The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
Last week coincided with thanksgiving, a traditional holiday in the United States, the public enjoyed a small holiday, and the theater also ushered in a wave of new films.
Starting on Wednesday's Thanksgiving Day, the five-day holiday weekend slot featured Disney's animated film Encanto in 3,908 theaters and grossed $40.3 million, topping the box office. However, compared with the "Frozen 2" in the same period of 2019, which grossed $125 million in five days, or the box office of "Dream Quest" in the same period of 2018, it is still obvious that the epidemic is far from over, and the US film industry is far from returning to normal.
Stills from Full House of Magic
After all, this time," "Full House" did not choose the same day in the theater and Disney+ platform simultaneous launch strategy, so there is no family movie model to steal the physical theater box office, can only be said that there are still many American families facing the still very uncertain epidemic recurrence (especially the latest variant of the bad news last week), feel that it is not the right time to take a small audience into the theater.
Although "Full House" presents a fantasy story, it actually continues the multicultural exploration of Disney animation in recent years, using Colombia as the background and full of song and dance elements. The film received 92% of professional critics and 93% of the audience on Rotten Tomatoes. It is not difficult to see that the work itself still maintains the consistent high quality of Disney animated feature films. The film is expected to be released Chinese mainland, and the current schedule is undetermined.
"Full House of Magic" received 92% of professional film critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Another large-scale release of the new film last week was "House of Gucci," which MGM is responsible for releasing. Like Full House, it was released in theaters alone, earning $22 million in five days, ranking third on thanksgiving at the box office after The Incredibles ($35 million).
Poster of "Gucci Family"
"The Gucci Family" is director Ridley Scott's second work this year. At the end of October, Disney's "The Last Duel" grossed so badly ($100 million to produce, $4.75 million in opening box office, and the global box office is currently less than $30 million), so much so that the old director was angry at "those insensitive young audiences" in a radio interview a few days ago. In his view, these post-80s and post-90s audiences, who were born in the world of mobile phones, are completely uninterested in other things, including movies. However, this time, in the face of "Gucci Family", which is also not an IP work, young American audiences seem to show more interest.
In the first five days of the gucci family, 45% of the audience in the 18-35 age group, and young audiences accounted for almost half. I believe that in addition to the dog-blood private life of the owners of the household-known luxury brands, it is also largely stained with the starry Lady Gaga's starlight. Otherwise, such a drama film of nearly three hours may be difficult for young people who are accustomed to watching short videos on mobile phones to obediently pay the bill.
Critics scored just 61 percent of the score for Gucci Family.
Interestingly, compared to the 85% professional critic praise that "The Last Decision" received on Rotten Tomatoes, this time the critics scored only 61% of the passing mark for "Gucci Family". However, Lady Gaga's performance has won many awards and is considered to be a popular candidate for nomination in the following awards season.
During Thanksgiving, along with "Gucci Family" and "Full House of Magic," Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was released at the same time as Sony Pictures. As the first new work in the Resident Evil series in five years, and the first series without the participation of director Paul Anderson and starring Mila Jovovich, the film was released in 2803 theaters for only $8.8 million, which is quite dismal. However, the series of films adapted from this game has always relied more on overseas markets, and the production budget is only $25 million, so it cannot be said to be a loss-making business for the time being.
In addition, with the awards season approaching, literary and artistic works that are expected to compete in the competition have also been released. "Licorice Pizza," by MGM and produced by director Paul Thomas Anderson, was released on 70mm film in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles last week and grossed $335,000. If we talk about the average box office of a single scene, it has surpassed the earlier release of Wes Anderson's "French Special" and become the most impressive literary and artistic film since the epidemic. According to statistics, among the American audiences who watched "Licorice Pizza" in the past five days, more than 70% of the 18-to-34-year-old audiences are really the most popular literary and artistic films among young audiences in recent times. The film is scheduled to be released on a large scale during the Christmas season, and it is very promising to achieve double success at the box office and in the awards competition.
Stills from "Licorice Pizza"
Licorice Pizza is a four-year-old work by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Cooper Hoffman, son of his old partner Philip Seymour Hoffman. Before his death in 2014 due to drug overdose, Hoffman the elder had collaborated with Anderson on many works such as "Unruly Night", "Magnolia", "Philharmonic Disorder", "Casino Crossing" and "Master", and it is no exaggeration to call him Anderson's royal actor. Cooper, 18, is the son of him and theater designer Mimi O'Donnell, and little is known about Cooper's upbringing because of Hoffman's long-key relationship with his private life. In short, "Licorice Pizza" is his first time in film, but his acting skills have been unanimously affirmed by critics, and director Anderson's sincere intention to promote the son of his old friends has also been highly praised by Hollywood filmmakers.
The title of the film, "Licorice Pizza," is actually taken from a well-known chain of record stores in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s, and the film tells the story of a youthful past that took place in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the 1970s. The male protagonist, Gary Valentine, played by Cooper Hoffman, is based on director Anderson's close friend Gary Goetzman.
Originally a child actor, Götzemann later became a filmmaker, working with jonathan Demy in his early years, and in recent years with actor Tom Hanks to form a film company as a producer of films such as Greyhound. In the film, he is still a high school student, and he starts a part-time business selling waterbeds, and thus has connections with celebrities from all walks of life in Southern California.
It is worth mentioning that although "Licorice Pizza" has been almost unanimously affirmed by the American film critics, there are details in the film that have also caused a lot of controversy. The owner of the Japanese restaurant, played by John Michael Higgins, deliberately imitated the Japanese who spoke English when talking to his Japanese wife, which made many people criticize it as racist. However, the director argued in an interview with The New York Times that audiences should not look at the scene that happened in the 1970s with the eyes of 2021, and that when he filmed, he only wanted to be faithful to the historical facts of the time. "My mother-in-law is Japanese, and my father-in-law is white, so I don't rarely see someone speaking English to her in a Japanese accent, and many times I don't even realize it." As for whether the director's explanation will convince critics that in Hollywood, which strives for political correctness in everything, whether such accusations will affect the hopes of "Licorice Pizza" to hit the Oscars, time will tell.
In addition to "Licorice Pizza," "Drive My Car," directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and represented Japan in the Academy Award for Best International Film, "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn," winner of the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear and representing Romania for the Academy Award for Best International Film, and "C'mon," directed by Mike Mills and starring Joaquin Phoenix C'mon) and other films that are expected to make a difference in the awards season are also starting to be released on a small scale.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Liu Wei