Hollywood Hunter

November 1st is also a new Monday.

Amy Pascal arrived at Daenerys Studios in Malibu less than eight o'clock as usual.

In the past weekend, the box office data of "The Seven Deadly Sins" caught the attention of many people, especially Daenerys Entertainment.

A production budget of 30 million U.S. dollars and a publicity investment of 15 million U.S. dollars

For a project with a total cost of $45 million, if it fails at the box office, it will actually not have much impact on Daenerys Entertainment.

However, this film bears many other things.

Since the launch of the 58list platform by Eaglet, it is completely opposed to traditional media. For several months, Daenerys Entertainment has been quietly adjusting the distribution strategy of its film business in order to get rid of the influence of traditional paper media in film distribution as much as possible. .

A series of films in the previous few months can not be regarded as the focus, and the game between Daenerys Entertainment and traditional paper media is not so fierce.

Because Daenerys Entertainment has been successful in its Halloween-scheduled films for several consecutive years, this time "The Seven Deadly Sins" has become the target of many paper media snipers. If this project fails due to the influence of the word of mouth of the paper media, the Westeros system must reconsider and adjust its relationship with the paper media, no matter if it is active or forced.

In response to this attack, the distribution team of "The Seven Deadly Sins" has also adjusted its film distribution strategy in recent months to the fullest.

The most critical point is the application of emerging Internet platforms.

"The Seven Deadly Sins" therefore became the first movie to publish a trailer via the Internet.

With the completion of the ADSL network upgrade, more than 70% of Internet users in North America have upgraded their basic network speed to 256kbps, which also means a download speed of 32kb/s, and millions of users have opened up faster 512kbps or 1Mbps broadband package.

The downstream network speed reaches 32kb/s, which basically supports the 240P resolution video launched by Eaglet.

The two-minute trailer of "The Seven Deadly Sins", according to the MP4 video format launched by Eaglet, has a 240P resolution capacity of only 3.1M. It is played on the network through real-time streaming media and only requires 26Kb of data per second. AOL’s basic ADSL package is completely sufficient. For other dial-up Internet areas, only proper buffering or downloading is required for playback.

The 240P resolution may be horrible on a later 1080P computer. With most display configurations at this stage, the display effect is already very good.

Because of the gimmick of the first online movie trailer, in the past two months, the two trailers of "The Seven Deadly Sins" have been played cumulatively for 73 million times.

Different from passively watched TV commercials, the 73 million views of the trailer represent the active interest of the "Seven Deadly Sins" by more than 20 million viewers.

With the success of the "Seven Deadly Sins" online trailer, Eaglet has successively launched "The Lion King", "Mission Impossible", "Schindler's List", "Steel Bone", etc. to be released at the end of the year. Movie trailers related to Daenerys Entertainment. At the same time, on the grounds that the online video streaming technology is still in the testing stage, other movie companies' trailers were rejected.

Igrett is not a lie.

The MP4 video format and streaming media playback technology is indeed still in the testing stage. Moreover, compared with text, pictures, sound and other content, online video requires a lot of network bandwidth. For cost-saving considerations, Eaglet There is no plan to launch a dedicated video website, but it is also because there is not enough content to launch a dedicated video website.

Therefore, for a long period of time in the future, Eaglet will only release a small amount of embedded video content in the corresponding section of the portal website, just like the trailer section of the movie information section this time.

Because it holds all the patents of MP4 video format and streaming media playback technology, as long as Eaglet does not authorize externally, it is impossible for other specialized video sites to appear on the World Wide Web platform.

This is monopoly.

Since the Westeros system is to be allowed to grow wildly, Simon no longer deliberately avoids the monopoly problem. As long as you have the industry advantages, try your best to use them.

In addition to the gimmick of the first movie trailer released via the Internet, in recent months, Daenerys Entertainment and Eaglet have also focused on promoting a group of online film critics and invited many traditional famous film critics to enter Yige. Reiter’s portal’s Facebook, film information, and even a professional film website specially fostered by Eagle.

