Chapter 994 994 Strong Echo
October 14th, Friday, was originally a very ordinary day. Although four films premiered at the same time this week, it still could not change the sluggishness and desertion of the autumn season. After three months of excitement and heat in the summer , the entire film market has entered an incubation period, and will not be rejuvenated until Christmas comes at the end of the year.
Before the 21st century, autumn has always been considered the most tasteless time, even more boring than winter and spring. The autumn season is generally considered to end from September to November. First, it is not as lively as the winter season from December to February, when the awards ceremonies come on stage, and secondly, it is not as good as the spring season, which is warmed up for the summer season. The autumn season is always Makes people uninterested.
This situation was not broken until 2001's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", which was released on Halloween in the first week of November. The result was a huge success, which also made people realize that ten January includes Halloween and Thanksgiving, which is clearly a very promising market. After that, the sky-high box office of "Twilight" made the holiday season the largest ticket warehouse in the second half of the year.
Therefore, after entering the 21st century, the autumn and winter seasons were re-divided. September and October became the autumn season, November and December became the holiday season, and January and February were regarded as the winter season. February to February is awards season.
Even so, the autumn season is still tasteless and is considered to be the transitional time between the summer season and the holiday season. In this period, most of them are small-budget productions, but even small-budget productions are reluctant to choose the fall season: horror movies want to fit Halloween, comedy movies want to step on Thanksgiving, family movies want Christmas, and so on. Come on, the ones that entered the autumn season are all the works abandoned by some production companies.
The products produced by the investment had to be launched, but the results of the works were unsatisfactory, and they could easily become cannon fodder in the highly competitive schedule. As a result, the tasteless autumn stall has become a garbage concentration camp.
Then, in the second decade of the 21st century, the awards season has become more and more influential. October has also become the outpost of the awards season, and the Toronto Film Festival, which has a strong rise, is in September, but even so, the autumn season is still It's tasteless. In September, the North American film market was all about Canada, and October's awards-season titles were widely considered to be less competitive. It can be seen how deserted the autumn file is.
In October 1994, the bitter autumn wind was swirling in the air. The sky was full of red and yellow maple leaves fluttering in the wind. But it is such a schedule that has been despised and abandoned by countless people, but it has set off an unprecedented frenzy, which has inspired the entire North American film market.
On October 14th, more than ten major cities in the United States actually opened midnight screenings, and many cities were strongly requested by local audiences to temporarily open main screening halls.
As we all know, midnight shows are synonymous with desertion. Most audiences are reluctant to go to the cinema at twelve o'clock in the morning, except for couples who are dating, anxious people with insomnia, and unemployed homeless people. Midnight shows are basically the time when major theaters have discounts and continuous screenings for promotions. Often, for the price of one movie during the day, you can watch three or four midnight movies.
Therefore, there is no doubt that the midnight show is deserted. It was not until after the 21st century, after the birth of fan movies, that the midnight show box office gradually entered people's field of vision, including the "Harry Potter" series and the Marvel movie series. Movies in the 2020 will be counted at the midnight box office data.
This time, the major theater chains obviously did not expect it. Except for a few big cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, which prepared midnight screenings of "Pulp Fiction", most other cities did not arrange midnight screenings. Instead, the filming starts in the morning.
However, after the news that Hugo and other actors were absent from the publicity and not holding the official premiere came out, it detonated the curiosity of all the audience and the enthusiasm of the fans, and there was a wave of calls for the screening to start at midnight on the 14th. After a wave. This situation caught most of the cities by surprise. Only a few cities such as Houston, Philadelphia, and Boston responded immediately, and promptly opened a midnight special session of "Pulp Fiction", which quickly received a response from the audience.
According to incomplete statistics, a total of 14 cities had midnight screenings. Since the "Pulp Fiction" film set exceeded 150 minutes, only three rounds of screenings could be played before the morning market opened. 130,000 spectators came to watch the movie. If it is calculated on the basis of nine dollars a movie ticket, this means that "Pulp Fiction" only relies on the midnight show to earn $1.17 million at the box office. This data really blows everyone's eyes.
What is even more frightening is that after the midnight screening, almost all of them are obsessed and crazy with "Pulp Fiction", although the audience participating in the midnight screening is itself a fanatic, which makes the audience feedback mixed with a certain amount of water. But the crazy scene at the entrance of the major movie theaters still made everyone stunned.
