The traditional Hollywood blockbuster mode has already taken the inflection point.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Entertainment observation” ( ID: yiyuguancha), author Dewey,Editing poetry yang.
“The Terminator uses a sequel of one after another to reflect the greatness of Terminator 2.” Netizens used this sentence to summarize the disappointment and helplessness of the Terminator’s follow-up works.
In the “Terminator: Dark Destiny”, the main party, Paramount, tried his best, but still could not stop the movie box office.
▲ “Terminator: Dark Destiny” Stills
In terms of creation, James Cameron re-elected as a screenwriter and producer, starring Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, and the storyline directly followed the interface of the blockbuster “Terminator 2”. In marketing, in order to cater to the global film market, Paramount began to promote the film three years ago.
Tencent Films, one of the film participants, invited the team of “Terminator: Dark Destiny” to hold a grand premiere in Beijing on the eve of the release. Schwarzenegger also visited the major social platforms in China to interact with netizens. Exchange, earning enough gimmicks.
But all these efforts have not saved the “Terminator” decline and Paramount’s “dark destiny.”
As of press time, “Terminator: Dark Destiny” was released for 10 days, the domestic box office totaled only 312 million yuan (about 44.6 million US dollars), the proportion of the film fell to 9.8%, the watercress score dropped significantly from the opening 8.0 points. 7.1 points. In the domestic film market, the “bad-minded” box office performance is a foregone conclusion.
With this result, China still becomes the Terminator:Dark Destiny, the world’s largest ticket warehouse. In fact, the film was even more fierce in North America, with only $40.45 million at the box office (about 280 million yuan) and a global box office of $135 million (about 494 million yuan). Domestic ticket warehouses accounted for 33%, surpassing the US.
Recombining “Terminator: Dark Destiny” with a $185 million production budget background. The box office loss of the film can be said to be devastating. Paramount’s “Gemini Killer”, which was launched recently with Sky Dance, has just faced huge losses. It is conservatively estimated that the former two will share a loss of US$75 million with Ali Film and Fosun Film.
Today, the old wounds have not healed, and “Terminator: Dark Destiny” has been severely boxed at Waterloo, and its net loss is not under “Gemini Killer.” Will this be the last straw to crush the Ramon? In addition, the “invincible” “Terminator: Dark Destiny” in the traditional Hollywood blockbuster mode is so fierce, what does this mark?
“The Terminator: Dark Destiny” of “Phenomenon Level Street”
On Friday, Box Office Mojo box office experts said that “Terminator: Dark Destiny” needs to earn about $450 million to break even. However, according to the current trend of the film, it will eventually end in the global box office of 180 million to 200 million US dollars.
▲ “Terminator: Dark Destiny” Stills
As expected, the main production companies such as Paramount, Sky Dance, 20th Century Fox and Tencent Pictures will suffer huge losses, and the loss will be between US$70 million and US$100 million. .
From the surface, the “Terminator: Dark Destiny” defeat is not exclusive, just one of the many Hollywood productions that were lost in 2019, just like the previous “X-Men: Black Phoenix”, “Black Man: Global Chase 缉”General.
But as described above, “Terminator: Dark Destiny” is trying hard at the creative end and the marketing side. According to traditional experience, it may become a “explosion” in any aspect before the filming. Movie”.
Creation, first of all, “Terminator: Dark Destiny” is a Hollywood blockbuster with a huge production budget of $185 million. Box Office Mojo box office experts revealed that Paramount, Sky Dance, and Fox each accounted for 30% of the investment. Tencent Pictures accounts for 10%, and the investment scale is the most in the series. CooperationThe resources are strong.
Secondly, the “Terminator” series has tens of millions of fans around the world. In order to mobilize fans into the theater, “Dark Destiny” has a big love.
James Cameron reclaimed copyright for 28 years, served as a screenwriter and producer; the old actors Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton returned in full; the storyline directly abandoned the follow-up works and continued around “Terminator 2” Expand.
▲ “Terminator: Dark Destiny” Stills
That again, for the trend of the “big girl” in the global film and television industry, the film also responded by launching “Three Women” composed of Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis and Natalya Reyes. Lineup, the male owner Schwarzenegger is only a supporting role in the film.
What’s more, “Terminator: Dark Destiny” and “Strong Warrior” gave up the PG-13 production mode, in order to create the most “original” series of films, and actively choose the R-style style.
Marketing, as early as 2017, since the film was established, Paramount began to produce topics for the film. From the release of heavy materials in the trailer, the establishment of the starring lineup, etc., to promote the film. This process lasted for three years until the film was released.
