Chapter 1307 Fixed-point delivery
Escaped!
Sure enough, in Hollywood there is always a risk and you need to be vigilant at all times.
If Focus Features had been a little greedy and changed the positioning and strategy of the film, it might have been involved in the storm by now and it would be too late to withdraw.
A wrong distribution positioning and marketing strategy will not only destroy the box office prospects, but also exposure, word-of-mouth value, discussion, etc., and may also cause the work to miss the competition during the awards season.
A single move affects the whole body——
This is Hollywood, one after the other.
Some people may be curious, why some excellent works have outstanding reputations and rave reviews but have not been nominated for Oscars, while some mediocre works have jumped out of the cracks of the stone and entered the Oscar race and even won the award?
The above is the reason.
Putting aside the intricacies of college public relations for the time being, distribution strategy and market positioning are the first threshold. The foundation has been laid even before college public relations begins. Strategic mistakes in the starting stage may lead to a complete loss of competitiveness in subsequent games, which is far more important than Imagine the difficulty.
Precisely because of this, the success or failure of a work is not that simple.
Actors are just one link. Even if they complete their work well, they still need to look at the work of other links:
Directing, Producing, Editing, Distribution, Marketing and more.
From the beginning of the project, it was like a long march. After ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties to complete the filming and post-production, there are still long thorns to overcome.
No wonder actors always say, who hasn’t starred in a few bad movies?
After the actors finish their work, there are still countless possibilities for mistakes and a series of failures in a movie, all of which are out of the actor's control.
An actor's mere vision for selecting scripts is not enough to ensure the success of every work; they also need to have a vision for selecting projects. Here, the so-called "project" includes different links such as directors, producers, distribution companies, etc. It has gone far beyond the scope of acting.
It is precisely because of this that it has become a feat for Tom Cruise and Will Smith to have five consecutive films that have exceeded $100 million at the North American box office, achieving their status as top superstars.
The same goes for Anson. Whether "Nuan Nuan Contains Light" can continue Anson's undefeated halo has become a key battle for Hollywood Vanity Fair to snipe him.
No one thought that before "Spider-Man 2", "Nuan Nuan Containing Light" would actually become a target and bear too much weight that it should not bear.
Under such a predicament and situation, Focus Features' performance has become increasingly important and rare.
Focus Features stuck to their true intentions, controlled themselves, and narrowly escaped a storm while swinging left and right. Not only did they remain unmoved by Hollywood's incitement, but they became more determined in their strategy.
"Warmth contains light", and the positioning needs to be precise.
Focus Features draws inspiration from the release of "Elephant" to formulate distribution strategy——
They are not going to start with point screenings like "Elephant" and have always controlled the screening range, because "Warm and Warm Inner Light" is not as experimental as "Elephant". Although it is obscure, Charlie Kaufman's film The core of the work is love, which is in line with the love story of artistic youth; therefore, the film's market coverage is slightly wider than that of "Elephant".
Focus Features believes that the screening city is more important than the number of theaters.
To give a simple example, in central cities such as Houston, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Dallas, and Portland, cities dominated by industry and agriculture, there is no market for works like "Warmth and Light Within"——
Even if there is, it is only a small part and needs to be slowly discovered through publicity and promotion. Imagine a mine worker or a truck driver who has been working hard all day, becomes curious about the names of Peter Parker in "Spider-Man" and Ruth in "Titanic", buys a ticket and enters the cinema, only to see Will they be happy with such a work?
99% probability is negative.
In sharp contrast, cities such as New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have different natures of work and lifestyles, as well as different entertainment methods, and naturally different expectations and acceptance levels.
The number of theaters is not important, the cities where it is targeted are what really matters.
Of course, this is not all. In addition to the number of screening cities and theaters, the importance of the release schedule cannot be ignored. At this time, the Oscar Awards ceremony has to be mentioned.
In previous years, the Oscars were held at the end of March. After the awards ceremony, the next step was when the winning works gained attention in theaters due to the Oscar effect. April ended in the blink of an eye, and the summer movies were ready to debut.
In other words, the spring season has been left out due to the strong influence of the Oscar effect, and there is no end in sight to the cold wave that has continued from the winter season. The works released during this period are relatively conservative in terms of investment scale and publicity strategies, and the film companies' thoughts are In awards season works.
Therefore, when movie companies try to explore other possibilities besides the summer season, the holiday season is the first choice, and then they turn their attention to the deserted autumn season, while the winter and spring films are automatically ignored.
However, the Oscars are now four weeks ahead of schedule, and the spring season is one month longer. Although the Oscar effect still exists, the possibility of a spring season is suddenly opened up. What does this mean?
The answer is obvious——
In March and April, the potential began to emerge.
In fact, the summer season will start in May. This is a conventional schedule division, but there is no real legal meaning. The real decisive factor for film companies to choose to release a week earlier or a week later is the restraint and game between them.
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Now, the possibility of spring sales has slightly opened up, and the competitive landscape has undergone subtle changes. Before the summer sales really come, seize the gap and make a profit before the market is fully active. The probability of success of such a strategy has skyrocketed——
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The tradition of the "Fast and Furious" series is to release in April, sneaking in early before the fierce competition for the summer season.
According to market rules, the summer season still kicks off in May; but in the distribution strategy of film companies, the boundaries between April and May are beginning to blur.
It is conceivable that film companies need to readjust their positioning and strategies.
This is also a direct impact of the Oscar ceremony being moved up from the end of March to the end of February or early March.
This year is the first year.
The Academy announced this decision as early as July 2002. When the film companies planned the 2004 spring schedule, they inevitably started to look at each other.
The so-called first year means that everything is unknown and needs to be explored, taken risks, and tried. From a theoretical perspective, the April window has indeed appeared; but in fact, whether the general public will accept such an adjustment requires a big decision. question mark.
So, how does Focus Features judge?
It's an adventure but it's also an opportunity. Focus Features chose this schedule because it was aiming to take a chance before the Oscars.——
Ambition still exists objectively.
(End of chapter)