Chapter Nine Hundred and Eighty First Silly Girl

Lone Pine Town is located in a wide canyon between the Sierra Nevada Mountains in western California. It is a typical western town in the United States. It is surrounded by Gobi, hills, deserts and mountains, and its natural scenery is beautiful. Since the appearance of Hollywood in the early 20th century, Lone Pine Town has been the location for many films, especially Western films. For this reason, there is also a small-scale film museum in Lone Pine Town, which records the filming of the film in the small town. Information about filming around town.

The scenes of Tony Stark's attack at the opening of "Iron Man", the scene of the escape from the cave where he was imprisoned, and the test of the Jericho missile were all filmed around Lone Pine Town.

On a gentle slope in the Alabama hills west of Lone Pine Town, Caroline and Melanie stood together on the periphery of the crew, watching Eric stand with his back to the snowy mountains in the distance, and published a promotion for the big killer Jericho. Missile's impromptu speech.

After Eric finished speaking his lines in high spirits, he spread his arms, and the high-pressure wind cannon placed not far behind him made a muffled sound, stirring up a large cloud of dust, and Eric was also pushed by the air waves. Had to take a step forward.

This is already the fifth shooting. The crew wanted to create a scene where Tony Stark stood still in the missile shock wave. The actual shooting scene was naturally impossible to actually launch any missiles. The air wave effect was completely artificial. released.

However, the effect of this air wave was too strong. After several attempts, Eric could not stand firm. And if the high-pressure air gun is moved backward, the "effect" of the Jericho missile explosion will be greatly reduced.

"It's still the same," Caroline said with a smile on the corner of her mouth, "I can't stand still at all."

"I think this effect is actually pretty good," Melanie expressed her opinion, with a smile on her face, "Did you not notice the boss's performance just now? I stumbled when I was shocked. Obviously embarrassed, but pretending to be nothing, this is much better than standing there motionless."

"It's really funny," Caroline nodded, with a bit of rationality in her tone, and said, "Eric is really amazing."

Melanie rolled her eyes slightly when she heard the girl's words.

In the venue, Eric and Joss Whedon repeatedly watched the effect of the shot just now, and after discussing it, they agreed that the effect was good, so they decided not to retake it.

This is already the second week of filming in Lone Pine Town, and there is only one scene where Eric is rescued in the desert after escaping from the cave. After the filming, all the outside scenes of the crew will be basically completed. , and then there are only a lot of fragmented interior scenes left, and basically will not leave Los Angeles again.

Looking at the time, it was after 4:30 in the afternoon that Joss Whedon announced the end of work, and everyone in the crew began to organize the shooting equipment in an orderly manner, preparing to return to the station in Lone Pine Town.

Eric naturally didn't need to pay attention to these trivial matters. He took a bottle of water from Caroline and drank it in one breath. Then he took the two girls into an off-road vehicle and headed for Lone Pine Town first.

There were two bodyguards in the front row of the off-road vehicle. Caroline and Melanie squeezed together beside Eric in the back seat, watching Caroline take out a stack of thick folders from the satchel she was carrying. Eric He asked with a smile, "Is there any good news today?"

Caroline nodded, and without opening the folder, she answered skillfully: "The box office data for the new week was sent from Los Angeles in the morning, and the box office drop of "Ace Powers 2" in the third week narrowed to 36%. %, received $26.67 million, with a three-week cumulative box office of $141.9 million. "Wedding Singer" fell 41% in the second week to $26.71 million, with a bi-weekly box office of $71.99 million. "Alien" fell 39% in the second week and closed 18.91 million, with a cumulative box office of $50.01 million. In three weeks, the three films have a combined box office of $260 million, which means that we have recovered all production and distribution costs based on an average split of 55%.”

The production cost of three films, "Ace Power 2" is 30 million US dollars,

"Wedding Singer" is 18 million US dollars, "Xenogeneic" is 35 million US dollars, plus 50 million US dollars of advertising and marketing expenses, the three companies have an average of about 3 million to 5 million US dollars in film copies and other distribution expenses, and the cumulative expenditure is 140 million US dollars The dollar is in the beginning.

With a total box office of $260 million in the Easter schedule, according to an average share of 55%, the three companies will recover about $143 million in box office shares, which does mean that Firefly, Fox and MGM have recovered all costs.

Of course, subdivided into three films, "Ace Powers 2" has already made a lot of money, but "Alien" still needs a few weeks to make a return, and "Wedding Singer" has the highest investment income ratio.

Judging from the specific data, the weekly box office of the three films has fallen to around 20 million US dollars. In the next few weeks, as the Easter atmosphere dissipates, the three films can collect a total of 100 million US dollars at the box office. .

After Caroline finished speaking, after watching Eric think for a moment, she just nodded with satisfaction. She blinked her eyes, but still didn't take the initiative to say anything.

