Chapter 149

The first-weekend box office of 50.25 million for "Phone Booth" directly broke the North American box office record for the first week of February, and at the same time, it shocked the eyes of everyone in Hollywood.

The first-weekend box office is very important for a film; in film marketing, there is a concept called the first-week effect or one-week effect. A high first-weekend box office can attract passersby to buy tickets, and even if it's a bad film, they will be curious.

For most commercial films, the first week basically determines success or failure, and the first-weekend box office can basically show the subsequent box office trend of the film. And if your word-of-mouth hasn't rotted while having a high box office on the first weekend, it can definitely become a blockbuster.

It's not that North America hasn't had films with a first-weekend box office of fifty million; in fact, there have been every year in recent years. "Batman Forever" in '95, "Independence Day" in '96, and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in '97 exploded directly upon release, obtaining a first-weekend box office of 72 million, which also set the current North American first-weekend box office record.

But what kind of films were these?

Either big IPs or big productions, among which the one with the lowest production cost, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," also spent 73 million. But why should your "Phone Booth," with a mere ten million in cost, be able to do this?

Just because you have Leonardo?

Oh, and you have to add Shi Tailong...

But it can't be this heaven-defying!

First-weekend box office of 50.25 million, undoubtedly the total North American box office can exceed 100 million!

"Good Morning America" has always been one of the hottest morning programs in America, mainly chatting about news, gossip, weather, and interesting stories, etc.

At this time, the two hosts were chatting about entertainment, and the male host said:

"In the past weekend, the 10-week box office championship of 'Titanic' was finally ended. And interestingly, the one who knocked this big ship off the championship throne is none other than its male lead, Leonardo!"

"Leonardo's new movie 'Phone Booth' obtained a first-weekend box office of 50.25 million, breaking the North American box office record for February, an astonishing number!"

And the beautiful host beside him took over the conversation:

"Although this first-weekend box office is a bit unbelievable, I am not surprised; now no woman can refuse Leonardo!"

Seeing the exaggerated expression of his partner, the male host showed a slightly helpless smile and then shrugged and said:

"Okay, I admit that Leo is currently the most popular star. What's surprising is that the cost of this movie is only around ten million, which means it obtained 5 times the box office in just the first weekend! Hollywood is really a place where miracles are born~"

The female host retorted:

"Oh no, I think you shouldn't calculate it this way. After 'Titanic,' Leonardo's salary will skyrocket to 20 million. If 'Phone Booth' were produced now, the cost would be at least 30 million. If you calculate it this way, won't you feel less surprised? It can only be said that the producer is really very lucky to be able to hire Leonardo!"

"What you say seems to have some truth. However, I think Shi Tailong and Wu Dao also have some credit; they just collaborated on a big-selling 'Frequency' earlier. Now add Leonardo, successful people collaborating with successful people always makes it easier to achieve success~"

……

And in the newspapers and magazines that have already been released, there are also many reports:

"'Phone Booth' ends 'Titanic's' box office winning streak, first weekend of 50.25 million sets February box office record!"

"Leonardo successfully snipes Titanic!"

"Leonardo fights himself, dominates the North American first quarter!"

"Leonardo and Shi Tailong ultimate showdown, 'Phone Booth' ignites North America!"

"Chinese director Wu Yuchen, after 'Frequency,' 'Phone Booth' creates brilliance again!"

Leo is currently the hottest person in the world; as long as it touches on his topic, everyone is willing to watch, so the reports are basically all revolving around him.

However, Wu Yuchen at least had the blockbuster "Frequency" before, so he wasn't a Hollywood nobody, and there were also quite a few articles that mentioned his name.

When well-known film critic Roger Ebert walked out of the cinema, he happened to run into the interviewing reporter:

"As far as the film itself is concerned, it's a pretty good film; tension, excitement, conflict, various elements gathered in a small phone booth, which shows Wu Dao's profound skill. Compared to his previous 'Frequency,' this 'Phone Booth' actually makes my eyes light up even more."

"As for Leonardo, his performance is also very good, letting people see a character completely different from Jack."

