After a fierce auction two years ago, Paramount, which won Disney's hand-drawn animation division for $2.5 billion, moved the entire team to a new work campus in Culver, Los Angeles.

At this time, Shirley Lansing, CEO of Paramount Pictures, walked out of the office building of Paramount Animation Studios, said goodbye to the principal, Roger Elles, and got into his car.

As the car booted up, Shirley Lansing, who was leaning back in the leather seat, gently rubbed the corners of her forehead, recalling the discussion she had just discussed with Roger Ellers about the release of Pocahonta.

"Pocahonta" tells the story of an Indian princess who rescues a British explorer and defuses a race war. This is a project that has been prepared since the time of Disney animation, and the detailed script, story version and storyboard have been determined during the Disney animation period, and after Paramount bought the hand-drawn animation team, the production of "Pocahontata" also started immediately.

Although after the change of owner, the salary of the entire animation team has increased significantly. But the resentment of being abandoned by Firefly didn't dissipate so easily, and for more than a year, the entire hand-drawn animation team was working hard to create a masterpiece like The Lion King again, so that Firefly regretted his decision to abandon the hand-drawn animation department.

Therefore, although the usual two-year animation production cycle has been shortened to one and a half years, the quality of "Pocahonta" is still very good, and during the test screening, even Lei Shidong himself was full of praise for this animation.

In order to realize Viacom's ambition to diversify across the entire industry chain, Lei Shidong can be said to have spared no effort in supporting Paramount's animation department.

However, Shirley Lansing is far less optimistic than Lei Shidong and the animation team.

Although after strict cost control, due to the skyrocketing salary of animators, the production cost of "Pocahonta" still reached 80 million US dollars, and with the follow-up publicity, the total investment is likely to exceed 120 million US dollars, which is equivalent to twice the production and publicity cost of "The Lion King".

The sequel to "The Lion King" and "Mulan", which are being produced, must only cost much, and if you want to use Paramount Animation as the content locomotive, combined with Viacom's Blockbuster chain store and Nickelodeon Kids and other channel resources, to create a diversified industrial chain that can fully tap the commercial potential of animated films, it is conservatively estimated that it will take five years.

Before that, the main reliance on recovering the high investment in these animation projects was the box office.

It is conceivable that in this long process of opening up the industrial chain, as long as one of these hugely invested animated films fails at the box office, it will seriously damage the capital chain of Paramount Pictures, and even have to be like Warner Bros., not only unable to provide profits for the parent company, but also obtaining financial support from the headquarters.

Moreover, Shirley Lansing has always had doubts about why Firefly would suddenly sell Disney's hand-drawn animation division.

After all, it was at the peak of the global box office of "The Lion King" of nearly a billion dollars, and it was impossible for a slightly more rational business manager to make such a perverse decision.

But if the young man is acting rashly, this reason is even more untenable, the firefly miraculously rose in less than ten years, and became the largest media group in North America and even the world. However, if the sale of the hand-drawn animation division is the result of a deliberate effort, then it is likely that Paramount is already taking some very secretive and huge risks.

The decision to buy Disney's hand-drawn animation division was made by Lei Shidong himself, and Shirley Lansing knew that even if there was a problem in the animation department, she would not be too responsible, but as the CEO of Paramount Pictures, once this happened, her life would certainly not be easy.

It was all a foregone conclusion, and Shirley Lansing struggled for a while, so she quickly put the matter down and decided to focus more on live-action films, although there are not as rich peripherals as animated films, but live-action movies will always be the mainstream of Hollywood.

"Is there any news from Steven?" Sitting up straight, Shirley Lansing asked the assistant in the front row.

Spielberg will join forces with David Geffen and George Lucas to form a new major studio with the support of Microsoft, which is already well-known in the industry.

Although everyone knows that the studio will gradually build its own distribution network, unless it continuously swallows up the new line and Disney's distribution channels like the original Firefly, Spielberg and others will definitely need to hand over the distribution of the film to the seven major studios, at least in recent years.

