Because he was too excited, Gu Xiaofan didn't sleep much all night, he was still energetic in the morning, got up and washed up, and while eating breakfast, he received a call from Warner Hasen:

"Director Gu, I've heard that your movie is quite good, and my people have a very high opinion of you, I really didn't expect that you would be able to make such a work in such a short time......

I've already told Lionsgate that we will cancel the screening from tomorrow and start full promotion, and we can get a market share of about 200 screens, which is enough for a literary film. 【】“

Gu Xiaofan said with a smile: "No, I think the previous plan was well hidden, so let's temporarily screen it for a week, and let the word of mouth slowly spread first." ”

He has already arranged with Lionsgate to send 7 people to shoot the queue to buy tickets for "The Undertaker" in 7 theaters, and by the way, interview the audience's impressions, and make a short film to share on YouTube.

"Well, since you already have an idea, then I won't interfere." Hasson said with a smile: "Then I will continue to arrange the Oscar lobbying, after all, in Hollywood, it is not the most important thing to think about whether the Oscar is good or not, the main thing is the intensity and breadth of the lobbying work." ”

"Okay, Mr. Hasson, I'll trouble you with that." Gu Xiaofan said with a smile, but what he thought in his heart was that Hasen had a good momentum when he watched "The Undertaker", and he couldn't help much, so he deliberately reminded him that if it weren't for his lobbying company behind the scenes, "The Undertaker" would not have been shortlisted for the Oscar.

Gu Xiaofan couldn't help sneering in his heart, this Hasen is treating him as a rookie, it doesn't matter if the film is good or not, what matters is the strength of lobbying? Even if he doesn't understand the market, he knows that there are hundreds of lobbying companies related to Los Angeles, among which there are top ones, and 8 or 9 are about the same level.

As long as they are willing to spend money, each shortlisted film can have similar lobbying strength, and under the open lobbying system of the Oscar selection, there is no way.

There are 6,000 judges for the Oscars, and the "Lobbying Law" stipulates that no more than two people can be lobbied at a time.

The PR firm tracks everyone's interest in the film, excludes those who definitely like it and those who don't like it, and then lobbied the judges who might swing to privately show them the films they represent their clients. The public relations agency will accompany the two judges to see what is good and how the art is, and charge the client $2,000 for each accompanying view.

If you want to lobby for the best foreign language film, you need to lobby about 1,000 judges, and there will be 500 performances out of 1,000 judges, which all cost money.

At the same time, spend money to send out good movie reviews in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and then have good reviews in mainstream magazines such as "Variety". It's not enough to have good movie reviews, you have to buy 'hard bread' - front covers, back covers, inserts, etc. 'Hard Broad' is the most expensive, almost the entire awards season, and costs $3 million

But everyone can do this, as long as there is $3 million, more than the lobbying company can achieve similar lobbying effect.

Except for those film companies in really small countries that really can't afford to spend these millions of dollars, who wouldn't have the strength of a really big film company? If you really win the Oscar, the number that stimulates the box office will definitely be more than that.

To put it bluntly, there is nothing mysterious in lobbying, it is simply a snake to add to the team, so that the organizing committee judges can enjoy more VIP treatment, and it has no practical effect at all.

In the end, it depends on the strength of the film.

Gu Xiaofan secretly thought in his heart, what Hasen meant by saying this, he still wanted to make himself feel that he could rely on him, but this eagle eye also underestimated himself.

In the first week, "The Undertaker" was screened in 7 theaters, almost full, and the word-of-mouth was all bursting, although the mainstream media deliberately snubbed the report of "The Undertaker", but on the Internet, "The Undertaker" has become the focus of heated discussion.

Gu Xiaofan casually flipped through Yahoo and other places, and there were many posts on these forums about the viewing experience of "The Undertaker", none of these posts were posted by Lionsgate, but they replied to the top of the homepage.

The voice that said that the movie was very touching accounted for the vast majority: "Very beautiful and heartwarming story, I highly recommend everyone to watch it, cherish the people around you, and don't have conflicts with your family because of anything!" ”

"I have learned a lot of things, discrimination and prejudice in life are insignificant in the face of death, we should still let go of prejudices and get along with others tolerantly."

"The cello is a classic...... Is there such a classical music master in Asia? I went back yesterday and the melody kept ringing in my head. ”

Of course, there are some fans who commented more directly: "This film is too boring, I thought there were any scary scenes, but there was no excitement, and there was no ** in the whole article!" ”

"I don't know what to say, anyway, I'm asleep, the actor's appearance is really uninteresting, and Zhou Yanfa's martial arts shots in it are not disappointing, far worse than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

There are a lot of people who praise it, and there are also people who are dissatisfied, and many people have the idea of going to watch a "horror movie", of course, they are disappointed, but more people are still surprised.

There are countless people who are complaining: "I can't buy movie tickets!" Those people queuing up to buy tickets are crazy, isn't this iphone queuing up at the entrance of the theater from the early hours of the morning!? ”

"Here in Chicago, there is not a single ticket for "The Undertaker" today." "Los Angeles too!"

This momentum is very good, for a literary film, Gu Xiaofan never expects everyone to like it, after all, "The Undertaker" is not a mainstream blockbuster, many young people are still not interested in it, everyone has different feelings when watching the movie, and people with life experience will like it when they watch it.

For those Americans who like big scenes and fierce fights, they want to see "exciting" and "action" visuals in their heads.

These people are also not the target of "The Undertaker".

The box office results of the first week of screenings were released, and the original condition given by Lionsgate for large-scale release was $2,300 per day for a single screen, but in reality? The average score of a single screen in 7 theaters is $13,178!

It was a fraction of the time to exceed the target, which has surpassed the highest score in the history of Lionsgate.

The entire Lionsgate company was amazed that they really underestimated Xiaofan, a Chinese director.

And the domestic media also broke the news in major newspapers and websites, and domestic fans were cheering, shouting: "Gu Xiaofan is too good!" "This is to reproduce the style of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"~" "The results of this single screen are too high! ”