Made in Hollywood

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The office floor of Warner Bros. was bustling with people, and despite rushing back to Burbank from San Francisco in the early hours of the morning, Charles Rowan was full of energy. He took the latest statistics in his hands and walked quickly to Jeff Robino. In front of my husband's office, I knocked on the door twice, pushed it open, and walked in.

"Jeff..." He walked directly to the desk, and said without waiting to sit down, "Midnight box office statistics and audience word of mouth came over."

Seeing Jeff Robinoff looking up at him, Charles Rowan said quickly, "At 2,512 theaters at midnight, "Brave Island" won $3.28 million, nearly 80 percent more than we expected. Ten thousand dollars! The survey company we hired immediately consulted 5,877 viewers, of which 78% scored A+, 92% scored above A, and less than 1% scored below C!”

In Charles Rowan's words, there is a faint excitement. Although it is clear that the audience for the midnight show is limited, the audience is mostly action movie fans, and the ratings have a natural advantage. However, such an overwhelming reputation for the midnight show, let alone last year's "Batman Returns" ", even the acclaimed "Batman" has never reached it!

"Duke didn't let us down!"

Jeff Robinoff slowly let out a sigh of relief. He is not without competitors within Warner Bros., he fully supports Duke's new work, and he has also endured a lot of pressure. Now it has exceeded the expected reputation and box office of the midnight show, even if he can't. It completely represents the direction of the film's performance and can always explain a lot of problems.

"I think the 2,512 theaters we won in the first week are a bit too conservative." Charles Rowan sat down.

"No way, Charles." Jeff Robinoff shook his head, "CAA and Twentieth Century Fox have also invested huge resources in Interview with the Vampire. There are only so many theaters and screens in North America. They're in the middle of it, and we can't get 3,000 or so theaters like Batman."

Charles Rowan also understands this, and at the same time also knows that with Warner Bros., "Interview with the Vampire" will not reach a screen size of about 3,000.

Hollywood competition is everywhere, from scripts to roles to actors to funds to directors to theaters, it is a battlefield where film companies and their projects are fighting each other. Those small companies with distribution rights want to release their films on a large scale and compete with big companies. direct competition? Just one of the theaters, the top distribution companies can kill them.

"What about Interview with the Vampire?" Jeff Robinoff thought of the competition.

"The box office was better than we expected." Charles Rowan continued, leaning back in his chair, "2689 theaters at midnight, $3.97 million at the box office!"

"However..." His eyes flashed, "According to the feedback from the investigation company, "Interview with the Vampire" has a certain number of tickets purchased but not admitted in major cities."

Jeff Robinoff immediately understood the meaning of Charles Rowan's words and nodded, "It must be Tom Cruise who has taken the box office. This is not the first time."

It's common for Hollywood stars to spend their own money at the box office, and Tom Cruise is definitely one of the most prestigious.

"If you calculate it like this," Charles Rowan added, "The midnight box office of "Interview with the Vampire" is indeed higher than that of "Brave Island", but the gap is certainly not as big as the box office figures show."

"What about word of mouth?"

Hearing Robinoff's question, Charles Rowan flipped through the information in his hand, and then said, "The current professional word-of-mouth statistics, "Interview with the Vampire" averaged 8.7 points, "Brave on the Deadly Island" "Only 7.6 points."

"Don't talk about that." Robinoff shook his finger, "The critics' word-of-mouth doesn't mean much to the summer movies, the audience's word-of-mouth."

"This is the news revealed by 20th Century Fox," Rowan tried to speed up his speech. "Interview with the Vampire" received 6,125 audience feedback at midnight, with an A+ rating rate of 63% and an A rating rate of 100%. 79 out of 10, 2.1 percent of the grade below C."

Next, the two discussed other things, such as theater lines and publicity strategies.

At the same time, in the Fox Tower in Century City, the creators and project leaders of "Interview with the Vampire", including Tom Cruise and others, are also paying attention to similar statistics. These survey data have never been classified. It's not hard for companies to get them either.

After discussing the subsequent publicity plan, Tom Cruise and his agent and Fox executives were soon left in the conference room.

"We're behind in terms of audience word of mouth."

There are senior industry insiders here, and few people pay attention to professional reputation. The purpose of this film is not to win awards. "Although it has an advantage at the box office, a big factor is Tom's appeal."

As soon as Pat Kingsley finished speaking, Tom Cruise said directly to the Fox CEO, "Townsend, I suggest that in addition to the normal promotion of "Interview with the Vampire", it is necessary for us to make "Brave to the Dead Island" "Use your brains."

