The middle-aged ticket seller was a little surprised when he heard that two beautiful Asian girls were asking for 8 tickets to the movie "Dark Man" at one time. He still diligently checked the ticketing system to report the show time information. There happened to be a show at 8:15, so he confirmed again. Finally, he collected the money and issued the ticket neatly.
“Enjoy the movie.”
Finally, with a formal polite word, the two girls were sent away, and the middle-aged conductor began to greet the subsequent guests.
This is a young white guy who is well-dressed and obviously slightly groomed. With the sharp eyes of a middle-aged conductor, he can tell at a glance that this person is going on a date tonight, and his girlfriend is probably buying popcorn or something. Based on recent experience, he felt that the young man would probably want to watch "Romeo and Juliet."
This time I guessed wrong.
Or, half right.
As expected, the young man asked for two tickets, but it was still "Dark Man".
After sending the other party off again, the middle-aged ticket seller looked at the show information on the computer screen and found that 103 tickets for "Dark Man" at 8:15 were sold in a theater with 120 people. It was really surprising. In particular, the conductor took another look at Leslie Nielsen's "The Big Banger," which was released at the same time yesterday. It was also shown at 8:15, in the same medium-sized theater with 120 people, and it was the prime time on Saturday night at 8:00. , only 87 tickets were sold.
Although he is just an ordinary ticket seller at this multiplex theater owned by AMC Cinemas, which opened two years ago, the middle-aged man still knows some recent anecdotes in the industry.
In fact, most theaters don't want the movie "Dark Man".
This is the summer season.
If it's January, February or September or October, what's the point of getting a Hong Kong movie that looks very cheap during a popular time like summer
What's more, it's not Jack Cheng.
Who is Jett Lee
Another point is that there is not even a single European or American face in this movie, which is bound to be even more repulsive to American audiences. As for kung fu, well, this is indeed a selling point, but there are not many kung fu elements in this film, and it is more of a gun fight movie. All in all, if there is going to be a "Dark Man", everyone might as well add a few more screens to "The Mummy".
Although they thought so, major theater chains finally opened a total of more than a thousand canvases for "Black Man". Because the current Daenerys entertainment is too strong. If you don't want "Dark Man", then do you want "The Mummy", do you want "Mission: Impossible 2", do you want "Spectre"
All right.
This is actually the package sale that was explicitly prohibited by the Paramount Act back then, but many things have always been subject to policies and countermeasures.
It is prohibited to package multiple movies and sign distribution agreements with theaters. We can only negotiate one movie at a time, right
Let’s talk about them one by one.
However, if you think "Dark Man" is not good and are unwilling to give me a canvas, then I also think you are not sincere enough not to give you a copy of "The Mummy".
Um.
It would be inappropriate not to give it.
Easily litigated.
Then it’s okay to give less.
You need 200 copies, but I will only give you 100. The remaining 100 screens will continue to show "The Evaporation Code". The average price of other people's libraries is 1,500, while the average price of your library is 1,500.
Tsk.
Speaking of which, the three movies "The Mummy", "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Spectre" are not even distributed by Daenerys Entertainment. However, Daenerys Entertainment can use these three blockbusters as bargaining chips. , with such power, who dares not to obey
Therefore, not only could "Dark Man" be refused, but it could not even be sneaked into the small hall in a perfunctory way, and the theater posters that should be given should not be missing at all.
Now it seems that this movie is not as bad as imagined.
However, the middle-aged ticket seller at the AMC theater who kept handing out movie tickets on busy weekend nights still felt that something was wrong. However, something was wrong. This matter may not be solved for a long time in the future. Major theater chains On the contrary, it is more likely that more resources will continue to be allocated to films produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Good or bad.
Then.
The strong get stronger.
On the other side of the theater, eight girls who had received movie tickets found a screening room on the third floor and entered directly.
Unlike the street outside, while waiting after entering the cinema, people began to come up to chat with me.
The girls inevitably feel confident when they think of a certain man. They don't have the submissiveness of some new immigrants at all. The two waitresses also played a very good role in blocking the situation. In addition, they found that the clothes worn by a group of girls were all expensive. , but the person who struck up a conversation was not too entangled, and walked away after being rejected.
When the lights in the screening room dimmed, a few pre-roll advertisements appeared first.
The girls sitting together in two rows were also very interested in it, although most of them didn't understand it.
Soon, the main film of "Dark Man" begins.
After the label LOGO, there was a fierce action scene at the beginning. Jet Lee fought fiercely and fought his way out of the siege. The Chinese and English titles of "Black Man" appeared on the screen.
Sitting between Chi Jianjia and a waitress named Katie Roderick, Li Youhu watched with gusto. She is the type in China who can afford to watch movies and also has a video recorder at home. However, after all, domestic movie sources Not much, not to mention that the screen, sound and other effects of this AMC theater, which has only been open for two years, are far from comparable to those in China.
As for the film itself.
For North American movie fans, the strong cheap B-movie style can be seen at a glance, and Li Youhu didn't think it was inappropriate, after all, he was used to this.
