This "The Hunger Games" did not squeeze into the summer schedule, and even the April schedule was specially moved by Warner Bros.

Nowadays, Hollywood is making more and more large-scale movies, but the capacity of the North American market has not increased significantly, and the annual audience is still showing a slow downward trend.

The trend of competing for schedules is intensifying in Hollywood, and every film wants to seize the favorable date and carve up more box office.

Originally, the schedule of "The Hunger Games" belonged to the sequel magic road movie "Fury of the Gods" released by Warner Bros., but considering the extremely poor response of the first "War of the Gods" in this series, Warner Bros. made a decision last year to postpone "Fury of the Gods" to the fall and give way to "The Hunger Games" in the spring.

This film, aimed at a young audience, is very much in the spotlight.

In fact, since the release of "Twilight: On Dawn" last year, the wave of hot publicity for "The Hunger Games" has begun.

One of the most important promotional initiatives at the time was the placement of an advertisement for The Hunger Games during the screening of Twilight: On Dawn.

The two films have a similar audience, and roll ads are also the most traditional way of promotion in Hollywood.

The Hunger Games caught the attention of teenagers early on.

In addition, in view of the current social environment, this film is not hidden, and it has played a loud and suitable banner for the development of the times early - a new feminist movie!

This also makes "The Hunger Games" highly anticipated by female audiences.

"The Hunger Games" is the beginning of the whole series, and the success is directly related to the subsequent plans, so Matthew invested huge resources in the promotion of this film, and from the day it came out, the whole series of publicity about it has never stopped.

Especially in the last month before the release of the movie, advertisements and trailers for the film can be seen everywhere in the three major newspapers, four major television networks and eight major websites in the United States, and posters of the film can be seen in those slightly famous public places.

The publisher, Warner Bros., not only produced posters for many of the main characters, but also designed posters and concept art for all districts, including the destroyed 13 districts, and launched a 'Choose and Fall in Love with Your Zone' campaign on its official website.

Matthew also focused on the design of the mocking bird brooch of the heroine Katnis, and mobilized media resources to make this brooch a symbol of brave faith and free spirit.

These are precisely what the feminist movement strives for and needs.

Jennifer Lawrence has said more than once in the propaganda, "I love this brooch and the spirit it represents!

The large-scale publicity, coupled with the needs of the times, allowed "The Hunger Games" to win far more attention than expected.

Since February, Matthew has organized several related media and fan test screenings, and the response has been extremely strong.

"What I can say now is that I love The Hunger Games, it brings out the best of the original book, and the performances of Jennifer Lawrence and the actors are solid. ”

"I was completely shocked by the film, a dark, exciting, ambitious sci-fi series chapter. ”

"The Hunger Games is so exciting that I believe no fan will be disappointed. The layout is exquisite, thrilling. ”

"Jennifer Lawrence is so brilliant and completely captures the essence of Katniss's character. ”

Although the word-of-mouth of the test screening is not without elements of publicity and exaggeration, the reaction of fans of the original work on the Internet is basically true.

Besides, others can deceive people, and data cannot be faked.

Initially, distributor Warner Bros. set a target of about $40 million for the film in its opening weekend in North America and around $150 million at the North American box office.

But twenty days before the film's release, the first day of the online pre-sale of "The Hunger Games", it surprised everyone, including Warner Bros.

Unexpectedly, in just 24 hours, the tickets for hundreds of early screenings of "The Hunger Games" were all sold out on the opening day, and theaters had to continue to add more screenings, but they still did not worry about selling.

Rick Butler, general manager and executive vice president of ticketing website Fandango, said in an interview, "The Hunger Games got off to a magical start, the best first-day ticket sale we've seen in our company's nearly 12-year history. ”

Within a week of the presale, The Hunger Games sold more than $20 million in North America.

The industry is in an uproar, anyone can see that Matthew has unearthed another treasure, and what is even more enviable is that the trilogy of this series has been completed, and the movie can still be serialized!

The most lucrative thing in Hollywood is undoubtedly the serialized movies!

Running a film is never easy, and despite Warner Bros. as the distributor, Matthew is still keeping an eye on the entire distribution and making judgments and adjusting strategies based on data.

Matthew came to the conclusion that this will still be a film with women as the main audience group.