Compared with the "Seven Deadly Sins" on the traditional paper media platform, which has a comprehensive score of 7.3 points, the evaluation of the film network platform is much higher, with a comprehensive score of about 8.1 points, which is already an excellent level.

Of course, there are also the results of Daenerys and Igreat deliberately guiding.

As a hot topic in Igreat portal web forums, social platforms and movie information, if a film article wants to get a key recommendation, it must be a good word for "The Seven Deadly Sins". Those in the media who are diametrically opposed to the Westeros system on the Internet, even if they are not blocked, are destined to not have too much exposure.

Human nature seeks advantages and avoids disadvantages.

Now that they are aware of the rules, many people will naturally show a tendency.

And, most importantly, "The Seven Deadly Sins" is indeed a very good film.

Even the Westeros system itself will not forcefully recommend a bad film, doing so will only become a laughing stock.

In addition to the gimmick of the first online trailer and the praise of online film critics, several of the film’s main creators, such as Revan Phoenix, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow They also opened a Facebook page to interact with fans.

Of the project’s $15 million publicity budget, $2 million was also spent directly on the Internet platform, including the official homepage of the "Seven Deadly Sins", which was highly suspenseful, attracting a large number of fans to log in and browse.

Web trailer gimmicks, support from online film critics, interaction between the creator and fans, direct advertising, and the key promotion of the entire Igreat portal. In recent months, users throughout North America who use the Internet have basically responded to "Sin" produced a more or less impression.

In many cases, it is often this kind of brainwashing latent impression that unknowingly attracts consumers to draw out their wallets.

When I walked into the movie theater on weekends, compared to other movies that I hadn't heard of, the familiar name of "The Seven Deadly Sins" seemed to have a good reputation. It is self-evident how the audience would choose.

In addition to online channels, Daenerys Entertainment certainly did not completely abandon the traditional advertising model.

15 million U.S. dollars announced the budget, 2 million U.S. dollars for network expenses, 2 million U.S. dollars for copy production and transportation costs, the remaining 11 million U.S. dollars and 7 million U.S. dollars went to various TV networks, and the remaining 4 million U.S. dollars, half For the production of theater posters and outdoor billboards, the other half, about US$2 million, is still invested in traditional paper media.

Expenses on television advertising and other aspects have actually not changed much.

Traditional paper media originally invested about 25% of the publicity expenditure, which is US$4 million. This time, half of it was cut directly, and this half happened to be transferred to the Internet platform.

At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment is also focusing on some paper media forces that can be dealt with, such as News Corporation, Time Warner Group, etc., for media that have completely stood on the opposite side, such as Hess. The special group is completely blocked during the stage of media trial screening.

News news, the key lies in the word ‘new’.

Other media have already released a film review of a movie in advance, forming a preconceived concept in the minds of readers. Other paper-based film critics who were unable to obtain the qualifications to watch the film during the trial screening stage criticized the film after it was released and criticized the film’s box office Its influence is no longer so strong.

This is actually the case.

Although after the large-scale release of "The Seven Deadly Sins", the reputation of traditional paper media was only 7.3 points, but before the film was released, the media that released the film reviews in advance basically gave considerable praise.

At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment has further strengthened its efforts to attract film critics based on the operation of Gaomen Films in recent years.

Newspapers, film critics, and film companies seem to be the most vulnerable among the three, but unlike the full-time editors of newspapers, film critics still have a certain degree of independence, especially many well-known film critics. People, these people have a strong influence on the audience, and naturally they have a higher right to speak in front of the newspaper.

Daenerys Entertainment happens to control the content resources that are vital to film critics.

Well-known film critics can contribute to many newspapers, but if they are turned away by the film company and cannot participate in the media screening to obtain firsthand information in advance, their influence will inevitably decline rapidly.

A small conference room in the administrative building of Daenerys Studios.

When Amy Pascal entered the meeting room, Tom Pollack, president of Daenerys Pictures, Danny Morris, president of New World Pictures, Ella Doitchman, president of Highgate Pictures, and Dannily Mark Belford, President of Silk Entertainment's global distribution business, and other executives have all arrived, and everyone is discussing what the atmosphere is quite relaxed.

