Over the first seven days, Lethal Weapon 3's opening box office ultimately came in at 42.94 million dollars, slightly below the expected 45 million.
Being more of an action comedy, Lethal Weapon 3 had a production budget of only 35 million dollars.
A 42.94 million dollar opening was a clear hit relative to its cost.
However, because Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, director Richard Donner, and several other key creatives had signed profit-sharing contracts that took more than half of the film's net profits, Warner Bros.' expected returns on this sequel project were actually lower than those of the main creators.
Considering that both costs and risks would increase for any further sequels, whether Lethal Weapon 4 would still be made would ultimately depend on the negotiations between Warner Bros. and Mel Gibson and the other leads over profit distribution.
In Simon's memory, Lethal Weapon 4 was not released until 1998 largely for these reasons. Moreover, because so much time had passed, the film's production budget reached 140 million dollars while its North American box office failed to even cover costs.
Sometimes, Hollywood's trilogy curse was not necessarily a bad thing for either studios or the film's creators.
On May 22, the second week of the summer season, Disney released the black comedy Sister Act starring Whoopi Goldberg. The film had a budget of 31 million dollars but opened on only 1,430 screens.
An opening of 1,430 screens would have been considered big-budget several years ago. In 1992, however, it signaled a lack of confidence in the film's box office prospects.
Disney had several films planned for this summer season. Not to mention the sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids titled Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and the 2D animated film Aladdin. Even the classic 2D animated film Pinocchio, scheduled for re-release in mid-July, was expected to open on over 1,600 screens, more than Sister Act.
In addition to Sister Act, another film released the same day was Damage, distributed by New World Pictures under Daenerys Entertainment.
Damage was directed by the renowned French director Louis Malle and starred Oscar winner Jeremy Irons and famous French actress Juliette Binoche. It told the story of an illicit romance between a British politician and his son's girlfriend.
In its promotion, New World Pictures positioned Damage as a version of the hit film Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas from a few years earlier.
Of course, compared to the thriller and suspense of Fatal Attraction, Damage's actual selling point could be summed up in one word: sex.
Under the careful operation of the New World Pictures distribution team, mainstream newspapers and magazines offered serious plot analyses and breakdowns of Damage. Meanwhile, on more gossipy media platforms like The New York Times, the "conflict" between Damage and the MPAA over its rating created quite a stir.
Because of several explicit love scenes in Damage, the MPAA had initially rated the film NC-17. After some back-and-forth disputes and certain concessions from New World Pictures, the film finally "barely" received an R rating.
This rating conflict was of course deliberately orchestrated by the New World Pictures team.
Hollywood studios had countless rating disputes with the MPAA every year. Daenerys Entertainment was no exception, though most were resolved relatively quietly.
Therefore, occasionally making a big public fuss in the media produced very good results.
The film opened on 516 screens and earned 5.39 million dollars in its first seven days, with a per-screen average that broke the ten-thousand-dollar blockbuster threshold.
Considering that French-directed films ultimately had a limited audience in the North American market, and given the intense competition of the summer season, they also wanted to create a hunger marketing effect. Although the opening was solid, New World Pictures had no plans to expand the number of screens in the second week.
However, the 5.39 million dollar opening roughly guaranteed that Damage would earn at least 15 million dollars at the North American box office.
Although it was a work by Louis Malle, director of famous films like Atlantic City and Pretty Baby, Damage had only average box office performance during its earlier European release due to mediocre reviews. New World Pictures had bought out the full North American rights to all channels for just 2 million dollars, with another 2 million invested in marketing and distribution.
This was actually a gamble.
Louis Malle had never been a box office director.
The New World Pictures distribution team had initially predicted that the film might only earn 5 million dollars in North America.
With a total investment of 4 million dollars, if it only earned 5 million at the box office, the project would have to rely on later videotape and other channels to recoup costs.
The several European production companies behind Damage had probably foreseen this possibility as well, which was why they were willing to sell the North American rights outright for immediate payment.
Similarly, precisely because it was a buyout, Damage was able to secure a decent summer slot. Otherwise, if it had been a revenue-sharing release, the film would only have received cold period slots like January-February or September-October.
