The initial filming situation of "The Love Between Ghosts" was really not good.
Paramount's internal turmoil, coupled with the departure of Ronald's film maker Lindsay Dolan, resulted in the company losing out to the Eddie Murphy-led "The Other 48" in the internal competition to schedule the film. ”, and “ Days of Thunder ” starring Tom Cruise.
When Ronald first entered the industry, his first film was still at the end of its non-national release schedule. It was still common for small productions to be released in four to five hundred theaters. By the 1990s, there were already an endless stream of blockbusters showing in 2,500 theaters. Screening in more than 1,000 theaters is the starting benchmark.
Although the movie "The Love of Ghosts" has Ronald's blessing, the director has no chance of winning against top male stars in terms of grabbing the audience's attention. In addition to the subject matter, romance films have always had a smaller box office base, especially before "Pretty Woman" came out this year and swept the box office...
But this only represents the number of theaters open. As the first week's box office results are released, theater managers will quickly adjust the film schedule. Regardless of the names of the stars or the marketing materials provided by major studios (billboards, posters, real-life models, etc...), none of them are as familiar as the average single-room box office.
At noon on Monday, the weekend box office statistics were out. Data from major theater chains are now aggregated to the distribution company and processed and analyzed through Microsoft Office software at a rate that is ten times faster than the previous manual process.
Opening in just over 1,100 theaters, "The Love of Ghosts" has reached second place in the box office rankings with an opening weekend of more than 12 million. The box office of a single theater was US$11,000, breaking the record of US$8,500 in the first weekend of "Pretty Woman", which is also a romantic film.
At this time, Paramount couldn't sit still, and they quickly sent senior officials to visit Ronald at his door. The manager of the distribution department admitted his mistake and greatly underestimated the box office potential of "The Last Days". He said that he would urgently add additional copies and quickly allocate 300 theaters from "Another 48 Hours".
Ronald politely thanked him. In fact, if Paramount does not increase its film schedule, the pressure from theater managers will overwhelm them. In theaters in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, so many people came to see "The Last Day" that friends recommended it, so many that some theaters were full.
It is unrealistic to temporarily change the film schedule, because tickets for other movies have also been sold. If the audience finds that they have been moved to "The Love of Ghosts", there will definitely be a lot of dissatisfaction. At this time, the only thing the theater managers in Los Angeles can do is to change the screening hall.
Modern multiplex theaters actually come in different sizes. The large hall can accommodate hundreds of spectators, while the small one can only accommodate dozens of people. This weekend, in Los Angeles theaters, all the halls were used for "The Love of Ghosts". Many staff members were shouting, apologizing to the audiences who were watching other movies, and leading them to the temporarily changed small hall.
Unlike most theaters in small towns and medium-sized cities, the current multiplex theaters in Los Angeles have gradually caught up with and surpassed the old-fashioned single-room theaters. Thanks to the investment of Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar, many multiplexes in Los Angeles and New York are mainly showing Ronald's movies.
And those theaters with only one old-fashioned single hall can't do anything about it. They can either simply cancel movies with low attendance and lose money, or they can change them to "love between ghosts" shows. Or manually change the next scheduled show, apologize to the audience who haven't started yet, and refund their tickets.
Paramount's distribution department left in a mixture of regret and excitement, and Ronald also expressed his gratitude to Prince Bandar. The two largest cities on the east and west coasts, and the most high-end theaters, gave Ronald preferential treatment for his film schedule, which also played a role in promoting other theaters.
There is no box office guidance on the first weekend, so scheduling films is the most difficult. Some managers of small and medium-sized theaters have the habit of looking at the film scheduling ratios of large theaters and then copying them. Coupled with the fact that Hollywood movie theaters located in states such as New Jersey on the east coast are also arranging Ronald's movies, the feedback from the two most important ticket warehouses is actually quite good.
Ronald's additional theater screenings this week are mainly from Eddie Murphy's "Another 48 Hours." The reason behind this embarrassing practice still comes from an embarrassing fact.
The single-box box office of Ronald's "The Last Day" far exceeded all competitors.
The overall box office of "Die Hard 2" was more than two million higher than that of "The Last Days", but that was obtained from more than twice the number of theaters as the latter.
