Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

  Chapter 61 A life like a fairy, a wish that even dreams come true

According to the publicity plan formulated when the project was established, Fox originally planned to hold a premiere ceremony at the filming location of the project before the film was officially released, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of the local people to watch the movie. They learned from a certain website, Granny, and wrote a promotional draft of Qifan worth 600,000 yuan to stir up the popularity of the movie; after all, Joe Pesci and others are not big traffic users, relying on them to boost the first week At the box office, this kind of thing is a bit unrealistic no matter how you think about it.

  However, since the "Terminator 2" project was exposed, Fox decisively cut off the premiere.

  Now that the heat has risen, those film critics who are regarded as tool people don't need to show up anymore.

  What are you asking them to do at this time?

  Let them continue to boast?

  The people are not fools. Blind praise will only arouse the resentment of the public, which is prone to backfire.

   But if it is fair and just and open...

  If the movie isn't to those guys' tastes, isn't that just asking for it?

  The enthusiasm generated by the hard work is suppressed by those upright film critics?

   Get sick!

   Film critics are, after all, the kind of guy that people in the film industry can either love or hate.

  Even AngLee doesn’t want to see the kind of word-of-mouth praise in the mainland—

  What red and white, plastic flower-like patricide plot?

  Ethics among human clones?

   Or the old-fashioned Budapest basement-dead-bones secret agent story?

   Or an autobiographical fight design throughout?

  The navy-like praise cannot cover up what Ang Lee said after "Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk" was released, that the funds are not enough, and he can only shoot a movie with a stronger story.

   Occupying an investment of 13.8 billion, isn't "Gemini Killer", which follows the latest technology on the market, telling the story of my son, I love you, based on the tone of the "Father Trilogy" back then?

The audience is not blind, there are too many movies related to cloning, such as "Escape from Clone Island", "Alien", "The Sixth Day", "Godsend", "Moon"... under the impact of these movies, The whole theme is no longer appealing, which is why, after the film was released, the tidal feedback from the audience only led them to regard those full-fledged critics as Navy, to share their anger with their peers, and to label the film as rubbish, even if—

  The visual effects of this movie are really good.

   Positive praise is already so miserable, what about criticism?

   Isn’t this a true portrayal of the extranet?

  The bad reviews from the beginning to the end directly caused the box office to fall to the bottom.

   It is precisely because of knowing these contents that after the emergence of the movie craze, those **** professionals will die as far as I can.

  Disney controls Rotten Tomatoes and allows audiences to go to the theater to experience the operation in person, which is what every film company hopes to see.

As a result, before the arrival of the 16th, apart from the interviews and promotions of the crew, the comments of the radio anchors, and the huge posters laid out at the entrances of major theaters, there is no professional person who can see the movie in advance .

   Not to mention, there will be any 'pertinent' evaluations related to the plot on the market.

  People only know that this is a comedy movie about children and Christmas, released during the Christmas period.

   As for other content?

   There is only one Roland and "Terminator 2" left.

  ...

   On the evening of the sixteenth.

One and a half months ago, Bill, who learned about the movie "Home Alone" through the "New York Post", met with his colleague Carey, took their children, and walked into the theater. When they saw the queue like a long queue, Both of them picked the tie on their necks at the same time, hoping that their necks, which had been restrained for a day, could relax a bit.

"It's strange today, why are there so many people?" Bill muttered, while leading his son to line up safely, he also complained to the colleagues behind him: "Today is not a holiday, why are so many parents bringing their children out? gone?"

"Here, isn't that the answer?" Facing Bill's question, Carey pouted towards the poster beside him, and said, "Who made two movies about children be released at the same time today? One is Disney's "" Little Heroes to the Rescue: Adventures in Australia, and the other one is "Home Alone", which has been popular recently. Of course, those young men and women should have come to see Stallone's "Rocky 5", right? Their posters, But it's hanging over there..."

  Before he came, Carey had already figured out the three movies that will be released today.

In addition to "Home Alone" which can be heard every day recently, Stallone's "Rocky" sequel is another movie that received a lot of attention in the same period, but unfortunately, the last movie "Rocky 4", although With an investment of 30 million yuan, it has achieved a box office of 300 million yuan, but its reputation is not very good. Even though "Rocky 5" is the most publicized movie besides "Home Alone", it has never Judging from the level of feedback from the theater scene, this movie is expected to stumble.

