Chapter 214: Breaking Records

On its tenth day of release, Wedding Crashers matched the overseas box office performance of The Notebook, reaching $291 million.

At the same time, the North American box office surpassed The Notebook's $210 million, reaching an astounding $240 million.

The total global box office has accumulated to $531 million.

The $200 million acquisition cost and $30 million in publicity expenses were not only easily recouped, but also turned a profit of tens of millions of dollars.

This made Alan Horn overjoyed.

At the same time, Alan Horn admired Wayne's vision and his own decisiveness even more.

Wayne's fame also took another leap forward, especially as an actor. He could almost be said to be at the pinnacle of Hollywood.

Now, apart from Schwarzenegger and DiCaprio, no one could compare with him.

Not even Tom Cruise or Will Smith.

Next, although the box office growth of Wedding Crashers slowed down, it still didn't stop.

By the time Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released on November 4th, the North American box office had reached $320 million, and the overseas box office had reached $408 million. The total box office once again exceeded $700 million.

As a result, Wayne not only set a record for a single year's cumulative box office of over $2.4 billion for films he starred in, but also created a record for starring in two films with a box office of over $700 million in a single year.

Even though the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone caused the box office of Wedding Crashers to shrink significantly, it still couldn't shake Wayne's fame and status.

At the same time, because people's suppressed emotions had already been vented, and other distribution companies realized that the impact of the major events had passed, they纷纷 scheduled the release of films that were originally postponed.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone did not have the first-mover advantage it had in the previous life, and its first-day box office was only about half of what it was before.

Time flew by to November 15th.

Wedding Crashers finally ended its run with an astonishing $368 million in North America, $455 million overseas, and a global total of $823 million.

This not only made it Wayne's first film to gross over $800 million, but also the first comedy film in global film history to gross over $800 million.

The IMDB rating also reached 7.5, a full 0.5 points higher than in the previous life.

In contrast, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which had been released for ten days, only achieved $160 million in North America and $304 million overseas.

The IMDB rating was also 0.1 points lower than in the previous life, at 7.5, the same as Wedding Crashers.

Based on this box office trend, it was clearly impossible for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to achieve the $970 million global box office it had in the previous life. The final box office was estimated to barely exceed $700 million.

Wayne didn't feel it was a pity; on the contrary, he was very satisfied.

After all, in this way, he had saved Alan Horn's life in a roundabout way.

If Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had achieved a global box office of $970 million as it did in the previous life, not only would Alan Horn, who advocated selling the rights to the Harry Potter series to Wayne, be dismissed, but Universal would also have a high probability of breaching the contract and taking back the rights.

But now...

Although a $700 million box office was good, it was nothing compared to the $823 million box office of Wedding Crashers.

Even if Universal regretted it, it was unlikely to offend Wayne for this.

On November 24th, Wanted finally completed filming after nearly three months and entered post-production.

However, Wayne didn't get much rest. After less than a week, he joined the crew of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, which had already been in production for nearly half a month.

That's right, since there was no shortage of funds and no need to wait for technological upgrades in special effects, he naturally planned to film the remaining two films together to save time.

In addition to The Bourne series, he would immediately start filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring him and Charlize Theron. He estimated that he would have to keep filming until May next year before he could take a good vacation.

In addition, films such as The King's Speech, Hulk, Fantastic Four, The Blind Pianist, and 17 Again had also started shooting according to plan.

Shooting six films at the same time, four of which were big-budget productions with over $100 million investments, this scale and capability made all of Hollywood pay attention.

Even though Hestia Pictures had no overseas distribution channels and even its North American distribution channels were just for show, it was still considered by many to be the eighth major studio after the Big Seven.

The fact that its rise was unimaginably smooth and did not suffer any suppression from the Big Seven made DreamWorks, which had been suppressed by the Big Seven for many years, envious.

For example, Ocean's Eleven, produced and distributed by Warner Bros., which was originally scheduled to be released on December 5th, was proactively moved forward by a week because Wayne had to join the crew of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Just so Wayne wouldn't refuse to attend their premiere and premiere party that night.

A major production with a budget of nearly $100 million, backed by a giant like Warner Bros., actually adjusted its release date to accommodate a supporting actor in the film. Who had ever seen this before?

When the news came out, countless people were shocked!

Wayne's super popularity did bring a great boost to the box office of Ocean's Eleven. The first day's box office in North America alone reached $26.64 million, almost surpassing Resident Evil 1.

It should be noted that the box office of Resident Evil 1 exceeded $600 million!

Warner Bros.' original box office expectation for Ocean's Eleven was only $400 million.

This eliminated the last bit of negative impact from giving away the Harry Potter series. After all, Warner Bros. had the right of first refusal after Hestia Pictures made the films.

Although the purchase would definitely cost more than their own production, it might not be impossible to earn more with a guaranteed profit.

"Although it's a pity, we can't offend Mr. Wayne because of this!"

Finally, Time Warner, behind Warner Bros., made a decision on this matter, which made the other six giants who were secretly watching this matter feel very complicated.

As the person involved, Wayne had already anticipated this result, so he always behaved calmly.

Every day, besides filming, he would go shopping and play poker with Jessica, Hannah, Nicole Kidman, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

That's right, in addition to Nicole Kidman, who would continue to play the CIA officer in the second and third films, Wayne also specifically invited Catherine Zeta-Jones to play a supporting role as a female liaison.

Even though old Michael knew what would happen when Catherine went, he couldn't stop it at all. Otherwise, if Catherine directly filed for divorce, he might lose even more face.