China Entertainment 2000.

Chapter 271 Who framed whom?

Monday, July 7th.

North American theaters enter a new week of box office competition.

At this critical juncture, Dick Aron, the head of AMC Cinemas in Los Angeles, the largest theater chain in North America, received a friendly call, which gave Jiang Liu even more confidence in his fifth film "Ape".

Theaters have always been snobbish.

What's more, North American theater chains and distributors generally use a tiered flexible system that is adjusted weekly for box office accounting.

The so-called tiered flexible system means that for most mainstream films, distributors can get 90% of the box office share during the first week or extended to the second week of release, while theaters only get 10%.

Then in the following screening cycle, the distributor's share ratio will basically be reduced by 10% every two weeks, and the theater chain's ratio will be adjusted accordingly by a 10% increase.

The box office sharing system of North American theater chains means that movies that have lost their box office potential are destined to be abandoned by theater chains in advance and swept into the trash.

Of course, major film studios such as Sony Columbia will put pressure on theaters and will not allow them to reduce their film schedules.

However, for the sake of box office and performance, theater chains can always make profits through a series of small actions.

He is not stupid. The reputation of "Apes" is obviously higher than that of movies of the same period. Once the reputation is fully developed in North America, the box office will definitely increase.

However, as word-of-mouth spread on YouTube and other social software, the attendance rate of 50 movie theaters exceeded 5% for the first time.

At the Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, Fairman, president of Lionsgate Pictures, the distributor of "Apes", took advantage of his busy schedule to find Jiang Liu.

So Dick Aaron vowed to give Jiangliu 50 screens.

The nearly one-sided evaluation of "Apes" by YouTube netizens, as well as the single-day box office in the second week, gave Fairman, He Jing and other people who were not optimistic about the North American box office of "Apes" a little fighting spirit.

"Kingdom of Heaven" and "The Legend of Zorro" dominate the most scheduled films in North America, but they have low box office and poor reputation.

This will accept an olive branch from AMC, which does not have much negotiating leverage. It should wait and see whether "Apes" can achieve box office success with 50 screens in its second week.

The box office performance was matched by a wider range of positive reviews from netizens on social media.

"Jiang, we can talk with the No. 1 and No. 2 theater chains in North America. I believe Hudgens will definitely be willing to add more screens to "Apes". The same goes for AMC, even if you don't deal with Disney and Sony Columbia."

A ray of sunshine in the recent gloom of bad movies.

At the same time, we have to wait for the box office of "The Legend of Zorro" and "Kingdom of Heaven" to shrink further.

This is a very wonderful movie, every minute touches my nerves,

However, on Tuesday, Monday's box office data was released, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that the box office balance for the August movie schedule gradually began to tilt.

The box office did not fall but rose on Monday, bucking the trend and closing at US$73.

In the North American film market starting in August, it seems that the foreign film "Apes" and Hollywood movies are at a standstill. "Apes" has a good reputation, a low box office, and a low film schedule.

Touching, funny, and shocking. Fortunately, I watched it, otherwise I would really regret it.

Jiang Liu was not overjoyed by the offer from AMC Cinemas.

"Apes" will still have 50 screens on Monday.

I just watched "War for the Planet of the Apes". It's a good movie. It's the second movie in recent years after "Spider-Man" that I watched for the first time and wanted to watch it a second time.

The total box office in the four days of release reached more than 220 million, ranking 50st on the North American box office weekly rankings with the lowest number of 31 screens.

Oil pipe:

Jiang Liu slowly shook his head while sliding the mouse: "Wait a moment."

"Why?" Fellman loosened his tie, pulled up a chair and sat next to Jiang Liu, looking very confused.

As the independent distributor of "Apes" in the North American market, Lionsgate is one of the vested interests in "Apes."

The higher the box office of a movie, the bigger the profit for Lionsgate.

The cooperation agreement between Lionsgate and Yixin is indeed not pure. It is difficult for him and Lionsgate Pictures to spend too many connections and friendships on "Apes". But now and then, "Apes" has a good reputation, its box office is increasing, and it has demonstrated its own commercial value. Naturally, Lionsgate Pictures has to stop and make money, otherwise it would be stupid.