Secondly, in terms of the broken circle, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton traveled to the world’s major film and television markets. Schwarzenegger also entered the “虎扑” for the Chinese market and settled in “Knowing” and being a guest. B station” and other social platforms. Try to cover all-round Chinese fans and mobilize their desire to watch.
▲Schwarzenegger settled in
It can be seen that Paramount’s high expectations for Terminator: Dark Destiny, Paramount and other production companies have done their best to prepare for the film, is a “sincere” Hollywood blockbuster. But “Terminator: Dark Destiny” is still defeated, and so thorough.
This makes us questionable. Isn’t the industrial system that Hollywood’s blockbuster proud of is no longer a panacea? Terminator”Dark Destiny” has thus become a “phenomenon-level” film of Hollywood blockbuster in 2019.
Behind the Loss of the Terminator in North America, are those worth pondering?
So why is “Terminator: Dark Destiny” so disastrous, especially in North America?
From the filming time, the North American box office of “Joker” continued on November 1st. Even though it has been released for five weeks, it still received a $14 million box office on the weekend. The corresponding Terminator: Dark Destiny was only $29 million at the premiere weekend.
▲ “Clown” stills
In North America, “The Clown” has become a must-see movie for men. As we all know, “Terminator: Dark Destiny” is a film that relies heavily on “male audience”, and “Clown” attracts most of the latter’s main audience. Especially on a global scale, “The Clown” is a phenomenon-level high-selling work, while the latter is only a “plain work” with 71% freshness of rotten tomatoes.
Another heavy “male frequency” gangster film “Irish” was also screened at some theaters in North America on November 1 to further divert the male audience.
The Deadline website has a more detailed analysis that a major problem with the box office defeat of Terminator: Dark Destiny is the inaccurate targeting of the group.
First of all, in the gender audience, the film is undoubtedly a “male frequency” work, relying on “action, violence, cool fighting scenes, the fantasy of the sky and the stars” to attract male audiences to the theater. However, in order to break the circle and combine hotspots, the film chose the cast of the “three female masters”, but this made “Terminator: Dark Destiny” both lost the male audience and failed to “capture” the female.
▲ “Terminator: Dark Destiny” Stills
Many promotional materials focus on three female characters, and Schwarzenegger is just “looking at the back” of the poster. However, Deadline reports that this approachDid not win the strong support of female audience.
Rotten tomato critics Catherine Munch said: “Although “Dark Destiny” strongly caters to the tastes of female audiences, it is clear that they do not like the adrenaline bursting of ‘stupid women’. On the contrary, they prefer “fatal woman”. Woman.”
Moreover, the practice of “Dark Destiny” has greatly reduced the appeal to male audiences. A large number of netizens on the North American website complained that Schwarzenegger had too few plays and did not show a decisive role. The villain REV-9 seems to be more advanced, but it does not feel any sense of urgency and threat. This directly led to their disappointment with this “terminator”.
▲ “Terminator: Dark Destiny” Stills
Secondly, according to the age of the North American ticketing website Fandango, “Dark Destiny” accounted for 74% of the audience over the age of 25, and only 26% of the more active 18-24 age group. That is to say, although the film’s powerful “sentimental card” mobilized the “Terminator” fans of the older generation, it failed to attract the younger mainstream viewers. The film based on the old IP failed to achieve “breaking the circle.”
Deadline also analyzed that another main reason is cultural barriers. There are obvious “Mexico” regional sentiments in the film. The heroines and villains are all set to be Mexicans, and the female leader eventually becomes the future “resistance.” The leader of the army.
Obviously, this setting is expected to increase the attractiveness of the Latin American market, such as “Black Panther.” But the difference between the two is that the latter is a family-friendly Marvel work, and the former is an R-level sci-fi action film, so it did not work.
Although the fate of Paramount is dark, but in his own hands?
In 2019, for Paramount, it was undoubtedly “dark.”
In the past two months, Paramount’s two most important works in 2019, “Gemini Killer” and “Terminator: Dark Destiny” were released before and after. Ben hopes to boost his 2019 overall market through these two headpieces, and then maintain the “Hollywood Six” face.
The results are well known, “Gemini Killer” spent $138 million in funding, and the global box office was only $167 million. The film will face a loss of more than 75 million US dollars. “Terminator: Dark Destiny” spent 185 million US dollars, currently 1.99 billion US dollars at the global box office, is expected to face a loss of 75 million to 100 million US dollars