Chapter 1927 1929 [Intestinal Regret]
June, summer vacation.
Universal Pictures released "Natural Born Killers" directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson and Juliet Lewis.
This movie tells the story of Mickey and Miley, the heroine, because Miley was harassed by her father, and the two died after killing him. In the process of fleeing, he kept killing people and extorting goods, but was regarded as a hero by the media.
Then they were caught by the police and put in jail. The media who heard the news entered the prison to interview Mickey for ratings, but he took the opportunity to instigate a riot in the prison, and Mickey took the opportunity to escape with Miley.
"Natural Born Killers" is a film with great personal characteristics of the director.
Its story is not too much, there is not so much suspense, and there are not so many reversals. But Oliver Stone, with his unique audio-visual language, made this originally simple story extremely impactful.
The crazy and brutal aesthetic rendering of violence makes every audience who has seen it excited. No wonder, after all, it was written by Quentin Tarantino.
His works are deeply influenced by Hong Kong films, especially Wu Yusen's films, and he has a special interest in the aesthetics of violence.
However, this kind of violent aesthetics is not acceptable to every audience. In fact, the film was so controversial that when it was released in the United States, a large number of violent scenes were deleted.
In addition, when it was released to multiple countries, it was directly banned. Even this movie affected a group of audiences and led to some murders. This also put Oliver Stone under a lot of pressure.
In the end, the North American box office of "Natural Born Killers" was 56 million US dollars, which is not good. It cost fifty million dollars, after all.
However, the videotape of this movie later became popular among movie fans, sold millions of copies, and made a profit of more than 100 million U.S. dollars, which can be regarded as recovering the cost.
…
In July, "Speed 3" starring Xiang Nan and Courtney Cox was officially launched.
This movie tells the story of the hero and heroine trying their best to prevent a speeding train from derailing, which is almost the same as the previous two movies. But because it is a train this time, it is more destructive and lethal, so it is more exciting and tense.
As a top Hollywood superstar, Xiang Nan has developed in Hollywood for more than ten years and has already accumulated huge popularity. In addition, the quality of the works has always been guaranteed, so the bonding of fans is also the strongest.
Courtney Cox has also accumulated high popularity and popularity because of "Friends" in the past two years. In addition, she has also filmed the first and second parts of "Speed", "Detective Airplane Head" and so on, and her popularity is quite considerable.
Good-looking movies and popular stars are naturally very attractive to the audience. So in the end, "Speed 3" won a box office of 130 million US dollars in North America, which was a great success.
The success of this film also allowed Universal Pictures to recover from its decline in the second quarter.
You know, "Black Steed", "Fantastic Four", and "Natural Born Killers" did not perform well at the box office, which actually put Universal Pictures under a lot of pressure.
On the one hand, it has to be responsible to those cinema operators. If the movie doesn't sell well, the theater operators it cooperates with are also dissatisfied. On the one hand, it has to be responsible to those shareholders.
Therefore, in the past three months, the stock price of Universal Pictures has been a bit sluggish. However, with the box office hit of "Speed 3", the stock price of Universal Pictures immediately rose.
In August, "True Lies" directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis will be released.
This commercial blockbuster, no matter the story or the scenes, is even worse than "Speed 3". Especially the fighter jet battle at the end of the film, which vividly shows the background of Hollywood blockbusters.
Such a big scene is absolutely impossible to shoot in the Hong Kong film industry. Not to mention that it cannot borrow such an advanced fighter jet, even if it does, it may not know how to shoot.
This is not only a gap in funding, but also a gap in technology and imagination. Thinking about it makes people feel desperate.
"True Lies" has a wonderful story and grand scenes, coupled with Arnold Schwarzenegger's box office appeal, it naturally sold well at the box office.
North America, 140 million US dollars, nearly 400 million US dollars worldwide, compared with 120 million US dollars of investment, it is quite good.
The success of this film has further consolidated James Cameron's status as a leading director of commercial films, and also laid the foundation for his subsequent filming of "Titanic". Otherwise, how could he make Fox Pictures willing to invest 200 million US dollars in him.
And with this movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to be among the top Hollywood stars.
…
In September, "Forrest Gump" starring Tom Hanks and Michelle Pfeiffer will be released.
There is no need to repeat the classic degree of this movie. It can be said that it is also a star-studded classic in the history of Hollywood movies that cannot be ignored.
It tells the history of the United States for half a century through the character of Forrest Gump.
Moreover, because A-Gump is mentally deficient, many things that were originally extremely serious were taken lightly by him. Such as racism, such as the South Vietnam War, such as Watergate...
This makes the tone of the story relaxed, interesting, and tender, which caters to the psychology of many young audiences.
After all, they were born in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When they grew up, the war was gone and the Cold War was over, replaced by rapid technological progress and abundant supplies.
In the 1990s, prices in the United States were quite low. One dollar can buy a gallon of milk, which equals about 3.7 liters. Twenty-five cents a pound of chicken legs, a dollar a pound of pork chops, a dollar a gallon of gasoline...
In "Friends", Joey's financial situation is not good, but he can buy a bucket of KFC fried chicken, and he can eat only the skin and not the chicken. It can be seen how cheap the prices were at that time, even an unemployed vagrant like him could afford such a life.
Therefore, young audiences do not understand the history of the past, and the understatement of past suffering in "Forrest Gump" is also in line with their mentality. Just like when children listen to stories from the 1980s, they just have a curiosity-seeking mentality.
And those who passed through that era are unwilling to recall those pains. Therefore, the beautification and weakening of past suffering in "Forrest Gump" is also in line with their psychology.
All in all, Forrest Gump catered to the American audience. Especially after the end of the Cold War, the United States became the only superpower in the world, which gave the American people strong self-confidence.
Therefore, the movie was a great success, with a North American box office of 320 million U.S. dollars and a global box office of 670 million U.S. dollars, making it the highest-grossing movie so far.
The stock price of Universal Pictures has also soared a lot because of this movie, and its market value has reached 12 billion U.S. dollars, making all the previous shareholders regretful.
(end of this chapter)