At this moment, Fairman and Lionsgate Pictures are more anxious than Jiang Liu to expand the number of screens for "Apes". Film investment is risky and money is hard to make. An extra bit of extra money is worth it.

Who would have thought that Jiang Liu, who had been so anxious before, calmed down instead.

"Have you not noticed that at the beginning of the new week, except for the Los Angeles Times and a few other media outlets that received our promotion fees, most media in North America are deliberately ignoring "Apes"?"

Fairman nodded and admitted: "I understand, but I am helpless. Yingjiang's media group and the major Hollywood film studios have cross-shareholdings. They are from the same mother. It is normal to cooperate when necessary."

"So let the bullet fly for a while."

Fellman's wrinkled forehead showed his inner doubts.

But Jiang Liu ignored him.

He couldn't tell Fairman that "Apes" not only needed hunger marketing, but also needed to use the praise of North American netizens to force the media groups controlled by North American chaebols to make certain concessions.

He believes that in three or four days at most, when netizens in other parts of North America can no longer find "Apes" in their cities and cannot watch "Apes" that has received rave reviews on the Internet, those young North American netizens who have been aroused to watch movies will It’s time to put pressure on theaters and the North American media.

By then, he will sign the box office sharing agreement for the expanded screening of the movie, which will usher in a wave of box office explosion and use a greater wave of public opinion to pressure the media.

Jiang Liu's request was not high, even if it was to criticize the movie "Orangutan" in two influential programs.

Fairman left the hotel room full of doubts.

After Jiang Liu assigned He Jing and the manager of Water Pictures the task of strengthening YouTube promotion and building momentum, he frowned, stuffed a gadget into his pocket and followed him out of the room.

After taking a taxi into Century City of Beverly Hills, Jiang Liu caught a glimpse of the woman staring absently out of the window.

During afternoon tea, there were a lot of whispers in the coffee shop. Jiang Liu looked around and saw nothing strange. He straightened his clothes in thought and went straight to the woman by the window: "Hello, Eva, why are you inviting me so suddenly? Drink coffee?"

The disturbed Eva Green was shocked. When she came back to her senses, she saw that it was really Jiang Liu. She looked up and down for a moment at the man with whom she had had a night of fun, and nodded in agreement.

"We should really go to the hotel. I need your help to relieve the stress."

"Gesha coffee, add two tablespoons of sugar."

After sending the waiter away, Jiang Liu looked at Eva Green and said with a smile: "Because of the movie? You are a young actor, and the box office of "Kingdom of Heaven" puts you under such great pressure?"

"It's enough to put an end to my career as an actor, as well as the so-called most handsome man in Hollywood, Orlando Bloom."

After Eva Green stirred the coffee and laughed at herself, she felt a chill in her heart, stopped moving her hands, and sat upright.

Jiang Liu didn't care about the life or death of "The Kingdom of Heaven", he cared more about "The Orangutan", so he asked without hesitation:

"Do you have inside information? Where do 21 Fox executives think the box office of "Kingdom of Heaven" will stay?"

Eva Green's mouth was bitter: "You know it's bad when I'm still in Los Angeles."

"So you asked me to have coffee, and even invited me to check out a house later, just to stir up news and save the box office of "Kingdom of Heaven"?"

Jiang Liu smiled and pointed to the black car facing the two people outside: "Is that Fox's media car? Are they live broadcasting us drinking coffee?"

Eva Green's face turned panicked: "Have you discovered it a long time ago?"

"Do I look stupid?"

Eva Green's panic only lasted for a second after Jiang Liu easily exposed her suspicions. In the blink of an eye, her expression remained normal and she said, "I feel like I didn't reveal any flaws."

"It might be more realistic if you replace text invitations from strangers with random encounters. Who is trying to market a love triangle between you and me and Orlando Bloom? Fox boss Tom Rothman? If so, it seems a bit stupid."

Jiang Liu mocked as he stood up.

(End of this chapter)