Hollywood Road

There is definite news from the company's European branch...

In the living room of Wave Manor, Bill Rossis took the coffee offered by Gal Gadot, and continued to Murphy, Pope Benedict XVI has confirmed that he is going to retire?

Oh? Murphy became interested, When exactly?

Bill Rosses put down his coffee cup and said, No later than Wednesday night, the Holy See of the Vatican will hold a press conference to officially announce the news.

Gal Gadot poured another cup of coffee for Murphy, put it on the small coffee table in front of him, and asked Bill Rossis, Who will succeed the Pope?

Cardinal Francis, Bill Rossis said.

Murphy scratched his head, apparently not knowing who Cardinal Francis was.

He. Gal Gadot had obviously heard of the name, and explained to Murphy, Argentinian, former Archbishop of the Catholic Argentine Archdiocese.

And... Bill Rosses added, If Benedict XVI is the representative of the conservative faction in the Vatican, Francis can be said to be the leader of the liberal faction.

These Gal Gadots are not clear. Hearing what Bill Rossis said, he couldn't help frowning, Is the church going to make reforms in this regard?

Even the reforms are extremely limited. Murphy disagreed with Gal Gadot's statement, Sitting on the Pope's position must safeguard the interests of the entire Holy See.

Bill Rosses nodded, That's right.

Just like the rotating chairman of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, no matter what the internal situation is, the interests of the Hollywood film industry must be protected externally, otherwise this position will not be stable at all.

In Murphy's conjecture, in some respects, the Catholic Church and national politics actually have something in common. For example, the people always hope that political leaders who can represent their voices will come to power, but every politician who comes to power first maintains the It's all the interests of the vested interest class, and then other...

Therefore, no matter who the new pope is, it will not really change the current situation of Catholicism.

This kind of reform promoted from within is often more difficult than reform promoted by external forces.

Bill Rosses took a sip of coffee from his coffee cup, and said, It is said that Francis and Benedict XVI have very different ideas. He believes that the Holy See should take more severe measures in terms of Catholic scandals. , to correct internal problems.

So he is still a little more enlightened than Benedict XVI. Gal Gadot said.

Murphy continued, The more you cover it up, the more you don't let people talk about it, the more you restrict speech, the more guilty you are.

In the place where he used to live, there was an old saying that defending the mouth of the people is better than defending Sichuan. Perhaps powerful power can suppress unfavorable speech for a while, and even make many people compromise and have to act according to their will. When these accumulate to a certain level, they will burst out with huge energy, blowing everything they maintain to pieces.

The various scandals of Catholicism that broke out since last year can be described as vigorous. Murphy and 20th Century Fox actually just started. The frantic follow-up by the media and the public is actually a dissatisfaction with Catholicism in the past many years. Collective explosion.

This crazy explosion directly led to the resignation of the current pope.

In the next few days, apart from continuing to be busy with the public relations of Focus, Murphy specially took time out to pay attention to the changes in the Holy See of the Vatican.

As he thought, to a large extent, the Holy See of the Vatican has many similarities with the change of political power in a country.

Many European media suddenly broke out that Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, Ratzinger, had a serious child sexual abuse incident in the choir led by Pope Benedict XVI in 196o. It has been denied, but these sexual assault scandals have once again severely damaged the image of Catholicism.

In addition, the Vienna Boys Choir, which Ratzinger was later in charge of, also had a sexual assault scandal.

Two adult former choir members have accused them of being forced to wash their genitals in front of choir administrators between 1985 and 1987...

As long as anyone with some political sense can perceive that all this is directed at Pope Benedict XVI himself.

Soon, the Vatican held a press conference, announcing that Benedict XVI had decided to retire due to health reasons, and that the Holy See would choose a suitable successor among the existing cardinals in red.

The news instantly shocked the entire Western world.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Benedict XVI's retirement due to health reasons is just an excuse. The series of scandals about Catholicism that have exploded in the past ten months may be the real reason.

Even the gossip tabloids such as the British Sun can't wait to hype exaggerated news like Benedict XVI was ousted by Murphy Stanton and Hollywood movies on the front page.

