After the analysis of the distribution department, the reason why "Blair the Witch" is so popular mainly depends on the audience's voyeurism and curiosity, and the content of this film does not have much to remarkable. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoIf we want this film to do a better job at the box office, we have to keep the audience hungry as much as possible. Therefore, I don't think the scale of the next screening is suitable for expanding too much at once, 1,000 screens is enough. In the second and third weeks, the number of screens remained at around 1,000. If we have more room to spare, we can expand the screening scale further from week four. ”

At the company's regular meeting in the new week, Kenneth Horn reported on the box office data of the first weekend of "Blair the Witch", and talked about the follow-up release of the film again.

An ultra-low-budget film with a total budget of only $60,000 generated $11.2 million at the box office in just three days of the first weekend, which caused not only an uproar in the outside media, but also within the Firefly Group. Therefore, this matter has also become the most important topic of the company's regular meeting this week.

After carefully reading the project information about "Blair the Witch", Robert Thompson, president of Bowei Distribution, although not responsible for this matter, still raised objections: "I don't think so, Ken, the previous month, the company's promotional strategy for this film was fake and true, but since we stated that this is just a movie marketing, coupled with the public release of the film, the truth has been revealed, and the popularity base brought by the original marketing strategy has begun to dissipate." Fortunately, the box office miracle created by the film in the first weekend happened to bring the topic of this film to the highest point again, so we should seize this opportunity to expand the release scale to more than 2,000 screens at one time, and harvest more box office while the film is still popular. ”

Simon Peck, president of the Consumer Products Division, listened to Robert Thompson's words and also joined in the fun: "I still agree with Kenneth's plan, the popularity of "Blair the Witch" is enough to support a long box office curve, and it will backfire if you rush too much, and Hasbro's heel in the Star Wars prequel has just provided us with a negative case." ”

As soon as Simon Peck finished speaking, Thomas Schumacher, the head of Firefly Pictures, said: "However, I have to remind everyone that the next two weeks without any competitors should be the most critical for 'Blair the Witch'." Two weeks later, the Easter schedule opened, and I remember that on March 26th, three new films were released, Paramount's "Sweeping Trio", Universal's "Eddard Private Channel" and Warner's "Lola Run", and the competition for new films in the next few weeks will be fiercer, leaving "Blair the Witch" to run for a long time. ”

Hearing Thomas Schumacher's words, everyone paused and looked at Eric who was sitting at the top.

That's right, "Lola Run" was eventually snatched up by the more wealthy Warner Bros. for $12 million. Moreover, with the blessing of the popularity of watching the movie in person during Eric Sundance, in order to strike while the iron is hot, Warner Bros. simply put this film on the Easter schedule.

Eric doesn't care too much about this, "Lola Run" is just a relatively alternative low-budget solo movie after all, with limited box office potential. Even if his subordinates wanted to snatch the film because of their own optimism, Eric would not agree. His attention was still on "Blair the Witch", and in order to avoid the management getting into a dispute, he whispered a few words to Katzenberg, and Eric said: "Roll it out as soon as possible, this film really doesn't have enough strength to go long." Next, let's discuss the topic of setting up a dedicated online marketing department, and you must have already experienced the effect of online marketing. However, I must remind you that online marketing is only a supplement to the traditional film marketing model, at least for a long time to come. "Blair the Witch" can only be regarded as an example, it is difficult to copy, I mean, the new line and Bowei each set up a special network marketing office, everyone must remember, we are a big film company, upright operation is fundamental, don't fall into this kind of sword biased business ideas because of temporary profits. ”

Eric made a decision, everyone no longer objected, and Kenneth Horn said: "So, Eric, about the sequel, do you need to set up a project as soon as possible?"

"No, this film, we don't think about any sequels for five years. ”

In the past, there have been two more famous low-budget pseudo-documentary films in Hollywood, one is "Blair the Witch", and the other is "Ghost Record".

Compared with "Ghost Record", which has been filmed many times in a row and has been a big hit, the sequel to "Blair the Witch" can only be described as a failure.

