The Greatest Showman

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Generally speaking, the distribution models of art films and commercial films are completely different, for the simple reason that the audience groups and market potentials locked in by the two films are different, and the audience's expectations for the works are also different. The most economical and ad-free site.

Imagine making "Blue Valentine's Day" like "Pirates of the Caribbean 4", and it was shown in 4,000 theaters in the first week, but ordinary audiences did not buy it at all, and it was a mess; while art audiences refused to enter commercial theaters Watching, word of mouth cannot spread at all, and the final outcome is a fiasco. The distribution fees and the distribution of the theaters required for the screening of 4,000 theaters are enough to make the distribution company suffer internal losses.

Art films always follow a certain distribution pattern. First, select screenings in a few art theaters, check the word-of-mouth of film critics, and check the word-of-mouth of audiences; then, gradually expand the screening to further test the market response. If the response is mediocre, then shrink as soon as possible, change the strategy, and focus on niche groups The dissemination of the show operates in the way of the awards season. If the response is good, then it will be further expanded, and it will develop in the direction of fame and fortune. The strategy of the college's public relations also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Therefore, from release to release, some works are always shown in less than 500 theaters; while some works seem to be shown in more than 500 theaters last week and 2,500 theaters the next week. Showed. The seemingly casual screening mode is actually all about strategy. Last year's "Buried Alive" was the same.

Not this expansion process, there is a set of processes and models, it is necessary to have an accurate judgment on the trend and trend of the entire market, and have a strong ability to adapt to emergencies, and the most important thing is the box office potential and market of the work. Positioning has a strong ability to foresee, which is also a reflection of the ability of a issuing company.

Almost every year, several works appear, because of mistakes in the expansion strategy, the effect is not satisfactory, and finally withdrew from the competition for the awards season.

Among Hollywood, Weinstein Pictures, Focus Pictures and Fox Searchlight are undoubtedly masters and have a keen sense of smell; relatively speaking, Warner Bros., Paramount Classics and other independent distributors, big and small mistakes are always constant , expansion mistakes are not uncommon, and this is directly reflected in the nominations for the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

But now, "Crazy Love" has only been screened for a week, and it will go directly to the public screening in the second week? And there are still 2,337 theaters? Is Focus Pictures Really Crazy?

Although, at the Toronto Film Festival, many media compared "Love Crazy" with Ryan Gosling's famous work "The Notebook", the reason is very simple, Ryan and Renly are close friends , and "Love Notebook" is the love story film with the best box office performance since the new century.

But in fact, everyone knows that "Love Crazy" is not "Love Notebook", but "Blue Valentine's Day". The difference is that "The Notebook" is a commercial film, while "Blue Valentine" is an art film, as clearly reflected in the box-office figures and later video rental figures.

Now, Focus Pictures is operating and distributing "Blue Valentine's Day" as "Love Notebook". If this is not a heartbreak, there will be no other explanation.

This is not an alarmist, but a lesson learned. In 2005, "Memoirs of a Geisha" was a lesson in blood.

At that time, the film costing 85 million US dollars was jointly produced by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks, bringing together countless elites from China, Japan and the United States.

At that time, with the works of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers" and other works, Zhang/Zi/Yi, who was very popular in Hollywood, acted as the heroine. She is the first Chinese actress to make a name for herself in North America since Cheng/Long and Li/An. At that time, her resources can definitely be said to be top-notch, and she has the potential to become a first-line actress. She signed a contract with the Creative Artists Agency and went out with Renly, and the work "Memoirs of a Geisha" was specially tailored for her by the Creative Artists Agency.

After "Memoirs of a Geisha" landed at the Toronto Film Festival, it received rave reviews, and the "Hollywood Reporter", "Hollywood Weekly", "Vanity Fair" and other media all vying for it, believing that this work is expected to compete for the best picture Oscar that year , which also inflated the confidence of Sony Columbia Pictures, and subsequently launched a series of publicity.

In December, the film was officially screened in North America, with eight theaters and an astonishing $85,000 per venue, which was even comparable to "Brokeback Mountain" released in the same year, arousing cheers. But what is embarrassing is that after the official screening, the media comprehensive review plummeted, and only got 53 points, which is really outstanding. For awards season works, the competitiveness suddenly weakened.

Awards season is never that simple, though. A high media review does not mean winning an award. "Boyhood" has a full score of 100, but it lost to "Birdman" at the Oscars; a low media review does not mean you are out, "Iron Lady" "The media's comprehensive evaluation was 54 points, and Meryl Streep successfully won the golden man for the third time.

