In mid-November, the trailer for "Zombie Gigolo" was broadcast on the late-night hours of local TV stations in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
The professionals at Lionsgate Pictures cut out highlights such as the trapeze and the machine gun dance. The ad also featured Grey's late-night show, which has always had good ratings.
Then there are the trailers and posters in movie theaters. For point screenings, the distribution company invests very limited resources and only targets the target audience.
After just one week of little publicity, "Zombie Gigolo" was simultaneously screened in eight independent theaters in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Elena had a day off, and Martin made an appointment with her to go see a movie together in the afternoon. Lily shamelessly followed out.
With two adults and Lily being well developed, it was easy to sneak into the movie theater. After all, it was only R-rated, not 17-year-old.
There were many empty seats in the slightly old theater, and the three of them chose a row at the back. When they sat down, Lily slipped past Elena and sat on Martin's left side.
Elena, who was on Martin's right, glanced at her and said, "Watch the movie and watch your mouth." Lily nodded and said, "There aren't many people. Martin, no one watched the movie you acted in?" Martin took the popcorn in his hand. Pushed it to her: "Eat something and talk less." Elena handed Martin a glass of Coke and asked in a low voice: "Is the audience a little small?" There were only a few people sitting in the old cinema that could accommodate nearly 200 people. Less than forty people.
Zombie Gigolo was shown in the theater. Martin's goal has been achieved and his attitude is very good: "It's a small-budget B-level movie. It only took three months of shooting and production. We can't expect many viewers." Lily wanted to speak again, but Martin gave him a Coke. She: "Drink water." When the opening commercial was playing, Lily counted quickly and said: "Not counting us, there are 37 people." She muttered: "I did the math, the movie ticket is 6 dollars a piece, so The box office is 240 US dollars per game." Elena was curious: "What are you counting?" Martin said: "She is counting the box office."
"The movie he stars in is about to be released." Lily stretched out her finger and poked Martin: "I asked a movie magazine to study the box office calculation method." She glanced at Elena's slightly higher chest and cursed her elder sister's. Breasts are inversely proportional to brain capacity. He continued: "This film is short, only 92 minutes. It can be shown 9 times a day. Taking this afternoon show as an average, it costs 2,160 US dollars for a single venue in a single day." Elena said: "You made a mistake. Come on, it should be 1,860 US dollars." Martin would not be stupid enough to refute Elena and said: "Starting from Friday, the box office of this film in a single theater during the weekend will be almost 6,000 US dollars." Because of the number of viewers in each show Different, maybe more or less.
Elena was still counting her fingers, and finally gave up. She was surprised: "Martin, you dropped out of school earlier than me. Why can you figure it out but I can't?" Lily's mouth is faster than her brain: "Because your mind is full of things. How did you get drunk?" Elena poured a bottle of Coke upside down and hit Lily's head with a bottle from behind Martin.
With a bang, Lily became depressed. Martin quickly grabbed Elena: "Don't disturb people watching the movie." The main line and basic content of the movie remained unchanged, but some redundant shots were cut out and the scale was slightly smaller to cope with the mpAA rating.
From the beginning of the film, Lily was dumbfounded. She thought that the late-night scenes filmed by Martin, such as Ma Zhen and others, were exaggerated enough, but she didn't expect that this film would be even more exaggerated.
Trapeze! It’s also absorbing! Elena held Martin's hand tightly and pressed her body against Martin. With her character of doing whatever comes to her mind, she dared to sit directly on Martin's lap if there was no Lily next to her.
Martin quietly scratched her palm and gave her a look. Elena waited patiently and waited until she went back after watching the movie.
Lily turned her head and looked at Martin: "Were you really crazy when you were filming?" Martin glared at her: "Idiot, don't insult the art of film! Do you understand what art is?" The atmosphere in the theater was good, and the people in front of it were The audience laughed constantly and occasionally exclamated.
The audience who can come in to watch this movie are undoubtedly B-movie lovers. This bad movie takes the old zombie plasma theme and makes some new ideas, which makes them enjoy watching it.
At the end of the show, many people complained about the poor plot, but praised the actor for his originality and brilliant performance in several scenes.
Walking out of the cinema exit, Lily angrily shouted: "Which idiot thought of such a ridiculous setting, where the hero and heroine fight to their death through hairpins." Martin curled his fingers and flicked her head: "Shut up." Lily was shocked: "It's you?" Elena regretted bringing her out: "Don't force me to do it." Reading the words stuck in Lily's throat, she raised her cheeks like an extra-large frog.
Back home in the community, Lily wanted to talk to Elena about the movie she just watched, but found that the idiots Martin and Elena were missing.
She secretly went out, set up a wooden ladder, climbed to the roof, and looked around in the still bright moonlight.
Soon, I noticed that the BMW was shaking in the backyard next door.
"You're so shameless, you're just hiding away!" Lily was furious, picked up a piece of wood, and threw it towards the yard.
