Made in Hollywood

Just after going to work on Monday morning, Doge Walter, the head of Warner Bros. distribution, went to meet with CEO Jeff Robinoff, and then came to a reception room. Emperor Entertainment, AMG Chain, American Artists Cinemas and North American Cinemas The representatives of the league and other representatives stationed in Los Angeles have already sat here.

"Hello, Michael. Hello, Steve..."

Doug Walter greeted them one by one and sat across from them confidently.

AMG's representative Steve spoke first, "Doug, AMG has expanded the screening of "Chicago" as much as possible."

"The same is true of Emperor Entertainment." Michael and others also said similar words one after another.

"Expanded?" Doug Walter's dissatisfaction appeared unabashedly on his face. "As far as I know, the total number of theaters in "Chicago" is no more than 500, right? Don't say you have done your best..."

"It is impossible for us to use all the newly spared theaters and screens for the screening of "Chicago"..."

Doug Walter interrupted before the people from the American Artists Theater finished speaking, "So you put some of the theaters on "The British Patient"? Guys, please look at the data? Please let you guys Can your boss look at the data before making a decision?"

Data and business results are what makes Doug Walter so strong, and without giving these people time to react, he quickly said, "Let's not talk about Star Trek, which sold $30 million in its first week, just the same theme. The niche "The English Patient" and "Chicago", "The English Patient" $2.71 million in its first three days, "Chicago" $3.18 million..."

"Are the numbers similar?" Doug Walter's voice was unusually loud, "Please don't forget, the former has 268 theaters, the latter has only 100 theaters! The British Patient's first-week single-house box office was only $10,123 .And "Chicago" is a whopping $31,875!"

Finally, Doug Walter stood up and said, "Please give me a reason why you don't fully support Chicago!"

These people from the theater company are not fools. They will not give any specific promises, but only guarantee that the film will maintain its current momentum in the next few days. The number of theaters is bound to increase significantly again this weekend.

Although not particularly satisfied, Doug Walter also understands that in this case, the law of the market has the most say.

Starting from the new Monday, the release scale of "Chicago" has doubled to 500, and the film has begun to be released in more regions, with the rapid increase in the number of people watching the film. The audience reputation of "Chicago" has inevitably declined, but everyone who has seen the film has a consensus that this is not a musical in the traditional sense.

"The film is not boring at all, but it is fun."

There are constantly pictures of fans being interviewed by TV stations, "full of black humor. And the singing and dancing are not backward at all, full of modernity."

"It was an extremely successful adaptation!"

The opinions from fans of the show are very clear, and they basically support the film. Many people still have an impression of the "Chicago" musical. Many choose to buy tickets to enter the theater.

As night fell, Broadway was lit up again. Advertisements for the "Chicago" movie stood on 42nd Street and Broadway, and the sparse crowd passed under the billboards to the Albert Theater, which also had "Chicago" posters. It's the poster for the musical version.

In New York at the end of November, the night was obviously cold. After buying tickets, many audience members quickly walked into the theater, found their seats, and waited for the show to start.

The theater manager Jamie Albert stood in front of a box on the second floor, watching more and more audiences below, the smile on the corner of his mouth became stronger and stronger. After the summer performance, after the new performance season started in November , the number of audiences who came to watch "Chicago" in theaters has been decreasing, and in many cases, the attendance rate can only be maintained at 50% or even less than 50%.

Unexpectedly, since last Saturday night, the number of audiences in the theater has surged, almost full, making him suspect that he has returned to the golden age of musicals.

In fact, Jamie Albert knew very well that the golden age of musicals could not come back. The theater had such a high attendance rate only because of one movie - "Chicago"!

He has learned that in recent days, all the theaters showing "Chicago" can be described as hot. Those middle-aged and elderly audiences who gradually moved away from the theaters, after a short reaction time, almost stepped down the threshold of the theaters, and these people watched After the movie, I thought of the musical, so these people who are best at nostalgia came to Broadway again.

In addition to these, Jamie Albert also found that the number of young audiences has increased sharply in the past two days. He has asked people to investigate. These people were not interested in musicals at first, but they were curious after watching the movie version. came here.

The popularity of the film version completely drove the box office of the theater. Jamie Albert knew that he had become the beneficiary of Duke Rosenberg's inadvertent creation.

