Before Avatar was released, the film The Twilight Saga: New Moon, produced by Melon Studios, hit theaters.
This fantasy teen romance movie erupted with incredible energy, opening in 4,024 theaters across North America and raking in $142.83 million in its first weekend.
The opening-weekend box office stunned everyone, leaving Hollywood studios in disbelief.
At the same time, they realized that the teen romance market had enormous explosive potential. Young men and women would flock to theaters crazily, all to support Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.
Thus, a formula was born: any popular teen novel with a solid fan base, combined with attractive young actors, could generate massive box office returns.
As a result, published teen novels on the market were immediately snapped up by Hollywood studios. Whether the novels were good or not, or whether they could be adapted into films, the rights were bought.
In trend-driven Hollywood, once a genre catches fire, countless projects of the same genre are quickly greenlit.
Everyone clustered around the same theme, hoping to claim a share of the profits. The quality of these follow-ups varied, but who could claim the biggest slice depended on their own abilities.
Melon Studios, of course, didn't sit idle. They quickly contacted Suzanne Collins and acquired the rights to her upcoming Hunger Games series.
Sky Dance Studios had also been keeping an eye on Gilbert's moves; David Ellison had hoped to compete for the rights.
But unlike the situation with Transformers, Suzanne Collins was a loyal fan of Gilbert.
Moreover, Melon Studios had substantial resources. During negotiations, Cameron Diaz agreed to allow Suzanne Collins to serve as the screenwriter, so the Hunger Games rights smoothly went to Melon Studios.
This is the charm of a top-tier studio: when a hot property catches Hollywood's attention, if Melon Studios is involved, the original author is highly likely to prefer them.
This was the successful reputation Gilbert had built for Melon Studios over many years.
So much so that when people thought of Hollywood's golden brand, they immediately thought of Melon Studios. Even disregarding personal feelings and purely pursuing profit, handing a project to Melon Studios was more reliable than any other studio.
Although The Twilight Saga: New Moon performed spectacularly in its opening weekend, its reception remained mixed as usual.
But that was normal—you couldn't expect New Moon to achieve both box office and critical acclaim like the Lord of the Rings series.
Since critical praise couldn't be guaranteed, for studios the best outcome was box office success. Making money was enough; critical acclaim could come from other films.
With such a major success, stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson became nationwide sensations in the U.S. Even after overseas releases, many international fans went crazy over the two of them.
The Twilight Saga wasn't the origin of teen films, but it was the first teen movie series to achieve massive global success.
At this time, the teen film craze hadn't yet swept through the Chinese-language film industry, while young North American audiences were already captivated by Bella Swan and Edward Cullen's perfect looks.
If there were a concept of top-tier celebrities in North America, these two were the ultimate stars in North America and even worldwide.
This was far beyond the top-tier status of people like Sister Dove in the Chinese entertainment industry; these Hollywood stars were collecting money from fans worldwide. So even in terms of being top-tier, Sister Dove and the like couldn't compare to North American youth.
But this wasn't the fault of Sister Dove or others—it was simply a matter of limited channels.
Few could truly understand the Chinese entertainment industry and master its rules; let alone aim for global success.
By the following weekend, as fan enthusiasm waned, New Moon earned $59.33 million in its second weekend, still topping the box office.
Including weekday earnings, the North American total reached $222.39 million—a remarkably high figure.
Judging from the box office curve, there would still be a steep drop afterward. But whether it was Gilbert, Melon Studios, or Disney, everyone was satisfied with these results.
Overseas performance was also impressive: France earned $19.66 million in its opening weekend, Germany $16.64 million, and the UK $19.24 million.
Spain pulled in $11.18 million, Italy $9.86 million.
In Europe, these were the largest markets; other European markets generally only contributed in the million-dollar range. Differences in release dates caused variations in box office numbers.
Overall, Europe remained Hollywood's largest overseas market, and films that performed well in North America also earned solid returns there.
As for the second-largest overseas market, the Japan, Twilight: New Moon was less popular, taking only $760,000 in its opening week.
Neighboring South Korea earned $4.07 million, and Singapore $800,000.
It was likely because people in Japan didn't enjoy watching vampires fall in love; such films performing poorly there was normal.
However, performance in other overseas regions was quite strong, and mainland Chinese audiences regrettably couldn't see the film in theaters. This year's import quota for foreign films had already been filled, with Avatar postponed to next year.
Currently, negotiations were underway, considering expanding the revenue-sharing ratio and increasing the number of imported films allowed.
Honestly, as the Chinese film market rapidly expanded, Hollywood's smart players realized that selling merchandise in China was unrealistic.
Chinese consumers weren't foolish enough to spend several hundred or even thousands of yuan on official merchandise—they weren't wealthy enough for that.
Pirated merchandise, though of lower quality, had the advantage of being affordable.
Hollywood had also discussed the piracy issue, but it was impossible to eliminate. Even they hadn't fully solved the problem of pirated goods coming from Mexico.
So, from the start, Hollywood's idea of relying on merchandise sales for profit, even with a smaller revenue-sharing cut, was effectively ruined.
Naturally, Hollywood studios that could only make a little hard-earned money weren't pleased—they wanted a higher revenue-sharing ratio.
Money matters always led to lengthy negotiations; it could take several years to reach an agreement.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was Melon Studios' last film of the year, yet it still delivered excellent box office results.
The third installment was already in preparation, scheduled for release next year to continue the profit-making journey. Starting from March next year, the 3D re-release of The Lord of the Rings would return to theaters, aiming to build hype for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.
Alongside this were Source Code directed by Guo Fan, Lucy directed by Christopher Nolan, and Gilbert's own Inception.
Melon Studios' lineup for next year remained strong, attracting significant industry attention.
Gilbert's longtime rival, David Ellison's Sky Dance Studios, also had major releases lined up next year, including Tron: Legacy, Jhon Carter, and Battleship, releasing one after another.
Confident, David Ellison openly told the media that he intended to make Sky Dance Studios the number-one film studio in Hollywood.
In the past, such a statement would have been met with ridicule.
However, Sky Dance Studios had performed well this year, with several of its invested films achieving notable success.
Especially Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen—despite changes in lead actors, it still grossed $836 million globally.
Even more importantly, merchandise sales were phenomenal, generating massive profits.
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