There was a reason why Nicholas from the Los Angeles Times singled out Hugo and Brad as rivals in his report.Both had ties to Tracy and both had auditioned for 'a river runs through it' and 'a few good men.' These were merely subjective reasons. More importantly, Hugo and Brad were both tall and handsome, and both exuded a sunny, righteous aura, though Brad was more rebellious, while Hugo was warmer.It must be known that in the acting industry, competition between Actors of a similar type is extremely brutal, and often there can only be one winner. The fact that Hugo and Brad encountered each other in auditions for two different works within such a short time was proof of this.Therefore, when Nicholas listed these two as rivals, many people were surprised—after all, they hadn't really gone head-to-head before—but despite their surprise, they had to agree.Consequently, when 'a river runs through it' and 'scent of a woman' were released one after the other, people couldn't help but get excited.'a river runs through it,' released last week, received good word-of-mouth, with a media aggregate score of 68 and a CinemaScore of 'B.' The reviews were also quite good.The focus regarding Brad was on his innocent smile, with many believing he possessed the charm of director Robert Redford in his youth. The nickname 'Redford's Successor' spread like wildfire, further boosting Brad's popularity and continuing the positive momentum from 'thelma & louise.'At this point, Brad was still a complete newcomer. Whether in 'thelma & louise' or 'a river runs through it,' he was strictly a supporting Actor with limited screen time. However, his performances in both works earned him much praise, which couldn't help but remind people of Hugo's situation when he first started out.'scent of a woman,' released this week, had a media aggregate score of 72 and a CinemaScore of 'B+,' which could be said to be slightly ahead of the performance of 'a river runs through it.'As for the reviews of Hugo, praise such as 'holding his own against Al,''shining with talent once again,' and 'delivering a wonderful performance' dominated. In particular, the negative impact brought about by 'hudson hawk' was largely washed away by this brilliant performance, and people began to recall the good times from 1989 when Hugo appeared in 'dead poets society.'In the head-to-head confrontation between Brad and Hugo, it was clear that Hugo was receiving more attention.This was because Hugo's scene partner was Al, and Al delivered a masterclass performance in the film. Under such pressure, Hugo still held his own, which only made his performance all the more impressive.In its review, 'US Weekly' playfully quipped, 'Facing the aggressive challenge from Brad, Hugo lost the audition for 'a river runs through it' but struck back with a brilliant performance in 'scent of a woman.' This is truly worth pondering. One wonders if Brad regrets not landing the audition for 'scent of a woman'?'When Brad saw this review in 'US Weekly,' he became completely agitated. Last week, he had been smug about the positive reviews for 'a river runs through it,' but now Hugo had doused him with a bucket of cold water with such a brilliant performance. This left Brad feeling deeply pent-up, with nowhere to vent his frustration.First, he lost the audition for 'a few good men,' and then the advantage of 'a river runs through it' evaporated in the face of 'scent of a woman.' Recalling his smugness after the 'a river runs through it' audition, Brad felt his cheeks burning even more.'Brad, don't...' agent Martin Baum had weathered countless storms and appeared quite calm, though inside he was also churning; he just didn't want to show it.In Martin's view, although 'scent of a woman' performed very well, 'a river runs through it' was also not bad, and Brad could by no means be considered a failure.But the hot-headed Brad couldn't listen to this advice and interrupted Martin directly, 'Don't what? Don't be angry? How is that possible! Haven't you seen those media reviews? They always compare me and Hugo, and they might as well have said outright that I suffered a crushing defeat. This is a disgrace! A disgrace!'Martin opened his mouth, but the words 'Didn't you want to compete with Hugo in the first place?' were swallowed back down. Provoking Brad at this moment was definitely not a good idea. As far as Martin knew, there also seemed to be issues between Brad and Tracy Jacobs recently; if he added fuel to the fire now, things might spiral out of control.So, what Martin actually said became, 'Think back to the media's reviews of you; they were full of praise. Nobody said your performance wasn't good, nobody! Have you forgotten the media's praise? Now that Hugo's performance has also warmed up again, you start to panic, get agitated, and worry. Can't your brain calm down?'Martin's rapid-fire words left Brad feeling dizzy. In reality, he hadn't heard the content clearly, only knowing that Martin kept emphasizing the media's previous praise for him, which allowed Brad to calm down slightly.'But his movie's box office is also better than mine!' Brad still wasn't fully lucid. He suddenly thought