The Best Director-Chapter 489 - : Another Championship

Chapter 489: Chapter 489: Another Championship

“‘The Illusionist’ is a rich and elegant film, filled with cunning, deceptive characters, and intricate motives.” — 3/4, Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle; “The enchanting and immensely entertaining ‘The Illusionist’ proves that a film does not need foolish mistakes or laughably tenuous connections to offer the pleasure of escape from reality.” — 3/4, Claudia Puig, USA Today; “This marvellous romantic thriller set in 1900 Vienna is an outstanding example of small-scale artistry.” — 3.5/4, Peter Howell, Toronto Star…

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Fire Films snapped up Yari and Bull’s Eye’s production of the fantastical mystery love story ‘The Illusionist’ for a hefty $25 million, against a production budget of $16.5 million, and has been conducting a related promotion. On September 15, ‘The Illusionist’ hit 2,857 theaters and then it garnered a 75%/87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

This is a masterpiece! Mainstream media including Time Magazine, Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many others gave it high scores. The reviews were filled with praise like “pretty good,” “very entertaining,” and “exquisitely produced”. Rotten Tomatoes’ official website summed it up as: “‘The Illusionist’ is a captivating, meticulously crafted mystery story, with magic and plots that fascinate. If you are not subjected to hypnosis, you will be a spellbound spectator.”

The director Neil Burger, lead actor Edward Norton and others have all been lavishly praised, and Fire Films, with its discerning eye, once again proved its nickname as the “Miracle Wholesale Merchant,” being the highest-rated drama to launch on a large scale after this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Not only among critics but also among audiences, CinemaScore’s audience polls showed that moviegoers gave it an overall A rating, with the 18 to 24 age group awarding it an A+. IMDb gave it a 7.8/10, and Rotten Tomatoes audience approval was at 85%, a delightful performance!

Julia L scored it 4.5/5, “Great movie, go see it!” Diana G gave it a full score: “Outstanding plot, fantastic performance!” Colston R, who gave it five stars, wrote, “This is a really good movie! I thought it was going to be dumb trash, but it wasn’t, I really liked it.” Lacey A said, “A magical masterpiece!! Top-notch acting and a memorable storyline.”…

When the week of September 15-21 came to a close, Fire Films clinched another North American box office championship for the year!

Last week, the total market box office was only $92.85 million, the only week since 2006 that it fell short of $100 million, but this week it rebounded to $118 million. The champion ‘The Illusionist,’ with an impressive average of $11,327 per theater, racked up a box office of $32.36 million!

This achievement ranks fourth in the opening week box office rankings for September: the first place $44 million ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ eventually grossed $127 million/$180 million (North America/Worldwide), the second place $42.83 million ‘Rush Hour’ grossed $141 million/$244 million, and the fifth place $31.10 million ‘Aerial Crisis’ grossed $89 million/$223 million. Close in genre to ‘The Illusionist,’ the third place horror film ‘The Exorcism’ fetched $36.70 million at the box office, grossing $75 million/$144 million.

Following the current momentum, there won’t be any surprises, ‘The Illusionist’s’ North American box office will definitely exceed $60 million. On the other hand, with Fire Films’ complete and mature distribution system, its final global box office is undoubtedly over $100 million! Maybe even $200 million…

And at this time, in the face of a nine-figure box office expectation, the $25 million buyout fee seems so trivial, a meager profit of $8.5 million.

“A dark horse of Autumn,” “one of the most successful Sundance films,” “a classic case between independent cinema and the film industry”…

Media outlets like Yahoo Entertainment reported ecstatically, Fire Films fans cheered, and BOM’s Brandon Gray wrote in his box office report “Common Fresh Magic” stating, “The amazing Wang Yang has attracted a lot of interest from young people for ‘The Illusionist,’ and the movie didn’t disappoint them. Once again, the world witnessed Fire Films’ magic, which is not at all fresh.” Who could have thought? Who would have imagined?! If it weren’t for Fire Films’ involvement, this low-budget film that no one was interested in, would shine so brightly.

Look at the other films this week, which one doesn’t seem more likely to succeed than ‘The Illusionist’?