The expected 15 million dollar North American box office was enough for New World Entertainment to recover all initial investment and turn a profit.
Previously, many people in Hollywood could not understand why Daenerys Entertainment, which already possessed the DC Cinematic Universe and a large number of other major hit IPs, would still venture into low-budget independent films and art house movies.
Now, with the passage of time and Daenerys Entertainment's continued success in this area, other studios gradually realized that while a niche film earning 10 to 20 million dollars in North America might generate less than half of Lethal Weapon 3's opening weekend, if there were more than ten similar films in a year, combined with the advantage of low costs, the overall returns were very substantial.
For Daenerys Entertainment, starting from early-year films like Reservoir Dogs, Strictly Ballroom, and Twin Dragons, and including the newly released Damage, the two subsidiary labels under Daenerys Entertainment, New World Pictures and HighGate Pictures, had already released a total of 9 low-budget niche projects that exceeded 10 million dollars at the box office.
Even if each film only generated 2 to 3 million dollars in net box office profit, over the course of a year, including revenues from videotape and television broadcast channels, they could easily contribute more than 100 million dollars in net profit to Daenerys Entertainment.
And this was limited only to low-budget niche projects.
Every year, HighGate Pictures and New World Pictures also had major titles such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Encino Man, and The Piano.
When everything was added up, the two subsidiary labels could easily bring Daenerys Entertainment profits of 200 to 300 million dollars or more. For many of the other major Hollywood studios, in an average year, their annual net profits were often only around 200 to 300 million dollars.
However, even as they increasingly understood this, it was not easy for other studios to catch up with the already systematic Daenerys Entertainment in the low-budget independent film sector. It was similar to how, in the original timeline, other studios found it difficult to surpass New Line and Miramax in their specialized fields.
Moreover, New World Pictures and HighGate Pictures were already subsidiaries under Daenerys Entertainment this time, so there was no possibility of them being acquired by other studios.
Even though Damage's first-week box office numbers were very good relative to its cost, the film's position on that week's box office chart was not particularly prominent.
During the week of May 22 to May 28, Lethal Weapon 3 continued to lead the weekly box office chart with 32.31 million dollars, dropping only 24 percent from its opening week.
Disney's Sister Act, despite facing obvious skepticism beforehand, unexpectedly pulled off a comeback. Opening on 1,430 screens, it earned 16.76 million dollars in its first week, with a per-screen average exceeding 11,000 dollars.
Disney, which had experienced high-level internal bickering over the project before its release, was greatly surprised but quickly reacted by expanding the film's screen count to 1,742 screens in its second week.
At the same time, on May 29, North American theaters finally welcomed the first true high-budget blockbuster of the 1992 summer season: Far and Away, produced by Columbia Pictures under Sony with a production budget of 60 million dollars.
This film, which told the story of Irish immigrants struggling in North America at the end of the 19th century, starred Tom Cruise. The director was Ron Howard, who had risen in Hollywood thanks to films like Splash and Parenthood.
In the original timeline, Far and Away had been a "husband-and-wife" project, with the female lead being Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman.
This time was clearly different.
However, the female lead in the new version of Far and Away was still someone familiar to Simon: Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The oldman killer had already parted ways with Columbia Pictures president Jon Peters but had still built good connections in Hollywood.
To protect his own interests, Tom Cruise rarely collaborated with other big-name actors in his projects, especially for female leads, which were usually played by second- or third-tier actresses. Catherine Zeta-Jones was just right.
Columbia Pictures not only invested 60 million dollars in the production budget for Far and Away but also spared no effort in distribution, with a marketing budget of 30 million dollars. The total investment for the entire project reached 90 million dollars.
Tom Cruise also went all out to ensure the box office success of Far and Away.
Due to changes in the timeline, Cruise had only divorced his first wife Mimi Rogers a year earlier. To create more buzz for Far and Away, the media had been hyping a romance between the two leads, Cruise and Zeta-Jones, these past few days.
This kind of media publicity tactic had almost been worn out in Hollywood.