Eric has been staying in Lone Pine Town for the past two weeks and devoted himself to the shooting of "Iron Man", so he does not know how much the box office results of these three films have caused in Hollywood.

"Ace Power 2," "The Wedding Singer" and "Xenogeneic" cost a total of $140 million, roughly equivalent to the budget of a big-budget movie.

But according to the current box office trend, it is definitely a miracle that the three films could recover $360 million at the box office just in North America.

You know, the annual box office champion in North America last year, that is, "007 Casino Royale" directed by Eric himself, the North American box office was only 370 million US dollars. If the three movies' combined $360 million belonged to one movie, it would definitely have a 90% chance of booking this year's North American box office number one.

This year's Easter schedule, also because of the successful marketing of the three companies, almost all exceeded 100 million US dollars in a single week in three weeks, while in previous years, the best weekly box office during the Easter schedule was only about 700 million to 80 million US dollars. .

Therefore, during this time, almost all Hollywood film companies are studying in detail the "Easter Movie Package" plan of the three companies, trying to learn from it in order to replicate this box office miracle.

Caroline did not speak, and Melanie, who was sitting against the other side of the car door, noticed Eric's indifferent reaction, but said: "Eric, the total North American box office of the three films is expected to reach 360 million US dollars. A movie may be the annual box office champion in North America.”

Eric naturally understood what Melanie meant and smiled: "But they are only low-cost productions after all. Although they can achieve such success in North America, they are not qualified for large-scale global distribution, even if they can be produced in North America. North America has achieved a box office of 360 million US dollars, but their total overseas box office can reach 200 million US dollars. It is not bad, and the global total box office is only 500 million to 600 million US dollars. In comparison, it is still the global box office potential of large-scale production films with the same budget and cost. Bigger ones, such as the "Jurassic Park" series, the "Men in Black" series, or the Agent Cinematic Universe series on MGM's side, just one film, the global box office can easily reach 700 million or more, and, The profitability of peripheral products of large-scale production films is far from comparable to these low-cost productions.”

Melanie retorted: "However, big productions are more likely to lose money. If a company loses a big production, it may go bankrupt."

"This is undeniable, but the future of Hollywood is the world of blockbusters, which is also an irreversible trend. If you always think about being small and big, it is like trying to win more with less in a war. The possibility is very high. Low."

Melanie nodded slightly and pretended to be persuaded to stop arguing with Eric. She knew that she would definitely not be able to compete with Eric.

Caroline was sandwiched between the two, listening to their conversation, and finally looking at Melanie's expression, she knew what her best friend was thinking.

Blinking her eyes again, Caroline wanted to say something else. The car had already entered Lone Pine Town and soon arrived at the hotel where the crew stayed.

Watching Eric get out of the car and walk towards his room, the two women knew his habits and knew that Eric would definitely go back to the room to take a shower. Lannie took Caroline and followed Eric to the suite where he lived.

Although Eric is now very resistant to living in hotels and other places, Lone Pine Town, which has only 2,000 residents, obviously cannot provide Eric with any better accommodation, and Eric does not want his cleanliness to develop gradually. To the point of morbidity, so this time I chose to live in a hotel with the crew, and all I did was replace all the bedding in the suite with new ones.

Walking into the room all the way, seeing Melanie pulling Caroline along abnormally, Eric wondered, "Is there anything else?"

"Of course, work," Melanie nodded confidently and said, "Eric, there are several documents that you need to sign in person today."

"Well, wait until I finish taking a shower, okay?"

Melanie said, "You can take a shower before going to bed."

Having said that, Melanie has dragged Caroline into the room, sat down on the sofa, and deliberately opened the stack of folders that Caroline had just taken out from her satchel.

It's just that no matter how smart a guy is, he can't stop the negative buff bonus of pig teammates.

Looking at Caroline sitting next to Melanie with a clearly guilty conscience, Eric is not stupid, how could he not know what is wrong.

Sit down opposite the two women with a smile, Eric said, "Hey, don't use work as an excuse, is there anything I can help you with?"

Melanie shook her head solemnly: "No."

Eric looked at Caroline: "Carly, you said."

Caroline blinked a few times and shook her head: "No, no."

Melanie doesn't have any expectations for the girl beside her, as long as she doesn't make a fool of herself.

Seeing that Caroline didn't fall off the chain at the critical moment, Melanie was relieved. In recent years, she has figured out Eric's character. She doesn't admit anything, and Eric will not drive them out. room to go.

Handing a folder to Eric, Melanie said: "Eric, this is a copy of the contract for Firefly's acquisition of Virgin Records. You need to read and sign it in person, and it will be sent back to Los Angeles tomorrow."

Eric looked at the appearance of the two women, just smiled, and simply stopped pursuing it. He took over the file and looked at it, and asked casually, "How is the sales of fireflyer2 this week?"