Not to mention "Little Heroes to the Rescue: Adventures in Australia". In this era, Disney is not the father who alone will take 60% of the global box office in the future. The gimmick of the first cartoon completely digitally produced by computer has been publicized for a long time, but for children, these things are all vain things. Many children don’t even know what a computer is. You boast about your technology so much that those target customers can't feel it! And the parents of those target customers are more willing to watch movies with marketing guarantee guys. Before computers have entered thousands of households, accompany their children to watch cartoons made by computers, and watch a movie that is all famous. A children's movie starring a famous big name, those are two concepts...

   After all, no one can guarantee the final effect of cartoons that use new technologies, but live-action movies—

  Aren’t those acting schools the guarantee of quality?

Therefore, when Bill and Carey held the children's hands and walked along the long queue at a constant speed, the words from all directions were almost all related to "Home Alone", even if those children didn't know what the movie was about. What is it, but they know the frightening T-800 back then! You know that little furry monster! And their parents know the line that influenced a generation - 'When you grow up, your heart dies. '

Of course, if the discussion of people around is not enough to reflect the effect of Fox’s publicity, then when Bill and Carey approached the ticket window and asked the conductor for four movie tickets, the conductor who tore off the ticket stub glanced at them "A Floating Life in Another World", "Little Heroes to the Rescue", "The Ghost of the Baby", "Rocky 5", "Ten Days of Dangerous Love", "With the Dances with Wolves, the eight theaters in the L2 area are showing "Home Alone", please don't go wrong."

   Yes, the conductor is used to it.

  Since she started working this morning, she has witnessed countless people walking into the L2 area on the right.

  So, after seeing parents with children, she would specifically ask them not to go wrong.

because-

  Many people walked around from the L1 area and found that there was no theater showing "Home Alone" there, so they turned around again, brought their children, and plunged into the L2 area...

   After all, there are no seat restrictions in movie theaters in America, and in this era, there is no difference between movies. There are no such things as entering seats according to the number and entering the theater according to the standard. These things do not exist here.

  Buy a ticket, it doesn’t matter which theater you want to watch and which movie you want.

   As for the seats?

  That is of course optional...

  Theoretically speaking, if you are lucky, you can buy a ticket to watch for a whole day.

  However, if you are caught, you will be fined, starting from 300 knives.

  If you don’t pay the money, the theater can even call 911 to call the police and arrest people.

   In the face of inhumane punishment, no one will challenge their luck unless they are just drinking and not eating.

  Of course, the "goodwill" reminder from the theater conductor is also a method of on-site drainage.

When those guys who originally wanted to watch "Little Heroes" learned that the film schedule of this movie was directly crushed by "Home Alone", their expectations of new things will be lowered accordingly , the possibility of a transition will be very high; and those guys who came to watch other movies will also be curious about "Home Alone" with a film schedule of more than 40% after hearing such a promotion.

   As for those aimless viewers?

   Let alone this—

  For them, it is impossible to go wrong with which fire to see.

Therefore, when Bill and Carey took their children into a movie theater where a movie was about to be shown, nearly half of the seats occupied directly made them feel emotional. On the day of the screening, the attendance rate of a movie theater reached more than half. ?

   This is almost the same as watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in the first half of this year!

   You know, that movie made it into the top ten of this year's North American box office charts!

   Of course, attendance and film schedules are only the smallest of Bill and Carey's concerns.

  For them, the higher the two indexes, the lower the possibility of bad movies.

  After all, the film screening rate is extremely low, and the movie with the highest box office will only exist in novels.

In 99.99% of the cases, the movie box office is directly proportional to the screening rate, and those works that really rely on word of mouth can only survive in the Internet age. Before that, they will die as cruel as the reality is. How miserable.

  In this case, Bill and Carey are even more looking forward to what the whole movie will be made by Chris Columbus than their own children.

With a classic Christmas vocal, the title ended, and a mansion in a world of ice and snow appeared in front of everyone. When the camera zoomed in and passed through the wall, Joe Pesci in police uniform appeared on the screen immediately central.

He was in a hurry, trying to direct the traffic, but unfortunately, no matter how he greeted, the family in front of him didn't respond to him. After a burst of chaotic shouts, Joe Pesci waved his hand helplessly, the mouth curled and shook his head, The appearance of hands on hips is already eye-catching to many viewers.

   "Sure enough, Joe is still the same Joe, the Joe who wants to hit the Oscar."

