Chapter 568 The end of summer vacation

July and August are the hottest months in Los Angeles, and this year it is even hotter, with the highest outdoor temperature soaring to over 35 degrees Celsius.

In addition, the air is very dry. Since May, nine forest fires have occurred in southern California, and more than 30,000 people have been evacuated. The closest one to the villa is the Angeles National Forest, and the billowing smoke drifts from San Gabriel to the Santa Monica Mountains.

The weather is too dry, and there is no work that must be completed recently. After returning from Rio, Link is basically in a state of health preservation. In addition to the essential daily training, the rest of the time is spent taking care of the three children.

Under his careful care, in Taylor's words, the three children are becoming more and more naughty and disobedient, sometimes making her want to hit people.

She is reluctant to hit the little one, so Link became her punching bag. Even when she was in bed, she suddenly got angry and had to bite him and punch him.

If he was beaten by a man, he would fight back with his fists and knock his opponent unconscious. If he was beaten by his own woman, he could not return the punches, but could only fight back in other ways.

Now he is a heavyweight, weighing more than 90 kilograms, with a stronger and more ferocious body. His attack and lethality are stronger than when he was a light heavyweight. Even Taylor, who is very strong and unyielding, dares not provoke him without scruples.

The same is true for Evaka, but Eva is a woman as gentle as water. She will choose to be soft when she should be soft, turning the steel into softness around her fingers, making people reluctant to bully her. Even if Taylor faints, her soul is still fighting.

Sometimes Link teases Taylor that she should practice boxing. With her unyielding spirit, she might be able to get the gold belt.

Taylor disdains this, calling herself an artistic young woman who disdains to fight with others, and also laughs at him as a beast. Only beasts like to fight.

Link said that it is the nature of males to like fighting. Only males who win in fights can have status, food, and mating rights in the tribe, and everything he has now is fought out.

Taylor didn't agree with his statement, but didn't refute it. She just frowned and snorted, turned around and told Alexander to be good and not to make trouble.

Alexander didn't listen, sprayed her skirt with a toy water gun, turned around and ran away.

Taylor was furious, picked up a bigger toy water gun and chased after him, shouting that he would kill this unfilial son.

Cynthia and little Margarita giggled and chased after him to help. Alexander saw that the situation was not right and hid behind Link with his little head.

Link told the little guy to face things bravely when encountering things, and that escaping would not solve the problem. Then he held Alexander as a shield and blocked all the water sprayed back. By the way, he used Alexander's water gun to hit the big and two small ones running around on the lawn.

Although the water fight was won, Taylor criticized them severely afterwards, and ordered the little guys to stop playing with water guns, worried that they would like to play with real guns when they grow up, which is too dangerous.

Link felt that she, as a mother, was worried too much every day and was a little anxious.

After playing with the little ones for a few days, Taylor turned around and ran to the studio to continue working on her new album "1989", which is expected to be released in October.

There are also five songs written by Link in this album, which are popular songs that did not appear in Taylor's previous albums. Taylor didn't like them after watching them, but the company's producer thought they were of high quality and suitable for her to sing. It would be a pity to let others sing them.

After considering it, Taylor reluctantly accepted it. She didn't accept it before because she didn't want people to think that Link's songs were better than hers. Later, she accepted it because she didn't want the songs Link wrote for her to be sung by others.

Women's minds are really complicated.

While being a stay-at-home dad, Link would visit Paul Walker who was recovering from his injuries when he was free.

After half a year of treatment and recuperation, Paul's body has almost recovered, and his skin burns have basically healed.

Only his left knee was seriously damaged, and he still has to sit in a wheelchair.

As for driving, this guy now feels difficulty breathing and pale face when he sits in the car. It is said that it is the sequelae of the car accident and needs long-term psychological counseling.

Because of Paul's injury, the filming of "Fast and Furious 7" was also greatly affected. Originally, they planned to find Paul's brother to temporarily replace him, but the effect was found to be average. The crew could only wait for him to recover before reshooting.

"Link, you should be careful when driving. Don't drive after drinking or taking drugs."

Paul Walker said while sitting in a wheelchair on the grass, patting his legs.

"Well, although I don't drink or take drugs, I will accept your advice."

Link shrugged his shoulders.

"You are right. Sometimes I admire you very much. No matter how much money you have or how famous you are, you never indulge yourself. Well, except for women."

"If it weren't for the last sentence, I would be happy to accept your compliment."

Link shook his head and said.

——

By the beginning of August, Link left home and joined the crew of "The Expendables 3" to shoot his last movie this year.

The third part of The Expendables tells the story of the new Expendables led by Link and Scarlett Johansson encountering unprecedented challenges after the retirement of the two old mercenary leaders, Sylvester Stallone and Schwarzenegger. In this episode, their enemy is Stone Banks, the former comrade-in-arms, old mercenary, and arms tycoon.

The other side also has an elite mercenary team with hundreds of people, well-equipped, and possessing many high-tech weapons, and very strong combat effectiveness.

In order to defeat the opponent, under the guidance of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Link and Scarlett recruited faster and stronger high-tech combat freshmen, replaced high-tech equipment, and fought a life-and-death battle with the opponent's mercenary team, and finally captured the villain Stone Banks.

Link also gained recognition from his teammates in the battle and became the true leader of the Expendables.

The production cost of this film was as high as 120 million US dollars, and the producers included Lionsgate, Millennium Pictures, Wanda Pictures, and Skydance Pictures.