Today is April 24th, and fireflyer 2 officially opened for sale on the Easter weekend of April 11th. The sales volume in North America and Europe reached 670,000 units in the first week. If this sales rate can be maintained, there will be more than eight months left in this year. Time, just fireflyer2, global sales may exceed 22 million units.

However, many people are not sure about the sales prospects of fireflyer 2 now. Some people think that the sales of 670,000 units in the first week are only due to the outbreak of demand caused by the launch of new products and early promotion, and sales may fall later. Some people believe that with the further popularization of the Internet, the market capacity of fireflyer players will be further expanded, and the sales volume of fireflyer players this year may even reach 30 million.

Therefore, after the first week, to know the demand trend of fireflyer2, the sales data in the next few weeks is still very important.

"It hasn't been counted yet," Melanie shook her head. Today is only the last day of the second week of fireflyer 2's launch. If you want to get approximate sales data, you need to wait for another two or three days: "However, from San Francisco, Judging from the feedback from the side, this week's sales should still be able to maintain more than 600,000 units, because the feedback from users on this new product is very good."

Compared with the first generation, fireflyer 2 is naturally not just an improvement in capacity. Firefly Electronics has made great efforts in battery life, operation optimization and even appearance design. Compared to a generation, it is still very good value for money.

Eric turned the document in his hand and continued to ask, "What about the Nokia m-100?"

Melanique didn't have Caroline's unforgettable memory. Hearing Eric's question, he flipped through the information in his hand. After a while, he found a data report, glanced at it, and said: "The data of the three operators of at-t, verizon and sprint have not yet come out, but the bare metal sold by Amazon has exceeded 11,000 units in two weeks."

Since the era of analog signals, the mobile phone market in North America has been dominated by several major communication operators, and operators' contracted phones account for more than 90% of the mobile phone sales in North America. This situation was not broken until the emergence of Apple mobile phones. Some.

Due to consumption habits, North American mobile communication users rarely buy bare metal.

Nokia m-100 in addition to Amazon's online platform, and does not arrange the operator's physical store sales.

So, if Amazon sells 11,000 music phones on a 9-to-1 sales ratio, Nokia's m-100's total should be around 110,000 units, less than one-tenth of the two-week sales of fireflyer 2 players.

Eric knew that Nokia had only prepared a supply of 50,000 units. The only thing he is satisfied with now is that he did not hear any news of out-of-stocks. In this regard, Nokia's supply chain is undoubtedly much stronger than that of Firefly Electronics. In addition, the average sales of about 50,000 units per week is indeed far from Eric's expectations. If Nokia can be more attentive, the sales of m-100 will definitely not stop there.

However, Eric doesn't have the heart to pay attention to these now. After reading the contract copy of Firefly's acquisition of Virgin Records, he signed his name, and was pestered by Melanie to deal with other documents until night fell. Melanie Pulled Eric to dinner together again.

It was not until nine o'clock in the evening that Eric returned to his room again.

Closing the door and shrugging gently, Eric walked to the bathroom, planning to rest early after taking a shower.

Melanie and Caroline's room is next to Eric. In the room, Melanie snuck on the wall and eavesdropped for a while. She felt the sound of rushing water, and immediately dragged Caroline. After leaving the room, he took out the spare room card of Eric's suite, opened the door softly, and dragged the retreating Caroline on tiptoe to Eric's bedroom.

Caroline's face had turned into a red apple at this time. She wanted to break free from Melanie's hand and said softly, "Mei, I think, I think, still, don't do this?"

"I knew you would do this," Melanie glared at the girl, and stopped talking, forcibly pressed Caroline on Eric's bed, and stripped the girl until only her body was left. jacket. Pulling the quilt and wrapping Caroline, Melanie lowered her head and kissed the girl who was too embarrassed to open her eyes, and said, "Hey, I can only help you here."

After speaking, Melanie picked up some of Caroline's clothes and tiptoed out of the room again.

Seeing her best friend take away her clothes, Caroline also lost her motivation to escape, and huddled under the covers obediently, her little nose twitched, feeling Eric's aura, her face became even more rosy.

After taking a comfortable hot bath, Eric was wearing a bathrobe and wiping his wet hair with a towel. He just walked out of the bathroom, and he couldn't help but stay for a while.

Caroline, who was curled up like a kitten on the big bed, happened to look at Eric, stunned, and immediately retreated into the bed.

Eric was stunned for a while before finally understanding why the two girls were so abnormal today, or why Caroline has been so abnormal all this time.

Helplessly smiled, Eric walked to the bed and sat down, gently pulled the quilt, a pair of small hands holding the quilt resisted, and quickly released, followed by a red face with tightly closed eyes .

Gently pinching Caroline's delicate face, Eric sighed softly, "Silly girl."