Chapter 880 Money Game

January in North America is traditionally a low season for movies. Movies released during this period are often those that lack competitiveness or have small investment scales.

"The Shallows" was released in North America on the last weekend of January.

Compared with the 4,000 theaters that Martin starred in, this movie he directed was released in only 3,450 theaters.

But compared with traditional horror thrillers, "The Shallows" also has an advantage. The movie does not have too bloody scenes and has received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA.

Blake Lively's fans on social media are mainly boys and girls.

On Friday daytime, the film had a moderate attendance rate. In this period without strong films, it became the first choice for many people to watch movies.

Leonardo and Nicholson, two bastards, also took time to go to the theater and bought two tickets to support Martin.

The most important thing is that they want to see what kind of movie Martin has made.

The film is short and sharp. After watching it, Leonardo said, "It's much better than I thought. At least Martin has captured everything a thriller should have."

Nicholson took off his sunglasses and wiped them, saying, "There are almost no wasted scenes. The atmosphere is rendered."

Leonardo shook his head and said, "This is a bit unlike the Martin I know."

Nicholson said, "I feel like you are going to lose."

"Impossible!" Leonardo straightened his back and said, "Martin used his money to make the film like this."

Nicholson said, "This film is at least above average. I just thought about it carefully. It is definitely the best shark thriller after "Jaws."

Leonardo admitted this: "The main reason is that the shark thrillers that appeared after "Jaws" are too bad."

"Hey, you don't understand what I mean at all." Nicholson explained simply: "Do you know what this means?"

He didn't need Leonardo to answer: "It means that the film can recover its investment and may generate a large profit, allowing Martin to use his money power unscrupulously next time to shoot new films, so that a virtuous circle will be formed."

Leonardo understood, pondered for a moment, and thought more: "Oscar is essentially a money game."

Nicholson added: "Once a virtuous circle is formed, Martin will continue to spend money until the Oscars recognize it." He stated a fact: "In the eyes of the core members of the Academy, Martin is much more popular than you."

Leonardo looked at the subtitles falling on the screen and said: "I feel that this movie will not be bad at the box office."

Nicholson said: "Martin's directorial debut is at least qualified."

Nothing can better reflect the commercial success or failure of a theater movie than the box office.

After a day on Friday, the box office statistics of "The Shallows" were released. The revenue of 10.79 million US dollars on the first day was not very high, but it was enough to make the film the North American box office champion of the day.

This figure is also higher than the expectations of Davis Studio and Disney Pictures. Both companies have increased the publicity and marketing efforts of the film.

Word-of-mouth marketing is naturally the highlight.

In major media and on the Internet, you can see voices cheering for The Shallows everywhere.

"Martin Davis unexpectedly brought a masterpiece. He used clever techniques to present the psychological thriller and the impact of the picture clearly and clearly, which is better than all shark movies in the past two decades."

"The Shallows has received rave reviews. Martin Davis and Blake Lively have joined forces to present this nail-biting underwater adventure to movie fans."

"This is the most worthwhile movie to watch in the theater since 2015!"

In addition to word-of-mouth marketing, the crew is also working hard in another aspect.

Since it is a movie where the heroine defeats the great white shark, of course several special groups cannot be ignored.

As long as they can bring enough commercial income, Hollywood doesn't mind praising these people to the sky.

The famous "Pioneer Woman" magazine published a commentary column on The Shallows.

"The plot and scenes of The Shallows are very simple. It almost tells the story with a beach, a heroine and a big shark. But this movie is not simple. It tells us with an extreme experience that women can do the tasks that should be done by men, and do it better!"

Many people who believe in women's rights bought tickets to the theater to watch this female movie.

Morality is not worth mentioning in the face of commercial benefits.

Therefore, this type of promotional soft articles appeared on the Internet in large numbers.

"The Shallows: The awakening and outbreak of women's independent and strong consciousness!"

"Women's strength comes from a strong heart, which can enable women to defeat great white sharks!"

In January, when the film market was relatively calm, The Shallows brought some unusual movements.

On Saturday, more people went to the theater to watch this thriller, and the box office rose a lot that day, closing at 13.89 million US dollars.

But as more people watched the film, word of mouth inevitably declined, and the IMDB score dropped to 7.6 points.

Three days later, The Shallows created the best weekend box office since 2015, earning $34.72 million in 3,450 theaters, topping the new round of North American box office rankings.

In just three days, the film's box office exceeded its production costs.

There is no doubt that The Shallows has achieved commercial success.

The film's success has automatically attracted followers.

The Los Angeles Times published Martin's column on the front page of the new entertainment section.

"Martin Davis is a talented actor and one of Hollywood's most famous superstars. His influence and commercial appeal are unquestioned. Just last weekend, he changed his career and directed the thriller film "The Shallows", which was released in North America."

"Before the film was released, there were endless doubts that Martin would only bring a bad film. There are too many examples of Hollywood stars turning directors and making bad films in the past. But after the film was released, both word of mouth and commercial response were quite good, and even won the North American box office champion last week."

"From the perspective of an actor turning director, Martin's debut film is of decent quality. There is no immaturity of a new director. On the contrary, it is very steady, proving that Martin has a good grasp of the rhythm and the scene design is also very impressive. "

"Admittedly, Martin is far away from big directors like Spielberg, Nolan and Cameron. After all, there are only a handful of first-class directors in Hollywood. It requires not only hard work but also talent. Maybe one day, we can see Martin Davis become one of them."

In the office of Warner Pictures, Daniel put down the Los Angeles Times in his hand, looked at Hamada across from him, and said: "Have you seen the first week box office data of "The Shallows"? Martin's ability as a director has been proven, and he is no worse than the candidate you recommended."

