On February 4th, the fourth-week box office for saw was released, bringing in $12.5 million in North America, with a total North American gross of $109 million.
It would be taken off screens after one more week.
Overseas, premieres also began in regions like Korea, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia, but still not in China.
After all, R-rated movies like this are difficult to import, and even if they were, they wouldn't sell much.
However, since almost a month had passed since the North American premiere, pirated copies had already circulated, which would definitely affect the box office.
This week's overseas box office reported $44.75 million, bringing the total overseas gross to $99 million.
saw's global cumulative box office reached $100 million, a respectable achievement.
It is estimated that it could earn another $30-40 million globally, bringing the total box office to $500 million, exceeding analysts' predictions of $200 million.
At the Hof Tower Military Base in Nevada, today was a special day.
Around ten in the morning, several vehicles of varying sizes appeared outside the base gate.
The only commonality among these vehicles was the lion's head logo printed on them.
When the MGM convoy appeared, countless weapons were aimed at them from different angles, scaring the staff so much that they didn't dare to breathe.
If a soldier accidentally fired, it could mean the lives of an entire carload of people.
In the passenger seat, Lieutenant Colonel Freeman made a phone call.
A few minutes later, the base gate opened, allowing Eric and his group to enter.
"Follow me!"
After getting out of the car, Lieutenant Colonel Freeman led Eric to meet the base commander, another fierce-looking man named John Adams.
His rank was even higher than Freeman's; although he was a colonel, Freeman privately said that he was about to be promoted to brigadier general.
However, this situation was actually very good because, at a critical point for promotion, the other party wouldn't act recklessly.
After presenting the Department of Defense's approval document, the two sides communicated for a while, and John Adams stated that he would cooperate with the filming.
But when Eric handed his filming plan to the other party, he immediately frowned.
"Director Eric, do you know how outrageous this list you've written is?
Soldiers are not a problem; you can have as many as you need from the base.
Carbines, Brownings, any firearms are at your disposal."
"But 7 V22 Ospreys, no less than 5 Black Hawk attack helicopters, at least 5 low-altitude Pave Low IV helicopters, an M60, M1 Abrams tank battalion."
"Are you kidding me?"
Eric pointed: "There's more on the next page; you'd better read it all at once."
Hearing this, John Adams continued to flip through, then his eyes widened: "A squadron of F22s?
Are you really planning to make a movie?"
Seeing John Adams' reaction, Eric also felt uneasy.
As a military consultant, Lieutenant Colonel Freeman had, of course, seen his filming plan.
When he saw it, he raised an issue: Eric's requested equipment was a bit too extensive.
Even in the United States, few military bases could provide all of it at once.
Especially that squadron of F22s, a full 26 of them; if deployed in Africa, they could bomb all the countries to smithereens.
But Eric also had his own ideas.
While the original transformers was also quite good, it always gave people the feeling that these metal behemoths seemed too weak.
Aside from the base destroyed by blackout at the beginning of the movie, that scene was quite captivating, giving the audience a sense of how formidable the Decepticons were.
But then it went downhill.
The scorpion fired a barrage of shells, burrowing and thrashing around, looking flashy, but its record was zero wins to five losses.
The main villain, Megatron, was even suppressed by a few missiles and repeatedly pushed back by tank fire.
Come on, you're Megatron, the leader of the Cybertron Decepticons.
Just a bit of human weaponry caused him so much trouble.
Where is his dignity?
Not only did he lose his dignity, but where were his energy cannons? Where were his shockwaves? Where were his death rays?
All the alien high-tech weapons were sealed, and the boss's combat power was even worse than his subordinates.
The most powerful Decepticon turned out to be blackout, how embarrassing!
In Eric's opinion, this was transformers' biggest flaw.
There were rumors that Michael Bay had embezzled a lot of money.
Due to his good relationship with the Department of Defense, Michael Bay used Paramount's funds to lobby the Department of Defense, and whatever he saved went into his own pocket.
So, was it better to add more planes and cannons to the movie for better effects, or to make do with less but pocket tens of millions?
This was a choice any normal person would make.
"Colonel Adams, we are filming transformers.
I imagine you watched it when you were a child.
The opponents are aliens; don't you think it's absurd if one or two planes and tanks can defeat them?"
"Moreover, the essence of this movie is a military propaganda film.
MGM and the Department of Defense have already agreed that the film must strive to showcase the power of the U.S. military.
If there's too little equipment, not only will people in other countries not believe it, but even our own citizens won't believe it."
John Adams frowned: "No, other things are fine, but an M1 Abrams tank battalion and an F22 squadron are absolutely impossible.
This is simply preposterous!"
"Colonel Adams, without this equipment, the movie won't achieve the desired effect.
And I'm not deliberately trying to make things difficult for you.
You see, the list also includes an aircraft carrier battle group and AC-130 Spectre gunships, etc.
I know you don't have them, so I'll find another way for those."
John Adams glared at the young man in front of him, thinking, 'You know I don't have them? This is an army base; where would I get an aircraft carrier!?'
"In short, no.
A squadron is too many.
I can send out a maximum of 5 for you."
"Colonel, you're joking.
The Department of Defense has already approved it.
How about this, I'll also make a concession, 22."
"10!"
"20!"
"13!"
"19, no less!"
"A maximum of 15.
This is all the quantity in the base, including those just delivered last month.
If you're not satisfied, I will explain to the Department of Defense and ask you to leave my base!"
Seeing that the other party was about to get angry, Eric quickly shook his hand.
He couldn't provoke the local strongman.
"Deal!"
"Director, we're here!"
As soon as Eric and John Adams reached an agreement, Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hardy, Ben Foster, and Michael Fassbender walked over from a distance.
After a month of training at the base, seeing them again, one could feel an unusual aura from afar.
More precisely, they were more masculine and rugged.
With their stubble and military uniforms, strangers would definitely mistake them for soldiers.
Looking at the changes in the four men, Eric smiled.
"Very good, now you all have the aura of elite soldiers.
How are the training results?"
Ryan Reynolds held an M16 in his hand and, in front of Eric, performed a one-handed magazine change and several tactical movements.
Eric didn't know if they were standard, but they looked quite convincing and would pass on the big screen.
He then looked at the other three; similar movements, similar standards, it seemed they were all very dedicated.
"Very good, then filming will start promptly at 2 PM!"