America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 204 203. Vicious events

The premiere effect of "Adele's Life" was not very good, based on statistics.

The audience was still looking forward to Eric's new movie, so the 400-person theater was packed, and in the end 74 seats were vacant. The attendance rate was 18.5%, nearly one fifth.

The attendance rate will be reflected in the subsequent attendance rate, and these leaving audiences will naturally not speak well of the movie.

A person with a good attitude will say, "That movie, I watched it halfway and left. It was really boring."

Those with a bad attitude will criticize homosexuality, God forbids it, a piece of garbage, abnormal love, etc. They will probably go to major websites to maliciously write negative reviews.

This is still in Los Angeles, which has a relatively open atmosphere, but there are still so many viewers who don't like it and don't accept it, let alone in conservative areas.

"Eric, I'm a little worried." Ashley said anxiously.

"What are you worried about? Didn't you see? We got applause, and the critics didn't find fault. It's not easy to satisfy these guys." Eric comforted.

"Those film critics only care about you. If it were an ordinary director or if you were not present, they would definitely criticize you."

"Haha. You are overthinking. Your performances are great and you have contributed breakthrough acting skills. My eyes are very good and I can tell who is sincere and who is fake."

Mary rubbed Eric's shoulders vigorously: "It's not just word-of-mouth, but also box office. With less than 500 cinemas, you may have to lose money."

"Yes, I haven't even asked, how much is the investment in "Adele's Life"?" Ashley looked over curiously.

"$40 million."

"So many!" The two sisters widened their eyes at the same time.

"How could it cost 40 million US dollars! The filming was completed in two months, and there were not many extras. There were only rented venues for a few scenes, and the rest were completed at the MGM film and television base."

"There are no plots that require the use of special effects, and Ashley and I's remuneration is negligible."

"Eric, you are mistaken. No matter how you calculate it, it is impossible to spend 40 million US dollars!"

"Yes, I think the maximum is 20 million US dollars. Did you hire an exaggerated behind-the-scenes team? Soundtrack? Dubbing? It doesn't look like it."

Seeing their surprised looks, Eric laughed.

"The US$40 million is the publicly announced figure. If you want to know the real figure, it is actually about US$15 million."

Hearing this, Mary rolled her eyes: "I know that major companies like to exaggerate some costs, but none of them exaggerate like you, almost twice as much."

"It's not as outrageous as double, maybe 0.5 times."

"40 million and 15 million, are the American elites so bad at mathematics?"

Eric pointed to his nose: "There are also the fees for my screenwriting and directing. I am the youngest and best screenwriter in history. Is this title worth 3 million US dollars?"

"In addition, I am also the screenwriter and director of "Transformers", which has a global box office of US$800 million. Is this title worth US$10 million?"

"When "Transformers" surpasses "Finding Nemo" and takes the box office title this year, as the youngest director to win the box office title, an additional $2 million won't be too much."

"The $15 million is just because I didn't pay myself a salary, otherwise it would have been $30 million."

"So this is how you settle accounts." The two sisters laughed angrily.

"Yes, during the filming, MGM was almost like my sole proprietorship. It doesn't matter if the salary is not paid. Once it is listed, it will be one code for another. I can't lose a single point."

Ashley breathed a sigh of relief: "With 15 million US dollars, the pressure to pay back the capital will be much less. If we expand the screening scale, such as a thousand theaters, it should be no problem."

"Tsk, tsk. Who told you it's only 15 million US dollars? That's for production, and promotion is not included."

"Didn't you never do any publicity in order to remain mysterious?"

Mary punched him lightly on the chest, causing him to gasp.

Eric grabbed his fist, held her in his arms, and put his hand into her top to squeeze hard in front of Ashley without any scruples.

"That was before the movie was released. Now we should start promoting it, especially the Golden Globes and Oscars. These two award ceremonies are where the most money is spent. Have you forgotten what I promised you?"

Of course, the two women have not forgotten that they were deceived by Eric's "Golden Ball Best Actress" and "Oscar Best Actress".

