Chatty Hollywood

"Taxi Driver" is Jodie Foster's famous work.

In that film, directed by Martin Scorsese and famous in film history, Judy played a young girl named Iris.

She was only 12 years old at the time, but she played Iris with infinite charm, innocence and charm.

But it was precisely because of this that she met the truly perverted lolita control - John Hinckley.

This madman learned from the actor Travis in "Taxi Driver" and wanted to get the attention of Jodie Foster by assassinating the then President Ronald Reagan.

As a result, Reagan did not die, but Judy was almost pushed into the abyss by him.

The media portrayed her as a beauty and a troublemaker, and the FBI had long suspected that she was the mastermind behind the assassination.

This forced Judy to take a break from acting for three years. It was not until the filming of "The Pear Blossom" that the king returned.

Now, although the actress has passed through the darkest years, she is still reluctant to mention those past events.

But for Kathleen Kennedy, Judy's anger was no problem.

As one of the most famous producers in Hollywood, she has great power. Even if Jodie Foster is a double Oscar winner, there is nothing special in her eyes.

In Hollywood, the fame and fortune fair of power, beauty and money, no matter how powerful an actress is, her influence is ultimately limited.

What's more, she doesn't actually know Jodie Foster very well.

In fact, Kathleen Kennedy's mention of Judy's performance in "Taxi Driver" had a purpose.

"Instead of protesting like this, you might as well learn this sentence——"

As she spoke, the producer woman playfully imitated Robert De Niro, who played the protagonist in "Taxi Driver" and raised her eyebrows.

"Are you talking to me?"

"...This is one of Robert's most famous lines."

The queen's face looked a little ugly.

At this time, she had already understood that Kathleen Kennedy had not discussed another cooperation project with her before, but just read the movie review about "The Sixth Sense".

No matter whether he deliberately poked her sore foot, it was actually hinting to her that it would not be that easy to cooperate with Amblin Entertainment on a new film project.

Just like the line from "Taxi Driver" she just quoted -

"Are you talking to me?"

--who do you think You Are?

As a big boss among Hollywood producers, Kathleen Kennedy bullied Judy in a very subtle way.

This made the actress calm down again after she was so excited because "Sleepy Hollow" won the Oscar for Best Picture and "The Sixth Sense" was showing signs of becoming a big hit.

yes!

Although there is Judy's shadow behind both films, in the end, it is Charlotte who leads these two projects.

As for Charlotte, I'm afraid she won't be able to cooperate with Judy's "Egg" company so easily in the future.

After all, after "The Sixth Sense", the other party is already a major director of commercial films in the true sense...

*******

At this time, Jodie Foster had never thought about the possibility that "The Sixth Sense" would fail at the box office.

This is indeed the case.

In fact, not only film critics, but most audiences have very high evaluations of this movie.

Especially many viewers who came to watch the movie with their families, after watching "The Sixth Sense", they felt a sense of cherishing the people in front of them.

This made them think more highly of The Sixth Sense.

And they will recommend the movie to their neighbors, colleagues and friends.

These excellent reviews in all aspects were eventually transformed into powerful box office data, which were finally summarized by Warner Bros. Pictures, which is responsible for the distribution of "The Sixth Sense"——

“The revenue on the first day reached $18 million!!!”

Barry Mendel looked at the first-day box office report of "The Sixth Sense" in his hand and suddenly felt a little hot.

You know, although it is both the work of Charlotte Booth, "The Sixth Sense" is not a special effects blockbuster like "Sleepy Hollow".

To a certain extent, this is a relatively literary film, albeit under the banner of a horror film.

In fact, Warner made a preliminary assessment after taking over the distribution work of "The Sixth Sense"——

20 to 30 million US dollars!

This is Warner's estimate of the box office performance of "The Sixth Sense" in its first week.

As the person responsible for the release of "The Sixth Sense", Barry Mendel knows this data very clearly.

So, when he saw that the actual first-day box office of "The Sixth Sense" was $18 million, he was completely shocked!

"Looking like this, the cost can be fully recovered in the second week at most, right?"

Compared with "Sleepy Hollow" which had many special effects, the production cost of "The Sixth Sense" was actually cheaper. Charlotte only used about 30 million US dollars to complete the entire movie.

According to the general formula in Hollywood that 1/3 of the box office is the income of the film studio, the box office of "The Sixth Sense" only needs to reach 90 million US dollars, which is enough to recover the cost.

It seems very easy indeed at the moment.

And the subsequent development was as Barry Mendel expected——

The box office on Saturday was 21 million!

Sunday box office was 21 million! !

The total box office in the first week was 60 million! ! !

When Charlotte received the first-week box office report for "The Sixth Sense" from Warner Bros. on Monday morning, the director himself was stunned.

He knew that, unlike "Sleepy Hollow", which had a strong commercial flavor and had the news of Depp and Winona's engagement, "The Sixth Sense" was essentially a slow-burning movie.

This is a horror movie that is full of warmth but also spooky and mysterious. The box office trend should be a steady flow rather than an instant explosion.

But what is going on now?

"It's summer time now!"

Barry Mendel, who has always been in touch with Charlotte, explained,

"Now is the time of year when moviegoers have the strongest spending power. Although "The Sixth Sense" is disguised as a horror film, its delicate emotions and PG-13 rating ensure that it can be used as a A home movie to watch.”

"Family viewers?"

Although she had expected it before, Charlotte still didn't expect that the family audience would be so powerful.

On the other side, Barry Mendel was still chattering,

"Charlotte, your previous promotion method of showing free movies to orphanages, nursing homes and mental hospitals in the Los Angeles area was also very effective."

"According to our survey of moviegoers, 36% of viewers went to the cinema because of the charity reputation of "The Sixth Sense"."

"What about the others?"

Since the topic of questionnaire survey was mentioned, Charlotte simply asked about the relevant results.

"Besides charity, what are the other main elements that attract audiences to watch this movie?"

"Bruce Willis accounts for about 39%! In addition-"

Barry Mendel gave Charlotte a strange look,

"You yourself still account for a small 20%."

"I!?"

Pointing to her nose, Charlotte was in a daze.