Universal Pictures, ambitious as ever, wanted to capitalize on the success of "The Mummy" series by investing heavily in a top-tier production. Their goal was to bring the once-glorious Universal movie monsters back into the audience's spotlight, just like The Mummy, to once again generate substantial profits and returns for Universal Pictures.
Matthew even heard from Sean Daniel that there had been internal discussions at Universal Pictures. If both "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" succeeded, they could bring more monsters back to the big screen, and even cram more monsters into a single film, allowing them to interact.
However, Universal Pictures was very cautious about this suggestion, as the disastrous failure of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" was still fresh in their minds.
But these discussions were then temporarily shelved in Universal Pictures' written plans.
Unlike "Dawn of the Dead," "Van Helsing" only lifted its Rotten Tomatoes score embargo on the day of its official release. By the very next day, the film's Rotten Tomatoes index had completely rotted, with a 24% freshness rating and an average score of 4.3, enough to make one literally spit blood.
In the past, there have been films with terrible Rotten Tomatoes scores that still became box office hits, because there is a clear difference in taste between summer audiences and professional film critics. Rotten Tomatoes' freshness rating is entirely derived from collecting the latter's reviews.
However, behind the Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating, there is also an audience score. Most hit films have an audience score of 85% or even 95% or more.
"Van Helsing" only had 57%.
At the same time, the IMDb audience score also came out, with an average of 6.1, which could only be described as barely acceptable.
"'Van Helsing's' biggest failure is that it resurrected those classic monster images but failed to make them terrifying. Although the visual effects created by the film are very shocking, the story is weak, and the background of the three major demon lords gathering is unclear."
Public opinion and film reviews were overwhelmingly negative.
Of course, for such a big-budget, big-production, and highly-marketed film, audience and professional reviews mostly affect the film's later box office trend, rather than its opening weekend box office.
The quality of the film itself certainly has some impact on the opening week's box office, but comparatively, the promotion, investment, buzz, and star power of a major production have a greater impact on the opening week's box office.
Especially now that both online and offline advance ticket sales have begun in North America, if movie fans are interested in a film, they can book tickets in advance, sometimes as early as half a month or even longer, through channels such as the internet and phone.
What tends to influence bookings are often factors like promotion, investment, buzz, and star power.
If we only consider the opening weekend box office, "Van Helsing," although it did not meet Universal Pictures' expectation of over $60 million, its $51.7 million opening weekend box office is definitely above average.
However, data subsequently released by various prediction agencies generally suggested that "Van Helsing" would start strong and then decline.
Data from CinemaScore, a leading North American film market prediction agency, was particularly unfavorable for "Van Helsing." The in-theater audience score was only "B-", indicating poor audience reception.
In addition, CinemaScore's market prediction indicated that "Van Helsing"'s North American box office would land between $120 million and $130 million.
Across North America, CinemaScore is the most accurate agency for North American box office predictions, with an accuracy rate of over 85% for films of medium scale and above.
Although major studios also hire external survey agencies to conduct market research on films and use this to make market predictions and adjust relevant marketing strategies, CinemaScore, as a relatively neutral survey agency, provides more objective and accurate predictions.
CinemaScore's business model is primarily built on selling prediction data. If prediction data frequently has problems, it will quickly go out of business.
If "Van Helsing"'s North American box office truly lands at over $120 million as predicted by CinemaScore, Universal Pictures might really cry.
And by the weekdays, "Van Helsing"'s box office showed a trend of sharp decline, with Monday's box office plummeting by 70% compared to the previous Sunday!
Even for a zombie film like "Dawn of the Dead," which has a relatively smaller audience, the decline at the time was not this steep. Moreover, "Dawn of the Dead" was an R-rated film, while "Van Helsing" was rated PG-13.
In the subsequent weekdays, "Van Helsing"'s daily output continued to drop by 15% each day.
This clearly aligns very well with CinemaScore's predictions.
Standing by the office window, Helen Herman looked out at the streetscape of Burbank through the glass, took off her black-rimmed glasses and placed them on the windowsill. Her bright face was full of thought.
She even felt a little relieved that she and Matthew ultimately didn't get this male lead role. Otherwise... based on current analyses from all sides, even if "Van Helsing"'s North American and overseas box office were combined, they wouldn't be able to offset its high production costs, as well as the over $70 million in marketing and distribution investments beyond the production costs.
