Luen Mei and Fox are not just film companies, they have a wide enough media channel to easily make a loud voice to the whole United States, and the total investment of "Independence Day" is as high as more than 100 million US dollars, and the performance of the midnight show is good enough to show the potential of a big hit.

Although traditional media is far less convenient than online media, it is also more effective than professional film critics who are always on top and extremely disdainful of the public.

There is no doubt that under the impetus of Wang Jie, this will inevitably turn into a public opinion dispute between "Independence Day" and film critics, although there are many disadvantages of offending film critics too much now, but Wang Jie is dismissive of them, after all, elephants do not see like ants.

In the evening, the Fox TV family channel, on a live interactive program, interviewed a large number of ordinary fans pouring out of the theater by means of theater connection.

In front of the reporter's camera, fans who are in a state of adrenaline rush make no secret of their love for "Independence Day".

"Independence Day is amazing!

"William's films have always been so cool!

"Those explosions, those fires, all the visual impact I want in Independence Day!"

Probably because of the high emotions brought by the movie, these fans were so excited that they crowded in front of the camera, eager to share their joy with the audience, and people kept shouting.

"Aliens, welcome to Earth! You have advanced technology, and we have American GIs who can destroy everything!"

"I liked the president's speech, it was so shocking! I'm going to be drafted into the army!"

Suddenly, a very calm face squeezed in front of the reporter's microphone and said very unplain words in a flat tone.

"King William Rothschild, the best man on earth at destroying the earth!

This sentence seemed to resonate with the surrounding fans, and many chaotic sounds instantly turned into a consistent frequency.

"Magician!"

"Magician!"

At a garage outside Los Angeles, a group of Latinos sat together drinking beer and looked up at the sound of shouts on the television.

"What are they doing here?" someone asked, puzzled.

"It's like supporting a film and a film director. Someone replied.

And someone who knows the inside story explained in detail, "It's "Independence Day", a new movie that has just been released, I have seen the trailer, it is very good. ”

"They were thrilled like this. ”

The man at the beginning pointed to the TV screen, "The movie should be exciting." ”

"By the way, there's an airplane pilot like us. Finally the man said, "He saved the world in the film, I think we should go and see it?"

"Really?"

These minorities are a little moved, after all, when people like them appear in commercial blockbusters, there are few earth-shattering heroes, "Then let's go together tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." ”

As for the film critics? Who can expect the film critics to influence these people.

In the black neighborhood of Queens, New York, a black family heard from a neighbor about how the black protagonist defeated the aliens and saw a TV show, and decided to go to the theater on the weekend, after all, watching movies is a relatively cheap way of family entertainment compared to income.

In a Jewish family on Long Island, a middle-aged couple was sitting in front of a television with their daughter, watching the TV program and showing great interest.

"Mom, Dad. ”

The big-eyed girl said to her parents: "I saw this crew when I was filming in Central Park, and the lead actor of the film seems to be us Jews, and the director is also a Jewish, so let's go to the theater together tomorrow." ”

"Good!"

Looking at the whole United States, many people have made the decision to watch the movie tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at this moment.

A discussion is also taking place in a group apartment near Yale University.

"Have you read the newspapers? Almost all the critics are criticizing Independence Day, so I don't think it's better to read it!"

"Critics, please, when will their words be believed? I'd rather believe the exaggerated reports of the tabloids than the film critics!"

"Yes, look at them!" someone pointed to the TV, "they're the same age as us! They all say 'Independence Day' is a good movie! Look at the critics, they're all in their forties and fifties, do you think they're going to have the same tastes as we do?"

"That's true!"

The same scene is seen among many young people, who are not a generation that believes in authority, not to mention those who are a little more sensible understand that those film critics are half a Pacific Ocean away from authority.

No matter how good the publicity is, it will take time to ferment, and Friday, December 11 is about to pass, although many media outlets in Luen Mei and Fox are making efforts, but the specific effect will not have clear feedback until tomorrow's box office is released.

Saturdays are the busiest time for most company employees, but at Hollywood Studios on the Christmas calendar, weekends tend to be the busiest time, especially for Sony Columbia Pictures, which has new movies coming out next weekend.

