I am Hollywood

Chapter 875: Chapter 876: Cold Water on the Head



[Chapter 876: Cold Water on the Head]

Since its birth in 1954, Godzilla had undoubtedly become one of the most famous monsters in the world.

As the first major film featuring Godzilla in Hollywood, equipped with the most popular CG effects in recent years, it was enough to draw moviegoers into theaters simply because of the monster's fame. Sony Pictures had high hopes for Godzilla, not only offering Roland Emmerich an unprecedented $20 million salary plus a 15% share of the North American box office, but also ambitiously planning a trilogy from the start. The production budget for the first film rose from an initial $120 million all the way to $150 million. Inspired by the unprecedented global box office success of Titanic, Sony decided to increase the movie's marketing budget to $70 million, aiming confidently for a $1 billion global box office gross.

With a barrage of television trailers and pervasive poster campaigns, Godzilla quickly became the most anticipated blockbuster of the summer. Viewer anticipation surpassed that of other summer hits like Batman & Robin and Casino Royale.

Under Sony's extravagant marketing campaign, few in Hollywood doubted that Godzilla would be the season's most box office-dominating film. To avoid overshadowing Godzilla, the schedule for the week following its June 6 release was practically entirely blocked off by its presence. Even the smaller film companies, known for releasing indie films in the summer, hesitated to compete with it.

The film opened on over 3,300 screens, setting a record for the largest opening since The Mummy 2 the previous year. In the aftermath of Titanic's record-breaking box office, the entire film industry held its breath, uncertain if Hollywood would soon see another box office giant. As a result, besides Sony Pictures, most Hollywood studios watched Godzilla's box office data with bated breath. Even if Godzilla showed only half the box office potential of Titanic, it would still impact the performance of other films that followed.

Godzilla seemed to live up to expectations, raking in $6.25 million on its opening night. It's worth noting that a few years prior, Jurassic Park had also set a midnight screening record with only $4.59 million. However, as the saying goes, the higher you stand, the harder you fall.

Following the strong opening on midnight, North American newspapers wasted no time pouring cold water on the blockbuster fame of Godzilla.

...

"It's spectacular, truly spectacular, but it seems that not all effect-driven blockbusters can hit the mark," Elisabeth sighed after scanning the faxes from the Fox Distribution Department early that morning, with a hint of excitement tinged by a sour tone.

Despite its connections with Firefly and having stakes in the digital branch office in Australia, allowing them to use top-tier special effects resources, Fox had no CG effect films planned for that year. Aside from the nearly hands-off Phantom Menace, their other projects were still in the early planning stages.

Eric, starting breakfast, joked as he opened his laptop, glancing at Elisabeth, "What year is it? Using faxes like it's still the Stone Age? Let me introduce you to Yahoo's enterprise email system."

Elisabeth rolled her eyes at Eric, scoffing, "Oh, come on! It was so pricey; I nearly got it shot down by the board when I submitted the budget. I should have just used AOL," she grumbled, suddenly remembering that America Online was also part of the Firefly investment, then added defensively, "Maybe Microsoft's enterprise email could work too."

Julia brought breakfast back from the kitchen as she sat at the table, asking, "Liz, what were you saying about spectaculars -- was it the review for Godzilla?"

Elisabeth perked up, "Yes, listen to this part! This is just some of the reviews collated from the office this morning."

"Entertainment Weekly: Despite a few thrilling visuals, this $150 million sci-fi junk leaves more awkwardness than awe."

"Variety: Ignoring the dull grand scenes, this monster film gives an overall disjointed vibe; the director clearly missed the essence of the story."

"And Roger Ebert also weighed in on the Chicago Sun-Times: 'You'd have to be entirely brain- dead to enjoy a film like this, but my logic keeps insisting on showing up in its unwelcome places.' Haha, Roger's probably on PR duty, but while the review sounds mild, it's still quite embarrassing."

"This Arizona Daily Star didn't hold back at all: 'Unbearably drab and tedious. It's hard to imagine who would enjoy this turd of a film.' Tsk, tsk, I wonder if Sony offended that critic to get such a harsh review."

||||

After Elisabeth rattled off more than ten newspaper reviews, Eric had only heard two that could loosely be considered positive. Most major film companies in Hollywood were concerned about Godzilla's box office, and Eric opened his email to find that Firefly had sent over some analysis and data about Godzilla.

According to Friday's reviews from dozens of mainstream American newspapers, Godzilla had already pulled an overall score of 3 -- a level that signaled it was utterly unwatchable. Even though Godzilla's midnight earnings reached $6.25 million, Firefly's distribution department predicted that under the impact of such a poor reputation, Godzilla's first-week gross could barely exceed $80 million -- well below Sony's hopes for a $100 million opening. Julia, incredulous, remarked after Elisabeth finished reading, "With a production cost of $150 million, it can't be that bad, right?"

"Waterworld cost $175 million and got slammed. But Godzilla seems to be faring worse; Waterworld had a score of 4," Elisabeth replied while flipping through the fax papers in her hand. "Godzilla's score is down to 3 already and will probably plummet to one or two soon. This is absurdly bad. Eric, are you messing with the numbers?"

