Compared with the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series, which has a strong box office appeal around the world, the "Ghostbusters" series of films has no advantage, because this type of film is a comedy, and comedy films are not easy to accumulate movie fans Yes, after all, after everyone laughed and laughed, there was nothing left.
Moreover, the filming time between the two series is five years apart. For a comedy, the loss of popularity is even greater. If it weren’t for Columbia’s inability to produce other series of films to support this crucial summer file, Also won't start the project.
However, Columbia's spare no effort to promote the film has made up for most of the disadvantages. Although it is not as strong as the crazy publicity of "Dark War", compared to other film companies' summer productions, Columbia's publicity is completely Those who don't intend to make money but only go to the box office, their real goal is indeed the same.
The acquisition negotiations with Sony have entered the final stage, and the Japanese are determined to become fat sheep this time. Under such circumstances, the ultimate goal of all business operations in Colombia is to raise the stock price. For a company For listed film companies, box office data is the most influential factor in stock prices.
"Ghostbusters 2" was released on June 16. After the first week's box office came out, the figure of 45 million US dollars made Columbia executives ecstatic. You must know that the first week of "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3" was only 46 million at the box office. This also means that, like "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3", "Ghostbusters 2" is likely to get a total North American box office of nearly 200 million US dollars according to the estimates of the evaluation agency.
But this excitement only lasted for a week. In the second week, the box office of "Ghostbusters 2" plummeted directly, with a drop of 55%, and only received more than 19 million in the second week's box office.
The box office evaluation agency quickly lowered the box office estimate of "Ghostbusters 2" significantly, cutting the box office valuation of 200 million US dollars to 110 million US dollars. Although Columbia's stock price, which had risen rapidly, did not fall back because of this news, but The rising momentum has also slowed down. After all, as one of the six giants, the main film of the summer vacation has a box office of about 100 million, which is really not a bright spot.
The reason for this situation is that apart from the fact that the film's reputation was not as good as the first one after the film was released, the most important thing is that this film hit "Batman" due to bad luck.
"Batman" has been serialized for the first time in 1939, and it has been exactly half a century now. For the first superhero without superpowers in the history of North American comics, Warner is not very optimistic about starting this series. This kind of not optimistic is directly reflected. On the budget.
Compared with the large-scale production budget of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" of nearly 50 million U.S. dollars, Warner only provided "Batman" with a production cost of 35 million U.S. dollars, which is comparable to the scale of blockbusters. Although "Dark War" only cost 34 million, Columbia first provided a budget of 40 million US dollars, and "Ghostbusters 2" also had a budget of 40 million US dollars.
Because Warner is not optimistic about "Batman", Columbia did not take it seriously, so it put "Ghostbusters 2" in the week before "Batman" was released.
But everyone has far underestimated the influence of this superhero who has been serialized for half a century in the hearts of Americans. On June 24, "Batman" was released. Its rivals raked in $68 million at the box office, accounting for 45% of the week's total box office, squeezing the box office of many other films to pieces.
The biggest impact was Columbia's "Ghostbusters 2". After a 55% drop in the box office, "Ghostbusters 2"'s dream of 200 million box office was completely shattered. Sex is minimal.
Therefore, Columbia can only pin its hopes on Eric's "Dark War". After all, this film has been screened internally and screened by film critics, and it is unanimously favored.
However, after the box office of the second week of "Batman" was released, a haze was cast over the heads of all those who were looking forward to "Dark War", because the box office decline of "Batman" in the second week was only a weak 23%. It got a box office of 52 million US dollars, which is much higher than the box office of many blockbusters in the first week of painting.
Although the total weekly box office of the summer file will be about 150 million U.S. dollars, if the 150 million U.S. dollars is allocated to more than ten movies in the summer file, it will not appear too much, and those who can get the summer file are either cannon fodder , or it is an excellent movie with high expectations, and the proportion of the latter is still larger. In this case, the movie "Batman" occupies one-third of the share. If there is no big box office drop in the next week, The box office pressure of "Dark War" can be imagined.
In the conference room of the Columbia headquarters, a group of high-level executives were discussing the solution nervously. A vice president of Coca-Cola also came to observe the meeting. Eric sat next to Amy Pascal and listened patiently to everyone's discussions. .
Although he is the director of this film, Eric does not have much say in terms of film distribution. The reason why he appears here is only because he is the director of "Dark War". The authority was delegated to him, but he was hardly involved in the distribution. Eric also submitted a document of his own on the promotional ideas of the film before, but did not get a response from Columbia.
"I think the release of "Dark War" should be postponed, at least for a week. "Batman" is too strong. It is very unwise to stubbornly set the schedule on July 7th. We Already losing a Ghostbusters 2, if Dark War fails to live up to expectations because of Batman, then our previous plan to push up the stock price with two blockbusters will be ruined." Columbia Propaganda The executives of the department expressed their views.
As soon as the other party finished speaking, another executive asked: "Bob, according to your plan, what should we do with the agreement signed with the theater?"
"Coordinate with the other party to properly compensate the theaters for their losses. We can take out a few films from the produced movies to temporarily replace them. In short, at present, ensuring the box office of "Dark War" is the first priority."
The management of the data analysis department interjected: "The current box office of "Batman" has exceeded 100 million, and this momentum is unlikely to continue, and the critics' evaluation of this movie is not too high. There should be a normal 40%-plus drop at the box office."
"According to what you said, the movie should have experienced a normal decline in the second week, but the fact is that this situation did not happen. There was only a slight decline of 23% in the second week," someone retorted.
"The media has already begun to mock us for the scheduling of the two films. If we don't release them according to the confirmed schedule, it will definitely give people a signal of no confidence in the quality of "Dark War". This is very dangerous, because once When movie fans have this kind of misunderstanding, they will preconceive that "Dark War" is a bad movie, and that is the most fatal blow to the movie. In comparison, it is the safest way to release it according to the original plan, not that we don't want to. However, according to the current situation, we absolutely cannot postpone it.”
"I also agree with Ritter's words, it's not that we don't want to postpone, but we can't. Once postponed, it's tantamount to telling everyone that we have no confidence in "Dark War" and we're afraid. "Dark War" doesn't actually have us. It was advertised so well."
"But once "Batman" shows a slight drop of about 20% in the third week, it will still get a box office of about 40 million. Can you imagine how much box office pressure "Dark Wars" will have under this situation?"
The crowd discussed in a chaotic manner for an hour. The vice president of Coca-Cola who was present remained in the state of listening throughout the whole process. After the crowd paused for a while, he sat up straight and turned his eyes to the silent listener like himself who had been ignored by everyone. Eric: "Mr. Williams, I saw that you have been silent, why didn't you say your opinion?"