Hollywood Director 1992

"Link, I have good news! I just lurked near the movie theater entrance and heard many people saying they didn't get enough after seeing it once and were planning to watch it again. Some even said they would bring their friends to scare them," Chris Bauer said excitedly as he left the museum cinema.

"That's good news."

"Link, everyone loves this movie. What's your estimate for how much it will make at the box office? Will it reach ten million?"

Chris Bauer leaned against the car window, gazing at the bustling entrance of the movie theater.

"Ten million should be easily achievable."

"Link, don't set your goals too high. The production cost of this movie was less than $100,000. I think making a million would be great. Ten million is too difficult and unrealistic," Liu Xiaoli said, clutching her small crossbody bag.

"Although the production cost of this movie was less than $100,000, the publicity and distribution investment during this period exceeded $3 million. You only hope the movie makes $1 million at the box office? Liu Xiaoli, do you want to see the company go bankrupt?"

"Ah? Oops, I forgot to calculate the publicity investment. Considering the publicity and distribution costs, a $3 million investment and a $1 million box office is indeed too little. But isn't a $10 million box office too much? The big success of the last movie, 'Buried,' was pure luck. It's impossible for every movie to be a blockbuster. I think this movie will be successful as long as it doesn't lose money."

Liu Xiaoli blinked her beautiful almond-shaped eyes, a thoughtful look on her cheeks.

"As a member of the company, you need to have confidence in the company's projects and confidence in me, the boss. At this time, you need to think positively and be optimistic. Don't say discouraging things."

"I know, I know. I just don't want you to be too happy too early, in case the box office is lower than expected and you're disappointed. Okay, you're right. I should have confidence in this movie. I hope 'Paranormal Activity' makes 50 million, no, 100 million! How about that? Does that sound confident enough?"

Liu Xiaoli asked with a smile on her lips.

"Not bad."

Link glanced at her. "When did you change your hairstyle? It's very pretty. This hairstyle suits you very well."

"I didn't change my hairstyle, I just permed it a little. Don't stare," Liu Xiaoli said, covering her face with her bag. Her cheeks were already flushed red by his words, and her legs unconsciously crossed.

"Don't hide it. As a white-collar worker in the city, you should be more confident. Confident women are the most beautiful, understand?"

"Okay, stare if you want, but don't say anything weird, and don't compliment me."

Liu Xiaoli put down her white bag, glared at him with a flushed face, and then turned her head shyly to look out the window.

She was wearing a white OL professional suit, a small blazer with a knee-length skirt, and a white tube top under the blazer, revealing her fair and delicate collarbones. A thin gemstone necklace hung on her slightly exposed cleavage, like a planet suspended on the edge of the galaxy.

Her hairstyle had been slightly adjusted; it was still long, straight black hair.

However, the hair on both sides of her face had been permed, making it look very fluffy and textured.

It complemented her delicate and beautiful face.

Both sophisticated and fashionable, with the style of a city beauty and a mature woman.

It's just that the mature woman's cheeks and earlobes were turning red at this time, obviously indicating that there was still some gap in her temperament.

"Have you stared enough? You're like a pervert."

"Not bad, very beautiful. Even those female celebrities can't compare to you."

"Who asked you to compliment me?"

Liu Xiaoli snorted softly, picked up a newspaper and flipped through it randomly on her lap. A strand of hair fell from her ear and landed on the newspaper. She reached out and gently tucked it up, her earlobes turning even redder.

Link smiled softly and stopped teasing her, instructing the driver to drive back to the company.

Whew ~

Chris Bauer breathed a sigh of relief. Every time he was with Link and other women, he always felt superfluous. Sometimes he really wanted to run away, but he could never find an opportunity.

Next time he encounters something like this, he must leave in advance. Staying here and listening to them flirting is too awkward.

The car returned to the company, and Link sat in Guess Pictures, coordinating the publicity and distribution of the movie.

Movie publicity involves releasing information about the movie's release through the media to attract audiences to watch it in theaters.

This part of the work had already begun more than a month ago.

It's being done more intensively after the release.

Currently, major newspapers, radio stations, and television stations all have information about Link's new movie, 'Paranormal Activity,' being released.

In the absence of a trailer, there are three main directions for publicity.

First, 'Buried' director Link returns with a new work, calling on fans of 'Buried' to watch.

After the big success of 'Buried,' Link became a famous director, and his second movie has become the focus of many people.

This kind of news itself has reporting value. Without Guess Pictures' public relations, mainstream media will actively report on this matter before and after the movie's release.

Everyone wants to see how his second movie is.

Whether it's a success or a failure.

