Monday, April 20th.
Just after spending Easter with his family, Peter Sanders received a call before eight o'clock in the morning and hurried to Fox Studios.
Ronald Goldberg's assistant acted in a hurry on the phone and hung up before he could elaborate. Peter Sanders is very clear that the matter must be related to the second weekend box office of "The Butterfly Effect".
Walking into a conference room in the administrative building of the studio, Peter Sanders found that there were already five or six people waiting here, basically all executives from the publicity department, but Ronald Goldberg was not there yet. Appear.
Before sitting down at the conference table, Peter Sanders keenly captured a certain number mixed in the discussion.
“…11.86 million…”
11.86 million? !
Feeling strongly that he might have heard wrongly, Peter Sanders grabbed the folder handed to him from the hands of the meeting secretary and opened it while standing there.
The first page is the latest three-day weekend box office data report.
"The Butterfly Effect," $11.86 million, -17%.
Sure enough, it was US$11.86 million!
Moreover, compared with the box office data of US$14.31 million in the first weekend, "The Butterfly Effect" fell far beyond everyone's expectations in the second week, only 17%.
Peter Sanders couldn't help but do some quick mental calculations.
The box office dropped by 17% the next weekend. If this trend is maintained, it is definitely very possible for the total box office in North America to exceed US$100 million.
The question now is, what happened
Peter Sanders was standing there in a daze when Ronald Goldberg came in with a few people and sat directly at the head of the conference table. Seeing Peter Sanders' appearance, Goldberg said very kindly: "Peter, what are you doing standing there? Sit down quickly."
Peter Sanders came back to his senses, smiled and nodded to the other party, walked to the conference table and sat down.
The meeting secretary began to distribute another document.
Ronald Goldberg waited for everyone to sit down and said directly: "Everyone should have seen that, yes, it was 11.86 million US dollars, and the box office dropped only 17% the next week. As for what happened? I asked someone to A temporary summary of the recent audience survey results of the company's publicity department can probably explain the reason. However, this is not the most important thing. The key now is how to maintain this box office trend and how to make "The Butterfly Effect" cross the box office $100 million threshold.”
After several years at the helm of Fox Pictures, the company is finally about to usher in a film that is expected to gross over 100 million at the North American box office. Ronald Goldberg's tone is filled with excitement that cannot be concealed.
Peter Sanders listened to Ronald Goldberg begin to discuss with everyone the issues of increasing the screening scale of "The Butterfly Effect" as soon as possible and adjusting the film's marketing strategy. He opened another document he had just obtained and read it attentively. The Fox Publicity Department analyzed the reasons for the box office trend of "The Butterfly Effect" in the second week.
In the summary of the report, several sets of data from the "Butterfly Effect" audience survey across North America are specially marked.
"Percentage of viewers in the 18-26 age group: 43%."
"Audience rating: 7.7 out of 10."
"The proportion of viewers who were influenced by "Run Lola Run" and chose to watch the movie: 81%."
“Percent of viewers not affected by comments: 33%.”
“Percentage of viewers who think the film received unfair media reviews: 76%.”
“Proportion of viewers planning to recommend to friends after watching the movie: 69%.”
In the conference room.
Just after reading the set of data in front of him, Peter Sanders already roughly understood why the box office trend of "The Butterfly Effect" in the second week was beyond everyone's expectations.
The research report also clearly pointed out at the end that compared to the overwhelming negative reviews from the media, "The Butterfly Effect" has a much higher reputation among the audience. With an audience score of 7.7, it basically falls into the category of an excellent movie.
At the same time, because the audience of "The Butterfly Effect" tends to be younger, these people rarely read newspapers on weekdays, and are more likely to choose movie viewing targets recommended by friends. Therefore, the impact of the media's one-sided negative reviews on the film's box office is far less than Fox expected.
The report also speculates that the popularity of "Lola Run" has brought a very large potential audience base to "Butterfly Effect". Although some viewers temporarily gave up watching the movie due to negative media reviews in the first week, they still chose to enter theaters again after word-of-mouth spread among viewers. This also largely contributed to the film's weak decline of only 17% the following weekend. .
Major Hollywood studios basically conduct similar audience research on the films they release. These figures already existed before "The Butterfly Effect's" box office was released the following weekend.
However, the media's bombardment of negative reviews for "The Butterfly Effect" was so intense that no one at Fox could feel much sense of security because of these data.
Now that the film's box office results have been released, it is easy to deduce the reasons through data.
It comes down to it.
After all, movies are a high-risk business that is as unpredictable as the weather.
After reading the report, Peter Sanders raised his head and saw that an executive from the publicity department was expressing his views.
