November 1st is also a new Monday.
Amy Pascal arrived at Malibu Daenerys Studios before eight o'clock as usual.
This past weekend, the box office data of "Seven" attracted the attention of many people, especially Daenerys Entertainment.
A production budget of US$30 million and a publicity investment of US$15 million.
If the project with a total cost of 45 million US dollars fails at the box office, it will not have a big impact on Daenerys Entertainment.
However, this film takes on a lot of other things.
Ever since Igret launched the 58list platform, it has completely gone against traditional media. In the past few months, Daenerys Entertainment has been quietly adjusting the distribution strategy of its film business in order to get rid of the influence of traditional paper media in film distribution as much as possible. .
The series of films produced in the previous few months cannot be considered as the focus, and the competition between Daenerys Entertainment and traditional print media is not so fierce.
Because Daenerys Entertainment's Halloween films have been successful for several consecutive years, this time "Seven Deadly Sins" has become the target of many newspaper media attacks. If this project fails due to the influence of the print media's reputation, then, whether proactively or forcedly, the Westeros system must reconsider and adjust its relationship with the print media.
In response to this sniper, the distribution team of "Seven Deadly Sins" has also made full use of its strategic adjustments in film distribution in recent months.
The most critical point is the application of emerging Internet platforms.
"Seven Deadly Sins" thus became the first movie to release a trailer online.
With the completion of the upgrade of America Online's ADSL network, more than 70% of Internet users in North America have upgraded their basic network speed to 256kbps, which also means a download speed of 32kb/s. Millions of users have opened faster 512kbps or 1Mbps broadband package.
The downlink network speed reaches 32kb/s, which can basically support the 240P resolution video launched by Igret.
The two-minute long trailer of "Seven Deadly Sins" is based on the MP4 video format introduced by Yigrit. The capacity of the 240P resolution is only 3.1M. It is played online through real-time streaming media and only requires 26Kb per second to transmit data. AOL's basic ADSL package is completely sufficient. Other dial-up Internet areas only need to be buffered appropriately or played through downloading.
The resolution of 240P may be terrible when placed on a later 1080P computer. However, with the configuration of most monitors at this stage, the display effect is already very good.
Because of the gimmick of being the first online movie trailer, the two trailers released for "Seven Deadly Sins" have been played a cumulative 73 million times in the past two months.
Different from passive viewing of TV commercials, these 73 million trailer views represent more than 20 million viewers who have actively become interested in "Seven Deadly Sins".
With the success of the online trailer of "Seven Deadly Sins", Igret has successively launched "The Lion King", "Mission: Impossible", "Schindler's List", "Cyborg" and other films to be released at the end of the year. Movie trailers related to Daenerys entertainment. At the same time, it refused to put trailers from other movie companies on the grounds that online video streaming technology was still in the testing stage.
Ygritte wasn't lying.
The MP4 video format and streaming media playback technology are indeed still in the testing stage. Moreover, compared with text, pictures, sounds and other content, online videos require a large amount of network bandwidth. For the sake of cost savings, Yigrit Company will not We do not plan to launch a dedicated video website. In fact, it is also because there is not enough content to launch a dedicated video website.
Therefore, for a long time in the future, Igret will only launch a small amount of embedded video content in the corresponding sections of the portal, just like the trailer section of the movie information section this time.
Because it holds all the patents on the MP4 video format and streaming media playback technology, as long as Igret does not authorize it, it will be impossible for other specialized video websites to appear on the World Wide Web platform.
This is monopoly.
Since the Westeros system is to be allowed to grow wildly, Simon no longer deliberately avoids the issue of monopoly. As long as you have industry advantages, use them as much as possible.
In addition to the gimmick of the first movie trailer released online, in recent months, Daenerys Entertainment and Igret have also focused on promoting a group of online film critics and invited many traditional famous film critics to Igret. Ruite Portal's Facebook, movie information and even the professional film website specially built by Yigrit Company.