This is mainly because although "Ghost Shadow" also uses the pseudo-documentary model, it is a real horror movie that creates a very good horror atmosphere, so the audience will still buy the sequel to "Ghost Shadow".

"Blair the Witch" is different, this film, without the rich backstory carefully forged by the creator to foreshadow, the film is completely just a variety of shocks of several protagonists, and it really doesn't seem to have much horror. Most of the audience watching this film is completely just a kind of exploration psychology under the influence of overwhelming discussions, once the interest passes, and they find that there is nothing special about the whole film, they will no longer have any interest, and even, many people will feel deceived.

In this case, starting the sequel immediately, there is really no other possibility than failure.

However, five years later, or even longer, if the project is launched, the results will certainly be different.

As for the reason, it boils down to two words, nostalgia.

At the end of the two-hour meeting, everyone went back to work, but Eric and Katzenberg remained in the conference room.

This afternoon, Katzenberg is heading to Washington to attend a conference with the federal Department of Justice to solicit information media across the network and media industry on the AOL and Time Warner mergers.

As the first major merger and acquisition of new and traditional media, the scale of which reached an unprecedented $140 billion, the Ministry of Justice is very cautious about this merger and acquisition. Of course, this is also full of secret games by various forces.

According to the merger announcement issued by AOL and Time Warner, once the two parties merge, the new company will rely on AOL's huge user base and Time Warner's content advantages to build a comprehensive media group integrating network access, cable TV and fixed telephone services.

At that time, AOL-Time Warner will be involved in all mainstream businesses in the field of information media, from channel services and content production. If it does go the way Steve Keys envisioned, the new company will undoubtedly develop into a mega-media oligarchy.

So, in theory, any company that competes with AOL and Time Warner should find a way to block the merger.

Firefly Group and Yahoo Network, both of which have a very direct competition with AOL and Time Warner, but Eric has no intention of stopping the merger, not only that, but Firefly will use its influence as much as possible to facilitate the completion of this merger.

According to Eric's expansion plan, Firefly Group will next set foot in the field of cable TV service providers, which is actually a step that Firefly must take in the system.

After all, whether it's Firefly, MGM, or the allied Twentieth Century Fox, they all operate multiple cable channels. With the further popularization of cable TV networks in North America, if the Firefly system does not get involved in the cable TV provider business at all, it is likely to encounter the dilemma of channel merchants in the future.

"If AOL's acquisition of Time Warner is vetoed by the Department of Justice, it will be much more difficult for us to get involved in the cable operator business in the future. I've already spoken to Ian on his side, and he wanted to make some restrictive agreement with AOL in advance, but I don't think it's necessary. Now is not the time to fight for a moment of gain or loss, to help AOL annex Time Warner, or to help ourselves," Eric thought about it and said to Katzenberg through the fabric of his shirt, "In addition, after coming to Washington, you can meet with the president and his wife in private, after going through so many things, I think he should also be able to see the reality clearly, instead of fighting a war now to divert domestic attention from his personal political stain, I think Hollywood's attitude will help him more." ”

In February, after the final impeachment vote in the Senate, Clinton finally survived the zipper door disaster.

At this time, in order to divert domestic attention from zipper doors and rebuild its image and political influence, the White House is vigorously lobbying the federal defense department to wage war against Kosovo, or even an all-out ground war.

Katzenberg nodded seriously, but still said, "Eric, aren't you worried about the impact of AOL's merger with Time Warner on us?"

"What's there to worry about," Eric smiled and said, "You look at Steve Case's personnel arrangements for the new company, after the merger, although AOL management is leading the new company, the power structure within Time Warner has not changed. With 100 percent control over the new company, do you think Steve Keys will be able to execute his own growth plan?"

Katzenberg thought for a moment, apparently agreeing with Eric's point of view, and said, "What if it were you, Eric, what would you do if you were to dominate AOL-Time Warner?"

Eric stopped rubbing his arm, his expression was a little cold, and said, "First of all, of course, it is a big purge. Either all the disobedient people get out, or, I'll fuck off myself. The phoenix is nirvana, not broken or standing. ”

Even now, Time Warner's media resources in all aspects are not weaker than Firefly Group.

