Five Hundred and Twenty-Three - Cutting Leeks

"The Departed" took advantage of the huge marketing effect of the Oscars to return to the top five in the weekly box office rankings. Even if this film returns to theaters on a large scale, a large number of fans will once again go to the theaters to buy tickets to watch, but later Warner Bros. The survey found that the film still has mixed reviews among ordinary audiences.

The fact is that this is not a movie suitable for everyone, especially for female viewers. The large number of foul language, slang, violent and bloody scenes in the film, etc., all invisibly set up a threshold for viewing.

However, the effect Warner Bros. wanted has been achieved, and the film has also received the honor it deserves. Although the box office explosion is suspected of being short-lived and only lasted less than a week, it still contributed nearly 20 million US dollars to the film again.

It's just a pity that despite the film's short-term box office explosion, it still failed to make the total box office in North America exceed or approach 200 million US dollars. This lasted until the second week of April. Warner Bros. was unable to do anything and immediately made a decision to let the film A complete decision to downgrade to avoid affecting subsequent operations.

In fact, Warner Bros. had already made various follow-up preparations when the film began to compete for the Olympics. The day after "The Departed" was completely removed from North America, the video tape of the film was officially released worldwide, not only in Blockbuster stores across the United States completed their stockings in advance, and the video tape of "The Departed" appeared in audio stores, large convenience stores, etc. in major cities almost on the same day.

With the honor of six Oscar statuettes, especially the honor of Best Picture, as soon as the video tape was released, there were people queuing up to buy it everywhere.

"Damn it, Auburn, I don't have enough pocket money!"

In a Blockbuster store in a community of color in the center of downtown Los Angeles, a Mexican teenager said helplessly to the black boy next to him: "Damn, we came here so early and queued up, and we had to wait for two people." I just came in hours ago, and I didn’t expect the price of the video tape of “The Departed” to be like this!”

That's right, this time "The Departed" carries the Oscar reputation, and there are only two prices for the video tape. The first is the regular version, priced at $11.99, and the second is the director's cut extended version, which comes in an Oscar commemorative gift box and is priced at $11.99. For $33.99, it comes with six exquisite statuette keychains and a commemorative Oscar poster.

Apart from these two pricing and versions of video tapes, there are no other options. This pricing method directly hits the bottom line of many people's acceptance.

The black boy obviously didn't expect this kind of pricing. The two of them praised the pocket money very much, thinking that the regular version would be the same as "Batman", priced at around $9.9. In fact, both of them could afford it for more than ten dollars, but both of them obviously fell in love with the Oscar commemorative gift box set at a glance.

"Ayton, how about we pool our money together and buy this commemorative edition?" A black boy named Auburn rolled his eyes and suggested: "Buy it back and let's go to your house to watch it together, and then each of us can hold it. A week. Think about it, in the extended version, I heard that director Wayne Greenberg deliberately edited a lot of "restricted-rated" scenes."

When the Mexican boy heard the word "restricted", he looked at each other with a smile and took the initiative to hand over a handful of change in his pocket. The two boys stood in front of the shelves and counted their assets together.

Perhaps for many adults, "The Departed" has no mystery. Even though it won six Oscars at this year's Oscars, the genre of the film determines that it does not meet the expectations of female audiences.

But from another perspective, the allure of such clearly labeled R-rated films, especially Oscar-winning R-rated films, to young people is simply fatal. Just mentioning the possibility of some of these scenes will make every teenager's eyes light up.

This isn't one of those damn rich areas, and no one cares whether these tapes are sold to adults.

"Hey, wait."

The black boy Auburn was counting money with his head down, but his companion suddenly patted him on the shoulder, pointed to a position behind the shelf, and said, "Look at this."

“what the f**?!”

The two boys were attracted to a spot at the back of the shelf. It was also a video tape of "The Departed". It was indeed marked on it. It was the director's cut extended version. The only difference from the Oscar gift box commemorative box was that this was not a gift box. , which does not contain Oscar-related memorabilia.

The most important thing is that the same director's cut extended version of "The Departed" is priced at $19.99! The two people couldn't help but get closer and observe, and found that this special version was not sold alone, but could only be purchased together with the Oscar commemorative gift pack on the shelf next to it.

After watching carefully back and forth, the two also discovered that the video tape of the director's cut of the extended version of "The Departed" alone was $19.99, and the separate Oscar commemorative gift box was $9.9. When the two were added together, they were less than $30, but they were the same as the $33.99 one. Gift boxed in U.S. dollars, no difference.