Soon everything was going crazy, and Elena was chasing Lily with a shotgun. Martin, Harris and Hall watch Sisterhood together.
........."Zombie Gigolo" was screened in three theaters in Atlanta, with an average box office of $6,423 per theater over the three-day weekend.
Los Angeles is better, with the average box office of each of the five theaters exceeding US$8,000. Not great, but not bad either.
The screenings are specifically aimed at the target audience. It is normal for some films with excellent screening results to earn more than 20,000 yuan in a single museum.
The worse ones are, of course, three-day or one-day tours of movie theaters. This result is enough for Lionsgate to further expand distribution and increase its promotional budget.
Advertisements and short promotional videos for the film began to appear on some websites, especially forums where B-movie enthusiasts gathered.
Television advertising and print media also invested heavily. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, "Zombie Gigolo" expanded to 54 theaters in North America, and the weekend box office surged to $425,000.
Including the previous weekend and weekday box office, the North American box office of this B-grade movie exceeded $500,000.
As for word-of-mouth, the reputation of B-level movies is all in vain. On the contrary, the three wonderful performances of the male protagonist were talked about by many B-level movie lovers on several movie websites.
Two days before Thanksgiving, Zombie Gigolo Studio received a business letter from Lionsgate Pictures and immediately notified Martin, Catherine and Benjamin to come for a meeting.
Because the studio's office space was small enough to accommodate only two operators, the meeting was held at Gray's.
Benjamin was in a very good mood, and he hugged Martin vigorously when they met: "Man, we are going to be famous." Martin smiled and said, "Is it that exaggerated?" Benjamin was the first to come over and said softly: "We are going to Los Angeles." Catherine was very happy Excited: "Go to Hollywood?" Benjamin didn't answer.
Kelly Gray brought Ella into the conference room at this time, nodded slightly to the three of them, and said: "Lionsgate has just informed us that "Zombie Gigolo" will be expanded to 650 theaters this weekend, covering the United States. All states, we succeeded." Martin leaned back on his seat, looked up at the ceiling, raised his hands and clenched them into fists, looking through many obstacles, as if he could see the sky, the sky is so blue, the sunshine is so special Splendid, bald Benjamin is so handsome, Ella's freckles are so pretty, and Kelly and Katherine are gorgeous as hell.
When you are happy, everything you look at is pleasing to the eye. Even if Lao Hei comes over, Martin can still call him handsome. Because the impact of on-demand screenings and large-scale screenings is very different.
Martin has been jumping up and down like a monkey for nearly half a year. Isn't that why? Benjamin happily banged the conference table hard, and when he saw Martin reaching over with his fist, he bumped with him.
I was too excited and exerted too much force, and I cried out in pain. Catherine was slow to react, or she hadn't yet realized what 650 theaters could bring. She pinched her face and asked, "Ms. Gray, can we go to Hollywood?" Kelly glanced at Martin and said, "Lionsgate Pictures We are going to hold a meeting with fans and media in Los Angeles to further promote the film. We invite you to go to Los Angeles. They have booked the air tickets. You will spend Thanksgiving in Atlanta and set off early on Friday morning."
"Can I go to Hollywood?" Catherine's first sentence was a question, and the second sentence became an affirmation: "I can go to Hollywood!" She suddenly screamed, hugged her blond hair, stood up and spun around.
How tempting is fame to an ordinary actor, Catherine is so excited at this moment. Even Martin kept staring at Kelly Gray and laughing.
Why should you hide your happiness? Actors naturally express their emotions. After screaming loudly, Catherine calmed down a little, sat down on the chair, and said embarrassedly: "Sorry, I lost my composure. This is...too important to me." She took the initiative to reach out her hand and high-fived Martin and Benjamin. : "Thank you! Thank you! It's a great honor for me to be able to cooperate with you." Martin smiled and nodded: "Me too." Kelly then said: "Dave gave you every opportunity during the negotiations with Lionsgate Pictures." We got a $5,000 reward, but when you get to Los Angeles, you have to cooperate with Lionsgate Pictures in the whole process." Benjamin was so excited that he even used curse words: "As long as they don't mess with me, I will definitely cooperate." Then he posted Ruthless: "Even if you mess with my ass, I will bear it!" Kelly said to the assistant: "Ella, go get the wine, we want to celebrate." Ella quickly brought champagne and goblets over, and several people were there We had a drink together in the conference room.
Benjamin and Catherine soon left hand in hand. Martin had lunch with Kelly and went to her luxury apartment.
The two of them were lying in the warm bathtub, and Kelly said: "Your wish has come true." Martin said: "Our wish has come true." Kelly did not deny that Martin won the leading role in the theater movie and got a copy With her important qualifications, her company has profited from the project and has more funds to invest in new dramas and the renovation of the studio in the automobile industrial park.
Martin thought for a while and said sincerely: "Kelly, I wish you can become a member of Parliament soon." Kelly Gray laughed: "Martin, I wish you can become a superstar soon."
