That's right!
At the end of Transformers, before the final battle, what the male lead David said to his daughter Zoe during their farewell was:
I used to be a field agent. Back then, people called me Ethan Hunt.
Although David didn't clearly explain what exactly the "Ethan Hunt" he mentioned meant.
When David was played by Tom Cruise, anyone who understood entertainment, anyone who liked movies, should know the Ethan Hunt David was talking about was Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible.
This was a publicly recognized IP association in the global entertainment industry.
And this line actually didn't exist in the original Transformers script.
This line was added by Tom Cruise on the spot during the filming of Transformers.
As for the reason he changed the scene?
Very simple!
Tom Cruise currently had a little "conflict" with Paramount. Ever since entering the new millennium, Tom Cruise seemed to have run into bad luck in his career.
Although Mission: Impossible 2 had an explosive box office, with a 125-million investment bringing in 546 million at the box office.
Its reputation, however, was an absolute mess.
The decline in audience goodwill affected Tom Cruise's later works.
Whether it was The Last Samurai or Collateral, their earnings weren't impressive.
The former, with an investment of 140 million, only brought in 456 million at the global box office.
The latter, with an investment of 65 million, only earned 220 million worldwide.
Both movies were right on the edge of barely not losing money.
Although afterward, Tom Cruise's global influence recovered slightly.
War of the Worlds, his collaboration with Steven Spielberg, earned 603 million worldwide on a 132-million investment.
But the failure of Mission: Impossible 3 officially pushed him to the opposite side of capital.
Because Mission: Impossible 3 had a total investment of 150 million dollars.
But its global box office was only 398 million.
Calculated by the crudest one-third rule in the film industry, the box office revenue of Mission: Impossible 3 couldn't even cover the film's production cost.
Even if videotapes, merchandise, and other things could make money, the best-case outcome for this business was only breaking even.
But this business had the worst-case scenario in the industry: the lead actor taking too high a cut from the project.
After all the film's profits were taken away by Tom Cruise alone, in the first month after the movie's release, Paramount had already confirmed they would lose 150 million on Mission: Impossible 3.
This fact made Paramount's boss, Sumner Redstone, extremely angry!
After confirming that the matter was already settled and the outcome could no longer be changed, he angrily fired the person who had pushed this deal forward, Paramount chairwoman Sherry Lansing, and blasted Tom Cruise as a vampire!
Sumner Redstone's actions meant Paramount and Tom Cruise had officially broken up!
Since the copyright to the Mission: Impossible series was in Paramount's hands—
Tom Cruise parting ways with Paramount meant Tom Cruise might have to say goodbye to Ethan Hunt.
From Tom Cruise's perspective, this was bad news.
And this bad news was the key reason he accepted Transformers.
After losing one IP, any normal person would immediately want to gain a new one.
It was also the reason he emphasized in Transformers that he was Ethan Hunt.
The logic here should be easy to understand, right?
It's still the same old saying: there are only two kinds of people in this world who will voluntarily jump out of their comfort zone. The first are true children of destiny — no matter how they switch tracks, they can still win. The second are idiots who benefited from the era's dividends but think they're chosen by fate.
Tom Cruise might have been a child of destiny, because no matter how he messed around, he could always climb back up in the end. But he didn't think of himself as a child of destiny. So even though he could embrace Transformers, he still didn't want to give up Mission: Impossible.
In that case, with Paramount distributing Transformers, Tom Cruise shouting in the movie that he was Ethan Hunt? That line was actually shouted for Paramount and Sumner Redstone to hear!
Mm.
In the eyes of the public, Tom Cruise's line might have been a meme, or a way of telling everyone that Transformers and Mission: Impossible were two stories set in the same universe.
But in Sumner Redstone's eyes, this was actually a declaration of war. It was Tom Cruise giving him a loud slap across the face!
What?
Someone might ask, since Paramount controlled the distribution rights to Transformers, why didn't Sumner Redstone just cut this part out?