The two boys looked at each other again, as if they had discovered some huge secret. They tacitly picked up a video tape and an Oscar gift box, lowered their heads and went to the cashier to pay, until the employee who collected the money turned pale. After changing and putting away the change, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

The same situation is happening not only in this Blockbuster store, but also in sales outlets in cities all over North America. It is happening almost non-stop, and it is getting more and more intense.

In less than a day, the video tapes that Warner Bros. had prepared for sale for at least three days were all consumed. Major distribution networks in North America put calls to urge replenishment to the markets affiliated with Warner Bros. Distribution Department. Marketing department. The extremely hot sales situation lasted for a whole week. When the statistical reports of sales data were placed on the desks of Jeff Robinov and Wayne in the studio, they saw the specific figures. Numbers, although the two people were far apart, they showed the same bloodthirsty smile.

"North American video tape sales in the first week were US$145.5 million! Global sales were US$290.2 million!" Ignoring the specific statistical analysis on the report, Jeff Robinov shouted out in surprise, regardless of He picked up the half-burned cigar in his hand and looked up at the distribution director sitting across the table.

"Are the statistics wrong? Damn it, when did R-rated movie tapes become so profitable?!"

The current video sales data of "The Departed" this week is half that of the original hit "Batman Begins." This result almost blinded the CEO of Warner Bros. Obviously, this data is either There is a statistical error, or it breaks the laws of the market for some reason.

Otherwise, even if the film is enhanced by Oscar's marketing capabilities, it is absolutely impossible to achieve such horrific sales results.

"If I were you, I would take a closer look at the sales data and the specific statistical analysis." Bruce Rosenblum had obviously thought of this situation, and he spread his hands in a funny way as a reminder.

Jeff Robinov raised his finger and pointed at him. This time he lowered his head and looked at it carefully from beginning to end. After ten minutes slowly passed, he raised his head again and looked over. However, there was a sense of surprise on his face. , even heavier than when I first saw the total sales amount.

"Genius idea, genius sales method, Bruce, you are really an expert in this field!"

Among all video tape sales data, the one that ranks first and accounts for about 65% of sales is the so-called director's cut extended version, plus a combination of Oscar peripheral commemorative gift boxes. Next is the $9.9 regular version with the second most purchases.

"By widening the price gap between the two versions and removing the middle price range, buyers are left with two choices. Of course, the most people will buy the regular version, but once they want to buy the gift box, they will be confused. Its high price creates doubts. Then, buyers will find that the $19.99 director’s cut extended version and the $9.90 Oscar peripheral commemorative gift box, which are separated but must be purchased together, are indeed genius marketing techniques.”

Bruce Rosenblum leaned on his office chair and talked about the process in a calm voice. Having said this, he suddenly raised his arm and waved it. "As long as a normal person wants to buy a special gift box set priced at US$33.99, he will inevitably choose to buy a two-in-one that adds up to less than US$30. The contents are actually the same, but it is US$4 cheaper. I believe no one Can withstand this temptation.

Moreover, you should have noticed it too, right? The main purpose of this is to allow most people to actively ignore the cheapest regular version and directly target the more expensive one.

However, you praise me too early. Is this sales pricing method? I overheard Wayne talking about it when I was a guest at Greenberg Manor. He called this method toothpaste-style cutting of leeks. ...Obviously, this sales method is really effective, that guy has a thorough understanding of human nature! "

The two people looked at each other silently at first, then turned around with grins and looked in the direction of Warner Studio through the large floor-to-ceiling windows of the office. "That guy Wayne is going to make a fortune again this time..."

At this time, in the interim director's office at Warner Studios some distance away from Burbank, Charles Rowan's eyes revealed shock, his head moving back and forth between the sales statistics and Wayne's face. Keep looking up and looking down, looking up and looking down.

"Shit, Wayne, you have to treat me this time." Reacting to his gaffe, Charles Rowan leaned back on his chair and shouted loudly: "Don't think I don't know, all the proceeds from "The Departed" Half of it is yours, F**K, investing in projects under your own studio can make money much faster than if you were a director!"

There is no secret to senior producers about the profits of video tapes. The production cost of each tape is less than 30% of the sales price. This cost is only US$9.9 for the price. For the ordinary version, other versions with almost no additional cost but much higher sales prices are simply huge profits among huge profits.

Not to mention those individual Oscar peripheral commemorative gift packages, the cost of those things will only be lower, just a few metal keychains. Once the factory assembly line is started, tens of thousands of them can be produced in a short time.