Chapter 1120: Chaos
Schedule, chaos.
According to a person from the distribution department of New Line Cinema, not only the holiday season, but also the autumn season in September and October, all major film companies have also disrupted their strategies.
They are testing, testing the market response to the autumn and holiday releases, and testing the market response to different types of movies.
For example, "Haunted Mansion" is scheduled for Thanksgiving, "Kill Bill" avoids the Halloween schedule, and it is incredible to avoid all Halloween weekends.
Weird schedules abound. In the final analysis, the ultimate goal is that the major film companies need to disrupt the pattern, disrupt the fixed routines, try to re-formulate the rules, reorganize their thoughts, and see who can do it in the chaotic battle among the heroes. Be the first to break out of the encirclement and gain the advantage.
New Line Cinema is not a top player in the Hollywood pyramid, but as a subsidiary of Warner Bros., they obviously also play an important role.
According to feedback from New Line Cinema, all eyes are now on the big players with an investment cost of US$100 million, but the real danger during this year’s holiday season is actually the small players:
New Oscar Movie After Halle Berry starred in "The Ghost", Billy Bob Thornton targeted the crime comedy market with "Bad Christmas", and Jessica Alba made the transition from television to movies. ) starring in "Hot Dance."
Director Richard-Donner, who once produced the "Lethal Weapon" series, took Paul Walker, who rose to prominence with the "Fast and Furious" series, to create "Return to middle Ages".
The list goes on and on, including "The Christmas Elf" and "The Butterfly Effect."
These small and medium-budget movies all disrupted the routine, messily intervening in the schedule between Halloween and Thanksgiving, completely disrupting the market rules.
It is precisely because of this that New Line Cinema, after careful consideration, chose a strategy to break out of the chaos -
"Christmas Elf" faces off against "The Matrix 3" and "The Butterfly Effect" "Head-on collision" and "Fighting in the Furious" are actually the same, taking advantage of the dislocation of genre movies and relying on the wave of big production and big publicity to attract attention with small and big things.
In this way, it is more cost-effective than the tragic situation where they spend a lot of money and start a chaotic duel with a group of small and medium-cost productions but still cannot guarantee whether they can win.
After all, New Line Cinema’s distribution, publicity and marketing costs cannot be compared with those of top companies.
Twentieth Century Fox spent a lot of money to promote "The Great and Powerful", with a publicity budget of up to 20 million US dollars. Because the film's internal test screenings were well received, and "Pirates of the Caribbean" was released this summer, Naval battle movies are back in the public eye, and they can be said to be full of confidence.
Other film projects are also half-measured.
So, no matter where the "Butterfly Effect" is inserted, it will still be surrounded from all sides. It is better to simply attack directly under the enemy's nose.
Head-on confrontation?
No, no, no, thatched boat borrows arrows.
New Line Cinema's reply was sincere and reliable, and the interaction was positive and detailed; but Edgar didn't know how to respond.
In Edgar’s opinion, avoiding the holiday season this year may not be an option. Maybe, the winter season? Or next spring?
But if you think about it seriously, changing the schedule may not necessarily improve the situation; what's more, New Line Cinema's choice of holiday schedule still shows their ambition and full confidence in Anson.
No matter what, Edgar is not a professional in matters such as schedule and publicity, so you should trust the judgment of professionals——
At least, from the current point of view, this year's holiday season does present a new scene. After the major film companies disrupted their strategies, the audience also appeared to be more active.
There are quite a few surprises. "Kill Bill" had an opening weekend of 22 million US dollars and has accumulated 67 million US dollars so far. Although the box office performance is slightly lower than expected, Quentin is always a weirdo who takes the wrong approach and is not looking forward to the movie. The box office received a blowout.
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” $29 million opening weekend, $77 million to date, compared to $9.5 million With ultra-low production costs, the production and distribution company New Line Cinema has made a fortune, and Jessica Biel has become famous with this work——
New Line Cinema, first, and now It seems that the pros do have two brushes.
"Scream 3" grossed US$49 million in its opening weekend, and its cumulative box office has just exceeded US$100 million so far, continuing the outstanding performance of the series.
One wave after another, rising steadily, and reaching a small peak in the second week of November.
"The Matrix 3" was released ahead of schedule on Wednesday, successfully diverting traffic from the just-concluded Halloween weekend and calling audiences back to the cinema.
Forty-eight million US dollars in the three days of the opening weekend, and US$83 million in the first five days!
The results were slightly lower than expected.
In the third week of May this year, "The Matrix 2" was released on the summer schedule. It was also released in advance on Wednesday. It earned US$91 million in the three days of the opening weekend and US$134 million in the first five days. It became the box office of this summer. One of the best performances.
However, after six months, the final film in the series failed to further ignite the box office based on the previous film.
There was a slight uneasiness in the air.
But think about it from another angle. This year’s holiday season has been a chaotic mess. All the major film companies are making trial and error. From publicity to layout, there are many variables. The box office has continued to rise in the first three weeks, and there are "hackers". It doesn’t seem to be a surprise that there was a fluctuation during the period of “Empire 3”.
Moreover, "Christmas Elf" far exceeded expectations, grossing $32 million in its opening weekend and making the entire market take a collective breath.
What's going on!
After "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", New Line Cinema's layout has been successful again!
Although "Christmas Elf" received mediocre reviews, with a comprehensive media review of only 66 points, family audiences went to the theaters one after another in the holiday atmosphere, which also allowed the movie to move from the torrent of "The Matrix 3" It stole a lot of viewers.
Who knows, maybe New Line Cinema can really become the biggest winner of this year’s holiday season?
It is against this background that Anson returns to Los Angeles and the premiere of "The Butterfly Effect" is about to take place.
On the one hand, the Los Angeles media are excited and excited, curious about the next development of the story and whether New Line Cinema and Anson can bring surprises again.
On the other hand, outsiders such as the general public and Anson fans are a little uneasy, and really feel the oppressive pressure from the overwhelming publicity of "The Matrix 3" and "The Matrix". In the hot publicity wave, there is hardly much news about the "Butterfly Effect".
What’s even worse is that on Wednesday, November 12th, “The Big Show” and “The Butterfly Effect” actually chose the same day to hold their premieres in Los Angeles.
This... a head-on collision.
So, whose fault is this?
Outsiders generally blame 20th Century Fox for bullying others; insiders remain on the sidelines, unable to confirm whether New Line Cinema is deliberately trying to push the envelope.
But no matter what, amid all the speculations, this scene finally happened.
Two premieres on the same day, in the same city, at the same time, how should you choose?
(End of this chapter)