In December, the popularity of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone remained strong. As the Christmas holiday approached, the film's North American box office had reached $303 million.
Although Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone set an opening-week record, its subsequent box office performance was not as resilient as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Nevertheless, this performance was more than enough to satisfy all investors, with projections estimating the film's final North American box office to exceed $400 million.
The film also performed well internationally. As it continued to be released in various countries, the young wizard became a global sensation.
Currently, the film's overseas box office has accumulated $533 million, bringing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's global total to $836 million, ranking it as the second-highest-grossing film of the year.
The most crucial factor, however, was merchandise. The Harry Potter franchise unleashed an astonishing amount of commercial power. By Christmas, North American merchandise sales had reached $220 million.
Overseas sales were also strong, bringing in $112 million in merchandise revenue.
As time passed, merchandise sales were expected to become a more significant portion of the film's overall revenue.
However, no matter how successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone became, this year still belonged to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
After a challenging climb, The Fellowship of the Ring finally surpassed $500 million at the North American box office, reaching a total of $506 million.
Once it crossed the $500 million mark, The Fellowship of the Ring began to decline rapidly, with daily earnings dropping to around $100,000.
Theaters quickly reduced the number of screenings to just over 300, though they kept it in circulation for two main reasons:
First, the film could still generate limited revenue.
Second, keeping it in theaters would help sustain its momentum into the next year, in anticipation of Oscar nominations and the release of The Two Towers.
The international box office was just as impressive. The Fellowship of the Ring had sparked a global moviegoing frenzy.
Although Warner Bros. had not managed to release the film in every single theater in the world, they had ensured it was shown in all possible countries and regions.
This demonstrated the power of major Hollywood studios. In addition to their dominant domestic market, international box office revenue had been steadily increasing, now surpassing North American earnings.
As a result, these major studios not only controlled North American distribution but also maintained extensive global distribution channels, ensuring their films reached every corner of the world.
One particularly interesting event was that The Fellowship of the Ring was screened in Antarctica, brought there by an international scientific expedition.
Although the screening took place on the periphery, at South Georgia Island, and not on the Antarctic continent itself, it was still within the Antarctic region.
With this, The Fellowship of the Ring achieved the remarkable feat of being shown on the final continent. Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania—now, with Antarctica included, it had reached every part of the world.
The official Lord of the Rings website even published photos of Antarctic researchers watching the film together. More than forty researchers from nearby stations, representing multiple countries, attended the screening.
Unfortunately, the harsh winter conditions in the Arctic at this time of year made a screening there impossible. Since it was summer in the Southern Hemisphere, it was winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Otherwise, The Lord of the Rings might have made its way to the Arctic as well.
This kind of unique screening provided excellent publicity, keeping the film in the spotlight and attracting even more audience interest.
Thanks to its exceptional overseas box office performance, The Fellowship of the Ring had now reached a global total of $1.203 billion, making it the second-highest-grossing film in history, behind Titanic.
However, just as its North American momentum had faded, its international appeal was also beginning to wane, making it unlikely to surpass the $1.3 billion mark.
Accompanying this massive box office success was an equally impressive merchandise market.
Compared to ticket sales, merchandise profits were what truly made Hollywood studios envious. Unfortunately for competitors, this franchise was controlled by Disney and Warner Bros.
Some had even inquired with the Tolkien Estate, only to discover that all adaptation rights for The Lord of the Rings, including The Hobbit, were in the hands of Gilbert.
This meant that unless someone managed to wrestle Gilbert away from Disney and Warner Bros., other companies could only look on with envy.
However, if one had no shame, there were always ways to exploit the situation. For example, when Pacific Rim became a hit, a third-rate production company immediately produced Atlantic Rim.
Even though everyone knew Atlantic Rim was a blatant copy of Pacific Rim, there was no solid legal proof, allowing it to make a decent profit by riding on the original's success.
Then there were the adult film parodies made in San Fernando Valley. After a few minutes of a vague and unrelated plot, they would dive straight into their main content.
As a matter of fact, Gilbert had once watched an adult version of The Matrix with Charlize Theron. However, she harshly criticized it, claiming the actresses in the film were nowhere near her level—aside from having slightly larger busts and more exaggerated curves.
Gilbert responded honestly, "Charlize, you have to admit, a lot of men like that."
"Hmph!" Charlize Theron pouted. "And what about you?"
"I like it too," Gilbert admitted unapologetically, before adding, "But I prefer long legs."
"I figured as much," Charlize Theron smirked, placing her long legs on Gilbert's waist and making subtle movements. "Well then, dear director, Trinity needs a workout. Do you?"
Charlize Theron was far more captivating than the actresses on screen. Without hesitation, Gilbert turned off the television and engaged in an entirely different kind of activity with her.
Following the immense success of The Lord of the Rings, particularly with so many stunning women in the film, San Fernando Valley studios were eager to create an adult parody.
