Monday, April 20.

Just after Easter with his family, before eight o'clock in the morning, Peter Sanders received a call and hurried to Fox Studios.

Ronald Goldberg's assistant was in a hurry on the phone and hung up before he could elaborate. Peter Sanders knew very well that it must have something to do with the box office of "The Butterfly Effect" the following weekend.

Walking into a conference room in the administrative building of the studio, Peter Sanders found that there were already five or six people waiting here, basically all executives of the publicity and distribution department, but Ronald Goldberg had not yet appeared.

Without waiting to sit down at the conference table, Peter Sanders keenly caught a certain number in the midst of the crowd's chatter.

“...... 11,860,000 ......"

11.86 million?!

Strongly sensing that he might have misheard, Peter Sanders snatched the folder from his office assistant and opened it as he stood still.

The first page is the box office data report for the latest weekend three days.

The Butterfly Effect, $11.86 million, -17%.

Sure enough, it was $11.86 million!

Moreover, compared to the box office figure of $14.31 million in the opening weekend, "The Butterfly Effect" fell far more than everyone expected in the second week, only 17%.

Peter Saunders couldn't help but do the math quickly.

The box office fell by 17% the next weekend, and if this trend is maintained, the total box office in North America will exceed 100 million US dollars, which is definitely very likely.

Now the question is, what exactly is going on?

Peter Sanders was standing a little stunned, and Ronald Goldberg walked in with a few people and sat directly at the conference table. Seeing Peter Sanders' appearance, Goldberg said very kindly: "Peter, what are you doing standing there, sit down." ”

Peter Sanders came to his senses, smiled and nodded at the other, and walked to the conference table and sat down.

The office assistant began to distribute another document.

Ronald Goldberg and the others sat down and said directly: "Everyone should have seen that, yes, $11.86 million, the box office fell by only 17% the next week." As for what happened? I asked people to temporarily summarize the results of the company's publicity and distribution department's recent audience survey, which can probably explain why. However, this is not the most important thing, the key now is how to maintain this box office trend, how to make "Butterfly Effect" cross the $100 million threshold at the box office. ”

Peter Sanders listened to Ronald Goldberg begin to discuss with everyone about increasing the scale of "Butterfly Effect" as soon as possible and adjusting the film's marketing strategy, opened another document he had just gotten, and read Fox's publicity and distribution department's analysis of the reasons for the box office trend of "Butterfly Effect" in the second week.

In the summary of the report, several sets of data from the "Butterfly Effect" audience questionnaire across North America are deliberately labeled.

"Percentage of viewers in the 18-26 age group: 43%. ”

"Audience rating on a 10-point scale: 7.7. ”

"The proportion of viewers who chose to watch the movie under the influence of "Lola Run": 81%. ”

Percentage of viewers not affected by comments: 33%. ”

"Percentage of viewers who think the film has been unfairly commented on by the media: 76%. ”

"The percentage of viewers who plan to recommend it to friends after watching the movie: 69%. ”

Inside the conference room.

Just after reading this set of data in front of him, Peter Saunders already roughly understands why the box office trend of "The Butterfly Effect" in the second week will surprise everyone.

At the end of the research report, it was also clearly pointed out that compared with the overwhelming media reviews, the reputation of "Butterfly Effect" in the audience group is much higher, and the audience score of 7.7 basically belongs to the category of an excellent movie.

At the same time, because the audience of "Butterfly Effect" tends to be younger, this part of the population rarely reads newspapers on weekdays, and is more inclined to be recommended by friends to choose the viewing target. As a result, the impact of negative media reviews on the box office of films is far less than Fox predicted.

The report also speculates that the popularity of "Lola Run" has created a very large potential audience base for "The Butterfly Effect". Although some viewers temporarily gave up watching the film due to the negative media reviews in the first week, they still chose to re-enter the theater after the word-of-mouth of the film's audience spread, which also largely contributed to the film's slight decline of only 17% the following weekend.

The films that major Hollywood studios focus on will basically conduct similar audience research. The data was in place before the box office of "The Butterfly Effect" came out the following weekend.

It's just that the media bombardment of bad reviews for "The Butterfly Effect" is too fierce, and everyone at Fox hasn't felt much security because of these data.

Now that the box office results of the film have been released, it seems logical to extrapolate the reasons through the data.

Ultimately.

After all, film is a high-risk business that is as unpredictable as the weather.

Peter Sanders looked up after reading the report, and an executive in the publicity department was expressing his opinion.