Compared with "Seven Deadly Sins" which only has a comprehensive score of 7.3 on traditional paper media platforms, the film's evaluation on online platforms is much higher, with a comprehensive score of about 8.1, which is already an excellent level.
Of course, it is also the result of Daenerys and Ygritte’s deliberate guidance.
As a hot topic in the Yigrit portal online forums, social platforms and film information sections, if a film article wants to be highly recommended, it must say good things about "Seven Deadly Sins". Those media people who are tit-for-tat with the Westeros system on the Internet are destined to not have much exposure, even if they will not be blocked.
Human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.
Now that they are aware of the rules, many people will naturally show their tendency.
And, most importantly, "Seven Deadly Sins" is indeed a very good film.
Even the Westeros system itself would not forcefully promote a bad movie. Doing so would only make it a laughing stock.
In addition to the gimmick of the first online trailer and the praise of online film critics, the film's main creators, stars such as River Phoenix, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow They have also opened Facebook pages to interact with movie fans.
Of the project's US$15 million publicity budget, US$2 million was spent directly on the Internet platform, including the official homepage of "Seven Deadly Sins", which was designed to be full of suspense, attracting a large number of movie fans to log in and browse.
Online trailer gimmicks, support from online film critics, interaction between creators and fans, direct advertising, and focused promotion of the entire Ygritte portal. In recent months, users across North America who use the Internet have basically become interested in "Seven Cases". Sin" produced more or less the impression.
Many times, it is this brainwashing potential impression that unknowingly attracts consumers to take out their wallets.
Walking into the cinema on the weekend, compared to other movies that I have basically never heard of, the familiar name "Seven Deadly Sins" seems to have a pretty good reputation. It is obvious how the audience will choose.
In addition to online channels, Daenerys Entertainment certainly has not completely given up on the traditional publicity model.
The publicity budget is US$15 million, US$2 million is used for network expenses, US$2 million is used for copy production and transportation expenses, and the remaining US$11 million and US$7 million are spent on various TV networks. The remaining US$4 million is half It was used to produce cinema posters and outdoor billboards. The other half, about US$2 million, was still invested in traditional paper media.
Expenditures on TV advertising and other areas have actually not changed much.
Traditional paper media originally invested about 25%, or US$4 million, in publicity expenditures, but this time they cut half of it, and this half happened to be transferred to the Internet platform.
While maintaining the intensity of publicity through television platforms and other channels, Daenerys Entertainment also focuses on some print media forces that it can befriend, such as News Corporation, Time Warner Group, etc., and media that are completely on the opposite side, such as Hess The Special Group completely blocked it during media previews and other stages.
The key to news is the word 'new'.
Other media have already published reviews of a movie in advance, forming a preconceived concept in the minds of readers. Other paper media critics who were unable to obtain the qualifications to watch the movie during the trial screening stage criticized the movie after it was released, and criticized the movie's box office performance. The influence is no longer so strong.
That's actually the case this time.
Although after the large-scale release of "Seven Deadly Sins", the traditional paper media's film review score was only 7.3 points, but before the film was released, the media that released the film reviews in advance basically gave it considerable praise.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment has further strengthened its efforts to attract film critics based on the operations of Gaomen Pictures in recent years.
Between newspapers, film critics and film companies, it seems that film critics are the weakest among the three. However, unlike full-time editors of newspapers, film critics still have a certain degree of independence, especially many well-known film critics. People, these people have a strong influence on the audience, and naturally have a higher voice in front of newspapers.
Daenerys Entertainment happens to have content resources that are crucial to film critics.
Well-known film critics can contribute to many newspapers, but if they are shut out by film companies and cannot participate in media previews to obtain advance information, their influence will inevitably decline quickly.
A small conference room in the No. 1 Administration Building of Daenerys Studios.
When Amy Pascal entered the conference room, Daenerys Film President Tom Pollack, New World Pictures President Danny Morris, Highgate Film President Ella Deutschman and Daenerys Mark Belford, President of Silk Entertainment's Global Distribution Business, and other senior executives have arrived. Everyone is discussing something, and the atmosphere is quite relaxed.