"Box office?"

"If it were a first-weekend box office of 20 million, I would say it's worthy of it."

"If it were a first-weekend box office of 30 million, I would give it a thumbs up."

"But 50.25 million? God, is this world crazy!"

"Okay, after 'Titanic,' this world has already gone crazy for Leonardo."

"And I can predict now that all the film merchants in Hollywood must be waving money to send invitations to Leonardo; he is undoubtedly a 20-million-dollar club star!"

That's right, when the first-weekend box office results of "Phone Booth" came out, various film merchants in Hollywood began to send crazy invitations to Leo, undoubtedly a 20-million-dollar salary.

Everyone has a consensus: although "Phone Booth" can be called exciting, it definitely wouldn't reach the level of a fifty-million box office on the first weekend; change to another actor, and twenty or thirty million would be pretty good. But Leo, this male lead, pulled the first-weekend box office to fifty million; isn't this enough to make them crazy?

Don't talk about Leo; now even Wu Yuchen's side has an endless stream of calls. With the two blockbuster films "Frequency" and "Phone Booth" in succession, this is clearly a hot commodity, okay?

To put it bluntly, the current Wu Yuchen can already be considered to have entered the ranks of first-line commercial directors in Hollywood.

Although many people think this time he relied on Leonardo to have such a high box office, the numbers are solid; Hollywood has always spoken with box office results!

And Wu Yuchen is only 20 years old, definitely having a bright future, so several big film merchants have called one after another to connect with him and care about his next move.

At this time, Wu Yuchen had just hung up a call and was instructing his agent Carl:

"For those talking about cooperation, just say I'm still busy with the promotion of 'Phone Booth,' and all cooperation will be pushed to a month later. If they want to buy my script, forget it; in the short term, my script will only be for my own filming!"

Agent Carl nodded and agreed, being respectful to Wu Yuchen; now, with Wu Yuchen's successive successes, he had also become his biggest client.

Two films have raised Wu Yuchen's director salary to 8-10 million, of course, in US dollars!

In fact, if you count his previous 5 million director salary in "Phone Booth," the production cost should have reached 17 million. It's just that he only signed the contract at the time and chose to pay later.

The company is the company, and the individual is the individual; it still needs to be distinguished clearly, although the company is also his. By the way, the company he registered in America is also called Miracle Film and Television.

In fact, Wu Yuchen didn't care about the saying of many people outside that he was a "lucky director"; this wave of his was originally riding on Leo's popularity, and he was riding it righteously.

Big stars play a big role in the box office of a film; if it weren't for Leo and Shi Tailong, to tell the truth, it's hard to say whether the first-weekend box office of this film could reach twenty million; it could only rely on word-of-mouth.

At this time, Wu Yuchen saw Leo walking over in high spirits and couldn't help but ask with a smile: "Leo, I think the whole Hollywood is surrounding you now~"

Leo laughed and said: "Wu, you are the same; I heard that those scripts you have on file have already been targeted by big studios, and they all want to cooperate with you."

Then Leo asked: "Wu, are you interested in working together again in the future?"

Wu Yuchen joked: "Oh, Leo, I can't afford your salary now!"

Leo leaned in and said:

"My meaning is, we can pull in big studios together and let them pay the bill; do you want to continue independent production forever? The risk is very high."

Wu Yuchen pondered for a moment and then smiled: "If there is a suitable opportunity, I am of course very willing to work with you. But now we should make more efforts to push the box office of 'Phone Booth' as high as possible. I think you'd better carefully screen these projects sent over."

Leo laughed and said: "This is natural. Currently, I haven't accepted any of these that have come to me. Fox told me that 'Titanic' might have quite a few gains at the Oscars next month, so I plan to talk about it after the Oscars."

Wu Yuchen gave a thumbs up and praised: "Wise decision!"

At this time, the promotion manager walked over and said to the two: "Leo, Wu, a talk show will be arranged for you next..."

At this time, Leo interrupted her and asked directly: "Hey, Helen, what do you think the final box office of our movie will be?"