Final pre-screening promotion, liaising with theaters to expand the number of theaters as much as possible, making copies and sending them to theaters across the United States, paying attention to the situation of competitors and analyzing whether the strengths and weaknesses of competitors will affect their films, etc.

Sony Columbia Pictures has been watching Independence Day, and "The Shawshank Redemption," which they invested in and distributed, didn't have a comparable competitor that same weekend, but the films released the week before and the week after looked more threatening.

Among them, "Independence Day" is the focus of Sony Colombia's observation, after all, if this film is super popular, it will inevitably squeeze the living space of the film released next week.

As soon as it was time to go to work, John Ralph, the deputy head of distribution at Sony Columbia, walked into the office of Jake Muschkery, the head of distribution, and the two of them sat in front of and behind their desks, their faces a little serious.

"The first-day box office statistics for "Independence Day" are out. Ralph did his best to keep his voice steady, "2,900 theaters, $23 million!"

"What about the rest?" asked Jack Muschkeri calmly.

"The audience's reputation is declining, but it is not very obvious, the A-level praise rate has been maintained at about 88%, and the main viewer of the Christmas file, young students, has a very high evaluation of the film. ”

After thinking about it, Ralph said: "However, the professional rating of "Independence Day" is still declining, and it has fallen to 3.3 points, and it is obvious that someone is doing something behind it, and the most famous group of film critics have reacted too violently. ”

"That's a good thing. Jack Muschkeri clasped the table lightly, ""Independence Day" is popular, it doesn't do us any good, it's only the first weekend, the impact is not very big, if it still maintains a strong momentum next week, it will definitely affect "The Shawshank Redemption", especially the number of theaters." ”

This is a very simple truth, Ralph naturally understands that although the number of screens in North America is increasing, for the fiercely competitive summer season, there are so many theaters, if there is a film that is super popular, resulting in a sharp increase in the scheduling rate, it will inevitably affect the number of screens released by other films, and the most direct result of the reduction in the number of screens is the box office reduction.

So, he said, "Jack, if there's someone targeting Independence Day, why don't we push it in the back?"

That's what I mean. Jack Muschkeri smiled, "I've already discussed with the CEO that Sony Entertainment will use all the media it can influence to try to snipe "Independence Day", preferably before next weekend, this film will be abandoned by some theaters due to the box office decline, so that we can win more theaters." ”

Like "Jurassic Park", which once detonated the summer file, after the box office of "Independence Day" was released on the first day, it inevitably became the public enemy of all the films in theaters, and since Saturday morning, the media has been slamming louder than yesterday.

In some ways, this situation has exceeded Wang Jie's expectations, he knows that Hollywood is very competitive, and it is by no means a pure place for nothing, but he did not expect that the competition will be so fierce.

Warner and Universal's senior management also made a congratulatory phone call to him, and their media was shouting that the aliens in "Independence Day" had a low IQ and were scary, how could they invade the earth?

There are also media outlets that have a close relationship with Sony Entertainment, constantly picking on the logical loopholes of the film, and they are eager to put all the bugs in front of the American public.

Originally, Wang Jie thought that "Independence Day" had no strong competitors in the same schedule, and the whole screening process might be smoother, but he never thought that the box office of 23 million on the first day of "Independence Day" would detonate all possible competitors.

In the face of competition and interests, no one is kinder and nobler than others.

This is Wang Jie's greatest feeling, if you want to work hard in Hollywood, you can't be afraid of competition, which super-blockbuster movie didn't rush out of the encirclement and suppression? Hasn't the big ship of time and space been collectively encircled and suppressed by the media and film critics? As a result? It has crushed all the dignity of film critics!

Although he doesn't have the arrogance of James Cameron shouting "I am the king of the world", Wang Jie also wants to try if he can tear off the fig leaf of film critics with a super-hit film like "Star Wars", after all, they have declared war on him!

Retreat and evasion are by no means his style!

"Look, there's already a long queue. ”

In front of the ABC TV camera, a theater manager pointed to the crowded but not chaotic crowd at the box office and said: "These people have only one purpose in line, to watch "Independence Day"! We have sold out tickets for the afternoon here, and they can only buy tickets for the evening, this is the first time this situation has occurred, last year's "Jurassic Park" did not have such a long line, and the last time this scene appeared was "Terminator 2" in 1991." ”

The picture switched to Chicago, and he was also a theater director.

