I’m in Hollywood

In this era, the income of film critics mainly comes from two aspects, the public relations fees of film companies and the manuscript fees for publishing film reviews in newspapers and magazines. Of course, the top film critics will also have other types of income, such as publishing books or appearing on TV shows. of.

And George Northam is obviously not the top group, otherwise Premier magazine would not have easily fired George Northam after being pressured by Columbia.

Because of the blacklist, when a film company has a new movie about to be released, George Northam not only does not receive a penny in public relations fees, but also can no longer receive invitations to test or premiere the movie. If you can’t participate in the trial or premiere, you will no longer be able to get first-hand information that is ahead of the general audience. Newspapers and magazines are not too eager for film reviews of films that have already been released, so even the film review fee income will be greatly reduced. Two aspects Combined, the lost income is more than 80 percent of the original income.

Therefore, being blacklisted by the six major film companies means that George Northam can no longer stay in the circle of film critics, and the fame he has spent years building in the circle will also disappear.

In fact, as an old fritter who has been in the circle for many years, George Northam also knows the rules of the game in this circle. Many lines cannot be touched, so he has never done anything out of the ordinary before. After years of hard work, he also He has a lot of fame in the industry, and his annual income even reaches an enviable six-figure sum.

Perhaps it is precisely because of so many years of smugness that George Northam is a little self-righteous and forgets his duty, so he has published several articles criticizing Dark War in a row. He originally just thought he was being teased by Nicole , I wanted to vent my anger and take revenge on the other party, but I didn't think that I had underestimated the 'influence' of that professional article. career.

After the end of the first week, perhaps because of the turmoil, or because of Eric's publicity role in The Sophia Talk Show, Dark War won more than 1,600 in the first four working days. Wan's box office, the total box office in the first week reached more than 43 million, which is at least 3 million more than Colombia's estimate after the first weekend box office was released. This data gives Colombia full confidence.

At the same time, with the clarification of the doubts of the shooter of Dark War, the pre-negotiated 'topical marketing' plan was also launched. The incident began when several entertainment newspapers fiercely criticized the implanted advertisements in Dark War.

More than 30 advertisement placements, are we really watching a movie? 》

Shuangtang's joint advertising blockbuster, what we are watching is not a 'dark battle', but an 'ad war'

Eric Williams' Road of No Return! 》

A series of very eye-catching headlines directly pushed the topic of Dark War to the forefront. The media's public opinion was in an uproar after questioning the storm. Colombia also took advantage of the situation and began to vigorously manipulate it before other competitors could react. The direction of public opinion turned most of the media's comments on this matter to a mocking gesture.

The Los Angeles Times also published an audience survey report in a timely manner. The survey was prepared in advance by Columbia, and the target audience was those viewers who had just come out of the Dark War broadcast room. the opinion of.

In a random survey of 1,000 people, 76% of the audience did not feel the existence of advertisements in the movie, 15% felt the existence of advertisements, but did not care much, and 7% of the audience said they were somewhat concerned about advertisements and chose to Only 2% hate ads very much.

In order to ensure its credibility, the Los Angeles Times also posted a stack of photos of the spot-check report on its page.

Immediately, Colombia also began to stand up to clarify, saying that there are indeed some implanted advertisements in the film, but they are not as exaggerated as those malicious media said.

As the hype wore on, more and more members of the public became curious about what the ads were in Dark War, because as that survey showed, a large percentage of people watched the movie for the first time, even Neither realized the existence of advertisements in Dark War.

When Colombia's competitors reacted and began to manipulate their own media to reverse the direction of public opinion, which led to the public's disgust with the implanted advertisements in Dark War, Colombia directly threw a bombshell again.

Early Saturday morning, the second weekend of the film's release, several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, simultaneously published a statement from Columbia.

Although according to the survey, the placement of advertisements in Dark War did not affect the viewing experience of the majority of movie fans, in order to thank the fans for their support, after the communication between the film production and distribution parties, we still decided to Dark War. The $2 million in advertising placements received from 2019 will be given back to the majority of movie fans. From the date of this statement, viewers will send all 12 guessed placement ads to the following address in the form of emails. 200 lucky spectators who are all correct will be drawn live and each will be awarded $10,000 in cash.

