Generally speaking, the distribution models of art films and commercial films are completely different, for the simple reason that the audience groups and market potential of the two films are different, and the audience's expectations for the work are also different.

Imagine that "Blue Valentine" is like "Pirates of the Caribbean 4", which is screened in 4,000 theaters in the first week, but the ordinary audience does not buy it at all, and there is a lot of noise, while the art audience refuses to enter the commercial theater to watch, the word of mouth cannot spread at all, and the final result is a fiasco. The distribution costs and cinema dividends required for the screening of 4,000 theaters are enough to make the distribution company lose internal injuries.

Art films always follow a certain distribution model. First, in a small number of art theaters, look at the critics' word of mouth, look at the audience's word of mouth, and then, gradually expand the screening, further test the market reaction, if the response is mediocre, then shrink as soon as possible, change the strategy, focus on the dissemination of niche groups, operate in the way of the awards season, if the response is good, then further expand the screening, towards the direction of fame and fortune, the college's public relations strategy also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Therefore, some works are always screened in less than 500 theaters from release to release, while some works seem to be released in more than 500 theaters last week and 2,500 theaters the next week. The seemingly casual projection mode is actually strategic. The same goes for last year's "buried alive".

Don't underestimate this expansion process, there is a set of processes and models, which requires accurate judgment of the direction and trend of the entire market, and has a strong ability to adapt to unexpected situations, and most importantly, has a strong ability to foresee the box office potential and market positioning of the work, which is also a reflection of the ability of a distribution company.

Almost every year, there will be several productions, because of the expansion strategy mistakes, the results are not satisfactory, and finally withdraw from the awards season.

In Hollywood, Weinstein Pictures, Focus Pictures and Fox Searchlight are undoubtedly masters with a keen sense of smell, while Warner Bros., Paramount Classics and other independent distribution companies are always making mistakes, big and small, and expansion mistakes are not uncommon, which is directly reflected in the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

But now, "Love Crazy" has only been screened for one week, and the second week has directly entered the public screening? And it is still 2,337 theaters? Is Focus Pictures really crazy?

Although at the Toronto Film Festival, many media compared "Love Crazy" with Ryan Gosling's famous work "Love Notebook", for the simple reason that Ryan and Lan Li are best friends, and "Love Notebook" is the best box office performance since the new century.

But in fact, everyone knows that "Love Crazy" is not a "Love Notebook", but a "Blue Valentine's Day". The difference is that "The Notebook" is a commercial film, while "Blue Valentine" is an art film, and the box office figures and later videotape rental figures clearly reflect this.

Now, Focus Pictures is tantamount to operating and distributing "Blue Valentine's Day" as a "love notebook", which is not crazy, and there is no other explanation.

This is not alarmism, but a lesson. In 2005, the "Memoirs of Art/Performance" was a lesson in blood.

At that time, the $85 million film, created by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks, brought together countless elites from China, Japan and the United States.

At that time, with works such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", and "Ambush on All Sides", she played the heroine in the purple Zhang/Zi/Yi in Hollywood. She is the first Chinese actress to truly make a name for herself in North America since Cheng / Chan , Li / An, and her resources can definitely be said to be top at that time, and she has the potential to become a first-line actor. She signed a contract with the Innovative Artist Agency to go out with Lan Lishi, and the work "Memoirs of Art/Performance" was specially tailored for her by the Innovative Artist Agency.

After the "Memoirs of an Artist/Actor" landed at the Toronto Film Festival, it received a lot of praise, and media such as "The Hollywood Reporter", "Hollywood Weekly", and "Vanity Fair" all rushed to pursue it, believing that this work was expected to compete for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, which also made Sony Columbia Pictures confident, and then launched a series of promotions.

In December, the film was officially screened in North America, with eight theaters, creating an astonishing result of 85,000 US dollars per theater, which was even comparable to "Brokeback Mountain" released in the same year, which aroused a lot of cheers. But what is suffocating is that after the official screening, the media comprehensive evaluation plummeted, and only got a score of 53 points, which is really hardly outstanding, which is the competitiveness of the awards season works suddenly weakened.

Awards season is never easy, though. A high media comprehensive evaluation does not mean that it won the award, the media comprehensive evaluation of "Boyhood" is a full score of 100 points, but it lost to "Birdman" at the Oscars; a low media comprehensive evaluation does not mean that it is out, the media comprehensive evaluation of "Iron Lady" is 54 points, and Meryl Streep successfully won the golden man for the third time.

