Hollywood Domination Chapter 210: What kind of movie do you want

"Hey, a quarter."

"It seems that we still have a little bit of luck."

When Ashley and Jack were kissing on the screen, Jenny straightened up and looked around from the front row to see the expressions of the audience—her eyes coincided with Rachel who also made the same gesture McAdams bumped into each other, the two couldn't help but looked at each other and smiled, and then sat down: Although they have both watched the finished film and have basic confidence in the quality of the film, they always hope to see more affirmation from the audience, This will give them more confidence in the film's box office estimates.

"How's the audience's reaction?" Christopher leaned over and asked in a low voice, and Cesare, who was next door to him, also showed a concerned expression.

"What do you think?" Jenny asked back.

"A qualified popcorn romance movie," Chris shrugged, he also saw the finished movie for the first time tonight, "chick-flick, of course the target is chick, so I don't think you asked me Comments would be useful."

"Hmm, it seems you don't like it." Jenny said with a smile.

"I don't like "The Notebook" either. It's a vulgar and unconvincing story—to me, it's so sensational that it's shameless." It is an important work, "But this does not prevent it from getting hundreds of millions of box office - what does the box office forecasting agency say? What about the results of the internal preview?"

"The box office forecast is still very optimistic." At this time, the film was completely over, and at the same time the subtitles were played, the scene was brightly lit. Director Nick Cassavetes walked to the front of the crowd and began to deliver his production speech, Jenny He and Chris both smiled and showed focused expressions, applauding from time to time, and Jenny continued, "Judging from the reaction of the target audience, the word-of-mouth of this film should be pretty good."

The story of "Unlucky Eros" is like "The Wrong Body of Men and Women" released this year and "100% Men" released in 2000. They are all funny, love, Fantasy romantic comedy is aimed at young women, even high school students who love to dream. It can be said that the market is very segmented, so this theme is considered to have limited box office potential. However, the field of chick-flick has always been Known for creating miracles, as long as it is poked right, the market may form an explosive effect, attracting more women of all ages, and let couples enter the cinema. Just like Jenny's "The Notebook", in fact, the plot of this movie is indeed the same as what Chris said in the end. Will believe it, but the female moviegoing community obviously doesn't mind this, and the box office achieved by "The Notebook" will make many serious deep movies very jealous.

As far as Jenny's own experience is concerned, the "Notebook" type of movie actually does not have particularly high requirements for plot and performance. The real core elements are only two points: 1. The likability of the hero and heroine; The chemistry between them is so touching. ——As long as the personal charm of the hero and heroine is strong enough, and the chemical reaction between the two is clear and profound, it can arouse the resonance of the audience——done, this movie is absolutely impossible to lose money. If the story is reasonable, you can add some laughs, Then the rest is the big explosion and small explosion.

So, in the choice of actors, she pushed Rachel to play the role, because Rachel is an actress who is very popular with the audience. For Jenny, her sweet appearance is more popular than Lindsay Lohan. Suitable for this movie, maybe Lindsay is a very talented actor and a popular girl star, but the fact is that people have very broad requirements for the appearance of child actors, and even cute child actors are more popular than beautiful child actors More openly, but when they watch serious romance movies, people want to see a real pretty girl, not a pop-up girl-next-door. This pursuit of good appearance is engraved in the instinct of most people. As a commercial film, of course, it should cater to instinct rather than stubbornly go against it.

Because she has never seen the parallel world "Unlucky Venus", Jenny has no way of comparing the differences between the two versions, and of course it is impossible to build a team according to the original version of the behind-the-scenes personnel, but she still plays Due to his own influence, he recommended Nick Cassavetes, who had worked with him in "The Notebook", to direct, and with her help, Fox also happily extended the invitation. ——Although Nick has never made a comedy film, his performance in "The Notebook" has shown that he is very good at shooting love scenes, and the pictures shot by him can arouse the resonance of the audience-this is actually a very Rare talent.

So, although she failed to exert influence on the choice of screenwriters, Jenny is generally satisfied with the quality of this film. Due to the shallow conception, it is not shocking and does not explore any profound issues. The character is not deep and complicated, but the movie tells a very complete story at the end, and there are always some small jokes, and the sparks of Ashley and Jack's rivalry make the whole story sincere and moving, especially Ashley In the end, it was decided to save Jack. The scene where the two embraced and kissed each other. Rachel and Pyne were passionate and passionate, and the kiss was burning like fire. It made people feel dry and convincing. , Let the whole movie change from 'popcorn to pass the time' to 'although not so perfect, but a story that touches some touching points'.