In fact, everyone was relieved after the first-day box office of "Seven" was released last Saturday.
At this moment, everyone's expressions were still filled with joy.
Before the film was released, through several early internal test screenings and data feedback from the film's two-month promotion, the promotion team set a box office target of US$60 million for "Seven Deadly Sins."
US$60 million is actually a high number, but it is not enough to recoup the entire US$45 million total investment in the project through the North American box office.
To achieve this, the North American box office needs to reach $80 million.
Of course, as long as the domestic box office revenue of 60 million U.S. dollars is achieved, Daenerys Entertainment can easily recover its costs and achieve profitability through overseas distribution and follow-up channels.
Of course I also look forward to higher goals.
For example, hit the 100 million yuan box office club.
However, the distribution team generally believes that the subject matter of "Seven Deadly Sins" is too niche and dark, which will greatly limit the audience size.
With the film officially released, the actual situation is that the box office revenue of "Seven Deadly Sins" on the first day of its opening reached 7.93 million US dollars.
$7.93 million on Friday.
$8.67 million on Saturday.
Because it was Halloween, the box office dropped to $6.81 million on Sunday.
Even so, in the first three days of its opening weekend, the cumulative box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" has reached 23.41 million US dollars.
The film opened on 2,511 screens and grossed US$23.41 million in the first three days of the weekend. Although it failed to achieve the blockbuster level of over 10,000 in the first three days, it was not far behind.
Moreover, the film's distribution team initially expected the film's box office in the first seven days to be only about US$20 million. "Seven" exceeded the film's box office target for a full week in just three days of release.
In comparison, the other two opening films, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" written by Tim Burton, had a box office of only US$8.21 million in the first three days of the weekend due to their high reputation.
MGM's "Fatal Instinct" only had a box office of $3.76 million in its first three days, barely a fraction of the price of "Seven."
The three-day opening weekend of US$23.41 million means that the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" in its first full week will be between US$33 million and US$35 million. With such an excellent box office start, as long as the subsequent box office curve is not too bleak, don't say 80 million US dollars, and the US$100 million mark in North America is easily achieved.
After Amy Pascal's assistant Vanessa Lind distributed a just-printed report to everyone, the conference room fell silent.
Waiting patiently for everyone to finish reading the materials in their hands, Amy said: "This is a statistical report on audience questionnaires from various places during the three days of the weekend. You must have seen one of the key data. Among the 10,000 questionnaires, 100,000 people were contacted through Internet channels. The proportion of viewers who have watched "Seven Deadly Sins" reached 33%, and the proportion of viewers who entered the theater completely influenced by the Internet platform also reached 19%. As senior managers in the industry, you must understand what this report means, this material, etc. I will take it back and destroy it later, and I hope everyone can keep it a secret as much as possible. Now, we are starting to discuss the next step of continuing to strengthen cooperation with Yigrit Company."
Before the rise of the Internet, the factors that influenced an audience's choice of a movie were very complex.
Stars, TV ads, newspaper reviews, street posters, word of mouth, random selection, etc. If a film company wants to promote a film, it must work in all aspects at the same time.
Although this time's "Seven Deadly Sins" can be regarded as a relatively special model, up to 33% of the audience has been more or less affected by the Internet platform, which is enough to prove the strong influence of the Igret portal.
Although Simon has repeatedly emphasized that the entire Westeros system is a community of interests, there are still many Daenerys Entertainment executives who are more or less complaining about being involved in the confrontation between Ygrit Company and traditional paper media.
With this release of "Seven Deadly Sins", most of the tangles have disappeared.
Ygritte may have affected Daenerys's relationship with traditional print media. However, it is obvious that the strong media strength of this platform itself not only completely offsets the disadvantages Daenerys Entertainment encountered in traditional print media, but also brought There is a clear gain.