Affected by poor word-of-mouth, the single-day box office plummeted on the first working day of the week, with a drop of as much as 75%, far exceeding the general level of commercial entertainment films.
The single-day box office on Monday fell sharply from $11.07 million to $2.8 million, showing a very obvious trend of high opening and low closing, just like all films with a bad reputation.
Even on Tuesday, the traditional North American movie ticket discount day, the single-day box office continued to fall, only earning $2.1 million, and was about to fall below $2 million.
By Wednesday, even with the stimulus of news like Matthew and Rex Reed's mutual appreciation, the single-day output still dropped below $2 million, to only $1.85 million.
A new weekend was approaching, and some media predicted that the box office drop for the second weekend would be over 70%... On Thursday, the box office dropped to its lowest point since its release, with a single-day earning of $1.65 million.
Subsequently, the film entered its second weekend, and a box office rebound was inevitable.
Perhaps due to Universal Pictures' ongoing promotional efforts and the film's sufficiently prominent selling points, the second weekend's box office did not experience a cliff-like plummet of over 70% as some media had predicted.
However, compared to the explosive $40.37 million achieved in its opening week, there was still a 55% drop, with the second weekend bringing in $18.15 million over three days.
After ten days of release, the cumulative North American box office was $66.92 million.
With no strong competitors until May, most media generally believed that the final North American box office would definitely exceed $100 million.
Also, this weekend, it began to be released in some major overseas markets in Europe and America.
The overseas screenings were much cooler than in North America; even for films that were blockbusters in North America, overseas box office generally wouldn't be too bad, but its overseas opening week could only be described as mediocre.
In Australia, it only opened with less than $1.9 million in its first week; in Brazil, Hollywood's largest market in South America, it barely exceeded $1 million in its first week.
In the European market, France had $1.2 million in its first week, Germany had close to $2 million, and Italy had less than $500,000.
Fortunately, the situation was good in the UK and Mexico, the two largest overseas markets for Hollywood, with the former earning close to $2.5 million and the latter breaking out with $3 million.
The preliminary estimate for its overseas opening week box office was over $13 million.
Judging from the reactions in various markets, it will be difficult for the final overseas box office to break $100 million.
After Matthew received the statistics, he analyzed the situation himself.
Although he was not an expert in the film market, he was no longer a complete novice and had some understanding.
Compared to the North American opening weekend box office, its opening week box office in nearly 50 overseas markets could be said to be very average.
In overseas markets, especially in Europe, where is the biggest consumption point for Hollywood entertainment films?
He believed it was stars and special effects.
Stars created by Hollywood through purely commercial means had more market appeal, and special effects, needless to say, Hollywood's advantage was too obvious, even developed European film industries could not compare.
The special effects were very ordinary, with basically no large-scale scenes, and the combat was entirely focused on the male lead's action scenes, so the advantage in this aspect was not obvious.
As for stars, needless to say, there wasn't a single actor who could be considered a star before the film's release.
As the two main selling points, the male and female leads didn't have much of an advantage.
The male lead was fine; this type of action actor also had a market in Europe.
As for Kelly Hu, who was charming and wore minimal clothing, European films never lacked daring, revealing, sexy, and beautiful actresses, so this aspect should not be very attractive to European audiences.
Then there was Universal Pictures' publicity and hype.
Whether it was the donkey-kissing incident or the hard and soft promotions, they were mainly aimed at the North American market, with relatively less impact overseas.
In fact, the crew didn't even go overseas for promotions.
Universal Pictures had limited funds for distribution and marketing, so their main focus naturally had to be on the North American market.
In the North American market, despite its mediocre reputation and unstable trend, it still managed to win three consecutive North American box office championships with $40.37 million, $18.15 million, and $9.45 million.
Although it lost the North American box office championship in its fourth week to, its box office performance of $4.25 million in the fourth weekend also pushed its total North American box office past $90 million.
Subsequently, the traditional North American summer blockbuster season began.
This year's opening film was a little spider named Peter Parker.
Once it was released, all other films had to make way.
Sony Columbia Pictures' film, with its super-large number of release theaters and extremely high screening rate, severely squeezed the screening space of other films.
It was directly cut to fewer than 1,500 theaters, with an average of less than five screenings per day per theater.