And her theory has also been verified in the internal preview meeting. Most female audiences are not very satisfied with the plot of the film, but they admit that the overall impression of the film is good, and they do not think it is a waste of time. They will also recommend it. Relatives and friends go to see it, because 'the love drama is really touching'. ——Both Fox and Dameng are very satisfied with this result, and it is even more meaningful for Dameng, because they have scheduled "Unlucky Cupid" for the year-end file close to Christmas. Frequent blockbusters, although it also formed a small vacuum of popcorn movies, which provided a certain opportunity for "Unlucky Venus", but this is also a double-edged sword. If the quality of "Unlucky Venus" itself is too low, Under the pressure of these blockbusters, it is impossible to gain a sense of presence. After the first week of release, the next week will definitely be slashed and fall into the abyss of failure.

This is where the gamble of film distribution lies. In many cases, the distributor arranges the schedule and promotional strategy before seeing the finished film, because if there is a requirement for the speed of capital return, only It may be that the release is arranged while the post-production is being done, and the schedule must be set half a year and a year in advance, otherwise the theater will not be able to vacate the screening room for you. Therefore, many people outside the circle will be puzzled by some phenomena, such as why after the internal preview, various signals indicated that this was already a hit, and the box office forecasting agency also gave very pessimistic prediction results, but the publisher It will also issue in a big way instead of reducing the scale. In fact, this is because the contract has already been signed, and the loss of breach of contract will be greater. .

For most distributors and producers, the benefits and spreads cannot appear suddenly on the day of the film's release, and the feedback will probably start from the internal preview meeting. If a box office forecasting agency is invited, The results will also be given. Of course, film critics at the premiere, audience feedback, official website clicks, etc. are also important channels. Whether it is producers, distribution companies or actors themselves, they will pay close attention to these signals and use them to comfort their hearts. Nervous, waiting with bated breath for the day when it will be released on a large scale.

Judging from the feedback from the premiere, these big names who were invited to attend still recognized the quality of "Unlucky Love God". No problem, so the atmosphere of the whole post-screening testimonials and party is not bad. For the director, producer, and actors, this is enough to satisfy them. For the rest of the outsiders, this is also the development and marketing of Dameng itself for commercial projects. , A proof of distribution ability, let them have a good impression of Big Dream, and enhance the possibility of future cooperation.

"Yes, I believe this is a very good project and should achieve very good results." Jenny stood with her two leading actors, "You are a very popular girl, Rachel, really Very sweet, the audience will love you...and of course Chris, I've had a crush on you since The Princess Diaries 2, this movie will give you a great start to your career."

Although Rachel McAdams is three years older than Jenny, and Chris Pine is also two years older than Jenny, they didn't feel any discomfort with Jenny's old-fashioned praise, but instead showed honor and happiness : Whether it's Rachel or Pine, the coffee positions, awards, acting skills and influence are very different from Jenny, who has already run into another race, and they are just getting started. Facing Jenny, the two of them would not feel any age comparison at all, because they were no longer from the same world.

And another 'Rachel' - Jennifer Aniston, also walked up to Jenny with a glass of wine, "Jennifer - just come to say hello, I have to leave the party first - I will return later There's something wrong."

"Ah, honey, why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Jenny immediately smiled apologetically at the two 'kids', and left them to hold Aniston—her "Old Friends Are Rich" also It will be released in the near future. Because it is an art film, the release is jointly carried out by Dameng and Weinstein. It can be said that Weinstein dominates, but this is not bad news for Dameng, because Weinstein also contracted This is a good opportunity for the distribution department of Big Dream to practice: get a case study of commercial film distribution from Disney headquarters, and follow Weinstein's distribution team to learn art film distribution and public relations skills. And, with Weinstein doing the public relations, maybe "Friends Are Rich" will have a chance to get some award nominations. "We haven't had a good chat yet."

Although in Jenny's memory, Aniston doesn't seem to have won any awards, but Aniston's achievements in low-budget films are also very impressive. When she developed into the film industry, she was already relatively old In addition to her friendly temperament, it is also difficult to take the route of leading a heroine in a blockbuster film. Aniston is also very smart to choose the route of this small-budget commercial film. Her film quality may not be high, and her acting skills may not be good, but It must be making money, the only difference is how much you earn and how little you earn—the producers like this kind of actor the most, and of course Jenny will not miss the opportunity to build a good relationship with her.