Back then, the Creative Artists Agency targeted the Oscar nomination for Best Actress, hoping that Zhang/Zi/Yi could become the first Chinese in history to be nominated for an actress!

In fact, Zhang/Zi/Yi is very close to this goal. She has won a series of nominations from the film critic's outpost, and successfully won the Golden Globe nomination for the best actress in the drama category, and even won the United States Nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award, it is no exaggeration to say that she is only one step away from making history.

However, it was this last step that she fell on the threshold and was counterattacked by Keira Knightley at the last moment of "Pride and Prejudice". The latter was only 20 years old and received the first Oscar of her career. Nominate!

Later, when people revisited the entire awards season process, it can be seen that Sony Columbia Pictures' fatal error in distribution strategy became a turning point. After the outstanding performance of the screening results, Sony decided to expand the screening in the next week from eight theaters to fifty-two theaters.

With this move, "Memoirs of a Geisha" has won a weekend box office of 1.3 million with a single hall of 25,000 dollars, and the cumulative box office has reached 2.3 million. Overjoyed. Subsequently, Sony decided to go all out and skip the step-by-step process of expansion, from 52 to 1,600 theaters.

However, the performance of "Memoirs of a Geisha" was a disaster. Although it achieved a weekend box office of 6.7 million US dollars in a single week of expansion, the single-hall performance has dropped to 4,300, which is really unsatisfactory. What's worse is that ordinary audiences are full of curiosity. After entering the cinema, they were greatly disappointed, and after watching the movie with full expectations, art audiences were even more difficult to achieve.

It exploded in an instant, annihilated in an instant, just like fireworks, bursting out the final splendor and splendor, and then quickly disappeared. After that, the box office of the movie went from bad to worse, and the negative impact of comprehensive media reviews and audience word of mouth began to affect industry feedback, which in turn dragged down the subsequent academy public relations, making it difficult to open up the situation again.

The final result is that the powerful and ferocious momentum gradually became weaker and weaker, and even the voice of Zhang/Zi/Yi's actress became lower and lower. In the end, "Pride and Prejudice" completed the counterattack in the sprint stage and failed to make history.

If it is said that the media reputation of "Memoirs of a Geisha" has more or less affected the expansion effect, but in the past ten years, the media comprehensive review and Rotten Tomatoes index have performed exceptionally well, and even the i-score and popcorn index have performed extremely well. All of them have been affirmed, but the box office results after the expansion are still unsatisfactory, and there are not a few such cases.

The running-in of art films and the broad film market cannot be accomplished simply by relying on a few numbers. Otherwise, marketing would not be an enduring discipline.

Now, "Love Crazy" seems to have embarked on a road of arrogance and blindness, and it is very likely to follow the footsteps of "Memoirs of a Geisha", but the problem is that the "Memoirs of a Geisha" back then "At least it's been huge for a while, but "Crazy Love" has just risen, the Toronto Film Festival has just ended, and the momentum has not had time to spread; and there are still four full months before the Oscars, choose ten. A bold leap forward in the month, this... what is going on?

In addition to brain water, is there a better answer?

However, Focus Pictures is not Sony Columbia. For so many years, Focus Pictures can compete with Weinstein Pictures and Fox Searchlight. Their public relations department, distribution strategy, and publicity plan can be described as the top of the top. Focus Pictures makes mistakes too, but so obvious, so stupid, such a low-level delusion? That's almost impossible.

The only explanation is... Focus Pictures has changed its positioning of "Love Crazy", not an awards season art film, but an awards season commercial film, just like last year's "Weakness", 2007's "Juno". ”, “Little Sunshine” in 2006, and “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005. The common denominator of these works is:

The awards season has distinct attributes, but at the same time, it has the attributes of being close to the people. Unlike "Blue Valentine's Day" or "The Hurt Locker", it is not like "Blue Valentine's Day" or "The Hurt Locker". The success of the film is often able to achieve box office figures of 60 million or more, and it is not uncommon to exceed 100 million.

This seems to be the best explanation. At least, this answer is much more reliable than "water in the brain". But, can "Love Crazy" really shoulder such expectations? Or, can Renly Hall really continue its box-office appeal? In other words, does Focus Pictures really have no misjudgment?

In the second week of October, "Crazy Love" was screened in 2,337 theaters, and finally handed over the answer sheet. The box office of a single theater was 8,110 US dollars, and it garnered 1,890 yuan in three weekends. Ten thousand dollars, after adjusting the data, the exact number is just over the whole number, reaching 19 million dollars!

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