Hollywood Drawing

On April 12, 1991, an ordinary Tuesday, Wayne faced the first test of his life.

"Happy Holidays" will be screened in the North American cinema market today in New York and Los Angeles, with a total of 40 theaters in the two cities.

There was no glamorous premiere, no overwhelming publicity, and all the early publicity for the film was a promotional video for Fox Network's evening show.

From the day the film was bought out by Fox, all this had nothing to do with Wayne. All he could do was wait for Fox's survey data and pray that the film would perform well.

Simien, a survey taker for 20th Century Fox, is standing in a theater in West Hollywood, waiting for the first screening of "Happy Holidays" to begin.

The film did not undergo large-scale publicity. All Simien saw in the theater were a few movie posters, which simply showed a beautiful woman looking back in panic, followed by a huge ghost face mask.

Because he came earlier, he sat on a chair next to the ticket gate and observed the fans' choices. However, Simien sat here for half an hour, and not many viewers entered the "Happy Memorial Day" screening room.

It wasn't until the movie started and the sound of the pre-title advertisement came from the theater that he said hello to the ticket seller and walked into the corner seat in the last row of the theater, which helped him observe the audience's reaction.

The auditorium arranged by the theater for "Happy Memorial Day" is not small. If the entire auditorium is full, there will be more than 80 viewers, but now there are only a sparse 20 or so people, including Simien himself.

Suddenly the lights dimmed, and the title of Twentieth Century Fox appeared on the curtain. The men and women who were chatting quietly in the theater also began to focus on the film.

The film has no long staff subtitles or lengthy plot foreshadowing, and goes directly to the theme of the story. A few minutes after the opening, the killer wearing a ghost mask stabbed Terry to death neatly.

"What?"

“oh my god!!!”

"what happened?"

Hearing the exclamations from the fans, Simien also turned his attention to the film. The plot began to unfold rapidly. After dying once, Terry, a mean girl, slowly began to look for a way to escape the cycle of festivals.

The movie only started for about ten minutes, and the heroine died early on, which aroused the interest of everyone in the theater. Then Terry was resurrected instantly. One second she was lying on the ground bloody and smelly, and the next second she appeared in the dormitory where she woke up.

The film does not provide the audience with time to think about the suspense. After the moment when the heroine is killed, she opens her eyes and wakes up from the bed in the boys' dormitory.

So the hero said the same thing, and his father called on time, and everything was copied.

"It's a time loop."

Simien heard what the audience in the front row said unconsciously, yes, it was a time loop.

Sitting not far from him was a couple, they must be young. The girl was asking her boyfriend in a low voice: "Jerry, you see she went to that party again, can she escape this time?"

"Keep it down, honey, holy sxxxt!"

In the video, the person who opened the door for Terry actually wore a mask with a ghost face. Not only the audience in the front row, but almost everyone was shocked. It was not until they saw that it was a prank played by a friend that they breathed a sigh of relief.

Just when everyone thought everything was fine, Terry's destined fate struck again and she was stabbed to death bloody again.

Simien instantly felt that this film was not simple. It only used some simple techniques to attract the entire audience's attention to the screen.

If you want to survive tomorrow, you must find the murderer. The heroine dies in a fancy way while eliminating possible targets of the crime. Since there is no way to escape death, it is better to let yourself go. The heroine tries different methods to live fresh every day, even going out naked. No one will remember it anyway.

These rebellious and bastard behaviors almost all hit the nerves of young people. He almost didn't hear anyone in the audience scolding the bitch, they were all following her to find the answer.

As the film entered the second half, except for some laughter and panic, no one could be heard chatting in the auditorium.

But circulation and death come at a cost, and the cumulative damage to her body makes her weaker and weaker. If this continues, it is very likely that she will die completely at some point.

If this continues, it is very likely that she will die completely at some point. Fortunately, she finally discovered who the real murderer was, and she also saw her life clearly in these recurring days.

Seeing this, Simien slowly walked out of the theater. He didn't need to watch the ending later. It must be the happy ending between the heroine Terry and the hero, a classic Hollywood trial ending.

He has to wait at the door of the theater in advance to collect as many opinions as possible from moviegoers. This is his job. Suddenly, there was sparse applause from the audience in the theater, and he knew it was because there were too few people.

This has surprised Simien. He is also considered a half-experienced movie fan, but there are very few audiences who can spontaneously applaud such a small-scale screening.

After the film ended, the audience began to slowly pour out of the theater, all chatting about the story they had just seen.