Because Bill Gates, the main investor behind the scenes, does not have a harmonious relationship with Firefly, the three companies in the Firefly system will definitely not be Spielberg's consideration, Sony Pictures has not yet struggled out of the mess, Warner already has a number of affiliated production companies, Spielberg can only choose Paramount and Universal, and both are also trying their best to fight for this cooperation project.

The assistant replied, "Mr. Spielberg's assistant called not long ago and said that at eight o'clock tonight, Mr. Spielberg could spare time, and I had booked a table at the Morton restaurant in Beverly Hills." ”

Shirley Lansing nodded in satisfaction, looked at her watch, there was less than an hour left before the end of work, and was about to tell the driver to drive home in advance to prepare for the evening meal, when the car fax in the front seat of the car suddenly sounded.

It took five or six pages of information to print out before the sound of the fax machine stopped.

The assistant roughly scanned the information and handed it to Shirley Lansing in the back row: "It's about "First Degree Fear", and in the past two days, some ...... have suddenly appeared in the media Well, Ms. Lansing, see for yourself. ”

"Fear of the First Degree" is a crime thriller directed by Grigory Hoblit, who has served as the director and producer of well-known TV series such as "Los Angeles Legal Network" and "New York Crime Squad".

The film cost $30 million, which is considered a medium-budget production.

Perhaps because he was born as a TV director, Grigory Hobritt was unable to control the pace of the film well, resulting in the film's initial production length of more than 160 minutes, which was compressed to 130 minutes after many revisions and editing, although it still seems lengthy, but it can no longer be modified, otherwise it will affect the integrity of the whole story.

After the initial internal testimonial, except for the amazing performance of the newcomer named Edward Norton, everything else was not favored by the management.

Therefore, the company did not focus too much on publicity.

Until recently, Gary Luchesi, the producer of "First Degree of Fear," came up with the idea of linking the film to "The Seven Deadly Sins," a new line of Fireflyers, to hype up "First Degree Fear" and thus boost box office marketing.

It's Wednesday, "First Degree Fear" and "The Seven Deadly Sins" will be released this Friday, and through feedback from all sides, Shirley Lansing is also very happy with the results of Gary Luchesie's marketing plan.

Seeing that the assistant's words were a little hesitant after reading the fax, Shirley Lansing curiously took the pages of the fax, the assistant had just forgotten to arrange the fax in pagination, and the first thing Shirley Lansing saw was a fragment of some media commentary on "Level 1 Fear".

“…… If "The Seven Deadly Sins" only gives people simple sensory stimulation with some religious sadistic techniques, the shocking reversal of the ending of "First Class Fear" brings us pure spiritual shock. Countless theories and facts have proven a point of view, psychological fear is the real fear, in this regard, as a crime thriller of the same genre, "First Degree Fear" undoubtedly achieves this to the extreme, while "Seven Deadly Sins" is more like a routine flood of plasma film. ”

...... "First Degree of Fear" is undoubtedly a highly completed crime thriller, there is no trickery in the plot, nor is there a cliché picture that deliberately misleads the audience, but only the thrill reversal that makes people feel shocked and frightened in the blink of an eye when people think that everything is settled. If "The Seven Deadly Sins", which shows off its torture and killing methods by swaying blood plasma, can score 7 points, "First Degree Fear" can score at least 8.5 points, and I am already looking forward to being able to go into the cinema again to enjoy this truly wonderful film when the film is officially released. ”

“……”

Just hurriedly swept a few paragraphs, Shirley Lansing's brows furrowed, the original established publicity tactics were to provoke the comparison of the acting skills of the two villains Edward Norton and Kevin Spacey, what is the situation now, the reputation of "The Seven Deadly Sins" in the circle has long been determined, otherwise it would not have won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Now that the quality of the film that promotes "Fear of the First Degree" is better than that of "The Seven Deadly Sins", isn't this waiting for the film to be slapped in the face after its release?