   "He was very happy standing there, and his depressed appearance was funny."

   "In "Goodfellas", which was released a month and a half ago, he played a gang member. In this movie, he is going to play a policeman?"

The short shot language at the beginning can already set the narrative tone for the whole movie. If Joe Pesci's small movements go deep into the body and mind, so that people who are familiar with him can quickly find the feeling, then when the scene is switched, it is The protagonist, who has been promoted for a month and a half, let the audience feel what kind of movie this is.

When Kevin, played by Roland Allen, appeared in the camera and complained to his mother on the phone that his uncle would not let him watch the movie, the feeling of a child complaining and crying to his mother after being bullied by an adult, Let the parents with children empathize, and let the children at the scene feel that this is the truth...

I saw that the mother who was on the phone with a friend told her son helplessly that the movie that adults did not let him watch must be a bad movie, and Kevin, who heard this, threw himself on the suitcase that his mother was packing , pretending to have nothing to do when opening the book, wanting to use this behavior to protest the unfair treatment he encountered—

   The whispered conversation, as if it had been negotiated, appeared directly in the theater.

   "Oh, baby, Kevin and you seem to be like this, when you usually encounter troubles, you also torture me like this..."

   "Mom, don't talk nonsense, I don't have..."

   "Really? Don't you think your dad, like Kevin's dad in the movie, likes to scare you..."

   "Oh, honey, can we watch a movie in peace..."

   Such a dialogue appeared in most of the lineups with children watching movies.

   No way, who made it impossible for those families who are not in harmony to form a group to watch movies?

Since those who can bring their families out for consumption, they must have a relatively harmonious family relationship. In this case, if they watch a movie that is close to their personal relationship and highly consistent with their ordinary life, there will be a kind of What kind of situation?

   What's more, in the land of America, it is too common for a family to have multiple children.

  In this kind of family, various problems will naturally arise.

Parents can't cover everything and take into account the feelings of each child. It's very normal for the big ones to bully the small ones, the middle ones to despise the little ones, and the little ones to have no place to stand. When the whole family rejects Kevin, who is misbehaving, and his mother locks him in the attic alone, a sense of substitution embedded in life suddenly appears in everyone's heart—for these families, the first ten minutes The background explanation is more like a microcosm of their own daily life, and the realistic style makes them feel empathy.

  Of course, if the movie is purely realistic, it will naturally not make the children who come to watch the movie feel refreshed.

  Doing things that cannot be done normally is what they want to see.

so-

  When the cheerful music sounded and the family left the protagonist Kevin at home because of catching a plane, those little guys who were still immersed in the painful reality suddenly widened their eyes.

  Hold the grass, "Home Alone" says that the protagonist Kevin stays at home alone?

   No more nagging from parents?

   Don't have to face the target of siblings anymore?

   Don't have to face the boring life of getting up early to go to school and going home at night?

  Can I eat things that ordinary adults are not allowed to eat?

  Can I watch movies that ordinary adults are not allowed to watch?

  Can I play games that ordinary adults are not allowed to play?

   I'll be good!

   This special code is simply living like a fairy!

   This special code is simply the wish that I want to come true in my dreams!

  T-800?

   I don’t know what that is!

  Now I just want to be at home alone like Kevin!

Note: ①Disney’s manipulation of Rotten Tomatoes refers to the release of “Captain Marvel” this year. Because of Brie Larson’s remarks, many crooked netizens gave the movie bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and then Rotten Tomatoes closed the website. I want to see the index and the comment function before the release, and said that this has nothing to do with the protection of "Captain Marvel", it is just the normal maintenance of the website, and this kind of behavior has been rated by netizens as a real hammer for Disney's control and review. ②At that time, the reason why American theaters did not involve seats and performances was that there were no people. They had many theaters in one theater, and the large ones could even reach more than 30. It takes a hundred people, and according to their labor costs, it is not worthwhile to hire people to divide the hall and take seats according to the number. They would rather build vending machines and let people patrol the venue to catch fare evaders than hire people according to the hall, because if they hire people, they can go bankrupt in two months during the off-season of the box office. ③ Although "Dances with Wolves" ranked third in the North American box office rankings in 1990, it was screened regionally, state by state, and its box office exploded after winning the Oscar. The number of film schedules is not messed up. ④ "Little Heroes to the Rescue" is indeed the first digital animation produced by a computer, but Disney was still a younger brother at that time.

  (end of this chapter)