Nearly 60 percent of the people who followed the film were young women, compared to less than 40 percent of "Twilight" that year.

Surveys show that female audiences expect "The Hunger Games" as if they were treating a smash hit sequel, with "Twilight" being the first film less than a third of its attention.

Pre-sales continued to be hot, with pre-sales quickly surpassing $35 million.

This can be said to be the result of many aspects, in addition to the strong publicity and the attraction of fans, the biggest credit should be recorded in the rapid development of the online ticketing business.

As time goes by, the impact of online ticketing will become more and more significant, but according to industry regulations, producers and distributors are not allowed to participate in any business related to cinemas, not even equity participation.

Hollywood's major studios have no choice but to work with the site.

There are many industry regulations related to the film industry, although they are not laws, but they can still be very, very troublesome if they are violated.

The excellent pre-sale, the highly anticipated attention, also allowed Matthew and Warner Bros. to jointly hold a grand premiere for The Hunger Games.

On the day of the premiere, the intersection of Hollywood Avenue and Highland Avenue was crowded with people, as if the Oscars had arrived again, and many fans and media reporters gathered in front of the newly renamed Dolby Theater again.

Countless female spectators flocked to the scene, and various slogans related to women's rights were everywhere.

In every era, there will always be a lot of movies that stick to the rhythm of the times.

For this film, Matthew did not hesitate to shout in person, and even accepted an interview with the media at the premiere.

"Mr. Horner, the pre-sale of The Hunger Games is going so well......"

After asking a few questions about the film behind the scenes, the reporter focused on the promotion of the film, "Is this in your expectation?"

"The Hunger Games had a magical start. Matthew also said simply, 'It really did not meet our expectations, it was one of the best movie ticket pre-sales results I've ever seen, and it was a non-sequel film.' ”

Of course, without the original book, "The Hunger Games" would certainly not be in its current situation.

Leaving the interview area, as soon as he entered the VIP room of the Dolby Theater, Matthew saw Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsohara greet him.

"Hi Kevin. Matthew took the initiative to reach out his hand, Kevin Tsuhara shook his hand, and said enviously, "Congratulations, Matthew, you have unearthed another blockbuster series." ”

Matthew responded with a smile, "It should be congratulations to us, it's a win-win situation for us." ”

Kevin Tsohara couldn't help but laugh, "yes, win!"

Releasing a film is much less risky than making a film, and there is a lot of distribution commission.

Kevin Tsohara is well aware that based on pre-sales, the most conservative estimate of the North American opening weekend box office for "The Hunger Games" will be between $120 million and $130 million.

Even, maybe more.

Matthew said a few words to Kevin Tsuhara and exchanged pleasantries with the other people who came over.

There was some envy or jealousy on the faces and eyes of these people.

The cost of "The Hunger Games" is only $80 million, and the box office will definitely exceed $100 million in the first weekend, which makes many people who have worked hard all their lives to make a single film more than $100 million at the box office.

Matthew doesn't care what these people think, after years of struggle, he has established his own power in Hollywood, let alone these people, even Harvey Weinstein can't do anything about him.

Subsequently, Susan Collins, the author of the original book, also came to me and complained a little about the small scale of the film.

The description of the bloody scenes in the original book is far greater than what the film shows.

This aspect is deliberately controlled, after all, if a teenage girl movie is made to an R rating, it is very likely to become a tragedy.

Words and images are two completely different mediums, and the film is more about creating a unique female character than showing the process of killing.

Of course, in order to attract people, the film must have some fight and killing scenes, some of which are relatively bloody and sensitive, but basically within the tolerance range of the MPAA, the PG-13 rating is easy to get.

Frankly speaking, the MPAA is also adapting to the development of the times, and the classification of PG-13 today is much more relaxed than in the last century.

Not to mention anything else, if by pre-century standards, "The Dark Knight" is properly R-rated.

Having dealt with the many guests who accepted the invitation to attend the premiere, Matthew didn't have time to catch his breath when he found a tall, skinny blonde woman standing in front of him.

"Hi Matthew. The blonde woman greeted him warmly.

"Good evening, Taylor. Matthew replied with a smile.

The woman standing across from her is Taylor Swift, who is the singer of the film's theme song.

However, Taylor Swift is not alone, and is followed by a group of women or girls in costumes.