Chapter 824： what's going on

Saturday, December 28th.

Two days have passed since Christmas, and the New Year is coming.

Kasenberg had planned to take his family to Europe for a holiday during the festival. Although he was a workaholic, it did not mean that he did not need to take a vacation. However, because of the Titanic, at the end of the year, Kasenberg had to cancel all the trips, and did not even return to New York to spend Christmas with his parents.

"Titanic" first week box office of 54.25 million US dollars, more than the original firefly group internal and external box office statistics, most of the first week of around 40 million US dollars expected, has to be said to be a comfort, but relative to the film The production and promotion costs, this first week of results can only be said to be a failure.

Right now, this situation seems irreversible. As the CEO of the Firefly Group, what Kasenberg is going to do now is to avoid this box office tragedy from happening again.

Habitually waking up at five o'clock, after all, on holidays and weekends, Kasenberg did not eagerly start a day's work as usual. After a simple morning exercise, he began to prepare breakfast for his wife and children. Take responsibility for yourself as a husband and father.

At the same time, at the Firefly Group's Burbank headquarters, in the film distribution department's office, the staff responsible for the box office statistics, George Lake and Phil Ropros, were in doubt again to check the faxes of the major hospitals. The box office data coming over.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, the ticketing systems of major hospitals in North America have gradually become connected, and the efficiency of box office statistics has greatly increased. However, there is still no unified data between different theaters. Therefore, the film company And the dedicated box office statistics agency also needs to summarize the individual data given by different cinema firms.

George Lake and Phil Ropros once again re-calculated the box office data on December 27th, and even made a few calls, and confirmed the data to the cinema company again. After determining that the box office numbers in the hands were complete, George Lake and Phil Ropros squinted at each other for a few seconds. They have been working in the film industry for five or six years, but looking at this one. The data, the two are 100% certain, this is definitely the most strange second-week box office number they have seen in their lifetime.

Although it is almost certain that the box office data in the hands is accurate and correct, George Lake said to his colleagues: "Phil, do you want to confirm it again? If you make a mistake, let the bosses have a happy time, we May have to be swept out of the house?"

The tiredness of Phil Ropros’s face that had been accumulated because of the need for the overnight chore was completely disappeared. He gently rubbed the paper in his hand and made a squeaking sound, looking at his companion, saying: "Do you think it is necessary?"

"Or, first call Mr. Thompson?" George Reke once again suggested: "I will send this data directly to the bosses. I always feel a little unreliable."

Robert Tucker said that Robert Thompson was the head of both of them, the president of the Firefly Distribution Department.

Phil Ropros once again looked at the "Titanic" single-day box office data.

$12.12 million!

In the first week of the release of "Titanic", there was no one day to break through the $10 million at the box office. This is one of the reasons why everyone thinks the "Titanic" box office is fiasco.

According to the normal box office trend of most films, the one-day box office of the Titanic three days of the weekend should be about 6 million US dollars, but at this time, the data in hand is actually twice as much as expected. What does this mean? In the second week of the Titanic, the box office not only did not fall, but a totally unreasonable surge.

Phil Ropros did not see the situation of box office retreat. Many movies with a lot of word-of-mouth movies will show a certain degree of increase in the second week of the box office, but the kind of retreat is basically very small, rarely More than 10%, but compared to the $8.65 million box office figures in the same period last Friday, the "Titanic" box office on Friday was a full 40% higher.

"So, let's make a call first." In the end, Phil Rodrops, who also had some guilty conscience, nodded in favor of George Rick.

So, less than seven o'clock in the morning, the Firefly Group, including Kasenberg, Frank Wells, Carolyn Eliot, Kenneth Horn, and a group of high-ranking people in Los Angeles, hurriedly arrived. At the Burbank headquarters, even Michael Lynn, who had left the board of the Firefly Group, had curiously rushed to Burbank from his mansion in Malibu.

Robert Thompson, the president of the Firefly Group's distribution department, pushed the door into the conference room. All the people who were whispering were quiet and looked at him.

"Mr. Kasenberg, and everyone, I have personally called to confirm, although there may be some errors, but the "Titanic" yesterday's single-day box office should definitely be around $12 million." Robert Thompson added: "That is to say, compared to last Friday, the "Titanic" box office not only did not fall, but rose by 3.5 million US dollars, down 40%."

Robert Thompson said, and he also signaled that the secretary behind him would distribute the copy of the box office data report to all the group executives present.

After receiving detailed data reports, Kasenberg couldn't wait to look down.

According to preliminary statistics, on December 27th, the US single-day box office totaled 29.5 million US dollars. The Titanic made a prominent position at the top of the box with a single-day box office of 12.12 million US dollars. Ranked second is the Warrior’s satirical comedy "Three Presidents in a mess" released this week. The first day at the box office was $5.7 million. Next are the "Martians playing with the Earth", "Mr. Sweetheart", "Star Trek: First Contact" and other films.

Since the detailed single-day box office rankings have been counted, the data will certainly not be wrong.

Staring at the $12.12 million single-day box office data, Kasenberg had no excitement in his heart, but he was a little angry, looked up and looked around, and all the executives on the scene basically showed similar expressions on his face. Obviously the same question hangs: What happened?

A moment later, Kasenberg looked at Robert Thompson and asked, "Are you sending the box office data to Eric?"

