I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1011: The Fundamental Gap]

Star Wars had become a sentiment, a culture, or even a belief for Americans. One could say that as long as a film was made, regardless of its quality, any installment in the Star Wars series could be expected to perform well at the box office without much effort, before DEI.

Living in Hollywood, the girl must have understood this deep down. Her previous remarks were merely teasing. Eric didn't bother to explain anything; instead, he focused on last week's box office report.

After debuting with $113.16 million in its opening week and facing no strong new releases last week, The Matrix 2 experienced a 51% drop in total box office during its second week. Although the decline compared to the three-day weekend showed a slight rebound, a 51% drop still left The Matrix 2 with a weekly gross of $55.45 million.

With a cumulative total of $168.61 million in North America over two weeks, it indicated that The Matrix 2 would comfortably surpass $200 million. However, surpassing $250 million seemed unlikely, falling at least $50 million short compared to the previous installment's $280 million box office.

This sequel hadn't shown much improvement in quality compared to the original, but it also wasn't considered a failure. Eric believed that the primary reason for the $50 million shortfall was the distribution limitations of Amblin Entertainment.

If Firefly had continued to distribute it, maintaining the same box office performance would have been manageable. Meanwhile, Amblin's distribution shortcomings could pose greater risks for the third installment's box office potential.

Should the third movie turn out to be as poor in quality as the original, lacking strong promotional resources could result in dismal box office returns. So far, Amblin hadn't announced the release date for the third film, and Eric hadn't taken the initiative to inquire about the specifics.

Besides The Matrix 2, Disney's family comedy The Parent Trap followed closely. Starring Disney's child star Lindsay Lohan, this family comedy opened with $19.15 million and received decent reviews, with expectations for a total box office exceeding $60 million.

While it couldn't compare to any of the summer blockbusters, The Parent Trap's production budget was only $20 million. Even factoring in distribution costs, the box office returns remained quite respectable.

In third place was The Day After Tomorrow. Due to The Matrix 2's weak performance in its second week, The Day After Tomorrow, now in its fourth week, experienced a slight narrowing of its box office drop. Following a 55% decline in the third week, last week it dropped only 46%, garnering $15.47 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $219.56 million.

Although hitting another decline from the competition of Charlie's Angels 3, The Day After Tomorrow's current $220 million box office gave it a reasonable shot at hitting $250 million.

As for other films like The Mask of Zorro and The Truman Show, their box office returns were less impressive. Eric quickly skimmed through them and focused back on his breakfast.

...

As the most anticipated film of the summer, Charlie's Angels 3 immediately captured the media's frenzy and discussions upon its release. At yesterday's premiere, MGM had invited a large number of media, showing immense confidence in the film's quality.

Today, major media outlets were also giving overwhelmingly positive reviews.

"Charlie's Angels 3 perfectly continues the unique style of the entire series while also incorporating innovative elements. After Casino Royale, MGM once again treats moviegoers to a spicy and explosive visual feast." - The Hollywood Reporter.

"The smooth storyline, exciting fights, and seamless integration of the series... everything was just so enjoyable. Perhaps the only regret about this sequel is that Lucini's father, who was referenced throughout the trilogy, never made an appearance. What a pity!" - Los Angeles Times.

"It's hard to deny that MGM has delivered another perfect entry for fans of the spy movie universe. However, the production budget of this film has soared to $160 million, and the promotional scale is unprecedented. Unless MGM can manage the production budgets for upcoming films in this spy universe rationally, this grand plan may well collapse under the mounting costs.

The three-film curse in Hollywood clearly hasn't vanished due to the overwhelming success of the spy movie universe. Reports suggest that the production of Bond 19 has been delayed repeatedly due to various reasons. Perhaps for every sequel in the spy movie universe, we'll need to practice patience." - Variety.

Traditional media had praises, discussions, and analysis, creating quite the buzz.

...