Several other movies, such as "Thunderbolt" and the newly released "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane," did not earn more than half of "The Last Days" at the box office in a single theater. "Another 48 Hours" even dropped to less than one-fifth of the level of "The Love Between Humans and Ghosts".
…
"Is your movie "The Ghost Story" going to break the box office of Pretty Woman?" Diane finished her lunch and put little Roger to sleep. When she saw Ronald sorting out the box office figures, she came over and asked. question.
"It's possible, but looking at this trend, the box office of "The End of the World" is declining very quickly, and it will be released until next year. If it really wants to break the box office of Pretty Woman, it may have to wait until next year."
Ronald frowned and answered while reading the newspaper in his hand.
"Then why do you seem unhappy?" Dianchi asked, forgetting his secret envy that Demi Moore had stepped into this movie again.
"There are happy things, and there are also unhappy things." Ronald handed the newspaper to Diane. On it were the reviews of the movie by two film critics in Chicago.
Roger Ebert and Gene Sisko, two film critics in Chicago, gave the film a negative review, which also affected the box office there, more so than in New York and Los Angeles. The gap, and the gap opened by "Die Hard 2", is the smallest.
"The disadvantage of movies about ghosts is that they often have limited imagination. If a ghost can indeed exist in two realms at the same time: in the spirit world while also participating in the design of our physical universe...then this ghost must be quite "bad"
Diane looked at Albert's film review and gave it only two and a half stars (out of four stars). It also drove Demi Moore's triumphant expression out of my mind. Even if it was a success at the box office, Demi was definitely not liked by the critics.
The film critics focused on Demi Moore's performance, saying that her performance as Molly was too silly, and she repeatedly refused to believe that the words of the psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg were true, even though it was obvious that Patrick Schwitz's character was telling the truth. Mu, has told time and time again the details of life that only the two of them know.
Abbott also criticized these as "idiot plots" that force the heroine to become mentally retarded for the sake of the plot. The only scene where Demi Moore performed well was kissing goodbye to the ghost played by Patrick Schwytz at the end. Scenes.
"The best scene in the movie, which touches on a profound belief in life after death, is when Schwytz is able to take over Goldberg's body and use her presence to touch the woman he loves. But if strictly speaking, Logically, this should have allowed us to see Goldberg kissing Moore, but of course the movie compromised and only let us see Schwytz holding her - which is a shame, because logically the version is actually more spiritual and touching .”
After reading this passage, Diane couldn't help laughing out loud. Does this Albert have a grudge against Demi Moore?
"I don't know if he has any grudge against Demi, but I know he definitely has no grudge against money." Ronald also smiled.
The reason why "The Ghost Story" was given such a B+ score is that Ronald did not try his best to publicize these famous film critics.
This is not because he is unwilling to pay, but because there is a limit to the number of films that film critics can review in each issue. Ronald's main public relations resources were reserved for preparing for his own releases of "Dances with Wolves" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
This film, "The Love of Ghosts", is a film co-produced with Paramount. There is no need for me to take over the project and give it super-standard public relations treatment.
Of course, movies like "The Love of Ghosts" are romanticized movies that are far away from real life. The evaluation of film critics has less impact on the box office than those two movies and the more realistic ones. Movies matter.
If Ronald's films are given too many favorable comments at once, film critics will have to balance the good things they say with the quality of the film itself. If there are too many good things to say about a film produced by one company, it will actually cause a loss to the film critic's credibility.
If they insist on doing this, their asking price will be very high. Michael Gray also felt it was unnecessary, so he left the opportunity to say good things to the two movies that really needed it.
…
"First of all, congratulations to you, Patrick, "The End of the World" has been a huge success." A reporter from a local TV station asked the long-haired Patrick Schwytz a question.
Now that the opening weekend has exploded at the box office, Paramount has lined up more PR interviews. Television stations lined up in a private room at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel to interview leading actor and actress and supporting actor Whoopi Goldberg.
"Thank you..." Patrick Schweitz had dismissed several reporters and looked a little tired, but he still made a charming smile.
"When you took over this movie, did you think it would be such a box office hit?"
"In fact, I didn't expect it at all. Director Ronald contacted me at that time..."
"He worked with you in Dirty Dancing..." the reporter interjected.
