Chapter 238 A Good Start

As the media said, Disney is very tough now and does not admit the failure of "Pearl Harbor".

In fact, to be honest, a movie's box office of 48.25 million in its first weekend is actually a very good result, and it cannot be said to be a failure. But the bad thing is that Disney made a lot of big promises before the release of "Pearl Harbor" and had too high expectations for the movie.

What about breaking the box office record in the first weekend, what about breaking 100 million in 5 days, and having a big fight with "Pirate King", as if "Pearl Harbor" is an epic masterpiece. As a result, not only did he not break the record, but he was also beaten by "Pirate King", which naturally made him laugh.

However, everyone also understands that it has only been three days, and it is impossible for Disney to declare "Pearl Harbor" a failure.

With so much invested in "Pearl Harbor," it's impossible to give up just because it failed at the box office in the first weekend. It has to struggle no matter what. There won't be any blockbusters released in the next month. Maybe there will be any improvement?

As for Wu Yuchen, there is no longer a fierce pursuit of "Pearl Harbor" like before the movie was released. Before the movie was released, he kept chasing him in order to achieve the maximum effect in promoting "Pirate King". Now that "Pirate King" has won, gained a huge advantage, won the first weekend championship, and received a great reputation, naturally there is no need for him as a director to charge forward. Now he has to behave more gracefully, and there is no need to leave a successful and arrogant image to the public.

Moreover, his top priority now is to promote the film with the crew and maximize the box office of "Pirate King". Other things can wait until the box office is completely successful.

On Monday night, Peter Schreider could not sit still for a long time and was waiting for the first-hand data in person at the company. He now doesn't place any hope that "Pearl Harbor" can overtake "Pirate King". He only hopes that the box office data of "Pearl Harbor" will be better.

As long as "Pearl Harbor" can recoup its costs, his position should be kept. Because he is one of Eisner's cronies, if the project can recover the cost, then the shareholders will not have very big opinions. If he kneels down and licks Eisner, Eisner should give him a hand, and he will not be Removal.

As for the bet or not, that thing is bullshit? Can face be used as food?

When the staff sent over the freshly released Monday box office data, Peter Schreider took a look at it immediately:

"Pirate King": 13.52 million.

"Pearl Harbor": 5.03 million.

Only 5.03 million? !

Peter Schreider's pupils shrank, and then he couldn't help but feel dizzy, his legs went weak, and he fell down on the seat. He felt that the future was bleak, and he might really have to write a resignation letter now... No, he still wants to Try to fight for it, he is Mr. Eisner's confidant, he will definitely be able to protect himself!

On the other side, Wu Yuchen saw this number and smiled on his face. He is not happy that "Pirate King" has higher box office than "Pearl Harbor". Isn't this a matter of course? He's happy that Pirate King's decline is healthy!

In fact, big-scale special effects productions like "Pirate King" don't have much deep connotation in essence. They are just popcorn commercial films. For this kind of popcorn movie, it’s normal for the box office to be cut in half on weekdays compared to Sunday. And now, the decline of "Pirate King" is still within 40%, which is a very good data!

Wu Yuchen asked the person in charge of publicity: "Hey, Jimmy, this drop is very good. Have you analyzed the reason?"

Jimmy smiled at Wu Yuchen and said: "In many aspects, for example, the movie has a good reputation. It is known as a classic work that reshaped the pirate theme and has aroused the interest of many people. Cinemascore also gave the movie an A-level rating, which is very important for a movie. The popcorn movie is very highly rated!

Moreover, theaters have also increased the number of films scheduled for "The Pirate King" starting today. "

Originally, the number of films scheduled by the two companies was "Pearl Harbor", but because the movie duration of "Pearl Harbor" is 183 minutes, which is a full 40 minutes longer than "The Pirate King", the number of screenings throughout the day is actually about the same. But now that the first weekend box office has been released, theaters no longer care about the pressure from Disney. They want to make money!

Wu Yuchen nodded upon hearing this, as he expected.

"Also, starting from the end of May, elementary schools in the United States have begun their summer vacation! Therefore, even in the middle of the week, many parents will take the time to take their children to watch our "Pirate King"!"

Hearing this, Wu Yuchen couldn't help but his eyes lit up. He was right when he said this. It turned out to be the assists from the children! Children and all, they are indeed the cutest!

Wu Yuchen couldn't help but sigh, choosing the right movie schedule is very important in America.

