The summer in the United States in 1994 seemed particularly hot, and the world's eyes were focused on this football "desert". In this country where football is crazy about football, baseball, ice hockey, and basketball, the four-year World Cup is about to be held. Football fans from all over the world are flocking to this land, igniting the heat of summer early.

In addition to football, the annual summer season has rekindled the war. After the summer season has entered a fierce competition this year, it has pushed the entire North American film market to a hot peak. One wonderful masterpiece after another will appear, which has lifted the audience's appetite early before the summer season arrives, making people full of unlimited expectations for this summer.

"Forrest Gump", "Real Lies", "Lion King", "Eyebrow Chasing", "Modern Primitive Man (the.flinestones), "Wolf", "Gambling Man Ma Huali"... A bunch of highly-respected works will be launched in this summer market, and this is only a work with an investment of more than 45 million US dollars, and is also a work that is recognized as hoped to win this summer box office championship.

In addition to this large number of works, there are also works such as "Speed ​​of Life and Death", "Disguise of Disguised", "Beverly Hills Police Detective 3", and "Rumbrella Conquers New York", which have joined the competition. The entire summer season is exciting and exciting.

The 1994 summer season kicked off with "The Crow". This work starring Li Guohao, the son of Li Xiaolong, was already in a turmoil during the filming stage. Li Guohao was unfortunately shot and died during the filming period, which detonated all media comments.

To count the Chinese actors who have a strong influence in Hollywood, Li Xiaolong deserves to be ranked first, and his influence in the United States is unmatched. "Crow" is adapted from a comic novel and attracted many attraction during the filming stage. Starring Li Guohao, Li, became the hot topic, and such an amazing accident occurred during the filming period.

The release of "Crow" is full of disasters. In the end, this work, which was originally scheduled to be released in October 1993, was postponed to 1994. After careful consideration by the distribution company Miramax Film, it was put into the summer season, opening the curtain of this year's summer season.

In the third week of May, "Crow" officially landed in the North American market and easily won the North American weekend box office championship with a box office of 11.7 million, which set a good start for this year's summer season. It is worth mentioning that "Crow" defeated the work "When a man falls in love with a woman".

"When a man falls in love with a woman" was a work by Tracy Jacobs during the preparation stage, but after several twists and turns, the producer Jon Avenet, who was "Good Boy and Crazy", took over and Meg Ryan, and the protagonist locked in Andy Garcia, who is well-known by "Godfather 3".

"When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman" was held last week and achieved a good result of $34,000 in a single-stage box office. This week, it expanded in 1,300 theaters, but the results were unsatisfactory. In the end, the weekend box office of 9.4 million was only ranked behind the "Crow" and ranked second.

After the "Crow" appeared, the summer season in 1994 officially entered a melee mode. After "Gambling Man Ma Huali" won the championship for a week, it did not continue to be as strong as expected. Immediately after the premiere of "Modern Primitive Man", it beat "Gambling Man Ma Huali" that premiered at the same time, and successfully won the championship.

Then, as the first week of June entered, the summer season ushered in the first wave of **.

There were three movies released in the first week of June, and three works with very close strength. This week's box office competition was also hailed as the first highlight of the 1994 summer season.

Disney's Touchstone Film Company invested 40 million US dollars to film "Renaissance", a typical comedy film directed by Penny Marshall (penny.marshall), who is a comedy-born. Her most famous work is undoubtedly "Flying Over the Future" starring Tom Hanks. The male protagonist chose Danny.devito, who has solid comedy performance skills, and has strong confidence in making a breakthrough in the comedy field in the summer season. The movie will be released in 1,800 theaters.

Universal Pictures, which started out with comedy and is famous for its comedy, is the main battlefield that Universal Pictures cannot give up every summer, and this year is no exception. Universal Pictures is best at making big fortunes with small profits, and the most likely to achieve high box offices among Hollywood movies is supernatural and comedy. Of course, in the past year, Universal Pictures' greatest achievement has been "Schindler's List", which can be called the pinnacle of small profits with small profits. Although cost control is not the original intention of Universal Pictures.

"The Rural Conquer New York" is Lang Meyer's first summer shot after taking office at Universal Pictures. He invested 20 million US dollars and invited Woody Harrison and Keifer Sutherland to take the lead. It will also be released in 1,800 theaters. It can be seen that they hope to face the "Celestial Soldiers" head-on and seize the market.

