Hollywood Road

With the premiere of the first episode of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" and the subsequent two rebroadcasts, the cumulative number of viewers has exceeded 7 million, creating a new record for the premiere of a TV series on Fox TV in the past five years. The second episode will continue to be popular on the next broadcast day. During this week, Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox not only collected audience opinions so that Murphy could fine-tune the content of the second episode, but also increased the intensity of publicity and hype. .

The first episode has been successful, and the audience and media reputation are also quite good. These are effective publicity points.

Whether it is related websites on the Internet or commentary reports of traditional media, there are a lot of content related to "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones".

"Although the first episode of "Game of Thrones" is just the tip of the iceberg, after a whole hour, whether it is the taste similar to the history of the Middle Ages or the artistic conception of the fantasy and magnificent poetry, it is enough to make the show show the mountains and dews, the atmosphere In addition to being delicate, it fully matches the label of epic level. I have to say that this is definitely a perfect start. The so-called Murphy product must be a high-quality product, and this cowhide is really not blown out."

At the same time, Murphy held a press conference on behalf of Stanton Studios and Kara Firth, representing Twentieth Century Fox, and officially announced that in view of the excellent ratings of the first episode, Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox have decided to Production of the second season of A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones.

"The second season has a total of ten episodes." Facing the reporter's camera, Murphy talked eloquently, "The total investment is currently estimated at 70 million US dollars, that is, the production cost of each episode is as high as 7 million US dollars! What? I will not Directing? It's hard to say now, I haven't made a decision yet."

In fact, Murphy has already made a decision that he and Kara Firth will continue to act as producers, and the position of director will be handed over to Paul Wilson.

How long can "Game of Thrones" be filmed, and will there be a tragedy with a beginning and no end? This is the situation that many American dramas eventually face, and it is also the concern that quite a few viewers have when they follow the drama.

Some media also asked about this issue, and Kara Firth gave them a reassurance on behalf of 20th Century Fox and Stanton Studios.

"I hope the audience can rest assured that Fox will not cut the show until the story conflict is resolved. We told the author George Martin that as long as he insists on writing, we will insist on filming."

Carafes vowed, "I can guarantee that we will not give up this show halfway. I hope it will last for 20 years. The fans are very interested in this show. We are very happy about it. We have never seen it before." A little bit of movement in any drama can attract so much attention."

Murphy added, "In order to ensure the high quality of the series, "Game of Thrones" will have no more than 10 episodes per season."

Externally, it is to ensure the quality, but internally, there is another layer of consideration. Even if those large-scale war scenes are cut off, the production cost of this series is still too high. Every additional episode means that the risk will increase exponentially.

Announcing such news at this time will undoubtedly add another boost to the drama that has already attracted much attention, but these alone are not enough. Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox are still trying their best to make news , in order to attract more eyeballs.

After the arrival of the new week, Fox News and quite a few websites disclosed a gossip about "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones".

"The station got the latest news from Stanton Studios that the two-episode script for the first season of the show that George Martin, the screenwriter of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" mailed to Murphy Stanton, was sent from New York to Lost en route to Los Angeles."

"The hugely popular fantasy writer dedicated a blog post on Sunday afternoon to claiming that the script for the final two episodes of the first season of Game of Thrones, namely "Baylor" and "Fire and Blood" The filming script for was lost in the mail to Los Angeles."

"It is understood that

George Martin originally planned to mail the two scripts, signed by Sean Bean and Jessica Alba, to Stanton Studios, entrusting Murphy Stanton to send them to a charity auction at Comic-Con this week. , he said that the two scripts will fetch a very considerable price. "

This incident immediately attracted the attention of countless people who followed "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones", and the traffic of George Martin's personal blog suddenly increased.

In the promotion of any film and television drama, even if there is no news, news points must be created. After a movie or TV series is shot, it just quietly waits to be discovered and watched by others. Even if the quality is outstanding, it will often end up with nothing. return.