of another point: 'a river runs through it' had a per-theater average of $25,000 last week, which couldn't compare to 'scent of a woman,' and this week, the per-theater average for 'a river runs through it' was $19,000, losing out in the head-to-head battle with 'scent of a woman.'Both were art films; having the word-of-mouth fall behind was sad enough, but to be defeated in terms of box office as well was something that really bothered Brad.'So what? This is only the first week; getting angry won't help.' Martin looked at the broken coffee cup on his carpet and couldn't help but sigh. If not for the fact that Brad had a limitless future, Martin would have been furious when Brad, in his excitement upon hearing the per-theater average for 'scent of a woman,' smashed the coffee cup. But Martin held it in.Martin turned his gaze back to the still-indignant Brad. 'Not to mention that the future box office trend is still unknown, even if 'scent of a woman' performs better this time, you still have countless opportunities in the future, don't you? You are in your rising period, while Hugo has only recovered once. The future situation is still uncertain, and you will still have chances to compete with each other. You can just win it back then.'This time, Brad finally calmed down and listened quietly to Martin's words. Martin struck while the iron was hot, saying, 'Don't you have confidence in yourself?''Who says I don't!' Brad immediately bristled, his face turning red as he said excitedly, 'Next time, next time I will definitely win!'Thinking of how, after the first batch of reviews for 'scent of a woman' came out, Tracy had joked with director Robert, 'If Hugo had starred in it, what would the effect have been?' Although it was just a joke and Robert had laughed and replied, 'More handsome than me?' without being serious at all, Brad had still taken it to heart.Thinking of this, Brad clenched his teeth and tightened his fists. 'Definitely!'However, Brad's wish was destined to fall through this time, because in the head-to-head showdown between 'a river runs through it' and 'scent of a woman,' the latter took the lead with an absolute advantage.In the fourth week of October, 'a river runs through it' was the first to expand its release, securing $1.58 million in weekend box office from 130 theaters, making it into the top ten of the weekend box office chart at ninth place. Meanwhile, 'scent of a woman,' which remained in limited release in 20 theaters, saw its per-theater average rise instead of fall, driven by excellent word-of-mouth. The $30,000 per-theater figure brought the film's weekend box office to $600,000, placing it 14th among the 17 films on the chart.Even so, the per-theater average of 'scent of a woman' stunned everyone.In the fifth week of October, 'scent of a woman,' riding the wave of its excellent word-of-mouth, launched a full expansion, opening in 1,100 theaters nationwide. From this expansion figure, one could see Universal Pictures' extremely high confidence in the film.The performance of 'scent of a woman' rewarded Universal Pictures' trust, taking in $7 million in box office over the three-day weekend. To everyone's astonishment, it actually took the crown for the North American weekend box office chart this week, which really made countless people drop their jaws.Even the most daring box office analysts had not predicted this situation!This also caused the North American box office chart this week to present a strange situation.The three-time champion 'Under Siege' was knocked off its horse, occupying the runner-up position with $6.1 million. Meanwhile, 'a river runs through it,' which continued to expand to 800 theaters, took $4.2 million in weekend box office, rising to the third-place position.Such a chart was truly unexpected. Not to mention the art film 'a river runs through it' jumping to third place, with works possessing box office power like 'Candyman' and 'The Last of the Mohicans' behind it; just the fact that a film like 'scent of a woman,' which possessed no box office competitiveness, achieved such unexpected success, defeating a series of strong performers on the chart—especially replacing 'Under Siege,' which had accumulated $50 million in box office after its three-week reign, with 'scent of a woman' taking the weekend box office championship—was absolutely a surprise.At this point, 'scent of a woman,' in its third week of release, had accumulated $9 million in box office. Its production costs had already been recouped, and achieving profitability didn't seem to be an issue. Plus, the excellent word-of-mouth had won the film a good position for the upcoming major awards ceremonies.It could be said that this investment by Universal Pictures was as wise as it could be.Never mind the chorus of lamentations from the media before the film's release; even Universal Pictures had initially had complaints about director Martin Brest choosing Hugo. They couldn't place enough trust in a Golden Raspberry Award winner.But now? This seemed to be an excellent choice.Amidst the cries of astonishment from the media, the magical journey of 'scent of a woman' clearly was not over yet.