However, the drama that followed quickly made Li Youhu distracted.
Because I don’t understand it, I can’t even guess the lip sync because the original version is in Cantonese.
We can only roughly understand that the Black Knight played by Jet Lee has become a librarian incognito, has a good relationship with his colleagues, and has a police friend.
So I couldn't help but look around.
Chi Jianjia looked at it very seriously.
All right.
Disgusting academic.
Li Youhu knew that Chi Jianjia's family background was also good. Before getting this job, she was a senior student at the Theater and Dance Academy. She is 21 years old this year. Not only has she danced for more than 10 years, but she also has excellent other cultural skills. Although I have already gone abroad, I still locked in a diploma in theater in advance.
In fact, none of the 100 girls selected from the hundreds of thousands of resumes were simple.
Excellent knowledge base of dance skills.
There are many others who are proficient in everything else, such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.
After quietly calculating in private, Li Youhu even vaguely felt that she and Chen Xingwei were probably the two at the bottom, as if they got the job through the back door.
Um.
has a problem.
On the other side, Katie Roderick certainly understood, but she was obviously not very interested in the film.
Seeing Li Youhu looking over, Katie also looked away and smiled at her.
Katie is Li Youhu's designated waitress.
Li Youhu also smiled, leaned over and asked in Chinese: "Katie, what do you think?"
The maids and guards in the manor have all received Chinese training, and daily conversations are basically no problem.
"It's okay, I don't like it that much, Ellie might be more interested."
Katie replied that the name of Ellie she mentioned was Alyssa Camuel, who was Chen Xingwei's designated female guard. To be precise, she should be the designated guard of Li Youhu and Chen Xingwei. match. Alyssa is a standard female guard from the Victoria private army MCSS in Ohio. She has a very tough temperament and is very proficient in fighting and firearms.
This time, there were six girls guarding him. In addition to Katie, the other one was also a female guard.
However, because she had been repeatedly told to pay special attention to the safety of the girls, Katie, who had also received professional firearms training before, also brought a gun.
Li Youhu listened to Katie's concise and obviously accented Chinese, knowing that it was impossible to continue the conversation in depth, so he had to turn to the big screen again and quietly pay attention to the reactions of the surrounding audience.
After all, as a girl said before entering the venue, if Jet Lee's movie can be released in the United States, it can be regarded as bringing glory to the country. Li Youhu feels the same way. She doesn't understand the twists and turns in the schedule of this movie. I don’t quite understand what it means when the occupancy rate of this theater exceeds 80%.
However, she was able to confirm that these foreigners probably liked this movie quite a bit, after noticing the voices in the theater that were talking or exclamating as the plot progressed.
So it was inevitable that I would feel a little proud.
After the movie ended, Li Youhu continued to hold Chi Jianjia's arm and walked out of the screening hall. Hearing the heated discussions from the people around him, he was quite satisfied even though he didn't understand a few words in the 90 minutes just now.
Several other white young men passed by the girls. They had struck up a conversation before the movie started. After being rejected, they did not bother. At this time, they still looked at them unabashedly and deliberately raised their voices, obviously trying to attract attention. , it’s a pity that it didn’t work until the two sides moved away.
Li Youhu disdained the showoff of these young people. Seeing the smile on Chi Jianjia's face, he asked, "What did they just say?"
“They said Darksiders was better than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Vampire.”
"Schwarzenegger, I know. I've seen both "Terminator" movies. "The Vaporkeeper", is this his latest movie?"
Chi Jianjia raised her finger and pointed at a poster on the wall inside the theater: "That's it. In fact, the main thing is, they also said that the production cost of "Evaporation Order" was 100 million US dollars, and "Black Man" may not even be 10 million US dollars. .”
Li Youhu glanced at the poster on the wall. It was clearly a picture of Schwarzenegger. He didn't know the other words in English, but he was proud: "10 million defeated 100 million, that's really amazing. However, 100 million US dollars to shoot The movie is equivalent to more than 800 million yuan, which is too luxurious."
Chi Jianjia smiled and said: "Actually, the box office of "Black Man" is definitely not as good as "The Evaporation Order". However, this movie can be released in North America. In short, it is already very powerful."
"Anyway, I'm definitely on the side of "Dark Man"."
Li Youhu and Chi Jianjia were chatting like this, unaware that the topic they talked about coincided with a trend that has been rapidly rising in recent days.
spread rapidly on the Internet.
The general trend is that "Dark Man" from across the ocean is better than "The Vapor" which cost 100 million US dollars.
A well-known film critic from The New York Times said on his Facebook: "The Dark Knight" may be rough as a popcorn commercial film, but its gun battles and fighting scenes are quite remarkable. In comparison, "The Dark Knight" "The Secret Order of Evaporation" is like a slow giant, clumsy and boring.
This view was recognized by many people for a time.
As a result, the popularity of "Dark Man" increased again.