The frenetic scene reminds people of the situation after the premiere of "Life and Death", but "Life and Death" is the premiere, only limited to the city of Los Angeles, even if the momentum is huge, the scope of influence is limited, Moreover, the premiere has the effect of intensifying the enthusiasm of the audience. The appearance of actors, the interaction of the crew, the interviews of reporters, etc. are all catalysts.
But this time, "Pulp Fiction" was held at midnight, and it was also held in 14 cities across the United States. As a result, the scene at the entrance of each movie theater was similar. People were either imitating the Twist dance that was popular in the 1970s, or in The plot of the movie was discussed in full swing, and many people even reluctantly stayed at the entrance of the movie theater, preparing to enter the movie theater to watch it for the second time - but unfortunately they had to be stranded because they couldn't buy movie tickets.
Such a grand event made almost every well-informed reporter stunned.
This is not just a trend that can be driven by a movie, it is more of an influence produced by a cultural phenomenon. It's as if "Elvis" Elvis Presley was born, and countless people learned his dance and his hairstyle; as if Michael Jackson's spacewalk appeared, which triggered a learning frenzy; as if the Beatles landed After the United States, their every move has driven the trend. It's a cultural imprint that people can't help but go crazy about.
Can "Pulp Fiction" Drive a Cultural Wave?
This is almost the pinnacle that a movie can achieve. For example, the "Godfather" of that year has an influence on the entire American society in all aspects, and even makes many people hate it. hand. The party has longed for it; for example, "A Clockwork Orange", its influence permeated all aspects of music, dress, sayings, movies, etc. Even after forty years, the details of this movie can still be seen everywhere.
This cultural influence takes the film out of the entertainment category and into an art!
Now, "Pulp Fiction" has just been released, and it is only a midnight show. It is naturally too early to discuss these things, but it is undeniable that the violent wavelength caused by the midnight show has shocked the major media. "Pulp Fiction" suddenly set off a frenzy in the autumn windy October, making people mistakenly think that summer has just arrived.
Because the response of many theater chains was a beat late, the midnight show was not arranged in time, so that they could only watch the hot scene of the competitor's midnight show. At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, there is a long queue at the entrance of the cinema, and hundreds of spectators can't wait to snap up a ticket. This scene is definitely a miracle.
Those theaters who missed the midnight show are all beating their chests, shopping malls are like battlefields, and missing an opportunity is often a heavy loss.
In the fall, the midnight show, with only 1,400 theaters, under a series of unfavorable circumstances, "Pulp Fiction" was fully released in the United States within less than six hours. Strong response from the audience.
When the film critics woke up, they had missed the first time, which really caught them off guard. Generally speaking, the reviews of film critics will always be the first to appear. After the audience has read the film reviews, they have a rough estimate of the film, and then decide whether to enter the theater for viewing, so the word of mouth of the premiere is very important.
But this law does not apply to "pulp fiction".
On the one hand, the good reputation of the Cannes Film Festival has already crossed the ocean and is gradually fermenting in the United States; Under such circumstances, the midnight show was the first to land, so that the audience led the film critics to make their own voices, "I love this work!"
This is also a rare sight in the North American film market.
The film critics who are in a backward position will naturally not let the audience alone, and they all walk into the cinema one after another, wanting to watch the film for the first time and then make a comment. But without the premiere, after the critics lacked a relaxed platform, the popularity of "Pulp Fiction" made them feel a little constrained: because buying movie tickets is really not an easy task, they have to interact with those avid audiences. "Grab a ticket" - this is really a rare situation for film critics.
Famous film critic Amond Camby expressed his opinion on this, "Such a lively movie viewing craze, which has not been felt for many years since 'Alien E.T', makes our expectations high, It's better that this movie doesn't let us down, otherwise the outcome will be horrific."
Amond worked for the "New York Times". Last year, when Hugo was filming "Pulp Fiction", he was the banner figure of the opposition. But a year later, things are different, and Amond seems to have become a supporter of Hugo. , so what does he think of "Pulp Fiction"?
Today's "Pulp Fiction" that pushes people's curiosity and expectations to the highest point, is it a fulfillment of expectations or a big disappointment? Tricky and mean film critics are about to come out!