Chapter 595 The global hit “The Hunger Games” and “Tiny Times”

As time enters June, the smoke of the summer season will begin to become thicker.

Generally speaking, Hollywood movies will be the first to warm up the market, and starting from mid-to-late May, some Hollywood blockbusters will hit theaters one after another.

At the end of May, “Madagascar 3” was released and grossed million in eight days.

In recent years, Hollywood animated films have always had good box office results in mainland China, especially the Kung Fu Panda series, which has seen box office revenues rise with each successive one.

In fact, it shows that the domestic animation market is still good, but there are no good domestic animated films.

Currently, the only animated film that has a market is the “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” series, but it has been online since 2005. It is considered a national-level animation with many fans.

Then in the next two years, “Boonie Bears” will take over and become a regular film in the Spring Festival period every year.

But in general, these two series of movies are mainly shown to children.

Compared to Japanese and Hollywood animations, it always feels a little less interesting.

It was not until “The Return of the Great Sage” that domestic animated films really became well-known, and then “Nezha” made domestic animation a big hit.

As for “Nezha 2”, it goes without saying that with a box office of over billion yuan, it is estimated that it will be difficult for any movie to break this record in the next ten years, including its third sequel.

In the first half of June, the box office of “Madagascar 3” reached million.

It’s not that there were no domestic films released during this period, in fact there were quite a few.

As the domestic film market becomes more and more prosperous, there are now twenty to thirty movies released almost every month, and even more during popular schedules.

However, none of the movies released in June had a single-day box office of more than five million, which is not comparable to Hollywood movies at all.

The comedy film “Twin Heroes of Taiwan” starring Xia Yu and Fang Zuming only grossed more than 600 million in seven days after its release.

There is also a Thai romance film “A Little Thing Called First Love”, which also performed very poorly, earning only more than 500 million in box office revenue in seven days.

The only film that performed moderately well was the low-budget romance film “First Time” invested by Anle, which earned 350 million in the first weekend, 850 million in the four days of the second week, and 1200 million in seven days.

But the cast of this movie should not be underestimated, including Zhao Youting, Yang Ying, Bai Baihe, and Huang Xuan.

If this happened a few years later, the first-day box office might have been more than 12 million just with these few people.

But now, few people know them at all.

Bai Baihe is now an unknown artist because of “Love Is Not Blind”. Although her husband is a celebrity in the Beijing circle, he does not have many resources to support her.

I just don’t know if she will be asked to play the female lead in the subsequent “Monster Hunt”.

On June 18, another Hollywood blockbuster hit the domestic theater market.

This movie also has a certain relationship with Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest, as it is the movie “The Hunger Games” adapted from his novel of the same name.

When Liu Zhou first arrived in Hollywood, in order to occupy the IP copyright of “The Hunger Games”, he published a novel first.

He didn’t think about how the novel would sell at the time, he just wanted the copyright.

Unexpectedly, without much publicity, after two or three years, the novel became very popular and even made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

Last year, Summit Entertainment officially launched the project to shoot the first part of “The Hunger Games”.

After the production was completed at the beginning of this year, Anthony Edwards, after discussing with Liu Zhou, officially let the film compete for this year’s North American summer season.

“The Hunger Games” was released on June 8, at the same time as director Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror film “Prometheus.”

Science fiction horror movies are Ridley Scott’s forte, and the quality of “Prometheus” is also top-notch.

At that time, the outside world generally had more confidence in big directors, but the result was indeed surprising.

On its first day of release, “Prometheus” only earned 46 million US dollars, which is a good result.

However, “The Hunger Games” opened in 2,300 theaters and 3,000 screens and grossed $72 million.

Such high box office results shocked the North American media.

Although it is not uncommon for Hollywood movies to have a single-day box office of over 100 million U.S. dollars, and there are also many that have 70, 80, or 90 million U.S. dollars, these are all hit sequels or big IPs with high popularity.

Although “The Hunger Games” novel has some popularity, no one expected that the movie adaptation would be comparable to those big IP movies.

This just means that this movie is really good.

On the second day of its release, the screening scale was expanded to 3,000 theaters, and the film grossed $93 million.