Furthermore, Jenny would also like to have a good chat with her about this year's awards month - "Old Friends Are Rich" has been produced for a while, and it has also been sent to major film festivals for selection. The current feedback can be said to be positive or negative It is different, and the gender differentiation is obvious. Among most female film critics, "Old Friends Are Rich" has received good reviews, while male film critics generally commented as 'too dull', 'trivial and hopeless'. According to this momentum, the possibility of the film itself being nominated is not very high. After all, most of the best film nominations have to take into account both artistic and commercial aspects. Your film can be profound, but you can’t talk too much about yourself. too boring.

"Old Friends Are Rich" is about the friendship between four middle-aged women. In fact, it also focuses on the mid-life crisis. Slowly unfolding, this is a somewhat desperate movie, which mercilessly uncovers the layer of tenderness in life. Whether rich or not, the four women are lonely, sick and desperate, and the film itself Just asking these questions, but there is no solution, even if at the end of the film, Olivia played by Aniston changed her poverty, but it does not mean that she really changed her life— —She is still the same, empty, twisted and false, sick. Whether it is friendship, love or money, these women cannot rely on them, so where is their way out? have no idea.

You can't say that it's not deep and thoughtless, but obviously, "Old Friends Are Rich" will not win the favor of the market and the judges, and due to the limitations of the film itself, the performances of the other leading actresses are also lacking in brilliance. The color segment, although very skillful, may not get much affirmation. Only Olivia played by Aniston concentrates all the drama of the film, and the character itself is very subversive-middle-aged woman, poverty, vanity, The action is exaggerated, sad and laughable... Its exaggeration is in the same line as Aniston's "Friends" that just ended two years ago, but this exaggeration is based on despair. People feel sad. Aniston's acting skills in this movie can be said to have surpassed all the roles she has ever gotten before-in fact, this may also be the role she has got the most room to play, after all, she has gotten "Friends" before , "Fake God", are all commercial works with very obvious orientation, and most of her roles are typical characters, and there is almost no possibility of digging deeper into the characters.

The acting itself has a breakthrough, and the performance is good enough. The film is a controversial film with praise and criticism, which is better than a lot of mediocre films with no splash. Will "Old Friends Are Rich" be poor in terms of quality? Not necessarily, the reason why there is no splash, besides the fact that the director is not a big hand, is because there is a lack of a strong public relations team, otherwise at least the public relations can be nominated for some second-tier awards to create momentum for Aniston, just to compete for the Golden Globe Award nominations are not necessarily hopeless.

——However, it is a pity that Dameng does not plan to invest too much public relations funds, because "Old Friends Are Rich" did not cause too much sensational response at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, which proves that from Buyers of Big Six and independent film giants such as Lionsgate and New Line are not optimistic about its profit prospects. This project is definitely profitable now, but it’s hard to say if it wants to compete for awards in public relations. For the company, whether a film has the potential to win awards, and whether it is wronged if it doesn’t win the award, is actually not important, it is important What matters is whether the company will make more money after winning awards and nominations. ——If you are still obsessed with the thinking of "a good film deserves an award", then it is obvious that this company will not operate for a long time.

So in the previous regular meeting, Jenny and Cesare agreed to abandon the award plan of "Old Friends Are Rich" and only conduct regular publicity. This idea also coincides with the publisher Weinstein Brothers. "Friends Are Rich" will have a few rounds of screenings in art theaters, and then use Aniston's overseas popularity to sell copyrights, use buyout transactions to get cash back, sell dvds after offline, and strive for the female market. There is absolutely no problem at all. Optimistically, Dameng's investment of more than one million yuan should be doubled.

Compared with the original idea: independently publish "Old Friends Are Rich", co-publish "Unlucky Cupid" or hand over the distribution rights to Fox. In the end, the actual distribution strategies of these two films also proved that the film industry is an extremely variable and extremely fast industry. Even if Cesare is as insightful as Cesare, it is impossible to keep everything under control, and the key point is to be flexible. Adjust yourself in time. For example, "Old Friend Has Money", after the finished film came out, Cesare changed his mind after watching it once, and began to seek Weinstein's help, because in his words, "It is too artistic, and the commerciality is extremely lacking. We need the wisdom of veterans like Weinstein." ——Without Weinstein, Dameng might really not know how to tap the potential of "Old Friends Have Money".

The current situation is also very favorable for Dameng. The two projects invested for the first time are almost guaranteed to be profitable, and there is no help from Goldfinger, which shows that she and Cesare (now mainly Cesare), has the ability to independently operate a big dream of the current scale.