On internet platforms, under Yahoo's aggressive promotional campaign, the topic surrounding Charlie's Angels 3 intensified. Early Friday morning, news broke that Charlie's Angels 3 had shattered midnight screening box office records, prominently featured on Yahoo's front page. With over twenty million daily users visiting Yahoo, such headlines amounted to free advertisements seen by millions.

Meanwhile, Google's search engine, already well-established among core internet users, showed advertisements for Charlie's Angels 3 for any movie-related keyword, leading directly to Yahoo's newly launched online ticket sales.

Of course, MGM needed to pay for this advertising.

However, the results were significant. According to Google's backend monitoring, on the day of the Friday release, over 130,000 users were influenced by the search engine ads and logged onto Yahoo's ticket sales site to make purchases.

With average ticket prices hovering around $5 in North America, though these 130,000 viewers would only bring in $650,000 for Charlie's Angels 3, this was just a single day's figures. The film had at least a month of tightly knit box office revenue awaiting ahead.

While it might not sustain that $650,000 daily ticket gain, over a month -- as a baseline before including the potential audience engagement from Yahoo community discussions -- the advertising alone could still deliver at least an extra $10 million in box office revenues.

Comparatively, MGM's total advertising spend with Yahoo was just $1 million, a mere one-fiftieth of MGM's $50 million promotional budget.

There was no doubt that internet advertising provided exceptional value for money; this collaboration between Yahoo and MGM served as a great demonstration for Yahoo's promotion of its advertising business in Hollywood.

...

On the other hand, discussions about Charlie's Angels 3 in various online communities, such as Yahoo Movies, became extremely lively.

Initially, MGM had planned to release hidden egg details from the film if fans couldn't find them all. However, just on the first day, every clue and Easter egg had been uncovered by the devoted fanbase, including a pivotal document from the Jason Bourne series.

Many were already aware that MGM was developing a spin-off series in the spy movie universe called Fast & Furious, which was confirmed for a year-end release. The sudden appearance of the Jason Bourne Easter egg naturally reignited intense interest from the media and fans.

The public email address MGM set up for fan interactions saw a flood of inquiries regarding the Jason Bourne series on that same day. The MGM public relations team received countless inquiries from various media on related issues, and even several major agencies began seeking out information to secure opportunities for their artists.

In Eric's plans, the Jason Bourne series was not set to begin production until early next year. To avoid impacting the buzz around Charlie's Angels 3, MGM was naturally tight-lipped.

Amidst this frenzy, the very next day, Charlie's Angels 3 announced its day-one box office: $26.62 million.

Including the $12.5 million from the midnight screenings, Charlie's Angels 3 raked in a total of $39.12 million on its first day, far surpassing the previous year's Casino Royale, which opened with only $30.5 million.

The fans who created this box office miracle were ecstatic, and MGM's CEO Amy Pascal publicly thanked fans on Yahoo's platform.

...

While the media was amazed, they also provided pragmatic viewpoints.

The New York Times quickly assessed that, similar to The Matrix 2, Charlie's Angels 3 was indeed akin to a strong fan-driven film. Despite impressive midnight and day-one box office numbers, a significant drop similar to The Matrix 2 was expected from core fans in the weeks to come.

The MGM management understood this notion as well. However, compared to The Matrix 2, Charlie's Angels 3 had a higher level of popularity and critical acclaim. Being a popcorn film, it evidently attracted a broader audience than the Matrix series had.

People felt increasingly confident about Charlie's Angels 3's box office prospects.

The film did not disappoint expectations. After the first day, the box office for Saturday exceeded the $30 million mark, reaching $31.53 million, while Sunday saw an additional income of $25.25 million.

In the end, Charlie's Angels 3 achieved a first weekend total of $95.90 million, nearly approaching the $100 million milestone, and emphatically breaking the first weekend box office record set by Casino Royale last year.

...

