Just some movies

The competition during the summer season was intense, and our "Saw II" had no discernible advantage whatsoever.

In the CEO's office of Firefly Films, Joseph  Benjamin, the head of the administrative department, chuckled, "So, Paramount suggests we wait until the end of summer, either by late June or mid-July, or perhaps even later."

Lyman glanced at some data from the theater chains and remained mostly silent.

For the North American market, the importance of the summer season went without saying.

Especially since Hollywood's Big Six wouldn't miss out on this battle.

In the first week of May, Universal released "Van Helsing".

In the second week of May, "Troy" came on strong; in the third week of May, DreamWorks brought us "Shrek 2", and in the fourth week of May, 20th Century Fox's major production, featuring Eva, "The Day After Tomorrow", was set to hit the screens...

Just looking at this list, one could see how fierce the competition was.

Even though the performance of the previous installment of "Saw" had some assurance, Paramount still hesitated to take risks.

In terms of budget, the least expensive among these films was "The Day After Tomorrow", but its production cost still stood at a whopping $130M, while the highest budget belonged to "Troy" with a staggering $180M.

As for marketing, the Big Six were going all out.

The newspapers were filled with news about these new movies.

"Van Helsing" received lackluster reviews, but they promoted Hugh Jackman's dedication to the role tirelessly, or they stirred up rumors about the affairs of the lead actors.

In this day and age, one couldn't expect production companies to have much integrity.

They had invested so much money; they couldn't afford to fail.

Poor Hugh was being heavily consumed.

Who could blame him? "Van Helsing" was genuinely poorly made. Universal's monster mash-up series had already started off as a failure.

Hugh's market reputation, built on "X-Men", was being rapidly eroded.

Kate Beckinsale was also having a streak of bad luck.

The role she had been eagerly pursuing in "The Island" had ultimately gone to Scarlett Johansson, who had earned acclaim for her role in "Lost in Translation".

Then came "Van Helsing", and as soon as it premiered, it garnered a slew of negative reviews. It was truly unfortunate, and it made one wonder if her agent had a terrible knack for choosing projects, as she consistently ended up in the worst-performing films of the year. "Pearl Harbor" wasn't even worth mentioning, and although she had a small resurgence thanks to "Miscreant", now she had "Van Helsing" on her hands.

Sigh, her acting career was probably headed for another downturn. That's Hollywood for you, driven solely by the market.

And as for the competitors of this film, they seized the opportunity to kick it while it was down, constantly hyping up just how much "Van Helsing" was failing.

But even so, some smaller budget films released during the same period couldn't escape the slaughter.

In the opening week, the box office earnings amounted to a mere $31.26M.

However, audience reviews were also poor.

Starting from the second week, the box office market kept declining, and even though Hugh and the production team vigorously promoted the film and made appearances on various shows, they couldn't salvage the plummeting reputation.

Following closely behind was Warner Bros., with their highly promoted epic, "Troy".

They were pleased to witness such scenes, where they effortlessly took advantage of Universal's decline to vigorously promote their own new film. Both openly and subtly, they continued to undermine their competitors.

Brad Pitt, the star of "Troy", even went on a talk show and openly criticized the dismal performance of "Van Helsing".

Oh, by the way, Brad was not only the star but also had a stake in "Troy".

Regardless of Brad's personal character, he had successfully cultivated an image as a "charming leading man" over the years, attracting quite a few devoted fans.

Furthermore, he released this news during the release period of his competitors' films, and one could easily deduce that it was Warner Bros.'s idea.

In movie promotion, sometimes, criticizing your opponent is just as effective as promoting yourself. Though, to be fair, "Van Helsing" was indeed an easy target for criticism.

Brad was quite relentless in his promotion.

At this point, A-list celebrities were generally quite cooperative when it came to film promotion.

To create buzz, they would do just about anything—fake marriages, scandalous rumors, high-profile sob stories, on-set injuries, unwavering dedication—anything could be turned into a headline.

Warner Bros. was particularly skilled in this regard.

"Troy" hadn't even been released yet, but news had already surfaced that several of the lead actors had suffered heatstroke during filming. Brad, in particular, had fallen off a horse and sustained multiple fractures but insisted on not using a stunt double.

Whether this was an exaggeration was up for debate, but not using a stunt double and persisting with practical filming—was that a serious commitment?

If it was, then Brad was indeed dedicated.

In this regard, Brad might not have Tom Cruise's level of dedication, but in general, he approached his work with a good attitude.

On the other hand, his personal life had always been a subject of criticism. Of course, if he didn't mind it himself, who were others to judge?

Comparatively, in the battle between Warner Bros. and Universal, along with a slew of other movie companies fanning the flames, Paramount, as a distribution giant with numerous resources at its disposal, seemed powerless. During this period, there were no big productions they could offer.

For a heavyweight like Paramount, it was unusual not to participate in the summer season, a prime market opportunity. However, their recent production capabilities had been questionable.

While they had tried to woo DreamWorks, the conditions were favorable, but DreamWorks refused to let go and wanted to make a final push to see if they could regain their momentum.

In simple terms, Spielberg wasn't willing to let his hard work be acquired by another film company.

Though Paramount was eager to bolster its own production department, DreamWorks' big three, as long as Spielberg didn't give the final nod, wouldn't let Paramount take control of their film production business.

Sherry Lansing had no choice but to continue negotiations while waiting for the situation within DreamWorks to deteriorate on its own.

As for Lyman, he agreed with Paramount's distribution strategy and had no intention of using "Saw II" as cannon fodder in the highly competitive summer season.

After some discussion, they decided to release it at the end of October, targeting the Halloween season.

It was a tradition for North American audiences to watch horror and thriller films during Halloween, making it a perfect fit for "Saw II".

After completing the post-production of "Saw II", James joined the crew of "Train to New Yorker" as an assistant director and art director.

With too much free time on his hands, he wanted to observe how a seasoned industry bee like Zack Snyder made films and learn from the experience.

After finishing his work on "Saw II", he had made it clear that he wouldn't direct the next sequel.

It was understandable; directing sequels repeatedly could be quite dull for a director, and there wasn't much room for improvement.

Lyman respected his choice.