"Hello, this is Lionsgate. ”

Lionsgate's headquarters in Los Angeles and Santa Monica are busy with downsized offices, including theatrical distribution.

In April, three films will be released, and Lionsgate's "State Property 2" is ranked first with 202 theaters, "Heartbreak Past" is second with 2 theaters, and "Exorcism Video" is also the third with 2.

Basically, no one is busy with TET, because Lionsgate has zero expectations for its box office, and it is thanks to God that it can earn back 200,000 distribution fees. Although even the Red Sox broke the curse of the Holy Child and won the World Series at the end of last year, it seems that anything can happen, but the biggest possibility of TET is that it doesn't collect 10,000 box office in the first week and then draws.

It doesn't even have a critics' preview screening, so it's not a waste of money. "Once Upon a Broken Heart", which opened at the same time, has been done for the simple reason that it is a film starring (or debut) of "The X-Files" David Duchoudi "Fox Mud" David Duchouni, which has some attention. What does the tet have? Nothing.

"Oh yes, that pseudo-documentary......"

A release report meeting is taking place in a bright, medium-sized conference room, and the table is full of senior executives. The company's CEO, Jon Philheimer, looked at the April release document and forgot about it, he had seen the movie before, it was very exciting, but unfortunately it was only a pseudo-documentary.

"Its producer, Cliff Films, had a strange request a few days ago to change the director's signature. Tom Odenberg, head of distribution, said.

Peter Bullock, the head of the buying department, laughed out loud, already knowing the joke. Others were puzzled and curious, what was going on? I heard Oldenberg tell this interesting story, the mysterious man Unique-Ku, now Unique-Cooler, the rest of the information remains the same, only known to be male, age, nationality, ethnicity, resume, etc. are all blank.

Everyone couldn't help but smile when they heard this, this is like a boy who is about to go to the prom and keeps choosing clothes, but has not yet found a dance partner, who cares if it is ku or cooler.

"This friend of ours can't be a doctor-who, is he?" said Jon Philheimer.

"Haha. The room burst into chuckles. But it's a little curious, what is the origin of Yunik Kuller, how old is it, what ethnicity? At the beginning, Ku should be an Asian surname, and Cooler can do anything, and it feels more like European.

This curiosity flashed for a moment, and TET was not the focus of any conference table.

The company has more than a dozen such projects every year, and this year there are also "Myths of the Black Street", "Hunting the Living Dead", etc., all of which are released to test the waters. They are either good foreign films, or they are independent films that they have bought and distributed on DVD, and they are good in the DVD market, so they can try them on the big screen.

They will not open more than 10 theaters at most, and a little bit of investment to buy an opportunity, sometimes with good luck, gradually expand the scale of screenings, you can make a lot of money, most of the time it is a week or two to stop the loss, and lose a small penny. There is still a lot to be earned. This strategy is one of the magic weapons that Lionsgate has grown up with.

There are more than a dozen films a year, and there are 200,000 in each part, which is quite a lot. So it's not that they're biased against "Exorcism Video", it's just that it's positioned like this.

Oldenberg said with a little emotion: "Cliff Movies really made a lot of messing around, and two days ago I opened a viral marketing website, and some ideas are really good." Judging from his distribution literacy and experience, if it were not an uncertain pseudo-documentary, the effect would not be worse than that of "The Trembling Ocean" if he invested funds.

"Hmm. Jon nodded, the meeting had given "Exorcism Video" enough time, and his eyes were on "Crash", which was scheduled to be released on May 6 after TET, and 1,864 theaters opened.

Since buying its distribution rights at the Toronto International Film Festival for 4 million at the end of last year, "Crash" has become Lionsgate's treasure, although it is not as large as the distribution scale arranged for "Chainsaw 2", but on the whole "Crash" is the most important. Because it has been well received at previous major film festivals, it shows that it is a film with the strength to hit the Oscars.

As long as there are nominations or awards, Lionsgate's popularity and appeal to filmmakers and independent films will greatly increase, opening up further space.

Therefore, the release of "Crash" is Lionsgate's biggest goal this year, but it has not been scheduled to the end of the year, and the literary films in November and December are too fierce, and just one "Little Sunshine Beauty" can attract everyone's attention.

And the independent company Lionsgate can't compete with those powerful mainstream studios, so Lionsgate has developed an unusual strategy, first releasing literary films in the summer desert, maintaining a certain degree of exposure after making a name for themselves, and if there is really an Oscar nomination, at the end of the year, they will spend money on public relations warfare, and strive to rely on it to get the company into the Kodak theater.

The first step is so important to make a name for yourself, the more critics praise it, and the more influential people affirm it, the better it will be.

Thinking of something, Jon asked Oldenberg, "How did the invitation to Ye Wei write a film review for "Crash" going?"

