Those movies that the public thinks are bound to fail, but the box office is very high after the release

In the film and television industry, the phenomenon of reversal is actually not uncommon.

One of the most interesting is that before some movies are released, the public thinks that they will definitely hit the streets.

However, the results after the screening were reversed.

This is the so-called operation of playing a good hand into a mess, or playing the emperor with broken copper and iron.

What I want to talk about this time is those movies that the public thought they would definitely hit the street before they were released. From various conditions, it seems that there is really no possibility of a comeback, but after the release, they have been a big success.

Everyone knows that no one was optimistic about the classic “Titanic” handed down by Hollywood’s top director James Cameron before it was released.

After the release, the results were very good, even breaking the box office record.

Similarly, another top director Peter Jackson, his “The Lord of the Rings” series, also encountered the same thing.

Originally, the film and television adaptation copyright of the original “The Lord of the Rings” novel of “The Lord of the Rings” was in the hands of a producer named Saul Zaentz.

Related Post: 20 years later, why is “The Lord of the Rings” still an insurmountable peak?

In the 90s, Saul Zaentz had a good relationship with the Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films.

At that time, Peter Jackson, who filmed Miramax several times, focused on the film and television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

Because Peter Jackson is a fan of Lord of the Rings novels, he has been hoping to show Middle-earth on the screen since he finished reading the original at the age of 17.

At the beginning, Harvey Weinstein agreed with Peter’s suggestion. Although there were still some problems with copyright, it was quickly resolved.

However, the “The Lord of the Rings” series has not been approved for a long time.

Why?

Too much money is needed.

To reproduce the entire Middle-earth world, the budget is not a joke, Weinstein’s Miramax Films does not have that much money at all.

For this reason, Weinstein ran to discuss the allocation of funds with the parent company Disney, but Disney directly refused.

Therefore, Weinstein asked Peter to cancel the plan for the trilogy of “Lord of the Rings” and shoot two (later changed to one) and delete the characters that can be deleted in the plot, and merge the places that can be merged.

In this regard, it is definitely impossible for Peter to agree, and it will not be “Lord of the Rings” if it is shot.

Finally, Weinstein said that he would give Peter three weeks to find a company willing to invest money on his own.

Poor Peter, with the “The Lord of the Rings” project, negotiated investment with other Hollywood film companies, and then closed the door everywhere.

Major companies such as Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Sony, Viacom, etc. didn’t even bother to read the script, and directly refused.

Fox Pictures was very interested in this project, but because of unpleasant things with Sol in the past, it didn’t invest any money in the end.

In fact, the reason why the major film companies are unwilling to invest money is also very simple. They think that this project is very likely to hit the streets.

First, the original novel of “The Lord of the Rings” is very complicated and huge, and it was originally a very difficult task to shoot it well.

Second, Peter was just a director who was famous for making low-cost horror films. Although he had a certain reputation, he was not a top player in the industry.

A director who has only made low-cost films and is not well-known comes to you with a plan and tells you that he wants to make a movie that is recognized as difficult to film and television, and then asks you to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. , Will you agree?

Fortunately, in the end, New Line Pictures decided to take over the project of “The Lord of the Rings” and fully supported Peter, not to make two, but to make a trilogy.

The budget given has also risen from 40 million U.S. dollars to 281 million, which can be said to be a very high cost in the last century.

Of course, the final result is also satisfactory.

The total box office of the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is close to 3 billion U.S. dollars, and the third “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” also hit a number of Oscars.

Even today, the “The Lord of the Rings” series is still recognized as the pinnacle of Hollywood works.

It was supposed to be bashing on the street no matter how you looked at it, why did it succeed?

It can only be said that the major film companies have overlooked and underestimated the abilities of Peter Jackson.

And the only Fox who didn’t underestimate Peter’s ability, but because of a moment’s breath, missed this big explosion series.

And 16 years after the release of “The Lord of the Rings”, Fox almost missed another big hit project.