"The ending is so touching. Terry is finally over her ordeal!"

"The heroine is so beautiful, she is definitely a cheerleader in reality."

"I don't know if there are masks for sale. I'll ask the theater later. I want to buy one and go back to scare my roommates."

"A work by Wayne Greenberg? I don't think you've heard of this director?"

Looking at this group of young audiences, no matter whether the ending is touching or bloody, or the vase-like heroine, these are what they like to see, aren't they?

Simien walked up to the first three spectators who came out, shook the questionnaire in his hand, and asked, "Is it okay?"

"Of course, I choose A+. It's rare for such a great horror movie to be so touching." The only girl first checked the box on the questionnaire. "You all, please choose A+, this movie is worth it."

The friend next to the girl shrugged and took Simien's questionnaire, also choosing A+.

"Okay, thank you."

After taking the questionnaire, he continued to walk towards the movie fans who came out. He had done this kind of work countless times. Unless he encountered a particularly disgusting movie, everyone was basically willing to fill out the questionnaire and express their opinions.

The same job, on this ordinary Wednesday night, appeared in forty theaters. Simien returned the collected questionnaires to the company and was recalling this unique horror film.

A theater near Century City had just concluded a screening of "Happy Holidays" and Wayne held Naomi's hand and walked out of the theater together.

"Nami, how do you feel? Are you satisfied with your performance?" Wayne took out his car keys, started the pickup, and asked Naomi, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

"I didn't pay attention to the video, I just watched the audience's reaction." Naomi said, her mood was not high. "There are too few people. Did you see it? There are only about 20 spectators, and the theaters are all empty."

"It's normal, Nami. Today is not a day off yet. It's only Wednesday. There aren't many moviegoers going out to watch movies."

It's a film directed by a novice, and there are no famous actors. There won't be many people choosing this niche.

"But it finally went to the theater to be shown, isn't it? It will get better gradually, Nami. You will become famous through the role of Terry." Seeing that she was not in a high mood, Wayne comforted her.

"Of course, I hope we can all become famous for the film."

If Naomi might gain some fame from this, he would rather believe it, but he would forget about it.

No matter how old a director is, he is just a behind-the-scenes job. It is still the early 1990s, and directors have not yet come to the forefront and have their own fan groups.

After sending Naomi back to her apartment first and rejecting her invitation, Wayne returned to his room and continued to write the script, waiting for statistical news.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, he received a call from 20th Century Fox, explaining various data to him in detail.

Since it was only screened in 40 theaters in two cities, all the first-day statistics of "Happy Birthday" have been released.

The average attendance per show is 19. Excluding package members, the average box office per show is US$90. The average number of shows in a single-seat theater is 8, and the total box office on the first day of screening is US$28,800.

There is no comparison with the popular blockbusters in later generations that often cost $15,000 per venue in my memory. This result can only be said to be an extreme failure.

With a slight sigh, Wayne packed up his wallet and walked down from the apartment building, heading towards the bar in the middle of the street. The Los Angeles area was getting a little hot in April, and despite the constant breeze on the road, he was still sweating when he entered the bar.

"Joey, give me a big beer." It's been a while since he sat here. Ever since he started preparing for the movie, he's rarely been in a completely relaxed mood.

Joey took a full glass of beer, put it in front of Wayne, picked up the money on the bar, and asked casually: "Hey, Wayne, the movie I heard was released?"

"You are quite well informed, how do you know?" He asked the other party curiously after taking a sip of cold beer.

"This is Hollywood, Wayne." Joey took a large piece of cloth, wiped the cup vigorously, and pointed to the dance floor and continued: "From there, you can hear all kinds of news, and no one knows whether they will change tomorrow. Become a movie star.”

"Okay Joey, I hope you can go to the theater and watch it when you have time to support my career. Maybe I can become a big Hollywood director tomorrow."

Listening to Wayne's teasing words, Joey put down the cup in his hand and said, "I saw you coming to Los Angeles to go to school a few years ago. I didn't expect you to have your own work so soon. Don't worry Wayne, I will definitely mobilize the people around me. Friends, let’s go to the theater to watch your movie together.”

Hearing the other party's words woke him up. Yes, although the box office on the first day was not ideal, he believed that the fans who had watched the movie would definitely bring their friends around to watch "Happy Memorial Day" together. He knew that the box office was not ideal on the first day. The power is said to be terrifying.

After all, the data from the questionnaire cannot deceive anyone!