Six Hundred and Twenty-Seven-Hollywood’s “Long Legs” Theory

It is almost no surprise that a film with a huge reputation among the audience will have great stamina. You know, the first line of people who go into theaters to watch movies are not the media or film critics. They are usually staring at the data. The first line of movie sinking is always the audience.

Therefore, the audience's reputation, especially the large-scale positive reviews, can really be converted into real money and movie box office.

During the break at noon, a few people had a brief chat. As work began in the afternoon, Naomi Watts took the initiative to hide in the director's office and wait for Wayne to finish his work.

In fact, even though Sofia Coppola gave her own speculation hint, the Australian actress is still not optimistic about this film, especially not the global box office that can exceed one billion US dollars. The audience's overwhelming reputation can indeed change the box office trend to some extent, but even if the improvement is large, the film's first weekend box office is still 28 million US dollars!

Since Hollywood entered the 1990s, the biggest change has been the strong development of the global film market. The great success of the globalization strategy has resulted in the production of one or two movies with extremely high box office almost every year.

But Naomi Watts has noticed that even though there are films with eye-catching box office success every year, the top ten positions in film history have actually changed very little. If it hadn't been for Wayne's "Batman: Darkness" in the middle of this year, "Knight" has swept the world with great expectations. I am afraid that the box office list of film history will not change this year.

This is very telling. Even now, the media is not like in previous years, always hyping that a film's box office can exceed 300 million in North America and 1 billion globally. Countless examples in a few years have made everyone wake up. The North American box office has exceeded 300 million, and the global box office has exceeded 1 billion. It is still the result of a very small number of people and a very small probability of luck.

Counting all the films that have grossed over a billion dollars at the global box office, none has achieved such poor results in its opening weekend. Therefore, she determined that even if the box office of "Titanic" is strong, the market size in North America will be about 100 million yuan at most.

Obviously, the development of things has always been in line with Naomi Watts' expectations. When the time comes to the last day of work this week, the "Flash" crew has finished all filming. In time for another weekend, most of the crew have disbanded at the studio.

The box office of "Titanic" has basically not improved at all, and it still maintains the appearance of being neither popular nor popular.

Three days passed by in the blink of an eye again. On Monday morning, 20th Century Fox announced the second weekend box office of "Titanic" through its media. In a short period of time, the entire Hollywood and the entire North American entertainment media lost their due. the sound of.

Compared with the 28 million US dollars at the box office in the first weekend, the movie made a crazy 35 million US dollars in three days the next weekend, even though professionals and media were not optimistic about it.

Compared with the first weekend, the box office bucked the trend in the second weekend. Such a spectacle in film history was proudly revealed by 20th Century Fox when no one was prepared.

You know, "Titanic" is not without strong competitors. "Starship Troopers" is like a little dark horse that has always performed very well. Miramax's "Good Will Hunting," released the week after "Titanic," also grossed over 30 million at the box office.

But it seems that no matter how strong the other films are, this big ship is surprisingly stable and moves forward unhurriedly. All competitions are like small splashes in the sea, being slowly rolled over by this big ship.

"One week."

On Monday morning, agent Jimmy opened the door to the living room of Greenberg Manor with a stack of newspapers under his arm. His first words after sitting down mentioned "Titanic" which made countless people lose their voices. "In more than a week after Titanic was released, there was a girl who watched the movie more than 50 times like crazy! F**k, she almost slept in the cinema."

And what he was talking about was just the girl who had the most views. Jimmy threw it on the coffee table in the entertainment newspaper. There were many reports on this aspect, and more girls who had watched it dozens of times were interviewed by reporters.

"I would rather sleep in the cinema in order to see Lao one more time!"

"Although I cry every time I watch the movie, Laiao is so handsome..."

"I'm willing to spend every last penny in my pocket to come to Leonardo DiCaprio!"

"..."

Jimmy shook his head, looked at the people on the sofa, and sighed: "These girls are so crazy!"

"Who says you can't make money by selling your face?" Wayne shrugged and picked up a newspaper with a smile.

As he expected, the media that had previously criticized Leonardo DiCaprio for selling his face now made him famous, as if the previous harsh comments did not exist, and began to hype Leonardo DiCapri again. Oh, the great love performed.

"The tone of the media has changed too quickly!"

Tilting her head and looking at the newspaper, Naomi Watts said helplessly: "The box office of 'Titanic' hasn't exceeded 100 million US dollars yet, right? These people can't wait to make the movie hit the sky."

