In the North American film market last weekend, only one new film was released on a large scale. As a result, the vampire horror film "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" produced by Universal Pictures was not popular with audiences. "Barbie" topped the box office chart for the fourth week in a row.

'The Last Voyage of Demeter' flops at box office

"The Last Voyage of the Demeter" was released in 2,715 theaters, and only received a box office of 6.5 million U.S. dollars, which was lower than outside expectations. Compared with its production cost of 45 million U.S. dollars, it is likely to end in a loss.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter poster

The film is directed by Norwegian André Everdorf, who has taken "The Female Corpse" and other films. The so-called Demeter in the title, people who have read Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", the originator of vampires, may have some impressions - that is the protagonist from the Carpathians. The Russian ship on which the private castle in the mountains traveled to London. According to the voyage log of the captain of the cargo ship, the sailors on the ship disappeared continuously during the one-month voyage, and finally he was the only one left. After the ship finally docked, the captain who was also the helmsman was also found dead, but his hands were tied to the steering wheel.

In the original novel, this part of the content is just a side detail of the whole vampire story, occupying only one chapter, and the name of the captain is not even explained. However, Bragi Schut Jr., the screenwriter of the film, had a big brain and found another way, starting with the seemingly inconspicuous freighter, and expanding it into a horror in a confined space similar to "Alien". The story complements the details that Bram Stoker did not explain in the original work: what happened on the Demeter during the month at sea.

Speaking of which, since "Dracula" was published in 1897, various dramas, operas, dance dramas, radio dramas, movies and TV adaptations have emerged one after another, but when it comes to the story of the Demeter, there may only be 2008 in the past. A BBC radio play called Voyage of the Demeter aired in 1999 specifically explored it. Therefore, the latest release of "The Last Voyage of the Demeter", in terms of its novelty, is actually quite remarkable.

However, the film currently only has a freshness of 48% on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes". Many film critics have complained that it still falls into the stereotype of traditional vampire horror films, because the ending of the story-everyone dies in vampires In the hands—everyone has already known it, so it is difficult for people to feel really restless during the whole viewing process. In short, everyone is too familiar with the subject of vampires, no matter how much they dig and expand, it will inevitably make the audience feel uninterested. And this, perhaps, is an important issue that Hollywood, where IP is paramount, is currently facing.

On the other hand, Sony Pictures' racing blockbuster "Gran Turismo" (Gran Turismo) was supposed to be screened in full last weekend, but due to the actors' union strike, Sony decided to postpone the release date to August 25. However, in the past weekend, the film was still released on the original schedule in the UK and other places, while only a few theaters in the United States were scheduled to be screened.

"Gran Turismo: Extreme Speed" stills

It is said that Sony hopes to rely on word-of-mouth in overseas markets and North American screenings to build momentum for the full release in advance; since Orlando Bloom and other protagonists cannot promote themselves on the platform, they can only rely on audiences on social media" Tap water" helped.

Interestingly, "Gran Turismo: Speed Hurricane" is currently only 60% fresh on "Rotten Tomatoes", but the audience score is as high as 98%. On the French movie rating website AlloCine, there was also a media rating of 2.5 points (out of 5 points), but the audience rating was 4.2 points. As a result, the box office trend of the film after its official release in North America is really hard to say right now.

Kuwaiti, Lebanese viewers flock to Saudi Arabia for 'Barbie'

Then there's "Barbie," which topped the weekend box office with $33.7 million and is still going strong. Last week, Quorum, a company specializing in the analysis of movie box office pre-sales, released a survey data showing that 22% of North American audiences who have watched "Barbie" have never been to a movie theater after the outbreak. Another 11 percent couldn't recall the last time they went to the cinema.

In overseas markets, "Barbie" finally began to be released in some countries in the Middle East last weekend, with box office results of US$1.9 million and US$1.8 million in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia respectively. However, the film is still banned in many Middle Eastern countries such as Kuwait, on the grounds that the film promotes "thoughts and beliefs that are incompatible with Kuwaiti society, public order and good customs". Al-Subei'e also said that "Barbie" promotes "behavior that we cannot accept and ideas that distort society's values". In Lebanon, which also banned the film, the country's culture minister, Mohammad Mortada, claimed that "Barbie" was contrary to the beliefs and moral values of the Lebanese people.