His words have been recognized by most people. While promoting his own films, he discredits competitors. This is a normal competition method for major Hollywood companies.

"I will contact the media," Martin Bob said.

"Well..." Townsend Rothman nodded, "I will personally call Emperor Entertainment Group and AMG Chain Group, and try to reduce the number of theaters next week for "Brave to the Dead Island" as much as possible!"

The competition in the film is not to show the guns and rush directly to the front, and a lot of work is actually behind the scenes.

Warner knows it, Twentieth Century Fox knows it, and Duke knows it.

With the midnight box office and audience word of mouth of two films from Robin Grande, Duke didn't have too many surprises, and he didn't have too many worries, whether it was "Interview with the Vampire" or "Brave Island" ", will not be the kind of bad film that is so bad that no one cares. If the former can maintain the previous level, it will definitely be his strong enemy.

"If you want to succeed, you can't be afraid of competition!"

Standing in front of the full-length mirror, arranging his clothes, Duke said to Shania Twain, who seemed awkward walking behind him, "Any successful director rushes out of competition and wants to stand at the top of any industry, just You can't dodge your opponent!"

"Then why don't you wait to compete with Jurassic Park next month?"

The person who said this is definitely not Shania Twain, just listening to the monotonous nasal voice, Duke also knew that this was Sofia Coppola sitting on the sofa.

"Because I don't have a problem here." Duke pointed to his head first, then turned and glared at Sophia, "Are you happy to hit me?"

"Very fun."

Sophia shrugged, her black eyes drifted over Shania Twain inadvertently, and raised her voice a little to remind, "It's almost time, we should hurry back to Burbank, don't forget, you still have to stay at night. Going to NBC's studio with Nikolai and the others to rehearse tomorrow night's live show."

"It'll be fine soon." Duke waved his hand over there.

"I'm leaving too."

Shania Twain came behind him, stood on tiptoe and stretched out her head, kissed Duke's ear lightly, and deliberately blew into the ear hole, and whispered, "I will remember you, dear. , if we meet again next time, I will give you all the slap you slapped on my ass!"

Duke turned his head and squeezed her chin, "Hopefully we have another chance."

This kind of thing is too hard to say. Although there are many intersections between the film industry and the music industry, Shania Twain settled in Nashville, the holy land of country music. If she becomes famous, the announcements and the national and even global tours that follow will squeeze her. Fuck all her time and energy.

Speaking of the original sex, it has become today's two-night stand. Duke doesn't know if there will be such an opportunity to communicate with his body in the future.

Shania Twain went to her agent and was about to return to Nashville. Duke and Sophia left the Fremont Hotel and drove directly to the highway leading to Burbank.

"Didn't you say that the first week of a film's release was always so nervous that it was hard to fall asleep?"

After leaving the city, the road conditions were much smoother, and Sophia also chatted with Duke, "I didn't expect to have the energy to pick up girls."

"Sophia, didn't you say it?" Duke could hear the sarcasm in her words, but he was used to her tone, "This is the best way to relieve stress and anxiety, and forget about troubles, isn't it? ?"

"Crap!" Sofia Coppola pouted.

Shrugging his shoulders, Duke didn't say anything else. Although things weren't exactly as he said, he was intoxicated in Shania Twain's wild and sexy body last night, plus a few hearty bedtimes. Communication movement, in fact, his sleep quality is excellent, definitely one of the best nights since the launch of "Brave Island".

Or maybe all the stress and anxiety were vented while slapping Shania's sexy buttocks?

For some reason, this thought suddenly jumped into Duke's mind. He quickly shook his head and didn't continue to think about it. He didn't want to develop in the direction of sadism...

The two took turns driving, and when they arrived in Burbank, it was almost dusk. They found a place to eat a little something, and Duke and the two rushed to the NBC TV studio in Burbank.

Tomorrow night's show will be live. Although the rehearsal is not complicated, at least stepping on the field is essential. The NBC talk show is also an important part of the publicity plan formulated by Warner Bros. When Duke walked to the lounge, Nicholas Cage, Ed Harris and Christopher Lee and their agents are already sitting here, familiarizing themselves with the flow of the show.

Of course, Duke's agent, Nancy Josephson, was also waiting in the lounge.

Like all interview programs, most of the links and issues will be communicated with the guest's agent or public relations in advance. Before the release of "Brave to the Dead Island", except for a few routine reservations, a few people 's agent and Warner Bros.' PR coordinated the show.

It was busy until nearly nine o'clock in the evening, and the work on the field was over. Duke told Nancy to report the first-day box office to him as soon as possible tomorrow, and then went directly back to the apartment in North Hollywood.