On the third day, another 86 million was spent.

It raked in $2.51 million in box office revenue in its first three days, unsurprisingly winning the North American weekly box office championship.

“Prometheus” only earned $1.05 million in three days, and the box office barely broke $ million.

The movie obviously lost a lot of box office revenue to “The Hunger Games”, and the box office revenue on the last two days was even less than that on the first day.

At this time, outside media began to praise “The Hunger Games”, and many professional media or commentators predicted that the film’s North American box office would exceed 400 million.

This time their prediction was quite accurate. By June 3.6, when the movie was released in mainland China, its box office in North America had reached million US dollars.

After ten days of release, it grossed $3.6 million at the box office, a result that is undoubtedly no worse than some big IP movies.

During the summer vacation, two or three blockbuster movies are released every week, but the movie market during this period is also larger.

Therefore, for a blockbuster movie that is released, as long as it beats its competitors at the same time, it has a week to reap the box office revenue.

So in fact, for “The Hunger Games”, the box office revenue of 3.6 million US dollars has almost consumed most of the movie’s box office potential.

No matter how many blockbusters are released in the future, they will have little to do with “The Hunger Games”.

The huge success of “The Hunger Games” has a huge stimulating effect on the novel.

During the release of the movie, the novel immediately topped the best-selling list and even ranked third in the second week.

This can be considered as an extra benefit for Liu Zhou.

But the one with the greatest impact was Summit Entertainment.

Now with “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight”, Summit Entertainment already has two blockbuster movie series.

Even Paramount, one of the seven major Hollywood studios, cannot compare to this.

Entering the new century, Paramount’s performance was the worst.

While other giants have their own core series of movies, Paramount does not. The only one it can show off is Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series.

But this series relies heavily on Tom Cruise, and even the copyright does not entirely belong to Paramount.

Therefore, the relationship between the two sides became very tense due to conflicts of interest.

Later, Paramount acquired Spielberg’s DreamWorks live-action film division and brought it the Transformers series, which made Paramount’s situation less embarrassing. It was also because of the Transformers series that they had the confidence to make Tom Cruise bow his head.

However, the copyright of the “Transformers” series does not entirely belong to Paramount. He does not participate in much investment and is mainly engaged in film distribution.

Most of the subsequent huge peripheral revenue belongs to Hasbro.

Now that the Transformers trilogy has been completed and has come to an end, Paramount is once again in the same awkward situation as before.

So before The Hunger Games was finished, Paramount hurriedly contacted Summit Entertainment and once again expressed its intention to acquire the company.

In fact, not only Paramount, but several other giants are jealous of Summit Entertainment.

But they also know that Summit Entertainment will not sell it.

Now Summit Entertainment has gained momentum, and now it is no longer like before. The giants do not have as much advantage or influence over second- and third-tier film companies as before.

It is impossible to completely ban a film company that is gaining momentum. Even if you suppress it, it will cost a greater price.

What’s more, Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate are now working closely together, and the two companies together are no less powerful than any other giant.

So even though they were jealous, they could only watch and drool, but they couldn’t do much.

Summit Entertainment has once again become popular in Hollywood with “The Hunger Games”.

With the two major series of “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight”, Summit Entertainment’s influence in Hollywood has reached a new level.

On June 18, “The Hunger Games” was not only released in mainland China, but also in other overseas film markets.

The film has been a great success in other overseas markets, but has been a flop in the domestic market.

Historically, “The Hunger Games” grossed $4.1 million in North America and $6.94 million worldwide, which can be said to be a real hit.

However, the box office in the mainland market was not very good.

The box office on the first day in mainland China was only 1.7 million, and the total box office was only million.

In fact, the domestic box office of the entire series was average. Except for the third part which broke 200 million, the others all had box office of more than 100 million.

However, “The Hunger Games” is very well-known in China, and the movie has been played a lot on video websites.

The main reason is that the setup in the early stages of the movie was too long. The worldview had just been laid out step by step and the climax was about to begin, but the movie was almost over.

In the field of online literature, this kind of writing style will also fail.