For example, "Titanic" was released during the Christmas period and Valentine's Day, and then swept the Oscars. With the blessing of the Oscars, it also received a wave of online box office. After analysis, it was really just right to choose its schedule.

There is no doubt that one of the major movie-watching groups of "Pirate King" is teenagers and children who are very curious about these knowledge and full of yearning for adventure stories. With the arrival of summer, elementary schools, middle schools and universities will have holidays one after another, which is enough to ensure the long-term box office trend of "Pirate King" is healthy.

In the next three days, "Pirate King" received another 12.78 million, 12.11 million, and 11.53 million box office respectively. Within one week of release, the total box office reached 115 million. At the same time, it also caught up with "Jurassic Park 2" and set a box office record, that is, the movie box office successfully exceeded 100 million on the 6th day of release.

The next weekend's box office, "Pirate King" grossed 47.38 million in three days, almost catching up with the first weekend box office of "Pearl Harbor." At this point, ten days after its release, the box office of "Pirate King" has easily exceeded the 150 million mark, reaching 162 million US dollars!

Although everyone at the first weekend had already seen the ferocity of "Pirate King", when they saw that it was really so powerful, they still couldn't help but exclaimed again!

This reminds many people of how unstoppable it was when "Jurassic Park" came out. The current "Pirate King" may not necessarily last as long as "Jurassic Park" in the later period, but its current performance is not inferior at all!

DreamWorks naturally took advantage of this to vigorously promote: ""Pirate King" bombed the summer movies and performed better than "Jurassic Park"!"

That's right, "Pirate King" no longer bothers to use "Pearl Harbor" as its opponent, and the opponent's use value is gone. Now it’s time to establish a more powerful historical opponent to attract the audience!

If other people shout this, they may have to worry about it, because "Jurassic Park" is the representative work of the great director Spielberg and has countless fans. But this time "Pirate King" is produced by DreamWorks, and it can earn so much green money. Spielberg doesn't care if "Pirate King" steps on "Jurassic Park"!

He even personally stood up and said: ""Pirate King" is a cross-century classic masterpiece, no less than "Jurassic Park"!"

Cinemascore also once again gave a box office forecast for "Pirate King", with a North American box office of US$350 million.

On the other hand, "Pearl Harbor" was miserable. After ten days of release, the total box office was 89.91 million. Not to mention breaking 100 million, it was still a little short of 90 million US dollars.

Some media also made ridicule again:

"Breaking 100 million in 5 days? Still less than 90 million in 10 days! The "Pearl Harbor" rout!"

“If you want guns and roses, Disney will get nothing in the end!”

"There is no hope of repaying the cost of Pearl Harbor. Will the bet be fulfilled?"

Reporters also found Wu Yuchen: "Hey, Wu, do you still remember the bet you made with Disney? Now that "Pirate King" has won a big victory and "Pearl Harbor" has lost all its money, do you think the other party will honor the bet?" about?"

Wu Yuchen was still running promotions with the crew last week. Now that the overall situation has been decided, he has also put aside the promotion of "Pirate King" and can free up his hands to respond.

He smiled at the reporter: "Of course I remember. I don't know if Peter Schreider will fulfill his bet, but even if Disney breaks the contract, I won't be too surprised. I don't have any confidence in Disney's credibility." High expectations.”

When the reporters heard this, they immediately showed excited expressions. It seems that Director Wu is going to start firing again!

"Wu, what do you mean by this? Can you elaborate?"

"Wu, do you mean Disney will cheat?"

"Wu, are you saying that Disney has a big problem now?"

Upon hearing the question, Wu Yuchen looked directly at a reporter, his expression turned serious and he said: "Of course, I think Disney does have quite a problem now.

In fact, I have cooperated with Disney once before on "The Sixth Sense", and I helped them make a lot of profits, but this cooperation was not so pleasant.

The reason why "Pirate King" chose DreamWorks instead of cooperating with Disney is because I have some views on Disney management. Disney is a bit bad now, which makes me no longer trust Disney, so cooperation is naturally out of the question.

I think at other studios someone would be responsible for the failure of a big project like "Pearl Harbor," but I'm not sure at Disney. After all, Disney belongs to Eisner, and he has always been nepotistic~"

Many reporters were extremely excited when they heard that Justin Wu was directly targeting Eisner, the head of Disney. Is this going to start another war?

"Wu, can you tell me about your unpleasant experience with Disney?"

