Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1410: A sleepless night in Seattle

"Jurassic Park" premieres on Thursday evening in 1,300 theaters across the country.

On Thursday, a quiet day for the box office, the enthusiasm of American and Canadian children was not dampened. In just one day, the film grossed $3.1 million.

Sylvester Stallone's new film "Cliffhanger," which was released two weeks ago, still made just over $1.2 million in 2,400 theaters.

This number really shocked all Hollywood producers, including Universal. After the number of theaters showing the film increased to 2,400 on Friday, the average single-day box office of a single theater jumped to $6,000. The box office on Friday exceeded $15 million.

Ronald watched the movie with Helen while holding some popcorn. He had his assistant secretly book a small screening room in a Hollywood cinema chain, and he also asked the maid and nurse to watch the movie with him, just to be on the safe side.

Helen, who was pregnant for one month, was very happy. She hugged Ronald and pinched Ronald's hand desperately to relieve her emotions when the scary scene appeared in the mall. However, the tone of this movie is actually a combination of horror and comedy. After watching it, Helen felt much more relaxed. When she returned to Helen's apartment, she was still very excited to discuss with Ronald.

"Jurassic Park has become the most successful movie of the year. Universal's senior executive Mr. Sidney Sheinberg said it was the most successful and greatest movie ever. Some people commented that the movie was too scary for the PG-13 rating, but the audience at the scene didn't seem to think so."

The TV station was also broadcasting the news of Jurassic Park's popularity. The grandparents, parents, and children interviewed on the spot all thought that this movie was the best movie they had ever seen. The general reaction of children was to cover their eyes during the scary scenes, and soon they would see the funny scenes.

"I'll come visit you between the premieres. Feel free to call Richard if you need anything."

Ronald got up the next morning, helped Helen make a hearty breakfast for pregnant women, and watched her finish it. Under Helen's reluctant gaze, he went out and got in the car.

When he walked downstairs, he looked back and saw Helen waving to him from the upstairs window. Ronald was moved for a moment and blew her a kiss. Then he talked to Helen on the phone all the way to the airport until take off.

……

"Look, Roger, what did Daddy bring you?"

As soon as he returned home to Los Angeles, Ronald began to try to please Diane and her son again.

"Oh, this dinosaur is so cute, I want it..." Unexpectedly, seeing that little Roger didn't understand, Diane took the plastic dinosaur toy in the premiere gift box for herself.

"This is for..."

"It's too small. A plastic dinosaur is not good for him. Let him play with the stuffed toy. I'll keep it for him first..." Diane took the big dinosaur and put it in her and Ronald's room.

"You've seen the premiere, right? I haven't..."

"Then let's go and see..."

The two played with the "Big Dinosaur" in the bedroom for a while. Diane saw that Ronald was in good spirits, so she made a request. After changing clothes, the two set out to the nearby cinema to watch Jurassic Park.

Diane wore big sunglasses and a baseball cap, but Ronald didn't hide anything, and the two of them got their tickets and went into the cinema.

"Um, you sit next to me so I can take notes. Last time I watched it I was a spectator, this time I need to take some notes..." Ronald found that his seat was right next to the aisle. Diane wanted to sit by the aisle, but Ronald didn't feel right, so he used the excuse of analyzing the movie to switch seats with his wife and sit on her right.

"Did you find out?" Two child actors on the screen were discussing. The water in the cup in the car began to sway due to the dinosaur's footsteps, and then there was a "wow" sound, and all the children in the cinema screamed.

The huge Tyrannosaurus Rex on the screen roared loudly. The new sound system had extraordinary expressiveness. The sound coming from the back surrounded the entire screening room, making the audience feel as if they were there.

Ronald had watched it for the third time and it was okay. Diane, like other mothers in the cinema, screamed along with her child, and some mothers were busy covering their children's eyes.

"Ah..." Diane pinched Ronald's left arm and screamed for several seconds before letting him go. Then she realized something was wrong and rubbed Ronald's arm a few times, saying gently, "Did it hurt you?"

"Ah, it's okay. If you're scared, just hold on to me." Ronald secretly felt lucky and hugged Diane. Fortunately, it was not the hand that Helen pinched.

