Hollywood Road

Hanging up the phone call with Gal Gadot, Murphy walked into the event site and was immediately surrounded by countless reporters. The continuous success has already cast a halo on him, which will naturally attract the attention of the media.

This is a media and fan meeting in the San Francisco area, and it is also one of the many promotional activities of Gone Girl in North America.

Attending such an event will inevitably be mobbed by reporters.

"Director Stanton, Gone Girl has a typical noir style."

When Murphy left, a reporter struggled to his side and asked loudly, "Throughout all the films you shoot and produce, they all have a distinct black style. Why is this? Is it really like what some media said? In that way, your unfortunate life before entering Hollywood influenced your writing style?"

"All my films are never written about the sweetness of society, but reflect some real problems."

Since he came out to promote, Murphy would of course give the media something to promote and hype. He turned to look at the reporter and asked, "Don't you think noir movies are beautiful?"

He didn't need the reporter to answer, and continued, "Film noir is the most beautiful black pearl on the crown of film art. The main idea of ​​film noir is to explore the darkness and evil in the depths of our human nature, and to explore how alienated society puts human nature in its place." The good side overwhelms and devours. Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Roman Polanski's Chinatown, the Coen brothers' absent-minded barber, David Fincher's The Seven Deadly Sins are all classics , I also want to shoot a classic noir film like this."

Murphy then threw out another sentence, "Film noir allows us to see the darkness of reality, the ingenuity of story arrangement and the beauty of visual impact, and discover and reveal the evil of human nature and the darkness of society. is a kindness."

In fact, now, he has also discovered that the self who used to be on the other side of the Pacific Ocean has completely gone in the wrong direction in learning film production. At the beginning, he only cared about his personal hobbies and interests, but ignored that there is almost no room for survival in film noir. .

These answers not only failed to meet the needs of the reporters, but made them even more crazy.

Another female reporter asked, "As far as we know, many couples have problems after watching the movie. Is the view of love and marriage you promote too negative?"

"Those who say that they don't believe in marriage and love after seeing the disappearing lover, how fragile is your love?"

The film has already been released. Of course, Murphy would not talk about breaking up 15 million couples in North America. Such a gimmick is suitable for pre-screening promotion, but it is not suitable for the present, so he changed his tone.

"Isn't this a positive and passionate movie that enhances the happiness of ordinary couples?"

After saying this, Murphy stopped answering the reporter's questions and turned to the car.

It's all part of Gone Girl's entire post-screening campaign.

As the film went through the hottest first weekend, Twentieth Century Fox has promoted a series of promotional and marketing plans, using the Internet as the main carrier.

Any hot topic that can attract attention is the focus of 20th Century Fox and the Internet trolls.

For example, on the blog, there is a topic that is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and is widely circulated.

"It is reported that 20th Century Fox and Murphy Stanton are promoting the sequel of The Lost Lover. The theme of the sequel will be Nick Dunn's counterattack against Amy. If the male protagonist is you, how should you counterattack the black-bellied female protagonist?"

Twentieth Century Fox is not aimless, such an interactive topic can arouse the greatest enthusiasm of movie fans.

On any webpage on the Internet that reproduces this topic, you can see the replies of a large number of movie fans. They racked their brains and actively participated.

"Increase your own insurance limit, pretend to be an accidental car accident or something like a fake death, and after your wife gets the insurance money, she will sneak out to various places to deliberately find someone to take photos and expose it. It's better to spread some words that my wife can't let go of his affair. So he was forced to use the gossip to make up for it, let the rumors start, but not let people find evidence of insurance fraud, and hide his name for a lifetime. He can use public opinion to revenge and avoid his wife, but the difficulty factor is so high, like Nick Dunn. The lazy little head can't hold it."

"There are two best counterattack methods for the male protagonist. The first one is to become a disappearing boy, so that she can never find it again. You continue, I don’t care about ruin or anything, and completely abandon everything. The second one is in the blog If he writes about his own experience, there will naturally be people in Hollywood who will film his autobiography. So this is not a question of counterattack, but that he has no intention of counterattack at all."

Whether it's Charlize Theron's performance or the setting of the character itself, Amy left a deeper impression on people, and Nick Dunn's mediocrity really does not arouse people's favor, and not many people are optimistic that he can counterattack.

