"There are so many people?"

Standing in the hall of the Water Flow Theater, Gray Enrique looked at the dense crowd of human heads, and suddenly became a little dense phobia: "This is also terrible. ”

But what he said was terrible was not the humans in the theater, but the only two theaters that showed "Blair the Witch."

"Gray!"

Hearing someone shouting at him, Gray quickly turned his head to see that Billy Horford of Artison Entertainment was here.

Gray pointed at him and said, "You're late! There are too many people, but luckily I bought my tickets yesterday, otherwise we would have to make an appointment another day." ”

Billy looked at the crowded auditorium and said, "Let's go inside." ”

The two of them are here, of course, not to make a base, but to see the film they saw together at the St. Denis Film Festival.

The film was in an uproar, and Billy naturally noticed it, and after watching some video materials, he immediately remembered where he had watched it, and then contacted Gray.

Entering the theater, the two sat down in the corner of the last row.

There was no way, there were too many people, and there were only a few seats in the corners of the first and last rows.

"Did you see today's box office statistics?" Gray said softly, "The film took $4.12 million on Friday, and another $4.43 million yesterday and Saturday." ”

He raised two fingers: "As far as I know, this film is only in 200 theaters for trial release, and the box office of a single theater in two days is 45,000 US dollars!"

Billy's heart was pounding, and the film slipped out of front of his eyes: "Ronan Anderson's propaganda tactics are so shameless!"

Gray nodded first: "This is the most shameless propaganda marketing I've ever seen." Then he added: "What works is maddening." ”

The two have long seen through the rumors, but they have been silent, Hollywood often uses some messy propaganda methods, and it is often easy for people in the industry to distinguish, but there is a default rule, if it is not a direct conflict of interest, no one will talk nonsense.

It's all about movies, and maybe one day I'll have to use some special means.

But curiosity and jealousy can't be suppressed.

200 theaters, a test screening of $45,000 per theater, it's crazy!

And it's only been two days, and Sunday has just begun.

Next week, the film will definitely be expanded, and the test screening results will be so good that they explode, and the results of the expanded screenings will definitely not be very bad.

Should a film that no one cared about at the St. Denis Film Festival Roadshow, but in the hands of Ronan Anderson become what it is now, should we be jealous or admirable?

Billy was reluctant and said: "At that time, I thought that this film was valuable, but I didn't make up my mind, it would be nice if I bought it ruthlessly." ”

Gray smiled: "Even if you buy it, would you think of using this method for marketing?"

Billy Horford thought of the story that Blair Witch and the three college students had to tell that caused an uproar in society, and fell silent for a moment, and it took a while to recover from this serious blow and force himself to say: "I'm a conscientious filmmaker, not as shameless as Ronan Anderson." ”

"It doesn't matter what the marketing means. Gray looked at the fully filled theater and said, "The effect is really good." ”

He said slowly: "Lionsgate has predicted that the North American box office of this film will be more than $50 million. ”

"Five...... 50 million dollars!" the corners of Billy's mouth twitched, and his heart was torn with pain.

The saddest thing in the world is that a low-budget movie that hit the box office is right in front of my eyes, and I pass by him.

Suddenly, Billy thought of something, during the St. Denis Film Festival, when he called the director of the film, the director said that Ronan Anderson bought the film the day after seeing it.

Could it be that when watching this film, Ronan Anderson had a promotional marketing plan?

This conclusion made Billy unconsciously stunned, is there really such a big gap between people? He is also a veteran of Artison Entertainment, and he is not as good as a hairy boy who is just over twenty?

It's not that I'm bad, it's that the marketing of "Blair the Witch" is a pioneer, and Ronan Anderson is simply a genius who uses a whole new way to package the movie.

As the film begins to show, Billy ends his ramblings and takes the film seriously.

There is no company title, no list of producers, not even the names of the director and actors, it seems that this is a selfie video

Gray read the opening credits, and only had a ridiculous feeling in his heart, the lower limit was really too low, obviously he bought the film from the film festival, but he had to say that it was picked up in the woods......

If Ronan Anderson's operation is a big success this time, what will be the chain reaction? Gray can also figure out with his eyes open that Hollywood is the bottom limit of negative numbers, and it is directly pulled down to minus three digits by Ronan Anderson!

The film was still ugly, and Gray's energy soon stopped on the movie, but carefully pondered this publicity and marketing technique.

