The North American film off-season, the first weekend of April, seems to have played a joke on the entire Hollywood studio.

"Blair the Witch", such a pseudo-documentary with a small budget investment, grossed $10.35 million in three days over the weekend, landing at the top of the weekly box office list.

No. 2 is "Major League 2" released by Warner Bros., which only grossed more than $6 million.

In third place is "D2: Mighty Duck", which also grosses a little more than $5 million.

In fourth place is "The Esthesis," a film released by Universal Pictures, which barely grosses about $4 million.

In the face of the squeeze of "Blair the Witch", the above three films are much less than the box office of the same period in the previous life.

There are almost no films from Twentieth Century Fox in the top 10 of the weekend box office, and the only film, "My Fair Daddy," has been in theaters for several months and has only $1.35 million at the box office, so there is not much time left for its release.

It can be said that at present, Twentieth Century Fox only has "Blair the Witch" for the time being, and it is naturally effortless to promote.

A news interview truck owned by Fox TV even drove to the door of a rescue team to broadcast it in real time, making the rescue team miserable, but they couldn't find the files about the disappearance of the three college students.

It is impossible to explain such a dereliction of duty to the media, so you can only keep your mouth shut.

At the same time, the crew of "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman" is also urgently holding a small meeting, and in the face of the menacing "Blair the Witch", even Disney does not dare to be careless.

According to the touchstone of the original distribution plan, "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman" was released on April 29, just on the eve of the summer file, half a foot stepped into the door of the summer file, and the well-made "The Lion King" was staggered, and there was no commercial blockbuster released in the early stage, which is a very good schedule.

Touchstone is one of Disney's affiliated film production companies.

Of course, it can also be said to be one of the subordinate brands of Bowei Company, and at the same time, Bowei Company is the distribution department established by Disney.

"My opinion is that for the time being, let's take a look at the box office direction of "Blair the Witch". ”

Carter Eisner frowned slightly and continued: "For a film like this, it is difficult to sustain the popularity, and by the time our "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman" is released, I believe that the popularity of "Blair the Witch" has long passed. ”

As a litmus test, it was easy for him to see that "Blair the Witch" was nothing more than an outright hoax.

But Jon Avinay, the film's producer, didn't want to wait any longer, saying: "The promotion of "Blair the Witch" is very unique, and it is said that some theater companies have a box office of as high as $55,000 per game. ”

"You know, this is a single box office, and in just 100 theaters last weekend, it made $10.35 million at the box office, and it is conceivable that the distribution department of Twentieth Century Fox will continue to expand the scale of screenings. ”

"With the distribution capabilities of Twentieth Century Fox, I can't even imagine what kind of box office this film will end up with. ”

"So it is very likely to affect the scale of the opening of "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman". ”

There are a total of these theater companies in North America, and how many screens of each theater company are fixed, once the popularity of "Blair the Witch" continues to decrease, it will definitely affect the release scale of "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman".

Seeing that Jon Avernay was going to continue, Carter Eisner couldn't help but interrupt him and asked directly, "So what do you want to do?"

"Blair the Witch is a Twentieth Century Fox film, and I don't want to have friction with Twentieth Century Fox because of your little actions. ”

"Regarding the scale of the release of "When a Man Falls in Love with a Woman", I will personally call the theater company. ”

"Remember, you can't do anything to cross the line without my permission. ”

At this, Carter-Eisner's eyes became stern.

Twentieth Century Fox, which has News Corp to rely on, is not a good match.

Even Disney, which is also one of the seven major Hollywood studios, will not easily have friction with it.

Moreover, with the advent of the summer season, the release time of "The Lion King" is getting closer and closer.

At this time, friction with Twentieth Century Fox was obviously not a wise decision.

For Disney, the animated feature film "The Lion King" is the focus of this year's summer file, and the live-action film is only a supplement.

"Okay. ”

"Maybe you're right. ”

Jon Avernay was silent for a while, and finally did not continue, but got up to say goodbye and left the office, walked some distance, took out his mobile phone and dialed a phone number.

"If the plan changes, don't contact the media, and talk about other things when we meet. ”

On the other side of the phone, Meg Ryan's face changed, and she said in a low voice: "We can contact some gossip magazines, and no one will know." ”

"Meg, calm down, don't be impulsive. ”

Jon Avinay suddenly felt a trace of impatience in his heart, and said, "You know, you are facing Twentieth Century Fox, not just a small distribution company, once the matter is revealed, have you thought about the consequences?"

"Twentieth Century Fox is not something you can provoke. After saying that, he hung up the phone directly.

With the end of the first weekend, the popularity of "Blair the Witch" has not decreased, but more and more people have joined it, which can be seen from the box office.

"Blair the Witch" didn't lose momentum at all on Monday, but improved slightly as the number of screenings increased, easily taking home $3.7 million.

The rally continued on Tuesday, taking another $4.1 million at the box office.

Wednesday remained unchanged, ending the day with $5.2 million at the box office.

According to the predictions of some professional institutions, the North American box office of this film will obviously not be only $50 million in the end, at least not less than about $80 million, which can create tens of millions of dollars in profits for Twentieth Century Fox.

This is not counting the cost of offline videotape distribution, peripheral copyrights, TV premiere rights, adaptation rights, and so on.

At the same time, almost at the same time, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany and other English-speaking regions and some European countries gradually began to release "Blair the Witch".

In his previous life, "Blair the Witch" created a box office of 100 million US dollars overseas.

It is conceivable that as the distribution company of "Blair the Witch", the film will eventually bring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to Twentieth Century Fox.

It shows that the Hollywood distribution company is the real top of the food chain, and almost most of the film's income goes into the pocket of the distribution company.

However, as the sole investor, producer, director, and screenwriter of the film, Ryan only has a share of the box office ladder in addition to the $800,000 that has not yet arrived.

According to Ryan's own calculations, as long as the North American box office of "Blair the Witch" can successfully break 100 million, then he is entitled to 2.5% of the box office share.

Remember, it's 2.5% of the total North American box office, excluding theatrical royalties, distribution fees, distribution company commissions, etc., and it's likely to be more than $2 million.

It's a pity that the box office ladder is only 5% at most.

Fortunately, Ryan is already satisfied, with more than $2 million in revenue to make his next film.