Whether it can continue the surprise of 'Buried.'

Is he a lucky director or a talented director?

Just based on his title as a famous director, he can save millions in publicity costs during promotion.

Second, attract audiences by publicizing the basic information of the movie.

Including Link's original intention of filming this documentary: when he was a child, he lived in an old house in El Monte and often heard strange noises. Sometimes, after falling asleep, he would feel something staring at him, like the legendary ghost.

In order to find out the truth and see if there are ghosts in the world, Link decided to use a camera to do experiments. As a result, he filmed supernatural phenomena during the experiment.

Since Guess Pictures had published many ghost stories and paranormal event reports in newspapers during the early publicity, creating an atmosphere of ghosts in the world within the entire society, arousing people's curiosity about the world.

With curiosity, audiences will also walk into the movie theater to watch 'Paranormal Activity' when they see its introduction.

The third publicity method is to broadcast a collection of exciting moments when viewers are frightened while watching 'Paranormal Activity' on television.

Because there were not enough shots during the internal screening.

The plan to broadcast the exciting collection on television will be three days later.

How much the box office can make in the first three days depends mainly on the quality of the movie.

In terms of movie distribution, 'Paranormal Activity' is currently being shown in only 14 theaters.

Similar to 'Buried,' it's a matter of paying to get it shown.

The difference is that this time, Guess Pictures paid more.

If you read it wrong, it's the first time it's been released, and it's all about the content at a glance!

During the limited release, each theater charges $6,000 per day, with a guaranteed six screenings, which means that each screening must have more than 100 viewers to break even.

Since the movie is being screened by renting out the theaters, the box office performance has little to do with the theaters.

Guess Pictures can get more than 80% of the box office.

How much they can get depends mainly on the number of times the movie is shown. If the box office performance is good enough, the number of screenings needs to be increased, and the theaters can also get about 10% of the share.

Distributing movies in this way is more expensive and risky, but if the movie box office is good enough, the revenue is also very large.

After working hard at the company for a day, Link received the first-day box office data the next afternoon.

On its opening day, 'Paranormal Activity' made $164,000 in 14 theaters in the United States, with an average daily box office of $11,700 per theater, exceeding the break-even point by more than $7,000.

Among all limited-release movies, a daily per-theater box office of over $5,000 is considered passable, and over $10,000 is considered excellent.

The movie with the best limited-release box office performance in the past five years was the art film 'Dances with Wolves,' released in November 1990, with an average daily box office of $42,700 per theater.

When 'Paranormal Activity' was released, there were no big stars to attract traffic, and there was no large-scale publicity. The per-theater box office exceeded $10,000 on the first day.

The results are very good.

In addition, according to statistics from the distribution department staff, in the first half of the day before the release, the attendance rate in the 14 theaters was not high, with an average value of 68%.

In the second half of the day, the number of moviegoers surged, and the attendance rate in the 14 theaters was 92%.

According to staff surveys, many viewers watched it a second time after watching it once, and some called friends and brought many people to watch it, resulting in a person-to-person phenomenon.

Based on this situation, the attendance rate will be higher on the second day, and the box office data will be better.

"Link, how much was the first-day box office?" Chris Bauer asked eagerly.

Daniel DeVito, Michael Rison, and Liu Xiaoli also stared at the documents in his hand.

"The first-day box office was $164,000, with an average of $11,700 per theater," Link handed the documents to Daniel DeVito.

"$160,000? How is this result?" Chris Bauer asked doubtfully.

"Very good. A daily per-theater box office of over $5,000 is considered a movie with distribution potential, and over $10,000 is considered very promising, which means that 'Paranormal Activity' has great box office potential," Michael Rison said excitedly.

"Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah!" Chris Bauer flexed his arm muscles and shouted excitedly.

Clap clap clap!

Liu Xiaoli put her hands in front of her chest and clapped her hands, smiling broadly.

"Don't be too happy too early. It's only the first day. Good first-week box office results are what really matter. Daniel, how is the audience collection promo going? If it's done, take it to the TV station to broadcast it."

"It's edited. Take a look," Daniel DeVito took out a videotape.

Link took it out and played it in the SVHS VCR. The collection lasted 2 minutes and 35 seconds, with shots of 64 viewers. Everyone's performance while watching 'Paranormal Activity' was different, but the actions were very exaggerated and very interesting.

Because there were more funny shots, the shot of Quentin jumping into Lawrence Bann's arms was not particularly exaggerated among the many shots.

Everyone in the office laughed.

"Not bad. Take it to several TV stations to broadcast it, and try to let more people see our movie."

"Okay! I'll arrange it now."