That question is also simple!
First, the copyright to Transformers was in DreamWorks' hands.
Steven Spielberg was not afraid of Sumner Redstone.
Second, casting Tom Cruise as the male lead of Transformers had been Isabella Haywood's idea.
Among all the content capitalists, Sumner Redstone was the one least willing to face Isabella.
Because his real name was not Sumner Redstone at all. His real name was actually Sumner Rothstein.
His father was Michael Redstone.
On the surface, this man was the founder of the Northeast Theater Corporation and National Amusements in the United States, but—
His hidden identity was Harry Sagansky's closest business partner.
Harry Sagansky was an American mobster active in Boston. At his peak, he controlled all the gambling venues in the city.
That's right!
The reason Sumner Redstone's father opened theaters was actually to launder money for the mob!
His father's nickname in the underworld back then was "the Accountant"!
The reason Sumner Redstone changed his name was also because his family's mob business had been hit!
His father's solid ally, Harry Sagansky, had been arrested!
Back then, their family had laundered almost 90 million dollars in dirty money. Don't think that was a small amount — that was 90 million dollars in the 1930s. So after realizing the situation was bad and that being arrested might mean rotting in prison for life, Sumner Redstone's father decisively had his son change his identity and run like mad.
But his father didn't let him run randomly. Instead, he had him answer Franklin D. Roosevelt's call and join the army.
Yes.
He was basically sent into the army as a criminal recruit.
Those who know, know.
And his father also spent three million to have him study under Edwin Reischauer.
This man was a senior official in the U.S. Signal Intelligence Service at the time.
Don't think the position of senior official was a small one!
Edwin Reischauer's superior at the time was named Henry Stimson.
Yeah~
Still Netflix founder Reed Hastings's great-granduncle~
With this connection, the starting point of Sumner Redstone's military career became Arlington Hall!
He entered as a second lieutenant!
He came out as a first lieutenant!
Although he had clearly joined the military, Harvard chased after him to grant him degrees!
One second he had just been discharged!
The next second he was internally recommended into the Department of Justice!
Then, his family's organized crime case disappeared—
"Who kneels in court below, and why do you dare sue this official?"
Mm.
The Redstone family was just that wild.
Or rather, when it came to primitive accumulation, count them one by one — not a single one was clean.
Since Sumner Redstone was an authentic tangyuan person, even if Isabella used her ten-shots-in-five-seconds skill on him, that would still be a crackdown on organized crime! That would still be clearing the trash of the mortal world on God's behalf!
Since Sumner Redstone didn't even dare fart in front of Isabella once she stopped pretending—
How would he dare let Paramount pick up the scissors and cut the Transformers reel?
Or rather, as long as Isabella didn't say there was a problem with Tom Cruise's sudden inspiration, he couldn't possibly try to be clever!
Since these matters had long been resolved—
Isabella had actually known about Tom Cruise's little scheme for a long time.
When Tom Cruise changed the scene, Margot Robbie had called her.
And she didn't actually care about these things.
As long as the final presentation of the movie was excellent, Tom Cruise could shout whatever he wanted.
At the moment, the only things Isabella cared about were the movie's reputation and box office, as well as the sales of the adapted game.
As for that—
As early as mid-June, after the global premiere of Transformers ended, media feedback related to it had already appeared.
Although many media outlets and film critics felt the story of Transformers was average and the characterization bland, the astonishing special effects and exciting action scenes still made them give it positive reviews of "worth watching."
On a ten-point recommendation scale, Transformers basically received sixes.
On a hundred-point scale, Transformers' average score stabilized between 65 and 68.
As a special-effects blockbuster, this evaluation was already very good!
It could already be considered a win!
Then, after the movie officially released—
On Tuesday, July 3, 2007, Transformers officially met the public.
On its first day, it took in 30.78 million dollars at the North American box office.
The moment this data came out, all of North America fell silent!