It is “The Greatest Showman” starring “Wolverine” Hugh Jackman.

“The Greatest Showman” is a song and dance movie.

The general production cost of musicals is not very high. The film was first established in 2009, and the director was selected in 2011.

However, in the end it took a full 5 years before the shooting started.

why?

Because Fox later gradually lost confidence in the film based on market conditions.

Since the establishment of the Marvel Universe, the movies with the most mainstream audience on the market have been superhero movies.

Hugh Jackman is the backbone of X-Men movies, and Wolverine is very popular.

Compared with this, the audience of musicals is very small, even if they are filmed, they may not make much money.

Invest in Hugh Jackman to make a musical, and Fox is more willing to let him make Wolverine.

Fortunately, Hugh Jackman is very persistent in this movie.

At that time, Hugh Jackman had cancer. After the operation, the doctor told him not to exercise vigorously for a few days.

However, that period happened to be the audition of “The Greatest Showman”.

As a result, Hugh Jackman still ignored the doctor’s advice and ran to the scene to sing and dance.

Then Fox saw that he was so fierce, and finally gave the green light to the project.

Of course, Hugh Jackman was also miserable. The wound broke open the next day, and when he went to the hospital, he was scolded by the doctor.

When “The Greatest Showman” was first released, there were not many storms, and it even received a lot of criticism for portraying a profit-oriented businessman in history into a celebrity who turned his back on the righteous prodigal son.

However, the box office has risen steadily, and the stamina continues, mainly because the audience likes the singing and dancing in the movie very much.

In the end, the film won more than a dozen weekly titles in a row, and ranked second in the movie history, second only to “Titanic”.

Among all the songs and dance movies, the global box office of 400 million US dollars ranked third, and because of the low production cost, the profit rate was very high.

For Fox, the film industry, how could luck be so good? It was the same in “Titanic” and “Avatar”, and it was still the same in “The Greatest Showman”.

I have to say that Hugh Jackman is really obsessed with this project. From the establishment of the project in 2009 to its release at the end of 2017, it took a full seven or eight years.

But not all actors can insist on a project that they originally wanted to act in.

Such as Tom Cruise.

As early as 1990, Universal Pictures at that time had already purchased the film and television rights of “Iron Man”, and later planned to establish the project in 1997.

When Tom Cruise learned of this information at that time, he expressed his interest in this project, and he was willing to play Tony Stark.

It’s a pity that Marvel was almost bankrupt at that time. The copyrights sold by the heroes previously involved various film companies, and copyright troubles have been caused all the time.

As a result, the “Iron Man” project was postponed, the script has undergone many revisions, and the project time has changed.

It wasn’t until the end of 2005 that “Iron Man” finally officially started shooting.

Of course, the Marvel Studios at that time thought of inviting Tom Cruise to star in.

However, Tom Cruise refused.

At that time, he had been waiting for this project for seven or eight years, but he still didn’t perform.

Why? Still the answer, I feel that this project is likely to hit the street.

This is also human nature. When the “Iron Man” project was established, there were constant disturbances.

At that time, Marvel was half-dead, and even the money for filming was borrowed.

The refusal of Tom Cruise is actually understandable without opening the perspective of God.

After all, if the starring commercial film hits the street, it will affect its own value in the industry. The risk is high. Tom Cruise dare not and does not want to bet.

Of course, everyone knows the final result.

“Iron Man” hit the box office, which not only laid a solid foundation for the Marvel universe, but also made Disney notice Marvel.

Then Disney spent $4 billion to acquire Marvel, and since then Marvel got rid of the bankruptcy crisis.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., because of this movie, he became a hot actor in the industry.

Of course, although this “reversal” phenomenon is very interesting, it is actually just an example.

In Hollywood, it’s more about how a movie is shot on the street, and then it really hits the street.

Therefore, the reversal phenomenon is just an example and can be used as an entertainment joke.

But when it comes to real investment, those movie giants still make judgments based on actual risks.