"Ronald, in addition to these, I think we can use public opinion control to exaggerate the strong contrast between negative media reviews and the film's box office as much as possible, making people believe that "The Butterfly Effect" has been treated very unfairly, and even, We can suggest that someone is deliberately discrediting the film, which can inspire the audience's sympathy and rebellious psychology to the greatest extent and lead more people to enter the theater."
After hearing this, Ronald Goldberg nodded in approval and said: "Nick, please make a detailed implementation plan as soon as possible, and I will ask New York to cooperate. So, that's it for the time being, everyone goes about their business. Right. Remember, I’m going to see the number of screening screens for The Butterfly Effect increase to over 1,700 this Friday.”
This was originally a publicity strategy adjustment meeting. Peter Sanders was only called in because of his status as the vice president of production directly responsible for "The Butterfly Effect." He did not express any opinions during the entire process.
After hearing Ronald announce that the meeting was over, Peter Sanders also stood up and was about to leave with everyone, but was stopped by Ronald Goldberg.
"Peter, the next promotion of "The Butterfly Effect" still needs the cooperation of Simon Westeros. You are responsible for contacting this matter. In addition, I remember that Daenerys Pictures is still preparing a romance film. You can re-ask Someone make an assessment report and give it to me.”
Peter Sanders nodded in agreement. When Ronald Goldberg left, he raised his wrist and looked at his watch. The time was just nine o'clock in the morning.
at the same time.
As a new working week begins, the second weekend box office data of "The Butterfly Effect" quickly spread throughout Hollywood.
Compared with the trackable box office curve of "Run Lola Run" at the beginning, the second weekend box office of "The Butterfly Effect" surprised many people. It was not until the internal report from Fox gradually spread that many people finally believed it. This fact.
21.69 million US dollars in the first week and 11.85 million US dollars in the second weekend.
In just ten days, the total box office of "The Butterfly Effect" has reached 33.55 million US dollars. There is no doubt that even if it fails to exceed 100 million in the end, this movie will definitely be able to enter the top ten in the annual box office rankings.
Thinking of this, many people were suddenly shocked.
Including "Run Lola Run", which is still in theaters, a young man who has only made his mark in Hollywood for less than a year has unknowingly created two movies that are enough to enter the top ten in North America's annual box office list.
Even Steven Spielberg has never created such a miracle.
Realizing this, Daenerys Pictures, located in an office building in Santa Monica, suddenly once again attracted strong attention from the entire Hollywood.
In Hollywood, one success is still regarded as an accident, but two successes are enough to prove too many things. Now, having created two miracles, Simon Westeros' good luck may not stop there.
Daenerys Film Headquarters.
It's already afternoon.
Simon's office was welcoming a heavyweight visitor, CAA President Michael Ovitz.
Due to the internal turmoil of WMA last year, CAA took the opportunity to poach a large number of top stars. With this company and its mature packaging operation mechanism, Michael Ovitz is definitely one of the most powerful people in Hollywood at this time.
However, on the other hand, Michael Ovitz is an extremely low-key person.
In my memory, it was not until the late 1980s, as CAA's power became stronger and the media spared no effort to dig out, that Michael Ovitz, the 'giant' lurking in Hollywood, finally surfaced, and he has been involved in many Reached the number one spot on Premiere magazine's Hollywood Power List.
Simon and Ovitz sat across from each other on the sofa in the reception area.
Michael Ovitz has an easy-going temperament that makes people naturally feel close to each other, but his words are straightforward. He said: "Simon, these days, you have already told John Travolta and Robert... Redford, Meg Ryan and many other clients have extended cooperation invitations. So, in order to make our cooperation more convenient, how about joining CAA?"
As soon as he opened his mouth, Simon felt the strong desire for control from this CAA boss.
However, he just shook his head slightly and smiled: "Sorry, Michael, I already have an agent. And even if I join CAA, I will not sign a share contract with you."
"Of course, our company is actually very flexible in this regard. Spielberg is also our client, and we also signed a fixed salary contract with him," Michael Ovitz also showed a smile, and finally said something. Pointingly, he added: "Same as you were at the WMA."
"In this case," Simon shrugged and said, "Michael, you should know that I will never terminate the contract with Joe easily. If it weren't for him, I might still be working as a cashier in a supermarket. So, we still Let’s talk about Bob’s pay.”
Michael Ovitz nodded. He did not pursue the fight as fiercely as the rumors said, or he just did not show it for the time being. He simply changed the subject and said: "Bob called me. He wanted to work in your new company." A cameo role in the movie. I read the script, and to be honest, I didn't think it was a good choice. But you know, we always try to give our clients whatever they want. So, Simon, $1 million, Bob is definitely worth the price.”