However, for Aniston, "Old Friends Are Rich" is unknown in the award market, so it may not be the best result. Jenny also wants to talk to her about this. If Aniston is willing to If you pay for the nomination, Jenny is also willing to provide a convenient way to introduce her to the prize PR that she has used. After all, after Aniston and Brad Pitt divorced, she lost a lot of contacts in the film industry, and she just transitioned from TV to film. Although she has the help of her agent and PR, she is still in the stage of needing contacts.

"Ah—" However, as soon as the words of retention were out of her mouth, Jenny suddenly realized that she was so busy that she didn't even notice that Brad Pitt showed up tonight.

Of course, it is very common for couples who are in Hollywood to meet each other on various occasions after divorce. There have been rumors that 'Pete and Aniston intend to get back together', and it is normal for Aniston to avoid suspicion. Jenny said apologetically, "I'm so sorry, Jennifer—I'll take you out."

"It's okay," Aniston said with a very open-minded smile. "It's been almost two years—we can't expect everyone to remember, can we? We're all a little too self-centered."

Jenny also laughed relaxedly. She and Aniston made a date to have dinner together in a few days, and sent her to the door of the venue. Then she turned around, smiled again, and circled around the group of guests Not long after, I chatted and laughed with Brad Pitt and his wife again—although I may not have a good impression of them in my heart, but this is the professionalism of the producer, even George Clooney, Jenny and him are also talking and laughing Yan Yan , it is impossible to face each other with harsh words.

The process of "Michael Clayton" talking about Daniel Day-Lewis was narrated in several different small groups, and the several versions were carefully made to be different so as not to leak the real details. It took a lot of effort to express gratitude to those big names who were interested in participating in the production of "Monroe", and agreed to discuss the time. When the premiere was over, Jenny was too tired to say a word. On the way home, she slumped in the large seat cushion without any image, and looked out the window lazily with her neck tilted. She was quiet for half of the journey home, and then suddenly broke the silence in the car.

"I hope Nick, Rachel, and Pine don't hate me too much."

"Why do you say that?" Chris glanced at her.

"Do you still have to ask?" Jenny put her feet on the seat cushion opposite, "Tonight was supposed to be their night, but in the end everyone was talking about me, me, me and Monroe ——If you were Nick, would you hate me a little?"

"For the news and the box office?" Chris shrugged, "I won't, and I guess Nick won't either-believe it or not, he also looks forward to "Monroe", after all, you You know, "Monroe" is a romance movie."

Jenny laughed, "Oh, sweet old Nick - but the idea is kind of ridiculous..."

She doesn't want to talk about "Monroe" now. This topic has been talked about so many times tonight that it has already made her feel sick. Jenny touched Chris with her toe instead, "Guess "Unlucky" How much will the first-day box office of Eros be?"

The premiere of "Love God" is arranged on the weekend before the release, so that the audience can see the movie after seeing the news and when the memory is still fresh*, so in five days, it will be at the It premiered in more than 2,000 theaters across the United States. In order to achieve this, the cost of copying alone has exceeded one million US dollars. Half of the cost of 20 million, if you want to make a profit at the box office, the global box office must be close to 100 million. If you relax the target, you only hope that the entire project will be profitable, and the North American box office should also be close to the production cost line of 20 million, so that it can continue in the next few years. Through global box office, copyright and dvd sales, etc., slowly pay back, and earn millions or 10 million profits. However, if it is the latter, then the pressure on the project is very small. If it can earn five or six million box office in the first weekend, it will be considered a pass if it can earn more than two million on the first day.

"I guess...I don't know," Chris gave up, "I've never paid attention to the chick-flick market, guess - how much box office do you hope it will have?"

Jenny let out a sigh of relief, "Honestly? I don't know... I don't think extra guesswork will help us much, will it? Only time can bring us the answer..."

With several projects running at the same time, and the production of "Monroe" by myself, both the staff of Dameng and Jenny are of course very busy. On the contrary, Cesare is free because he is only responsible for behind-the-scenes affairs. Quite a few, in Jenny's lack of skills, a week's time is fleeting, and soon, the third weekend of November will come, and on the first weekend of the Thanksgiving holiday, "Unlucky Eros" will officially land on both sides of the United States. More than a thousand theaters, many audiences who knew Chris Pine and Rachel McAdams through "Princess Diaries 2", "Mean Girls" and "Wedding Crashers" couldn't wait to walk into the cinema and watch the movie they were looking forward to. A long-awaited romantic comedy...

