Since the Oscars adjusted the schedule last year, the annual schedule has also been adjusted accordingly, and the summer schedule has officially advanced to May. Generally speaking, the second weekend of May is the opening of the summer season, and this year's epic blockbuster "Heavenly Dynasty" directed by Ridley-Scott (Ridley-Scott) will open the summer season, whether this work can break the cycle of the past year's epic box office slump, has become the focus of attention of major Hollywood studios.

Correspondingly, the weeks before the second week of May are generally considered to be warm-up cycles. March and April belong to the spring file, and on the whole, the spring file is not lively, but as a buffer period between the winter file and the summer file, it still vividly interprets the true meaning of the phrase "spring is blooming".

March coincides with the Oscars, and Oscar nominations and award-winning films will win more attention; April is connected with the summer file, and the works released generally have a certain strength but do not want to join the melee of the summer file, which is often easy to attract more audiences to leave the indoor heating in winter and come to the outdoors and enter the theater. Therefore, although the level of attention in April cannot be compared with summer, it does arouse more enthusiasm from all aspects.

That's why Lance has his sights set on April. Compared with the Halloween schedule that has undergone the impact of the awards season, April, which warms up for the summer season, is obviously more suitable for the situation of Chaos Pictures.

"What about the first week of May?" Lance's question made Roy pause for a moment, he could feel that Lance's main goal was to lock in the gap before the summer file, and he immediately made a calculation in his mind, adjusted the previous plan, and the explanation became more detailed, "Two works, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', and 'Extreme Agent 2'." ”

"The former is not very competitive, with an investment of 50 million, and the British black humor-style works are nothing but released by Disney; The latter is considered to be a box office dynamite, and the previous work was a competition for the summer file, and achieved an excellent result of 140 million, and the investment cost of this work is as high as 83 million. "Roy presents the best of both works in the simplest language.

Lance fell into deep thought, the risk in the first week of May is actually not small, because the subsequent serial bombardment of summer files is not good news for the subsequent decline of the movie.

In fact, Lance knew that the box office of "Extreme Agent 2" was smashed, and after the absence of Vin Diesel, who had achieved great success in the previous work, it had a huge impact on the sequel, and in the end the box office lost all its money, and the specific number Lance doesn't remember very well, but Sony Columbia Pictures lost at least more than 60 million, which is a complete collapse for a work with an investment cost of only 80 million.

Even the "Heavenly Dynasty" in the second week of May did not achieve satisfactory results. However, due to risk considerations, the April schedule will indeed be more appropriate than the first week of May.

Roy seemed to sense Lance's thoughts, making sure he figured out Lance's thoughts, and his statement became more and more confident, "For now, there isn't much on the agenda for the first week of April, Kevin-Bacon and Queen-Latifah's 'Hara Hairdresser' is a comedy, and AMC only has 400 theaters arranged. The subtext is that they will give Sin City a higher treatment during the scheduling stage, "and the same is true in the third week of April, where there is only one horror movie with an investment of 19 million, 'Devil May Cry', which is a remake of the 1979 film of the same name." ”

One is comedy, the other is horror, neither work overlaps with the genre of "Sin City", and the scale of investment and distribution of both works is decent and not very competitive. As Roy said, this would have been a better option for Sin City than for the other two weekends.

Roy put down the report in his hand, crossed his hands together, and said confidently, "One more small detail, both of these films were released by MGM, and these are their last two films." ”

There is no need for further explanation, the news about MGM has been flying all over the past three months, and any Hollywood person can understand the cause and effect with a little attention.

As the most prestigious film company in Hollywood, MGM was even once a symbol of Hollywood, "Gone with the Wind", "Cat and Mouse", "007" series are their works, and more importantly, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was initiated by them and launched the Oscar. Needless to say, MGM is a legend.

Unfortunately, MGM faced bankruptcy in the 80s, and then re-emerged after the alliance with Luen Mei, but in the end it still missed the business opportunities of special effects technology and animation technology, and entered its twilight years. Just two weeks ago, Sony Group bought MGM for $4.8 billion, marking the official disappearance of the last independent production company of Hollywood's eight major studios without the involvement of a major consortium. MGM and Columbia Pictures are owned by Sony and become subsidiaries of Sony.

"Devil May Cry Wolf Howl", this was the last film MGM released as an independent company.