So there is absolutely no chance that this movie will become a hit.

When “The Hunger Games” was promoted, it was said to be a youth film, but in fact it is a political film.

A survey agency shows that in the United States and even the world, the main movie-watching group is still adults over 25 years old, accounting for nearly 60%.

During the general election at the end of the year, Obama publicly mocked that there were too many Elephant Party candidates running in the presidential election, which was like a show called “The Hunger Games.”

It’s unique to use a movie to satirize political opponents.

However, this time with the support of Liu Zhou and Golden Harvest, the film’s domestic box office can at least increase by tens of millions, and it should be no problem for it to exceed 200 million.

In this case, the global box office of “The Hunger Games” should also exceed the 700 million US dollar mark.

More than 600 million and 700 million give people very different feelings.

Although “The Hunger Games” did not perform as well as expected at the domestic box office, it had almost no competition in late June.

During this period, only a few low-budget movies were released. The thriller “No Such Person” starring Yu Xiaowei and Qiao Renliang grossed 50 on the first day.

The love movie “Blue Sea Love” starring Han Dong grossed 100,000 on the first day and was taken off the shelves three days after its release.

There is also a movie invested by MGM, “Spy Game”, which was introduced to the mainland because of Wanda. It was released at the end of June and earned 500 million at the box office in two days.

The first film that MGM released in mainland China after being acquired by Wanda was a dud.

This also caused Wanda to be ridiculed by some media, especially with the example of Summit Entertainment. Some tabloids even criticized Wanda for not being able to make movies at all.

But actually this is a bit of a wishful thinking for Wanda. This movie “Spy Game” was invested and filmed by MGM before it was acquired by Wanda, so it has little to do with them.

But the media doesn’t care about this. MGM has no traffic, only Wanda has traffic.

Given the poor performance of other movies, it is no wonder that “The Hunger Games” was able to earn over 100 million yuan at the box office despite its poor reputation.

This time with the promotion of Golden Harvest, the movie has grossed 1.6 million yuan in ten days since its release, and it should not be a problem to break million yuan.

Although “The Hunger Games” is a movie produced by the North American branch of Golden Harvest Group, it is still an imported film.

Therefore, the distribution rights of the film are still in the hands of China Film, but this does not mean that Golden Harvest cannot cooperate and participate in the promotion.

As we enter July, the real summer season in mainland China has arrived.

Compared with July and August, the domestic film market in May and June is just an appetizer, because the main movie-watching crowd during the summer vacation has not yet gone on vacation.

The really popular movies are usually released in July and August.

On the last day of June, “Black & White” starring Huang Bo and Zhao Youting was released and earned 6 million in box office in 5000 days.

This result is still acceptable. At least it has saved some face for domestic films. After all, the performance of Chinese-language films released in May and June was too poor.

The next day, July 4st, a crime movie “The Driver” starring Yu Wenle and Huang Gou was released, and it earned 1800 million in box office in days.

The reason why a movie with this kind of lineup and cast dares to participate in the summer season is mainly because the producer is promoting it as a sequel to “Initial D”.

Although “Initial D” did average box office when it was first released, the popularity of the movie has gradually grown in recent years due to Jay Chou and several popular songs.

Therefore, it is still attractive that “Driver” is promoted under the name of “Initial D”.

But after the movie was released, it gave the audience a big surprise.

The box office on the first day was 26 million, which is a good result for a low-budget movie, but on the second day the box office was halved to only 12 million.

And a large number of netizens began to criticize this movie online.

But for the producers, the movie has already made money, and they are here to make money.

If the movie can get a box office of 50 million, it will be a lot of money. Now it has earned nearly 40 million in two days. There should be no problem in the final box office exceeding 60 million.

The director of this movie is Zheng Baorui, a famous B-level film director in Hong Kong, who also directed “Havoc in Heaven”.

“Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” started filming in 10 and was completed a long time ago, and is still working on post-production special effects.

He took time out to direct “The Driver”, but he didn’t expect to be criticized so harshly.

On July 6, a movie invested by Golden Harvest that may cause huge public opinion, “Tiny Times”, will be released.

(End of this chapter)