Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

After more than a month of filming in the "Avengers" crew, Link's scenes have basically been completed, and the remaining dubbing work will not start until next year.

During the filming of the Avengers, in mid-November, Link was invited to participate in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, sang three songs, and received a $2 million appearance fee. At the end of the month, he also flew to China to attend the premiere ceremony of "The Flowers of War" in Beijing.

The first-day box office of "The Flowers of War" was 28.75 million yuan, and the first-week box office reached 180 million yuan. The number of screenings nationwide exceeded 58,000 times, and the number of viewers reached more than 3.6 million, which was much better than "Dragon Gate Flying Daggers" released at the same time, but the reputation was somewhat inferior, mainly because there were too many flaws in the plot, which was complained by many media.

The production cost of the film was about 100 million US dollars, which is more than 600 million yuan. It is the most expensive movie in China at present. According to the domestic box office sharing ratio, the global box office needs to be more than 1 billion to make a profit. Judging from the current data, the situation is not optimistic.

This also led to the producers paying much attention to the box office situation in North America, hoping to get more box office returns with Link's strong appeal in North America.

But Link didn't have high expectations for this.

The film originally only earned 310,000 US dollars in the US box office and was listed as one of the 10 Chinese-language blockbusters that failed at the foreign box office. With the failure of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", he was not sure whether he could drive this "blockbuster".

After Lionsgate won the distribution rights, it has begun to arrange the release of "The Flowers of War". It is expected to be screened in the United States in January. How much box office it can get depends on the preview situation.

After filming "Avengers", Link ushered in a long vacation. After asking for leave from Eva Ka, he flew to Nashville to play with Alexander and Cynthia for a few days, successfully letting the two children learn to call him dad, and also helped Taylor solve some physical and psychological problems.

In mid-December, Link and Eva Ka flew to Hawaii Island for vacation, and for this reason he bought a sea view villa on the main island of Hawaii in advance.

While the two were on vacation, Lionsgate did not stop working. By the beginning of December, more than a month after The Help was released, the cumulative box office in North America reached 140 million US dollars, the overseas box office was more than 45 million, and the expected box office was more than 200 million, making it one of the best-selling movies of the year.

On December 2, Moneyball, in which Lionsgate participated in the investment, was released in North America. It received 19.6 million US dollars in the three-day weekend in 2,993 theaters in North America, ranking second in the weekly box office.

Compared with the cost of 50 million, the performance is relatively average. It is not expected to lose money, but it will not sell well.

However, this movie has a good reputation and has the opportunity to win the Golden Globe and Oscar Awards. The box office is expected to be several million more.

Participating in the investment of such a movie is also a good publicity for Lionsgate.

As of December 9, Lionsgate's year-end hit film "Silver Linings Playbook" was screened in six theaters in North America, with a first-run box office of $443,000 and an average single-theater box office of $18,000, making it the best-performing art film of the same period.

The film also received very good reviews, with a media review of 8.3 points and a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 79%, which is better than "The Help".

In the second week, the film was screened in 2,449 theaters, with a first-week box office of $38.63 million and a cumulative box office of $39.07 million, which was a very impressive box office result.

The media expects the box office to be more than $100 million. Compared with the production cost of $22 million, the film is undoubtedly a big hit.

And this movie is the fourth film produced by Palm Beach Pictures.

Since last year, Palm Beach Pictures has sold four consecutive films, which has also triggered a lot of discussion in the film industry and made Palm Beach Pictures a well-deserved star enterprise in the film industry this year.

The movie sold well and Leon Kavanaugh of Relativity Pictures mentioned on more occasions that Link learned the "big data investment theory" from him.

Harvey Weinstein, president of Weinstein Pictures, told everyone in a very angry tone on many public occasions that the movie was originally produced exclusively by Weinstein Pictures, and Link used a nearly fraudulent method to get half of the investment share from him. He didn't want to cooperate with Link at all.

Someone asked Harvey why the distributor of this movie was Lionsgate instead of Weinstein Pictures?

Harvey's face was red and he answered in an even more angry tone that this was also a fraud, and that Link was a very cunning person who was not worth cooperating with.

After the news spread, a reporter interviewed Catherine and asked her what she thought of Harvey's answer. Harvey said that Link used fraudulent means to get the investment share of the movie. Is this accusation true?

Catherine immediately denied it. David Russell, the director and screenwriter of Silver Linings Playbook, had worked with Lin on The Fighter in 2009 and was originally planning to work with him again, but because Lin didn't have time, he chose to invest in this film project and recommended Jennifer Lawrence, an actress under Palm Bay Films, to play the leading role.

In terms of time, Palm Beach Films participated in this film earlier than Weinstein Films.

Catherine also said that Palm Beach Films reserves the right to sue Harvey Weinstein for defamation and slander, and asked Harvey to be careful about what he said in public.

After this interview was published by The Hollywood Reporter, it caused a lot of discussion in the circle.

