Best of Hollywood

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On May 1st, the third promotional video of "Ice Age" officially landed on major TV stations in North America, which is different from the previous two promotional videos.

The protagonists of this promotional video are not the mammoth Manny and the saber-toothed tiger Diego, but a little squirrel who is constantly grunting and fighting for his pine cones all day long.

What Blue Sky Studios and Orion Pictures didn't expect was that compared to the effects of the previous two promotional videos, this little squirrel, who can't speak and whimpers all day long, seems to have won the love of countless people overnight. .

Faced with sudden changes, Orion Pictures had to change the focus of the film's promotion, replacing the original mammoth Manny and saber-toothed tiger Diego with a little squirrel who whines all day long.

Posters, newspapers, magazines, outdoor billboards, etc., have all been replaced with a cute little squirrel image.

To this end, Orion Films directly added an additional US$5 million in promotional budget.

In addition to traditional media, "Ice Age" and a little squirrel can be seen in many well-known website forums on the Internet, and even in every corner.

Yahoo posted an enlarged picture of a small squirrel on the homepage, and immediately attracted countless Internet users who clicked in with curiosity. Many women left messages below, wanting to own a cute squirrel doll.

These are potential audiences for Ice Age.

Don't underestimate female audiences. With the gradual revival of feminism in North America, the number of female moviegoers is increasing, and often most young male audiences will choose to listen to the wishes of their female partners.

Seeing that there are only a few days left before the film's release, Orion Films contacted the theater company to hold a number of film test screenings, mainly inviting some media, film critics, and audiences of all ages.

So you can get some real data feedback.

More than 95% of the underage viewers expressed their hope to get a cute little squirrel, and the parents' praise rate was also as high as 93%, thinking that this is an outstanding animation film.

There is no better proof than the audience's favorable comments. The theater company has taken the initiative to increase the screening scale and screening rate of "Ice Age" without the request of Orion Films.

"Can you let us in together?"

At the entrance of a movie theater in Los Angeles, Jesse Lange took two five or six-year-old daughters, and kept begging the staff, "My daughter likes the little squirrel in the promotional video very much, and it happens to be her birthday today, even if there is no seat It's all right."

"I can pay for a ticket."

The cinema staff looked embarrassed. This is a test screening, not a film that has already been released. Every audience is pre-determined by the distribution company, and it is impossible to temporarily increase the number of people. "Ma'am, I am very sorry, there are no vacant seats in the theater. .”

What he said was the truth, and the film critics and the media were better off.

But the audience who came to sign up for the screening almost overwhelmed the registration website of Orion Films, and there was not even a single seat left that was originally planned to be reserved.

"I'm willing to pay double the ticket price." Jesse Lange showed a hint of pleading on his face, "Even if it's just to sit on the aisle and watch for a while."

"This..." The cinema staff was caught in a dilemma.

He really didn't know how to refuse a mother who wanted her daughter's birthday, but he couldn't agree.

"Let her take the baby in."

"You can sit in my seat." Nancy Utley came in from the outside and reached out to touch the hair of one of the little girls.

"Okay, Miss Nancy." The cinema staff recognized Nancy-Utley's identity at a glance, and there was no problem with the vice president of Orion Pictures speaking in person.

"Thank you ma'am."

"When this movie is released, I will definitely take my daughter to pay for the movie ticket." Jesse Lange felt relieved and showed gratitude.

Nancy Utley smiled and said nothing more.

However, the scene has been captured on camera and would be a great publicity stunt.

The film has not yet been officially released, and "Ice Age" has already caused a lot of response, which is enough to illustrate the appeal of this film to family audiences.

On May 8, DreamWorks and Paramount jointly produced "Clash of Heaven and Earth", a sci-fi disaster film with an investment of up to 75 million US dollars.

On Friday, the day it was released, it earned $13.62 million at the box office on the first day, $16.44 million the next day on Saturday, and $11.08 million on Sunday.

The film earned $41.14 million at the box office in its first weekend in North America.

DreamWorks has gradually shown its edge in live-action film production.

In the next summer file, there is another "Saving Private Ryan" directed by Steven Spielberg that will be released.

In December at the end of the year, DreamWorks will also produce an animated feature film "Prince of Egypt", the production cost of which is as high as 60 million US dollars.

For a while, many media compared DreamWorks with Orion Pictures.

As everyone knows, Lions Gate Pictures is about to develop.

Hollywood will soon enter a situation where the big studio monopoly is competing with the independent film studios.

The release time of "Ice Age" is set on May 15th, which can just avoid the early stage of the release of "Clash of Heaven and Earth".

