In the past two months, rumors about Lance and "Iron Man" have been spreading intermittently within Hollywood. The news that Chaos Pictures and Marvel Studios have joined forces to create a superhero movie has indeed made many people excited, but it has not really made Hollywood excited, because most people are watching, watching the attitudes of Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, watching the attitudes of the academy towards Lance, and most importantly, watching the prospects of the summer vacation of "Rampant Road".

Chaos Pictures' upward momentum in the past three years has been unstoppable, but small and medium-sized companies like this often suffer a crushing defeat in one fell swoop. The overnight destruction of Taurus Pictures last year is still vivid in my mind. Therefore, Chaos Pictures' current lifeline is still maintained on the "Raging Road", so how can the potential cooperation of "Iron Man" make people lose their minds?

Of course, maybe the actors are all looking forward to working with Lance. After all, the company is one thing, and the director is another.

What's more, in just two months after the release of "Mission Impossible", the entire Hollywood has been in a few rounds, and the summer season in 2006 is becoming more and more confusing.

"Mission Impossible 3" is stuck. Although it has been ranked in the North American weekend box office rankings for two weeks, since its premiere, the box office data in the same period has set the lowest in the series. The cumulative box office of eight weeks of release is only 130 million. Compared with the investment of 150 million, it is really disappointing. Even the overseas box office performance is far lower than expected.

"Sea God" collapsed. If "Mission Impossible" performance was lower than expected, but the box office data was at least barely acceptable, then "Sea God" was a disaster. The premiere box office was only 22 million, losing to "Mission Impossible" the next week's box office, ranking second in the weekend box office list, and the cumulative box office so far is only 58 million, and even the fraction of the cost has not reached a fraction of the cost - the budget for this work is as high as 160 million.

The "Da Vinci Code" has lost its reputation and the box office has exploded. Although it was unable to achieve a box office of 100 million on the premiere weekend, 77 million still made Sony Pictures happy. So far, the cumulative box office has exceeded the threshold of 200 million and has successfully become the box office champion so far this year. Even compared with the cost of 125 million, this box office is satisfactory. What is even more worth celebrating is that the overseas box office has also exploded.

"X-Men" is stupid, with a new high of 102 million series premiere, which amazed the entire North America. The fourth film industry in film history, which had a box office of over 100 million yuan, was born. However, the box office fell by 66% the next week, and the 20th Century Fox was dizzy and 80% dived at a high altitude. What's worse is that the reputation has seriously affected the momentum. Currently, North America has accumulated a cumulative box office of 220 million, but its momentum is far inferior to the "Da Vinci Code". Considering the amazing cost of 210 million, whether this investment has made a profit or lost, it has to wait for the decision to make an overseas box office - but the current situation is not optimistic.

Then... Then... "Breakup Man and Female" became the biggest winner of the melee of major film companies and a comedy dark horse; "Car Mobilization" created a new low reputation for Pixar animation, but its box office performance was still good, winning two consecutive box office championships in the second weekend of this summer; "Fast and Furious 3" completely collapsed, and its poor reputation and terrible box office almost stopped beating; "Lovers who cannot reach" are average, and their reputation and box office barely meet expectations, but they are difficult to bring more surprises; "Life Remote Control" is not good, making people unable to get excited, and basically maintains Adam Sandler's level.

When June is about to end, people realize that this summer season has a tendency to be in chaos. "Da Vinci Code" is the only surprise. In addition, "Car Mobilization", "X-Men", "Mission Impossible 3", and "Life Remote Control" are all disappointing. Almost none of these works that are highly anticipated have reached the expected height, let alone the collapse of "Sea God" that is an epic disaster-level disaster, which is even more exciting than the movie itself.

Warner Brothers couldn't help but be hurt internally. The disaster of "Sea God" will cost them at least $100 million, and the "untouchable lover" is far from meeting their expectations. This summer's season seems to be using the wrong way to open it.

Rumor has it that director Wolfgang Peterson was issued a ban. The German director who won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for the war movie "Strike from the Underwater" in 1981. He rolled in Hollywood for nearly fifteen years, but because he messed up the two works "Troy" and "Sea God", his career came to an end. He left the United States in a defensive mood and returned to Germany to start retirement.