This is a film about the social contradictions of various ethnic groups, of course, Asians are indispensable, and as the prodigy of the light of Asians, Viy, his film reviews are very valuable. Ye Wei had attended the premiere of "Crash" at the Toronto Film Festival before, and Lionsgate had not yet bought its distribution rights at that time. Ye Wei is full of praise for "Crash", but he is just chatting on the blog log, and Lionsgate is eager for a formal film review published in the "VIY Said" column.

His agent said he knew, but whether he would write it or not depended on his mood. I just asked yesterday, saying that I am busy with the filming of "Little Sunshine Beauty" and have little time. ”

Oldenberg smiled wryly, Ye Wei is not a professional film critic, his column film reviews are not many, the subject of film criticism has always been casual and individual, sometimes even commenting on some old films, and then talking about a certain topic. The official movie review of viy is not so easy to get.

"Hmm......" Jon's middle-aged face looked thoughtful, and it looked like he was going to call to invite him personally...... If Lionsgate had the opportunity to invest in this talented young man, why didn't he come to Lionsgate to invest?" he thought and reminded everyone: "No matter what Ye Wei's attitude is towards us, our attitude is that Lionsgate and him can only be good friends. ”

Oldenberg, Bullock and others all nodded, clearly understanding this, VIY must be an important big man in the future, and he must be a creative genius, and establishing a friendly relationship with him is something that any film company will pay attention to.

Just like the Warner Bros. in the 80s, in order to get Spielberg's friendship, Warner CEO Steve Ross can be said to have done everything he could, needless to say about the communication with Spielberg and his wife, and even gave Spielberg's CEO plane to Spielberg's mother to travel, and in order to make her happy, the interior of the plane was redecorated to her liking.

Ross told his friends that in the entertainment industry, the friendships of people like Spielberg and Eastwood are his "talisman", and he put together why he spent money for them into a copy and sent it to every shareholder who could support him, saying, "If Steven Spielberg is your friend, you can be considered a lucky man." ”

This was true in the 80s, and even more so in the 21st century, when "the star is the boss".

Will Ye Wei be the next Spielberg? It's an unknown, but it's so important to have a good relationship with him.

Lionsgate has not been idle, sending an invitation to the premiere of "Crash" to Ye Wei, giving Ye Wei a beautiful DVD and bringing some small gifts to his liking, like the courtside tickets for the Lakers' home games, he doesn't have time to watch it, but his family is free, his friends are free, he can tear up the tickets, just be happy.

How can Ye Wei be happy? Jon Philheimer was thinking, and Tom Odenberg and others were also thinking.

VIY is not a Yonik Kuller comparable figure.

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"Yes, I enjoyed your gifts, thank you. Jon, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to write a review for "Crash", I've been watching it for half a year ago, and I haven't forgotten about the plot, but the feeling of writing a review has faded. And I don't really have time to attend its premiere right now, and I'm so stressed about watching DVDs, you know that's what it's like to make ......a movie."

"Hehe, it's okay, watch it when you have time, take care of your body, we are waiting for your movie review. ”

"I'll take my time, as much as I can. By the way, I found a movie called "Exorcism Video" on the Internet before, and that was the movie you released, right? The trailer is fascinating, the girl is so beautiful and acts very well. Maybe I'll write a review for it, haha. ”

In the evening in Los Angeles, in the office of the CEO of Lionsgate's headquarters, Jon was so startled that his mobile phone almost fell to the ground, "Exorcism Video" ......?

"Has it held a film critics' screening, and what is the evaluation?" Ye Wei said again.

"We didn't have a screening for it. Jon wondered and told the truth, why did Viy become interested in this movie?

"Oh, that's a shame, I think it's all great in the trailer. As a teenager, I'll go to the theater to see that girl. ”

That girl? Jon suddenly understood, Ye Wei didn't understand the first time he mentioned it, and when he mentioned it again, he immediately understood it completely, "It's so beautiful", "just for her", viy wants to meet the girl on a date! If this makes him happy, Jon really doesn't mind being a matchmaker.

Sure enough, Viy continued to hint a lot, what happened to her and the ending touched people's hearts, telling him not to spoil, did he want to spoil the girl?

Young people, if you want to meet girls of the same age, how can you be so subtle. Jon laughed, and after ending the call, he hurriedly sent someone to contact Andrew Grande, who had been acting on behalf of Cliff Films, to ask for information about the girl who played "Maggie", and tell her that Viy wanted to meet her!

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[Nina, the girl who played "Maggie" in "Exorcism Video", is your fan, she is very happy to know that you appreciate her, and hopes to meet you, this is her mobile phone number......]

Ye Wei looked at the text message sent by Jon on the phone screen, and he didn't have to think about it to know that Grande and Nina took the opportunity to joke with him, and the number was still his Yunic number, what a surprise.

He muttered silently: Hell's surprise...... Jon, what the hell did you misunderstand, I want a film critics' test screening!