Because this data created history!
It was the best result for a movie opening on a Tuesday!
This time, it really had won!
On Wednesday, July 4, 2007, the second day of release, Transformers earned another 36.65 million dollars in North America.
After this data appeared, the entire world fell silent!
This data once again created history!
It was the best result among all movies released on July 4 since the American film industry began keeping data.
This time, it had won again!
Uh—
Winology really was popular in America.
The book 365 Days, 365 Victories proved everything.
So, there were actually more than a thousand box office charts in the American film industry.
There really were daily charts, weekly charts, yearly charts!
However, the chart for July 4 was a little more important than the others.
Because that day was Independence Day.
That's right!
Taking first place on that day meant Transformers had slaughtered everything in its path!
It was the most popular National Day movie in American history!
After this explosive momentum appeared—
On Thursday, July 5, 2007, its third day of release.
Although Transformers' North American box office saw a slight drop because the workday had arrived.
It still earned 24.18 million dollars that day!
On Friday, July 6, 2007, its fourth day of release.
Transformers' North American box office rebounded as the holiday period arrived, closing the day with 28.54 million dollars!
On Saturday, July 7, 2007, its fifth day of release.
Transformers reported a North American box office of 32.36 million dollars!
On Sunday, July 8, 2007, its sixth day of release.
Although the approaching end of the weekend affected the number of moviegoers in North America.
Transformers' single-day box office still reached 27.9 million!
On Monday, July 9, 2007, its seventh day of release.
The arrival of a new week officially cut Transformers' North American box office in half, but it still earned 12.49 million dollars!
Transformers didn't escape the box office curse of "always dropping on Mondays"!
But—
Earning 192.9 million dollars in seven days! A first-weekend haul of 88.8 million was already explosive among explosions!
You had to know! Even Avatar: Fire and Ash took nine days to earn 198 million dollars in North America!
And now, Transformers had directly surpassed Rise of the Planet of the Apes!
It became the July-released non-sequel film with the highest opening-weekend box office!
It directly surpassed War of the Worlds!
It became the non-sequel film released on July 4 with the highest opening-weekend box office!
It directly surpassed Independence Day!
It became the non-sequel film with the highest Thursday single-day box office in history!
To describe Transformers' results as briefly as possible, it was — win, win, win, win, win, win, win!!!
Ahem—
These really were charts the Americans made themselves!
A normal person could never come up with charts this abstract!
Because Transformers was a world-class IP, and the current Transformers had benefited from a simultaneous global release, when its North American box office came out, the global box office also updated directly — that number was 290 million!
Transformers had earned 290 million at the box office outside North America!
When this data appeared, Transformers' global total box office had reached 482 million!
Although Transformers had still not officially become profitable, since its real production cost had exceeded 200 million.
Still, 482 million in seven days was terrifying among terrifying!
This meant a brand-new IP had been born—
[Transformers Creates History! It May Become the Next Pirates of the Caribbean!]
[Are Special Effects the Future of the Film Industry? Have Narrative Films Already Fallen Behind?]
[Transformers May Become the Second Non-Sequel Film in the World to Earn 1 Billion at the Box Office! The First Was the Legendary Titanic! Transformers May Be Great From the Moment It Is Born!]
[Isabella Haywood's Magic Still Remains? Projects She Participates in Have Never Lost So Far!]
[Steven Spielberg Is Still Magical! He Has Given Mechanical Toys New Life!]
[Tom Cruise Returns to the Top! Transformers May Become the Best Franchise of His Career!]
[Margot Robbie Ascends in One Step! She May Reach the A+ Throne Through Transformers!]
[——]
The flood of reports made Isabella smile.
Honestly, she really liked the feeling of waking up to another huge victory.
As for the reason?
No one disliked success, right?
Who could refuse winning while lying down?
Right?
Mm!
She was exactly that kind of vulgar person!
