514 Crushing the Camel
Since the Oscar adjusted its schedule last year, the annual schedule has also been adjusted accordingly, and the summer schedule has officially advanced to May. Generally speaking, the second weekend of May is the unveiling of the summer schedule. This year, the epic blockbuster "Dynasty of the Heaven" directed by Ridley Scott will unveil the curtain of the summer schedule. Whether this work can break the vicious circle of the box office of epic works in the past year has become the focus of major Hollywood film companies.
Correspondingly, the weeks before the second week of May are generally considered to be the warm-up cycle. March and April belong to the spring cycle. Overall, the spring cycle is not very lively, but as a buffer period between the winter and summer cycles, it vividly interprets the true meaning of the sentence "Spring is warm and flowers blooming".
March is connected with the Oscars, and Oscar nominations and award-winning films will win more attention. April is connected with the summer season. The works released generally have certain strength but do not want to join the summer season melee. It is often easy to attract more viewers to leave the indoor heating in winter, come to the outdoors, and enter the theater. Therefore, although the attention level of April cannot be compared with summer, it has indeed aroused more enthusiasm from people in all aspects.
Lance has set his sights on April, for this reason. Compared to the Halloween schedule that has been hit by the awards season, April, which has warmed up for the summer schedule, is obviously more suitable for Chaos Pictures.
"What about the first week of May?" Lance's question made Roy pause for a moment. He could feel that Lance's main goal was to lock in the gap before the summer season. He immediately made plans in his mind, adjusted his previous plan, and the commentary became detailed, "two works, the Milky Way Guide, and the Extreme Agent 2."
"The former is not very competitive, with an investment of 50 million yuan. The British black humorous work is just released by Disney. The latter is considered to be the box office. The previous work was a competition for the summer season, achieving outstanding results of 140 million yuan. The investment cost of this work is also as high as 83 million yuan." Roy presented the advantages of the two works in the simplest language.
Lance fell into deep thought. The risk of the first week of May was not actually because the subsequent series of bombings in the summer season was not good news for the subsequent decline of the movie.
In fact, Lance knew that the box office of "Extreme Agent 2" was ruined. After Vin Diesels, who had a huge success in the previous work, had a huge impact on the sequel. In the end, the box office lost a lot. Lance couldn't remember the specific numbers very clearly, but Sony Columbia Pictures lost at least 60 million, which was a complete collapse for a work with an investment cost of only 80 million.
Even the "Dynasty of Heaven" in the second week of May, the results are not satisfactory. But for risk considerations, the April schedule is indeed more appropriate than the first week of May.
Roy seemed to notice Lance's thoughts, and confirmed that he had figured out Lance's thoughts, and his statement became more and more confident. "At present, there are not many arrangements in the first week of April. The Hala Hairdresser starring Kevin Beckenn and Quinn Latifah is a comedy, and only four hundred theaters have been arranged." The subtext is that during the screening stage, they will give "City of Sin" higher treatment, "The same is true in the third week of April. Currently, there is only one horror movie that has invested 19 million yuan, remakes from the 1979 film of the same name."
One is comedy and the other is horror. Both works do not overlap with the "City of Sin", and the investment scale and distribution scale of both works are average and not very competitive. As Roy said, this is a better choice for "City of Sin".
Roy put down the report in his hand, crossed his hands together, and said confidently, "There is another small detail. Both movies were released by MGM. These are their last two movies."
No need for more explanations, news about MGM has been flying all over the past three months. Any Hollywood person can understand the causes and consequences with just a little attention.
As the most prestigious film company in Hollywood, MGM was even once a symbol of Hollywood. "Gone with the Wind", "Cat and Mouse" and "007" series are their works. More importantly, the American Academy of Film Arts and Sciences was initiated by them and launched the Oscars. There is no doubt that MGM is a legend.
Unfortunately, MGM faced bankruptcy in the 1980s and then rose again after joining forces with United States, but in the end it missed the business opportunities of special effects technology and animation technology, and entered its twilight years. Just two weeks ago, Sony Group bought MGM for US$4.8 billion, which also marked the official disappearance of the last production company of the eight major Hollywood film companies without the intervention of a large consortium. MGM and Columbia Pictures are affiliated to Sony and become Sony's subsidiary brands.
"Howling Ghosts" is the last video released by MGM as a company.
