Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 397, page 395: The Answer Sheet

Friday, December 29, 2002.

The North American film market has entered another regular weekend period.

However, for Wang Sheng, who was at New Line Cinema's headquarters in Los Angeles and remotely directing operations from Sanya in Hainan, this weekend was destined to be extraordinary.

After a series of twists and turns in its promotion and distribution, especially with the "roasting" effect of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and subsequent successful preview screenings, "Shaolin Soccer" finally officially opened in about 902 theaters in North America on this day.

This opening scale far exceeded the initial plan that was forced to be reduced due to the overwhelming success of "Ice Age," and even nearly doubled the original target of 500 theaters. It was the maximum that New Line Cinema could achieve at the last minute based on preview data and market enthusiasm.

On the opening day, box office data was intermittently compiled to the New Line Cinema marketing department via dedicated telephone line and preliminary fax reports, and then forwarded to Wang Sheng by Robert White.

The data for the first day (Friday) was not impressive, and could even be described as somewhat lackluster.

After all, the mainstream audience's attention remains firmly drawn to the squirrel obsessed with acorns and its prehistoric companions.

Ice Age continues to dominate in terms of both screenings and audience attendance.

"Your Majesty, the situation is not good."

White's voice carried a hint of anxiety on the transoceanic phone call: "The daytime performance was mediocre; many regular theaters had less than 30% occupancy. It seems the buzz generated by 'The Daily Show' is mostly concentrated among a specific group..."

Wang Sheng was sitting on the balcony of his villa in Sanya, with a laptop and several documents in front of him, while Gao Yuanyuan was resting inside.

He listened to the phone call without any surprise on his face.

“White, stay calm.” Wang Sheng’s voice came through the microphone, steady and calm. “Remember who our target audience is. Young people who go to work or school during the day, cult film enthusiasts, and the Asian community. They usually don’t crowd into the cinema on Friday afternoons. Focus on the data for evening and midnight screenings.”

His judgment was based on a precise understanding of market segmentation.

"Shaolin Soccer" has never been a family-friendly movie aimed at the general public. Its core audience consists of "non-mainstream" viewers who seek novelty, rebel against the mainstream, or identify with specific cultural elements.

These people tend to watch movies at night or even at midnight.

Sure enough, as time went on, especially for screenings after 9 p.m., box office numbers from cinemas near universities, art-house cinemas, and Asian communities in major cities (such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago) began to recover.

Some carefully selected theaters that had scheduled midnight screenings of "Shaolin Soccer" even saw small, long lines – a rare sight in the North American midnight movie market at the time, which was dominated by mainstream blockbusters and independent art films.

White's tone on the other end of the phone was noticeably more excited: "Wang, you're right! The numbers for evening and midnight screenings are picking up! That art-house cinema in Westwood, Los Angeles, is almost sold out for midnight screenings! And the same goes for the East Village in New York!"

While the overall market performance still can't compare to "Ice Age," it performed very strongly in the specific regions and time periods we targeted!

Wang Sheng nodded slightly: "That's right. Tell New Line Cinema not to just look at the overall market, but to pay attention to the market share and attendance of specific segments. For our film, being able to 'stand out' in a specific field is a success."

He paused, then added, "Also, keep a close eye on how things go on Saturday. Word-of-mouth takes time to build, especially for a film like this that relies on a unique style and social media buzz."

……

The North American box office statistics at the beginning of 2002 had already formed a relatively mature and timely system.

It mainly relies on two professional companies: EDI (Exhibitor Relations Company) and Nielsen NRG (the latter acquired the well-known ACNielsen EDI in 2000, but is still commonly referred to as EDI in the industry).

At that time, most mainstream cinemas in North America (such as AMC, Regal, Cinemark, etc.) had already connected to computer network ticketing systems.

These systems record ticket sales for each film in each theater and for each screening in real time.

The data aggregation process is roughly as follows:

Cinema-side data generation: Each cinema's ticketing system automatically generates detailed sales data, including film title, screening time, theater, number of tickets sold, ticket price, box office revenue, etc.

Data Upload: Typically, after the close of business each day (or at the time intervals specified in the agreement), the cinema's computer will upload the day's box office data to the EDI (or NRG) data center via a dedicated network line or dial-up modem.

This process was already quite automated by 2002, but it wasn't as fast as it was in the later Internet era.

