Entering August, the North American film market has entered a dry season for blockbusters, making theater practitioners complain. In fact, strictly speaking, the number of new movies released recently is not small, but the reputation of the works is average and the cast is flat, which is not attractive enough to the audience. For example, in three days last weekend, there were two or three new films released on a large scale in North America. However, the total North American box office for the whole weekend was only 52 million US dollars, which is the second lowest so far this year. The total box office of the last weekend in January is the lowest , only $34.9 million.

Mid- and low-cost new films are not doing well at the box office

The horror film "The Invitation" from Sony Pictures was released in 3,114 theaters and earned $7 million at the opening box office, which could already be at the top of the weekend box office chart. In the same period in 2019, such box office data can only rank seventh; even in the same period in 2021, the freshly released horror film "Candy Man" received $22 million. Of course, this comparison does not mean that the current North American film market as a whole is worse than last year. It's just that, after a vigorous summer season, the various Hollywood film companies seem to be lacking in stamina, and the blockbusters are somewhat unacceptable. It is impossible for a small production like "Invitation Letter" that costs only 10 million US dollars to spend tens of millions of dollars. To do publicity, lead to general public awareness, the box office will naturally not go up.

"Invitation" stills

"Invitation" is based on the well-known vampire Dracula story. The director is the 37-year-old Australian up-and-coming Jessica M. Thompson. She has only written and directed the feminist film "Moon of the Moon" before. Light", but the film was not released on a large scale in North America. "Invitation" starred Natalie Emmanuel from the United Kingdom. Over the years, she has participated in HBO's popular TV series "Game of Thrones" and the blockbuster series "Fast and Furious", accumulating a lot of popularity. There is still a big gap between the audience appeal and Hollywood first-line actors. And the film's reputation is also quite bad. The film critics on "Rotten Tomatoes" rated it only 25% of the praise, which is the lowest of the four new premieres on the weekend, and 54% of the audience scored it after the show. Even so, "Invitation Letter" can still top the box-office list, even if it is the worst of the market, there will be no market for horror movies.

Another new film, released over the weekend, is also from an Australian director, but this one is much more famous: Mad Max director George Miller, Idris Elba, Thiel The fantasy film "Three Thousand Years of Longing" starring Dar Swinton was released in 2,436 theaters in North America.

"Three Thousand Years of Missing" poster

It stands to reason that "Three Thousand Years of Missing" is the biggest brand in this weekend's new film, but it only received $2.87 million at the opening box office, ranking seventh. The film tells the story of a female scholar played by Tilda Swinton in a bottle bought at the Istanbul market, there is a legendary wishing elf with boundless mana, who promises to fulfill three wishes for her in pursuit of freedom , but the female scholar replied that she has no extravagant wishes in her life...

The film is based on The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, a collection of short stories by British author A.S. Byatt. According to director Miller's own statement, this is a movie that is completely opposite to "Mad Max". It is mainly an indoor dialogue scene, and there are only two main characters. The whole process was filmed locally in Australia, which can be said to be a standard epidemic era. product. The film made its world premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it received positive reviews and a six-minute standing ovation from the audience. The film is distributed by MGM in North America. Earlier, foreign media reported that Sunac Culture would introduce the film to be released in mainland China. Although there is no news about the trial, we can still expect to see it in September and October when imported films have always been crowded together.

The thriller "Breaking," released by Bleecker Street, opened in 902 theaters over the weekend, not strictly speaking a large-scale release, and ended up with $1.02 million at the box office, which was pretty bad. . Based on a true story, the film stars John Boyega, an Englishman who has acted in the "Star Wars" series, and tells the story of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has no choice but to rob a bank.

Rupture has a decent 79% from critics and 82% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes

Rupture has a decent 79% from critics and 82% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, it was also titled "892"—a figure that represented the $892 the Veterans Administration owed its lead actor. Although such a title may be difficult to sell, it is at least better than a nondescript title like "Break". For some reason, after the Brick Street Film Company bought the distribution rights, they decided to change the title of the film, and they didn't work very hard in the publicity work, which really wasted the good reputation of this work.

'The Flash' escapes the snow crisis

The Hollywood studio with the most news last week was probably Warner Bros. On August 24th, local time, they arranged a special screening for the members of the "Batgirl" crew, so that those filmmakers who devoted a lot of effort to complete this work, probably watched it for the first and last time, instead of being a bid farewell. After that, Warner announced "Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom" and "Thunder Shazam!" The schedule of the two blockbuster works of "Wrath of the Gods" was postponed - the former was because the special effects work was too large and exceeded the original expectations; the latter was because it happened to collide with "Avatar", and the IMAX screen was given to the latter. Booked out.

In addition, Zaslav, the boss of Warner Bros. Discovery Group, revealed earlier that they also plan to follow Disney's Marvel Universe strategy, specifically looking for a chief helmsman like Kevin Feige to operate the DC Comics Universe series in the next ten years. work. Since then, the outside world has been concerned about the specific progress of this matter. Last week, several media reported that Dan Lin, a Chinese-American producer born in Chinese Taipei, has now started in-depth contact with Warner, and is likely to take over this important task. .

Lin Dan's films include the "Sherlock Holmes" series starring Robert Downey Jr., the "Lego Movie" series, and the new "Joker" series. Back then, after graduating from Harvard Business School, his first job in Hollywood was in the Warner Films Department. He participated in the production of American versions of "Infernal Affairs" and "Alexander" for eight years. Named one of the "Top 30 Hollywood Producers" by The Hollywood Reporter.

Also on August 24, "problem actor" Ezra Miller joined agent Scott Metzger (Scott Metzger), and Warner Bros. top executive Michael De Luca (Michael De Luca) ) with Pamela Abdy for a knee-jerk conversation. It is said that the two sides talked very happily. The previously reported "Flash" movie may be a major crisis hidden by Warner. At present, it seems that it has basically been resolved, and the film will still be released as scheduled on June 23, 2023.

"The Flash" stills. Ezra Miller as The Flash

In the past two years, Miller's negative news has been endless, and he is already on the Hollywood blacklist. On May 1 this year, a local resident in Vermont, USA called the police, saying that someone had stolen a few bottles of wine from their home. He issued a citation for Mueller to appear in court in August. Earlier, while on vacation in Hawaii, Miller was arrested by police twice in three weeks.

The Dali biopic "Daliland" (Daliland), which Miller has a role in, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada in September, but his name is not included in the press release given by the film party. In the film, it is the young Dali who plays the role of Ben Kingsley in old age. Although it seems that it has not been completely replaced at present, the film party has been working hard to cut it. It is believed that Miller will not be present in the promotional itinerary of the film in Toronto.

On August 15, Ezra Miller finally came out for the first time to publicly apologize, admitting that he had "complex mental health problems" and announced that he had begun to seek related treatment. Some American media reported that his move was also forced by the situation, because it is said that the two new heads of Warner Bros. Pictures, who took office in July this year, are already considering whether to cut him completely, and even plan to hide the production cost. The $200 million The Flash.

The filming of "The Flash" has already been completed. In September, the soundtrack will be produced at the famous Abbey Road recording studio in London. The one who is responsible for writing the film is the one who created the films for the "Blade Runner 2049", "The Invisible Man" and "Joker's Soul" series. Musical Englishman Benjamin Wallfisch. The special effects of the film have not yet been completed, but the trial screening of the first-cut version is said to have been held, and it has received excellent feedback from the audience, which is in stark contrast to "Batgirl".