In the first weekend of October, the North American film market has two new films, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Amsterdam, which were released on a large scale, but they failed to surpass the box office of the previous weekend. The champion "Dangerous Laughter" also marks that the film market this month failed to usher in a good start.
"Crocodile Lailai" is expected to make progress in the future
"Dangerous Laughter," which topped the weekend in a row, also made a mere $17.6 million at the weekend box office. This weekend's North American box office total was only $61 million, a drop of $2 million from last weekend's $63 million.
"Dangerous Smile" poster
Originally, the industry was looking forward to the new film "Crocodile Riley", which was released by Sony Pictures. After all, in the North American film market, since the release of "DC Adorable Task Force" at the end of July, there has been no such happy movie for the whole family to watch together for a long time. As a result, the film was released in 4,350 theaters and only received $11.5 million at the opening box office, which was disappointing.
"Crocodile Lai Lai" is adapted from the children's picture book of the same name published in the 1960s. It tells the story of how a crocodile living in a big city becomes friends with the Prim family. According to the plot setting, the anthropomorphic crocodile named Lai Lai, although not able to speak, can sing loudly. Therefore, in the 105-minute film, a large number of singing and dancing scenes were inserted, singing and dancing, which was quite joyful.
"Crocodile Riley" poster
In the film, Shawn Mendes from Canada is responsible for the singing of Crocodile Riley, and the starring lineup includes Javier Bardem, Constance Wu, etc. The original song for the film is created by the American group Pasek and Paul, Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, two friends from the University of Michigan, one is responsible for writing the song and the other is responsible for writing the lyrics. Over the past ten years since their debut, they have worked closely together. Six years ago, the theme song "City of Stars" of "La La Land", which won the Academy Award for Best Song, was the lyrics they co-wrote; "Sen" is also in charge of composing the music by them. In addition, the two have also participated in the songwriting of popular movies such as "Troll", "The King of the Circus" and "Aladdin" in the past. A New Christmas Carol (Spirited) will meet the audience.
Coincidentally, the director of "Crocodile Riley" is also a duo. Josh Gordon and Will Speck have directed six films together in the past, including hit comedies like "The Skateboard Duo," "The Changeover," and "The Office Christmas Party," and they're pretty consistent. This time, "Crocodile Lailai" currently has a 70% praise rating from critics and 94% praise from audiences on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes", and the audience's post-screening score also has an A-level. It can be seen that as long as the people who watch the film are quite satisfied with it, the problem is that there are obviously not enough parents who are willing to bring their children to the cinema to watch "Crocodile Lailai".
Crocodile Riley's Rotten Tomatoes page
In this regard, some analysts believe that the influence and public awareness of the picture book of the same name of "Crocodile Lailai" is too general to be regarded as a high-quality IP, and cannot be compared with "Peter Rabbit" and "Paddington Bear" with similar themes. Of course, the box-office success or failure of a work is not enough to conclusively determine the success or failure of the film. After all, until the release of Disney's animation "Strange World" on November 23, there were almost no works specializing in the children's market on the theater line, and "Crocodile Riley" could have an exclusive schedule of more than a month. Perhaps relying on word of mouth, the production cost of this work has reached 50 million US dollars, and it can slowly regain lost ground.
'Amsterdam' loses both at the box office
Unlike "Crocodile Riley," another new film, "Amsterdam," which was released over the weekend, may have little chance of turning the tide.
The film was originally shot by 20th Century Fox and cost as much as $80 million. After Fox was acquired by Disney, "Amsterdam", as a Disney-owned work, was distributed by the renamed Twentieth Century Films, which invested a considerable amount of publicity and distribution funds. In the end, "Amsterdam" earned only $6.8 million at the box office in 3,005 theaters across North America over the three-day weekend, and it was inevitable to lose money.
"Amsterdam" poster
"Amsterdam" from the famous director David O. Russell, gathered Christian Bale, Robert De Niro, Taylor Swift, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, John David Washington, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek and many other big-name Hollywood entertainers, so they were originally quite optimistic about the outside world, but in the end it ended up like this, I am afraid it is Russell This time there was a big problem with the script.
The story of "Amsterdam" is based on a real event in 1933: the coup of Wall Street merchants. At that time, the new President Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, which disguised the rich to help the poor, which greatly dissatisfied Wall Street interest groups. To this end, some business tycoons find retired Major General Butler (De Niro), hoping that he can lead the 500,000 retired veterans they recruited to launch a coup to oust President Roosevelt. In the end, the coup was aborted because Butler took the initiative to break the news to the media, but the government investigation report afterwards took a low-key approach and did not publicly admit that someone planned to launch a coup, making it one of the biggest mysteries in modern American political history.
