Universal Pictures has high hopes for "Van Helsing". The production cost of this film is as high as US$160 million, and the public promotion budget of US$100 million, and the high investment of a total of US$260 million also shows Universal Pictures' confidence.

High income also means huge cost recovery pressure.

To Ronan's expectations, according to the news he received, Universal Pictures' internal preview was quite optimistic about the market prospects of "Van Helsing", and some people even thought that this would be a magical production no less than the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Universal Pictures’ confidence comes not only from the film itself, but also from director Stephen Somos.

When it comes to Stephen Somos, we have to talk about the two box office bombs he created, "Mummy" and "The Mummy Return". The former was very upset in 1999, with a total box office of more than $155 million in North America, while the latter staged a sequel movie myth. The box office in North America was set a box office record of $68.1 million in the first week of its release, and the global box office total reached $429 million.

In addition, Stephen Somos was the screenwriter and producer of "The Scorpion King" in 2002. The film topped the North American box office list with 36.1 million in its first week of release, and later the global box office reached 151 million US dollars.

Such a brilliant record makes people have confidence in Stephen Somos.

Ronan did not see "Van Helsing" and was not sure if the film would change.

However, the success or failure of "Van Helsing" will not have much impact on Relativity Entertainment. At most, "Shrek 2" released in the next weekend will be affected to a certain extent.

"Legend of the Night 2", also starring Kate Beckinsale, not only was it released in the first two months of "Van Helsing", but by the end of April, it had been fully discharged in North American theaters.

The North American box office of the film ended up at $88.74 million.

Next, the "Legend of the Night" series will be in a refrigeration period for a period of time. Even if "Van Helsing" fails, it will not affect this series for the time being.

Perhaps because of the copyright transactions between the Hulk and Fast and Furious series, Universal Pictures and the NBC Group behind it specially sent a premiere invitation to Ronan.

Ronan also went to see the premiere of "Van Helsing".

At the huge premiere, fans and media reporters were both enthusiastic, and Universal Pictures obviously invested heavily in hosting the premiere.

Now in Hollywood, the premiere of first-tier blockbusters has gradually become the norm for investing more than three million dollars in first-tier blockbusters, and even the huge premiere of some films can cost $5 million.

Most of the Hollywood premieres will be selected in popular locations in first-tier cities. All kinds of rents alone are huge expenses.

If you invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiere, it will become increasingly difficult to attract people to stop if you don’t create some novel tricks.

The characteristics of eye economy are particularly obvious in the entertainment industry.

Ron Mayer has resigned from the newly formed NBC Universal Entertainment Group. Ronan is not familiar with the new senior executives of Universal Pictures. He greeted him and exchanged some casual greetings before entering the cinema.

Compared with the other five of the six major companies, Universal Pictures has not caused trouble to Relativity Entertainment in recent years.

Universal Pictures and NBC TV merger. Just think about it for a little bit and you will know how much work there is and how difficult it is to deal with personnel and business relationships. It will take at least two years for NBC Universal Pictures to complete internal integration.

During this period, Universal Pictures did not have much energy to actively suppress other companies.

To a large extent, Vivendi's struggle with Universal Pictures is equivalent to a lack of a roadblock for Relativity Entertainment.

In fact, since the new century, several of the six major companies have been constantly having internal problems, namely, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Sony Columbia Pictures are relatively stable.

Disney's infighting is getting worse, Universal Pictures frequently changes hands, and Paramount Pictures' production business has had major problems...

Luo Nan thought about these things, while thinking about how relativity entertainment should take advantage of the situation and seize the opportunity to break through the six major companies, a tacit and loose encirclement circle.

The possibility of the once giant Walt Disney is getting smaller and smaller, and Robert Iger and Marvel are both in the hands of Relativity Entertainment.

The rest of this year will be spent digesting and reorganizing Marvel Entertainment, developing Netflix, and new development plans. As soon as next year.

Otherwise, the internal unstable of the Relative Entertainment, and the seemingly loose capital chain will be tight.

The movies that sell well have brought huge cash flow to Relativity Entertainment, but the funds are not unlimited.

Netflix made profits last year, and its disc sales and leasing business developed more rapidly this year. However, network sharing and the upcoming streaming business are both expensive players. It is rare for Netflix to maintain no losses in 2004.

Ronan will not have any more profit requirements for Netflix for the time being.