"Wu, can you talk about what happened?"

"Wu, do you mean that Eisner was responsible for the failure of Pearl Harbor?"

However, Wu Yuchen no longer said a word at this time, and just walked away. Regarding the fact that he was cheated by Disney at the Oscars, it must not be mentioned on the table.

Although it is well known that the Oscars allow public relations, but have you ever seen a director directly say that his work relied on strong public relations to win? Or are you complaining that your work didn’t win the statuette because of public relations failure? He would only say such words that are not good for his own image if he is stupid.

Just click on it and that’s it. Everyone in the circle will understand everything that needs to be understood. As for what these media want to write, that's up to them.

However, this time he pointed the finger directly at Eisner. Even if he won't be driven out of office, he must be forced to take responsibility for the matter. If he can clip his wings and further damage his prestige at Disney, it would be considered a success.

At this time, Wu Yuchen thought of the little old man Roy Disney, whom he had met once before. The opportunity had been created for him. I hope he would not let him down!

Of course, Roy Disney did not disappoint Wu Yuchen. In fact, he was far more active in dealing with Eisner than Wu Yuchen imagined. Within a few days of the release of "Pearl Harbor", he had already served as a director. I applied for a board meeting, and it happened to be held this week.

In fact, many people are well aware of the purpose of this board meeting. Normally, they might not agree to participate. After all, Eisner has great prestige in the company, and everyone will give him face. But this time, everyone came together to attend the board meeting.

Sure enough, not long after the meeting started, Roy Disney fired at Eisner: "Eisner, don't you want to say something about the failure of "Pearl Harbor"?"

Eisner had already anticipated this: "What do you want me to say? "Pearl Harbor" has only been released for 10 days. It is too early to tell whether it will be a success or a failure."

Roy Disney pointed at the other party and asked:

"Eisner, you don't need to bring your rhetoric to the media here. No one here doesn't understand movies! With less than 90 million in ten days of release, this "Pearl Harbor" is destined to lose everything!

This is a project that you personally promoted two years ago, for which you used a lot of Disney's resources. On the day of the premiere, you confidently sent an email to Disney's 117,000 employees around the world, asking everyone to work together for the project. It publicizes and builds momentum and jointly welcomes a good harvest in the future. And in this current situation, do you still want to shirk responsibility? "

Eisner's face darkened when he heard this, and then he laughed: "How ridiculous! It's just a failure of "Pearl Harbor", do you want to hold me responsible? So in the past 18 years, I have led Disney from the edge of bankruptcy to a Now with a market capitalization of 20 billion, why don't you be grateful to me? Roy Disney, are all members of your Disney family so mean? Or are you already blind?"

"Eisner, you don't have to use this rhetoric all the time! Disney's rise from the bottom to where it is now is not because of you alone! Frank Wells, Katzenberg and many other people have contributed to this! But Now look at what you have done, many talented people like Katzenberg have been forced away by you!

The animation that Disney relies on for survival is declining, and it has to rely on Pixar Studio to support it. In the past two years, Katzenberg has continued to produce successful animated movies, and "Shrek" has become a huge success!

And Wu Yuchen, don’t think that we don’t know what you did to him! The project "Pirate King" is originally the most suitable family movie for our Disney family. It is the favorite of children!

And because of your willfulness, these talents, and these movies are all constantly leaking out, and you are now a dictator resting on your credit, a stupid tyrant! "

With a bang, Eisner slammed the table, interrupting Roy Disney's words. He had a cold face, then looked at the circle of people attending the meeting, and said slowly: "You are all like this too. Do you think so?"

There was silence for a moment, and then someone spoke:

"Eisner, we all know that you have led Disney to this point. However, the failure of "Pearl Harbor" this time is not a small matter. It loses not only money, but also represents Disney's live-action film sector in the past two years. The failure will be a blow to Disney’s reputation and the confidence of shareholders, and market investors will have a negative view of us as a result, and someone must be held responsible.”

After this person spoke, someone immediately followed him: "Eisner, you personally promoted Schreider and made him the chairman of Disney Production Company. However, in the 18 months he was in office, the box office performance was terrible." Not only "Pearl Harbor", but last year's "102 Dalmatians" and "The King of Disguise" were actually loss-making projects."

Eisner couldn't help but clench his hands, but what the others said was true and there was no room for him to refute. If it were in the past, what would happen even if it was a loss for "Pearl Harbor"? With Eisner's dominance at Disney, few people would stand up and speak against him.