Without any suspense, dominated the North American film market that weekend, and with a box office of over $114 million, it set a new North American opening box office record.
This was also the first film in the history of the North American film market to break $100 million in its opening weekend.
Under the suppression of, other films' box office relatively declined, and it only earned a little over $2 million in its fifth weekend.
However, including the previous four weekdays, its North American box office broke the $100 million mark!
A North American box office of $100 million was undoubtedly a watershed for Hollywood films in that era.
As the absolute protagonist in the film, Matthew was undoubtedly a highly anticipated Hollywood actor in April and May.
Whenever he attended public events, there was a continuous stream of people asking for autographs.
As soon as he left home, paparazzi would follow him, and even if he occasionally shook them off, they would quickly catch up.
His street photos and stills would occasionally appear on the internet and in newspapers and magazines.
Even his past experiences as a car repair apprentice, construction worker, and small-time driver were dug up by gossip media.
Even more, a gossip reporter dug up his old rumored fling with Britney Spears and hyped it up, causing more paparazzi to chase after Matthew.
But after following him for a while, the paparazzi realized it was just hype, as Matthew had never actually met Britney.
Although there were no gossip scandals to photograph, paparazzi were still happy to follow Matthew because there was indeed material to shoot, and the things they shot seemed to be more appealing to readers and consumers.
On Santa Monica Beach, two female paparazzi sat under a beach umbrella with their cameras, looking at the distant sea, appearing to be waiting for someone.
There weren't many people on the beach today, and they had followed their target all the way from North Hollywood, planning to take some swimsuit photos.
"When he's dressed, he's very stylish, almost a natural clothes hanger..." the short-haired female paparazzo whispered to her assistant.
"His physique revealed in the film is also good, but who knows if it's the result of post-production touch-ups.
We'll take close-ups with a telephoto lens later!"
The long-haired female assistant adjusted her camera lens and said, "It should be pretty accurate.
When I arrived, I saw his back; it was simply... perfect."
She had arrived at the beach earlier, but due to parking, she only had time to glimpse the target's back before he went into the water.
Since this wasn't a pre-arranged photoshoot, and there were still other tourists in the water, they didn't go closer to shoot, planning to wait until he came ashore.
In the clear blue water, Matthew poked his head out, wiped the water from his face, and continued swimming away from the shore.
He wasn't originally a good swimmer, but the previous guy was an excellent swimmer, though he was self-taught.
Since the role he was vying for might involve on-location shooting in the Caribbean in the future, Matthew added swimming training to his routine.
And the benefits of swimming for fitness were self-evident.
For his first week, he swam in an indoor pool, trying to recapture the feeling left by this body.
This was his second time swimming at the beach, but the last time he went to Malibu's Golden Beach, which was private property and inaccessible to paparazzi.
This conflicted with his recent strategy, so today he specifically came to the open Santa Monica Beach.
After swimming another thirty meters, he couldn't see anyone on either side.
The shark net was not far ahead.
Matthew turned and swam back, soon reaching the shallow water where he could stand.
He stood in the water up to his lower abdomen, resting and surveying the beach.
Santa Monica Beach had a unique location, backed by rolling green hills and facing the vast Pacific Ocean.
Compared to Malibu, the sea here was much calmer and more peaceful, with no towering white waves or crashing surf, just quiet and blue.
This was also the famous endpoint of the legendary Route 66, which spanned across America—a once-famous highway that was now gradually losing its bustle and had appeared in many Hollywood movies.
Matthew remembered most clearly how Tom Hanks' character in ran across Route 66.
A girl learning to swim, wearing a swimming ring, passed in front of him, then suddenly stopped and stood up, looking at Matthew in surprise.
"You..." The girl's eyes widened.
"Are you the Scorpion King?"
She looked at Matthew again, confirming, "You're Matthew Horner?"
Matthew smiled and said, "Yes, I am."
The girl's face lit up with surprise, and she chattered to Matthew for a while before finally leaving.
Watching the girl leave, Matthew was even more certain that he was truly famous.
Even on an ordinary beach, swimming in very ordinary attire, someone could recognize him.
"This feels really good."
He walked towards the beach, looking around and muttering, "Where are the reporters? Where are the paparazzi?
Come quickly and photograph me, come quickly and shoot..."