"Ding, ding, ding..." Early in the morning, the alarm on his phone woke Charles Capet from a deep sleep.
He reached for his phone, turned off the alarm, and Kate Beckinsale, still groggy, shifted in his arms and continued to hug Charles.
"Sleep a little longer. It was quite late last night," Charles said softly, patting the Lady.
It was an hour later before Charles really had to go to the company that he got up.
He also made two breakfasts, ate one himself, and left the other for Kate Beckinsale to eat after she woke up.
For the creative idea behind wedding crashers, Charles brought in screenwriters Steve Faber and Bob Fisher to write the movie script.
"A love story about two unconventional playboys, with hilarious comedic elements and a romantic ending where they find true love!"
Charles provided the general framework; the specific plot details of the script were up to the screenwriters to develop.
Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, of course, accepted Charles's commission, as adapting scripts is the main job of screenwriters.
Otherwise, how would the tens of thousands of screenwriters on the West Coast and East Coast survive, if not by writing original scripts or novels?
The time spent on a project from concept to script is very long; sometimes a script goes through dozens of revisions by several screenwriters before it meets the producer's or director's vision.
In December, Charles Capet traveled to New York to assist Focus Features in promoting and distributing lost in translation.
Since 9/11, New York's economy had been sluggish, facing pressure from a collapsing economy and public finances, and New Yorkers felt a severe lack of confidence in the future.
This year, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P., who was sworn in as mayor of new york city, launched a package of economic recovery plans.
In terms of entertainment, he also offered large tax rebates to develop New York's film and television industry. New York was already the entertainment capital second only to Los Angeles.
However, Los Angeles focused on commercial films, while New York was the mecca for independent art-house films; Focus Features' distribution headquarters was also located in New York.
New York, Manhattan, in a suite at the Rosewood Carlyle five-star hotel.
Charles stood by the window, looking down at Central Park. The Rosewood Hotel was located in the Upper East Side, an excellent location.
"Charles, Focus Features will open lost in translation in 223 theaters!" Evelyn said, holding a release schedule.
Charles took it and looked, impressed.
"On the same day, there's the romance film Down With Love and the gangster film gangs of new york. Although the latter stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by the great director Martin Scorsese, it's a gangster film, so it's a different genre from ours. Down With Love should be a strong competitor," Charles pouted, not even counting the lord of the rings: The Two Towers, which opened two or three days earlier, and Catch Me If You Can, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by the great director Spielberg, which opened a week later.
Another movie Charles knew about, Chicago, was also competing with Catch Me If You Can.
"Down With Love is a formidable enemy, as its two main actors are the well-established Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant," Evelyn analyzed, frowning.
"Both of them are very suitable male and female actors for romance films, and Warner Bros. won't be stingy with their publicity!"
"A formidable enemy? Their movie has a budget of 60 million dollars, and ours? 4 million dollars, one-fifteenth of theirs. In their eyes, we're probably just cannon fodder," Charles said helplessly. There was no need to guess; Down With Love would open in no less than 2,000 theaters.
"Focus Features now also has some interviews or talk shows for the main creators to get exposure, but the publicity effort is just so-so. They won't invest too much in TV commercials and newspapers either," Evelyn was very concerned about this movie. Not to mention that the director and lead actress were her clients, the fact that it was her son's film company's first production meant she couldn't be careless in the slightest.
"I've prepared one million dollars. After lost in translation is released, I plan to invest it in promotion once the word-of-mouth for the second week comes out. I hope it helps!" Charles added.
"Capet Pictures shouldn't have much funding left, right?"
"There's still over 2 million dollars left," he originally had 3 million dollars, but Charles bought a ferrari 360 himself, then had screenwriters adapt the wedding crashers script, plus other expenses.
"Next year, I plan to develop at least two films, so the box office for lost in translation is very important," wedding crashers and brokeback mountain needed to be developed, and if he came across other good scripts, he might have more ideas.
As Christmas approached, lost in translation opened in over 200 theaters. Compared to Down With Love, which opened in 2,800 theaters, there was basically no comparison.
Down With Love's opening weekend gross of 14.5 million dollars made it the runner-up in weekly box office; gangs of new york opened with 9.1 million dollars.
lost in translation opened with 3.1 million dollars in North America.
In its second week, the number of theaters increased to 480, and the weekly box office was 3.5 million dollars.
There was also the Christmas holiday in between, and by the New Year, lost in translation's box office reached 8.1 million dollars in North America!
"In lost in translation, Coppola and her actors set up romance and comedy in an unexpected way, which is truly just right! This is the chicago sun-times' review," In Los Angeles, in Charles Capet's Santa Monica home, Charles Capet was holding Scarlett Johansson and reading the newspaper.
Focus Features had previously invested 2 million dollars in promotion and now added another 2 million dollars or so.
And Charles Capet himself, through Capet Pictures, also invested 1 million dollars in promotion.
"Are we going to attend the Golden Globe Awards at the end of the month?" Scarlett asked.
Charles lowered his head, kissed the Lady, and then laughed, "Of course we are. Afterwards, we'll also go to London for the BAFTA Awards, and so on; lost in translation is very popular with some filmmakers."
"Will it get Oscar nominations?"
"No big problem. The film's quality is very high; the Oscar judges won't miss it," Charles also didn't have the funds to lobby for the Oscar.
After the New Year, the number of theaters for lost in translation also increased to 850, and the weekly box office increased to 4.5 million dollars.
With good word-of-mouth and box office, for an art-house film with a production budget of only 4 million dollars, achieving 14.5 million dollars in North America after about 20 days of release was definitely a success.
At this point, the film's international distribution began to attract the attention of many film companies.