"Ronald, in addition to these, I think that we can use public opinion control to exaggerate the strong contrast between the bad reviews of the media and the box office of the film as much as possible, to make people believe that "The Butterfly Effect" has been treated very unfairly, and even we can imply that someone is deliberately discrediting the film, which can maximize the audience's sympathy and rebellion, and guide more people to the theater. ”

After listening to this, Ronald Goldberg nodded approvingly and said, "Nick, you make a detailed implementation plan as soon as possible, and I will ask New York to cooperate." So, for the time being, let's go about it. Remember, I'm going to see the Butterfly Effect increase to more than 1,700 screens this Friday. ”

It was a meeting to adjust the publicity strategy, and Peter Sanders was only called because of his status as the vice president of production who was directly responsible for "The Butterfly Effect", and he didn't say anything during the whole process.

Hearing Ronald announce the dismissal of the meeting, Peter Sanders also got up and was about to leave with the crowd, but was stopped by Ronald Goldberg.

"Peter, the next promotion of "The Butterfly Effect" still needs Simon Westeros's cooperation, you are responsible for contacting this matter. Also, I remember that Daenerys Pictures was still working on a romance film, and you asked people to make an evaluation report for me. ”

Peter Sanders nodded in agreement, and when Ronald Goldberg left, he raised his wrist and looked at his watch, it was just nine o'clock in the morning.

Meanwhile.

With the arrival of the new week's work time, the box office data of the second weekend of "The Butterfly Effect" has also spread all over Hollywood.

Compared with the box office curve of "Lola Run", which was still traceable, the box office of "Butterfly Effect" surprised too many people by surprise the next weekend, and it was not until the report within Fox gradually spread that many people finally believed this fact.

$21.69 million in the first week and $11.85 million in the second weekend.

In just ten days, the box office of "The Butterfly Effect" has reached $33.55 million. There is no doubt that even if it fails to break 100 million in the end, this movie will definitely be able to squeeze into the top ten of the annual box office list.

Thinking of this, many people suddenly realized again.

Counting "Lola Run", which is still in theaters, a young man who has been emerging in Hollywood for less than a year has unknowingly created two works that are enough to squeeze into the top ten of the annual box office list in North America.

Even Steven Spielberg had never performed such a miracle.

Realizing this, Daenerys Films, located in an office building in Santa Monica, suddenly attracted the attention of the whole of Hollywood again.

In Hollywood, one success can be regarded as an accident, but two successes are enough to prove too much. Now, now that he has performed two miracles, Simon Westeros' good fortune may not end there.

Daenerys Pictures Headquarters.

It was already afternoon.

In Simon's office, a heavyweight guest is being welcomed at this time, CAA president, Michael Ovitz.

Due to the internal turmoil of MA last year, CAA took the opportunity to poach a large number of top stars, and with this company and its mature packaging operation mechanism, Michael Ovitz is definitely one of the most powerful people in Hollywood by this time.

However, on the other hand, Michael Ovitz is an extremely low-key person.

In my memory, it was not until the end of the 80s, as the CAA became more and more powerful, and under the unremitting excavation of the media, Michael Ovitz, the 'giant crocodile' hidden in Hollywood, finally surfaced, and topped the first place in the Hollywood power list of "Premiere" magazine for many times.

On the sofa in the sitting area, Simon and Ovitz sat across from each other.

Michael Ovitz has an easy-going temperament that makes people naturally feel close, but his words are straightforward, "Simon, these days, you have sent invitations to cooperate with many customers under CAA, such as John Travolta, Robert Redford, and Meg Ryan. So, to make it easier for us to work together, how about joining CAA?"

As soon as he spoke, Simon felt the CAA boss's strong desire to control.

However, he just shook his head lightly and smiled: "Sorry, Michael, I already have an agent." Also, even if I join CAA, I won't sign a sharing contract with you. ”

"Of course, our company is actually very flexible in this regard, and Spielberg is also a client, and we have the same fixed-pay contract with him," Michael Ovitz also smiled, and finally added pointedly: "Just like you are at MA." ”

"In that case," Simon shrugged, "Michael, you should know that I would never have broken my contract with Joe easily, and if it weren't for him, I might still be working as a cashier in a supermarket right now." So, let's talk about Bob's salary. ”

Michael Ovitz nodded, not as aggressively as rumored, or just not showing it for the time being, but simply changed the subject, saying, "Bob called me and he wanted a cameo role in your new movie." I've read the script, and to be honest, I don't think it's too good a choice. But you know, we've always tried to accommodate everything our customers want, so, Simon, $1 million, Bob is definitely worth the price. ”