On the basis of historical records, Russell made a lot of detailed originals. In 134 minutes, he told a story with many characters and complex plots with great ambition. At present, the film has only a 35% praise rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is his worst record since filming. And the production cost of 80 million US dollars is the most expensive shooting he has ever made.
In 1999, at the age of 40, Russell rose to the film industry with "Three Kings of Gold". From 2010 to 2015, these five years can be said to be his golden age. "The Fighter", "The Line of Happiness behind the Dark Clouds", "American Hustle" and "Joey of Struggle" are all applauded and popular, and Russell has also continued. Nominated for five Oscars and just one step away from reaching the top. But after "Joey of Struggle", he has nearly six or seven years, and no new works have come out. The reason behind it is unknown to the outside world. Some people speculate that it may be related to the various negative news he has accumulated over the years.
Rumors of Russell's fondness for lashing out on set were not uncommon more than 20 years ago. George Clooney, Lily Tomlin, Amy Adams and others who have collaborated with him have all publicly talked about Russell's bad behavior of losing his temper with his subordinates, smashing things, and exporting dirty when filming. . In early 2012, his 19-year-old niece, Nicole Peloquin, reported to the police that her uncle was in the gym, "on the pretext of helping with crunches, took the opportunity to touch her private parts, and then reached out and directly touched her breasts." In this regard, the director defended to the police that his niece was undergoing transgender treatment at the time. He wanted to know how her niece’s breasts had changed out of curiosity, and that after her niece changed from male to female, it was “too sultry”, which made this uncle Couldn't help but start. In the end, the two sides decided to settle down, and Russell was not punished.
Of course, there are not a few collaborators defending him. Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence have come forward many times to escort it. In their view, Russell's bad temper on the set is purely based on his particular work style and level of commitment, or simply - artist temper.
However, with the emphasis on progressive consciousness and political correctness, it may be difficult for this kind of argument to win the approval of the media and the younger generation of the United States. Before the release of "Amsterdam", some netizens mentioned on social media the earlier release of "Don't Worry, Darling", which caused the director Olivia Wilde to sigh deeply because of off-screen news. , complaining that the focus has been blurred, I hope the audience can make an objective evaluation of the work itself. In an interview with the media, Ms. Wilde once said that people still have gender differences in Hollywood directors today, and many of the same things are done by male directors. , some people will question their professional ethics and character, and there is obviously a difference in treatment. Now, judging from the opening box office of "Amsterdam" alone, it is unknown that Russell's negative news may have really affected some audiences.
Industry slumps, Edinburgh Film Festival announces closure
The North American box office in October failed to usher in a good start. There are many reasons behind it, but in any case, it is inseparable from the overall influence of the times and society. In this abnormal era, it is not only the cinema industry that is affected, but the entire film industry is not having a good time. Last week, a big news broke out in the European film industry. The Edinburgh Film Festival, which has been in existence for 75 years, announced that it would be closed. 102 employees have been sent home.
The first Edinburgh Film Festival was born in 1947 and is held every summer or June or August for two weeks. Although its importance cannot be compared with the three major European film festivals, it is also an important local cultural program in the UK. And the point is that, from 1947 to 2019, the festival was held every year without interruption, so they claim to be the longest-running film festival in the world on a regular basis - historically, Cannes and Venice There have been years of suspension (the Berlin Film Festival was founded in 1951, four years younger than the Edinburgh Film Festival).
In 2020, the Edinburgh Film Festival was finally forced to suspend due to the new crown epidemic. Last year, the film festival returned to normal again, but I didn't expect that it would be possible to say goodbye completely in just one year.
Over the years, the film festival has been operated and managed by the Edinburgh Film Center. In addition to government funding and social donations, the main funding comes from the ticket revenue of the Filmhouse cinema under the center. Filmhouse Cinema is located in the heart of Edinburgh and is the main venue for the annual film festival. Although the cinema itself has only been in business for more than 40 years, the building in which it is located is the original Edinburgh United Church with a history of nearly 200 years. A place of pilgrimage, it has contributed a lot to the local cinephile culture.
Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh
Now, with the Edinburgh Film Festival announced to be suspended, Filmhouse cinemas may also close their doors this month. In a statement, the Edinburgh Film Center said that "soaring prices, especially water, electricity and coal prices, coupled with the decline in audience numbers caused by the epidemic" were the main reasons for their decision to close their doors; The cessation of relief grants and the gradual development of viewers' new habit of watching streaming from home are secondary factors. Next, Edinburgh Film Centre will be looking for buyers for Filmhouse Cinemas and the Edinburgh Film Festival.
