Chapter 1143 IMAX! IMAX! !

Friday, April 16th.

After about two weeks of extensive publicity across North America, on this day, it can be said that the much-anticipated "Terminator" finally stepped onto the stage of history.

As for Asia, it doesn't need any special promotion at all. Under the banner of "the first science fiction film written by Yin Jun himself", Kirin Film Company has already agreed to release it throughout Asia.

Theater owners across Asia, like audiences, are looking forward to Yin Jun's science fiction movie.

Due to the time difference, Asia is released half a day earlier than the United States.

But the scenes in both places were equally hot.

The box office of Hong Kong was HK$3.9 million on the first day, but it soared to HK$5.6 million on Saturday the next day. The box office on Sunday, the third day, still stayed at HK$4.5 million. It reached a super high box office of HK$14 million in one breath and entered Hong Kong. Among the top five films in film history at the box office during its first weekend, the poor "Police Story" was forced to drop one spot not long after it took this position.

As Yin Jun expected, in Japan, a country that loves science fiction and the United States, the box office suddenly exploded. The box office in the first weekend actually exceeded 8 million US dollars, which also set a record for Japan's box office. Four records.

South Korea is not much weaker than Japan. Their number of moviegoers in the first weekend was 1.88 million, and the box office reached about 5 million US dollars.

As the most important battlefield for ticket sales, the box office in North America is also extremely popular.

Released in 1,650 theaters and on 3,150 screens, "Terminator" grossed an astonishing first-day box office of 15.5 million, directly breaking the first-day box office record of "E.T." of 15.3 million, and becoming a record in the history of film history in North America and the world. The highest-grossing movie on its opening day.

Then the box office on Saturday was even more frightening, reaching 21.4 million U.S. dollars, setting a record for the single-day box office championship on Saturday.

Obviously, Sunday's 19.3 million also set a record for Sunday's single-day box office championship.

After three days of the first weekend, the first weekend box office record was US$56.2 million, surpassing the US$49 million of "E.T." by a whopping US$7.2 million!

Does this mean that "Terminator" is much better than "E.T."?

of course not!

As a super classic that the whole family can enjoy, "E.T." is far ahead of "Terminator" in terms of artistic achievements, overall story telling, and core meaning. It is no exaggeration at all.

Achieving such good results is entirely due to Wu Siyuan!

Because he didn't play his cards according to common sense.

To be specific, it had to be three days before the movie was released, that is, Tuesday.

Originally, there is a custom in the United States to start a midnight screening at 0:00 on the night before the release day. Specifically, for "Terminator", it can be held at 0:00 in the morning on Thursday for some who want to be the first to watch it. For the audience and the filmmakers, there won’t be too many screenings, just a few dozen or a hundred, just to create an atmosphere.

Then we waited until one day later, Friday, for the large-scale official release.

But Americans certainly don’t know that in China in the future, you can get a movie screening for three days, five days or even a week.

For example, the much-disliked "The Promise" was screened for a week, which is probably a big record in film history.

Wu Siyuan is a smart man. As the boss of a film company, he has been studying these theater chains for a long time, especially after he came to the United States to serve as the general manager of Kirin North American Theaters. He needs to find a way to make a big splash, so that his subordinates will truly admire him, so that he can do something great.

After studying for so long, he put his breakthrough point on "The Terminator".

To be precise, it is placed on the IMAX version of "Terminator".

The IMAX ticket price of "Terminator" is set at 15-20 US dollars, which is equivalent to three or four times the ticket price. If this part can be done well, it will definitely bring glory to the box office of "Terminator".

But how do you attract audiences to these 100 IMAX screens?

There has been no such experience before, and this is the first time that IMAX has appeared in commercial operations. Moreover, Kirin North America Cinemas does not have much advertising expenses, and more conventional publicity is required.

So Wu Siyuan finally decided on Dianying.