Billy was watching the film carefully, and when he saw the second half, he sighed, this success was not a fluke, Ronan Anderson was obviously re-edited, and the film as a whole looked more like a DV selfie record.

There are no computer special effects, no visual violence, the graphics are so rough, and the plot is beyond imagination!

Billy looked at the audience around him: But good people, these are just the means to gain your trust.

The Internet, real society and the screen are magic theaters, viral marketing is magic trusts, DV is magic props, the plot is the magic performance process, and the last shot before DV is turned off is the miracle moment when decay is magical.

And it's all in the hands of that Ronan Anderson.

Although the film is still bad, this version re-edited by Ronan Anderson is more than twice as good as the previous one.

When Billy and Gray left the theater at the end of the screening, they looked back, and the flow of people poured into the theater like a tide.

Is there really going to be a box office miracle this summer?

After Sunday, Ronan got the box office statistics in the early hours of the morning, and in the first three days of the weekend, "Blair the Witch" scored $11.95 million in the test screening of 200 theaters, ranking third on the box office list!

The box office winner of the week belonged to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's "Eyes Wide Opening," which grossed $21.7 million in 2,411 theaters!

But whether it is the box office champion or the box office runner-up, the results of a single museum are far inferior to "Blair the Witch".

The box office of "Eyes Wide Open" is only $9,000, and "Blair the Witch" is as high as $59,000!

There won't be any problems expanding the screening.

Another statistical report specially hired by a third party is also on Ronan's desk.

More than 65 percent of the audience went to the theater in the form of small groups of friends and friends, and nearly 70 percent of them were young people under the age of 25.

Ronan is well aware that this is precisely the effect of viral marketing.

The crowd that follows Blair the Witch not only enjoys spending a lot of time on various information about the film, but also uses the process as a fun experience to share with other friends and family, thus creating a huge viral community infected by "Blair the Witch".

Each of these audiences became communicators, and they couldn't wait to publish and discuss various news and events related to the witch Blair in their social circles, which in turn further increased the number of audiences, and by the time the film was released, it was a natural box office miracle.

Ronan has done a detailed investigation of the film market, and has another conjecture.

The largest audience for American movies is teenagers, who live in well-behaved middle-class neighborhoods, yearn for adventure, have nowhere to take risks, don't read, are "cult believers" at heart, and worship the mystery and unknowability of the natural world.

In the face of this group, to hit their market, TV advertising and other means are outdated, and the Internet is their gathering place.

The Internet has amazing power and great potential in film communication and marketing!

uses viral marketing to create a wave of audiences, the quality of the film itself is average, and the reputation of "Blair the Witch" can be imagined.

Ronan also checked, the film's Cinema Score theater audience scored C+ on the spot, IMDB temporarily scored 6.4, and the media overall evaluation scored 42 points.

Many of the audience members who were fooled into the cinema were either kept in the dark and worried about the survival of the three 'theater people', or they walked out of the cinema and shouted that they had been deceived.

A film under the banner of a witch, the witch did not show up from beginning to end, and the audience certainly did not give high marks.

But to Ronan's surprise, "Blair the Witch" turned out to be a favorite in the eyes of film critics, and after the first weekend, Rotten Tomatoes collected 45 film critics' film reviews, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes was as high as 90%!

In stark contrast, Rotten Tomatoes responds to a popcorn index of 54 percent of the audience's ratings.

The situation is quite unanimous, with almost unanimous praise from critics, negative reviews from audiences, and high attendance in theaters where films are shown.

After reading the praise of some film critics, Ronan found that the reason why some film critics gave praise was not because of the film itself, but because he saw through the operation of the film.

"There is one art in the world that is legal, popular, and often charged, and that is magic. "Blair the Witch" is an integral part of a magic show from production, performance, planning, and promotion. ”

This is a short review written by Kenneth Turan, a full-time film critic at the Los Angeles Times: "I give this film four and a half stars, and three and a half stars to the publicity and marketing operation! The person who formulated this publicity and marketing plan is absolutely a genius!"

According to the box office trend of $11.95 million in the opening weekend, which is enough to ensure that "Blair the Witch" will be profitable through subsequent revenue, Ronan has also increased his investment in this film, and after 3,000 copies are shipped out of the printing factory, they are shipped to all parts of North America through FedEx channels.

So far, except for a small amount of publicity funds that have not been invested for the time being, the total investment of Embassy Pictures in "Blair the Witch" has reached a staggering $16.5 million!