What Roy meant just now was that considering MGM's current situation, considering the April schedule, and considering the situation of the two works, MGM naturally couldn't have vigorously promoted the movie. This is definitely good news for Chaos Pictures, and if Lance insists on releasing "Sin City" in April, these two schedules are perfect.

Lance's heart was as bright as a mirror, and he naturally knew that Roy's words were heartfelt, not only objective, but also accurate, which was completely in line with the interests of Chaos Pictures. This can be seen as the sincerity of AMC, who has a positive attitude towards the long-term development of Chaos Pictures - at least for now.

He can choose the third week of April, facing the competition of "Devil Cry Wolf Howl", "Sin City" is confident that it will not fall behind, although one is horror and the other is horror crime, there is a slight similarity between the two, and the audience base is partially overlapped, but he is confident that he will have the upper hand in such a small competition. Still, he wanted to choose the first week of April.

From an objective point of view, the alignment between "Sin City" and "Hara Hairdresser" is undoubtedly perfect, the radical difference in the subject matter avoids the diversion of the audience to the greatest extent, and the cast of Kevin and Quinn cannot cause more impact on "Sin City", and more importantly, MGM's situation will leave more room for Chaos Pictures to play and achieve publicity in place within a limited time.

From a subjective standpoint...... The first week of April, which is the week before the second week of April, and the highlight of the second week of April is the "Saharan Cavalry", the "Saharan Cavalry" from Diorama Pictures. Lance was more than happy to see the "Sin City" and the "Saharan Cavalry" come into play.

"Sahara Cavalry" had a very bad box office performance in the previous life, but at least it was much better than "Extreme Agent 2", the movie achieved a box office of 68 million in North America, and the global performance also reached 120 million, although it still did not cross the cost line of 130 million, but at least crossed the threshold of 100 million. In the end, it was the production team's self-inflicted inability to live, especially the unrestrained publicity costs, which sent themselves to the guillotine.

Although Lance doesn't know the internal accounts of Diorama Pictures now, small and medium-sized production companies like theirs have very limited liquidity, and a failure is likely to lead to a chain reaction, and even before they can come up with a solution, they will have to declare bankruptcy. Therefore, Lance doesn't mind fueling the flames behind the scenes and accelerating the bankruptcy of Diorama Pictures.

However, Lance would not be foolish enough to "kill a thousand enemies and injure eight hundred", and chose to go head-to-head with the "Saharan cavalry" in the second week of April. Such a move may seem commendable, but it is not much different from suicide, especially given the overwhelming publicity tactics of the Saharan Cavalry, and it would be even more unwise for Sin City to choose the second week of April.

But the first week of April was an open window.

If the film achieves good box office results, then the next week will have an impact on the "Sahara Cavalry", diverting more audiences, suppressing the premiere data of the "Sahara Cavalry", especially the absolute suppression of competitors with the strong momentum of word-of-mouth. Of course, this is the perfect situation, and it is difficult to achieve this goal. More likely, the "Sin City" premiere was a good result, and the "Saharan Cavalry" was in full swing, which led to a sharp decline in the box office of "Sin City" the following week, affecting the final box office.

If Lance wants to be conservative, he should choose to release in the third week of April, and use the first week of "Sin City" to drag down the next week box office of "Saharan Cavalry" and curb the box office momentum of the movie.

In the first week of April, it was a radical and bold choice, one might even say confident to arrogant, proud to arrogant; In the third week of April, this is a conservative and sensible choice, and judging by the consistent performance of the North American box office market, and judging by the consistent trend of the movie box office, this is the right choice.

With his thoughts spinning in his mind, Lance raised his eyes, looked at Roy in front of him, and said, "The first week of April. ”

Roy paused, as if to confirm Lance's thoughts, repeating, "The first week of April. But Lance didn't answer, still staring at him intently, and the firmness in those eyes was conveyed to Roy accurately and clearly, which made Roy swallow a mouthful of saliva, turn his head to look at Austin, and cast an inquiring gaze.

Austin thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "The first week of April." A confirmed answer was given, and in less than twenty-four hours, the release date of "Sin City" was confirmed.

Only, is this true all the time? What will happen to this? Could Sin City be the straw that broke the camel of Diorama Pictures? (To be continued.) )