He looked up and said to his assistant, "Give me Gary's call." ”

The assistant picked up the car phone and dialed the number, and then turned around and said, "Ms. Lansing, this is from Mr. Luchesi." ”

Shirley Lansing nodded, flipped through the facsimile in her hand, and found the notes on the first page of Gary Luchesi. It turns out that these comments are not the result of the operation of Paramount's marketing department, and it goes without saying who will pay attention to the two films except Paramount.

The phone was dialed, the assistant handed the microphone over, Shirley Lansing and Gary Luchesi, who was in charge of the promotion of "First Degree of Fear", discussed for a while, reluctantly put down the phone, read the few pages of fax in his hand a few more times, and several thoughts flashed in his mind in a row, but found that none of them were suitable.

These media comments are from the Firefly Group, which is almost certainly a thing.

Shirley Lansing knew that even if she encountered such a thing, she would tend to make some counter-attacks, but it was unlikely that there would be such a helpless means as fireflies.

After all, these comments are all about praising "Fear of the First Degree" to the good, and Paramount can't publicly say that our film is not good enough, and it needs to be improved.

But if you don't, you can only let the idea that "Fear of the First Degree" is better than "The Seven Deadly Sins" spread, and then, when the two films are released on a large scale, the media and audiences will find out that they have been deceived, and then the outcome will be even more unpredictable.

Obviously, this is the killing, lifting you high, and then falling, shattered to pieces.

The quality of the finished film of "Fear of the First Degree" did not meet Paramount's expectations, so the publicity of the film was not too strong. But that doesn't mean Shirley Lansing doesn't care about the movie. The entire Paramount, which produces more than $30 million a year, will definitely not have more than ten.

After thinking about it, Shirley Lansing said, "Let's go back to the headquarters, call Gary and them, and let's discuss countermeasures." ”

"What about the meeting with Mr. Spielberg?"

"As long as you're not late, you pay attention to the time and remind me when the time comes."

……

The publicity work of a film often begins from the establishment of the film project.

However, the real word-of-mouth of the movie is established in the weeks before and after the official release, before that, you can only find ways to let the audience know that there is such a film, and it will not spread until the movie begins to be screened on a small scale, and the official large-scale release.

Since winning the Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize in January, "The Seven Deadly Sins" has had a strong presence in the media and fan community.

Because of Paramount's ingenious joint propaganda techniques, as Easter approached, many people suddenly noticed a movie of the same genre called "First Degree Fear".

After all, there will not be too many ordinary people who will seriously study movie reviews, they will only faintly feel the influence of the entire general trend of public opinion, and gradually feel that perhaps, this "First Degree Fear" is really better than "The Seven Deadly Sins" as the newspaper said.

Just a few days fly by, Easter is not a legal holiday in North America, but this time, it is the spring break time for American college students, most American college students will get at least a week of spring break during this period, although some young people with good families will choose to travel, but most people cannot have this kind of financial strength after all.

However, watching a few movies with family and friends during the holidays is also a common entertainment for Americans.

"The Seven Deadly Sins" and "First-Class Fear" are undoubtedly the first choice for most people to watch movies this Easter.

On Friday, April 5, the day before Easter, "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Fear of the First Degree" were released simultaneously on 2,500 and 1,900 screens, respectively.

Because of the tepid popularity of "Alien 3", David Fincher's popularity is not too high, but the two male protagonists of "The Seven Deadly Sins", Matthew McConaughey and Morgan Freeman, are Hollywood stars familiar to the public in recent years, coupled with the gimmick of Diane Kruger, the goddess of Victoria's Secret angel's surname, which attracted a large number of audiences to buy tickets.

At the same time, influenced by the media reviews of the two films in recent weeks, a large number of people also chose "Fear of the First Degree". (To be continued.) )