I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 263: The Biggest Dark Horse

Despite the polarized reviews for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, it has been a box office hit. On its opening weekend, the sequel earned $31 million in over 2,200 theaters in North America, and after its first week, it grossed over $46 million, significantly higher than the $27 million of its predecessor. This made other Hollywood companies fearful that "Home Alone 2" may break the first film's box office record.

Coming in at second place this week was Warner Bros.' Lethal Weapon 2, which released in over 1,900 theaters, but only earned $25 million, slightly more than half of Home Alone 2’s total. Third place went to Paramount’s black comedy Harlem Nights, which earned $22 million.

The movie "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" made 46 million dollars at the box office, which is not too surprising. What was more surprising was the Thanksgiving weekend first-week movie, "Steel Magnolias", which had been overlooked.

Admittedly, it was a bit exaggerated to say it was overlooked, considering this was the first movie that Julia Aniston starred in after the success of "Pretty Woman", and it still got quite a bit of attention. But compared to the big publicity for other New Year films such as "Home Alone 2", "Lethal Weapon 2" and "Back to the Future 2", the publicity for Julia's movie, which tells the story of ordinary life of several women in a Southern town, was much weaker.

Despite grossing only $17 million in its opening weekend, Steel Magnolias was undoubtedly the biggest dark horse of the new year's lineup. Compared to the $10 million opening, Steel Magnolias had an impressive $17,000 per-screen average, and a high occupancy rate, higher than Home Alone 2 with its $20,000 per-screen average. Lethal Weapon 2 had $13,000 per-screen average, and Harlem Night Club had $10,000, just enough to qualify as a hit.

Next, under the impact of a wave of newly released films, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York saw a 41% drop in ticket sales, earning $14.75 million and just barely squeezing into the top five.

Universal's "Back to the Future 2" only made over $130 million at the box office, not because the movie suffered a box office slump, but because Universal, for whatever reason, neither put the film on November 17th nor the next week on November 24th, but on the awkward November 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving. Eric can't help but ache. While receiving joyous box office data every day, Eric's villa in Beverly Hills was also in chaos. As an important festival in the United States second only to Christmas, Thanksgiving is a day for family reunion.

Donald Trump certainly couldn't go back to Carl's to spend Thanksgiving with his mother. As for Aniston, her parents had both remarried after their divorce, and she had a brother from her father's side and a sister from her mother's side, which made things complicated. Plus, Ivanka was already grown up, so no matter which side she went to, she felt very uncomfortable. Unintentionally, she complained to Eric a few times, and Eric then invited Ivanka to his house for Thanksgiving. Aniston was not expecting to agree this time, but surprisingly, she did.

So, Eric, who was sitting in front of the computer in the study room without any intention of working, had a strong feeling of self-blame.

Eric stared at the document for half an hour, but couldn't type out any words. Bored, he closed his laptop and walked out of the study room. From far away, he heard voices downstairs.

"Hey, Fatty McFat, I told you how many times already. This pillow is for my personal use only, don't you touch it!"

"You little brat. Call me Fatty McFat one more time and I'll touch it."

"... ..."

After a brief pause, Aniston's terrified and disgusted voice immediately came: "Wow, that's so gross, you actually touched your own saliva on the pillow."

"Have the guts to come closer!"

"Get away from me, no changing channels, give me back the remote, I'm learning to make pumpkin pie."

"Who would dare to eat what you make, yesterday's salmon egg rolls were inedible."

"It was inedible but you ate so much, don't think I didn't see."

"My stomach was rumbling in the middle of the night."

"You're talking nonsense, Eric and I are fine!"

Eric hesitated for a few moments, then sighed and returned to the study, picking up the phone and dialing numbers randomly.

Ivanka had gone home to celebrate the holiday with her parents, Nicole was in Chicago, promoting Seattle Nights. Even Julia wasn't in Los Angeles, so in the end, out of sheer boredom, Eric called the number of the home of Jeffrey.

"Hello, this is the Hanson home." After the call was connected, Eric was stunned, because it wasn't Jeffrey's voice that came out, but a young person. Immediately, Eric thought that the other party might be Jeffrey's son, Chris Hanson.

"I'm Eric Williams, may I ask who this is?" Even though he was pretty sure, Eric still asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the line before a voice replied, "I'm Chris Hansen, Mr. Williams. Are you looking for my Dad? I'll go get him."

Eric didn't say anything as he didn't know the person, and after a while Jeffrey's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Eric, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. What is it that you need? I'm telling you now that I won't be getting involved in any big deals since Chris just came back home with his girlfriend. If it's something to do with the company, you should talk to Robert about it."

Eric was a little surprised, then he chuckled, "Nothing, I'm just feeling a bit bored at home so I randomly called your number to chat."

Jeffrey asked curiously, "Isn't Donald's daughter supposed to be at your place? With that strange little girl there, why are you still feeling bored?"

"Well, Janine is here too. So, you know," Eric replied.

Jeffrey of course knew what Eric was talking about, he had seen the two little girls fighting on the hospital bed with his own eyes before. After a pause, Jeffrey burst out laughing: "Ha ha ha, Eric, how did you manage to get them together again?"