Among the three works released this week, the most innocent one is the "speed of life and death".

This work was originally scheduled to be released next week, but it was considered easy to bully. It was forced to adjust the schedule in early May. During the entire promotion period, it was also bombarded by competitors. Before the movie was released, it was generally regarded by the media. On the one hand, the work itself did not have enough highlights to attract audiences, and on the other hand, the publicity after the adjustment period did not meet the expected target, which was undoubtedly a fatal blow to the box office, not to mention that there were two comedy movies eyeing them in the same period.

"Speed ​​of Life and Death" invests 28 million, but it is actually an action movie. After "Terminator 2" and "Real Lies" created a feat of investment of over 100 million, it is not surprising that the investment in action movies has generally risen to more than 50 million, or even 60 million. But the cost of "Speed ​​of Life and Death" is so low, what does this mean? It means that the explosion, action, and racing scenes of the movie will disappoint.

Of course, Twentieth Century Fox is not a fool. After careful consideration, they are willing to increase the "speed of life and death" for a week, and they must be mentally prepared.

First of all, the main competitor of "life and death hour" in the first week of June is comedy, which has at least more chances of winning than "wolf" in the second week of June. "wolf" is a fantasy, action, and horror type of work. This is a head-on confrontation with "life and death hour". Therefore, relatively speaking, choosing two comedy as competitors will not be diverted at least in the market.

The second is Hugo's strong appeal. The miracle of the Oscars is vividly remembered. The subsequent Cannes Film Festival made Hugo's peak myth. Now the tour of "The Road to Glory" is still in full swing. The audience who went to the cinema just for Hugo will be very impressive. Of course, the starring of "Wolf" is Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer, and the starring of the two comedy movies is slightly inferior in terms of appeal, which is also a category that must be taken into consideration.

Finally, there is the 20th Century Fox's publicity strategy. The promotion of "life and death speed" focuses on the excellent quality of the movie, and creates "remembering the excitement and excitement brought by traditional classic action blockbusters."

During the publicity process, they have been emphasizing that the current action movies have fallen into a vicious cycle of "Terminator". The big scenes led by explosion and racing have become the core of action movies, which has weakened the thrilling stimulation brought to people by action movies. In the past, heroes were fighting against bad guys, but now they were heroes fighting against bombs, pistols, and future warriors. The action movies were wearing an illusory mask, which made people feel unreal. But the "speed of life and death" stripped away all the cumbersomeness and returned to the essence.

"Let you experience the thrilling moments around you", this slogan has also become the loudest slogan in the publicity process.

It has to be said that this publicity strategy has indeed won the appetite of the audience and opened up a world with a different approach. In terms of momentum, it has surpassed the "Wolf" that will be released next week, attracting more attention.

Of course, this approach is also a double-edged sword, because people's high expectations for movies must have better quality to give back. Otherwise, after the premiere achieves a good box office, the decline in reputation the next week will bring about a chain reaction of a box office. So generally speaking, film companies will not take this method of drinking poison to quench thirst. Unless... they are full of confidence, or have no choice.

Currently, most people believe that the Twentieth Century Fox belongs to the latter.

But no matter what, the final release of "Speed ​​of Life and Death" was locked in 2,100 theaters, not only breaking the 2,000 mark, but also more than two competing works. It can be seen that 20th Century Fox has a plan to go all the way, and if it fails, it will be successful.

Faced with the actions of Twentieth Century Fox, many media have joked that, in any case, the "speed of life and death" is only invested 28 million, and even if the loss is lost, it will not be too miserable. They think that Twentieth Century Fox is a broken candle, and there is a kind of helplessness and ridicule of indignation but powerless counterattack.

Most importantly, the release of "Speed ​​of Life and Death" also created a topic. Since "Smelling the Scent of the Scent", Hugo has created the reputation myth of five movies in a row. Excluding the "Pulp Novels" that won praise in Cannes but have not been officially released in North America, the other four movies have also won box office victories. After "Yihai Xiong Feng", three consecutive movies have exceeded the 100 million threshold. Such a feat is no less than Tom Cruise.
Chapter completed!