"Eric, do you really want to compete for us as the queen?"

Eric nodded seriously: "I always do what I say to my woman."

"Kiss me, darling!"

Ashley stuck out her tongue with watery eyes, and Mary pressed Eric's hand tightly to her chest.

There are too many situations where literary and artistic films cannot make back their money. Even if you include box office, DVD and various copyright income, there are still a lot of losses.

Because the audience itself is small and it is not a genre that the market likes, theater chains will refuse to show it if it cannot make money in cinemas.

The theater chain's refusal to show the film reduces its impact and makes it even less known, which then leads to DVDs and copyrights being unable to be sold, forming a vicious cycle.

The only way to break the situation is to participate in various influential film festivals, win awards or at least get a few nominations, which will make you more or less famous. Once you are famous, it will be easier to sell.

Among all film festivals, the most famous is undoubtedly the Oscars. A film that can win an Oscar can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in an instant.

It is so exaggerated that the three major European film festivals are slightly inferior.

Therefore, it is necessary to pursue the award in accordance with the established goals. Although he disdains Harvey Weinstein's dirty methods of smearing his opponents and pleasing the judges.

However, conventional methods such as buying advertisements, using trolls, and engaging in public opinion must be used, and this process will also cost millions of dollars.

If you don't win the prize in the end, the money will be wasted. There is a reason why Harvey Weinstein hates the Coopers so much.

The favorites for MGM marketing this year have been determined to be "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Adele's Life," plus "Get Out."

After doing your best to compete for Theron or the Olsen sisters, compete for an original screenplay for yourself. These two awards do not conflict with "Lord of the Rings 3".

Forget about Best Actor, there seems to be no particularly outstanding actor in the movies produced by MGM in the past year, and the competition is too weak.

"Transformers" can only compete for technical awards, and since it conflicts with "Lord of the Rings 3", there is a high probability that it will not win the award.

The jury has been neglecting the crew of The Lord of the Rings for two years. It would be unacceptable both emotionally and rationally to refuse to give this phenomenal work, which is said to have saved the masterpiece of the fantasy epic genre, any more.

While "Lord of the Rings" is making great progress and "Transformers" is picking up the pieces, "Adele's Life" has begun to gain popularity.

Major newspapers, forums and websites have given their impressions and comments.

Los Angeles Times: ""The Life of Adele" is an experience film, a film made for ordinary people to watch, and a film made for life itself."

"The freckles on the actors' faces can be clearly seen in the simple shots, and the sparse soundtrack seems to declare that life itself has no main theme, and the unmodified dialogue rushes straight at it."

"If you put aside the homosexual elements expressed in the movie, this is a very real life movie that is suitable for everyone. When we watch movies like this, we are watching ourselves."

The New York Times: ""The Life of Adele" is a high-quality love masterpiece. If you go deeper, you will find that homosexual love is just its appearance. What is more deeply about love is that it has nothing to do with gender, only love and life. "

Salt Lake City Entertainment News: "I was invited to attend the premiere of "The Life of Adele" and I have high expectations for this mysterious movie."

"Facts have also proved that Eric Cooper is not only an excellent commercial film director, he is also very comfortable in controlling literary and artistic films, like a veteran who has been immersed in it for many years."

“It’s rare to find a movie that uses almost all close-ups in the first hour to film the protagonist going to class, eating, sleeping, masturbating, having sex, bathing, and flirting, but it doesn’t make the viewer bored, without any Feeling invaded.”

"An excellent film and an excellent director who is both commercial and artistic. This film is worth savoring."

NBC Entertainment Online: "What a good movie has to do is to present life in the most reductive way. "Adele's Life" is such a movie."

"Adele's story is just an entrance, and what moves the audience is actually our own world. Everyone can see themselves in Adele."

"The ability to present the two heroines wonderfully is due not only to Eric Cooper's directorial skills, but also to the Olsen sisters' own efforts."

"They really scared me. They completely broke away from the constraints of youth comedies in the past, and their acting skills have reached a state of return to nature."