"Actually, I want to say: counterattacks are risky, and you need to be cautious when you take action. The male lead's lawyer has finally stated his position, and don't mess with his wife in the future if you have nothing to do. Ordinary people who want to counterattack an Ivy League student, really, usually can only think about it. It’s not a high-IQ school, I really want to fight wits.”

"Where is there a counterattack? The heroine is proficient in psychology and sociology, and she has a firm grasp of the male protagonist's psychology and the direction of public opinion. How can such a scumbag male protagonist have the ability to counterattack? He can only pay for the rest of his life for one mistake. Happiness, live with the heroine whom I have long lost love, and raise that calculated child."

"Why counterattack? Their marriage was originally a combination of a bitch and a dog. The husband had an affair and the wife had a spare child. It was a match made in nature. Don't blame anyone. They are a perfect match. After going through such a situation After the toss, the two of them restrained each other and controlled each other, isn't it bad? Why did they counterattack?"

The Lost Lover is backed by strong media and audience reputation, but to maintain a certain level of popularity, a participatory publicity method like this is essential.

Twentieth Century Fox has a mature operating system. When this system is operating normally, the energy it can exert is quite amazing.

The box office of the first week of the film also convinced them that Murphy can once again make a big difference with a small one.

The Internet is filled with various topics related to the disappearing lover, as well as various so-called analysis. It is almost like the grand occasion after the release of The Matrix.

"I ask experts to help explain the doubts about the missing lover"

"Why does Amy hate Nick so much, and still want to come back to him?"

"On Murphy Stanton's different views from normal people in Gone Girl!"

"Nick Dunn vs. Amazing Amy Who's the Real Victim"

"Is marriage really what Gone Girl says it is?"

Such topics are circulated on the Internet, and everyone makes an analysis based on their own views. A hundred people will have a hundred Hamlets in their hearts. Most people think that they are the most correct, and they all want to convince those opinions. Different people, in order to enumerate and find evidence, some people will re-enter the theater.

Different from pre-screening publicity, these are some publicity and marketing methods commonly used by Hollywood since the Internet has been widely used in North America, especially since the end of the 1990s when films continued to rely on the Internet to promote their success.

This method may not be very clever, but it is quite practical.

Since the early publicity created enough topics, no special method was used in the later publicity.

However, there are also criticisms on the Internet, many of which are aimed at Murphy, which is unavoidable for any film and director.

But some remarks point directly to Murphy's educational background.

"Looking at all the films he directed, Murphy's plot structure and camera feel are very good, but too little reading, empty vision, poor skills are enough, but too little reading and thinking too much, is a typical American film. A low-level director who lacks sufficient training.”

Someone even dragged Murphy out for comparison with David Fincher, another dark wind director.

"After watching David Fincher's movie, I will lower my head and pretend to be aggressive, without showing any expression. I feel very cool, go back and secretly read movie reviews to study the plot, and tell others how good the movie is the next day."

"After watching Murphy Stanton's video, I don't have to bow my head. I feel very excited. I immediately start discussing with my friends, and my face is full of excited smiles."

This kind of comparison has aroused the dissatisfaction of quite a few David Fincher fans. How can a director like Murphy be compared with David Fincher?

A fan who had watched Gone Girl was asked this question by a reporter when he left the theater, and his answer hit the nail on the head, "Murphy's problem is that there are many people who like it, which makes young artists feel that he is not high enough."

Whether it's the debate about Gone Girl itself or the discussion about Murphy, these have kept the film's heat, especially after the weekday begins, and the box office trend is unusually strong.

On the first working day on Monday, it was only 45% lower than Sunday, with a steady harvest of 6.9 million US dollars, and a slight increase on Tuesday, with 7.15 million US dollars.

After the traditional North American cinema discount day, the box office continued to maintain a steady downward trend, closing at $6.75 million on Wednesday and $6.6 million on Thursday.

Gone Girl easily earned $77.3 million in its first week of release in North America.

For a feature film with a production cost of only 45 million US dollars, it is not easy to get such box office figures in a week.

After all, this is not the kind of super giant production that sells special effects, and it does not have fans as the basic audience. Murphy is also very satisfied with such achievements.

Afterwards, The Lost Lover ushered in the second weekend after its opening in North America. During this weekend, the decline of the film has shocked many people's eyes. To be continued.