Murphy ignored this kind of hype, but the news from the Vatican made him quite interested.

Although the Holy See of the Vatican has not officially announced it, according to the information held by CAA, it is a foregone conclusion that Francis will take over as the new pope. Compared with his predecessor, Francis seems to be more suitable for this highly information-oriented society.

The Vatican has already started crisis public relations for the various criticisms that the Holy See has received recently because of Focus.

The Vatican's new spokesperson said at a regular press conference that Spotlight, about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, faithfully depicts how the Catholic Church tries to defend itself in the face of brutal truth, but is not so anti-Catholic.

Immediately afterwards, some ground-clearing articles appeared in many mainstream European media.

Roman Observer commented: Sexual predators do not necessarily wear the clothes of priests, and pedophiles do not necessarily come from vows of chastity and abstinence. But it is now clear that too many people in the Catholic Church care about themselves in the church. The image of the country outweighs the seriousness of the act.

Italian News believes: As an agent of God, no matter who uses his power to abuse innocent people, he cannot justify this extremely serious crime with these reasons: this is clearly expressed in the film.

They also argued: The descriptive power of Spotlight is persuasive in its own right, and it is not an anti-Catholic film.

Subsequently, Francis, as expected, became the new pope of the Vatican Holy See.

He declared at his inauguration, The public still trusts the Catholic Church and the Pope, and I am continuing to push the Catholic Church to reform.

Francis announced the establishment of a moral review committee in the Holy See, and any priest involved in molesting children will be severely punished...

After seeing that Francis became the new pope, Murphy stopped paying much attention to Catholic information, let alone arguing with Catholicism again. Focus has already been released with the attention of countless people, and there is no need to repeat it. Do something like superfluous.

As for the tabloid hype about him and his movies bringing down Benedict XVI, only the simple-minded will believe that these are just giving difficult opportunities to those in the church who are different from Benedict XVI, Although he didn't know how much power was behind Francis, Murphy knew very well that without this power, Archbishop Marquez Costello would be enough to take the blame.

A fortress as strong as Catholicism can only be breached by internal forces.

According to caa and Bill Rosses' speculation, Francis' choice of this time period is more or less related to Focus. Kind of nice PR.

It's also good for Spotlight itself, though.

After all, on the surface, this film directly affects the level of papal change...

A movie that is being screened has enough topicality, good reputation, and various channels to widely spread fame, plus a strong director's brand effect. After expanding the scale of screenings, what kind of box office results will it achieve? In fact, it is not difficult to guess.

Twentieth Century Fox and Kara Firth adjusted the strategy of Focus in a timely manner according to the current social situation. In the second weekend, they expanded the number of theaters showing this film in North America from 10 to more than 1800.

In just one week, from contacting theaters to preparing copies, 20th Century Fox did all the work almost perfectly, fully demonstrating the strength of the six major Hollywood companies.

The performance of Spotlight did not disappoint Murphy and Twentieth Century Fox.

The subject matter and type of this film do not meet the mainstream appreciation taste of the market, but the scandal about Catholicism has been shaking in North America for ten months, and it has created countless people who care about it. market environment.

Anyone who knows a little about the film market knows how much the social and environmental situation affects a film.

On the first day after the extended screening, that is, on Friday, Focus earned US$9.8 million from North American theaters; on Saturday, the film's box office trend continued to rise, earning US$1.23 million that day.

Including the US$9.2 million earned on Sunday, Focus earned US$3.13 million in its second weekend, and easily won the North American box office chart for that week.

In addition to the box office of 1.1 million US dollars obtained in previous screenings, the cumulative box office in North America reached 3.24 million US dollars, which will soon exceed the production cost line.

Complementing the box office is the word-of-mouth of the film. With the expansion of the screening scale, the word-of-mouth of Focus has not slipped in the slightest. Whether it is Internet ratings and media scores, or professional reviews and fans' opinions, they all remain at the previous level.

This is very rare for a film that has been extended by Dianyingxun.

The excellent box office and overwhelming word-of-mouth indicate that the film will go straight to next year's Oscars! 8