Roy's words just now meant that considering MGM's current situation, the April schedule, and the two works' own situation, it is naturally impossible for MGM to vigorously promote the film. This is definitely good news for Chaos Pictures. If Lance insists on release "City of Sin" in April, these two schedules are the perfect choice.
Lance's heart was as bright as a mirror, and naturally knew that Roy's words were heart-warming, not only objective, but also accurate, and completely in line with the interests of Chaos Pictures. This can be seen as sincerity. They have a positive attitude towards Chaos Pictures' long-term development, at least so far.
He can choose the third week of April. Faced with the competition of "ghost crying and howling", "City of Sin" is confident that he will not lose the upper hand. Although one is terrifying and the other is thrilling crime, the two are slightly similar, and the audience overlaps partly, he is confident that he has the upper hand in such a small-scale competition. However, he still wants to choose the first week of April.
From an objective standpoint, the match between "City of Sin" and "Hala Hairdresser" is undoubtedly perfect. The completely different themes avoid the diversion of audiences to the greatest extent. Kevin and Quinn's cast cannot cause more impact on "City of Sin". More importantly, MGM's situation will leave more room for Chaos Pictures to play, and will be promoted in place within a limited time.
From a subjective standpoint, this is the week before the second week of April. The big show in the second week of April is the "Sahara Cavalry", the "Sahara Cavalry" from Diorama Film. Lance is very happy to see the confrontation between the "City of Sin" and the "Sahara Cavalry".
The box office performance of the "Saharan Cavalry" in his previous life was very bad, but at least it was much better than "Extreme Agent 2". The movie achieved a box office of 68 million in North America and a global score of 120 million. Although it still did not exceed the cost line of 130 million, it exceeded the threshold of 100 million. In the end, it was the production team's own fault that was unstoppable, especially the uncontrollable publicity expenses, which even sent itself to the guillotine.
Although Lance doesn't know the internal accounts of Diorama, small and medium-sized production companies like them have very limited working capital. A failure is likely to lead to a series of chain reactions, and even before they can come up with a solution, they have to declare bankruptcy. Therefore, Lance doesn't mind pushing the fire behind the scenes and accelerating the bankruptcy of Diorama.
However, Lance would not foolishly "kill a thousand enemies and hurt himself eight hundred", and chose to fight head-on with the "Saharan Cavalry" in the second week of April. Such a move seems to be commendable, but in fact it is not much different from suicide. Especially considering the overwhelming publicity strategy of the "Saharan Cavalry" now, it would be even more unwise if the "Saharan Cavalry" chooses to be released in the second week of April.
But the first week of April is an open window.
"City of Sin" was first released, and it was the first to win in terms of momentum. If the movie box office results were excellent, then the next week would have an impact on the "Sahara Cavalry", diverting more audiences, suppressing the premiere data of the "Sahara Cavalry", especially with a strong reputation, it would produce absolute suppression of competitors. Of course, this is a perfect situation, and it is difficult to reach the sky to achieve this goal. The more likely situation is that the premiere of "City of Sin" was good, and the "Sahara Cavalry" was full of momentum, which led to a sharp decline in the box office of the "City of Sin" in the next week, affecting the final box office.
If Lance wants to choose to be conservative, he should choose to release in the third week of April, using the first week of "Sin City" to drag down the box office of the "Saharan Cavalry" and curb the movie's box office momentum.
The first week of April is a radical and bold choice, and it can even be said to be a confident to arrogant, proud to arrogant choice in the third week of April, which is a conservative and rational choice. Judging from the consistent performance of the North American box office market and the consistent trend of the movie box office, this is the right choice.
Thoughts circled around in my mind, Lance raised his eyes, stared at Roy in front of him, and spoke, "First week of April."
Roy paused for a moment, as if confirming Lance's thoughts, and repeated it, "First Week of April." But Lance did not answer, and still stared at him intently. The firmness in his eyes was conveyed to Roy accurately and clearly, which made Roy swallow, turned to look at Austin, and cast a gaze for consultation.
Austin thought about it carefully, then nodded, "The First Week of April." gave a confirmed answer, and in less than twenty-four hours, "City of Sin" determined the release date.
But, is this correct? What kind of result will this come? Can "City of Sin" become the last straw that crushes Diorama Film's camel? To be continued.
Chapter completed!