Hollywood Director 1992

After sending Sophia and the others away, Link continued to hold a meeting with the other executives to deal with the current public opinion crisis.

Two news articles from the *Los Angeles Times* and *The Hollywood Reporter* brought extremely negative impacts to *The Blair Witch Project*. It was imperative to respond promptly to avoid further box office losses.

"Joe, Michael, I want you to investigate who leaked the news about Guessing Game Pictures merging with Tri-Star Entertainment. According to regulations, this news cannot be exposed before the movie is taken down. Premature exposure will affect the movie's box office, which is very detrimental to us."

"Understood. We will investigate later. If it's an internal leak, we will punish them severely."

Michael Rison and Joe Feller May nodded.

"Jon, Sean, the *Los Angeles Times* report claims that viewers who like *The Blair Witch Project* are poorly educated. This is a complete slander. No matter what method you use, you must shut them up.

At the same time, contact some highly educated professors, experts, and celebrities, and have them come out and declare their love for *The Witch*. This is a high-IQ movie, and people with low IQs simply can't understand it. No matter what method you use, you must counteract the negative impact of this report."

Link looked at Jon Gordon, head of the publicity department, and Sean Tang, head of the legal department.

Compared to *The Hollywood Reporter*'s report, the *Los Angeles Times*' investigative report had a worse impact.

In this report, they equated the low-educated group with the audience of *The Blair Witch Project*, which is equivalent to scolding those who like *The Blair Witch Project* as illiterate.

Even if someone wanted to watch *The Blair Witch Project* in the following weeks, they would not go to the cinema because of the ‘low education’ label.

This report was very detrimental to the movie and had to be dealt with in a timely manner.

"Okay, boss. Our publicity department has already responded, telling everyone through the media that the *Los Angeles Times*' investigative report is nonsense. If only low-educated people like to watch *The Witch*, why would genius-like figures such as Richard Gere and Robert Downey Jr. publicly praise this movie?

From this, it can be proved that the *Los Angeles Times*' investigative report is very one-sided. We will arrange for a large media outlet to redo the investigative report and adjust the proportion of low-educated audiences to be lower."

Jon Gordon said.

"Our legal department is also preparing to sue the *Los Angeles Times* in the name of suspected ‘educational discrimination’ to urge them to make a public apology."

Sean Tang said.

Link nodded, "In addition, the public relations department should strengthen its ties with the media. If there are any more reports like this in the future, we need to know in advance. We can't wait for the article to be published before trying to deal with it. That's too passive."

"Okay, boss!"

Michael Rison took over.

After sending the four away, Link made a call to his agent, Sam Haskell, asking WMA's public relations department to help with public relations, and was willing to pay their public relations fee.

Currently, Guessing Game Pictures does not have an independent public relations department, only a public relations team, and its public relations capabilities and efficiency are not high.

The WMA company has a professional public relations team and has deep connections in the media industry. In terms of dealing with public opinion crises, WMA has more advantages.

After the various departments of Guessing Game Pictures began to act, many confusing news articles immediately appeared in the media.

For example, famous host Ella Vince ridiculed the *Los Angeles Times*' investigative report on the program, claiming that the least educated movie fans were not *The Blair Witch Project*, but Disney Pictures' animated films. Only elementary school audiences like to watch this type of movie.

Newspapers such as *The New York Post* and *The Washington Daily News* published articles criticizing the *Los Angeles Times*, saying that their investigation used education level to divide the masses, which was a wrong approach. This type of investigation not only violated the principles of media objectivity and fairness, but also suspected educational discrimination and racial discrimination, as well as unfair competition.

*The Los Angeles Times* should issue an article to apologize to all viewers who have watched *The Blair Witch Project*, and at the same time make economic compensation to Tri-Star Entertainment for the losses suffered.

On the same day, Tri-Star Entertainment filed a lawsuit against the *Los Angeles Times* in the name of ‘unfair competition’, demanding that the newspaper compensate Tri-Star Entertainment with 100 million US dollars.

At the same time, Professor Michael Burton of Harvard Divinity School, John Levitt, a tenured professor at Stanford University's School of Humanities and Sciences, and others, after watching *The Blair Witch Project*, said that it was a very thoughtful film that showed mankind's longing and yearning for mysterious power, as well as sacrifice, and it was worth recommending to watch.

Many well-known film critics also made in-depth analyses of the film, believing that it was a very deep and connotative film, with one link connecting to another. Those who claimed that the film's plot was simple were because they did not understand it.

Director Ed Merrick was also invited to interview by many TV stations, and explained the story behind the movie by answering the host's questions.

With the efforts of various departments of Guessing Game Pictures, negative reports about *The Blair Witch Project* in the media began to decrease, and the box office data of various theaters was also slowly recovering.

In the fourth week of *The Blair Witch Project*'s release, the North American box office revenue was 11.07 million US dollars, a drop of 52% compared to the previous week. It is obvious that the *Los Angeles Times*' report had a great impact on the movie's box office.

The release of the fourth week's box office also brought the total box office of *The Blair Witch Project* to 117 million US dollars, and the North American box office is expected to be around 150 million.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Hollywood Boulevard, at Carolan Champagne Bar, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, and several actor friends were gathering.

“Matt, Ben, you two are really amazing. You were able to get more than 100 million US dollars in box office revenue for your first work. This achievement is much stronger than many big stars in the industry.”

Actor Brendan Fraser raised his glass and praised.

Brendan Fraser is a good friend Matt Damon met last year when auditioning for *School Ties*.

Brendan Fraser got the male lead in the audition, while Matt Damon and Ben Affleck got two small supporting roles. In the end, in order to fight for *The Blair Witch Project*, the two did not appear in this drama.

“Yes, how much was the production cost of *The Witch*? Was it 100,000 US dollars? Tens of thousands of costs but got more than 100 million in box office, not much worse than *Paranormal Activity*. If the subsequent movie distributors also come up with a few hot news stories, maybe the North American box office can break 200 million US dollars.”

Cole Hauser, the supporting actor in *School Ties*, continued.

“It's difficult. *The Witch* has more negative news, which has led to a large drop in box office revenue. 150 million is probably the highest value.”

Matt Damon said.

“It's already very good that the first movie you starred in has a box office of over 100 million. Many actors act in movies for a lifetime and don't have a single movie that grosses over 100 million.”

Brendan Fraser said enviously.

“Yes, the movie is a big hit, and you have become big stars, haha, Matt, Ben, how does it feel to be a big star?”

Joaquin Phoenix said playfully.