In addition to Link and Scarlett Johansson, the starring actors include Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Antonio Banderas, Harry Fordson, Alice Lee, Bae Suzy and others. The villain boss is played by the famous movie star Mel Gibson.

The filming locations of the film are in the United States, Egypt and Bulgaria, and Link can only run around with the crew.

"First scene, 1 shot, action!"

The filming began, Link wore a cool mercenary suit, holding a Kohler-Koch G36 assault rifle, and led more than a dozen teammates to kill on the set.

During the filming, Lionsgate's tenth film "John Wick" and the eleventh film "John Wick 4" were released one after another.

"John Wick" is an action movie starring Keanu Reeves.

It tells the story of a group of thugs who broke into John Wick's home after his retirement, stole his Ford classic car, and killed the dog left by his deceased wife.

In order to avenge his beloved dog, he killed all the way to New York and killed the gangsters, but found that the father of the gangster leader was a ruthless Russian gangster.

In order to avenge his son, the Russian gangster hired the protagonist's former teammate to assassinate the protagonist, and finally the teammate turned against him and helped the protagonist kill the gangster.

The protagonist successfully avenged his beloved dog and got the classic car back.

After the movie was released, it was jokingly called "a bloody murder caused by a dog" by many fans. In order to avenge his dog, the protagonist killed more than 100 people.

However, this movie is adapted from a real news report.

In 2009, Marcus Luttrell, a sergeant of the US Navy SEALs, was robbed by several men who broke into his house and killed his beloved dog DASY. In order to avenge the dog, Marcus picked up a gun and drove to chase them, and finally sent several men to prison alone.

The movie was released in mid-July, with a box office of 19.53 million US dollars in the first week and 44.93 million US dollars in North America in the first month of its release.

The overseas box office results are not much different from those in North America, with a revenue of 45.3 million US dollars in more than 60 countries and regions in the first month.

The production cost of the film is 20 million US dollars, and the revenue ratio of 4:1 can be regarded as a hit.

"John Wick" is also Keanu Reeves' most popular movie after the "Matrix" series. Keanu Reeves also temporarily got rid of the title of box office poison with this movie.

The eleventh film, "Black Widow 4", continues the vulgar and funny black comedy style of the first three films. The film quality is average, but it has a good market among black movie fans.

The film was released in mid-August, with a box office of 21.47 million US dollars in the first week, ranking third in the weekly box office.

This week's box office champion is "Guardians of the Galaxy" released at the same time, distributed by Disney, with a box office of 134 million in the first week. The second is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows", which was released last week, with a box office of 38.74 million US dollars this week and a cumulative box office of 128 million.

When "Black Widow 4" was released, the box office results of the eighth and ninth films under Lionsgate were also released one after another.

"Neighbors" was released for more than two months, and it received a box office of 158 million in North America, 134 million overseas, and a total box office of 292 million.

Compared with the production cost of 18 million, this result is far beyond expectations. It is also the highest-grossing film of Lionsgate after "Divergent 1" and "Fake Family".

The ninth movie "Step Up 5" was released for more than a month, with a box office of 28.12 million US dollars in North America and 78.5 million US dollars overseas, with a total box office of 105 million US dollars.

Compared with the production cost of 15 million, the profit ratio reached 6:1, which is considered a big hit.

"John Wick 4" was released for three weeks, with a box office of 52.21 million US dollars in North America and 8.74 million US dollars in overseas regions.

The film cost 16 million to produce, but it still remained profitable and became the most vital series of films in Lionsgate.

In September, the summer season ended, and the media began to summarize the box office situation of this summer season and the performance of major film companies.

This summer season, Lionsgate released a total of six movies, "Ender's Game", "Divergent: Alien Awakening", "Neighbors", "Step Up 5", "John Wick: Chapter 4", and "Step Up 4".

A total of 510 million US dollars were earned in North America.

Including the five films released before May, "Snowpiercer", "Georgia", "Call of Duty", "The Fake Family", and "The Grand Budapest Hotel", the total box office in North America is 450 million.

Before September, Lionsgate released 11 films, four of which had a North American box office of over 100 million, nine of which had a North American box office of over 50 million, a total box office of 960 million US dollars in North America, and a total box office of about 2.3 billion US dollars worldwide.

Ranked second among the new seven major film companies.

Ranked first is Disney Pictures, which has released 9 films so far, including "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Captain America 2", "Planes 2", etc., with a total box office of 1.02 billion US dollars in North America.

Leading Lionsgate by a slight advantage.

But considering that Lionsgate still has the hit movie "The Hunger Games 3" that has not been released yet, "Gone Girl" starring Link has not been released yet, and "American Hustle" which was postponed last year.

"The Hollywood Reporter" believes that Lionsgate has a high probability of surpassing Disney and becoming the champion of the total box office in 2014. This is the first time that the six major film companies will be surpassed by other film companies in terms of total box office, and it is a small film company that has been established for less than 20 years.

"Los Angeles Times" also praised Lionsgate as a film company with strong creativity and the ability to continuously launch wonderful films, and it is a weathervane for the Hollywood film industry.

These eulogistic reports are partly spontaneous publicity by the media and partly the work of the publicity department of Lionsgate. The purpose is to enhance Lionsgate's influence and appeal in the film industry and consolidate Lionsgate's position in the "New Seven".