Saturday, December 28th. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

It's been two days since Christmas, and the New Year is just around the corner.

Katzenberg had planned to take his family on vacation to Europe during the holidays, and just because he's a workaholic doesn't mean he doesn't need to take time off. However, because of the "Titanic" incident, Katzenberg had to cancel all trips at the end of this year, and he didn't even go back to New York to spend Christmas with his parents.

"Titanic" grossed $54.25 million in the first week, exceeding the original first-week expectations of most of the internal and external box office statistics agencies of the Firefly Group at around $40 million.

At the moment, the situation seems irreversible, and as the CEO of Firefly, Katzenberg now has to do everything possible to avoid a repeat of this box office tragedy.

Accustomed to waking up at five o'clock, after all, it was a holiday and a weekend, and instead of starting the day as eagerly as he used to, after a brief morning exercise, he began to prepare breakfast for his wife and children himself, as an occasional duty as husband and father.

At the same time, in the office of the film distribution department at the Firefly Group's headquarters in Burbank, George Lake and Phil Ropoulos, the on-duty employees in charge of box office statistics, are full of confusion and are checking the box office data faxed by major theater chains again.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, the ticketing systems of major theaters in North America have gradually become networked, and the efficiency of box office statistics has increased greatly.

George Lake and Phil Ropoulos recalculated the box office data on December 27 in their hands again, and even made a few phone calls to reconfirm some of the data they were puzzled with to the theater company, and finally confirmed that the box office figures in their hands were complete, George Lake and Phil Ropoulos looked at each other and were stunned for a few seconds, they have been working in the film industry for five or six years, but, looking at the data in their hands, the two are 100% sure that this is definitely the strangest next week box office figure they have ever seen in their lives。

Although he was almost certain that the box office data in his hand was accurate, George Lake still said to his colleagues: "Phil, do you want to confirm again, if we make a mistake and make the bosses happy, we may be swept away?"

The tiredness on Phil Ropoulos's face that had accumulated from the all-night drudgery had completely disappeared at this time, and he gently shook the paper in his hand, made a soft noise, looked at his companion, and said, "Do you think it is still necessary?"

"Why don't you give Mr. Thompson a call first?" suggested George Lake again, "I'm always feeling a little unsure about sending this data directly to the bosses." ”

George Lake refers to Robert Thompson as the immediate boss of the two of them, the president of Firefly Distribution.

Phil Ropoulos looked at the single-day box office data of "Titanic" in his hand again.

$12.12 million!

In the first week of "Titanic" release, there was no single day box office exceeding $10 million, which is one of the reasons why everyone felt that "Titanic" failed miserably.

According to the normal box office trend of most films, the single-day box office of "Titanic" for three days the next weekend should be around $6 million, but at this time, the data in hand turned out to be twice as expected. What does this mean, in the second week of "Titanic", not only did the box office not fall, but there was a completely unreasonable skyrocket.

Phil Ropoulos is not unprecedented, many word-of-mouth films will have a certain degree of box office climb in the second week of release, but the reverse increase is basically very small, rarely more than 10%, but compared with the box office figure of $8.65 million in the same period last Friday, the box office of "Titanic" next Friday was a full 40% higher.

"Well, let's make a phone call first," Phil Ropoulos, who was also a little weak-hearted, nodded in agreement with George Lake's words.

So, before seven o'clock in the morning, the Firefly Group, including Katzenberg, Frank Wells, Caroline Eliot, Kenneth Horn and a group of high-level executives in Los Angeles, hurried to the Burbank headquarters, and even Michael Lynn, who had left his job and just hung a board seat in the Firefly Group, rushed to Burbank from his mansion in Malibu curiously after hearing the news.

Robert Thompson, president of the Firefly Group's distribution department, pushed the door open and walked into the conference room, and everyone who had been whispering fell silent and looked at him in unison.

"Mr. Katzenberg, and everyone, I have personally called to confirm, although there may be some errors, but the single-day box office of "Titanic" yesterday should definitely be around $12 million. After a pause, Robert Thompson added again: "That is to say, compared with last Friday, the box office of "Titanic" not only did not fall, but rose by $3.5 million, with a reverse decline of 40%. ”

Robert Thompson said, and motioned to the secretary who followed him to distribute the photocopies of the box office data report to all the group executives present.

After receiving the detailed data report, Katzenberg couldn't wait to look down.

According to preliminary statistics, on December 27, the single-day box office in the United States totaled $29.5 million, and "Titanic" occupied the top spot with a single-day box office of $12.12 million. In second place was Warner Bros.' Masaharu satirical comedy "Three Presidents in a Mess," which was released this week and grossed $5.7 million on its first day. Next are films such as "The Martians Play with Earth", "Mr. Sweetheart", and "Star Trek: First Contact".

Now that the detailed single-day box office rankings have been counted, this data will definitely not be wrong.

Staring at the $12.12 million single-day box office data, Katzenberg didn't have any excitement in his heart, just a little foggy, raised his head, looked around, and basically all the executives present showed similar expressions, obviously with the same question on their faces: What happened?

It was only a moment later that Katzenberg looked at Robert Thompson and asked, "Did you send the box office data to Eric?"