But Hollywood experts don’t have time to memorize the chaos, because the most highly anticipated box office war in 2006 is about to debut; Warner Bros. also has no time to regret the bad start of the summer season, because their top priority in 2006, “Superman Return” will be released soon.

The release of "Superman Return" is not only an important step for Warner Bros. to unveil the curtain of DC comic adaptation movies, but the success or failure of the work will directly determine the company's follow-up strategy; it is also an important weight for Warner Bros. to suppress Chaos Pictures and fight against the "Rampant Road" and teach Lance a lesson.

The whole Hollywood finally began to boil, especially the silence of the previous two months, there was no imagined big explosion. This also means that the box office potential of this summer has not been discovered. Will this be a precursor to the outbreak of the "Return of Superman", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2", and the "Rampant Road" decisive battle? Does this indicate that the entire box office market is accumulating energy for this showdown? Does this mean that the historical records will be constantly refreshed in the future?

Everyone will wait and see.

Wednesday, June 28th, is not only the last weekend of June, but also the first weekend of July, and it is also the Independence Day schedule this year. "Return of Superman" was released in 4,097 theaters in the United States, making it a brilliant debut with the third largest release scale in film history. This is the fifth work in history to release more than 4,000 theaters in history, and it is a huge momentum.

That night, the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Avenue was full of stars, and more than 130 special guests attended. With the help of 1,200 moviegoers and more than 300 journalists, the North American premiere of "Superman Return" became the most lively momentum in three months. The scale and popularity were no less than the Oscars. The premiere continued from 5 pm to 3 pm the next day. The host and guests were happy and reluctant to leave.

After the premiere, more than 300 comic fans stayed at the entrance of the Chinese Theater, singing loudly, and caring all the time. They even imitated Superman scenes on the Avenue of Stars, which became one of the interesting talks on the premiere.

All signs are showing that Warner Bros. not only held a successful premiere, but the quality of the finished product of "Superman Return" seems to exceed expectations. This is undoubtedly good news for the summer war - because the battle situation will be more intense, more exciting and more difficult to predict.

The next day, the media comprehensive review, theater scores, and Rotten Tomatoes scores were opened one after another. This work directed by Brian Singer successfully continued the praise of his previous two "X-Men". The media comprehensive review reached 72 points. Although it is not as good as last year's "Batman Prequel: The Mystery of the Shadow", for a popcorn movie and a comic-adapted hero movie, this result is already impressive enough, and it can even be regarded as commendable.

For reference, the media review of "City of Sin" is 77 points.

When Warner Bros. saw the media comprehensive review, he couldn't help but start the champagne celebration. This result was the second best score in this summer, second only to the 73 points of "Car Mobilization". Warner Bros. can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The previous defeat of "Sea God" was wiped out. Although reputation does not equal box office, at least it means that "Superman Return" has been recognized in quality, which also clears the obstacles to the movie's box office. This can definitely be called the best news since the opening of the summer season.

Not only that, the freshness index of Rotten Tomatoes is also as high as 76%, and the ratings of 258 mass media reached 7 points. Both sets of data are very gratifying. It can be seen that the mass media and professional media have basically maintained a unified opinion. "Return of Superman" has been praised by professionals. This is really rare for commercial films, especially when they are in a mess in the first two months of this summer, which is even more exciting.

But unexpectedly, the theater scores that the audience is responsible for scoring are only "b". This score can be said to be a surprise for popcorn movies. You should know that the theater scores of popcorn movies that have achieved excellent box office results are generally higher, and it is not surprising even if they get a "a". Especially after comparing the theater scores with the comprehensive reviews of the film critics, it becomes more and more surprising. It seems that the carnival of fans after the premiere is only the opinion of a small number of viewers, and more viewers are not interested in this movie.

This contrast immediately made Warner Brothers feel uneasy.

For a commercial film, whether it is a word of mouth or a box office? Ask a hundred people, the answers of a hundred people are the latter. If a commercial film cannot win a box office, it is a failure. Even if it wins a lot of praise, it is empty talk. If possible, Warner Bros. is even willing to use the media comprehensive evaluation of the 20-year-old media review to replace the evaluation of the theater score "a", but... this is impossible.

Weirdly, "Superman Return" seems to be trapped in an elusive stalemate.

In the last week of June, "Return of Superman" earned $52.5 million in the box office three days on the premiere weekend, causing an uproar, and the "Sea God"-style nightmare reappeared.
Chapter completed!