The North American film market last weekend was wrapping up this year’s summer season. Even so, there are still several new movies chosen to be released at this time, but they have not been able to shake the three old movies of " Deadpool and Wolverine ", Aliens: Death Ship and " Love, That End" The film has a monopoly on the top three positions in the box office list. Especially "Deadpool and Wolverine", after a week, regained the championship.
"Blink Twice" reflects the changes in American social atmosphere
In terms of new films, Zoe Kravitz, the star of "New Batman", was promoted to director for the first time. She directed the psychological thriller "Blink Twice" ) was released in 3,067 theaters in North America, earning an opening box office of US$7.3 million, ranking fourth on the box office list. Starring Channing Tatum, the film tells the story of several protagonists who encounter bizarre events while vacationing on a private island in the Caribbean.
Blink for Help poster
Blink for Help was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which is now owned by Amazon. The production cost of the film is believed to be only US$20 million, and it seems that profitability should not be a problem at present. Interestingly, the original title of the film was quite sensitive. It was a script written by director Zoe Kravitz, and it's called "pussy island" in English. However, by the time the film officially entered the promotion period in January this year, the title had been changed to the current "Blink for Help".
In this regard, Kravitz explained that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), which is responsible for American film classification, does not want the word pussy to appear on movie posters, billboards or anywhere else, and mainstream theaters in the United States do not want the word to appear either. On movie tickets. Moreover, she also found that the vast majority of American women still hold an aversion to the word at this stage and would involuntarily boycott such movie titles. Therefore, due to commercial considerations, she had to change the original title. She could only hope that women in the future would gradually accept this word and no longer feel that it involves some shameful connotation.
The word pussy in English originally meant furry, and was then used to refer to cats, and then to refer to women and female sexual organs. In the past hundreds of years, it was regarded as a dirty word and a sensitive word. However, in recent years, with the rise of a new round of feminist movements in the West, many people hope to change the long-standing negative connotation of the term. In particular, on the eve of the 2016 U.S. election, one of the candidates, Trump, made indecent comments in 2005 that were exposed: He claimed that he was so charming that women were willing to let him have his hands on him and obediently give him their pussy. . This incident aroused the disgust of a large number of American women. Some people quickly launched a related movement, knitting pink cat-ear warm hats, borrowing the polynomial meaning of the word pussy, hoping to reverse the definition of the word as a dirty word.
This time, Zoe Kravitz’s relevant statement is obviously in line with the feminist movement that emerged eight years ago. Unexpectedly, after eight years, it has come to a critical period for Trump to run for President of the United States. However, compared to the time when the pussy hat movement could make waves online and offline, eight years later, pussy island would be forced to change its name to "SOS Blink". "Blink" may also be able to catch a glimpse of the leopard, showing that the American social atmosphere has become increasingly conservative in the past few years.
Stills of "Blink for Help"
In the same way, when "Blink for Help" was released this time, it was clearly rated as restricted, indicating that the plot contained violence and sexual content, and also contained a lot of swear words. However, the distributor, Amazon MGM Pictures, issued a warning text on social media to remind viewers that the sexual violence content in the film may make viewers feel uneasy or irritated, so they also noted the telephone hotlines of several public welfare organizations. , making it easier for affected viewers to find help.
According to US media reports, it has been rare for film companies to issue such special warnings before a film is released. Although there has been a growing trend in recent years, it is concentrated in the field of TV series, such as "Reindeer Baby" and "The Art of Cutting". " and "Better Call Saul" and other series titles. Now that it has been extended to even movies, it is quite sudden.Of course, everyone can have their own interpretation of whether this is because American audiences are becoming more sensitive and conservative, Hollywood is becoming more considerate and gentle, or it is becoming timid and fearful of complaints.
For the first time in three months, the North American weekend box office has not exceeded 100 million.
Another new film is "The Crow" from Lionsgate Pictures, which ranks eighth on the box office list. The film is claimed to be a reboot, just like the old version starring Bruce Lee's son Li Guohao in 1994, it is adapted from the comic book of the same name. The protagonist Crow, played by Bill Skarsgård, was a musician who was murdered and then miraculously resurrected, embarking on a journey of revenge. The film was also classified as restricted, with a production cost of about US$50 million. After being released in 2,752 theaters, it only earned US$4.6 million at the box office. However, Lionsgate purchased its North American distribution rights for about US$10 million, so even if it loses money, it has little to do with them.
"The Crow" stills
Ranking fifth on the box office list is "The Forge" released by Sony Pictures. The film was released in 1,818 theaters in North America, making it the smallest of the three new films. However, with an average opening box office of US$6.6 million, the audience's enthusiasm was actually higher than that of "The Crow" and "Blink." The reason is that the film is actually a derivative work of the 2015 movie "House of War". The creators have not changed, the distributor has not changed, and the theme of the story has not changed. It is still a religious-themed work that promotes the gospel.
Nine years ago, "War House" unexpectedly succeeded, earning US$67.8 million at the North American box office, becoming the seventh highest-grossing gospel-themed work in American film history, but its production cost was only US$3 million. The production cost of "The Cradle" this time was only US$5 million, but there is a type of believers in North America who love to watch religious gospel movies and are very happy to pay for such themes.
Overall, the box office performance of the three new films is not ideal, with a combined total of less than 20 million US dollars, accounting for about 20% of the total box office in North America this weekend. In other words, this weekend's total North American box office is 92 million US dollars. It is also the first time in the past three months that it has failed to exceed 100 million US dollars, indicating that the summer vacation is about to pass.
According to a rough estimate, the total box office in North America in August may be equal to the same period in 2023. If this is the case, it will be the first time since March this year that the box office has been the same as the same period. This has also narrowed the year-on-year box office decline so far to 14%, which is the smallest decline since 2024. It also allows The North American box office is expected to reach US$8 billion in 2024.