"Oh, Leo, this is hard to say~" Helen spread her hands.

"Helen, you are a professional, we all trust your professional ability~" Leo praised.

Upon hearing this, Helen laughed and then asked:

"Leo, the first-weekend box office of 'Independence Day' also broke fifty million, and the final total North American box office was 306 million US dollars. Do you think we can have such a high one?"

"Why not?" Leonardo asked with some excitement.

He had experienced the miracle of "Titanic" and the success of "Phone Booth" in succession during this period, and everyone was praising him, which obviously made him a bit carried away, and now he felt he could do anything.

Helen shook her head gently and then said: "Many reasons, you can understand as soon as you think about it. First of all, we don't have big scenes; being able to obtain such a high first-weekend box office is already a miracle. Secondly, our scheduling is not good enough..."

Speaking of this, Helen also looked at Wu Yuchen; after all, it was the other party who strongly requested the fastest release at the beginning, of course, currently it seems it indeed obtained a very dazzling first-weekend box office.

"You should know that the next March is the off-season for North American films; there is the NCAA March Madness, the Oscar awards ceremony, and students still have to prepare for the exam week before spring break."

"And 'Independence Day,' that was in the summer season..."

However, she changed the subject: "Of course, according to the survey, the word-of-mouth of 'Phone Booth' among the audience is currently not bad, and the box office won't collapse after the first weekend; breaking 100 million is no problem, and 150 million is also very possible, which is already a huge success for a low-budget production~"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen also nodded; Helen's analysis was very reasonable. The March film schedule was obviously not as good as the November and December when "Frequency" was released; that period had both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But he didn't regret it, because only by taking advantage of this time could Leo's effect be maximized; if it were really dragged for a few months, and released in the summer season, many people would have entered a cooling-off period. It's not impossible that the number of people walking into the cinema for him would be reduced by one-third or even half.

Upon hearing this, Leo also let out a long sigh of relief, abandoning the fantasy of the box office catching up with "Independence Day"; although he was carried away, it didn't mean his brain was really crippled.

Then he returned to a smile; just as Helen said, being able to reach 150 million was also a huge success for him.

After entering the working days, the box office naturally ushered in a sharp drop, averaging about 7 million per day, rebounding to 10.5 million on Friday, 13.26 million on Saturday, and 8.84 million on Sunday.

The total box office of "Phone Booth" in 10 days was 112 million!

For this result, basically, whether it was the media or the people in the crew, they weren't surprised; after all, with the result of 50.25 million on the first weekend as a base, obtaining this result now could be considered within expectations.

After this week ended, it entered March. Sure enough, as soon as it entered March, the box office ushered in a halving again; the first week of March working days was only about three million, and the total box office for the seven days of this week was 26.32 million. In the second week, many schools ushered in the exam week, and the weekly box office fell to 13.65 million. On the contrary, by the third week, schools began to have spring break, the decline in weekly box office slowed down, and it harvested 9.67 million.

By this time, "Phone Booth" had also been released in North America for more than a month, and its total box office had surprisingly exceeded 160 million!

This box office is undoubtedly a blockbuster result!

Although it is far inferior to the 500 million box office of Titanic in North America, it is already very explosive for a low-budget production!

"Leonardo soars into the sky, with fierce momentum, forcing Tom Cruise to avoid the reporter's microphone!"

"Wu Yuchen, two consecutive films breaking 150 million, the fastest-rising director in Hollywood!"

"Shi Tailong threatens to charge 10 million for dubbing the next movie!"

The outside world was full of disturbances, and at this time, inside a luxurious big mansion, a lively banquet was being held; it was naturally the celebration banquet for "Phone Booth"!

It wasn't just the crew of "Phone Booth" who arrived; executives from major studios like Warner, Paramount, Disney, etc., all came.

Are you kidding? This crew had Wu Yuchen, Leonardo, and Shi Tailong!

Leonardo doesn't need to be said; "red to purple" isn't enough to describe him, and now everyone wants to sign his next movie contract.