Disney's "Mulan" was released on June 19th, and the two films were separated by a month or so, which can be regarded as a staggered competition.

Few animated feature films compete with each other.

The reason is very simple. The number of animated feature films released in North America in a year is limited, and the two parties can easily stagger their schedules. The competition is far less fierce than that of live-action films.

As the release of "Ice Age" is approaching, Ryan returned to Los Angeles from New Zealand. At the premiere of the film, the main members of the crew of "Inception" and "Lord of the Rings" will come.

"How's the contact with derivatives?"

Compared with film promotion, the most important thing right now is the situation of derivative products. Ryan is very clear that the main income of an animated feature film is not the box office of the film, but derivative products.

"Basically, we have already contacted you." Sofia Coppola glanced at the information in her hand, "The North American sales channel basically has no problems, and the distribution of goods has already begun."

"In some countries and regions in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia, the channel dealers will not decide whether to distribute the film on a large scale until the box office of the film is released in the first weekend in North America."

It can be seen from this that the channels of overseas distribution companies are not as good as those of the seven major Hollywood film companies, and most of the time it depends on the North American box office of the film.

"What about the theater company!" Ryan nodded, not surprised by such an answer.

"The effect of the film test screening is very good."

Nancy Utley said with a tinge of joy, "Scratch, it has become the most dazzling star in North America at the moment. Many viewers expressed that they would go to the cinema to see this little whimpering squirrel for themselves."

"In several trial screenings, more than 90% of the audience gave an "A" rating to the commercial film, and most of the underage audience hoped to get a cute little squirrel doll."

Speaking of this, Nancy Utley paused for a moment, and continued: "The theater company said that the scale of the film's opening on the first day will not be less than 3,500 movie theaters."

"As for whether we will increase the scale of screenings in the future, it depends on the box office trend of the film and the box office of other films released in May."

In May, apart from "Clash of Heaven and Earth" and "Ice Age", only one commercial film was released, and one of the films produced by Disney, "The Horse Whisperer", featured Scarlett Johansson as the main character.

However, Ryan is not very worried. The North American box office of the original version of this film is not very good, only 74 million US dollars, but the overseas box office is good, as high as 110 million US dollars.

On the whole, "The Horse Whisperer" is relatively successful.

"Where's the gift!" Ryan continued to ask.

Giveaway activities are one of the key points of film release promotion, and it is necessary to ensure that each movie theater has sufficient giveaways and a variety of them.

"The cinema companies are quite cooperative. The gifts for the first phase have already arrived in many movie theaters in North America."

"In addition, there is an urgent additional order for Scrat's character modeling products." Nancy Utley replied.

It is no exaggeration to say that the number of gifts prepared by Orion Films was so huge that it shocked the theater companies, and some small movie theater warehouses simply couldn't fit it.

Almost all the gifts, including commodities, arrived in Los Angeles in advance by sea, and only a small number of urgent additional orders needed to be shipped by air.

The shipping time by sea is too long, usually 11 to 15 days, plus time for production and distribution, so we can only choose air freight.

"In addition to the gifts in the theater, some small lottery activities can also be held on the Internet. The winning audience can use the movie tickets purchased on the day to go to the designated movie theater to receive a small gift." Ryan plans to extend the gift event from offline Movie theaters, extended to the Internet.

"Network lottery!"

Nancy Utley's eyes lit up, "This event can be put on the company's website."

The next moment, Nancy Utley got up and left in a hurry, she needed to ask someone to make an event plan as soon as possible.

As soon as Nancy Utley left, Sofia Coppola started to talk about another thing, "The search engine you plan to invest in encountered a little problem."

"The two founders stated that whether it is Orion Films or investing in private names, they can only obtain half of the voting rights of the shares."

Even if Orion Pictures acquires 51% of the shares, it will still only have 25% of the voting power at the future shareholders' meeting, and cannot gain control of the company as a controlling shareholder.

"You can agree." Ryan didn't show any surprise, and agreed directly.

In the previous life, the two founders of Google only held 13% of the company's shares, but controlled 56% of the shareholders' voting rights, and they have always firmly controlled the company.

Yahoo, by contrast, is a tragedy.

"My only requirement, Orion Films and my private investment fund, needs to participate in every round of venture capital to ensure that they hold enough shares in the future."

It is impossible for Google to grow to the size of its previous life only relying on the investment of Orion Films and Ryan, and it is necessary to introduce venture capital companies at an appropriate time.

This is an inevitable process. Only when more companies participate, can Google develop better.

All Ryan needs to do is to ensure that he holds enough shares.