The statement then leaves a mailing address, deadline, and anti-swiping restrictions such as one letter per citizen ID, and repeated delivery voids.

In an instant, the entire American media was in an uproar again. Even many viewers couldn't help but react. This was a blatant hype.

But even if this is discovered, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of many viewers. After all, it is the late 1980s, and for many American families, $10,000 is a huge sum of money. Anyway, everyone has the habit of watching movies. What is watching is not watching. If you watch a movie, you can get a $10,000 grand prize if you spend tens of cents to get an envelope and mail your guesses, so why not do it? Moreover, the number of 200 people, it seems that the probability is still quite large.

The day after the announcement, many movie theaters showing Dark War were full. On the day of the announcement, Dark War received $13 million at the box office on the day, and the box office on Sunday also reached 11 million, plus the box office of more than 8 million US dollars on Friday, the total box office of Dark War reached 32 million in the second weekend of the second weekend, miraculously achieved a nearly 20% box office drop in the highly competitive summer season, And after seven days in the second week, Dark War won a total of more than 49 million at the next week's box office, and the total box office has reached 92 million.

In comparison, after five weeks of release, Ghostbusters 2, which was still weak at the box office, only received a box office of over 90 million US dollars, and Batman may also be affected by Dark War. In the fourth week The box office fell by 44% again, and it only received a box office of 16 million US dollars. Although the cumulative box office reached 168 million, Batman has been released for four weeks after all, and then there will be a normal decline. The weekly box office is likely to be in the thousand. Within 10,000 yuan, and with the box office trend of Dark War, it is really hard to say who will die in the end this summer.

This result made many film companies look a little dumbfounded, and even many executives of Columbia have a sense of nihility that happiness comes too quickly and is difficult to adapt to.

In the end, most data analysis agencies can only attribute this miraculous box office growth against the trend to the people’s desire for windfalls.

Although many film companies also want to learn from Colombia's lottery model for publicity, they can't think of a good way for a while. After all, this kind of publicity has not appeared before.

Moreover, the release trend of summer movies has come to an end. Dark War can be said to be the last big-budget movie to be released. It is too late for the previously released movies to carry out similar promotions, and the movies released after Dark War , is basically not a promising blockbuster, the production company does not dare to spend 2 million, even if it is 1 million, few people are willing to spend it, after all, the risk is too great.

However, the hype this time is also destined to become a classic marketing case studied by major film companies.

Eric is not worried that this method will be learned, because this kind of thing, to put it bluntly, once or twice is fine, the audience will still think that the guess placement advertisement is quite new, and once it is used badly, the audience will definitely feel 'I'm here to watch movies for entertainment, not to count advertisements'.

Beverly Hills, in Eric's villa, the little girl sat beside Eric who was watching TV, watching the reports in the newspaper, and asked curiously, Eric, who is the source of the two million dollars? ah?

Colombia, of course, is included in the distribution fee. Eric replied casually, switching to a different TV station, and at the same time remembering his impromptu intention, when he proposed this plan, the expression on the face of a Colombian executive like eating flies was indeed very interesting. Interesting, anyway, his plan is taken out, as for whether the other party uses it or not, it depends on the courage.

In the past life, the method of lottery promotion and its use was bad, and the public who used it did not believe these awards, but this method is still very new in this era, especially the lottery by guessing the name of the advertisement, will definitely be popular among the public. There was a huge reaction in my heart.

Moreover, the reward amount of 2 million US dollars and 10,000 US dollars per person is also carefully considered. Too few people or too little reward amount will not attract too many people's interest, so there are only 200 people and 10,000 US dollars per person. amount.

Although the Colombian side was very unhappy, it still accepted this suggestion with courage, and now it seems that the other party will not regret it, because the box office has achieved a reverse drop in the second week, and few movies will be fiercely competitive. In the summer of 2019, the box office did not drop but increased, and Dark War just did it.