"Wow, wow, wow..." When the Triceratops appeared on the screen, the audience began to applaud. Ronald also put down his paper and pen and applauded with them.

The plot of this movie is actually quite simple, but with the support of the latest sound system, the dinosaur special effects are extremely powerful, and not only children but also adult audiences are obviously impressed.

Although it was his third time watching the film, Ronald still felt a wave of emotional aftertaste when he walked out of the theater, just like the deep aftertaste and comfort one feels after a vigorous workout.

Obviously, not every movie can provide this kind of experience. In the history of film, only a few blockbusters with groundbreaking special effects and good plots have this ability, such as Star Wars, Jaws, ET, Terminator 2, etc.

"Jurassic Park, Spielberg's new film. To say the least, the big dinosaur special effects in this movie are very exciting. But the actors' performances do not have this effect..."

By the weekend, Chicago film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's reviews came out. They had to give Jurassic Park 3.5 points (out of 4 stars), but there were also many criticisms of the actors' performances in Jurassic Park.

Sisko, in particular, thinks that Spielberg has put the wrong focus on the story of the film. If he could have made further progress in casting and performance guidance, the film would have become a more profound film.

He also compared Jurassic Park with Jaws, saying that Jaws had three very deep characters, but in this Jurassic Park, only Malcolm played by Jeff Goldblum has depth, and the other characters including Sam Neill and Laura Dern are just vases who can only smile.

"Laura, don't be angry. These people are just jealous of your achievements. I went to see it with Ronald last night, and he also said that you played the role very well."

Diane was on the phone, comforting her best friend Laura Dern, who was very discouraged today. Today's film reviews were all critical of her, with few saying good things about her. Moreover, the number of words in her review was not as many as the number of words in the review of the realism of the giant dinosaur.

"I, hey, you are comforting me..." Laura Dunn unconsciously lowered her voice on the other end of the phone.

"If you don't believe me, I'll ask Ronald, Ronnie, Ronnie..." Diane rolled her eyes happily, cursed her best friend (a bitch) in her heart, pressed the speakerphone, and waved to Ronald, "What do you think of Laura's acting in Jurassic Park?"

"She acted very well. Don't be fooled by the critics. If you don't believe me, you can check what they said about Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider after Jaws was released..."

Ronald waved his hand. Film critics are creatures who make comments and assess actors' acting skills every week, but they themselves do not understand the process of filming and editing movies at all. Many times they even forget how they evaluated the films. Basically, their level is not much higher than that of ordinary movie fans.

Their reviews at the time of release and in retrospect can be very different. Time and box office are the best criteria for evaluating a movie. More than a decade after its release, some people still miss Jaws, but no one remembers the "well-acted" movies that were praised by critics back then.

Time is the most powerful filter. If movie fans can still remember the details of a movie ten years later, then it is undoubtedly a good movie. Film critics will also have the courage to deny their past selves and change from criticism to praise.

"Did you hear that? I didn't lie to you, don't worry." Diane turned off the speakerphone again and encouraged Laura Dunn.

"Hey, thank you, Diane, and thank you Ronald for your encouragement..." Laura Dern was very sad. She was not so lucky to marry a big director. Although what Ronald said might be true, in the Hollywood circle, producers would still refer to the reviews of famous film critics. Her dream of taking this movie to the next level was basically shattered. She might not be able to find the heroine of a commercial blockbuster in the future.

"Laura said thank you..." Diane proudly showed her advantage on the phone.

Jurassic Park, by Saturday, the box office had risen to more than 17 million. The drop on Sunday was also very small, only more than 2 million, and the box office received 14.3 million on that day.

……

“It’s a record-breaking…”

On Monday, the box office statistics came out. Although some TV stations made negative comments about the box office of this big dinosaur movie, saying that the horror plot was not suitable for children, some film critics complained that the plot and the actors' acting skills were mediocre, and that the movie relied entirely on special effects to hold up the show.

But the audience's word of mouth has exploded. When normal people watch a movie, who would consider whether the script is three-dimensional or whether the characters have arcs? If they like it, they will call their friends to watch it together.