"Have you ever seen any film that can buck the trend and increase the box office the next weekend?" Throwing the newspaper back on the coffee table, Wayne picked up the coffee in front of him, took a sip and continued: "This can be regarded as the best in the history of movies. It’s a miracle, the audience’s word-of-mouth is so powerful that it changes all market rules.”

As a Hollywood movie director, seeing the miracles performed by James Cameron, it would be false to say that he was not envious and jealous. Even he felt a sour taste in his heart for no reason.

In the entire history of film, there is no director who can pretend to be so good in front of his peers all over the world like Truck Driver. To be precise, even the later "Avatar" did not have as many viewers as this movie. The pace of "Titanic"'s miracles is still just the beginning.

Naomi Watts stared at the newspaper and murmured softly. "The staying power caused by word-of-mouth among fans..."

"That's right, staying power." Wayne nodded and sighed with regret: "But don't think too much, there is basically no way to replicate such a scene."

‘Stamina’, this is actually the name translated into Chinese, and the word is called ‘legs’ in the circle. Legs, yes, thighs! If a film performs well at the premiere, but then plummets at the box office, it is most likely due to a bad reputation among the audience, which means it lacks "stamina", which is commonly known as "short legs".

And if a movie's box office is not impressive in the first week, after the second week, the box office will gradually become strong, stable, and lasting. That means the movie has a good reputation among viewers, has great stamina, and is really long-legged! From some aspects, men like long legs no matter where they are...

In general, fans with a foundation of adaptations are interested in movies (such as those adapted from DC, Marvel, and various literary comics), sequels (movies with successful predecessors, such as Saw, Fast and Furious series), blockbusters, etc. The first-day and first-week box office results of Mihua Shuang will account for a relatively high proportion of the film's final box office.

If a film can account for the above two or three factors, then the film's premiere box office share will be higher. A typical example is the Marvel "Avengers" series, which has a fan base and is also a hit sequel and blockbuster. Rice krispie properties. Although this kind of film has the "short-legged" attribute, it can attract huge amounts of money in a short period of time, and it can achieve terrifying box office results in a few weeks.

Of course, this truth is not absolute. It does not mean that such films cannot have "long legs". For example, "The Dark Knight", whether it is the Nolan version in Wayne's head or produced by him himself This version also has a huge fan base and is a sequel to a popular movie. The only thing missing is the popcorn attribute.

Due to the film's well-made production and excellent overall quality, it aroused crazy good reviews from movie fans as soon as it was released. Not only did the box office explode in the first weekend, but the subsequent box office trends were also surprisingly stable due to the good word-of-mouth effect. Although it has similar attributes, it is also a typical example of "long legs".

In fact, what can affect the length of "legs" is not only the audience's reputation, but also the most important schedule. As we all know, the two periods in North America that are most likely to generate high box office numbers are the frenetic summer period and the New Year period at the beginning of the year, also called the Christmas period.

The summer season seems to be extremely frenetic, with high-box-office movies frequently released, but in fact it is more "short-legged". Because the main crowd during this period is students and teenagers on vacation.

Film companies that Hollywood is pursuing have also placed their top films in this schedule. As a result, in the current summer season, there will be more than two major productions every weekend. , it is difficult for the film to be "lasting" because of the audience's word-of-mouth.

On the other hand, for the audience, they can see more than two new films every weekend. Therefore, during the first weekend of the new film's release, most teenagers have already gathered to watch it for the first time. The later box office mainly relies on return parties and Passers-by, this is the main reason for the "short legs" of summer blockbusters.

"Gene Era"

The so-called New Year's Eve is exactly the time when "Titanic" got stuck. Especially around Christmas, the production companies and theater companies have a tacit understanding of the films released at this time, and they are shown on a long-term basis.

In the warm atmosphere of festivals and holidays, the entertainment and pastime of most North American families is to go out together as a family and go to the theater to watch a movie.

Both are New Year's Eve, but North America is very different from us in this aspect. The New Year period here is also called the Spring Festival period, and the box office explosion time is concentrated in the seven days after the New Year. Once this legal holiday passes, the box office will fall off a cliff.

The New Year's Eve movies in North America don't start as explosively as ours. On the contrary, their durability is much better. If you look closely, you can find that many of the so-called classic "long legs" in Hollywood are from this period. .

Perhaps the competition in this period is not so strong, and the box office is not so easy to explode, but the durability is second to none. As a result, many independent and literary-oriented films produced by small companies are favored to be placed in this schedule.