Nicholas from the Los Angeles Times didn't select Hugo and Brad as rivals in his article without reason. Both were involved with Tracy, both auditioned for A River Runs Through It and A Few Good Men those are subjective factors. More importantly, Hugo and Brad are both tall, handsome, and possess that sunny, righteous aura; the difference being that Brad is more unrestrained, while Hugo is warmer. In the acting world, competition among similar types is especially brutal often, only one can win. The fact that Hugo and Brad ran into each other at auditions for two projects in such a short span is hard proof of this.
So when Nicholas named these two as rivals, many people were surprised after all, they hadn't gone head-to-head before but beyond the surprise, people couldn't help but agree. Thus, when A River Runs Through It and Scent of a Woman were released one after the other, the public became quite excited.
The River Runs Through It, which was released last week, received solid reviews, with a media score of 68 and a cinema grade of "B." The feedback was very positive. Criticism regarding Brad mostly centered on his innocent smile, with many saying he had the youthful charm of director Robert Redford earning him the nickname "Redford's successor." This further boosted Brad's popularity, continuing the momentum from Thelma & Louise.
At this point, Brad was still a complete newcomer. Whether it was Thelma & Louise or A River Runs Through It, he was purely a supporting actor with limited screen time. Still, Brad's performances in both earned plenty of praise, reminiscent of Hugo's early career days.
Meanwhile, Scent of a Woman, released this week, scored 72 from media and received a "B+" from theaters slightly outperforming A River Runs Through It. Reviews for Hugo were overwhelmingly positive: "holding his own against Al," "reigniting his natural acting brilliance," and "delivering a superb performance" were just a few of the accolades. The negative impact of Hudson Hawk was significantly reduced by this impressive showing, reminding everyone of Hugo's luminous presence in Dead Poets Society back in 1989.
In the head-to-head between Brad and Hugo, Hugo clearly drew more attention. After all, Hugo's co-star was none other than Al, who gave a legendary performance. For Hugo to stand firm under such pressure only highlighted his excellence.
American Weekly enthusiastically joked in a review, "Faced with Brad's aggressive momentum, Hugo may have lost the audition for A River Runs Through It, but his brilliant performance in Scent of a Woman is a sharp counterattack. It's worth pondering does Brad regret not landing the audition for Scent of a Woman?"
When Brad saw American Weekly's review, he grew agitated. Just last week, he had been basking in the praise for A River Runs Through It, but now Hugo had poured a bucket of cold water over him with such an outstanding performance. Brad was thoroughly vexed and didn't know how to vent.
First, he lost the audition for A Few Good Men, then the advantage he had from A River Runs Through It was completely overshadowed by Scent of a Woman. Thinking back to how smug he felt after the River audition, Brad's face flushed hot with embarrassment.
"Brad, you shouldn't—" Martin Baum, his agent, had weathered many storms and appeared calm, though internally he was just as stirred he just chose not to show it. In Martin's view, though Scent of a Woman was outstanding, A River Runs Through It did fine too. Brad shouldn't see this as a loss.
But the hot-headed Brad wasn't hearing any of it. He cut Martin off mid-sentence, "Shouldn't what? Be angry? That's impossible! Didn't you see the media reviews? They keep comparing me to Hugo might as well say I lost miserably! It's humiliating! Humiliating!"
Martin opened his mouth. The words "Weren't you the one who wanted to compete with Hugo?" got stuck in his throat. Saying that now would be pouring oil on the fire. From what Martin knew, Brad's relationship with Tracy Jacobs seemed to be strained lately too. If he added fuel to the flames now, things could spiral out of control.
So instead, Martin changed his words to, "Think about what the media said about you they praised you non-stop. No one said you did poorly not one! The media's praise for you did you forget it all? This is just Hugo's moment to shine again, and you're already panicking, anxious, and worried. Can't you calm your mind even a little?"
Martin's barrage of words left Brad dazed. He didn't even fully catch what Martin said, only that Martin kept emphasizing the media's praise for him. That slightly cooled Brad's temper.