The movie began to be screened, and when he saw Hugh Jackman's familiar face, Ronan no longer considered work, and focused on the movie, just to relax when watching an interesting video.

This is a large collection of monsters in Universal movies, and it can even be called a monster version of the Avengers.

Van Helsing, Dracula, werewolf, vampire bride and Frankenstein all appeared, and each had many scenes.

Just like those blockbusters before, the main plot of this "Van Helsing" is not much different from the one Ronan once watched.

Just like before, Ronan thought the film was pretty good.

From a purely audience perspective, although this movie is not very exciting, it is also very interesting. From his point of view alone, it is no less than the two "Mummys".

Perhaps after the two "Mummy", the audience's expectations for the Universal Monster Movie have increased; or perhaps because there was no preparation before, it was directly produced by a monster hodgepodge, which was difficult for the audience to accept.

The response after "Van Helsing" was not very good after its premiere.

For summer commercial films with such huge investments, reputation and evaluation are false, and everything will eventually be reflected in the box office.

On the first day of its release in North America, "Van Helsing" earned $19.5 million in nearly 4,000 theaters.

This result is not bad, but compared with the investment in the film, it is not much better.

By Saturday, the box office of "Van Helsing" did not explode, nor did it bring bonuses due to the day off effect. The $19.64 million box office has already made the senior executives of Universal Pictures feel a chill.

Combined with the film's not very good reputation, including Universal Pictures, I have actually made a judgment on "Van Helsing".

Monday comes, and a new box office ranking is released. "Van Helsing" unexpectedly tops the North American box office rankings, with the box office opening of North America opening weekend of $51.7 million.

In terms of medium-sized investments, $51.7 million is definitely a box office hit, but in the face of the production cost of $160 million and the promotional and distribution budget of $100 million, it is really too low.

Moreover, as the audience saw the film increased, the reputation of "Van Helsing" also became bad. From the plot of the film to the monsters to major actors such as Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale, they all became the targets of criticism from the audience and the media.

Especially Kate Beckinsale, "Van Helsing" has almost announced that Kate Beckinsale has ended its fate with Hollywood first-line production.

This British rose has not yet shined in Hollywood and has withered.

Stephen Somos and Hugh Jackman are not having a good time. If the box office trends after "Van Helsing" do not improve, the pressure brought by huge investment will put the two on the blacklist of many Hollywood production companies.

Hugh Jackman is better, after all, there is a Wolverine guarantee.

But this "Van Helsing" failed, and Stephen Somos would definitely lose all the style and halos brought by the two "Mummys".

The former senior executives of Universal Pictures who stayed at NBC Universal Entertainment Group will have a harder life. Ron Mayer, who decided to promote this project, has resigned and other senior executives must be responsible for this.

The failure to settle accounts in top major productions has always been a retention project for failing movies in Hollywood.

Maybe there are a large number of people who are going to be swept out by NBC.

Their only hope is that "Van Helsing" can maintain a stable box office trend and the final North American box office landing point can be higher as much as possible.

After all, the box office of "Titanic" in North America in the first week was only more than $28 million.

But with the second weekend of the summer vacation, all hopes accumulate only a bubble.

"Van Helsing"'s box office plummeted by 60% over the first weekend, and only won 20.7 million US dollars in three days.

Ten days after the release, the box office of this super-large production just reached $85 million in North America.

Anyone who follows this film knows that "Van Helsing" will inevitably lose money and may even cause huge losses.

Even if you obtain income through a long-term offline operation model, how many years will it take to recover your investment? Ten years, twenty years, or thirty years?

How to calculate the cost of time? How much will the currency depreciate at that time?

In contrast, "Shrek 2," produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios and published by Embassy Pictures, has shined with infinite glory.

The first movie "Shrek Monster" caused a huge sensation.

Two years of TV broadcasting and DVD offline rental and sale have cultivated more audiences, and all of them exploded on the weekend of painting.

The quality of "Shrek Monster 2" is not much better than the first one, but due to the sequel effect, the North American premiere weekend opened at $115.26 million in 4,210 theaters.

This also sets a record.

The box office result of $115.26 million means that in the North American film market, the box office of animated feature films has exceeded the $100 million mark for the first time in history.

Although it is the dazzling DreamWorks Animation Studio, Embassy Pictures, as the publisher, can also make huge profits in this animated feature film.
Chapter completed!