Just after Easter with his family, Peter Sanders got a phone call and rushed to Fox Studios before eight o'clock in the morning.
Ronald Goldberg's assistant was in a hurry on the phone and hung up before he could elaborate. But Peter Sanders knows very well that it must have something to do with the next weekend's box office of the butterfly effect.
Walking into a conference room in the executive building of the studio, Peter Sanders finds that there are five or six people waiting here, basically senior executives of the publicity department, but Ronald Goldberg has not yet appeared.
Before he could sit down at the conference table, Peter Sanders was keen to catch a number in the crowd's comments.
“…… 11.86 million.... "
11.86 million?!
Feeling strongly that he might have heard wrong, Peter Sanders snatched the folder from the meeting secretary, stood in the same place and opened it directly.
The first page is the latest box office data report of three days over the weekend.
Butterfly effect, US $11.86 million, - 17%.
Sure enough, it's 11.86 million dollars!
Moreover, compared with the box office data of $14.31 million in the first weekend, the butterfly effect's decline in the next week was far more than everyone expected, only 17%.
Peter Sanders couldn't help but calculate quickly.
At the end of the next weekend, the box office will drop by 17%. If this trend continues, it is absolutely possible that the total box office in North America will exceed 100 million US dollars.
Now the question is, what happened?
Peter Sanders was standing in the same place, a little dazed. Ronald Goldberg came in with a few people and sat directly at the conference table. Seeing the appearance of Peter Sanders, Goldberg was very calm: "Peter, what are you doing standing there? Sit down."
Peter Sanders came back, nodded to each other with a smile, and went to the conference table to sit down.
The Secretary of the meeting began to distribute another document.
Ronald Goldberg and other people sat down and said directly, "you should have seen that, yes, the box office dropped only 17% next week at $11.86 million. As for what happened? I asked someone to summarize the recent audience survey results of the company's publicity department, which can probably explain why. However, this is not the most important. The key now is how to maintain this box office trend and how to make the box office of "Butterfly Effect" cross the $100 million threshold. "
After a few years in charge of fox pictures, the company is finally ushering in a work that is expected to break the box office of 100 million in North America. Ronald Goldberg's tone is hard to hide his excitement.
Peter Sanders, listening to Ronald Goldberg, began to discuss with you the issues of increasing the screening scale and adjusting the film marketing strategy of the butterfly effect as soon as possible. He opened another document he just got and read Fox's propaganda department's analysis of the box office trend of the butterfly effect next week.
In the summary of the report, several sets of data from the audience survey of butterfly effect in North America are specially marked.
"Proportion of audience aged 18-26: 43%."
"Audience rating on the 10 point system: 7.7."
"Affected by" Lola Run ", the proportion of viewers who choose to watch the film: 81%."
"The proportion of viewers not affected by comments: 33%."
"The proportion of viewers who think the film has been unfairly commented by the media: 76%."
"The proportion of viewers who plan to recommend to friends after watching the film: 69%."
In the conference room.
Just after reading this set of data, Peter Sanders has roughly understood why the box office trend of "Butterfly Effect" next week is beyond everyone's expectation.
At the end of the research report, it is also clearly pointed out that compared with the overwhelming media bad reviews, "Butterfly Effect" has a much higher reputation among the audience. The audience rating of 7.7 basically belongs to the category of an excellent film.
At the same time, because the audience of butterfly effect tends to be younger, they seldom read newspapers and prefer friends to recommend their viewing targets. Therefore, the impact of media's one-sided bad reviews on the box office of the film is far less than fox predicted.
The report also speculates that the popularity of "Lola Run" has brought a huge potential audience base to "Butterfly Effect". Although some audiences temporarily gave up watching the film due to the bad comments from the media in the first week, they still chose to enter the cinema again after the word-of-mouth spread among the film audience, which also contributed to the slight decline of only 17% at the end of the next weekend.
Basically, the major Hollywood film companies will conduct similar audience research on their key films. The data were there before the butterfly effect box office was released next weekend.
However, the media's bad comments on "Butterfly Effect" are so fierce that no one in fox can feel too secure because of these data.
Now that the box office results have been released, it is easy to deduce the reasons through data.in the final analysis.
After all, film is a high-risk business as unpredictable as the weather.
After reading the report, Peter Sanders looked up. A senior executive in the publicity department was making his own point.
