novelraw Chapter 477: Chapter 478: They Would Get Used to It
Chapter 477: Chapter 478: They Would Get Used to It
Chapter 477: Chapter 478: They Would Get Used to It[Chapter 478: They Would Get Used to It]
The Mask opened with over $37 million in its first week, far exceeding its production budget of less than $30 million, and it was virtually certain to gross over $100 million overall.
In contrast, MGM had released only one movie during the summer season, which barely made $10 million at the box office. Clearly, the success of The Mask would attract many eyes and envious glances. After all, even without comparing to the now-defunct state of MGM, The Mask's summer box office performance in 1992 was certainly better than that of Paramount, Universal, and Fox.
Paramount's summer blockbuster was Harrison Ford's action film Patriot Games, but it only managed to gross just over $80 million. Universal and Fox faced similar difficulties, with none of the three major studios having a film that crossed the $100 million mark that summer. Meanwhile, Sony Pictures, known for its deep pockets, had recruited Tom Cruise for the high- budget Running Out of Time: Prequel. However, for various reasons, that film also stalled at around $80 million, barely covering its production budget. The failures in the North American box office often set off a chain reaction; because of Running Out of Time: Prequel's lack of success, its overseas box office and ancillary rights sales faced significant setbacks, costing Sony an enormous loss.
One week after The Mask hit theaters, Disney's Sister Act conveniently closed the chapter on the summer box office by hitting over 2,100 theaters in North America. The release of this comedy signified the end of the summer blockbuster season; thereafter, the films that followed were mostly those that the studios didn't prioritize but merely aimed to gamble on at the tail end of the summer. The chances of any dark horse emerging from those releases were slim.
Without a doubt, Twister became the biggest winner of the entire summer. With expected total box office earnings around $300 million, combined with the success of The Mask, Firefly Films' summer box office total easily exceeded $400 million. If you factored in several other Disney releases, by tallying the current annual box office total in North America, Firefly Films was on track to eclipse 10% of that total just from the summer season. If Firefly were a publicly traded company, its stock price would have likely skyrocketed by now.
...
While North American entertainment media buzzed with excitement, Eric had already left Los Angeles. After attending the premiere of The Mask, he swiftly flew off to the Hawaiian Islands. Thanks to Jerry Bruckheimer's impressive pre-production efforts, by the time Eric arrived in Hawaii, sets like Dr. Hammond's re
Presumably, this was why Martin Davis would contact Eric. During the Japanese acquisitions of Columbia and Universal, both studios had short-term collaborations with Firefly, which resulted in strong receipts, even if both studios ultimately sold and the Japanese paid far
more.
Martin Davis was quite straightforward with his intentions; he simply wanted to boost Paramount's performance to deter other shareholders from selling the company. With Eastern Europe's film market gradually opening up and North America's annual box office totals consistently growing, it was understandable that Martin had no desire to sell
Paramount.
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