The sports drama ‘Gridiron Gang’ starring Dwayne Johnson (budgeted at $30 million, Sony/Columbia) ended up with an opening week box office of $17.5 million and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 42%/31%/84%, a failure. BOM said, “Rock consistently works hard in promotion, but he hasn’t gotten a headline,” “his appeal hasn’t grown”; the crime drama ‘Black Dahlia’ starring Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, and an all-star cast (The-Black-Dahlia, budgeted at $50 million, Universal) ended up with an opening gross of $12.82 million and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 32%/13%/31%, a woeful defeat, “falling short of industry expectations”…

Not just falling short of expectations, the Universal executives were literally in tears! It was just too sad!

Rotten Tomatoes attributed “subpar performance, inscrutable story, and strange film genre” as reasons for the abysmal failure of this ambitious noir crime film, which seemed particularly pitiful compared to ‘The Illusionist,’ which also pursued a specific era’s atmosphere and suspense thriller elements, and was utterly destroyed by it.

This also made ‘Mockbusters’ (low-cost films with deceptive intent, confusingly similar titles or themes to blockbusters, typically released on video, DVD, or in cinemas before or after a blockbuster) of the genre want to commit suicide, having chosen the wrong template, like the bloody horror ‘Black Dahila’ (unpublished budget), which expected to ride the coattails, but instead, the car flipped over on the journey.

The same misfortune befell the grisly horror ‘Black Dahila Movie’ (unpublished budget) and the International Union Television’s grisly horror ‘The Curse of the Black Dahila’ (unpublished budget). Already quite a few moviegoers jokingly said that perhaps ‘BD,’ ‘BDM,’ or ‘TCOTBD’ would sell better in theaters.

In fact, behind the scenes of the production factory is the distributor Lionsgate, while Fire Films does not engage in such business. It has always been the target of Mockbusters, like this summer’s ‘Da Vinci Treasure’ by Global Shelter’s new work ‘I Am Omega,’ the zombie apocalypse film also in production, is set to hit the market next summer ahead of the release of ‘I Am Legend’.

This week also spelled disaster for Fox’s release of “Everyone’s Hero,” which earned a meager $6.84 million at the box office, and a 40%/44%/51% rating; as well as Paramount’s romantic drama “The Last Kiss,” which brought in $5.93 million and scored 46%/48%/59%.

As the period of September 22-28 came to a close, films labeled as flops had no chance to recover in September, and the list of failures was joined by several new titles.

MGM fully demonstrated the increasing difficulty of succeeding in the movie industry, continuing to sink deeper into the mire. Despite being directed by Tony Bill, the 1974 Oscar winner for Best Picture (“The Sting”), and starring James Franco, Jean Reno, and a $60 million production budget, “Aerial Crisis” was a disaster, earning a paltry $7.59 million in its opening week, and a 33%/17%/68% Rotten Tomatoes score! MGM’s debt burden grew even heavier…

It wasn’t long before Sony/Columbia also took a major hit, despite having Steven Zaillian, who won the 1994 Oscar for Best Adaptation (“Schindler’s List”), and was nominated twice more for his scripts, directing the film and a star-studded cast including Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Patricia Clarkson. The movie “All the King’s Men,” with a production cost of $55 million, only managed a meager $4.68 million in its opening weekend, and a dismal 11%/9%/42% Rotten Tomatoes score! The group of stars’ dreams of storming the Oscars shattered abruptly.

Indeed, according to exit surveys stating that 75% of the audience was over 35, and 53% were women, it could be said that young people showed no interest in this lineup; while “Jackass Number Two” took over the weekend box office crown with $37.46 million, with 70% of its audience under 25 and 65% male. Additionally, “Jet Li’s Fearless” had a respectable take of $13.08 million; and the much-praised “Sleep Science,” which Wang Yang greatly enjoyed, also premiered to high expectations, earning $560,000 in 14 theaters, an average of $40,497 per venue, prompting Warner Independent to immediately expand its release.

If a movie’s failure left a pool of blood, then the box office chart would definitely be blood-soaked. The film market is just that difficult to predict; a terrible movie is useless no matter how many stars are in it; a great film, however, has the chance to explode at the box office.

The dark horse, “The Illusionist,” in its second week in 3,055 theaters (+198), had an impressive take of $25.49 million! With an average of $8,343 per theater, its box office only dropped a mere 21.2%, and after two weeks, its total had reached an impressive $64.72 million. Multiple agencies have analyzed that its North American box office is expected to break the $90 million barrier.

