Chapter 20: Hot video

The off-season of North American movies, the first weekend in April, seems to be a joke with the entire Hollywood studio.

"The Blair Witch", a pseudo-documentary with a small investment, grossed US$10.35 million in three days over the weekend, ranking first in the airborne weekly box office.

Ranked second is "Major League 2" released by Warner Bros., with only more than 6 million US dollars at the box office.

Ranked third is "D2: Mighty Duck" with just over $5 million at the box office.

In fourth place was a film released by Universal Pictures, "Papers," barely worth around $4 million.

Facing the squeeze of "The Blair Witch", the above three films all have a lot less box office than the same period in the previous life.

Among the top ten weekend box office, there are almost no films from 20th Century Fox. The only one, "Still Me" has been released for several months, with a box office of only 1.35 million US dollars, and there is not much time before its release.

It can be said that 20th Century Fox currently has only one film released, "The Blair Witch", which is naturally an effortless promotion.

A news interview vehicle owned by Fox TV even drove outside a rescue team to broadcast the news in real time, making the rescue team miserable, but they couldn't find any files about the disappearance of the three college students.

It is impossible to explain such dereliction of duty to the media, so we can only keep silent.

At the same time, the crew of "When a Man Loves a Woman" is also urgently holding a small meeting. Facing the menacing "Blair Witch", even Disney dare not be careless.

According to the original release plan, Touchstone arranged for "When a Man Loves a Woman" to be released on April 29th, just in time for the summer holidays, half a foot into the summer holidays, and a staggered schedule with the elaborately produced "The Lion King". It is a very good time for a commercial blockbuster to be released.

Touchstone is one of Disney's film production companies.

Of course, it can also be said that it is one of the brands under Bowei Company, and at the same time, Bowei Company is the distribution department established by Disney.

"My opinion is, let's wait and see the box office trend of "The Blair Witch" for the time being."

Carter-Eisner frowned slightly, and continued: "The popularity of movies like this is hard to last. By the time our "When a Man Loves a Woman" is released, I believe that the popularity of "The Blair Witch" has already passed. "

As the decision maker of the touchstone, he can easily see that "The Blair Witch" is tricky, and it is nothing more than a complete fraud.

But the film's producer, Jon Avenay, didn't want to wait any longer, saying: "The promotion method of "The Blair Witch" is very unique. It is said that some theater companies have a single box office of up to 55,000 US dollars."

"You know, this is a single box office, and in the three days of last weekend, only 100 theaters screened it, and made a box office of 10.35 million US dollars. It is conceivable that the distribution department of 20th Century Fox will continue to expand the scale of screenings. .”

"With 20th Century Fox's distribution capabilities, I can't even imagine what kind of box office this film will eventually achieve."

"So it is likely to affect the opening scale of "When a Man Loves a Woman"."

There are only these theater companies in North America, and each theater company has a fixed number of screens. Once the popularity of "The Blair Witch" continues, it will definitely affect the scale of "When a Man Loves a Woman".

Seeing that Jon Avenet was going to continue talking, Carter Eisner couldn't help interrupting him, and asked directly: "So what do you want to do?"

"The Blair Witch is a film released by 20th Century Fox. I don't want to have any friction with 20th Century Fox because of your little trick."

"As for the release scale of "When a Man Loves a Woman", I will personally call the theater company."

"Remember, you can't do anything over the line without my permission."

Having said that, Carter-Eisner's eyes became severe.

Twentieth Century Fox, which relies on News Corporation, is not easy to deal with.

Even Disney, which is also one of the seven major Hollywood film companies, will not easily create friction with it.

Furthermore, with the coming of the summer holidays, the release time of "The Lion King" is getting closer and closer.

It is obviously not a wise decision to have friction with 20th Century Fox at this time.

For Disney, the animated feature film "The Lion King" is the focus of this year's summer file, and the live-action movie is only a supplement.

"All right."

"Perhaps you are right."

Jon-Avenay was silent for a while, and finally did not continue. Instead, he got up, said goodbye and left the office. After walking a certain distance, he took out his mobile phone and dialed a number.

"The plan has changed, don't contact the media, other things, wait until we meet to talk about it."

On the other side of the phone, Meg Ryan's complexion changed, and she said in a low voice: "We can definitely contact some gossip magazines, and no one will know."

"Meg, calm down, don't be impulsive."

A hint of impatience suddenly appeared in Jon Avenay's heart, and he said, "You have to know that what you are facing is 20th Century Fox, not just any small publishing company. Once things are revealed, have you thought about the consequences?"

"Twentieth Century Fox is not something you can mess with." After finishing speaking, he hung up the phone directly.

With the end of the first weekend of release, the popularity of "The Blair Witch" has not diminished, but more and more people have joined it, which can be seen from the box office.

The momentum of "The Blair Witch" did not weaken at all on Monday. Instead, as the number of screenings increased, it improved slightly and easily won the box office of 3.7 million US dollars.

Continue to rebound on Tuesday, UU reading www.uukanshu. com once again took in $4.1 million at the box office.

Wednesday still held steady, ending the day with $5.2 million.

Based on the predictions of some professional organizations, the North American box office of this film will obviously not be only 50 million U.S. dollars in the end, at least not less than 80 million U.S. dollars, and it will generate tens of millions of dollars in profits for 20th Century Fox.

This does not include the distribution fee of offline video tapes, peripheral copyrights, TV premiere rights, adaptation rights, etc.

At the same time, at almost the same time, English-speaking regions such as Britain, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, and some European countries gradually began to release "The Blair Witch".

Previous Life "The Blair Witch" generated over 100 million US dollars at the overseas box office.

It is conceivable that, as the distribution company of "The Blair Witch", the film will eventually bring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to 20th Century Fox.

It can be seen that the Hollywood distribution company is the real top of the food chain, and most of the film's income almost goes into the distribution company's pocket.

However, Ryan, who is the sole investor, producer, director, and screenwriter of the film, has only one income from the box office, except for the $800,000 that has not yet been credited.

According to Ryan's own calculations, as long as the North American box office of "The Blair Witch" can successfully exceed 100 million, then he is entitled to 2.5% of the box office share.

Remember that it is 2.5% of the total box office in North America, excluding theaters, distribution fees, distribution company commissions, etc., it is likely to be as high as 2 million US dollars.

It's a pity that the box office ladder is only divided into five percent at most.

Fortunately, Ryan is already satisfied, and the revenue of more than 2 million US dollars is enough for him to make his next film.