Moreover, it just so happens that in the final battle between "Dark Man" and "The Vapor Command", the villains both used pulse weapons. Due to cost constraints, the pulse weapons in "Dark Man" look like toys, while the pulse weapons in "The Vapor Command" are undoubtedly professional. a lot of. However, comparing the two plots, the pulse weapon battle in "Dark Man" is both thrilling and exciting. In "Evaporation Order", except for Schwarzenegger's grinning teeth and pulling out steel bars from his thighs, nothing else left a lasting impression on people. Too many impressions.
This sudden rise in discussion is of course the result of the behind-the-scenes operations of the "Dark Man" publishing team.
Later, this was the standard popularity.
It is officially announced that a small film with a cost of only 7 million US dollars is pulling in a big one with 100 million US dollars. As the saying goes, I am weak and I am reasonable.
After all, there are only 7 million.
So all the bright spots of the weak were repeatedly magnified, while the strong happened to fail again, so everything about them became shortcomings.
All in all, the three-day opening weekend, starting from Friday's release, once again brought "Dark Man" at least millions of dollars' worth of publicity because of the burgeoning buzz.
The weekend went by in a blink of an eye.
Monday, May 27th.
East Hampton.
After getting up early in the morning and getting the box office report for the past weekend, even Simon himself was a little surprised.
In the first three days of its opening, "Dark Man" was screened on 1,276 screens and earned US$6.56 million at the box office in its first weekend. The box office reached US$5,141 in the three days. Simon's initial expectations were only for the movie to be released in the theaters for the first seven days. If both can reach the US$5,000 level, it is considered a success.
Now, the average museum sales for the three days have exceeded 5,000 US dollars. In the first week, the average museum sales of "Dark Man" may reach about 8,000 US dollars.
This is already considered a hot seller.
Although it is still a little short of the sales threshold of US$10,000 per library, considering the size of "Dark Man", the average per library is US$8,000, which is already a small miracle.
It's not obvious when viewed alone.
In comparison, the success of "Black Man" is even more obvious.
Also released last Friday, Leslie Nielsen's new film "The Funny Detective" had a box office of US$10.45 million in the three days of its opening weekend. It seems to be more than "Dark Man", but the number of opening screens of this movie is 2,286, nearly twice that of "Dark Man". The film's three-day opening weekend was only US$4,570, which is even lower than "Dark Man". Low.
It's like comparing "Dark Man" and "The Evaporation Order" on the Internet platform.
At first glance, there is actually no comparison.
After all, no matter how "Evaporation Order" is, its first-week box office may exceed the total North American box office of "Dark Man", and "The Ultimate Laughter" is also much larger than "Dark Man", and the film's production cost is 18 million US dollars is equivalent to two and a half "Dark Man", not to mention that New World Pictures only spent US$2 million to obtain the European and American distribution rights of "Dark Man", and only spent US$3 million on promotion and distribution.
Therefore, in terms of return, in just three days of the first weekend, "Dark Man" recovered a large part of the total cost of US$5 million. It may be able to recover the cost and start to make a profit in the first week. On the contrary, whether it is "The Evaporation Order" or "The Ultimate Laughter Detective", based on the box office trends they are showing at this time, it is unlikely to achieve profitability during the theatrical release stage.
Moreover, despite its seemingly small size, the profit from "Black Man" is definitely not dispensable.
6.56 million in the three days of the first weekend, which means that the North American box office of the film is expected to exceed the 20 million mark. However, at the North American box office, after deducting the total investment of 5 million US dollars in production and promotion, it is expected to achieve a profit of more than 5 million US dollars.
New World Pictures still gets all the copyrights for the European and American markets.
Of course, such a small film will not be distributed through split distribution in Europe. It will definitely be sold directly. With the popularity accumulated at the North American box office, the film will be sold directly in Europe and it will not be a big problem to recover the US$5 million.
Next came video tapes and television peripherals.
The video tape of "Dark Man" in my memory was a big hit in North America, and the revenue from this aspect alone exceeded 50 million US dollars. This time, even if it is the same as before, based on 40% gross profit, it will be another 20 million US dollars. The gross profit of the video tape is actually the net income of the film project, which is mainly different from the subsequent calculation of the overall after-tax profit of the studio.
In fact, the same goes for box office and other aspects.
Finally, add TV broadcasts, and it’s another deal.
Add another $5 million.
Not to mention the long-tailed forward operations, this is actually the expected income in the next two years or so.
A total of $35 million.
After calculation, the overall income of a small film purchased by New World Pictures for US$2 million is higher than that of many blockbusters.
Just like "The Vapor", based on the current sluggish box office overseas, which is gradually comparable to that of North America, the global box office of this movie may only be about 160 million US dollars, mainly because "The Vapor" was also attacked overseas by "The Mummy".
The total cost of production and promotion of "The Evaporation Order" reached US$130 million, with a global box office of US$160 million. It is expected to recover a share of US$70 million, with a loss of 60 million in the theater distribution stage.
The film's failure in both word-of-mouth and box office will inevitably affect subsequent channels.
In the next two years, the revenue from the video tapes and TV broadcast channels of "The Evaporation Order" combined may not even be able to make up for the loss of 60 million US dollars, let alone generate profits.