"Yes, yes, in Hollywood, you have to avoid playing a role just for the sake of box office. If you choose scripts with that goal, you will soon lose yourself, and you may not be able to perform well.
I first heard that it was Ronald's script, and I was very interested. He is a very tasteful director. After reading the script, I was moved by the great love in it. "
"Demi... first of all, congratulations..." Another reporter was interviewing Demi Moore.
"Thank you..." Demi's short hair was a little longer, and she had a big wave, which made her look very sexy and charming.
"At the premiere, you watched the show with the audience. Which part of the audience's reaction moved you more? Was it the comedy part that made them laugh, or the tragic part that made them cry?"
"Ah... I think it's both..." Demi Moore had already prepared her words, "If the director just treated this movie as a romantic drama, it would also be a very sweet movie.
But Ronald's handling is what makes the audience mesmerized. Comedy and tragedy, laughter and tears, are like taking the audience on a roller coaster. This roller coaster emotional experience is what makes the audience like it so much.
Not to mention there are action scenes and very realistic special effects..."
"Yes, that scene where Tony Goldwyn's Carl was dragged to hell really made me almost scream..."
"Hahaha, yes, I was scared to death when I saw it the first time."
"Is this your first time watching it too?"
"Yes, I'm very scared to watch the movie I'm in. Patrick, Whoopi, I, and I have worked hard. How will the audience react to the final film? I'm very nervous. Fortunately, the effect this time is really good."
"Whoopi, many people are complaining that Sam is not resurrected at the end of the film. Watching these two people who love each other separate is really touching." In another room, the audience's favorite supporting character, Whoopi Goldberg is interviewed.
"Ha, I think that's what's great about this movie, it's about love. Not just the love between men and women, but a great love.
Sam stayed in the world to protect Molly. This reminds me of the love parents have for their children, a love that transcends the physical..."
Whoopi Goldberg is not only talkative, but also seems to be affected by something, and his words are becoming increasingly unreliable. But the audience just likes to see this kind of nonsense that makes insiders laugh, but laypeople find it incomprehensible.
…
"cheers!"
The lead actor was interviewed repeatedly, and television programs also repeatedly mentioned the film, which gave the film an extra boost at the box office. A small miracle also occurred at the box office in the second week.
Originally, the mid-week box office was generally about half lower than the weekend box office, but the mid-week box office of "The Love of Ghosts" actually remained at 70% of the weekend's, which is a very surprising result.
To celebrate, Ronald held a small celebration party, and several leading actors and major supporting actors came to his home to participate. Ronald took out a large plate, which included fresh salami from Italy, sushi made by a chef airborne from Tokyo, and the new year's red wine from Coppola Estate.
"Ronald, how's my performance?" Whoopi Goldberg has woken up and knows that the way he was interviewed on TV is really nonsense. He is also a little nervous. He won't ruin Ronald's affairs. ?
"Actually, the effect is pretty good. Michael Gray told me that your interview may have the best ratings. I think the audience watching the interview, like the audience watching the movie, will like your outspoken style..."
Ronald won't be unhappy, anyway, the effect is good, whatever she says is fine. Moreover, Whoopi Goldberg’s interviews are just like acting, none of them are repeated. Unlike the two leading actors who basically gave the same answers to the same questions, she also had different answers to the same questions. Reporters liked interviewing her the most.
"cheers!"
Demi Moore was also very happy, pulling Diane to talk about her proud things. Every time her husband, Bruce Willis, bossed her around, asking her to change the baby's diapers and so on. When she got impatient, he would throw a hundred dollars to Demi as a reward.
As soon as the weekend box office results came out, Demi's "Die Hard" beat Bruce's "Die Hard 2". That night, Demi gave Bruce a $100 ticket and asked him to exchange it. diaper.
And Patrick Schwytz was also overjoyed. This time the affectionate leading actor was a hit again, and updated paychecks and script invitations began to come in one after another. He has climbed from B-movies to a leading actor on the edge of the A-list, and he can add another thoroughbred horse to his family's stable.
After everyone was full of wine and food, we got in the car and headed to the airport. Ronald's special plane was waiting there, and the main crew members were going to New York to attend the premiere and promotional activities there.
(End of chapter)