“‘Jackass’ fiercely assaults the top spot” — Box Office Mojo report, Brandon Gray’s article read: “‘The Illusionist’ continues to perform in an eye-catching manner; ‘It is a paradigm of independent film, and this is why we’re attracted to it,’ said Mark Strong, CEO of Flame Movies, ‘We all yearn for mystery, and magic is undeniably a very mysterious phenomenon around us; it makes the younger audience feel cool.’ Wang Yang is someone who truly understands what being cool means,” Yang added, “‘The Illusionist’s’ success is not surprising; it is a captivating movie that allows you to sit down and watch quietly.”

Countless people around the world couldn’t help but exclaim that FF really lived up to their reputation as miracle wholesalers, and that Wang Yang’s trip to Park City was not just for skiing, but also for finding another gem!

Yari and the Bull’s Eye Company became the “speechless and stunned” company in an instant. From “Crash” to “The Illusionist,” the trajectory and outcome were almost identical. Bob Yari and his team quietly regretted their joy over the past half a year. They had long known that doing business with Flame would be beneficial but often felt a huge loss in the end. Indeed! They couldn’t help thinking that if they had tried to distribute the movie themselves, even with a lousy distribution system, they might have earned an estimate of around $100 million in global box office revenue! With that, there would be more money to expand their businesses—a case of penny-wise, pound-foolish…

Although FF had asked about acquisition intent once, the executives at Yari & Bullseye did not agree. They had already made up their minds that if they ever again produced a movie that caught FF’s eye, they would absolutely not agree to sell it, never! Not to any person, not to any company. They wanted to distribute it themselves!

Obviously, Yari & Bullseye wouldn’t be inviting Neil Burger to direct a new film anytime soon. Following the consecutive successes of “The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Evidence” and “The Illusionist,” the capable screenwriter and director Burger had officially entered the ranks of Hollywood’s hot new directors. The future seemed limitless for this older gentleman, but other studios interested in him couldn’t secure him either, because FF had made plans with him early on.

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FF must have anticipated the impressive performance of “The Illusionist” with confidence, so their announcement of this new project to the media and public wasn’t at all surprising: “Limitless.”

Due to their reputation for quality over quantity, any new Flame Films project, whether big budget or small, garnered significant attention from both inside and outside the industry. Fans of Flame Films clicked eagerly to read the news.

“Limitless” (Limitless) is adapted from a 2001 science fiction thriller novel “The Dark Fields” by Irish author Alan Glynn. The novel describes a New York copywriter at a small publishing house, Eddie Spinola, who inadvertently takes an experimental drug called “MDT-48″ that continuously enhances his intelligence, creativity, and learning ability. Eddie skyrockets to success, but the positive effects of the drug are short-lived as its side effects begin to emerge…

Another film adaptation of a novel, Flame Films had already bought the adaptation rights from Alan Glynn. Based on the information released so far, the project is set with Neil Burger adapting and directing, Bradley Cooper starring as Eddie, and the film will be produced on a budget of $30 million, with an expected release date of October 2008.

The Dark Fields” was not very well-known, so little known in fact, that the film’s title was changed to something different. This was done in part to distinguish it from “The Dark Knight,” which premiered in the summer of ’08, and to avoid being considered a Mockbuster by audiences.

Among the film fans, not many had read this novel, but of course some had. Some were puzzled as to how this novel, though featuring elements of chases and financial business hooks, was overall quite serious, about a man facing and escaping his plight. The story could be made into an arthouse or commercial film. Even Alan Glynn was unclear about how Flame Films was planning to proceed with the production.

“We already have a plan,” FF had anticipated this, and spokesperson Fiona Hassan revealed to the fans on the official website: “This novel is very compelling, with a wealth of elements, almost each of which could be made into a separate film. Our goal is to integrate them, and create a thriller that’s tightly plotted, fast-paced, and full of suspense. In some respects, it will be very similar to ‘MIT-21-TEAM.’ Without a doubt, Neil Burger will do an excellent job.”

Regardless, the fans did not think “Limitless” would fail – it was true. When would Flame Films really mess up for once? Could it be “Saw IV,” which had lost its two founding fathers? The answer would be unveiled on October 27. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)