In North America, the second week of the summer box office, from May 23 to May 29, quickly came to an end with the hot release of Face/Off.
In its opening week, Face/Off grossed an impressive $79.59 million over seven days, not only setting a new record for John Woo's Hollywood debut but also exceeding the expectations of most people inside and outside the industry. Before this, based on its opening day performance, it was widely believed that Face/Off would gross just over $70 million in its first week, slightly lower than the $76.15 million opening week of Mission: Impossible 2, which John Woo directed last summer.
Even though Simon had high expectations for Face/Off, comparable to the Mission: Impossible series—hence the $100 million budget, $10 million more than the original—he was still slightly surprised by its opening week performance.
With an opening week close to $80 million, if the film maintained a steady performance, it could potentially reach $250 million or even $300 million domestically.
Of course, this was mostly wishful thinking.
After all, apart from its creative premise, the film itself was still a relatively traditional action movie, and this was the highly competitive summer season. As long as it reached $200 million domestically, Simon would be satisfied. With domestic and overseas box office combined, Daenerys Entertainment could expect substantial profits.
In any case, with an opening week close to $80 million, the film's performance in its second week became crucial.
On May 30, Face/Off's biggest competitor was Luc Besson's sci-fi blockbuster The Fifth Element. This film, which was originally produced by Sony but this time financed by Vivendi's Disney as its flagship project, had a budget of $100 million, similar to its original $90 million budget. As it was a major project personally approved by Vivendi's new CEO, Jean-Marie Messier, the marketing campaign was equally grand.
After its premiere the day before, reviews for The Fifth Element were released the next day.
With a composite score of 7.0, while far below Face/Off's impressive 9.2, it wasn't a failure for a commercial film.
However, this relatively mediocre score clearly didn't live up to Vivendi's ambitions and, to some extent, foreshadowed the film's box office prospects.
When the box office numbers for May 30 came out, the outcome was essentially decided.
The highly anticipated The Fifth Element, with 3,186 screens, grossed only $6.19 million on its opening day, a clear failure. In comparison, Face/Off's second-week opening day gross was still a strong $11.34 million, almost double that of The Fifth Element.
As June began, the full week from May 30 to June 5 saw the gap widen further.
Due to The Fifth Element's mediocre performance, Face/Off unsurprisingly retained its position as the weekly box office champion. Its second-week drop was a healthy 36%, grossing another $50.93 million. In just two weeks, its cumulative box office easily surpassed $100 million, reaching $130.52 million.
As for The Fifth Element, in its opening week, this $100 million blockbuster grossed only $28.27 million.
This was consistent with Simon's memory of The Fifth Element's North American box office performance.
Before any film is released, its box office performance is hard to predict. However, looking back, there are often many signs that can explain the outcome.
Historically, The Fifth Element wasn't a complete failure. While it underperformed in North America, grossing just over $60 million, it made $200 million overseas. Combined with subsequent home video sales, Sony actually turned a decent profit. However, the biggest regret was its North American box office failure.
As for why North American audiences didn't like the film, it likely came down to cultural differences.
Luc Besson is, after all, a French director. One of his characteristics is that films he produces often perform well, while those he directs have very inconsistent box office results, with many being outright flops. This isn't to say Besson isn't talented, but he tends to inject too many of his own personal touches into his films, and The Fifth Element is a prime example.
First, there's the casting.
Disney had approached many A-list Hollywood stars for the film, but under Simon's subtle influence, most stars close to Daenerys Entertainment declined. As a result, the lead role went to Bruce Willis, who had starred in the original.
In recent years, apart from the increasingly expensive but underperforming Die Hard series, Bruce Willis had fallen to B-list status, and his box office appeal was questionable.
Then there's the female lead.
For a blockbuster like this, the female lead, who had more screen time than the male lead, should have been a top-tier Hollywood actress, or at least someone with significant popularity. However, even though Milla Jovovich, who had been cast in the original, was nowhere to be found due to Simon's influence, Luc Besson, with his considerable creative control, still chose another newcomer based on his personal preferences.
Apart from being attractive and sexy, she had little else to offer, let alone box office appeal.
While blockbusters aren't entirely dependent on their stars, a mediocre blockbuster that audiences could take or leave might have performed very differently with some top-tier stars.
In short, The Fifth Element lacked top Hollywood stars with box office appeal, which was one issue.
Then there's the plot.
This original sci-fi film, which Besson claimed he had been conceptualizing since his youth, had a complete story, but the plot was a mishmash of ideas, lacking the seamless, high-concept execution typical of Hollywood blockbusters.
In fact, both The Fifth Element and its quasi-sequel Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, released two decades later, had similar box office performances in North America and overseas.
This shows that The Fifth Element's North American box office failure wasn't a fluke.
Luc Besson's tendency to inject his personal touches, combined with big budgets and grand visuals, often works well in overseas markets where moviegoers are less demanding than in North America. However, in North America, where audiences have grown accustomed to high-concept blockbusters, getting them to buy tickets isn't so easy.
More broadly, this has become a common trend for many CGI-heavy blockbusters: mediocre performance in North America, but strong overseas sales.
A prime example is Michael Bay's later Transformers films. While Transformers: The Last Knight grossed a mere $130 million in North America, it made $470 million overseas, showing just how easily satisfied audiences outside North America can be.
In any case, The Fifth Element's box office failure left room for Face/Off to continue performing well in its second week.
