hollywood draw

"Ron, I suggest that all promotional investments in "Hulk" will be cancelled afterwards."

Early on Monday morning, at a regular meeting of senior executives of Universal Pictures, a distribution department executive spoke to CEO without hesitation. The atmosphere today was quite dull, and everyone here understood why.

The box office of the Hulk hit a big hit on the first weekend, starting with a super high $20.31 million on Friday, halved to $9.32 million on Saturday, and fell to $4.43 million on Sunday, and all the sweetness and beauty remained on Friday.

When the video is determined to fail, the most important thing is to stop the loss and invest more resources in it is just a waste.

Ron Mayer sat at the conference table and looked at the distribution director Justin without saying a word. Whether the Hulk is still saved is the most powerful voice.

"I called AMG and the United Artists Association of the National Academy of Artists." Justin found that everyone was looking at him, pondered for a moment and said, "They refused to maintain the current screening scale of "The Hulk". The Imperial Cinema has not had time to play, but the result should not be much different. Unless the film explodes on the box office on the weekdays, the screening scale of about 3,000 companies will only last until Friday."

"Cut off the subsequent promotional investment of "Hulk" and stop the loss as soon as possible." Ron Mayer nodded and finally realized the failure of this big production. "Also, put Bill Bakerby and the male star Lu on the company's blacklist, Universal Pictures will not cooperate with them again in the future."

While speaking, he kept his head down and his eyes never left the newspaper in front of him. On the headlines of the Los Angeles Times' entertainment sector, a line of dazzling box office numbers seemed to remind him of his failure this time.

"Warner Bros. is moving too fast this time!" Justin and several other executives also saw the newspaper. Not only this Los Angeles Times, but all the entertainment media this morning were surprisingly consistent and began to sing praises to "The Matrix".

"There is still a lot of controversy over homosexuality in public opinion. Should we continue..."

"Forget it, it's meaningless." Ron Mayer shook his head and rejected the proposal. Originally, this incident was revealed by them, but now it has not affected the fans' choice not to say it. It also made Warner Brothers take advantage of the momentum to spark social hot spots.

When the film has been confirmed to not be able to generate profits, it is completely unnecessary to continue to get entangled with the other party. There are other films in my summer season. It is better to invest resources in videos that have not been released yet.

"Jeff Robinoff, Wayne Greenberg..." Ron Mayer looked out the window and muttered in a low voice. "You two can't be so lucky every time, the summer vacation has just begun."

It took only three days to see how powerful the online platform is, and all companies in the circle have seen it. The dazzling box office numbers of "The Matrix" have already shown too many problems.

Coupled with the hot topics of public opinion in the paper media, the film "The Matrix" has been pushed to the eyes of more ordinary people. Now that I want to stop it, it is no longer possible.

Unlike Universal Pictures’ extremely dull routine, the atmosphere at Warner Bros.’s senior meeting was much more relaxed at this moment, and every executive had a smile on his face to a greater or lesser extent.

The same picture of "Los Angeles Times" was taken in the hands by Jeff Robinoff and watched repeatedly.

"The Matrix is ​​our first box office champion this year. Well, it's a good start, didn't it?" Bruce Rosenblum reached out and knocked on the table, with a slight tone.

“It’s not enough.”

Jeff Robinoff smiled and shook his head, his eyes sang a lot in the conference room, and when everyone looked at him, he continued: "This is just an R-level film after all. You can find the problem by looking at the box office trends. In addition, the early game is $24.55 million, Saturday, $22.03 million, and Sunday, $13.02 million.

This shows that the film has been greatly affected by the grading, and the audience's disadvantages are quite obvious. We all see the crazy sales around us, right? We must rush all the potential audiences of "The Matrix" into the theater in a short period of time."

Many people nodded unconsciously. They all knew the disadvantages of R-level films. Now that the film has become a big hit, all they have to do is to create a bigger explosion point and squeeze out the profits of "The Matrix" in a short period of time.

Without giving others time to consider, Jeff Robinoff turned to look at John Gray. "Daisy, the leader of the Wayne Fans' Organization, gave her another $5 million in publicity funds to hire more people to act on the Internet. Compared with other publicity channels, the input-output ratio of the Internet is too large!"

"Okay, no problem."

The box office of the Matrix in the first weekend was about 59.6 million dollars, and no one could calculate it in detail, but it was conservatively estimated that it would not be less than one-third.

These young people do not believe in authority and are very generous in purchasing peripheral products. They are the main consumers in the theater market, especially for an R-level film.

After saying that, he looked at the distribution manager. "Bruce, the movie database site called IMDB, how is the investigation?"

