The Lion King, which was released for four weeks, came in second with $16.88 million, and Forrest Gump, which was released in five weeks, came in second. Biography" came in third with $14.18 million, and in fourth place was Duke's unimpressed film called "Weekend Holidays," with $9.87 million.

And "The Shawshank Redemption", which has been sought after by countless film critics, ended up in fifth place with $8.57 million because the box office fell again and again in the two days after the weekend.

Just as Duke thought, "Independence Day" has crushed the faces of film critics that they think are glamorous, making them less and less influential on the market, and completely exposed Hollywood and movie fans to the audience. in front of.

"Independence Day" also made great progress in its first weekend overseas. Although it only appeared in overseas markets in Western Europe and English-speaking regions, over the three days of the weekend, it reported a total score of US$75.28 million overseas, which was enough to make all investors laugh. Have to shut up.

The start of a new week will inevitably see all the films in theaters begin to decline, and will usher in a formidable competitor over the weekend, James Cameron's $115 million blockbuster "True Lies."