However, due to the significant impact that The Matrix's adult parody had on the original film, Disney and Warner Bros. were prepared this time. They specifically dispatched representatives to warn the adult film industry against making unauthorized adaptations.
This kind of matter is only problematic when taken seriously. If major Hollywood studios get serious, San Fernando Valley wouldn't dare to offend them.
Other major Hollywood studios also care about their reputation, and there are unspoken industry rules. If they resorted to making imitations like this, it would be like opening Pandora's box, leading to a bottomless competition.
As for third- and fourth-tier, or even completely unrecognized small production companies, they were countless in number. Many of them would often jump on trends and create knock-offs.
But most of these films were poorly made, so there wasn't much to worry about.
Although they couldn't produce an epic film that closely resembled The Lord of the Rings, there were many different directions to take within this genre.
After The Lord of the Rings achieved massive success, several production companies started preparing their own epic films, hoping to capitalize on the trend.
Hollywood has always had a bad habit: whenever a movie becomes a hit, similar-themed films quickly get greenlit. Most of these are rushed productions aimed at making quick money, without proper planning or preparation.
In fact, this is true across the global film industry. For instance, after The Wandering Earth became a box office sensation, a film called Shanghai Fortress immediately followed as a copycat.
They claimed that they had started script development in 2013, concept design in 2014, set construction in 2016, and finally released the film in the summer of 2019.
But from what Gilbert had learned, the reality was that Shanghai Fortress was hastily put into production only after The Wandering Earth became a hit.
A large-scale sci-fi film requires thorough planning and preparation, even in Hollywood. Without proper groundwork, a project simply cannot move forward, let alone succeed.
Although the most criticized part of Shanghai Fortress was Lu Han—especially his hairstyle and performance—Gilbert believed that the director wasn't the biggest problem.
The real problem lay with the film's producers.
Sometimes, blindly following trends is not advisable. If one wants to follow a trend, as Zhao Dehan said, "You need to be strong enough yourself."
If one is not strong enough, then they shouldn't touch projects they aren't prepared for.
There is a difference between trend-following and plagiarism. Technically speaking, both Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings are epic films. Gladiator was released earlier, but no one would claim that The Lord of the Rings plagiarized it.
A similar genre telling a different story—now that the genre is popular, it's natural for other studios to create films in the same category. It wouldn't be fair to call that trend-following in a negative sense.
After all, everyone in the industry does this, and if everyone does it, then no one is wrong...
However, even trend-following isn't that simple. Everyone saw how much funding The Lord of the Rings required and how many resources were mobilized.
Filmmaking isn't as simple as a writer or director having an idea, presenting it to a studio, and immediately jumping into production.
Without thorough and meticulous pre-production planning, not even Gilbert and James Cameron combined could pull off a major production.
As of now, Ridley Scott was interested in making a film about the medieval Crusades, but he wanted to focus on Black Hawk Down first.
Several projects centered around Rome and medieval Europe had already been approved.
Even Christopher Nolan was tempted. During a conversation with Gilbert, he mentioned his interest in making an epic biopic about Napoleon.
However, Nolan never brought it up again, because a scam had surfaced in Hollywood.
The scam had a simple origin: a Frenchman named Robert Court claimed to be a count.
He said that his ancestors had close ties to the Bourbon family and that he intended to collaborate with a major Hollywood studio to bring Napoleon's story to the big screen.
Americans have long wanted to replace Europe as the cultural and artistic center of the Western world, but their history is too short. Meanwhile, Europe has thousands of years of history, dating back to ancient Greece.
This has led to a certain cultural insecurity in America. In front of Europe, they often feel inadequate.
As a result, Hollywood studios, when making historical films, either create fictional stories like The Lord of the Rings or focus on European history.
Napoleon's story was particularly appealing to Hollywood.
So, Robert Court capitalized on this interest and orchestrated an elaborate scam. Several Hollywood producers and studios fell for it.
He even approached Gilbert. If he could con a billionaire director like Gilbert, he would hit the jackpot.
But Robert Court didn't expect Gilbert to be so unceremonious—he had the man thrown out immediately.
Gilbert had a simple reason for kicking him out: Robert Court had a shifty look in his eyes and was leering at Scarlett Johansson at the Melon Manor.
Gilbert was, of course, displeased. So, he had him thrown out.
Luckily, he did. Otherwise, his name would have been on the list of those who got scammed.
....
Hi For access to additional chapters of
Director in Hollywood (20 chpaters)
MV Director (30 chapters)....
Douluo Dalu:Breaking Clan(30 chapters)
Made In Hollywood (50 Chapters)
Pokemon:Bounty Hunter(30 Chapters)
Douluo Dalu: Reincarnated as Yan(30 Chapters)
Join pateron.com/Translaterappu