Since the Internet can affect more people, but the promotion cost is still lower, Warner Bros. naturally set its sights on this website as soon as possible.

"IMDB, Internet movie database." Bruce Rosenblum heard the inquiry and took out a prepared document. "This website first appeared in 1990, and in the same year it had collected more than 10,000 movies and TV series materials.

By 1993, the database had been expanded to include trivia, biographies, video plots and other content, and also had a centralized email interface for searching the database. Later that year, IMDb was moved to the Internet and allowed people to access it at will.

From 1993 to 1995, the website has been maintained by donations and free time for volunteers. At the beginning of this year, the website was registered as a commercial company in the UK, with its main profit channels being advertising, license cooperation, etc..”

"That is, we can invest in them at any time?" An executive looked at Bruce Rosenblum and asked in a surprise tone.

“no!”

Bruce Rosenblum shook his head, faced the puzzled eyes of the surroundings and CEO, and said happily: "Investing in them is not worth it! All we need is publicity channels. Even if we don't invest in this website, we can use all their functions. The distribution department can set up an Internet marketing department afterwards. The cost of achieving the purpose of publicity is much lower, and there is also..."

Speaking of this, he hesitated for a moment and looked at Jeff Robinoff.

"What else? Just agree." Warner Bros. Ceo frowned. This was inconsistent with his initial thought. He was originally planning to propose to his parent company to acquire the website after the investigation.

"And it's because of Wayne." As soon as Bruce Rosenblum said this name, it immediately attracted everyone's attention.

It is Warner Bros., the major shareholder who first wrote the script and plan for "The Matrix", and once again recommended directing by Xiao Zach Schneider. What is important is that he also accounts for half of the investment in the film, which also means that no matter how much profit the film can make, at least half of it belongs to him.

When it comes to matters related to movies, as long as this name is involved, the only thing that can be linked to is the word success.

"Wayne should have discovered its value when the IMDB website first appeared at least two or three years ago." Bruce Rosenblum's tone was admiring and admiring, watching other executives narrate their understanding.

"Because Jeff asked me to investigate this website, the first person I asked was Wayne's personal assistant Nina. She told me a lot of information, including the reason why Wayne didn't invest in this website earlier."

"What's the reason?" Jeff Robinoff asked with a frown.

"The main reason for burning money is to burn money." Bruce Rosenblum answered without hesitation. "The profit model of Internet companies is immature. As long as they take over, they will become hot potatoes. The money that needs to be burned to expand the scale is definitely an astronomical figure. We just want a promotion channel, and there is no need to burn money for hundreds of billions of dollars. It is not worth it to expand the scale of a website."

“Ahhh.”

John Gray, who was sitting in a corner, suddenly laughed. Before everyone could ask, he explained: "I suggest we don't touch projects that Wayne Greenberg doesn't invest in. You should know that Wayne and I have worked with him for a long time, so we know him very well. Since he thinks that burning money is not worth it, it is definitely not worth it. This range is everything related to the movie!"

This reminds all executives that if you think about Wayne Greenberg's history of making a fortune, you will understand that John is rightly wrong.

As long as there is something related to the movie, Wayne seems to have a magical power and can always make the best choice, such as "The Matrix" that is close to him. Think about the sky-high profits he can get.

"Let this be put in advance." Jeff Robinoff knocked on the table and attracted everyone's attention and said: "About IMDB website, I'll ask Wayne to chat with you and hear if he has any ideas. Bruce, where is the main creative team of "The Matrix" now?"

"Phoenix, Phoenix."

"It's a big city, and the effect should not be bad." After hearing the answer, he gently stroked his chin with his fingers. After thinking for more than ten seconds, he said: "Now the debate on homosexuality in the media has become more intense. You should turn around and notify the crew and hold a press conference for Lee tomorrow morning to push things to the high nest!"

"No problem." Bruce Rosenblum nodded and asked, "What about Wayne's side? Do you want to notify me?"

"Notify, "The Matrix" has half of his investment, and he will understand what we do." Jeff Robinoff knew that he had to give the young man enough respect, but with his understanding of Wayne, all this should be fine. He was a pure Jewish capitalist, especially after putting down the camera.

"By the way, what have he been doing these days?"

"Hide in the manor." John Gray shrugged and said, "I heard that the other golden retriever who grew up with him was in a very bad condition, and then seemed to be preparing for the party of Princess Greenberg at the same time."

“What?”

An executive of the production department looked questioning. "He was the one who provoked the war in the summer season. Now everyone is going to be red-eyed outside. He is at home with the dog?!"

"Hmm, what about that?" John Gray raised his eyebrows and asked back.

“…”