Facing such a dazzling start, even the skeptics who doubted the film's future box office trajectory couldn't help but agree that reaching $300 million in North America would be an easy feat for Charlie's Angels 3.

With The Matrix 2 underperforming, Charlie's Angels 3 suddenly emerged as the only film of 1998 projected to surpass the $300 million mark in North America.

As for global earnings, even if it fell short of the billion-dollar global milestone, it wouldn't be by much.

The first two installments of the Charlie's Angels series earned around $500-600 million each worldwide, still lagging behind the Mission: Impossible series, whose last two installments grossed $700 million.

However, everyone had noticed that, with the backing of MGM's spy movie universe, the Charlie's Angels series had undergone a transformation similar to that of the Bond series the previous year.

A spy movie universe plan had, by this point, birthed two blockbuster series that each crossed the billion-dollar global mark. The Mission: Impossible series, which had consistently performed the best among the three major series, now seemed increasingly likely to face a similar 'transformation.'

Thus, upon Charlie's Angels 3's initial box office results being released, some began to shift their focus toward Mission: Impossible 3's release later that year.

Yet while some celebrated, others found cause for concern.

...

Early Monday morning, at Amblin Entertainment's headquarters in Culver City, near downtown Los Angeles, the team that watched a preview of The Matrix 3 wore serious expressions.

In the conference room, everyone unanimously felt that The Matrix 3 was chaotic and incomprehensible.

With both films having accrued a staggering production budget of $300 million, further investment for reshoots was impossible.

After completing the films, the Wachowski brothers expressed a sense of contentment and remained resolute against making further modifications to the third installment. Given the nature of the film, it was actually hard for them to pinpoint specific aspects to change.

After a moment of silence, Frank Marshall, a well-known Hollywood producer designated as the CEO of the newly formed Amblin Entertainment, glanced at Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and George Lucas before speaking up, "I think we should ideally capitalize on the current momentum to release the third installment quickly. A year-end release would be a good timing."

"Frank, that's too risky," Spielberg immediately replied. "Year-end has the Star Wars prequel, Mission: Impossible 3, and Fast & Furious, along with many other popular films. I believe a summer 1999 release would be more prudent."

After Spielberg spoke, others nodded in agreement.

Frank Marshall looked around at the roomful of his superiors, feeling overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessness, he couldn't help but envy Eric Williams's ability to grant autonomy to the Firefly management team like Katzenberg.

Had it not been for Spielberg and the others urging to keep him, along with aspirations for Amblin to become another major production house in Hollywood, Frank Marshall would have left to set up his own production company with his wife long ago.

But now, looking at Spielberg and the others, Frank Marshall understood that Amblin would never rise among Hollywood's major studios.

He did not deny the cinematic talent of Spielberg and George Lucas, nor did he lack admiration for David Geffen's media insight, but these individuals fundamentally lacked a strong ambition to establish a major studio. They leaned more toward being emotional artists.

It was just like the Star Wars prequels; after several production studios consolidated, Frank Marshall urged George Lucas to reclaim distribution rights for the prequel series from Fox. He believed that reclaiming those rights, even at the cost of years in legal battles, would be worth it. However, George Lucas refused, hoping the films could be released smoothly and quickly.

Moreover, even Spielberg remained unwavering when it came to personal interests in movie production, maintaining his stance since Amblin was still a small studio.

This resulted in several projects led by Spielberg at Amblin in recent years yielding considerable profits for the creators while the company regularly recorded losses.

More crucially, these filmmakers who held substantial shares in Amblin Entertainment were reluctant to entrust the company's operations to him as CEO. This often left Frank Marshall feeling more like a lackey rather than a chief executive of a major company.

With a sigh, he knew they had to take action, "In fact, if we move the release date up to early November, we could dodge those films' competition. The Matrix series has enough popularity to support such a timeframe. If we wait until next year, even with a good release slot, this finale's box office could see greater variability as interest wanes."

*****

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