First, the conflict between Link and Harvey Weinstein broke out again, which was considered to be a war between the 'new king' and the 'old king' in the independent film field. Judging from the box office performance of this year's movies, Link's Lionsgate and Palm Beach Pictures is even better, but in terms of power and connections, Harvey has many advantages over Link.

Which of the two will win in the end depends on the box office performance in the next few years.

The second is about Harvey publicly accusing Link of using unfair means to obtain the investment share and distribution rights of "Silver Linings".

Most people believed Catherine's story.

First of all, Link and director David Russell have indeed collaborated before, and there is a basis for collaborating again.

In addition, without Link's investment, Jennifer Lawrence would not have been able to play the leading role in a movie produced by Weinstein Films.

David Russell also confirmed Catherine's statement in an interview.

In addition, when Harvey accused Link of fraud, he only made verbal accusations but could not provide any evidence and seemed very emotional, which also made his accusation less credible.

At the end of the discussion, everyone came to the conclusion that Harvey was jealous of the continuous success of the movies Link invested in, so he used words to attack him for committing fraud.

"Bullshit! Line of Happiness was originally mine. It was Link who used black materials to blackmail me and took away half of my investment share. It's not that I was jealous of him. These damn guys don't know anything. They only know how to make random guesses. What a damn bunch of guys, damn like Link."

When Harvey saw the discussion in the newspaper, his neck and belly bulged with anger, like an angry frog.

"Harvey, this matter is in the past, so don't talk about it anymore. Silver Linings Playbook is currently being released. It is not conducive to the promotion of the movie to spread such negative news at this time."

Bob persuaded.

"Just let it pass?!"

Harvey looked at Bob angrily, puffed up his stubby neck and shouted, "Do you know what you are talking about? Do you know what Link did to us? If Link hadn't made up lies to blackmail us, this movie would It will be produced solely by us, and all the box office revenue should be ours, and the more than 100 million box office revenue should also be ours.

But now, because Link has used despicable means to steal half of our box office, which is tens of millions. Counting the global box office, it may be more than 200 million. Link has stolen more than 100 million US dollars from us, which is 100 million US dollars. Ah, you said let it pass? "

The North American box office of this movie is expected to exceed 100 million. The overseas box office is currently only screened in the UK, France, Australia and other countries. Although the current box office is not large, the attendance rate is very high and the reputation is also very good. The media predicts that the overseas box office will also exceed 100 million. billion possible.

According to this algorithm, the Weinstein Films, as the producer and distributor, had the opportunity to enjoy this harvest exclusively.

Because of Link's strong intervention, more than half of the profits were swallowed up by Link's two companies. This profit amounted to 70 to 80 million US dollars.

Harvey's eyes turned red when he thought of the 70 to 80 million US dollars that originally belonged to him being snatched away by his opponent Link, and his hatred for Link reached the extreme. If there was a gun and Link happened to be in front of him, he would not hesitate. Pull the trigger hesitantly.

"But if we don't let go of this matter, what else can we do? Do you have any good ideas to deal with Link?"

Bob asked, spreading his hands.

Harvey couldn't help but calm down after hearing this question.

Since the beginning of the year, he has been trying to find ways to deal with Link, belittling his movies, hyping up negative news about him, and using female stars to seduce him, but the results are of no use. Link is still the number one idol in the entertainment industry, a world-class superstar with a net worth of three Four billion.

What method should be used to deal with such a person?

Harvey thought about it but couldn't find any way to defeat Link, which made him even more crazy.

"Harvey, stop having conflicts with Link. Link has done a good job in the movie. How about we cooperate with him and make a lot of money together?"

Bob persuaded.

Harvey suddenly looked at Bob with angry eyes and cursed: "That bastard extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from us on the "Silver Linings" project, and you think that's it? Tell me, were you bribed by Link? "Why are you always speaking for him?"

"Harvey, I'm thinking about the Weinstein Films, not Link, and regarding the Silver Linings Playoffs project, our plan is to trick him in the Oscars public relations. I heard that Lionsgate The public relations department of the film studio is actively working on this movie. If you want to target Link, you can suppress him on this matter and let him work in vain.”

Bob said.

Hearing Bob mention 'Oscars', Harvey's eyes suddenly lit up. He had been so angry these days that he almost forgot his previous plan. He just had to do some tricks during Lionsgate's public relations for the Oscars and let Link and Lionsgate is spending money in vain, so it could use some bad breath.

Seeing Harvey's expression, Bob also guessed what he was thinking, and said quickly: "Harvey, we also have investment in "Silver Linings". If the movie gets an Oscar nomination or award, it will be good for the box office, and we can make more money in the future." Some.

I mean you can target Palm Beach and other Lionsgate movies like The Lincoln Lawyer, The Help, Bridesmaids, Moneyball, Mr. Tree, and Link's Midnight in Paris. , compared to "Silver Linings Playbook", other movies have the least impact on us. "

"Haha, don't worry, as long as I'm here, he won't even win an Oscar."

Harvey laughed.

Bob nodded. With Harvey's connections and influence, it shouldn't be difficult to do this.