Chapter 356: The Best Extramarital Affair Movie
[Chapter 356: The Best Extramarital Affair Movie]
By early October, the set for The English Patient was finally ready in Tunisia, North Africa. Link, along with his directing team, flew to Paris before connecting to Tunisia to start filming The English Patient.
The English Patient tells the story of a unique patient in an Allied military hospital during World War II. This patient was saved by a borderless Bedouin herder after a flaming plane crash. Although severely burned and unrecognizable, he couldn't remember who he was. Because he spoke fluent British English, the military staff named him 'The English Patient.'
As battlefield nurse Hana cared for The English Patient, she discovered a nearly charred diary beside him. Through this diary, she slowly uncovered his past. His name was Laszlo Almasy, a Hungarian archaeologist. During an expedition in the Sahara Desert, he met Jeffrey Clifton, a cartographer from the Royal Geographical Society, along with Jeffrey's beautiful wife, Catherine. Laszlo became irresistibly attracted to Catherine's charm and wit, leading to an undeniable infatuation.
However, since Catherine was married, their days together were filled with trials and challenges, which ultimately confirmed their true love. Out of jealousy, Jeffrey attempted to kill Laszlo by crashing a plane into him, but the plane crashed instead, killing Jeffrey and injuring Catherine.
Stranded in the desert with their means of transport destroyed, Laszlo managed to hide Catherine in a cave and hiked out of the desert over three days to get help. Unfortunately, when he returned with an ambulance, Catherine had already died. Grieving deeply, Laszlo flew into the sky with Catherine's body, but the plane, being German, was shot down by Allied forces, turning into a fireball and turning Laszlo into 'The English Patient.'
After recalling these memories, Laszlo chose assisted dying with Hana's help, longing to reunite with Catherine beyond this world.
...
The events in The English Patient set in the Sahara Desert actually occurred in Egypt. Given the real-world tensions between Egypt and the U.S., most Hollywood productions choosing Egypt for their settings often opted for nearby countries like Tunisia and Morocco. For example, George Lucas filmed Star Wars in Tunisia in 1977, and Steven Spielberg shot Raiders of the Lost Ark there in 1981.
Link brought his crew to Tunisia to film, with the set located less than three miles from where Raiders of the Lost Ark was previously filmed. Here, they focused on the scenes where Laszlo met Jeffrey and Catherine and the evolution of their relationship, making up half the film.
...
After spending over a month filming in Tunisia, they completed all scheduled scenes in early November and then moved to Florence, Italy, to film the battlefield hospital portions.
During the shoot, Monica returned to her villa in Florence, where she frequently received visits from Sofia Coppola, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Diane Lane. Although these days were busy for Link, they were also enjoyable.
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While filming, the release of Sense and Sensibility went smoothly, racking up a North American box office of $48.68 million and an overseas box office of $33.57 million, totaling over $80 million after seven weeks.
By late October, Guess Pictures released their tenth movie of the year, Paranormal Activity 2. Produced, written, and edited by Link, the film earned $40.67 million from 3,214 theaters in its opening week, setting a record for the highest box office receipts for the third week of October. It overwhelmed concurrent releases including Disney's thrilling fantasy film Powder, Warner Bros. thriller Copycat, and Woody Allen's art film Mighty Aphrodite.
The success of Paranormal Activity 2 made many industry peers green with envy, bitterly branding Guess Pictures as a money monster. The film had a production budget of $3 million and a marketing expense of $12 million, making its first-week earnings of $40.67 million look promising, with projections estimating a North American box office no less than $100 million, allowing Guess Pictures to profit handsomely off this small project.
...
"Damn it, how did this lousy film make so much money?" Bob Weinstein fumed while staring at the box office reports in the newspaper, anger and frustration written all over his chubby face.
Mighty Aphrodite, backed by Miramax, had a production cost of $15 million. It boasted beautiful actresses and a master filmmaker, with an alluring 'erotic' movie poster believed to be destined for decent box office results. Yet, it only pulled in $75,800 from 148 theaters in its opening week, averaging less than $5,000 per theater and falling far below the break-even point. Faced with potential losses of over $10 million, they found themselves at an impasse: continue to market and risk more losses or pull back from distribution altogether.
In recent years, despite Miramax's successes with Pulp Fiction and involvement in The Butterfly Effect, these two hits earned nearly $100 million combined, while other films faltered with losses, resulting in a drastic profitability decline of 42% compared to 1992.
If conditions continued to worsen, Disney could very likely dismiss them. Bob felt a surge of anger as he watched his brother look distressed. "Harvey, what are we going to do? Are we just going to watch this movie flop while Guess Pictures' films rake in the cash?"
"What's your grand idea?" Harvey Weinstein replied from behind his desk, cigar smoke partially obscuring his stern face.
"We need to ramp up the marketing and get more people to see this film. I refuse to believe Woody Allen's movie shouldn't outperform a lousy sequel from Guess Pictures!" Bob insisted.
"It won't work. Mighty Aphrodite is an art film, and while it's well-made, it appeals to a much smaller audience compared to Paranormal Activity 2; its recognition is miles behind. Plus, Guess Pictures invested over $10 million in marketing for Paranormal Activity 2. We can't compete with that," Harvey countered calmly.
"Damn it! Link! Guess Pictures! Those audiences are hopeless! They'd choose a fake piece of trash like Paranormal Activity 2 over an excellent film like Mighty Aphrodite. Just unacceptable!" Bob vented.
Harvey continued to puff his cigar, his unease mirroring Bob's frustrations.
...
Following the release of Paranormal Activity in 1992, many critics blasted its poor quality, claiming Link had relied on media hype around events like the Murrieta murder case to achieve box office success. Many moviegoers declared they'd never be fooled again and would not watch Paranormal Activity 2.
At the time, as the second film was set to release, he and the heads of the major studios hadn't taken it seriously and even had a few high-quality movies slated for the same time frame to steal its thunder and drag down its box office performance before ridiculing Link through the media. However, to their astonishment, the so-called lousy sequel, Paranormal Activity 2, raked in over $40 million its opening week, outperforming several summer blockbusters' opening weekends. Not only did those high-quality films fail to suppress this 'bad movie,' but Paranormal Activity 2 also siphoned off their box office.
More critically, Guess Pictures had already released three films this year with a North American box office exceeding $100 million, including Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls with $128 million in March, The Butterfly Effect with $142 million in May, and The Shawshank Redemption in August, currently grossing $96.64 million, expected to surge during the award season, likely reaching $110 million.
If Paranormal Activity 2 also crossed the $100 million mark, Guess Pictures could count at least four films with gross revenues over $100 million, surpassing the tally of major studios' films combined, potentially positioning Guess Pictures as the industry leader once again.
Feeling immense pressure, Harvey realized that if this continued, despite Disney's backing, Miramax could also face bankruptcy, impacting the influence of the major studios in Hollywood and the power of the Jewish businessmen typifying the entertainment industry's control.
Recognizing this urgency, Harvey knew he could no longer remain silent. He needed to alert his fellow Jewish colleagues and emphasize the importance of this battle, framing it as a fight for their very survival and influence in Hollywood.
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