Back then, the innovative artist agency aimed at the Oscar nomination for Best Actress, hoping that Zhang/Zi/Yi could become the first Chinese in history to be nominated for an actress!

In fact, Zhang/Zi/Yi is also very close to this goal, she has received a series of nominations for critics' outposts, and successfully won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and even a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award, it is no exaggeration to say that she has only one last step left to make history.

However, it was this last step that she fell to the threshold and was counterattacked by Keira Knightley at the last moment with "Pride and Prejudice", who was only twenty years old and received the first Oscar nomination of her career!

Later, when people looked back at the entire awards season, it can be seen that the fatal mistake of Sony Columbia Pictures in its distribution strategy became a turning point. After the outstanding performance of the screening, Sony decided to expand the screening from eight to 52 theaters the next week.

This move made "Memoirs of Art/Performance" win 1.3 million weekend box office with a single museum of 25,000 US dollars, and the cumulative box office reached 2.3 million, which is unexpectedly good. Subsequently, Sony decided to skip the gradual expansion process in one go, and directly upgraded from 52 to 1,600 theaters.

However, the performance of "Memoirs of Art/Performance" was a disaster. Although it grossed $6.7 million at the weekend box office in a single week of expansion, the results for a single theater had fallen to 4,300, which was really unsatisfactory, and to make matters worse, the average audience was disappointed when they walked into the theater full of curiosity, and it was even more difficult for art audiences to live up to expectations after watching the movie with great anticipation.

Instantaneously erupted, instantaneously annihilated, like fireworks, bursting out with the last splendor and brilliance, and then quickly disappeared. After that, the box office of the film deteriorated, and the negative impact of media comprehensive reviews and audience word-of-mouth began to affect the feedback of the industry, which then dragged down the follow-up college public relations, and it was difficult to open up the situation.

The final result is that the powerful and ferocious momentum is gradually getting weaker and weaker, and even the voice of the actress with Zhang/Zi/Yi is getting lower and lower, and finally "Pride and Prejudice" completed the counterattack in the sprint stage, and has no chance to make history.

If it is said that the media reputation of "Memoirs of Arts/Performers" has more or less affected the effect of the expansion, but in the past ten years, the performance of the media comprehensive evaluation and the Rotten Tomatoes index has been exceptionally good, and even the IMDB score and popcorn index have been affirmed, but the box office results are still unsatisfactory after the expansion, and there are not a few such cases.

The run-in between art films and the vast film market is not something that can be counted simply by relying on a few figures. Otherwise, marketing would not be an enduring discipline.

Now, "Love Crazy" seems to have embarked on a road of arrogance and blind recklessness, and it is very likely to follow in the footsteps of "Memoirs of Arts/Performers", but the problem is that the "Memoirs of Arts/Performances" of that year have been in great momentum for at least a while, but "Crazy Love" has just risen, and the Toronto Film Festival has just ended, and the momentum has not had time to spread at all; and now there are still four months before the Oscars, and it is ...... to make a bold leap forward in October What the hell is going on?

Is there a better answer than brain water?

However, Focus Pictures is not Sony Columbia, and for so many years, Focus Pictures can compete with Weinstein Pictures and Fox Searchlight, and their public relations departments, distribution strategies, and publicity plans can be described as the best among the best. Focus Pictures makes mistakes, too, but with such an obvious, so stupid, so low-level delusion? It's almost impossible.

The only explanation is ...... Focus Pictures' positioning of "Love is Crazy" has changed, not an awards season art film, but an awards season-style commercial film, just like last year's "weakness", 2007's "Juno", 2006's "Little Sunshine Beauty", 2005's "Brokeback Mountain", the common denominator of these works is:

The awards season has distinct attributes, but at the same time has the attributes of being close to the people, unlike "Blue Valentine's Day" or "Bomb Disposal Unit", which turn ordinary audiences away with its distinctive artistry, and finally these works have achieved excellent results at the North American box office, often achieving box office figures of 60 million or more, and it is common to exceed 100 million.

This seems to be the best explanation. At least, this answer is much more reliable than "water in the brain". But can "Love Crazy" really shoulder such expectations? Or can Lanli-Hall really continue its box office appeal? Or is Focus Pictures really not misjudged?

In the second week of October, "Love Crazy" was released in 2,337 theaters, and finally handed over the answer sheet, with a single box office of $8,100 and a three-day weekend of $18.9 million.