Hehe~
However, just as she was shaking her little foot and having Margot, who was wearing a blue shirt, denim trousers, pointed high heels, and air glasses, report the next item of work — she felt Margot looked really good in professional attire—
"What did you say? The Transformers game received negative reviews across the entire internet?"
"Is the quality of this game really that bad?"
Isabella, who had originally been lounging leisurely on the recliner, was a little stunned.
"Yes. IGN only gave it 5.5 out of 10."
Margot nodded. "And Metacritic's score and GameRankings' score are about the same as IGN's."
In this era, the most influential media outlets in the gaming circle were IGN, Metacritic, and GameRankings.
When all three felt the Transformers game was very average—
Then the Transformers game really was average.
"So what exactly is wrong with this game?"
Isabella frowned slightly.
Margot flipped through the report in her hands and said, "According to these media outlets, the Transformers game has many flaws in its production. For example — the camera shakes too much when the Transformers walk. Another example — the driving feel of the Transformers is terrible. And also — the game is too short, while the mission objectives are repetitive and boring—"
Honestly.
Movie-adapted games and game-adapted films were actually in the same situation. Count them one by one, and they were basically all bad.
Or rather, there were only a few truly excellent movie-adapted games in this world.
The reason was simple. Movie-adapted games and game-adapted films existed purely because capital wanted to make quick money.
When the key reason these projects got approved was that they already had a massive fan base, any normal person would know the market's user base had an upper limit, because the people who liked it already liked it.
In that case—
No one was going to seriously make something good!
To put it more bluntly, when a market's upper limit was five million, making a game half-heartedly and selling 2.5 million copies would be the first choice for most people, because even if you made it seriously, you still couldn't fight your way to ten million sales.
Uh—
This might sound harsh, but that was the truth.
It was precisely because Isabella had glimpsed a tiny bit of human nature that she had never thought the Transformers game would be anything good from the very beginning. But even if she'd guessed it would be bad, it still shouldn't have failed to even pass, right?
You had to know—
Whether this thing was good or bad would affect her later plans!
"So — Transformers the game didn't sell much, right?"
Isabella sighed, feeling a slight headache coming on.
"Uh — the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable versions of the game went on sale as early as June 19."
"Then the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, and Wii versions went on sale on June 26."
"By the end of last weekend, Transformers had sold a total of 2.7 million copies across these platforms."
"Judging from the current situation, Transformers' lifetime sales should exceed 10 million."
"???"
Isabella was shocked!
"What did you say?"
She looked at Margot with a deep frown. "Transformers has already sold 2.7 million copies? In less than a month?"
Margot narrowed her eyes. After confirming she hadn't read it wrong, she nodded. "Yeah."
"That is indeed what's written here."
As she spoke, she showed the report in her hands to Isabella.
This fact left Isabella speechless. "With such good results, couldn't you just report the number directly?"
"Why did you deliberately mention the low score first?"
"Huh? Is this number high?"
Margot was a little surprised. "The HP novels can sell ten million copies in one day, and your albums can sell several million copies in one day too. But the Transformers game only sold 2.7 million copies in a month—"
Isabella choked.
Looking at the little girl's confused face, Isabella suddenly realized that Margot didn't understand everything after all.
Although the video game industry was the world's best cash cow, sales in this industry worked completely differently from books, music, film, and television. In those industries, ten-million-level sales might only be the threshold for entering the highest hall. But in gaming, ten-million-level sales were already at the very top of that hall.
Because the cost of playing games was higher than reading books, listening to music, watching television, or watching movies.
So, with Transformers' lifetime sales potentially reaching 10 million—
For a movie-adapted game, this was already an extremely good result!
It was good enough for Isabella to smile again!
However, when some people were happy, others were worried.
"—"
After learning that Transformers' box office results were explosively good, and that the game's results were even top-tier within the industry—
The face of Marvel's current chairman, Isaac Perlmutter, instantly fell.
Because he smelled danger.