"Barbie" stills

But in Saudi Arabia, which is also in the Middle East, "Barbie" has achieved a very good box office result, and many of them contributed, it is said that tourists from Kuwait and Lebanon. Even on social media in Kuwait, there are various "Barbie" popular science articles, such as which Saudi theater is the most convenient to go to from Kuwait, the number of "Barbie" screenings arranged by the theater, etc.

In fact, the same thing happened less than ten years ago, but in the opposite direction. Saudis rushed to neighboring countries to watch movies. At that time, there were no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia. Whether it was a Hollywood blockbuster or a popular movie from neighboring countries in the Middle East such as Egypt, if Saudis wanted to watch it, they had to make a special trip abroad.

In 2006, there was a documentary called "Cinema 500 Kilometers" (Cinema 500 km), which told the true story of a young Saudi who went to Bahrain once for a passport to watch a movie. What is even more exaggerated is that although the filming of the film was approved by the Saudi cultural department, it was not banned, but after the filming, it could not be released in the country at all, and could only meet the audience in the Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates. The reason behind this was not Because the subject matter is sensitive, but because there were still no cinemas in Saudi Arabia at that time. Therefore, it is said that in the summer of 2010 alone, 230,000 Saudi tourists flew to the United Arab Emirates "just to watch movies."

"A Cinema 500 Kilometers Away" Opening Title

Historically, Saudi Arabia also had a large number of theaters and audiences, but for various reasons, domestic theaters were closed one after another. During the 35 years from 1983 to 2018, there was not a single commercial theater in Saudi Arabia. Occasionally, there was something necessary The movies watched will only take the form of projections in the auditorium. On April 18, 2018, history was finally rewritten. The first cinema in 35 years was grandly opened in the capital Riyadh, screening the Marvel blockbuster "Black Panther".

In fact, after entering the new millennium, Saudi Arabia’s film industry has made significant progress: in 2006, the first commercial film was produced, with the first actress to appear on the screen, and gradually there were films going to Venice, Berlin, etc. Waiting for international film festivals to be screened, participated in competitions, and some works were sent to the Oscars to participate in the competition for the best international film-but not every year, only six of the past nine years.

In April 2019, the Saudi government announced that it would invest $35 billion to build theaters. In 2021, the first Saudi Red Sea International Film Festival will be held in Jeddah. In the same year, the Saudi Film Commission, which was established less than a year ago, announced that it would turn Saudi Arabia into a world-class film center and build a film industry with an annual income of 500 million US dollars. And now the CEO of the Saudi Film Bureau is none other than Abdullah Al-Eyaf, the director of the documentary "A Cinema 500 Kilometers Away".

The box office of "Crazy Elemental City" climbed steadily

Also worth mentioning on the box office list is the Pixar animated film "Crazy Elemental City". The film's opening box office in North America was only $29.5 million, almost Pixar's worst opening weekend in more than 30 years. However, more than two months after its release, its total box office in North America has climbed to 148 million US dollars, and its global box office has reached 425 million US dollars. Dollar.

Stills of "Crazy Elemental City"

Looking back, the opening box office of "Crazy Elemental City" made almost everyone feel a little unbelievable. It is true that several recent Pixar works including "Legend of Light Years" have indeed encountered the predicament that the box office is no longer brilliant, but "Crazy Elemental City" itself has quite good audience ratings, and it is by no means a shoddy work . The reasons for the sluggish box office of the premiere are complex, and the reason why it can be revived in many places around the world in the following period of time is also difficult to explain in a few words, but the word-of-mouth effect must account for a large proportion.

As Paramount Pictures, which recently launched the new version of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" animated film "Teenage Mutants" emphasized, in the next few years, Hollywood's animation market will usher in many opportunities, because several major studios are It was found that, compared to live-action movies whose production costs have been soaring, animated movies have relatively stable production costs and guaranteed profits.

However, the production cost of "Crazy Elements City" is high, coupled with the publicity expenses for the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the total cost has caught up with several live-action blockbusters this summer. In this regard, Pixar Chairman Jim Morris (Jim Morris) once explained that there are currently only two studios in Hollywood, Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, and they are still insisting on "Made in America". The rest of the competitors have long adopted the large-scale outsourcing model. This greatly reduces the production cost of animated films. The reason why Pixar insists on this is probably because they want to take on some industry responsibilities, and hope that the blood of Hollywood animation can be passed on from generation to generation.