If nothing unexpected happened, lead actor Orlando Bloom and lead actress Kate Beckinsale would face a major career downturn. Orlando Bloom was still alright, having already signed with Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" crew, and with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy as a foundation, he wasn't without a chance to bounce back.
Lead actress Kate Beckinsale would no longer be cast as the female lead in first-tier productions. Her starring role in "Pearl Harbor" didn't meet expectations and received constant bad reviews. Now, with "Van Helsing"'s poor performance, let alone aspiring to be a first-tier star, she would be thanking God if she could maintain her status as a second-tier star.
Director Stephen Sommers would also go dormant for many years and it was uncertain when he would return to mainstream commercial productions.
What if Matthew had also participated in this film? Helen Herman didn't need to think hard to know it would bring a huge blow. When she wanted to compete for this role, "Pirates of the Caribbean" had not yet started casting. In the end, there was some conflict in the filming of the two films. If Matthew had taken "Van Helsing" at that time, he would likely have lost "Pirates of the Caribbean"... What would the consequences be? Without the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean," and then suffering the blow of "Van Helsing," Matthew would basically be finished, and the resources and energy she had invested in him over the years would also be wasted.
Fortunately, luck was on their side, and they didn't fall into the big pit of "Van Helsing," otherwise it would have been truly impossible to climb out.
Helen Herman crossed her arms and thought back carefully. Her and Matthew's luck really seemed to be good. For Hollywood stars, luck is also indispensable.
Every year in Hollywood, major first-tier productions turn from opportunities into huge pits. Even though she was very confident in herself, she also knew that many times, judging the success or failure of a major production was simply too difficult. In addition to vision, ability, market analysis, and keen intuition, sufficient good luck was also needed.
Take the "Van Helsing" project, for example. Its production cost was as high as $160 million, and marketing and distribution investment exceeded $70 million. The director and producer was Stephen Sommers, who had previously directed two highly successful "Mummy" films. The success of "The Mummy" series, "The Lord of the Rings" series, and even "The Scorpion King" in recent years also proved that this type of fantasy-tinged genre has a very high market acceptance.
From every perspective, this was a very reliable project, which is why she fought so hard for it at the time.
A reliable project ultimately failed to meet expectations, and there was still a greater than 95% chance that it would become a Waterloo in the careers of many of the main creators… Helen Herman shook her head slightly, quickly shaking off this feeling of relief. Whether it was her or Matthew, to achieve greater development, they would still need this kind of luck in the future.
However, she would do her best to minimize the impact of luck.
In some respects, the project at Summit Entertainment, now named "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," was somewhat similar to "Van Helsing." Both, from the perspective of investment and key creative personnel, were very reliable projects.
Perhaps because of the poor box office performance of "Van Helsing," Helen Herman was thinking a bit too much.
But she quickly recovered. Hollywood's past history clearly told her that films that looked reliable had a much higher chance of success than projects that looked unreliable from the start.
The office door was knocked from the outside, and then the sound of the door opening echoed.
Helen Herman didn't need to turn around to know that it was Matthew. She picked up her old black-rimmed glasses and put them on her face.
"Hey, Helen!" Matthew said, seeing Helen Herman still standing by the window, "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." Helen Herman turned around, looked at Matthew, and said, "I just think you're very lucky."
Matthew couldn't explain this, nor did he want to, so he simply said, "My luck has always been good, you know that."
He first poured himself a glass of water, then sat on the single sofa in the office.
Helen Herman came over and sat on another sofa nearby, saying, "This isn't just simple luck, is it? I remember you weren't very enthusiastic about competing for 'Van Helsing' at the time."
Having anticipated such a situation, Matthew had prepared his explanation. He said seriously, "You haven't had in-depth contact with Stephen Sommers. I've worked with him on two projects and have some understanding of him. This director is very capable and has many ideas, perhaps too many. I've always felt that if he isn't restrained by an excellent producer and is allowed to do whatever he wants, it might not be a good thing."
Such words didn't need to be overly convincing. He only needed to provide a suitable and legitimate reason, and Helen Herman wouldn't have much to say.
Besides, isn't avoiding falling into a big pit a good thing?
Helen Herman had just asked casually. Hearing Matthew's words, she didn't delve deeper and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Universal Pictures just sent me an email this morning. 'Dawn of the Dead' was pulled from all films across the U.S. last night at midnight."