"Yes, Jeffery, we will send the box office data of the day before yesterday to Mr. Williams before six o'clock in the morning," Robert Thompson nodded and confirmed.

"Then he..." Kasenberg said halfway and shook his head. If Eric had any feedback, he would definitely call himself or Frank and others, thinking that Kasenberg would not be eager. I understand the reaction of Eric, but I look at everyone: "So, everyone said, what is the situation now?"

Everyone, look at me, I look at you, I don’t know what to say for a while.

Seeing that there were no openings in the audience, Robert Thompson sitting at the end of the desk tempted and said: "I think the current box office trend of "Titanic" has been symptomatic in the past few days."

Seeing Robert Thompson's opening, Frank Wells looked over and said, "Robert, can you talk about it in detail?"

"Of course," Robert Thompson nodded, thinking about it, pointing to the board behind Kasenberg, getting up and getting up and going, picking up the pen and the Titanic that he just saw from the box office statistics report. The data of the single-day box office in the previous week is listed one by one.

"Look," Robert Thompson listed the data for the first seven days of the week, added another $12.12 million yesterday, and then said to everyone: "The first weekend of the Titanic was really mediocre, and it appeared on the first week of Monday. A normal decline, but since Christmas, Wednesday, $7.03 million, Thursday, $9.55 million, Friday, that is yesterday, $12.12 million, from the three-day box office figures, "Titanic After experiencing the initial mediocrity, for some reason, the box office began to show a clear upward trend."

At the time, Kasenberg, Frank Wells, and Michael Lynn, who had just come together to join in the fun of the film industry, now understand what Robert Thompson said about ‘some reasons’.

However, as the group's chief financial officer who just joined the fireflies in previous years, Carolyn Eliot was somewhat confused and curiously asked: "Robert, what do you mean by 'some reasons'?"

Robert Thompson looked at everyone and hesitated, saying: "I think it is most likely to be the word of mouth of the film. This is not a word of mouth in the media, but a word of mouth between the audience. However, The box office trend of the Titanic is also very different from the word-of-mouth movies that have been passed down from the past. Those movies may fall back in the next week, but there is absolutely no such exaggeration as the Titanic. Therefore, I also I can't guarantee that there are other reasons we don't know."

Everyone talked about it again and again. Seeing that this kind of closed-door discussion didn’t produce any useful results, Kasenberg waved the end of everyone’s speech, saying to Robert Thompson: "Robert, this thing you Responsible for yourself, give you three days to figure out what happened, and, to help me connect Eric’s phone, immediately.”

The news that the Titanic’s box office in the second week’s box office fell sharply was not long. It was only one morning. Most people have already got the relevant information. Eric is of course the first person to receive the news. .

However, because of his past experiences, Eric had never been worried about the box office prospects like Kasenberg, Cameron and others before the release of Titanic. Correspondingly, Titanic The box office of the next week began to take off, and Eric could hardly appreciate the excitement of the group's top management.

After receiving a call from Kasenberg, Eric was still sitting in a coffee shop in Southampton, accompanied by a vase girl, quietly reading George Soros's Financial Alchemy.

After all, this is only the first day of the week. The follow-up box office data has not yet been determined. Eric has not eagerly asked Kasenberg to carry out some of the plans he has brewed in his recent period.

The two simply talked for more than ten minutes and hung up the phone. Eric also dialed Cameron’s call to promote the Titanic in Australia. Although Australia was in the early hours, Cameron did not. Resting, Eric told the Titanic box office that the counter-recession of the next week told the guy who had been in a hurry to get angry. Presumably, Cameron in Sydney should be able to sleep well later.

If the "Titanic" box office data is released on the next Friday, but only the internal fireflies of the Firefly Group are somewhat confused, when the filming data of the movie weekend is announced in the next three days, the entire North American media is almost in a short circle. All media are asking the same question: What happened?

After the $12.12 million box office on Friday, the box office still had no downward trend on the second Saturday, but rose slightly to $12.46 million. Then, the box office data on Sunday was $10.86 million.

In the end, the total number of box office tickets for the Titanic three days was $35.44 million, which was a total increase of more than $600 compared to the box office of $29.18 million for the first three days of the first weekend. Although the overall increase was not as terrible as it was on Friday, The reverse rate still exceeds 20%.

Immediately, in the personal squat of Kasenberg, Robert Thompson also produced a preliminary box office survey report.

At this time, the North American mainstream media "Titanic" film review feedback has no reference value, Robert Thompson directly hired a special survey and evaluation agency, three days, directly collected 20,000 audience surveys in major US cities Questionnaire.

According to the survey results, more than 20% of the audience in the "Titanic" week was the second time. 30% of the audience were strongly recommended by friends and relatives. They went into the cinema to watch the film. of. Although most viewers felt that the three-hour film length of the Titanic was the biggest obstacle to their entry into the cinema before watching the movie, after watching the film, more than 80% of the audience found themselves in the process of watching the movie. In the middle, the time problem is completely ignored, that is to say, the film's excellent special effects, plot and rhythm make them completely forget the passage of time.

At the same time, the system of scoring, the statistics of 20,000 questionnaires, the most direct score from the audience, actually reached a surprising number of 8.8 points, far more than the average media score of only 7 points before, "Titanic The word-of-mouth in the audience has also achieved a counterattack.