Eric closed the Godzilla analysis file and opened an email with last week's box office statistics, laughing as he responded, "Did you forget your last name? Can't you still tell if I'm messing

around?"

"Humph, who knows what tricks you have up your sleeve? But I'm kind of curious -- why don't we go see the movie tonight?"

"Not tonight, Robert Iger is in New York, and I'm meeting him and Jeffery for dinner. Let's do it tomorrow; I'll reserve a small theater in advance."

"It's rare for you to want to join us on a weekend." Elisabeth's eyes lit up with joy, quickly shifting the topic. "By the way, how did last week's box office do?"

"The Lion King 2 took first place with $55.7 million, and Con Air scored $34.2 million in second," Eric informed, just touching on those two films without elaborating further. He smiled, "Both of these films' box office numbers weren't that impressive. The total weekend gross was just $130 million, far below the usual $200 million for summer blocks. So, if you had listened to me and released Ice Age the week before The Lion King 2, they would have benefited immensely from each other's box office."

"I won't be your cannon fodder. Ice Age is Blue Sky Studios' first film; if it flops, that would really hit hard. Why didn't you just put Finding Nemo before The Lion King 2?"

"I was trying to give Paramount a fighting chance; we can't just bully everyone. Ice Age is different; it cost only $59 million, so the pressure is not too big for recovery, making it still

suitable to coexist with big titles."

"Ah, please."

...

Due to its dismal ratings, although Godzilla managed an impressive midnight box office of $6.25 million, on the following Friday, it only earned $17.5 million, and on Saturday, its takings only slightly increased to $19.3 million. By Sunday, Godzilla's daily earnings

plummeted to a mere $16.7 million.

Despite its total weekend earnings hitting $59.75 million comfortably securing it the summer weekend record, continuous bad reviews from the media caused Godzilla's appeal to seemingly evaporate by the weekdays, with daily earnings collapsing to just over $4.3 million. The trend persisted throughout the following workdays as Godzilla's daily grosses continued

to dwindle.

Ultimately, Godzilla's first-week box office totaled just over $73.66 million. While this figure might seem strong compared to The Lion King 2's $55.7 million debut, given Sony's massive marketing blitz budgeting $70 million and the industry's general expectation of Godzilla crossing the $100 million mark in the first week, this number still couldn't be viewed as a

success.

Moreover, the film's rock-bottom reviews assured that it would face a significant drop in box office in the following week. In contrast, The Lion King 2 had only seen a minor 24% drop after its $55.7 million opening, taking in $42.33 million the following week. Within two weeks, The Lion King 2 had amassed $98.03 million, just shy of the $100 million mark, which put additional pressure on the upcoming Finding Nemo.

However, due to Godzilla's less impressive market performance, Con Air also saw a significant drop of 32.3%, rebounding from its $34.2 million initial figure to bank $23.15 million in its second week. Its two-week earnings amounted to $57.35 million, highlighting its potential to

cross the $100 million threshold.

...

Eric had taken Elisabeth and Julia to see Godzilla the Saturday it premiered. Although he noted many differences from his memories, after watching the film, Eric couldn't help but agree that even without commenting on the weak, dinosaur-like portrayal of Godzilla, the overall quality of the film did not exceed what the media had criticized.

Anyone familiar with Roland Emmerich's work knew he had a penchant for multi-thread narrative structures that contributed significantly to the box office triumph of films like Independence Day and 2012.

However, this narrative technique had its limitations, and it clearly suited global disaster spectacles better, showcasing various societal reactions to catastrophic events.

Unfortunately, this kind of narrative style didn't fit well with monster films like Godzilla. A monster rampaging through Manhattan while the film juggled an unnecessary cast of characters effectively lost focus and made the entire storyline feel fragmented and chaotic. In such a scenario, viewers would lose patience waiting through a long and tedious film. By the film's conclusion, Godzilla, who was supposed to be fearsome, was easily dispatched by

human missiles, leaving an audience that had been tortured for two hours feeling no sense of release no wonder they were frustrated.

Outside North America, Japan -- Godzilla's most crucial overseas market -- reacted even more harshly with critical reviews. With the film vastly underperforming expectations, Japanese fans responded with a largely resistant attitude toward this film, hinging on the complete

manipulation of Godzilla's image.

Sony had originally anticipated Godzilla's box office in Japan would match its North American performance. However, in the week that Godzilla premiered in Japan, it could only manage an equivalent of less than $8 million, a mere seventh of its North American earnings.

Toho, which held the copyright to Godzilla, stated post-release that they might consider reclaiming Sony's rights on Godzilla film production, possibly resorting to legal action if

necessary.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

A first-week figure of over $73 million seemed, on the surface, in no way disastrous. Yet, everyone understood this sum resulted from preposterous marketing spending of $70 million amidst consistent abominable reviews. Under such overwhelmingly negative circumstances, Godzilla could break records when it came to box office drops. Its failure was now a foregone conclusion -- the already shaky Sony Pictures was thrown into further

turmoil once again.

*****

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