Wu Yuchen proved how good he was at making money with two high-grossing films; in Hollywood, as long as you are capable enough of making money, big studios will also take the initiative to lick you.

Shi Tailong also rejuvenated through these two consecutive films, letting everyone see that the old guy's appeal shouldn't be underestimated.

At this time, several Chinese people were standing in front of Wu Yuchen.

"Wu Dao, I really admire you! To be able to achieve such brilliant results in Hollywood, only you and Brother Sen can do it!" A big-nosed man shook Wu Yuchen's hand to congratulate him, and he wasn't using English, but Mandarin with a Hong Kong accent.

"Haha, Brother Long, I grew up watching your movies!"

Wu Yuchen looked at Jackie Chan in front of him and couldn't help but feel emotional; he hadn't met him when he went to Hong Kong before, but he didn't expect to run into him in Hollywood.

And it wasn't just Jackie Chan; another flat-headed man who was thinner than Jackie Chan but had a straight figure also opened his mouth with a smile:

"Wu Dao, to be able to achieve such remarkable results in America, you really have given us Chinese people face!"

And standing beside him was a beautiful and graceful woman, who also held a red wine glass to congratulate Wu Yuchen: "Wu Dao, congratulations!"

These two were also very famous; one was the Kung Fu Emperor Jet Li, and the other was his wife Nina Li Chi.

"Brother Jie, I didn't expect to meet the two of you in Hollywood; it's all fate!" Wu Yuchen said with a smile, looking at the two.

Although Jet Li wasn't tall, he was full of spirit. And his wife Nina Li Chi was indeed worthy of being called "angel face, devil figure"; she was indeed a rare stunner, a woman among women, no wonder she fascinated him so much that he publicly said he could die for his wife.

Jet Li said with a smile: "We are new to Hollywood, and there are many places we don't understand; in the future, we may need Wu Dao to take care of us more."

"What are you saying, everyone is our own people; it's only right that we help each other in Hollywood."

At this time, Jackie Chan shook his head and said:

"Wu Dao, many foreign devils here in Hollywood look down on us; I just finished filming a movie, and I was also fighting with people in the crew; a photographer dared to yell at me, and there are too many rules and regulations; I originally didn't want to come again. But if Wu Dao has a suitable role, call me anytime! We Chinese people help our own people!"

Wu Yuchen's heart moved; it seems Jackie Chan's "Rush Hour" had already finished filming; once it was released and the movie exploded, you wouldn't say anything about not wanting to come again; by then, your career focus would have completely shifted to Hollywood, and you would be earning US dollars so happily that you shouldn't want to return to Hong Kong, right?

Jet Li followed up indignantly: "I recently went to audition for a small role in 'Lethal Weapon 4'; it was originally negotiated for 1 million US dollars, but after a few days, it was lowered to 750,000; I hesitated for a long time and gritted my teeth and agreed. As a result, three days later, they told me it was lowered to 500,000 US dollars; it's really bullying people too much!"

"Brother Jie, actually you shouldn't have agreed at the beginning. The other party was just testing your bottom line; your kung fu movies have a certain audience in the North American video market; if you had held firm, they would have mostly agreed."

At this time, Nina Li Chi beside him spoke up for Jet Li: "It was the agent who persuaded Brother Jie to agree, saying that the first step in Hollywood is the most difficult, and a big production like 'Lethal Weapon 4' is a rare opportunity."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuchen also nodded; since the other party had already agreed, he also said: "There is some truth to that; this is indeed a good opportunity to show your skills."

In his previous life, Jet Li indeed relied on this opportunity, leaving a deep impression on the audience with just 1 minute of screen time, opening up the situation for himself in Hollywood.

Jet Li also showed a smile again: "Wu Dao, if you have a suitable role here, you can also look for me in the future; I will be there anytime~"

"Don't worry, both of you are the best among our Chinese actors; if there is a chance, I would also very much like to work with you!"

Jackie Chan laughed heartily: "Haha, Wu Dao, from now on when you come to Hong Kong, I will definitely treat you well!"