Warner Bros., Time Media, Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting, and even DC Comics, CNN, HBO, etc., are all very high-quality media assets, but even if they are acquired at a premium, AOL's price for Time Warner is only $63 billion, which is only half of the general valuation of Firefly Group by most media.

The reason for this state of affairs boils down to the endless internal struggles of Time Warner Group.

Speaking of which, if Steve Ross, who single-handedly founded Time Warner Group, could continue to be alive for 20 years like old men like Murdoch and Lei Shidong, Time Warner would never have the current situation, but unfortunately, Steve Ross died in 1992.

As for Steve Keys.

Even if he doesn't have any memories of the past, just seeing that the other party has begun to compromise on the issue of control before the merger of the two companies has been completed, Eric is very optimistic about the future of this new company.

Entering the working day, in the 200 screening rooms in North America, the popularity of "Blair the Witch" has not diminished at all, because of the strong supply and demand, almost all the screening rooms continue to maintain a full state.

On March 12, when the box office of "Blair the Witch" was released in the first week and seven days, it once again shocked many people's attention.

Although it trailed the box office of "Dangerous Man" by $3 million in the first weekend, after the accumulation of weekdays, "Blair the Witch" relied on 200 theaters to finally reach a staggering $21.27 million in the first week, successfully overtaking "Dangerous Man" and winning the box office championship of the week.

Affected by the sharp drop in weekday attendance, "Dangerous Person" ended up grossing only $20.54 million the next week, unfortunately ranking second. This film, which cost as much as $90 million to produce, has only a total box office of more than 4,600 yuan in two weeks, which is almost doomed to a huge loss.

At the same time, after intense operation, starting from March 12, the screen size of "Blair the Witch" has increased to more than 2,100 at one time, and it has been officially rolled out in all theaters in North America. New Line Pictures also temporarily allocated a $10 million publicity budget to begin advertising "Blair the Witch" through traditional media channels.

After the first meeting, it took a full week for Universal Music to respond again.

Eric made another appointment with Edgar Bronfman on Friday morning, but this time, Universal Music CEO Doug Morrison did not.

Firefly Studios, inside Eric's office.

After a few simple pleasantries, Edgar Bronfman got straight to the point: "Eric, since the Yahoo Music Store needs to get a commission from digital music sales, I think the record company also has the right to get some profit from the hardware sales of Firefly Electronics. ”

Eric put down the coffee cup he had just picked up, shook his head, and said, "Ed, there is no such reason, have you ever heard of the profit sharing given to the film company by the equipment company that sells the projector?"

"There really is no such reason," said Edgar Bronfman unhurriedly, "but I believe you should know what I mean." ”

Eric naturally understood what the other party meant, and Seagram wanted to take a stake in Firefly Electronics.

It's just that if Firefly Electronics is just a portable music player company, Eric may agree, but in fact, this company involves too much of Eric's layout for the future electronics industry.

Eric was thinking about what to say next when there was a knock on the office door, and Caroline pushed it open, motioning to Eric with a cell phone in her hand, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Bronfman, and Eric, but there's an emergency call from New York." ”

Eric looked at Caroline and asked, "Wait a minute, can't you?"

"It's Mr. Paul Rowland of WM," Caroline said, "and he said there was a very urgent matter, and he was on his way to JFK and was about to fly to Europe. ”

Hearing that it was Paul Rowland, Eric knew that it must have something to do with Carmen Keys.

I don't know what happened to this girl, and it took Paul Rolland to go to Europe in such a hurry.

It can't be another bite on someone, right?

Thinking to himself, Eric stood up apologetically and said, "So, Ed, I'm really sorry, wait a minute." ”

Although Edgar Bronfman was a little unhappy in his heart, he didn't show it, and smiled generously: "It's okay, you go and answer the phone first." ”

Leaving the office, Eric took the phone handed over by Caroline, looked at the girl standing quietly beside him with clear eyes, and walked to the corridor outside with some humility, before putting the phone to his ear and asking, "Paul, what's going on?"