"Especially the performance of the two emotional scenes is completely master-level. They will definitely have a place in next year's Golden Globe Awards and Oscars."

ABC Entertainment: "This is a movie that provides a profound analysis of relationships, from which we can see the impact of life on love."

"Love is beautiful, but life is often a mess. There is not so much passion. Firewood, rice, oil and salt are the destination."

"The gap in values ​​and class is the reason why the two must break up. They cannot integrate into each other and have no common language. Barriers will appear sooner or later."

"If they look at each other from a distance, they love each other deeply, but living together is unnecessary. It will only destroy the beauty they have built."

"Just like the line in the movie, they are like birds and fish, they can fall in love, but they are definitely not suitable for being together."

Of course, not all media outlets had good things to say. The Independent frequently started to criticize and criticized, and Mary was so angry that she tore up the newspaper.

Film critics mainly come from an artistic point of view, and most of them praise the movie, but this is not reflected in the audience.

There are many voices of abuse on the Internet, and the most intuitive reaction is the imdb score.

It has dropped from 8.7 points yesterday. When I look at it today, it has dropped to 8.4 points. Suddenly there are a lot of one-star reviews. The proportion of one-star ratings has reached 1.8%, which is a very high proportion among good movies. .

And it is foreseeable that the proportion will continue to rise and the ratings will continue to fall.

The Facebook account of the Olsen sisters also suffered a large-scale attack, and many people came to leave messages.

Eric asked them to turn off comments, and then banned a number of accounts, and things got better.

"It's extremely disappointing. Why not let Adele and Emma reconcile? Why must they be separated? Boycott homophobic films that use same-sex gimmicks. Please don't be superstitious about film critics. This is a disappointing film. "

"Why make this kind of movie? Homosexuality is not recognized. God does not allow this kind of behavior in humans!"

"Disgusting story, disgusting actors, disgusting director, I swear I will never watch an Eric Cooper and Olsen sisters movie again."

"Sisters are going into battle together. Don't sisters Olsen feel disgusted? Don't you know what shame is? Go to hell!"

"This kind of movie is completely blasphemous to Christ. If I knew there was a movie theater in Louisiana that dared to show it, I would burn down the movie theater!"

Reviews of the movie were generally mixed. It took in a box office of US$8.63 million in the first three days of the weekend, which is average.

I can’t say it’s good, but I can’t say it’s bad either. The current attendance rate can reach about 40%.

If this trend continues, we should be able to open another one or two hundred theaters in the second week.

But reality often does not develop in the direction expected.

In his sleep, Eric was shaken awake, and Theron took the phone to him.

"Eric, your number, Sister Olsen."

Eric looked at the time and saw that it was not even 8 o'clock. He had just slept for more than 3 hours after fighting fiercely with Theron last night, and now his eyelids were trembling.

"Let's take a look, in case your little lover is in an emergency."

Snapped!

He slapped Theron on her buttocks and taught her to talk nonsense.

Ashley and Mary were relatively well-behaved, and were trained by him to be more obedient, unlike Nicole who liked to make surprise attacks.

He answered the phone calmly: "Mary, it's me, is there something wrong?"

"Eric, where are you? Are you still sleeping?"

An urgent voice came from the other side.

"Of course I'm sleeping. Please check the time before you call. It's not time to go to work yet."

"Eric, you better get up and turn on your computer and take a look. There's a movie theater on fire in Massachusetts."

"Huh? What does it have to do with me if the cinema is on fire?"

"Am I going to bother you with something irrelevant? Anyway, take a quick look and stop talking nonsense."

After hanging up the phone, the two looked at each other.

"My dear, go and take a look. It's probably something urgent. Her tone doesn't sound like a joke."

Under Theron's persuasion, Eric yawned and got out of bed, turned on his computer, and saw this article hanging on Yahoo News.

"Social news?" Eric suddenly felt bad.

I saw a few pictures of burning buildings, and a few of movie theaters burned into ruins.

There is also a picture of a man being held down by the police.

Next to the man, there was a sign lying on the ground. It read in blood-red fonts - Against Homosexuality!