"Yes, Jeffrey, every morning by six o'clock, we send Mr. Williams the previous day's box office figures," Robert Thompson nodded in confirmation.

"Then ...... he" Katzenberg shook his head again in the middle of his words, if Eric had any feedback, it must have called himself or Frank and the others, thinking to himself, Katzenberg was no longer in a hurry to understand Eric's reaction, but looked at everyone: "So, let's talk about it, what's the situation now?"

Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, I don't know what to say for a while.

Seeing that the bigwigs didn't speak, Robert Thompson, who was sitting at the end of the desk, said tentatively: "I think the current box office trend of "Titanic" has been shown a few days ago. ”

Seeing Robert Thompson speak, Frank Wells looked over and said, "Robert, can you elaborate on it?"

"Of course," Robert Thompson nodded, thought for a moment, pointed to the clipboard behind Katzenberg, got up and walked over with permission, picked up a pen and listed the single-day box office data of "Titanic" the previous week that he had just seen from the box office statistics report.

"Look," Robert Thompson finished listing the data for the first seven days of the week, added yesterday's $12.12 million, and then said to everyone: "The first weekend of "Titanic" did start very mediocre, and there was a normal decline on Monday of the first week, but since Christmas, Wednesday, $7.03 million, Thursday, $9.05 million, Friday, that is, yesterday, $12.12 million, judging from the box office figures of these three days, "Titanic" has experienced an early mediocre trend, because of ...... For some reason, the box office began to show a clear upward trend. ”

Executives such as Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and Michael Lynn, who had just come over to join in the fun, had a rough idea of what Robert Thompson might have known as 'some of the reasons'.

However, as the group's CFO who had just joined Firefly a few years ago, Caroline Elliott was a little confused and asked curiously: "Robert, what do you mean by 'some reasons'?"

Robert Thompson glanced at everyone, hesitated, and said, "I think it's most likely the word-of-mouth of the movie, which is not a relatively polarized word-of-mouth in the media, but word-of-mouth among the audience." However, the box office trend of "Titanic" is also very different from the previous word-of-mouth movies, and those movies may have a reverse decline the next week, but it is definitely not as exaggerated as "Titanic", so I can't guarantee that there are other reasons that we don't know. ”

Seeing that this closed-door discussion did not produce any useful results, Katzenberg waved his hand to stop everyone's speeches and said to Robert Thompson: "Robert, you are personally responsible for this matter, give you three days to find out what is going on, and besides, help me get through Eric's phone immediately." ”

The news of the sharp reversal of the box office of "Titanic" the next week could not be concealed for too long, it was just a morning, and most people had already gotten the relevant information, and Eric was of course the first to receive the news.

However, because of the experience of his previous life, Eric was never as worried about the box office prospects of the film as Katzenberg, Cameron and others before the release of "Titanic".

After receiving a call from Katzenberg, Eric was still sitting in a café in Southampton, quietly reading George Soros's "Financial Alchemy" in the company of the vase girl.

After all, this is only the first day of the following week, and the follow-up box office data has not yet been determined, and Eric is not eager to let Katzenberg carry out some of the plans he has been brewing in recent times.

The two simply chatted for more than ten minutes, hung up the phone, and Eric dialed Cameron, who was far away in Australia to promote "Titanic", although it was early in the morning, Cameron did not rest, Eric told the news of the box office reversal of "Titanic" the next week to this guy who has been in a hurry recently, presumably, Cameron in Sydney should be able to sleep well afterwards.

If the box office data of "Titanic" came out the next Friday, it was only the internal executives of the Firefly Group who were a little confused, and when the box office data of the film was released the following weekend in the next three days, the entire North American media was almost in a state of temporary blindfolding, and almost all the media were asking the same question: What happened?

After a $12.12 million box office on Friday, the box office still did not show any downward trend the next Saturday, but rose slightly to $12.46 million, followed by a $10.86 million box office figure on Sunday.

In the end, the total box office of "Titanic" in the next three days was $35.44 million, compared with the box office of $29.18 million in the first weekend, an increase of more than $600, although the overall increase was not as terrifying as Friday's, but the reverse decline rate still exceeded 20%.

Immediately, under the personal advice of Katzenberg, Robert Thompson also came up with a preliminary box office trend investigation report.

At this time, the feedback of the "Titanic" film review of the mainstream media in North America no longer has any reference value, and Robert Thompson directly hired a special investigation and evaluation agency to directly collect 20,000 audience questionnaires in major cities in the United States in three days.

The survey results show that more than 20% of the audience of "Titanic" in the second week are watching the film for the second time, and 30% of the audience are highly recommended by relatives and friends around them to go to the cinema to watch the film. Although most audiences felt that the three-hour duration of "Titanic" was the biggest obstacle for them to enter the cinema before watching the movie, after watching the film, more than 80% of the audience found that they completely ignored the time problem during the viewing process, that is, the film's excellent special effects, plot and rhythm made them completely forget the passage of time.

At the same time, the score of the 10-point system, the statistics of 20,000 questionnaires, the most direct score from the audience, actually reached a surprising number of 8.8 points, far exceeding the previous average of only 7 points of the media score, "Titanic" in the audience reputation, also achieved a counterattack. (To be continued.) )