Six Hundred and Fifty-Six - It’s because the Base of Those People Is Too Small.

In the Paramount CEO's office, a man opposite Shirley Lansing's desk leaned his upper body on a chair, crossed his hands on the desk, squinted his eyes and sighed in a low voice:

"When a woman is called a B***ch by everyone, whether she is or not, she already is!"

Looking at the statistical report left on the table, Shirley Lansing frowned tightly. Although the content of the voice coming from across the desk made her, a strong woman, a little uncomfortable, she really couldn't refute it. That's really what happened.

"The box office exceeded US$50 million in the first three days. What a gratifying start..."

Shaking his head in disappointment, the Paramount CEO also relaxed his upper body, slowly leaned on his office chair, looked at the same hot sunshine outside the window and said: "After entering the working day, the single-day box office suddenly dropped off a cliff. On the first working day, only $7.14 million was reported! This is the damn summer season!"

If the box office had just dropped suddenly, it would still have grossed at least more than 7 million US dollars in a single day, and Shirley Lansing wouldn't have started swearing early in the morning. The key is that Monday’s US$7.14 million has become the highest box office day this week. This number is just the starting point of a cliff-like decline, not the ending point!

On Tuesday, it suddenly fell by more than 50% again, with a box office of US$3.52 million that day! 2.75 million U.S. dollars on Wednesday, 2.45 million U.S. dollars on Thursday, and 2.5 million U.S. dollars on Friday. A series of bloody figures, like a knife, reminding everyone that the box office is not stable, but that it can no longer fall!

As Shirley Lansing gritted her teeth and lamented, now is the annual summer season, and it is also the beginning of the summer season when movie fans are most likely to get crazy. The box office revenue in five days was about 18 million US dollars. For a big project like "Collision", it was a completely unsatisfactory performance!

You know, the production cost of "Collision", plus the investment in publicity and distribution during this period, has exceeded 150 million US dollars!

The man sitting across from the desk saw the CEO's slightly lonely expression and said in a low voice again: "Shirley, don't worry. Judging from the current situation, the film's box office in North America has exceeded 100 million, so there shouldn't be any problems."

According to past rules, as long as a film achieves relatively good results in North America, its performance overseas will generally not be much worse. For "Collision", basically as long as the North American box office is guaranteed to exceed 100 million, plus the overseas box office revenue, even if all the investment cannot be recovered from the theater market, relying on the offline operation of the film in the later period, it will not lose anything. Money.

It’s just that the man knows very well that the woman across the desk has chosen to release the film at this time. Her goal is not just to find a way to protect capital and recover investment, but also has great ambitions.

"Nick, I'm not a little girl."

Turning to look at the man, Shirley Lansing's expression did not change at all and was still very ugly. "What do you think of the box office performance of 'Hell and Earth' this weekend? Tell us what you think, Nick."

Throwing dirty water on competitors is a routine operation for Hollywood film companies. Methods such as digging into the bad things about the main actors and hyping them up, hyping up the crew's problems from a moral or human perspective are completely competitive methods within the scope of the rules.

It's just that this time the situation is slightly different. No one expected that no matter how massive and intensive Paramount's publicity was, the media and gossip entertainment tabloids controlled by Warner Bros. would say, "The president is a black man!", and the effect would be But surprisingly surprising.

"Collision" is not the first to use a black supporting actor to play the role of president, and it certainly won't be the last. After all, this is a science fiction movie, isn't it? But once someone hypes it up on a large scale, the consequences will be far more serious than they imagined.

"Shirley, I have observed carefully. In fact, the situation is far less terrible than what we saw."

The man named Nick Crowley frowned and thought, and said cautiously: "Don't just look at the impact of public opinion on the film. The 'black' president does disgust many white movie fans, but this kind of disgust, There is no way to say it publicly!

I don’t know if there is a special phenomenon. Have you noticed it? In the past two days, young African Americans have started to come to the theater in groups to buy tickets and watch movies. Therefore, I think our next publicity strategy can be appropriately changed to cover those ethnic minorities as much as possible..."

Sometimes, looking at things from different perspectives leads to very different conclusions. Nick Crowley's vision was very unique. He knew very well that the original intention of the CEO asking him was to stop the loss in time and cut off the large amount of funds that would be invested in the promotion of "Crash", but he was different. idea.

After hearing the man's reason, Shirley Lansing nodded thoughtfully, thinking of Warner Brothers immediately. When "Get Out" was released, the bold Warner Bros. distribution department invested tens of millions of dollars in publicity and distribution funds in minority communities for the first time.

