Chapter 156

Easter in 1988 is April 3, during which American high schools and universities usually give students one or two weeks of spring break. Young people are the main audience in the film market, and Easter has naturally become an important time in North America.

On March 25, the Easter schedule opened. When Harry meets Sally, which has been on demand for two weeks, was officially shown on a large scale of 1077 screens.

In addition, Universal Pictures' "soldier of genius", Orion pictures' "good Johnny" and Paramount Pictures' "a lot of good things about a single man" were launched on the same day.

It's no coincidence that the star of "soldier of genius" happens to be Matthew Broderick, who had a conflict with Simon before. Matthew Broderick and Michael fox are the two most popular male stars in this era. That's why Michael Fox's "the road to prosperity" last year was also scheduled for Easter.

Compared with the previous two works with general reputation, Matthew Brodrick's new film "soldier of genius" has won the general recognition of the media. If not for when Harry meets Sally, soldier of genius is destined to be the most popular work this Easter.

Now, thanks to Disney's hard-working publicity and the public praise accumulated two weeks in advance, plus the hype about a restaurant scene of Meg Ryan, "when Harry meets Sally" is far more popular than other works just released in this Easter season.

What's more, when Harry meets Sally, a classic movie still talked about by fans after decades, is certainly not comparable to the young popcorn movies such as "soldier of genius" and "good Johnny", which are specially made for the Easter season by studios.

So, in the first week of large-scale painting, "when Harry meets Sally" easily won $17.81 million at the box office.

By comparison, the ranking is not good.

Pointing to the big screen ahead, Michael owitz said: "Michael, if Simon westero didn't sign such a seemingly losing contract, would Disney spare no effort to promote the film?"

Michael essnaton nodded, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "no, and if it's a regular distribution agency, I'm sure I won't give the film an Easter schedule and a screen of more than 1000."

Michael owitz shrugged and said, "so do you still think that young man can't run a company? In my opinion, he knows Hollywood as well as you and me. Moreover, this is a young man who knows how to make choices. He knows that only when he pays enough can he get what he wants. Now, when Harry meets Sally, even if the North American box office of this movie is calculated according to 100 million US dollars, the proportion of cinemas is calculated as 50%, and Disney can get 18 million US dollars, which seems very rich. However, Denise pictures, which also controls all the distribution rights of channels other than the local cinemas, will make more profits in the future. "

The people in the projection hall gradually dispersed, and the two also got up and began to walk out.

Michael Eisner, hearing what Michael owitz said, had to smile and nod again after a little calculation.

Indeed.

Disney would never have spent too much energy on the film without Simon westero's offer.

Now, it is Disney that has invested a lot of publicity resources to ensure the box office success of when Harry meets Sally through two consecutive months of TV Trailer publicity, more than 1000 screens at one time, popular Easter schedule and a whole set of distribution operations.

Without these preconditions, with the excellent quality of the film, "when Harry meets Sally" may still be able to sell well, but the box office performance will never be as good as it is now. Moreover, the local box office can achieve more than 100 million, which is also immeasurable to boost the subsequent distribution of all other channels.

According to the income ratio of Hollywood film platforms, when Harry meets Sally, the total income of overseas, TV and video channels will be three to four times of the local box office. As the follow-up distribution does not need too much publicity investment, the profit will be even more abundant.

Moreover, even after deducting the Commission and publicity investment, Denise pictures can recover all the production costs more than enough through the North American box office. No matter how much it gets from the subsequent channel distribution, it is a net profit.

In this way, Disney only got $18 million Commission, but it suffered a loss.

They got into a car parked outside the cinema and waited for the driver to drive back to Disney headquarters before Michael Eisner said again, "well, Michael, what do you think of the films Simon westero set up during this period?"

"I've seen almost all the scripts, such as rain man, which I personally promoted for more than a year, as well as death poetry society, steel Magnolia and so on. To be fair, I think these scripts will become a good movie, but the commercial box office potential is hard to guarantee." Michael owitz thought and said, "after all these years in Hollywood, we all know that no one can predict whether a movie will succeed or not before it is released, but I'm not sure about that now."Michael Eisner said, "so, do you think Denise films can do anything like when Harry meets Sally?"

Michael owitz shook his head and said, "I don't know, but if I were you, I would definitely start to fight for several films of Denise pictures that have no definite distributor. At least, I would try my best to maintain a good cooperative relationship with Denise pictures."

Michael Eisner nodded, then suddenly said, "but you don't seem to be doing that in your position."

"That's an ambitious little guy," Michael owitz said with a look of memory. "You know, the first time we met, he revealed a certain wish that Hollywood would return to the era of blockbusters. In the era of blockbusters, stars were only employees of film companies at that time, and there was no room for brokers to survive. How could that be possible? So we are destined to be rivals. "