Data Cleaning and Aggregation: After receiving massive amounts of data from thousands of cinemas nationwide, EDI/NRG cleans, deduplicates, and verifies the data to ensure its accuracy. Then, it quickly aggregates the data according to categories such as film, distribution company, and cinema chain.

Preliminary report release: EDI will provide preliminary, near real-time box office estimates (Studio Estimates) over the weekend.

These estimates are extrapolated based on data received from most (but not all) of the cinemas, combined with historical models.

Preliminary box office figures for Friday are typically released on Saturday morning, while preliminary box office figures for Saturday and weekend forecasts are released on Sunday morning.

Final accurate report: By Monday afternoon or Tuesday of the following week, once data from almost all cinemas has been uploaded and processed, EDI will release the final, accurate weekend box office rankings. This is also the data source officially cited by major media outlets such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Therefore, in 2002, the statistics for North American weekend box office revenue could be described as "basically real-time and highly accurate".

The publishing company can get a general idea of ​​the situation by the weekend and the exact figures by Tuesday at the latest.

This makes it possible for film producers and theaters to quickly adjust their strategies.

……

On Saturday (March 30), the box office performance of "Shaolin Soccer" showed a clear comeback trend, just as Wang Sheng had predicted.

Positive word-of-mouth from Friday night and midnight screenings, after fermenting overnight, began to spread within the target audience's social circles.

Discussions about "Kung Fu Soccer" continued to rise in BBS forums, early social networking sites (such as the prototype of Friendster), and even ICQ and MSN groups.

"It's even crazier than the clips from 'The Daily Show'! The whole audience was laughing!"

"Stephen Chow is a comedic genius! His serious-sounding nonsense is so funny!"

"The visual effects are a bit rough, but the creativity is top-notch! You can play football like this?"

"Highly recommended for fans of alternative comedy! A truly unique experience!"

This kind of word-of-mouth marketing based on specific communities is extremely efficient.

On Saturday, especially in the afternoon and evening, the ticket office at the target cinema was noticeably busier than on Friday.

Many young people who became interested because of The Daily Show or recommendations from friends choose to come and "check out the goods" on weekends.

The phone at New Line Cinema's marketing department started ringing more frequently, mostly from theater managers asking if it was possible to increase screenings next week, or at least maintain the current number of screenings.

Kevin Brown looked at the preliminary data that came in on Saturday afternoon, and his furrowed brow finally relaxed.

He said to Karen Lee and the team beside him, "We made the right bet. This movie...it has found its audience."

……

On Sunday afternoon (March 31), EDI released preliminary estimates for the three-day weekend.

When Robert White sent the preliminary figures to Wang Sheng via encrypted email with an incredulous tone, even Wang Sheng, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but show a hint of surprise in his eyes.

[Preliminary estimate] North American weekend box office for March 29-31, 2002

1. Ice Age - Estimated budget: $46,200,000
2.《刀锋战士2》-预估 16，100，000美元
3. *We Were Soldiers* - Estimated budget: $11,050,000
4. *Shaolin Soccer* - Estimated budget: $8,120,000
Number of theaters showing the film: 902

Average box office revenue per theater: $9,002
"Eight million one hundred and twenty thousand US dollars?! Fourth place in opening weekend?! Over nine thousand per theater?!"

White used several exclamation marks in the email, “Wang! This far exceeds our most optimistic expectations! The New Line Cinema is in an uproar! Keep in mind, this is even with Ice Age taking the majority of the market! Our single-theater performance has even squeezed into the top five!”

This number truly surprised everyone.

Despite being crushed by the giant that is "Ice Age," this non-English, quirky Eastern comedy managed to rake in over $800 million at the box office in its opening weekend, ranking fourth that week. Its per-theater box office reached a remarkable $9002, a very healthy figure that indicates its core audience's strong desire to watch the film and high theater utilization.

For New Line Cinema, this was undoubtedly a victory of achieving great things with a small investment.

Not only did they recoup their costs, but more importantly, they proved their strategic vision in collaborating with Wang Sheng and developing this special market segment.

Kevin Brown stood up straighter during the internal meeting.

For China, across the ocean, and for Shengying Media, which is seeking a public listing, this achievement is even more significant.

This means that Shengying Media not only has a strong presence in the domestic market, but its content (even culturally distinctive genre films) also has the potential to gain a share in the international market.

Although it is still far from being a true global blockbuster, this solid first step has labeled "Shengying Productions" as having "international distribution value".

This will undoubtedly greatly boost the capital market's confidence in Shengying Media.

(End of this chapter)