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"It feels pretty good." As a college student, Jon certainly has a lot of free time, especially since this is her last year of college career. Friends, we sat in the movie theater together on Friday afternoon, and happily watched an hour and a half of romantic comedy—of course, if it wasn’t for knowing that this movie was invested and produced by Jennifer in the news a week ago, I saw that scene With a star-studded premiere, she wouldn't be so motivated to come to see the movie on its first day. "What do you think, Paula?"

Her college classmate Paula has never been very keen on movies—she is the kind of standard little woman who is busy with parties, dating and shopping in her spare time. The last time the two watched movies together, it was Jon who accompanied Paula. Watching "The Devil Wears Prada", for different reasons, they re-watched "Prada" several times in the cinema together. Other "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Lord of the Rings" are a bit boring to Paula. That's why I came to watch "Unlucky Venus" because I fell in love with Chris Pine after watching the DVD of "Princess Diaries", and at the same time, I knew that he was the leading actor of this movie through the poster at the subway station.

However, compared to Jon who just conservatively gave a 'not bad' comment, Paula is now very excited, chuckling and saying, "Ah, I think it looks very good! The few paragraphs just now are just laughable." Dead--oh, and there's that part where they kiss at the ball, what a gorgeous Chris! And that girl, Ashley, whose actor's name is-"

She took a look at the posters everywhere in the movie theater, and continued to say intoxicatedly, "Rachel, Rachel is also very beautiful! - why can't the movie theater show more good movies like this, if so, I will definitely come to the cinema a few more times."

To Jon, "Unlucky Cupid" is like a cake sold in a street bakery. It tastes good, but it's not very delicate. said. It's just a popcorn movie that doesn't feel like "I'm sorry for the ticket price" after watching it, but it's far from being "excellent value for money". There are a lot of plots in the middle that make Jon feel very boring, and it is a bit hard to talk about, and it is completely supported by the beauty of the leading actors and actresses.

However, as Paula said, she felt that she hadn't seen a similar love movie in the cinema for more than a year, so the novelty played a certain role in beautifying it, but even so, she didn't think it was what Paula said. It’s so beautiful—but, it’s the work of Dameng...

"Yeah, the last time I saw a movie you liked so much was "The Devil Wears Prada"..." She didn't object to Paula, but excitedly discussed the exciting content in the movie with her, " Of course, there is also "Lianlian Notebook"..."

In the absence of many romantic films throughout 2005 and 2006, Nick Cassavetes' romantic scenes, as well as the small jokes presented in the script that has been revised many times under strict control, seem to have received a lot of attention. When it comes to good feedback, as most film critics commented, "Unlucky Cupid", which is regarded as a bucket of qualified popcorn, received better results than qualified. The distribution strategy of 'easy and funny publicity' and 'celebrity gossip publicity' responded well, and the market vacuum and audience hunger created by not having a decent romance film in an entire year also allowed this film to outperform it The quality of "Unlucky Cupid" scored 6 million on the first Friday, and the box office rose to 8 million on the next public holiday. On Sunday, this number was stabilized, and it reported 22 million in the first weekend. Although the imdb score It quickly fell to 7.2, and Rotten Tomatoes' audiences' like rate hovered around 70%, and the film critic's like rate was around 50%. Judging from the word-of-mouth of film critics, it is really not an excellent movie, but... so what? The film that makes money through suitable schedule selection and distribution strategy rather than film quality is not just "Unlucky Cupid". A good film does not necessarily lose money, and a bad film does not necessarily lose money. This is an unpredictable and consistent market. law.

Received 22 million in the first week, no matter what happens next, the box office profit is definitely an indisputable fact. The crew of "God" has already held a celebration party, and as for Jenny, although she is relieved and has the urge to cheer, she doesn't have much time to express her happiness—after reading the e-mail sent by Cesare, Mail, she closed the laptop casually, smiled and watched Arthur Clark staggering from the bathroom back to the coffee table.

"Sorry, old people's bladders—it's just a complicated and suspenseful story." Arthur, who has the same name as a well-known science fiction writer, waved his hand and said jokingly, and exchanged a few witty words with Jenny before cutting into the On topic, "Let's talk about Monroe now, Jennifer, we all know you're going to shoot in the UK, you're casting in the UK, and I can help with that - but, there are Here's a question I have to figure out first: Dear Jennifer, what kind of movie is "One Week With Marilyn" going to be, and what kind of movie do you want to make it into?"

Yeah...Jenny's original joy, excitement, and even a little impetuous state of mind were completely washed away by Arthur's question. What kind of movie should "A Week with Marilyn Monroe" be?