America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 51: Being bad to the extreme is art

In Salt Lake City, in front of a movie theater, seven or eight junior high school students were chattering. They were in a similar situation, and there were several groups of young people nearby.

"Hello kids, this is ABC Online. Can I interview you?"

The group of teenagers looked over, and a boy immediately asked: "Is this a live broadcast?"

"No, it's a recording, but I don't have to cut out your footage."

"OH..."

The young people jumped up with excitement and went on TV. It was a cool thing and it was enough for them to brag in front of their friends and family for a while.

"It's already 9pm, why don't you go home?"

Xiao Heizi pointed to the cinema behind: "Of course, we are about to watch a movie."

"Let me guess, it's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, right?"

"No, no, no, we've almost all seen The Lord of the Rings 2, it's great, and the movie we're going to watch today is even better, it's Sharknado!"

As soon as Xiao Heizi finished speaking, the friends around him jumped up and shouted.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

While they were shouting excitedly, several small groups nearby were also attracted. They were all teenagers who loved to join in the fun.

And after seeing the Heizi group shouting "Sharknado", these young people also started to sway.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

Such a weird scene stunned the office workers with their families and children. They naturally planned to watch "The Lord of the Rings", but at this moment they suddenly became curious about "Sharknado."

A movie that can make a group of young people restless must have something extraordinary about it. Why don't you watch it?

After dancing for a while, the ABC female reporter motioned for them to be quiet.

"Sharknado? What kind of movie is this? Why are you so fascinated by it?"

Xiao Heizi grinned: "It's a disaster movie. My brother told me it was great, and everyone on the Internet said so."

A young white guy also shouted: "Yes, my brother told me the same thing. He said this is a classic comparable to "Jaws"."

Another little Huangzi rolled his eyes: "Although some people on the Internet say this is a bad movie, more people say it is an excellent masterpiece. If you don't watch it this time, you will have no chance to see it in the cinema again in the future. .”

The last little boy pointed to the school badge on his chest: "I don't know what kind of movie "Sharknado" is, but many of my friends around me have watched it. If I don't watch it, they will ignore me, and I will coming!"

Suddenly someone in the crowd shouted: "It's time to enter!"

The young people immediately dispersed. Xiao Heizi ran and shouted: "Mom, eldest sister, second sister, third sister, and little brother, I love you!"

The cameraman was a little moved: "What a good boy who loves his family, huh? Why didn't he mention his father?"

This strange scene is not only happening in Salt Lake City, but also in first- and second-tier cities such as New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco, and many of them have made local news.

When reporting these news, "Sharknado" is more or less mentioned, which is equivalent to free advertising, allowing the movie to attract more attention.

And those young people who were deceived into the cinema will deceive a new batch of people into it, and even many adults walked in curiously.

The situation intensified in this situation until the box office results were released in the second week.

There is no doubt that "The Lord of the Rings" is still at the top. Generally speaking, the box office of a movie will be cut in half in the second week, but "The Lord of the Rings" is special. It only dropped a terrifying 20%. It closed at US$50 million in two weeks.

"Harry Potter", "Spider-Man", "Minority Report", etc., none of them have this kind of tenacity.

But this is not the most surprising, because the second place on the box office list is "Sharknado", with a revenue of 35.1 million US dollars. Young people have injected new impetus into sharks.

In third place is Spielberg's "Cat and Mouse". Even with the support of Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, it only received 31 million at the box office in the first weekend, lagging behind " Sharknado" a tail.

At the premiere, Peter Jackson was invited, and Eric, who was studying Transformers special effects at Weta Digital together, was invited to cheer.

It can be said that this was an unexpected meeting. Eric met the legendary director Steven Spielberg for the first time.

The two talked about their views on the film industry, the development of DreamWorks, and future cooperation.

And when the box office data of "Cat and Mouse" were photographed on the faces of major companies, movie fans and film critics, many people were confused.

Film and television companies were the first to take action.

"Sharknado, what is this? Why can it beat Spielberg? Although it has an advantage in terms of release days, it is too outrageous. That's Spielberg!"

"AK Film and Television, I have never heard of this company. I went to check its background. It is not surprising that more than 400 cinemas were opened in the first week, but it is strange when these cinemas are located in first-tier cities."

"'Sharknado', this is a treasure that came out of nowhere. Go investigate AK Film and Television and see if you can buy the copyright."

Immediately afterwards, film critics also became active, buying tickets and entering the theater to see who it was.

Then more teenagers entered the venue, and even many adults couldn't help but buy tickets.

After the film critics were dismissed, major newspapers began to publish reviews, all of which were negative and not even a single word of praise.

Chicago Sun-Times: "I have never seen such a bad movie. Who put the shark and the tornado together? I really want to pry open the screenwriter's head and see, but unfortunately I can't because I can't find it. Signed by the editor, it seems he knows what he is writing, bad review!”

Los Angeles Entertainment News: "When I saw the shark tornado on the poster, I already had a premonition, but I still didn't expect that the movie would be so bad. I asked the director never to touch the camera again. This is to the audience. The best explanation, very bad review!”

Atlanta Entertainment News: "This movie will waste 90 precious minutes of your life. The shark will eat your head and turn you into an idiot who doesn't understand how to think. Director Anthony Ferrante, you have tarnished the art of film." Extremely bad review!”

Denver Morning News: "This is a movie that people will never forget, not because it is good, but because it is so bad, so bad that it cannot be improved. I have an impression of Ryan Reynolds as a young actor. What is the reason why You made this movie, it’s a disaster, it’s a devastation to the human spirit, super bad review!”

The bad reviews came so violently that everyone at AK Film and Television was panicked. After all, Internet marketing could not withstand the impact of newspapers and television. Once the reputation collapsed, it would not be able to deceive people.

"Eric, what? What should we do? Do we need PR?"

Warren asked anxiously on the phone.

Eric ate ​​the cherries fed by Gadot and said, "Don't worry Warren, have you forgotten our original intention? The selling point of "Sharknado" is that it's bad. When everyone says it's bad, we It worked.”

The person on the other end of the phone was stunned for a while: "Well, you're right, I almost deceived myself. We were originally a big piece of shit."

"Yes, then what are you worried about? Go relax and relax."

"After you said it, I'm really not worried anymore. Do you want to continue with additional screenings?"

"Of course, it has now expanded to third- and fourth-tier cities, with more than 1,900 movie theaters, but it stops here and cannot continue to expand."

"Why?"

"Warren, if we expand further, we can only expand to remote areas and small towns. Those places have limited information and are less affected by the media and online public opinion. There is no market for "Sharknado", and the box office potential of bad movies will not be comparable to that." It’s a high-quality movie, so just leave it when it’s good.”

After sending Warren away, Eric began the final step of contacting celebrities with whom he had good relationships for publicity.

If you say I am bad, then I will admit that I am bad, but I am so bad that it makes people laugh. I am so bad that it is fresh and refined. It is so bad that it is like those classic movies. If you don’t watch one, you will feel sorry for yourself. To the extreme, it is art!