The box office for the entire first three days of the weekend reached 47 million, plus the more than 3 million from Thursday's advance screenings, barely breaking the 50 million dollar mark.

This was the first time in America that a movie earned $50 million in its first weekend. It broke the first weekend box office record of "Batman Returns." The entire Universal Studios was very satisfied, and Sheinberg and others began to spread the word in the media that this was an unprecedented blockbuster, and anyone who didn't go to see it would be out of date.

By Thursday of the second week, the weekly box office exceeded 81 million, setting a new record.

On Friday of the second week, a big production from Columbia was released: Columbia's "The Last Action Hero".

This is a commercial blockbuster created by Guber, which has all the elements of a hit cartoon. It has Schwarzenegger, the cumulative champion of action movie box office, and John McTiernan, the gold medal director of "Die Hard".

This comic book-style movie also has cameos from more than a dozen action stars, including Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct, Ralph Mazzio and Noriyuki Morita from The Karate Kid, Robert Patrick, the villain T-2 from Terminator 1000, and the Belgian action star (B-movie) Jean-Claude Van Damme. Even Sylvester Stallone showed up on the poster.

That's because the film's story is based on the imagination of a 10-year-old boy named Danny, who gets a ticket to "Jack Slater IV" and enters the movie world where Jack Slater, played by Schwarzenegger, is a superhero police officer.

Because of the magical movie ticket, Jack Slater and Danny traveled through the screen and the real world together, and went to the real world to hunt down the villain.

Since Schwarzenegger had already played Jack Slater, the T-2 robot that he originally played in Terminator 800 became the one played by Sylvester Stallone. In the plot, when Danny and Jack Slater went to a video rental store together, the main video poster there became the one featuring Sylvester Stallone's T-800.

Ronald also went to the cinema to watch Sleepless in Seattle, which will be released next week, for research. After returning, he felt that the movie was unfortunately self-prophetic...

The movie is called The Last Action Hero, but since the 1990s, those hard-core action stars have been less popular. Even the top stars like Schwarzenegger and Stallone have transformed into action stars with a touch of comedy, no longer just selling muscles.

One visible difference is that in Terminator 2, Schwarzenegger's muscle mass and body size are much smaller than in Terminator . In the new film "Cliffhanger", Stallone is more like a normal person without steroids than Rambo and Rocky.

In addition, director John McTiernan did not add too many actions, explosions, and thrilling scenes this time, but played with art and sensationalism. The whole movie imitated Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" more than a decade ago.

The characters in the movie pass through the screen, enter the real world, and go on adventures with an audience of fans. Woody Allen can make it very sensational, even make people cry, while John McTiernan's filming makes people feel funny.

Abandoning those thrilling scenes that critics described as "boring explosions" that make people's hormones rise, this movie is neither fish nor fowl and can neither attract action movie fans nor satisfy the audience who want to watch an artistic story.

On the day of its release, Jurassic Park, which had been released for a week, earned 10 million and still ranked first. The last movie, Action Hero, only earned 5 million in roughly the same number of theaters. Even the third-place Cliffhanger earned more than 1 million.

On the second weekend of its release, Jurassic Park bucked the trend and rose to over 15 million, while Last Action Hero actually fell slightly. Dissatisfied action movie fans chose Cliffhanger in large numbers, which brought the latter's box office back to 2.7 million.

"Jurassic Park's box office exceeded 100 million in nine days!"

"For the first time in several years, Schwarzenegger was defeated by Stallone in a head-to-head duel."

"John McTiernan receives bad reviews, new Columbia project may be shelved..."

Ronald nodded slightly as he looked at the various news in the newspaper. The "Sleepless in Seattle" he produced was just in time.

After so many weeks, the box office of Jurassic Park is finally going to decline. The last action hero failed at the box office, and the number of theaters will degenerate to a point where it is not a concern next week. Cliffhanger has already been exhausted of its last bit of potential. In addition, the nature of Sleepless in Seattle as a romantic film does not conflict with the audience composition of Jurassic Park...

"Diane, has the new dress arrived? Let's go to the premiere to cheer for the new film..."