If not for foreknowledge, objectively speaking, Avatar would not be a good project.
A film that takes several years to produce and carries such an enormous production cost involves extremely high risk.
But once the director's name is James Cameron, everything becomes somewhat different.
The reason Gilbert chose Knives Out instead of a larger-scale production was also to avoid Avatar.
Two big-budget films would inevitably be compared, and if Gilbert's new film performed worse than Avatar, the haters would have plenty to say.
Gilbert is a director who dotes on his fans. When he makes a small-scale production, fans still have solid ground to argue back.
After all, you can't judge a B-movie by A-list standards, and that also removes one more excuse for the haters to attack.
Although the year is not yet over, there is no doubt that Gilbert is the biggest winner, once again dominating the summer season and firmly securing his position as the king of the summer box office.
Warner Bros., relying on The Dark Knight this year, also maintained solid performance. Despite the impact of Gilbert and Warner parting ways, the stock price remained stable.
However, the year was not yet over. On November 14, MGM's Quantum of Solace was released, earning 67.52 million US dollars in its opening weekend, which could be considered a success.
This was the twenty-second 007 film and also the second time Daniel Craig portrayed James Bond.
Since being acquired by the Emirati consortium, MGM's development has not been particularly smooth.
Hollywood is a squid circle, and the sudden entry of an Arab consortium was naturally met with exclusion.
However, the Emirati consortium has one advantage: money. Buried beneath the desert is black gold. MGM's losses amount to nothing more than digging a few extra barrels of oil—they can afford it.
So even though MGM was jointly boycotted by the Hollywood squid club, with squid-clan directors, producers, and actors almost never cooperating with MGM, the studio still managed to survive stubbornly.
This time, MGM ambitiously produced a 007 film, hoping this classic spy franchise could once again shine with its former glory.
From the current results, the North American opening-weekend box office is indeed quite good.
Each 007 film has a slightly different style, and Quantum of Solace places its emphasis on suspense.
Moreover, this 007 film is directly connected to its predecessor, Casino Royale, marking a first for the franchise.
The 007 series has a massive fan base. As long as the production quality isn't too poor, plenty of fans are willing to pay.
At this critical moment, MGM dared not fool the audience and had to ensure the survival of its flagship franchise.
On November 21, Melon Studio released its final film of the year, Twilight. The film starred Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Cam Gigandet, Taylor Lautner, and others.
Upon release, it immediately captured the attention of teenage boys and girls. Countless young men and women walked into theaters, expressing their love for the film through concrete action.
However, the film's reputation was quite poor. Its initial IMDb score was only 6.1 and continued to decline.
Well-known IMDb critic Peter commented: "The film's plot is painfully clichéd, and the emotions are hollow.
The movie is nothing more than a vampire-plus-teenage-campus romance packaged as a human–ghost love story. Judged by the audience's viewing habits, the so-called love in this film is utterly lifeless.
The film is filled with boring long takes obsessively focused on handsome faces, shabby performances, dragging pacing, and breathless, incoherent dialogue."
As a result, Peter was completely swarmed by angry Twilight fans, who believed the film was absolutely amazing.
In particular, the male and female leads, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, became national idols overnight.
Whether it was Edward or Isabella, they were crazily adored by young men and women alike.
Driven by this frenzy, the modestly budgeted youth romance fantasy film raked in a staggering 70.63 million US dollars in its opening weekend.
Young audiences proved with facts that they truly loved this film.
However, IMDb users are relatively professional and seasoned film fans, so their low evaluation of Twilight is perfectly normal. From a professional standpoint, Twilight is indeed not a particularly good movie.
But as always, as long as it makes money, Twilight is a good film for the studio.
More importantly, the film is based on an original novel—and not just one, but several. This means that once the first installment succeeds, the rest can be produced as a film series.
At this point, Hollywood could not help but marvel at Gilbert's vision. He precisely discovered Twilight and then turned it into a massive hit.
It is said that what many investors want most when investing in films is Gilbert's sharp, ruthless eye.
The film industry carries extremely high risks, but with Gilbert's keen judgment, everyone can just lie back and make money.
Youth films have always had a market. Buena Vista's High School Musical has already reached its third installment. As long as one can accurately capture a key appeal point, impulsive young audiences can be drawn back into theaters again and again.
It's just a pity—if Leonardo had been ten years younger, the effect would surely have been better than Robert Pattinson.
While Twilight was sweeping all before it, a major event occurred at DreamWorks: Spielberg and Paramount parted ways.
In fact, signs of this had appeared years earlier. Since the disintegration of DreamWorks, the seeds of discord had already been sown.
Affected by the financial crisis this year, major Hollywood companies generally encountered cash shortages. They were forced to cut expenses and reduce investment in order to survive the crisis.
Although rumors of Paramount and DreamWorks splitting up had been circulating for so long that people were tired of hearing them, when the moment truly arrived, it still caught everyone by surprise.
DreamWorks had always been confident, after all. During the more than two years since joining Paramount, DreamWorks had contributed a large number of excellent films to Paramount.
With results came confidence, especially last year, when Paramount jumped from fifth place in the 2006 year-end rankings to second place in 2007—almost entirely thanks to DreamWorks.
Of course, this also had something to do with Gilbert shifting his focus to producing television series that year. Even so, Disney still firmly held the top spot.
In recent years, Paramount's independently produced films had all been flops without exception, suffering from terrible word of mouth and box office results barely breaking even.
DreamWorks was simply too dazzling in 2007, and Spielberg therefore had the confidence to point fingers at Paramount.
The industry immediately acknowledged that Paramount's acquisition of DreamWorks had been an extremely cost-effective deal, but it also quickly concluded that this partnership was coming to an end.
Paramount, meanwhile, could only endure in silence like a wronged young wife.
Finally, at the end of 2008, DreamWorks and Paramount officially split. Soon after, DreamWorks announced a partnership with India's entertainment giant Reliance Group to continue producing films.
According to insider information, DreamWorks had demanded that Paramount provide between 500 and 700 million US dollars in production funding each year, but Paramount was unable to agree.
Later, with the help of intermediaries, Spielberg reached a partnership with Reliance Group.
This can be seen as a microcosm of Hollywood's cash shortage—so poor that they had to turn to Indian investors.
In the past, whenever Hollywood faced a cash crunch, Wall Street was the first place they turned to. Unfortunately, affected by the financial crisis, Wall Street itself was struggling this year.
Faced with a cash shortage, Hollywood had no choice but to tighten its belt and get through this difficult period.
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