Without a big premiere or an overwhelming amount of hype, "Latent," like all small-budget films, is a little silent.

The promotion of this film is mainly focused on three aspects: Matthew, James Gentle and Lily Depp.

With his continued success, Matthew has had a halo effect of his own, and he has recommended the film "Latent" on countless public occasions, and selling and boasting is a must for film investors, and in his words, "Latent" is one of the best horror films to watch in 2010.

In addition, starting with the beginning of October, starting with TMZ, it was suddenly revealed that the house where Matthew used to live in the northern suburbs of Burbank was a veritable murder house, where extremely brutal murders had occurred, and the murderer was still in prison and had not been executed.

When it was put on other people, no one paid attention to it at all, but when it was put on a superstar like Matthew, it immediately became hot news.

A large number of media rushed to report on the ins and outs of this house and the murder case over and over again, and even two daring paparazzi jumped over the wall into the uninhabited courtyard and shot some videos.

This house was previously altered by James Wing because of the filming of "Latent", and the dilapidated and gloomy atmosphere and lack of popularity are veritable murderous mansions no matter how you look at it.

At a publicity meeting of "Latent", Matthew, who attended as an investor and producer, was also asked by reporters about the so-called murderous house.

"I didn't think much about it at the time, I needed a stable place to live, but my acting career was just starting out, and I didn't have much money, so I had to choose a cheap place to live, so I bought this house. ”

In the face of many media reporters, Matthew rarely told the truth, "There is nothing special about living in it, I have always felt very good, I have never encountered anything weird, maybe I am a person who is naturally bold." ”

In the end, he added, "Director James Wyn needed an old house with a bit of history to shoot "Latent", and I thought that house was good, so I lent it to the crew for filming. ”

A horror film shot in a murderous house is obviously more able to create a corresponding atmosphere, which has also attracted great attention from fans who like horror movies.

Another important promotional point is on James Win, although his status in the film industry is not high, but with several "Chainsaw", James Wynn still has a certain influence among horror movie lovers.

James Wing's new horror film "Latent", the father of "Chainsaw", is still very effective.

There is also a promotional point is Lily Depp, as Johnny Depp's woman, Lily Depp is not new to the media and some fans.

If nothing else, the mere fact that Johnny Depp's daughter and Matthew Horner and Keira Knightley's goddaughter doomed Lily Depp to be no ordinary person.

Because of the Child Protection Act, Lily Depp herself was unable to attend the promotional activities of the film, and the crew still appropriately used her and Johnny Depp to make some articles, and even gave Lily Depp the nickname of "Pirate Princess" on the Internet.

Compared with other young actors, Lily Depp can bring more than ten or twenty times more attention.

The second generation of big-name stars will always be the focus of entertainment media, and they are also a very powerful force in Hollywood.

The overall publicity scale of "Latent" is not large, but it is very targeted.

The production cost of this film is determined, and it is impossible to invest too much money in publicity and distribution from the beginning.

With that $1.5 million invested, Matthew had an element of gambling, and he bet that James Wing could create as much brilliance as "Chainsaw".

If the publicity of any film is a little bigger, 10 million dollars is simply not enough.

Matthew is also looking at the reaction of the small-scale release of "Latent" after targeted and appropriate publicity.

In addition, Warner Bros., as the distributor, will not immediately invest too many resources in "Latent", because of the scale and type of the film, and second, they are only the distributor and do not have the copyright of the film.

Warner Bros. has a deep relationship with Matthew, but commercial corporations have never been charities.

Warner Bros. won't invest too many resources in Latent until it doesn't see enough revenue.

One hundred and twenty theaters, it can be said that Warner Bros. has given preferential conditions in terms of cooperation with Matthew, otherwise it will only be tested in more than ten or twenty theaters, and then the scale will be expanded after watching the response of the test screening.

But the targeted publicity still gave "Latent" a certain appeal, and on its first day of release in mid-October, the film grossed a total of $425,000 at the box office, with a single theater score exceeding $3,500.

With a good box office on the first day, coupled with the word-of-mouth effect of fans watching the film, by Saturday, the second day of its release, the attendance rate of "Latent" had increased significantly, and the average box office of a single theater on the day rose to $5,000, and some theaters even approached $10,000.

And after this weekend that is considered to be a test of the waters, "Latent" earned a total of $1.42 million from 120 theaters in North America, and the box office of a single theater exceeded $10,000!