He directly used the 100-screen IMAX screen as the screening location for "Terminator" and screened it three days in advance. The first and only screening on Tuesday was at 8 o'clock in the evening.

For this screening, Wu Siyuan charged the lowest ticket price - US$15, and then invited more than 60 film critics and 200 film and entertainment reporters from across the United States to watch.

It should be said that the screenwriter of "E.T.", the screenwriter of "Beverly Hills Cop", the screenwriter of "Saw", the screenwriter of "Happy Hotel", the chief planner of "American Idol", the screenwriter and director of "Speed"... Yin Jun, who has a dazzling identity, is famous enough, and there are many viewers who entered the screening of "Terminator" because of his reputation.

Coupled with the intensive publicity for more than a week in the past, those wonderful clips, Schwarzenegger's ferocious robot face, etc., have really attracted the eyes of North American audiences, so there are many viewers in this segment.

Therefore, even though the ticket price is as high as 15 US dollars per game, and it is an IMAX screen hall that I have never heard of, when the screening started, the occupancy rate of the 150 full seats still reached 60%, which is already very high. ’s numbers.

Obviously, such a screening party directly suppressed this group of rubes.

Whether they are film critics, reporters, or ordinary viewers, they all seemed to be possessed when they came out, in a state of confusion, and they did not wake up from the shock at all.

When they regained their consciousness, they became extremely excited.

Because everyone knows that they are witnessing history and a completely different film form, which may very well change everything!

"Hey, William? Brother, don't go to the bar tomorrow night. Brother will take you to see a movie. I guarantee you have never seen a movie like this in your life... Get out! It's a serious movie. You'll know it after watching it. Got it!"

"I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy... No, Jason, I'm not crazy, I'm just so excited, my God! IMAX, I've witnessed a miracle! It's so awesome, so awesome!..."

"Hey, dear Lina, let's go see a movie tomorrow night, okay? Believe me, this must be the most shocking movie you have ever seen in your life!"

"I'm telling you, you don't even think you've seen the movie before you've seen the IMAX version of the movie! If you don't believe it, go to the IMAX at Kirin Cinema tomorrow to see it. Only after watching it will you know what it means to live a life without regrets!"

"No, no, Will, it's your biggest regret that you didn't go see IMAX today! Don't be reluctant to spend 15 dollars, you must go see it tomorrow! That will be the greatest enjoyment of your life!!"

"..."

Compared with ordinary people, professional journalists and film critics were extremely excited to write reviews and publish them in major newspapers the next day.

"It has been almost a hundred years since the creation of movies, it has been sixty years since the sound film was created, and it has been more than thirty years since the color film. Now we have Finally, another historical change has ushered in! Welcome, IMAX! The movie world is wonderful with you!" - "Chicago Post" Philip Manra

"Thank you Mr. Yin Jun, thank you Mr. Cameron, thank you Schwarzenegger, thank you to the IMAX staff! This is the most shocking day since I became a film critic! The audience will not watch the IMAX version of "Terminator" It's your loss!" - New York Times film critic Robert Catton.

"Oh my god, I never thought I could get such a high level of enjoyment from watching a movie! It's even more memorable for me than a meal at a Michelin three-star restaurant. Tomorrow, I will talk about being an ordinary person. The audience should watch another IMAX version of "Terminator" because I like it so much!" - Don Lawrence, "Los Angeles Film News".

"When the T800 was displayed in front of me in an oppressive form, I was shocked by the efforts of the director and technicians! This is great technology! This is great innovation! It's great! I have to give it to you Give it 10 points, "Terminator"!! No regrets at all!" - Daniel Round, the famous film critic.

"'Terminator' ends everything! Five-star recommendation! Five-star recommendation! Five-star recommendation! You must see the IMAX version! You must see the IMAX version! You must see the IMAX version!" - "Miami Daily News" 》Vince Howard.

"..."

As the saying goes, a single spark can start a prairie fire.