Then, on June 6, the first full box office week of June began, and Daenerys Entertainment's first CGI-heavy summer blockbuster, Twister, was released. With a budget of $100 million and a record-breaking 3,573 screens, the film had high expectations.
After a grand premiere, Twister's composite score, following Face/Off and The Fifth Element, hit a new low. Despite Daenerys Entertainment's PR efforts, the film's composite score was only 6.3, barely passing.
A review from Variety summed up the general sentiment: "A mechanical and formulaic high-concept film with stereotypical characters and a predictable plot from start to finish."
Things quickly became interesting.
One reason for The Fifth Element's failure was that it was too complex.
Now, Twister's problem was that it was too simple.
Fortunately, the suspense didn't last long. After June 6, the opening day box office numbers came in quickly, with Twister grossing $18.98 million, even more impressive than Face/Off. Clearly, audiences loved this simple popcorn flick.
In its full opening week, Twister grossed $86.31 million, easily claiming the weekly box office crown.
Due to Twister's impact, Face/Off, in its third week, saw a significant drop, with a 47% decline, nearly halving its gross. It earned $26.99 million in its third week, bringing its three-week cumulative total to $157.51 million. While reaching $250 million seemed unlikely, surpassing $200 million domestically was almost certain.
With a production budget of $100 million and $50 million in marketing costs, a $200 million domestic gross, combined with Daenerys Entertainment's strong 60% share of box office revenue, would cover most of the production costs. Overseas earnings would bring substantial profits, not to mention home video sales.
As for The Fifth Element, its $28.27 million opening week was already low, and in its second week, crushed by Twister, it saw a 41% drop, grossing only $16.69 million. Its two-week cumulative total was $44.96 million, with its final domestic gross expected to be similar to the original.
Vivendi's new CEO had ambitiously declared his entry into Hollywood last year, but his first highly anticipated blockbuster project ended in disappointment. Not only did North American media mock the film, but even French journalists were sarcastic, leaving Jean-Marie Messier in an awkward position.
The North American summer box office continued.
In the golden June season, after Twister, three new films were released on June 13, two of which were $50 million-plus blockbusters. Unfortunately, neither posed a threat to Twister.
From June 13 to June 19, Twister's second week, the film's drop was surprisingly low at just 26%, grossing $63.86 million. For a typical popcorn flick with a saturated release strategy, a mere 26% drop in the second week was almost unheard of.
Thus, in just two weeks, Twister's cumulative box office reached $150.17 million, equivalent to Face/Off's three-week total.
With this performance, Twister was well on its way to becoming the first film of 1997 to surpass $300 million domestically.
Then, on June 20, American Pie, produced by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures, was released.
This film, which had been a sleeper hit in its original timeline, didn't disappoint this time either. With a modest production budget of $10 million and a marketing budget of the same amount, totaling $20 million, the film quickly gained word-of-mouth popularity. Opening on 2,773 screens, it grossed $34.61 million in its first week.
Under the tiered revenue-sharing model, this meant the film had already recouped its costs and started turning a profit.
However, American Pie didn't claim the weekly box office crown, as Twister remained dominant. In its third week, Twister saw a slightly larger drop of 35%, but still grossed an impressive $41.50 million, bringing its three-week cumulative total to $191.67 million, on the verge of surpassing $200 million.
Additionally, after a 43% drop in its fourth week, grossing $15.39 million, Face/Off saw a narrower 28% drop in its fifth week (June 20 to June 26), earning $11.86 million. Its five-week cumulative total was $183.99 million, just $16.01 million shy of the $200 million mark, which it was almost certain to surpass.
As June drew to a close, more and more people noticed that since Face/Off's release on May 23, Daenerys Entertainment had dominated the box office for five consecutive weeks. Moreover, the three films Daenerys Entertainment had released—Face/Off, Twister, and the latest American Pie—even if they didn't claim the weekly box office crown, consistently ranked in the top five.
Furthermore, some media outlets noted that compared to previous years, other studios' films this summer were noticeably fewer, and even though new films were released every week, they were mostly mediocre and failed to make a splash. This clearly reflected a trend: under Daenerys Entertainment's continuous pressure, other Hollywood studios were quietly reducing their film output.
As for Daenerys Entertainment's three new films, Face/Off was on track to reach $200 million, Twister was close to $300 million, and American Pie was likely to surpass $100 million. Together, these three films were expected to gross $600 million domestically. With the industry projecting North America's total annual box office for 1997 to be between $6.5 billion and $7 billion, these three films alone would account for nearly 10% of the market share.
The momentum was unstoppable.
And this was only halfway through the summer season.
While the North American summer box office was in full swing, across the Pacific in China, a singing competition show called Super Girl, launched by Jiangsu TV on June 7, was beginning to attract increasing attention.
The first season of Super Girl began on June 7, with Jiangsu TV airing audition clips throughout the weekend. Daytime slots featured regular audition footage, while evenings showcased two-hour highlight reels with judges' commentary.
While China's viewership statistics were still relatively crude at the time, in Jiangsu alone, the two evening highlight reels during the first weekend achieved 41% and 56% viewership shares, respectively, quickly overshadowing all other local and county-level TV stations and making a strong debut.
Over the next two weekends, Super Girl's ratings continued to climb, and as Jiangsu TV was already a satellite channel, the show began to attract nationwide attention.
By the episodes airing on June 21 and June 22, the show's viewership share in Jiangsu had soared to 76%, gradually becoming a hot topic in households across the country.
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