I’m in Hollywood

When Jurassic Park was highly publicized in the last period before its release, on May 28, Carlock Pictures' first summer film, Peak of the Mountains officially opened on more than 00 screens. It marks the official arrival of the 1993 film summer season.

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Peak of the Mountains tells the story of a rescue team played by Stallone and his companions who are reborn from desperation after encountering a group of gangsters on a snowy mountain. The film cost 70 million US dollars and was funded by German capital. Produced by Locke Pictures, released by MGM, which has just undergone a reorganization.

There is also an episode. The film of Carlock Pictures was originally distributed by Columbia. However, after Columbia and Firefly reached a cooperation agreement last year, Peter Cooper canceled the cooperation with Carlock Pictures. After the Italian businessman Giancarlo's fraud case, MGM was taken over by the creditor, the Credit Lyon Bank of France. The Lyon Credit Bank, which held the control, auctioned MGM at the end of last year, but no one was willing to take over. MGM was reorganized, and Frank Marcasso, John Carley, who had served as executives at Warner Bros., were recruited to form the management team. In the process of MGM's reorganization, it happened that Carlock Pictures was looking for a distributor for its own films. The new management team, which was in urgent need of turning around MGM's decline, signed a distribution agreement with Carlock.

However, fantasy is beautiful, and reality is always cruel.

Although Stallone's performance is very hard, there are many life-threatening thrilling scenes in the movie, but The Endless Mountain will be released on May 28. It only grossed $16 million in its first three days. It was accompanied by a chorus of disparagement from the critics.

Most critics gave the film low marks. It is claimed that the plot of the movie is old-fashioned and naive, and that only ten minutes of watching can completely guess the rest of the plot of the movie.

Moreover, a scene in the film where the protagonist burns money to keep warm has also become the focus of a lot of media ridicule. The production cost of this film cost 70 million US dollars, and MGM spent another 30 million, 100 million for the promotion of the film. The huge cost of dollars is indeed no different from burning money. And after burning so much money, the movie didn't reach the level it should have. Although the $16 million first three-day result is not too miserable, with the release of the much-anticipated Jurassic Park in its second week, most box-office analysts estimate that the North American box office of The Peak will stop. The price is in the range of $50 million, which is not even half of the total cost of the movie The Peak of the Mountain.

The North American box office is so bleak, and other distribution channels will not be too ideal. The situation of huge losses for producers and distribution companies is almost doomed.

Of course, MGM's management team is not willing to take over the film company's first heavyweight film to usher in such a bleak situation. After the box office of The Peak of the Mountain was released in the first weekend, MGM executives held a meeting. emergency meeting. After some consultations, a response plan was quickly come up.

Because the film review of Peerless Peak has been difficult to reverse.

MGM decided to take a different approach. The next day, many newspapers published a large number of articles complaining about Jeweling Xiongfeng, claiming that the film quality of Jeiling Xiongfeng was not as bad as critics criticized. The one-sided situation is entirely due to the smearing of competitors.

As soon as these articles came out, they immediately aroused a lot of repercussions. The release date of Jurassic Park was just one week after the release of Jeiling Xiongfeng. Peak, Jurassic Park and other heavyweights, therefore, the 'competitors' referred to in these articles can't be more obvious, so after seeing these news, many people are subconsciously concerned about the Jeiling Xiongfeng. The 'tragic encounter' generated sympathy, and in the face of Firefly's increasingly powerful position in Hollywood, the media controlled by other studios didn't mind taking advantage of the situation and adding trouble to Firefly.

In just a few days, a wave of crusade against the evil forces in the film industry has formed in the media.

At the same time, Jurassic Park has also entered the last week of intense promotion. In addition to more violent print media and TV advertising, after May 25th, the main creative team of Jurassic Park has started North America. Tour promotion activities in major cities, and successively held preview events in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and other places.

However, in the face of the smearing of the crusade against Peerless Peak in the media, Firefly Pictures has remained silent.

The silence of the fireflies does not mean that some people will let the fireflies remain silent. The purpose of MGM is to provoke a confrontation between the two films, so as to achieve the effect of rebounding the box office of Peak of the Mountains.

However, in the process of publicity tour of Jurassic Park, basically all the media invited by Firefly are good friends, and MGM has never found any opportunity.

Because the United Kingdom will arrange for the release of Jurassic Park at the same time, the main creative team will also fly to London on June 3 to attend the premiere in the United Kingdom, and the premiere in North America will be arranged on June 2. Two days before Jurassic Park hits theaters.

As usual, the North American premiere was held at the famous Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

At the beginning of the premiere, everything went smoothly. However, in the questioning session of the media, a reporter asked Eric abruptly after his turn: Mr. What do you think about being smeared by competitors?

Hearing this question, Charlie West, who was in charge of organizing the premiere, fell into a cold sweat, and the atmosphere at the scene immediately fell into a cold state.

Before this, Firefly had not discussed this matter. The final result given by Eric was cold treatment and no response. Firefly's distribution department also performed very well. Unexpectedly, in the premiere such as this On the occasion of Ming feeling, there was such a big mistake.

Charlie West wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stood at the exit of the backstage looking down at the stage. Live broadcast.

Mr. West. Would you like to suspend the live broadcast? Charlie West was at a loss. The person in charge of Fox Television has already come over.