For a horror film, this is quite a good score.

After all, this is not a mainstream commercial production, and October is not a traditional film season summer and holiday file.

More importantly, "Latent" has received a very good response among horror movie lovers, and the data obtained by Warner Bros. in the theater field survey has given the film a relatively high evaluation by those horror movie lovers.

"James Wing is amazing to be able to make such a story so terrifying! The atmosphere is almost perfect, the suspense and thriller in the first half make people break out in a cold sweat, and the second half of the plot turns straight but does not spoil the atmosphere in the slightest, but adds a tense excitement to the plot! The cinematography is excellent, and the soundtrack is even more chilling! Very good horror film!"

"It looks like James Wing is about to take over the title of the master of contemporary horror, and the movement of the camera position, the location and time of the ghost's appearance are so accurate. Although the pace of the first half is a little slow, the back is too exciting, and there is that awesome ending. It's the best horror movie Hollywood has produced in the past two years!"

"Veteran viewers of horror films said: It's really scary. When the male protagonist got out of class in the classroom, James an's name was actually written on the blackboard...... It's so interesting, this director. ”

Warner Bros. is only a theater scene survey for horror movie lovers, horror movies are a big category of Hollywood movies, but they are not a mass genre, and in most cases, it is difficult to attract other types of audiences into the theater to watch horror movies except for lovers of this genre.

In Hollywood history, horror has never been the biggest selling point for those horror films that have exploded at the box office, such as "The Sixth Sense".

"Latent" is a very pure horror film.

In Cinema Score's cinema audience score, "Latent" has an average score of "A-" and a comprehensive media score of 70.

This can be said to be a rare horror film, especially for the horror film genre that is becoming more and more serious in Hollywood today.

"James Wing deliberately avoids the clichés of horror films, and the most important thing is that the reactions and actions of the characters in the film are exactly what the audience will do in such a situation. The sneak trailer for "Latent" doesn't reveal much, and the quick stitching of the film's scary, gory footage is traditional but scary enough. ”

"The reason why the film stands out among many confined space ghost films is that the director has never been lazy to rely on plasma to spray the audience, deliberately avoiding cheesy tricks, and directly throwing out real hard goods, which makes many fans scared. ”

In terms of media evaluation, "Latent" has also generally received good reviews.

Based on the performance of all aspects of the market, it is not difficult to see that "Latent" has the potential to be a box office hit.

As a result, both Matthew and Warner Bros. have increased their confidence in the film, and have increased their investment in publicity and distribution.

The first is to expand screenings, starting Monday, the number of theaters showing "Latent" has expanded to nearly 600, and Warner Bros. is still mobilizing resources and copies, especially copies, from production to paving to theaters, it will take time.

Matthew has communicated with Warner Bros. enough, and when "Latent" showed enough potential, Warner Bros. made it clear that it would maximize the film's screening scale this weekend in order to gain the largest market share this weekend before Halloween.

In the following four working days, "Latent" was able to ensure an average of more than $1,000 per theater every day, and added more than $2.4 million to the North American box office in four days.

Before the new weekend, "Latent" had accumulated nearly $3 million at the North American box office.

Even if the subsequent expansion of the screening does not go well, it is not a problem for Matthew to recover the investment of $1.5 million, after all, there are TV and Internet rights in and around the overseas market.

A week after the release of "Latent", his investment has already been successful.

Matthew also had a detailed chat with James Win, the plot of "Latent" obviously has the meaning of foreshadowing, the worldview is not developed at all, and it is completely possible to make a sequel, and the new horror film series that James Wynn has mentioned also has operational value.

As an investor and producer, Matthew is very realistic, which is also a common situation in Hollywood, otherwise he will be pitted to cry by some unreliable projects every minute.

As on the other side of the Pacific, there is no shortage of directors and producers in Hollywood who swindle with so-called film projects.

In addition, when James Winnie's new horror film project starts, Matthew is also ready to have people start formal negotiations with Nicolas Cage.

A new weekend has arrived, and "Latent" has rapidly expanded its theaters, with the number of theaters exploding to more than 3,100, making it one of the largest horror films screened this weekend before Halloween.

Subsequently, many horror films, including "Piranha 3D", have entered theaters to snatch the cake of the traditional Halloween horror wave.