The result was also very ideal. No one thought at the time that those "nicos" who had never been accustomed to watching movies would actually come into the theater in droves and contribute a large amount of box office to "Take Out".

"still have a chance......"

After muttering softly, Shirley Lansing looked at the young man across the desk seriously, her eyes full of admiration.

Nick Crowley, Paramount's new global marketing and distribution director, is mainly responsible for the distribution, sales, marketing promotion, and advertising strategy design, development and implementation of Paramount's global theatrical screenings.

After leaving the chaotic Walt Disney and coming to Paramount, it only took a very short time for him to secure his position as distribution director, proving his ability to the board of directors and senior management time and time again.

It's like destiny, because this Nick Crowley has been in the position of Paramount's head of distribution for ten years. Originally, before him, there should be a Mr. Goodman who would switch from Universal Pictures to become Shirley Lansing's right-hand man. Unfortunately, that Mr. Goodman left as early as 1991 due to some bad things. Hollywood.

It was precisely this Nick Crowley who finally succeeded in taking over and becoming the CEO of Paramount, but that was already more than ten years later.

“Increase advocacy for minority communities across North America, Nick.”

Shirley Lansing instantly gave up the idea of ​​stopping the loss in time and told Nick Crowley: "We don't have much time left. This weekend is related to whether the film can be released after those two major projects. We won’t do anything to continue to stay in theaters with a larger screening scale and barely recover the cost!”

Paramount's new distribution chief nodded at the woman's instructions. "No problem, you don't have to worry about publicity, it's just..."

"You don't have to worry about other things!"

Originally, Shirley Lansing had basically given up on some of her arranged plans, but after adopting Nick Crowley's ideas, she decided to continue implementing them.

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It’s definitely not possible to just focus on the promotion of your own film. None of the Big Six will not fight back after being beaten. If you want "Collision" to stay in the theater market long enough, the two major projects released next week will inevitably Only one of them is abandoned by the market.

The cake is so big. If three families eat it together, how can two families split it half and half? Besides, in Shirley Lansing's heart, she was not willing to share the cake with anyone! However, the situation faced by "The Great Collision" is far more complicated than the two people in the office imagined.

Paramount's response can be said to be quite fast. Its media changed the way they tried to refute the clarification in the past few days. In an instant, they seemed to have a unified tone, with various headlines saying "Africans will always be part of this country." Reports appeared in minority communities.

In a way, the results achieved are very gratifying. After this weekend, a large number of African Americans went into the theater to buy tickets and watch the movie.

However, some media in the market still do not change their tune. From the Internet to reality, they continue to remind the public from all aspects that in this film, there is a "black" president who constantly makes people laugh. The two public opinions seemed to have suddenly become two camps.

Time flies by, and the entire Hollywood is staring at this farce. Countless movie companies and insiders are all waiting to see the box office results of "Collision". However, in the eyes of a few sober people, Paramount's tricks to deal with it , at most it can only provide limited hemostasis, and it is impossible to completely eliminate the impact.

In today's theater market, the mainstream audience is not those from ethnic minorities. Those of African descent may be able to play an icing on the cake, but it is too difficult to rely on them to provide help in times of need.

On Thursday, May 19, at around 6:30 pm, a long red carpet was rolled out in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. A dozen meters away on the left side of the red carpet, the organizer specially built a huge awning to allow the waiting celebrities to avoid the remaining sunlight in the sky.

Under the awning, Wayne was wearing a black slim-fitting suit. The only difference from usual was that he replaced the narrow tie with a relatively formal bow.

Compared to his usual low-key dress, Naomi Watts looked much more beautiful tonight. Her white evening dress-style short skirt just highlighted her two long, white and slender legs. There is not a single button in the entire dress, and it is completely hand-sewn by the Chanel couture designer who was invited to the manor before departure.

Her hair was tied up high, which seemed to make her figure taller invisibly. On her slender neck, a thin necklace hung a huge diamond. Apart from this necklace, there was no other jewelry on her body. It can be said that simplicity was carried out. Very thorough.

"Ethnic minorities, why are they called minorities? It's because the base of those people is too small..."

With a slight smile on his lips, Wayne threw a "Premiere" into the arms of the woman next to him and looked up at the busy sides of the red carpet. His eyes only stayed for a few seconds, and then he immediately looked further in the direction. A dozen blocks away, a premiere of almost the same scale was about to begin.