There is also a saying that if you only need to know six people, then people all over the world can be related to you.

Not to mention that nearly 9,000 people watched the IMAX movie last night!

Ordinary viewers can only promote it within their own circle of friends, but those film critics and reporters, even if they do not accept red envelopes, will publicize such things vigorously, not to mention that the Kirin Group is so sensible and gives Received generous retouching fees.

So they all praised the IMAX version of "Terminator" to the sky, and no one said it was bad.

In this way, people all over North America can see various praises about the IMAX version of "Terminator" in newspapers and news.

Americans also like novelty gadgets very much. Seeing that everyone praises the IMAX version of "Terminator" to the sky, of course they want to see it!

Although there are not many IMAX theaters with 100, they are all located around major cities in the United States, so they are relatively easy to find.

So when they had time, they went to the cinemas of Kirin North America Cinemas.

As a result, when they got there, many people discovered that today's screening was only scheduled for 5:30 in the afternoon, and the tickets were completely sold out.

How does this work?

So a group of people started making noises. In the end, with no other choice, the managers finally came out and announced that there would be another one.

How about one session?

There are only 150 seats, how many people can it satisfy?

Okay, okay, you guys have the final say, then let’s have another one!

However, because it is a temporary extra show, the movie ticket price cannot be cheaper and can only be increased to 20 US dollars.

For these audiences who want to watch movies, this is actually bearable. After all, they have resigned themselves to increasing the number of screenings.

Then the number of screenings on the second day reached three, which brought about 800,000 US dollars in box office revenue to Kirin North America Cinemas. The single-day box office of a single hall and a single hall almost exceeded 10,000 US dollars!

There is no doubt that the audience on the second day were also conquered by the giant screen display they had never seen before.

They also went crazy to promote IMAX and "Terminator", which made the reputation even better.

On the third day, which is the last day before the official release, three screenings were also arranged. The result today was even more exaggerated. Within half an hour after ticket sales started at 9 a.m., 150 of all 100 IMAX theaters There wasn't a single seat left, they were all taken.

The seats were full, and it also brought a total box office of 900,000 to the theater, as well as full praise and satisfaction.

With the continuous publicity and crazy praise from tens of thousands of people, the influence is even greater.

So, starting from the midnight show at 0:00 on Friday, IMAX simply announced that it would add early morning shows specifically for interested audiences, with two shows at 3 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and the price dropped to $15.

For the six daytime shows starting at 9 a.m., all tickets are $20 each, with no price reduction.

Originally, this was a price that would be scolded, but the movie fans who had been carried away by the crazy public opinion and praise could not care about it. They started queuing up from early in the morning, and buying tickets was like stealing!

Therefore, the number of screenings in the IMAX hall miraculously reached nine per day, three more than expected, and the price has increased a lot. There are no $15 tickets for the screenings during normal times.

In the three days of the opening weekend, IMAX's contribution to the box office was a miraculous amount of more than 2 million US dollars. This is one of the keys for "Terminator" to surpass "E.T." at the box office.

It was also driven by IMAX that the attendance rate of the general halls also exploded from the beginning, reaching more than 80%. This made the bosses of many theater chains so happy that they even made Disney and Disney in charge of distribution. The deputy director of United Artists Films was overjoyed and quickly contacted more theaters to increase the scale of the screening again in the second week, striving to make it a super hit movie around the world and break the world box office record of "E.T."!

"Terminator" has become a carnival among movie fans, public opinion, theaters and movie companies.

The unknown director James Cameron, who was derided as a truck driver, suddenly became a hot new director in Hollywood.

Schwarzenegger, the bodybuilding champion who was originally ridiculed by others, became famous overnight because of this!

Even Wu Siyuan, who created a new model of point-and-shoot movies, was praised by industry insiders as "a wise man from the East". His subordinates simply admired him!

This is the magical charm of movies, this is the carnival of entertainment in peaceful times! !