However, since it was a repeatedly used trick, it clearly had its merits.
The "romance" between Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta-Jones indeed attracted considerable attention from movie fans, and Far and Away's visibility rose along with it.
Yet no matter how large the production investment, how heavy the marketing budget, or how explosive the rumored romance, they ultimately could not save a film that was destined to be only lukewarm.
After opening wide on 2,791 screens, Far and Away received only passable reviews from the media. Tom Cruise's gradually declining popularity over the past two years combined with audiences' lack of interest in the overall story resulted in the film earning a mere 10.19 million dollars over its first three days, less than one-third of what Columbia Pictures had expected.
It was like a bucket of cold water poured directly over their heads.
After the following four weekdays, Far and Away's first-week total came in at only 15.62 million dollars, ranking third on the weekly box office chart.
Because of Far and Away's box office failure, Warner Bros.' Lethal Weapon 3 remained the champion for the week.
In its third week of release, Lethal Weapon 3 earned another 20.02 million dollars, bringing its cumulative box office to 95.28 million dollars. Breaking 100 million was imminent.
Disney's Sister Act showed signs of being a box office dark horse in its second week.
Although it was only the runner-up for the week, after expanding its screen count, Sister Act earned 16.29 million dollars in its second week, dropping a negligible 3 percent from its opening week. In two weeks, the film's cumulative box office had already surpassed its 31 million dollar production budget, reaching 33.05 million dollars.
If not for Wonder Woman bearing down with overwhelming momentum, Sister Act would definitely have enjoyed a very impressive long box office run.
Just like last year's The Flash, Wonder Woman also had a final production cost and marketing budget of 80 million dollars each, bringing the project's total initial investment to 160 million dollars.
Based on the overall 55 percent North American theater split, the producers would need 290 million dollars in domestic box office to recover the entire budget.
Of course, while DC Cinematic Universe projects still placed great importance on North American box office performance, their returns did not rely too heavily on ticket sales.
Because the IP itself was a well-known "A-lister," even without heavyweight stars, Wonder Woman remained the most anticipated film of the summer season. The stunning special effects scenes in the several trailers released earlier, along with Famke Janssen's high beauty as Diana Prince, had left countless movie fans and comic fans eagerly anticipating it.
In addition, Daenerys Entertainment's marketing team had appropriately played the feminist card.
In recent years, there had been quite a few successful female-led films in Hollywood. This had led the Daenerys Entertainment executives to basically stop worrying before production whether a female superhero film could compete with male ones. The fact that three female directors had received Best Director nominations at this year's Oscars, along with the first female Oscar winner for Best Director, was brought up again during the promotion.
Diana Prince's first appearance in Batman: The Dark Knight, the DC Cinematic Universe's crossover and integration plans, and the successive successes of Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and The Flash all provided Wonder Woman with a popularity foundation far surpassing many other non-sequel films.
Out of confidence in the film's quality, Wonder Woman's premiere was also scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, with media reviews opened the very next day.
After compilation, Wonder Woman received a composite media score of 9.3 points. The film earned unanimous high praise from the media in aspects such as plot, special effects, cinematography, and score.
The Hollywood Reporter's review could be seen as typical of mainstream media opinion: "A tightly woven and brilliant plot, innovative and grand special effects, distinct and full-bodied characters, and cleverly seamless foreshadowing. Wonder Woman officially pulls back the curtain on the DC Cinematic Universe."
Variety was particularly generous in its praise for Famke Janssen: "A superhero role that could easily have fallen into eye-candy territory has, through this Nordic beauty's superb performance, successfully created a resolute, courageous female superhero image filled with a sense of justice and power."
The custom background music Simon had composed for Diana Prince, modeled after the original "Is She With You," also drew media attention.
Shortly after the film's premiere ended, a famous film critic from Rolling Stone wrote in his column that the Wonder Woman soundtrack would become one of the most collectible albums of 1992. At the same time, he jokingly congratulated Simon Westeros, Hollywood's super director, on likely receiving yet another Oscar nomination for Original Score outside of his main directing duties.