But as Disney's stock price fell in the past two years, people with different shareholders behind them began to make different voices. This made Eisner angry, but at the same time he felt a crisis in his heart. His position was shaken!

He took a deep breath, suppressed the fire, and then said in a deep voice: "I will let Shredder give an explanation for this matter."

Seeing Eisner say this, people in the circle looked at each other and nodded without saying anything. Schreider is a close confidant promoted by Eisner himself, and he also holds a high position within Disney. This time Eisner is willing to push him out, which can be regarded as giving everyone an explanation.

But Roy Disney still insisted: "Hey, Eisner! Don't think that it's okay to blame Schreider? Don't you want to say something about this? Don't you think you're wrong? Aren’t you willing to show some attitude?”

Eisner stood up and shouted angrily at Roy Disney:

"Old guy, don't challenge my patience again! Don't think that because you are from the Disney family, I dare not touch you! If you dare to provoke again, I will kick you out of Disney!"

Roy Disney didn't know if he was shocked by Eisner's momentum, and was stunned for a moment.

Then he glanced at the circle of people sitting around the table: "The company will have peaks and there will be periodic troughs. It is inevitable for everyone in such an environment. And I, Michael Eisner, am the only one who can lead Disney again." The one who climbed to the top!”

After saying that, Eisner snorted coldly and left the scene first. As Eisner left, the delegates also began to leave one after another. Some people who were close to Roy Disney also came over to persuade him:

"Roy, you'd better calm down for a while. Eisner is like an angry lion right now. If you continue, he might really fight to get you out."

Roy's face turned a little red at this time, and then he said angrily: "Disney is not Eisner's Disney, but Disney's Disney!"

In the third week, the box office of "Pirate King" during the weekdays has dropped to less than 9 million, and the three-day weekend box office also achieved 33.52 million, pushing the total box office of "Pirate King" to 227 million US dollars.

Regarding this achievement, Spielberg was all smiles!

This means that "The Pirate King" has completely recovered its cost based on the current North American box office split, and every penny generated later will be the producer's pure profit!

Judging from the current trend of "Pirate King", 350 million US dollars is not a problem at all, and 400 million US dollars is very possible!

Spielberg lamented: "Wu, I really regret it now. Why did I hesitate for a moment and only invested 80 million US dollars!"

This is what he said sincerely. This "Pirate King" can be called the most profitable project since the establishment of DreamWorks. Even the successful "Saving Private Ryan" and "Gladiator" in the past two years cannot compare. . Not only is the box office higher than those two, but the peripherals of the movie are also very popular!

Captain Jack Sparrow's outfit can all be sold for money, as well as the model ship of the Black Pearl, etc. The peripheral products displayed in the cinema are all hot-selling right now!

Steven, I gave you a chance. It's too late to regret it now! "Wu Yuchen smiled at Spielberg and put down the newspaper in his hand.

The headline in the newspaper read: "Disney admits that it will lose all its money from "Pearl Harbor", and executives take the blame and resign to extinguish the anger of shareholders!"

"...Disney President Michael Eisner admitted that "Pearl Harbor," which he claimed could be comparable to "Titanic," had no way to save it. There were many reasons for its failure, including: unsatisfactory cast, insufficient plot tension, and poor screenings. The time is too long, etc., to name a few.

The box office failure of "Pearl Harbor" since its release has caused Disney's stock to fall 13% so far. Peter Schreider, an executive who had bet against director Wu Yuchen, announced that he was responsible for the incident and resigned!

Regarding the failure of "Pearl Harbor", president Michael Eisner said: "There are no absolutes in the film industry. No one can be 100% successful, and no one can always control the trend of movies." ’”

Spielberg also knew the news, and smiled at Wu Yuchen and said: "Wu, you personally ousted a Disney executive and a close confidant of Michael Eisner, you are really yours! I think now Ai Sna must be furious!"

Wu Yuchen smiled and said: "Then this will make me feel better all day long!"

"Is it just a whole day? I thought you would be happy for at least a week!"

Wu Yuchen shook his head slightly: "It's just Eisner's subordinates. If he himself steps down, I will be happy for a month!"

"Oh, Wu, your demands are too high! It's not that easy to bring down Eisner~" Spielberg advised.

"Haha, it all depends on man-made efforts. Isn't it already a good start now?"