Charlie West glared at each other. Isn't this nonsense, the question just now has been broadcast live, and suddenly cutting off the live broadcast in this case is not slapping the face of the person on the stage.

Eric held the microphone in his hand and was silent for a moment with everyone. After seeing the news a few days ago, Eric almost understood the ins and outs of the matter. These methods did not talk about this life, even if he did not fully integrate into the circle in his previous life. I have seen too many similar situations.

If Peerless Peak is a good movie and has many fans, then this method by MGM will indeed have a specific impact, but unfortunately Peerless Peak is really just a film of very high quality. A mediocre popcorn movie cannot form a die-hard fan base. Therefore, although MGM's method will arouse some people's sympathy for The Peak of the Mountain, and thus buy tickets in a rebellious mentality, most ordinary people will still only maintain the attitude of bystanders to watch the fun.

At the same time, Firefly has not done anything to smear Juingling Xiongfeng. Therefore, it is impossible for MGM to obtain any substantial evidence to prove this, and it dare not blatantly name Jurassic Park. Only misleading the reader with some ambiguous language.

What MGM wants is for Firefly to take the initiative to respond. Once this is the case, then MGM's remarks against Firefly will be justifiable, and it will also create an established fact in the minds of ordinary people.

But now, facing the live camera footage, Eric knew he had to respond on the spot.

After thinking for a while, Eric picked up the microphone again and asked the reporter, Sir, do you have many friends?

The reporter was stunned for a moment. Although he didn't know why Eric suddenly asked this question, he was instinctively vigilant: Mr. Williams, this has nothing to do with my question. Could you please answer my question directly?

Eric stared sharply at the reporter and said solemnly: The question you asked has nothing to do with this premiere, but I still decided to answer you, so tell me first, you have many friends. ?

Feeling the pressure in Eric's eyes, the reporter shrank his neck subconsciously, and blurted out, It's... ok, no, I mean, I have a lot of friends.

Then do you often discuss movies with your friends?

The reporter thought he had calmed down and said, Yes, Mr. Williams, I'm an entertainment reporter, so they often ask me some questions about movies... The reporter was shocked when he said this. , subconsciously thought that Eric was taken into the pit, he thought that Eric would ask him how he felt about the movie The Peak of the Mountains.

However, Eric did not continue to ask, but said: Okay, then I can answer you now about your opinion on your question just now. Hollywood movies have developed for more than 80 years now. Time, movies have also become an indispensable part of everyone's entertainment life. Even if many people will not go to the cinema, they can still watch movies through TV, video and other channels. Such a long time is enough to cultivate ordinary people's awareness of a movie Self-judgment of whether a movie is good or bad.”

Mr Williams...

The reporter heard that Eric still did not answer his question directly, and was about to interrupt, but when he met Eric's sharp eyes, he immediately spoke back.

Eric continued: Everyone's judgment on the quality of a movie does not depend on the investment of the movie. Otherwise, the Cutthroat Island two years ago is estimated to be the box office champion of that year.

Hearing this sentence, everyone present laughed, and the reporter couldn't help but ask: Mr. Williams, you didn't answer my question.

Okay, to answer your question, I don't have any opinion on the thing you just mentioned. The promotion of the movie is just an advertising means to let people know that there is such a movie coming out, when in fact a person Will you choose to watch this movie? In addition to word of mouth in the newspapers and media, the most important criterion is how people around them talk about this movie. As you just said, your friends will tell you this. It’s the same thing as an entertainment reporter asking for a movie. So, if everyone thinks a movie has been smeared, ask your friends who have seen the movie around you. If they say yes, then you can go to the cinema. , if they feel bad, of course you don't have to watch it, that's all. Speaking of this, Eric smiled and faced the camera again and said: Of course, this method is also effective for Jurassic Park, everyone You can ignore any comments on Jurassic Park in the media, and only decide whether you want to watch the movie based on the viewing experience of your friends.

Hearing Eric's confident tone, the audience at the premiere couldn't help applauding.

The reporter who had just tried to disrupt the situation also sat down angrily and did not continue to entangle.

At this time, in front of the televisions of thousands of households, many viewers who were still sympathetic to the smearing incident of Dream Mountain have silently changed their minds, although many people still haven't completely turned to the fireflies. The innocent side, but many people are no longer so indignant, but decided to ask the people around them what they think of The Peak of the Mountain.

After the reporter sat down, the host of the premiere gave Eric a look and asked whether to continue the question-and-answer session.

Eric nodded slightly.

The host continued to order other reporters, and at the same time hoped that there would not be another provocative guy.

Mr. Williams, I heard the tone of voice you just said with confidence, and Firefly broke the rules and arranged 3,000 screens for the premiere of Jurassic Park, so you have your own box office for Jurassic Park. Tone? This time it was a black-haired woman wearing glasses, and the question was quite satisfactory.

Many people can't help but breathe a sigh of relief...

Eric glanced at the woman and said with a smile: You know, before a movie is released, both the distribution company and some professional organizations have made predictions about the movie's box office. Compared with the answer to this question, you I've seen it in many newspapers.

Of course, all the big-duty predictions say that the North American box office of Jurassic Park will be between $200 million and $300 million, the female reporter replied skillfully, and looked at Eric slyly: However, I think everyone is more curious. Since Mr. Williams, you can arrange 3,000 screen premieres for this movie, what is your box office expectation? (To be continued...)