Made in Hollywood

Just after going to work on Monday morning, Warner Bros. Distribution Department director Ge Walter went to meet CEO Jeff Robinoff, and came to a reception room, including Emperor Entertainment, AMG Chain, National Artist Theater and North American Theater The representatives of the Alliance and other representatives stationed in Los Angeles are already sitting here.

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

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

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

"Emperor Entertainment is the same." Michael and others have also said similar things.

"Expanded?" Doug Walter's dissatisfaction unabashedly appeared on his face, "As far as I know, the total number of theaters in "Chicago" now does not add up to 500, right? Don't say you have done your best..."

"It is impossible for us to use all the newly vacated theaters and screens to show "Chicago"..."

Before he finished speaking, Doug Walter interrupted the American artist theater line, "So you put part of the theater line on "The British Patient"? Everyone, please take a look at the data? Please let you know. My boss looks at the data before making a decision, okay?"

Data and business results are where Doug Walter is so powerful. Without giving these people time to react, he quickly said, "Let’s not talk about "Star Trek," which sold $30 million in the first week, just talk about the same theme. The niche "British Patient" and "Chicago", "British Patient" US$2.71 million on the first Wednesday, and "Chicago" US$3.18 million..."

"Are the numbers similar?" Doug Walter's voice was unusually loud, "Please don't forget, the former has 268 theaters, and the latter has only 100 theaters! "British Patient" has only $10,123 at the box office in the first week. . And "Chicago" is as high as $31,875!"

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

These people from the theater company are not fools. They will not give any specific promises. They just guarantee that the film will maintain its current momentum in the next few days. The number of theaters will inevitably increase 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 scale of "Chicago" has doubled to 500, and the film has begun to be shown in more regions. With the rapid increase in the number of people watching the film, the audience reputation of "Chicago" will inevitably increase. Decline, but everyone who has watched the film has a consensus. This is not a musical in the traditional sense.

"The movie is not boring at all, but rather fun."

The footage of film fans being interviewed was broadcast by TV stations, "full of black humor, and singing and dancing are not backward at all, full of modernity."

"This is an extremely successful adaptation!"

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

Night fell. Broadway was once again brightly lit, and the "Chicago" movie advertisements erected on 42nd Street and Broadway Avenue were particularly conspicuous. A sparse crowd passed under the billboard and walked in front of the Albert Theatre, where there is also a poster of "Chicago", but a poster of a musical version.

In New York at the end of November, there was already a noticeable cold at night, after many spectators bought tickets. He quickly walked into the theater, found his seat, 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 spectators below, the smile on his mouth grew thicker. After the summer performances, after the start of the new performance season in November, the number of theater audiences to watch "Chicago" continued to decrease, and in many cases the attendance rate could only be maintained at 50% or even less.

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

In fact, Jamie Albert knows very well that it is impossible for the golden age of musicals to return. The theater has such a high attendance rate only because of a movie-"Chicago"!

He has learned that in recent days, all theaters showing "Chicago" can be described as hot. Those middle-aged and elderly audiences who are gradually moving away from the theater have almost reached the threshold of the theater after a short reaction time, and these people watch After the movie, I thought of the music and dance dramas, so these people who are good at nostalgia came to Broadway again.

In addition to these, Jamie Albert also found that the number of young audiences has soared in the past two days. He has asked people to investigate. These people were originally not interested in musicals. They were curious after watching the movie version Came here.

The popularity of the movie version has completely driven the theater's box office. Jamie Albert knows that he has become the beneficiary of Duke Rosenberg inadvertently.

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

At the end of the evening, Jamie Albert accepted an interview with The New York Times. When the other party asked about the movie version of Chicago, he answered like this.

"Duke Rosenberg completed a great adaptation!"

With the increase in the scale of film screenings, Duke also accompanied the crew and began to travel in major cities in North America with major actors such as Tom Cruise, Naomi Watts and Catherine Zeta Jones. film.

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

When he came to Chicago, Duke also received an exclusive TV interview at the headquarters of abc TV station. Now the nostalgic group is showing enough enthusiasm for the film. The rest is to stimulate the desire of young audiences to watch the movie. "I think the rhythm of musicals is completely It can be as compact as an action movie, the content is more interesting and fun, and it can also bring people more joy, so I added a lot of black humor, which will make people happier while experiencing singing and dancing."

"This is my style. Audience love is always my first consideration when making movies."

As long as more audiences can walk into the theater to watch "Chicago", Duke doesn't care what to say. Whenever he goes to publicity, he and Tom Cruise can almost tout each other to the sky. If they only express their meanings. Look, they are definitely Hollywood's best friends and partners.

Of course, Duke also followed the plan made by Pani Kelly, frequently showing affection with Catherine Zeta Jones in public, thinking that the film will add more topicality.

The crew’s publicity strategy centered on Tom Cruise also played an excellent role. Except for the short-term gap in the theater line numbers, the topic of "Chicago" in the media and the public has completely exploded in gratitude. The blockbuster "Star Trek: First Strike."

Although the gap between the theater lines makes the total box office of the two films completely incomparable, "Chicago" still maintains a very high attendance rate and single-library box office numbers 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 US$3.21 million, US$3.15 million, US$3.34 million, and US$3.28 million for 500 theaters, respectively. In the first weekend, three days of US$3.18 million and Toronto Film Festival screenings received more than US$30,000, and the North American box office totaled 16.19 million US dollars.

Compared with Duke’s tens of millions of box office numbers in the summer, this number is really not enough to see, but don’t forget the subject matter of the film, and it is also a niche genre of "The British Patient". After 593, the box office in the same period was only 9.87 million US dollars!

The same thing that cannot be ignored is that "Chicago" has always maintained a high audience reputation of more than 95%. The film has just been screened in large and medium-sized cities across the United States, and there are many areas that have not yet been launched.

By this time, the expanded screening of "Chicago" was unstoppable, and even if the Weinstein brothers personally hung up on the director of the theater, it would not help.

"Sorry, Bob."

Although I was sorry to Bob Weinstein on the phone, Paul, the CEO of AMG, didn’t mean to apologize at all. "You ask AMG to evenly distribute the spare theaters to the two films "Chicago" and "The English Patient". We cannot accept the above request. Compared with "Chicago", your box office is not convincing. It is already based on our many years of relationship.

amg and other theaters did not release "Chicago" on a large scale at the beginning because the subject matter of the film was niche and to avoid market risks. Now, like Duke's other films, "Chicago" shows sufficient market potential. There is more than one thing to suppress "The English Patient". How could they put the theaters prepared for "Chicago" on "The English Patient"?

Paul knows very well that other chain theaters will do the same with AMG.

Since there are no strong films released this week, the most catering to the market’s "Star Trek: First Strike" has remained unchanged at 2812 theaters. Starting Friday, the number of "Chicago" theaters has doubled from the original 500 The number of homes surged to 1,866, and they have already had the ability to fight in the market.

In line 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 have been hype about Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's success in creating people, and they are about to welcome their first child...

At the same time, Duke was not idle. Catherine Zeta Jones was planning to move into Duke’s mansion in a high-profile manner, but the news spread to reporters and paparazzi. (To be continued...)