"Ronald, in addition to these, I think we can play up the strong contrast between the bad comments of the media and the box office of the film as much as possible through the regulation of public opinion, so that people can believe that the butterfly effect has been treated unfairly. We can even suggest that someone is deliberately discrediting the film, which can stimulate the sympathy and rebelliousness of the audience to the greatest extent We should guide more people into the cinema. "
After hearing this, Ronald Goldberg nodded approvingly and said, "Nick, please make a detailed implementation plan as soon as possible. I'll ask New York to cooperate. So, for the time being, let's do our own work. Remember, I'm going to see more than 1700 screens of the butterfly effect this Friday. "
This was a propaganda strategy adjustment meeting. Peter Sanders was called in only because he was directly in charge of the production vice president of the butterfly effect. He didn't express any opinions during the whole process.
After hearing Ronald announce the end of the meeting, Peter Sanders got up and was about to leave with the crowd, but he was stopped by Ronald Goldberg.
"Peter, the next promotion of the butterfly effect needs Simon westero's cooperation. You are responsible for contacting this matter. In addition, I remember that Denise pictures is still preparing a love movie. You ask someone to make an evaluation report for me again. "
Peter Sanders nodded, and when Ronald Goldberg left, he looked up at his watch. It was just nine o'clock in the morning.
At the same time.
With the start of the new working week, the next weekend box office data of the butterfly effect also quickly spread all over Hollywood.
compared with the box office curve of Lola Run, the next weekend box office of the butterfly effect made too many people surprised. Until Fox's internal report gradually spread, many people finally believed it It's a fact.
$21.69 million for the first week and $11.85 million for the next weekend.
In just ten days, the total box office of "Butterfly Effect" has reached $33.55 million. There's no doubt that even if it doesn't break through 100 million yuan in the end, the film will definitely be in the top 10 of the annual box office list.
Thinking of this, many people suddenly feel surprised.
In addition to the still on "Lola Run", a young man who has been on the scene in Hollywood for less than a year has already created two films that are enough to make it into the top ten of the annual box office in North America.
Even Steven Spielberg has never done such a miracle.
Aware of this, Denise pictures, which is located in an office building in Santa Monica, suddenly attracted the strong attention of the whole Hollywood again.
In Hollywood, one success can be regarded as an accident, but two successes are enough to prove too many things. Now that two miracles have been created, Simon westero's good luck may not come to an abrupt end.
Denise pictures headquarters.
It's already afternoon.
Simon's office is welcoming a heavyweight guest, CAA president Michael owitz.
Due to the internal turmoil of wma last year, CAA took the opportunity to poach a large number of top stars. With the company and its mature packaging operation mechanism, Michael owitz is definitely one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
However, on the other hand, Michael owitz is an extremely low-key person.
In my memory, it was not until the late 1980s, when CAA became more and more powerful and the media spared no effort to excavate it, that Michael owitz, a "giant" hiding in Hollywood, finally emerged and ranked first in Hollywood power list of Premiere Magazine for many times.
On the sofa in the reception area, Simon and owitz sit opposite each other.
Michael owitz has a kind of easygoing temperament that makes people naturally feel close, but his words are straightforward, saying: "Simon, these days, you have sent cooperation invitation to many customers of CAA, such as John Travolta, Robert Redford, Meg Ryan and so on. So, in order to facilitate our cooperation, how about joining CAA? "
As soon as he spoke, Simon felt the CAA boss's strong desire for control.
However, he just shook his head and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, Michael, I already have an agent. Moreover, even if I join CAA, I will not sign a sharing contract with you. "
"Of course, our company is very flexible in this respect. Spielberg is also our client. We signed the same fixed salary contract with him," Michael owitz said with a smile. Finally, he added, "just like you at wma."
"In that case," Simon shrugged, "Michael, you should know that I would never have terminated Joe easily. If it wasn't for him, I might still be a cashier in a supermarket. So let's talk about Bob's pay. "Michael owitz nodded, didn't chase like the rumor, or just didn't show it for the time being. He simply changed the subject and said, "Bob called me. He wants to play a guest role in your new movie. I've seen the script, and seriously, I don't think it's a good choice. But you know, we always try our best to meet all the requirements of our customers. So, Simon, a million dollars, Bob is worth it. "