In fact, since the box office of the first day of "The Seven Deadly Sins" was released last Saturday, everyone was relieved.

At this moment, everyone's expressions are still filled with joy.

Before the movie was released, through several internal trial screenings and data feedback from the two-month announcement of the film, the announcement team set a box office target of 60 million U.S. dollars for The Seven Deadly Sins.

US$60 million is actually a very high figure, but it is not enough to recover the total investment of US$45 million in the project through the North American box office.

To achieve this, the North American box office needs to reach $80 million.

Of course, as long as the local box office earns US$60 million, Daenerys Entertainment can easily recover costs and achieve profit through overseas distribution and follow-up channels.

Of course, I have also expected higher goals.

Such as hitting a club with a box office of 100 million yuan.

However, the distribution team generally believes that the theme of "The Seven Deadly Sins" is too niche and obscure, which will greatly limit the audience size.

With the official release of the film, the actual situation is that the box office on the first day of the painting of "The Seven Deadly Sins" reached 7.93 million US dollars.

$7.93 million on Friday.

$8.67 million on Saturday.

Because Sunday was Halloween, the box office fell to 6.81 million US dollars.

Even so, the cumulative box office of "The Seven Deadly Sins" has reached 23.41 million US dollars in the first three days of the first weekend.

The number of opening screens of the film was 2,511 yuan, and the box office of the first weekend was US$23.41 million. Although it failed to achieve the high-selling level of 10,000 yuan in the first Wednesday, it was not far behind.

Moreover, the film distribution team initially expected the film’s box office for the first seven days of the week to be only around US$20 million. The Seven Deadly Sins was only released for three days, breaking through the film’s box office goal for a full week.

In comparison, the other two opening films, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" written by Tim Bolton, had a high reputation and had a box office of only $8.21 million for the first three days in the first weekend.

MGM’s "Fatal Instinct" only sold $3.76 million at the box office in the first three days, barely more than a fraction of "The Seven Deadly Sins."

US$23.41 million for the first three days in the first weekend means that the box office of the first full week of "The Seven Deadly Sins" will be between 33 million and 35 million US dollars. Such an excellent box office start, as long as the subsequent box office curve is not too bleak, let alone 80 million US dollars, North America 100 million US dollars mark is easy.

Amy Pascal’s assistant Vanessa Linde distributed a report that had just been printed out, and the meeting room fell silent.

Waiting patiently for everyone to finish reading the materials in hand, Amy said: “This is a statistical report of the audience survey questionnaires from all over the country for three days over the weekend. Everyone must have seen one of the key data. Among the 10,000 questionnaires, contacted through the Internet The proportion of viewers who have passed "The Seven Deadly Sins" reached 33%, and the proportion of audiences who were completely affected by the Internet platform and entered the theater also reached 19%. As senior managers in the industry, you must understand what this report means, this material, etc. I will take it back and destroy it, and I hope everyone can keep the secrets as much as possible. Now, we begin to discuss the next step to continue to strengthen cooperation with Eaglet."

Before the rise of the Internet, the factors that influenced the audience's choice of a movie were very complicated.

Leading celebrities, TV commercials, newspaper film reviews, street posters, word of mouth, random selection, etc., etc., a film company wants to promote a film, so it must work in all aspects at the same time.

This time, "The Seven Deadly Sins", although it should be regarded as a relatively special model, as many as 33% of the viewers are more or less affected by the Internet platform, which is enough to prove the powerful influence of the Egreat portal.

Although Simon has repeatedly emphasized that the entire Westeros system is a community of interests, there are still many Daenerys Entertainment executives who have more or less complained about being affected by the confrontation between Igreat and traditional paper media.

Through this release of "The Seven Deadly Sins", most of the entanglements have disappeared.

Igreat may have affected the relationship between Daenerys and traditional paper media. However, it is obvious that the strong media strength of this platform not only completely offsets the disadvantages Daenerys Entertainment has encountered in traditional paper media, but also brings The obvious gains come.