Of course, he also knows that the increase in the number of people watching the show is actually helpful to the movie, and the relationship between the two is inseparable.

At the end of the evening, Jamie Albert was interviewed by The New York Times, and when asked about the film version of "Chicago," he replied.

"Duke Rosenberg has done a great adaptation!"

As the scale of the film's screening increased, Duke, together with the crew, and the main actors such as Tom Cruise, Naomi Watts and Catherine Zeta Jones, began to travel in major cities in North America to promote and promote Film.

"I never thought of making a musical in the traditional sense."

When he came to Chicago, Duke was also at the headquarters of ABC TV and accepted a TV interview. Now the nostalgic group has burst into sufficient enthusiasm for the film, and the rest is to stimulate the desire of young audiences to watch the film. "I think the rhythm of the musical is completely It can be as compact as an action movie, with more interesting content, more fun, and more joy, so I added a lot of dark humor, which will make people happier while experiencing singing and dancing.”

"That's my style, and audience like is always my first consideration when making a movie."

As long as more audiences can come into the theater to watch "Chicago", Duke doesn't care what he says. He and Tom Cruise can almost tout each other to the sky in every promotion, if only from the meaning of the two Look, they're definitely Hollywood's best friends and partners.

Of course, Duke is also in accordance with the plan made by Panney Kelly, frequently showing affection with Catherine Zeta Jones in public, in order to increase the topic of the film.

The crew's promotion strategy centered on Tom Cruise also played an excellent role. Apart from the short-term irreparable gap in the number of theaters, the topic of "Chicago" in the media and the public has completely exploded thanks to the archives. The blockbuster Star Trek: First Strike.

Although the gap between the theaters makes the total box office of the two films completely incomparable, "Chicago" still maintains a very high attendance rate and single-hall box office figures after the start of the working day.

When Duke and others returned to Los Angeles on Friday, in the past four working days, "Chicago" received $3.21 million, $3.15 million, $3.34 million, and $3.28 million from 500 theaters, plus $3.28 million. The three-day opening weekend grossed $3.18 million and more than $30,000 from the Toronto Film Festival screening, and the North American box office totaled $16.19 million.

Compared with Duke's tens of millions of box office figures in the summer, this figure is not enough to watch, but don't forget the subject matter of the film, and the "British Patient", which is also a niche type of film, has expanded to 100 million in theaters. After 593, the box office during the same period was only $9.87 million!

It is also impossible to ignore that "Chicago" has maintained a high audience reputation of more than 95%. The film has only just been screened in large and medium cities in the United States, and many areas have not yet been launched.

By this time, the expanded screening of "Chicago" could no longer be stopped, and even if the Weinstein brothers personally hung up the phone with the director of the theater chain, it would not help.

"Sorry, Bob."

Although he was saying sorry to Bob Weinstein on the phone, AMG CEO Paul didn't mean to apologize at all, "You asked AMG to evenly distribute the spare theaters between 'Chicago' and 'The English Patient'. The above requirements are unacceptable to us, compared to "Chicago", your box office is not convincing, and it is already due to our many years of relationship that you can take one-third of the number of theaters."

AMG and other theater chains did not release "Chicago" on a large scale at the beginning, because the theme of the film was small and to avoid market risks, but now "Chicago", like other Duke films, has shown enough market potential , suppressing "The English Patient" more than one step, how could they put the theater line prepared for "Chicago" on "The British Patient"?

Paul is well aware that other chains will do the same thing as AMG.

Since there are no strong films released this week, "Star Trek: First Strike", which best suits the market's taste, has maintained its 2,812 theaters unchanged. Starting from Friday, the number of theaters in "Chicago" has doubled from the original 500. The number of homes has surged to 1866, and they have the ability to fight in the market.

With the increase in the number of theaters, the crew also broke the news again. When Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman walked out of a private hospital, they were photographed by paparazzi. Driven by some media, gossip newspapers There are speculations that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have succeeded in creating human beings, and they are about to welcome their first child...

At the same time, Duke was not idle either. Catherine Zeta Jones planned to move into Duke's mansion with a high profile, and the news spread to reporters and paparazzi. (To be continued ~^~)