"But his box office is better than mine too!" Brad still wasn't thinking clearly. He suddenly recalled that A River Runs Through It had a per-theater average of $25,000 last week less than Scent of a Woman. And this week, it dropped to $19,000, clearly losing in the direct box office showdown. Both were art films, so losing in critical acclaim already hurt; losing in box office as well made Brad take it especially hard.
"So what? It's just the first week. Losing your temper won't change anything." Martin looked at the broken coffee mug on the carpet and sighed. When Brad had heard Scent of a Woman's box office numbers, he got so worked up he shattered the mug. If Brad weren't so full of potential, Martin might've exploded then and there but he restrained himself.
Martin turned his gaze back to the still-angry Brad. "We don't even know how the box office will trend from here. And even if Scent of a Woman ends up performing better, so what? You have countless opportunities ahead. You're still rising, while Hugo's just having a comeback. Nothing's certain about the future. You'll have chances to compete again and you can win next time."
This time, Brad finally calmed down, quietly listening to Martin. Martin struck while the iron was hot: "What, you don't have confidence in yourself?"
"Who said that!" Brad flared up immediately, his face flushing red as he shouted, "Next time next time, I will win!"
He recalled how, after the first wave of reviews for Scent of a Woman, Tracy had joked with director Robert, "What if Hugo had played the part?" And Robert had jokingly replied, "Then he'd be even more handsome than me?" It was all said in jest and not taken seriously but even so, Brad had taken it to heart.
Thinking of this, Brad gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Absolutely!"
But Brad's wish was doomed to fall short this time. In the direct showdown between A River Runs Through It and Scent of a Woman, the latter had taken a decisive lead.
In the fourth week of October, A River Runs Through It was the first to expand its screening scale. With 130 theaters showing the film, it took in $1.58 million over the weekend, leaping into the top ten of the weekend box office rankings, landing at ninth place. Meanwhile, Scent of a Woman, still being previewed in just 20 theaters, saw its per-theater revenue rise rather than fall thanks to stellar word-of-mouth. With $30,000 per theater, its weekend total reached $600,000, placing it fourteenth among the seventeen films listed.
Even so, the per-theater numbers of Scent of a Woman stunned everyone.
In the fifth week of October, riding on its strong word-of-mouth momentum, Scent of a Woman also launched a full-scale expansion, going into wide release in 1,100 theaters across the United States. From this expansion alone, it was evident how much confidence Universal Pictures had in the film. And Scent of a Woman returned the studio's trust with its performance raking in $7 million in three days over the weekend and, to the astonishment of all, claimed the top spot on the North American weekend box office chart. This truly shocked countless people. Not even the boldest box office forecasters had predicted this outcome!
This created a peculiar situation on the North American box office chart this week.
The three-time champion Under Siege was dethroned, dropping to second place with $6.1 million; while A River Runs Through It, expanding to 800 theaters, took in $4.2 million and rose to third place.
No one had seen such a ranking coming. Not only had the art-house film A River Runs Through It surged to third place while facing competition from box office powerhouses like Candyman and The Last of the Mohicans, but Scent of a Woman a film not expected to be box office competitive at all achieved a remarkable result, outperforming a series of strong titles on the list. Especially striking was its dethroning of Under Siege, which had built up a cumulative gross of $50 million after three consecutive wins. This was certainly a pleasant surprise.
At this point, in its third week of release, Scent of a Woman had grossed a total of $9 million. Its production costs had already been recouped, and turning a profit didn't seem to be a problem. On top of that, the outstanding word-of-mouth was helping the film secure a solid position ahead of the upcoming major awards season. It could be said that Universal Pictures' investment this time was nothing short of brilliant.
Forget about all the media wailing before the film's release Universal itself had serious doubts when director Martin Brest chose Hugo for the lead. They simply couldn't place much faith in a Golden Raspberry Award winner. But now? It seems that was the perfect choice.
Amid media gasps of disbelief, the magical journey of Scent of a Woman was clearly far from over.
.....
Hi For access to additional chapters of
Director in Hollywood (40 chpaters)
Made In Hollywood (60 Chapters)
Pokemon:Bounty Hunter(30 Chapters)
Douluo Dalu: Reincarnated as Yan(40 Chapters)
Hollywood:From Razzie to Legend(40 Chapters)
The Great Ruler (30 Chapters)
Join pateron.com/Translaterappu