Anyone who has a little knowledge of this industry knows that no matter whether it is a movie or a TV series, the quality itself is the foundation, and excellent publicity and marketing is the key to success.

Just like what was said in the report, George Martin also actively stood up, wanting to become the Tolkien of the United States, not only the praise of the media, but also the breadth of dissemination of his works.

"I confirm that the script has been lost," George Martin wrote on his blog.

In his blog post, he speculates that the thief may be a U.S. Postal Service employee and has asked for help to stop the thief from profiting from selling scripts.

"The U.S. Postal Service delivered the script in a plastic bag wrapped in an envelope with 'Sorry for the damage to your package' written on it, pre-printed." George Martin It was also described in detail, "But when they delivered it to Stanton Studios without any explanation, one end of the envelope was opened, and both scripts were lost, although a letter I encased in the script was still there. exist."

George Martin also implored his fans in his blog to contact him as soon as possible if the script surfaced.

"I have thousands of eyes, that's my fans," he wrote, "so let's wait."

This incident has attracted the attention of many fans of the original book and other viewers, and some even called the US Postal Service to question it.

In short, with the ferment of time, the enthusiasm caused by the first episode of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" has successfully continued to the broadcast day of the second episode.

Under the active operation of Twentieth Century Fox, a new issue of "Vogue" magazine published in May featured three important male characters in "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" as the cover characters. Sean Bean as De Stark, Hahn Choate as Jon Snow and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.

"Vogue" magazine also praised the service design in "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones", thinking that the crew has formed a unique style belonging to the continent of Westeros on the basis of recreating the style of the Middle Ages... …

Entering the first Friday in May, the second episode of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" started broadcasting on time at 21 o'clock in the evening. The prelude in the Los Angeles branch of Fox Cable has just finished playing, monitoring real-time data The staff sent good news to Murphy and Kara Firth who were standing behind.

The broadcast has just started, and the number of viewers has reached 3.5 million. When the official content of the second episode begins, the number of viewers continues to increase at a rate of more than 10,000 per minute, and soon equals the ratings of the first episode. 3.9 million people at its peak.

Like this kind of TV series with a certain fan base and the participation of famous directors and stars, the first episode often has hits, but if the quality is not good, the second episode will experience a corresponding decline in ratings.

"Judging from the current situation," Kara Firth's face was already full of smiles, "the ratings of the second episode will not be a problem."

Murphy nodded, "It depends on whether we can break through the 4 million mark."

"Sure!" Carla Firth said confidently.

It is now May, and the North American summer vacation has kicked off. Dave Scola-led "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" will be released on the Memorial Day schedule at the end of this month. According to the news, the quality of the film is worrying. It is very difficult to achieve the expected box office of US$300 million to US$350 million in North America. The production cost of the North American box office can reach as high as US$210 million.

Dave Scola's future can be said to be tied up with this film, but it is not a matter of course that Kara Firth wants to replace him, and outstanding performance is also needed.

If "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" can maintain such a huge audience, it will definitely become an important capital for her competition.

Kara Firth looked at Murphy next to him. Compared to himself, Murphy was still so calm.

"Good news!" The voice of the staff in front was filled with uncontrollable excitement, "The latest statistics show that the number of viewers has exceeded 4 million!"

"Okay!" Kara Feith nodded heavily, and when she turned around, Murphy had already stretched out a hand, and she slapped it heavily, the crisp high-fives were like the joy of success. Feel happy.

The number of 4 million is not the end, the audience is still increasing slowly, and when the second episode is about to end, it reaches the peak of nearly 4.3 million!

Fox cable TV has only about 17 million subscribers in North America, and this figure means that nearly a quarter of the subscribers have watched "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones".

After the rebroadcast at 11 o'clock and the rebroadcast during the day on Saturday, the popularity of the second episode remained undiminished, and it again got nearly 3.5 million viewers, and the total number of viewers of the second episode was also close to 8 million!

This number was quickly disclosed by 20th Century Fox, and with the evidence of a professional ratings research company, everyone has realized that a phenomenal cable television drama is about to be born!