Hamada's face darkened. The box office data of "The Shallows" was beyond his expectations.

Before, he thought that the film would have a box office of 18 million US dollars in the first week, but the actual number was nearly twice as high as expected.

Although the reality is in front of him, Hamada still has a hard mouth: "This movie is opportunistic. It is better to say that the publicity and marketing are good than to say that the movie is successful."

Daniel smiled and shook his head: "Isn't publicity and marketing part of the movie?" He put away his smile: "We are engaged in commodity production and promotion, and movies are our products. If we can sell movies at high profits, that is success."

Hamada couldn't refute because this is the current situation in Hollywood.

He simply changed the track: "Next weekend, the "Jupiter Ascending" you released will be released, directly competing with "The Shallows."

Daniel said: "That movie is a project left by my predecessor Jon Berg. The internal preview and several previews have not received good reviews. Warner Pictures will not invest too many resources in this film. The only goal of "Jupiter Ascending" to enter the theater is to recover as much as possible the losses caused by my predecessor."

Hearing Jon Berg's name, Hamada also felt that it was a pit. That guy has been engraved on the pillar of shame in Hollywood forever.

Daniel continued, "I don't understand why the audit committee of the head office passed Jupiter Ascending. The Wachowski brothers... no, brother and sister..."

"Now they are sisters." Hamada reminded.

Daniel nodded: "After The Matrix, the Wachowski sisters failed again and again, causing huge losses to Warner. Why did Jupiter Ascending, which invested $185 million, pass the audit? I suspect there is malfeasance!"

He had long been standing on the opposite side of the Warner Group and directly put pressure on the other side: "I will write a report and hand it directly to the company's board of directors, asking them to thoroughly investigate this project."

Hamada couldn't sit still, so he found an excuse to report to Kevin Tsujihara about the relevant situation.

Daniel watched him leave and asked his assistant to prepare a report. He knew that with Kevin Tsujihara as CEO and chairman, such a report would not be passed, but it could win him more room to exercise power and keep the voice of the Warner Group away from Warner Pictures.

Only by sitting in this position and carefully examining what Jon Berg did in the past few years, Daniel could find that the Warner team was definitely a group of god-like teammates.

He, an ordinary person in the world, could not withstand the torment of god-like teammates.

Although Jon Berg was removed, he left Daniel a lot of legacy, such as the sinkhole project "Jupiter Ascending".

Daniel picked up the phone, dialed Martin's number, and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Martin, your directorial debut is a big hit at the box office."

Martin still said a few old words: "Thank you, it's just good luck, and the assistants are awesome."

Daniel didn't care about these, the success of the film was a success, he seemed to be unaware, and sincerely suggested: "The Joker has not found a suitable director, I think you can try it yourself."

Martin was also unambiguous: "I've been thinking about this recently."

Like most people in the circle, Daniel believes that successful people are more likely to succeed, and said: "Don't worry about Warner Pictures, I will fully support you."

"I'll try to make a shooting plan." Martin replied.

Daniel hung up the phone quickly, thinking that Warner Pictures should strengthen cooperation with Martin in terms of directors.

Disney Pictures also had the same idea.

In the reception room of Disney Pictures, Alan Horn had talked with Martin for more than half an hour, mainly talking about cooperation in directors.

He wanted Martin to sign three exclusive director contracts with Disney Pictures.

Martin never expressed his attitude.

Because of this kind of cooperation, Disney Pictures has full control of the initiative. If a film fails, Disney Pictures will just drag the contract, which will limit Martin's own choices.

Martin said directly: "Alan, you know something. My next project is the superhero movie "Joker" adapted from DC Comics. This is a project of Warner Bros. In addition to me being the male lead, the project has not found a suitable director so far. If it is still the same after the Oscars, I can only try to direct and act by myself."

Alan Horn knew something and said: "After "Joker", if you want to direct other projects, Disney Pictures can cooperate with you at any time."

"I don't have an idea for the next project yet. Let's talk about it when there is a clue?" When Martin decided to direct "The Shallows", except for Louise's Pacific Pictures, other Hollywood companies basically remained silent.

Now that "The Shallows" is a big hit in the North American box office, all those good people have come up and told Martin how good they are.

Martin has been used to it for so many years.

This week, the crew will leave North America and go to Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia to promote "The Shallows".

But compared with medium and high-scale investment movies, the publicity and distribution budget of "The Shallows" is a bit small. The crew has only two main creative staff members who go overseas for publicity-Martin and Blake Lively.

Blake Lively had a hard time on this solo journey. As the absolute protagonist and the core figure of publicity and promotion, she had to deal with various questions from the media during the day and maintain the best condition to face fans.

At night, Martin, who was extremely strong and had strong needs, always made her feel desperate.

As soon as she left London and came to Paris, the second stop of her European trip, Blake Lively called for support. Taylor Swift, who was holding a fan meeting on the banks of the Seine, and her best friend Cara Delevingne in Europe joined Martin's game together.

Cara Delevingne also called her sister Poppy Delevingne.

The latter is an actress who is very interested in Martin. She successfully passed Martin's test and joined Taylor's best friend group.

At the same time, "The Shallows" ushered in the second weekend of screening in North America.

This week is the traditional Super Bowl weekend in North America, and the public's attention is mostly on the Super Bowl.

The newly released "Jupiter Ascending" was put on this schedule, and it was the kind that was abandoned by Warner Pictures at a glance.

The box office also proved that this film was indeed not very good.

In the North American opening weekend, "Jupiter Ascending" only earned $15.21 million.

The film's public production budget was as high as $185 million.

The Wachowskis became a box office tragedy maker.

"The Shallows" won the North American box office championship with its steady box office performance.

The film earned another $18.56 million in the second weekend, and the North American box office totaled $72.88 million.