"The audience is so enthusiastic, the popularity of "Independence Day" has completely exceeded expectations, the crowd in line has been crowded outside the theater, our box office during the day today is all sold out, in order to facilitate the fans to watch, we have to temporarily add four screenings, still can't meet the ......"

It wasn't long before the manager of a New York theater stood in the middle of the television frame.

"In order to meet the needs of the audience, we temporarily increased the screening rate of Independence Day from the original 50 percent to 60 percent, and even then, almost every theater is full, and we are considering further increasing the screening rate. ”

In the final analysis, whether it is the reaction of ordinary fans or theaters, all publicity has only one purpose, to suppress the negative remarks of competitors and the ultra-low evaluation of film critics, and attract audiences to enter theaters to buy tickets.

Although some viewers were influenced by negative comments and critics to abandon the film, the long queues in famous cinemas in major cities from noon on Saturday proved that "Independence Day", which was released on Christmas Eve, has enough appeal to mainstream audiences in terms of schedule, theme, publicity and content!

The data is the most real reaction of the market, and the first-hand statistics are continuously fed back to Luen Mei and Twentieth Century Fox through the various research and consulting companies hired, and then transferred to Duke's side for the first time.

At around six o'clock in the afternoon, the office of Fox headquarters was still brightly lit, and Nicole hurried to Wang Jie's office.

"The latest statistics. The smile on her face couldn't be hidden, "As of now, today! Saturday! "Independence Day" has grossed more than $20 million!"

"Sure enough, that's good news!"

Drew, who was sorting out the documents that Wang Jie was going to use later, raised his head and said happily: "As William told me, we are a little overestimating the influence of film critics. ”

"What about the audience's reputation?" asked Wang Jie, who was what he was concerned about.

"The A-grade rating has dropped to 86 percent, which is a normal decline. Nicole pulled over the chair and sat opposite Wang Jie, "In terms of professional reputation, unfortunately, my dear, "Independence Day" is about to fall to 3 points. ”

"Leave them alone. Wang Jie thought for a while and said: "There are many viewers who have this kind of mentality, on the basis of the film can maintain a certain degree of popularity, the more fierce the critics' criticism, the more they can stimulate their curiosity about the film." ”

Although they are not experts in psychology, all three of them know that this mentality is actually common among movie fans.

"Okay, let's not talk about that. ”

Nicole shifted the subject to something else, "The ABC reporter will be here in an hour, the female reporter interviewed you last time, William, let's check the interview again, it's an important part of the publicity plan." ”

Wang Jie nodded, he has never been a person who is indifferent when others step on him, not to mention that this also involves his own major interests, and this time he appeared in person, and it was the film critic who completely angered him.

When Sarah, a female reporter for ABC, walked into Ms. Wang's office, she was in a studio in Chicago, where "Roger Albert and Siskel Watching the Movies," which had not been broadcast live several times a year, was making final preparations to be broadcast live across the United States via cable networks.

Roger Albert and Gene Siskel sat in the dressing room, the makeup artist busily applying makeup to them, and their co-manager, standing across from each other, talking about the situation of the movie they were about to review.

"I just got the news that "Independence Day" has reached $20 million at the box office today, and if nothing else, it will surpass yesterday's box office figures. ”

In general, films released on weekends will grossing more on Saturday than on Friday.

Although this is normal, Roger Albert's face is not good-looking, because this number proves that the role of film critics is far less than he thinks!

For people who think they are big enough in terms of prestige and fame, being ignored is sometimes a terrible thing to do.

"Sony called. The agent continued: "Roger, they want your comments to be a little sharper and more impactful. ”

"I tried my best. ”

Having received the benefits of certain people, it is inevitable to do things for the other party, and Roger Albert is well aware of this, "I have a lot in store for King William Rothschild. ”

"Roger, I'll support you!"

Like his old friends, Jean Siskel has had a good income.

After putting on the makeup, the two well-known and fair film critics checked the final draft, and then walked into the live studio.