Chapter 319: Another one bombs out
The carefully prepared premiere of "Troy" had failed. Even though Warner Bros. Pictures didn't want to admit this fact, and even attempted to suppress negative news about the film in the media, they couldn't achieve it.
After all, can Warner Bros. expect others not to take advantage when they throw stones into the well?
Universal Pictures stated, "Nice try, but no cigar."
Sure enough, the tone of the newspapers changed completely the next day.
All the soft articles that had previously boasted about the film's luxurious cast and the hardships of the filming process were now overshadowed by negative movie reviews, and they were the majority.
Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter gave the film a score of only 52 out of 100. This effectively announced the collapse of the film's reputation, and even the dream of achieving both high box office earnings and awards, like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Avatar", had been completely shattered.
With the end of the public screening weekend, the film faced a wave of negative feedback from the audience.
Rotten Tomatoes had a freshness rating of only 54%, with an average rating of 6 out of 10. IMDb also had over 7,000 audience ratings, and the score was stuck at an embarrassing 6.4.
This was a massive budget production, with close to $200M invested. Such feedback data was undoubtedly a disastrous outcome. Even the recently heavily criticized "Van Helsing" was slightly more respectable than "Troy" and had not fallen into such disgrace.
For an epic masterpiece aiming for a win-win situation, this was undoubtedly the most tragic ending.
San Francisco Chronicle review was also incisive, pointing out, "Under the guise of an epic and adapting the most famous battle in ancient Greek history, it has completely abandoned the elements of Greek mythology and ultimately become a populist, crude, and even childish commercial film, and one of the worst of its kind."
In other words, if you had intended to make a commercial romance film from the beginning, perhaps it wouldn't have been criticized so harshly.
What was truly lamentable was that "Troy" had a promising start, it had grand ambitions, and it felt superior, but in the end, it performed worse than a mediocre popcorn movie filled with commercial elements.
...
Brad had been very agitated these past few days.
"Troy" had opened in nearly 4,000 theaters, and it was supposed to be a strong release.
On the market, films like "Van Helsing", which had been playing for over a week, and many low-budget films trying to capitalize on the hype, had been squeezed in terms of attendance.
However, the film's reviews were causing him great concern.
"Knock, knock, knock." The sound of a knock on the door rang out.
Brad sat in the office of Plan B Entertainment, saying, "Come in."
The person who entered was Brad Grey, also one of the shareholders of Plan B Entertainment.
He walked in quickly, and his expression wasn't too good either.
"Is there something wrong?" Brad asked.
"I just received the news. "Troy" only earned $16.52M at the box office yesterday," Brad Grey said, sitting on the sofa with a worried expression.
"What? The single-day box office on the weekend was only a little over $16M?" Brad looked at his friend and shareholder in disbelief, thinking he had misheard.
Unbelievable.
For a top-tier production like "Troy," earning less than $20M in a single day on the weekend was already considered a failure. But earning just over $16M?
The first day's box office was still optimistic, but it began to plummet so drastically on the second day?
It sounded like a fairy tale.
What was happening in this world? Was I still asleep?
Just when Brad was questioning life infinitely, Brad Grey confirmed once again, saying, "The data is indeed correct. I've checked with the theater chains several times. There are 3,896 theaters, showing "Troy" five times a day, and during this period, the majority of screening slots have been allocated to "Troy". Our attendance rates have been consistently low, and there is a declining trend in the number of viewers."
As he spoke, Gray placed several newspapers he had bought on the desk.
Brad, still unwilling to give up, read them one by one, but his expression grew even uglier.
Even Entertainment Weekly conducted a random survey of the audience watching "Troy", and the audience's feedback was brutally honest, emphasizing one reality.
Comments like "a big disappointment," "tedious and boring," "far below expectations," and "the movie feels like a mess, with no clear direction."
Furthermore, most of the criticism was aimed at the lead actor, which was Brad himself.
There was no way around it, he was the biggest star after all.
"Compared to Brad Pitt's portrayal of the war god, Eric Bana's performance as Hector is surprisingly outstanding," "The result of the ensemble cast is a terrible film, with Brad being the worst performer."
"I can't see any grand scenes, feel any thrilling battles, or even see any heroes. I don't know what the movie wants to show us. Is it the cheesy elopement of Helen and Paris? If so, it might not be bad, at least those two are quite compatible." "Brad is completely unsuitable for playing Achilles, from physique to acting, the character portrayal is consistently poor, with no resemblance to the hero..."
There were plenty of negative reviews, and even though a small number of die-hard fans gave Brad's character high praise, they couldn't overshadow the majority's complaints, or rather, their anger and disappointment.
In such a highly anticipated production, the more it failed to meet expectations, the more it was prone to criticism. This was a normal phenomenon.
For example, every year there were bad films, but the ones that received the harshest criticism were always the ones made by directors or actors who had previously achieved success.
A bad film had to be seen by someone first, right?
The high-profile promotion during the pre-release period was more like thrusting a blade into their own hearts.
Originally, "Troy" was the most anticipated film of this summer season, and it was not an exaggeration to say that many viewers had sky-high expectations for it.
With a long period of buildup and a constant stream of rumors and gossip, while it piqued everyone's curiosity, it not only created conditions for the film to perform well, but also faced the danger of eroding trust.
Unfortunately, "Troy" only managed the latter.
Warner Bros. had originally predicted a first-week box office of $95M at the media press conference.
At the time, many media outlets thought Warner Bros. was being too conservative. With a $200M budget, why not aim for $100M in the first week, if not try to break box office records?
But who would have thought that it wasn't Warner Bros. being conservative, but rather they simply didn't have much confidence in themselves.
A single-day box office of just over $16M proved they were right. And it was very likely that this figure was overestimated. With this performance and the collapsing reputation, whether it could break $70M in the first week was uncertain.
Just like "Van Helsing", "Troy" had instantly transitioned from heaven to hell, and perhaps even more miserably so, as the budget for the latter was not as massive as that of "Troy".
Both were flops, but one clearly flopped harder.
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