Chapter 49： Before the show

In the morning, the sun had just climbed into the sky from the buildings in Burbank, and the newsstand owner set up the newly arrived newspaper and waited for customers to come.

"A copy of the Los Angeles Times."

A somewhat familiar voice sounded. The boss looked up, took the money, delivered the newspaper, and greeted familiarly: "Good morning, Mr. Anderson."

"Good morning."

The young man responded politely, and then entered the office building.

"It's unbelievable, this guy didn't jump off the building!" A fat middle-aged woman walked out of the newsstand, looked at the entrance of the office building, and said, "I thought he was bankrupt."

The owner of the newsstand frowned and reminded: "Lisa, don't talk nonsense."

The fat woman closed her mouth, took a newspaper in her hand like a puff, and sat on a chair. The chair immediately made a creaking sound, seemingly unable to bear the weight of life.

"Look! Look!" The fat woman suddenly cried out again: "It's crazy!"

The boss didn’t look back, and asked casually: "What's wrong?"

The fat woman said in surprise: "Just now that guy, Little Anderson, he actually made another film, which will be released in late October!"

The boss was also quite curious. He picked up the same newspaper and flipped through the entertainment section. He found relevant news reports on the second page, or advertisements.

"He won't give up if he doesn't go jumping off the building." The fat woman put down the newspaper and looked up at the office building behind her: "Maybe I will jump from here someday?"

The boss didn't speak, but he shook his head. Old Anderson is a good man, but it's a pity that his son is not up to date.

Ronan came to the company and immediately convened a meeting of his three major cadres and asked about the latest situation: "Robert, you went to Lionsgate yesterday. Did they determine the distribution strategy?"

Robert immediately replied: "After signing the release contract, Lionsgate has held two media fan screenings. The reviews have been both positive and negative, but the overall response is not bad. They will hold an internal meeting today to determine the "Human Elimination Plan". Issuance strategy."

Ronan urged: "You keep communicating with Lionsgate." Then he asked George Clint: "What about the publicity scale evaluation?"

"It's just advertised on some second-tier media." George Clint said of what he learned: "The real effort must be a week before the film is released."

Ronan nodded slightly and said, "This year's Halloween happens to be the weekend. I have agreed with Lionsgate that the film will be released a week in advance."

Halloween is a traditional horror movie schedule in North America. Most people who walk into the theater at this time choose horror movies.

Robert interjected: "In the two weekends before Halloween, there were too many horror films. The largest production scale was "Halloween 7" starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

"The Screaming Queen is back." Ronan said, "This is the most friendly schedule for horror movies."

He thought for a while, and then said: "I communicated with James yesterday. He will revise the film as quickly as possible. Killing Day will be changed from March 22 to Halloween."

This is not surprising to everyone, the film must meet the schedule.

Ronan asked George again: "What about outdoor hard advertising?"

George replied: "Lionsgate is actively contacting the black communities and some of the advertising spaces near the minority communities, and it is expected to put it on a large scale two weeks before the release."

Ronan walked two steps in the office, and then said, "George, can you reach the film critic?"

"Yes." George Clint has a lot of contacts in the media industry. He guessed Ronan's intentions and reminded: "It is difficult for first-line film critics to buy, the price is very high, and some of them can't be bought with money.

Ronan said directly: "You should contact as many second- and third-line film critics as possible. Ask for the kind that cannot be too exaggerated. Give as much praise as possible."

In an era when traditional media is not in decline, the influence of film critics is still very large.

George nodded: "I understand."

Ronan turned to Mary and said, "The remaining amount of 11 million dollars on the account is all included in this aspect."

Mary asked: "Public relations expenses?"

"Yes." Ronan looked at her and said, "It counts in the PR fee."

The 11 million US dollars raised basically turned into normal crew expenses on the books.

The money of overseas investors is so cool to use.

The brief meeting soon ended. Ronan specifically checked the information of the past Halloween schedules. In the last five years, the average theater screening period of horror films released during Halloween has been three weeks, even if the cost of horror films is tens of millions of dollars. The time is about seven or eight weeks.

Such as "Halloween 6", which went offline in less than five weeks.

The short life cycle of horror movie theaters is a common phenomenon.

It is not difficult for Ronan to come to a conclusion that if the box office of the "Human Elimination Project" cannot break out in the first two weeks, it will inevitably fall into the ranks of losers.

Just like many Americans eat turkey during Thanksgiving, movie fans also watch horror movies during Halloween. When Halloween is over, the enthusiasm will be greatly dissipated.

What do you say? The climax comes and goes fast.

A knock on the door suddenly sounded, and Robert walked in with a smile on his face, and said: "I just got news from Lionsgate. Lionsgate will give the "Human Removal Project" a comprehensive rating of B in two trials and decided Large-scale release, and it is expected that the scale of the first week will not be less than 1,000 theaters."

"Good!" Ronan clenched his fists unconsciously: "Great!"

The number of theaters that will be shown directly determines the box office.

Although there are four levels before B, horror films that are comprehensively rated as B are already rare, and it is inevitable to get such treatment.

Lionsgate Pictures signed this film, of course, they want to get the most benefit.

With the current issuing contract in Hollywood, the risk of the issuing company is actually very small.

Ronan looked at the posters of human heads wearing ghastly masks on the office walls. This "Human Removal Project" is approaching success.

Half an hour later, he received a call from Gray Enrique. Lionsgate has no other films to be released. Internally, it is relatively optimistic about this film and will strive for as many screens as possible.

Of course, there is a gap between Lionsgate Pictures and established companies. The final number of premiere theaters is around 1850, while the number of premiere theaters for "Halloween 7" of Emperor Gate Pictures is as high as nearly 2,700.

Ronan does not want this film to be as popular as ever, as long as it succeeds at the box office, it can be satisfied.

Nowadays, no matter the number of screens or the ticket price, it cannot be compared with after 2010.

In early October, the first official trailer for "Human Removal Project" was released, and Lionsgate also increased its advertising efforts.

They adopted Ronan’s suggestion On the basis of proper advertising, propaganda resources were appropriately tilted to black communities and minority communities.

The huge poster of this film can be seen on bus stops, subway entrances and exits, and outdoor billboards near many ethnic minority communities.

Compared to those popular locations, these advertising spaces are far cheaper.

New York, Queens.

Owen and Bill finished playing and rode their bicycles back. Even in this cooler season, sweat was still everywhere on the black skin.

Before entering a community, they passed a large convenience store with a large billboard on it. Owen glanced at it and couldn't help stopping.

"What's wrong?" Bill asked.

Owen pointed to the billboard: "There are new movie ads."

Bill turned his head to look. The advertisement was obviously a movie poster. There were two in total. One was a face with a mask, terrifying and shuddering; the other was a character poster with seven people standing side by side.

The most conspicuous among them are the blond white man and a black man...

""Human Removal Project"?" Bill muttered.

Owen said: "It's almost Halloween, shall we go to the movies on the weekend?"

"Yeah." Bill nodded and pointed to the poster: "This film looks scary, as if the black man is the second protagonist."

Owen looked at the poster carefully, and said, "Just watch this film. I hate movies where the important characters are all white."

Bill nodded: "Me too. There are not only white people in America. Without us black people, where is America now?"

The two got on their bicycles, talked and walked, and quickly disappeared into the community building.

Huge movie posters are hung on the side of the black community, constantly attracting the attention of black people in the past.