The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 571

Transformers wasn't just a movie; it was the hallmark of an entire era, capturing the nostalgic dreams of a generation raised on science fiction. The evolution of the film industry had finally reached a point where it could bring the colossal battle of robots to the screen with near perfection, a cinematic milestone in its own right.

Of course, while Transformers had its share of flaws, particularly with its pacing, the majority of the film was the kind of classic spectacle once confined to dreams, now made as tangible and real as if you could reach out and touch it.

It was only natural, then, that the film became a smash hit.

During its opening three-day weekend, Transformers grossed $92.1 million in North America, far surpassing Paramount Pictures' projection of $75 million.

And to everyone's surprise, a huge number of fans rallied behind Megatron and the Decepticons. It seemed the villains were even more popular than the heroes.

"How should I put this... a lot of people are rooting for Megatron."

In his office at Paramount Pictures, CEO Brad Grey looked at Spielberg and remarked, "They're even leaving messages on the official Paramount website asking for a solo movie about Megatron."

Spielberg pushed his glasses up his nose. "That's the ripple effect from Matthew, I suppose."

Brad nodded in agreement. "Horner's personal appeal is stronger than we anticipated."

"The opening weekend box office proves it," Spielberg stated."Yes, the opening weekend exceeded expectations by seventeen million dollars," Brad elaborated. "Our initial seventy-five-million-dollar estimate was based on a combination of all the factors Paramount took into account, and we fully factored in Matthew Horner's appeal, but..."

He couldn't help but shake his head. "We still underestimated Horner. I wouldn't say that entire extra seventeen million is due to Matthew's marketing appeal, but the vast majority of it is."

Spielberg smiled. "DreamWorks got its money's worth for every dollar we paid Matthew."

"Well, he was certainly worth every penny."

Grey's thoughts inevitably drifted to Tom Cruise. He had a long-standing relationship with Paramount Pictures, but was he worth the investment? The studio poured money into him every year, but what was the return? Cruise might be a superstar, but over the past two years, he had proven significantly less bankable than Matthew Horner.

Leaving aside his movie salaries, Paramount Pictures had to pay Tom Cruise tens of millions a year just for their partnership deal. When you factored in his film fees, the man was practically bleeding the studio dry.

And what, in the end, did Paramount get in return?

Musing on this, Grey asked, "Steven, have you considered developing a separate series for Megatron?"

Spielberg quickly weighed the pros and cons. "There are no plans for that at the moment, but it's something we could consider."

But then he ran into another dilemma. Megatron's popularity was due in part to the character's inherent appeal, but a significant portion was also thanks to his voice actor.

DreamWorks was already preparing to develop a sequel, and the plan had been to proceed without Matthew—after all, he'd been paid an exorbitant amount for his voice work. But without Matthew, could they even bring Megatron back?

If they continued to use Matthew, he had no doubt that insatiable woman, Helen Herman, would dare to demand another twenty-million-dollar fee for the voice work.

It was a real dilemma, one he would have to discuss carefully with Michael Bay later.

After a bit more conversation, Spielberg left Paramount Pictures. Grey remained, lost in thought, before picking up the phone to call his assistant. "Vonte, I seem to recall Matthew Horner and Larry Ellison's son are planning to produce a film together. Look into that for me."

The assistant was evidently well-informed and replied immediately, "They bought the rights to the Fast & Furious franchise from Universal Pictures and are preparing to invest in the production. They settled on a director at the end of last month."

"Have they arranged for distribution yet?" Brad asked next.

"I don't believe so," the assistant replied. "I haven't heard anything about it."

"Find out," Grey instructed. "And if they don't have a distribution deal in place, have someone from our distribution department reach out. I want to know if we can secure the rights to Horner's new film."

He sat at his desk for a long while, reflecting. Paramount Pictures couldn't rely solely on Tom Cruise anymore. It was time to find a new star to take his place.

He would have shown Tom Cruise the door long ago if the star didn't hold the rights to the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Matthew Horner could be a far greater asset than Tom Cruise ever was.

As Transformers continued to dominate the box office in its first week, there was naturally no shortage of attention from the entertainment press. Beyond the film itself, many reports focused on Matthew, praising how his voice lent Megatron a commanding, leader-like quality.

The press also noted that films starring Matthew were in high demand, as were his voice-over roles, and that his market appeal was impossible to ignore.

The founder of CinemaScore even made the hyperbolic claim in an interview that any film starring Matthew Horner was guaranteed an opening weekend of at least fifteen million dollars.

Matthew hadn't expected the opening weekend for Transformers to be quite so impressive. With an opening weekend of over ninety million dollars, if the trend held, the film's North American box office would likely exceed three hundred million. It seemed Michael Bay would finally be able to turn his fortunes around and shake off the bad luck that had plagued him in the new century.

Of course, this would benefit him as well. It would once again prove his foresight in selecting films and projects, and it would convince even more people to follow his lead.

After reviewing the first week's box office statistics for Transformers, Matthew also paid close attention to its reception. It turned out to be a familiar pattern for his films: a huge box office success paired with poor critical reviews.

On the popular review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, Transformers received a mixed score of 57%, with the consensus reading:

"While it's difficult to find believable characters in Transformers, the visual effects are stunning and the action sequences are superb."

Most of the film's positive reviews centered on its visual effects and action sequences, while the criticism targeted its plot and characters. Many prominent critics weighed in, giving the film a "Rotten" score.

Renowned critic Roger Ebert, in particular, savaged the film in harsher terms than ever before.

"Watching Transformers is an excruciatingly long ordeal, punctuated by only three or four brief, fleeting moments of fun. If you want to save the price of a ticket, just go into your kitchen, put on some male rock vocals accompanied by hellish music, and start banging pots and pans together with your eyes closed. Use your imagination.

The plot is a tangled mess, and the dialogue is idiotic and nonsensical. The Autobots and Decepticons, with their Brooklyn, British, and hip-hop accents, hardly sound like inhabitants of a distant planet. They look more like they were assembled from a scrap heap and are as expressive as rocks. The human characters, while slightly more interesting, deserve only the faintest of praise.

The fight scenes are disorienting. The models themselves aren't visually appealing on their own, but when two or three of them are tangled together, it creates an especially chaotic and incoherent mess. And I found it particularly amusing that robots the height of four-story buildings are fighting with their fists..."

A decade or two ago, such a scathing attack from Roger Ebert might have doomed a film at the box office. But the era when critics held such sway was over. While Ebert was still influential, the target audience for massive commercial blockbusters cared little for what the critics had to say.

The chorus of negative reviews proved as fragile as a soap bubble. The following week, Transformers continued its relentless momentum, easily crossing the two-hundred-million-dollar mark in North America after grossing another $50.2 million over the weekend.

Anyone could see that three hundred million dollars was certainly not the ceiling for this film's domestic run.

At the same time, DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures officially announced that a sequel to Transformers was on the agenda for both companies.

DreamWorks also reached out to Helen, apparently to explore the possibility of Matthew returning to voice Megatron. Without hesitation, Helen quoted a twenty-million-dollar fee, and DreamWorks immediately backed off.

Matthew couldn't care less whether DreamWorks would contact them again.

He headed to Warner Studios to begin the final preparations for Hancock, which was scheduled to begin filming in mid-July.

The film had been in pre-production since the previous year and would have started shooting last month if it weren't for conflicts with his schedule.