Without a big premiere or a hype, "Insidious", like all small-production films, is slightly silent.

The film's publicity mainly focused on three aspects: Matthew, James - Wen Lily - Depp.

With the continuous success, Matthew has his own halo effect. He has vigorously recommended the movie "Hidden" in countless public occasions. Self-selling and boasting is a must for film investors. In his words, "Hidden" is a One of the best horror movies of 2010.

In addition, from the beginning of October, starting with TMZ, it suddenly broke out that the house where Matthew originally lived in the northern suburbs of Burbank was a veritable murder house. There had been an extremely cruel murder case, and the murderer is still in custody. In prison, no execution was carried out.

This matter was put on other people, and no one paid attention at all, but when it was put on a superstar like Matthew, it immediately became hot news.

A large number of media scrambled to report, turning over the ins and outs of this house and the previous murder case, and kept hyping it up, and even two daring paparazzi jumped over the wall and jumped into the uninhabited courtyard to shoot some videos.

This house was previously changed by James Wen for the filming of "Hidden". The dilapidated and gloomy atmosphere and the lack of popularity are a veritable haunted house no matter how you look at it.

At a publicity meeting for "Hidden", Matthew, who attended as an investor and producer, was also asked by reporters about the so-called haunted house.

"I didn't think much about it at the time. I needed a stable residence, but my acting career was just starting. I didn't have much money, so I could only choose a cheap residence, so I bought this house."

Facing many media reporters, Matthew rarely told the truth once, "There is nothing special about living in it. I have always felt very good. I have never encountered strange things. Maybe I am a natural courageous person."

In the end, he added, "Director James Wen needed an old house with a bit of history for the filming of Lurk. I thought that house was good, so I lent it to the crew for filming."

Horror movies shot in a haunted house can obviously create a corresponding atmosphere, which has also attracted great attention from fans who like horror movies.

Another important point of publicity is James Wen. Although he has a low status in the film circle, James Wen still has a certain influence among horror movie fans with several "Chainsaws".

This kind of publicity is still very effective in the new horror film "Ledding" by James Wing, the father of "Chainsaw".

Another publicity point is Lily Depp. As the woman of Johnny Depp, Lily Depp is not unfamiliar to the media and some fans.

Not to mention anything else, just being the daughter of Johnny Depp, the goddaughter of Matthew Horner and Keira Knightley, it is doomed that Lily Depp is not an ordinary person.

Because of the Child Protection Act, Lily Depp herself was unable to attend the promotional activities of the film. The crew still appropriately used her and Johnny Depp to do some articles, and even gave Lily Depp a "pirate princess" on the Internet. "'s nickname.

Compared with other small actors, Lily Depp can bring more than ten or twenty times more attention.

The second generation of big-name stars will always be the focus of the entertainment media and a very powerful force in Hollywood.

The overall propaganda scale of "Latent" is not large, but it is very targeted.

The production cost of this film is determined, and it is impossible to invest too much money in publicity from the beginning.

Originally investing $1.5 million, Matthew had the element of gambling, he bet that James Wing could create something as brilliant as "The Chainsaw".

If the announcement of any film is a little bigger, $10 million is simply not enough.

Matthew is also looking at the small-scale release of "Latent" after the targeted and appropriate publicity.

In addition, Warner Bros., as the distributor, will not immediately put too many resources on "Hidden". First, the scale and type of the film are here, and secondly, they are only the distributor and do not have the copyright of the film.

Warner Bros. has a deep partnership with Matthew, but commercial companies have never been charities.

Warner Bros. won't put too many resources into Insidious until it sees enough revenue.

One hundred and twenty theaters, it can be said that Warner Bros. has given preferential conditions to cooperate with Matthew, otherwise it will only test the screening in a dozen or twenty theaters, and then expand the scale after seeing the reaction of the test screening.

However, the targeted publicity still gave "Hidden" a certain appeal. On the first day of its release in mid-October, the film received a total of 425,000 US dollars at the box office, and the single-house performance exceeded 3,500 US dollars.

With a good box office on the first day, coupled with the word-of-mouth effect of fans who watched the film, on Saturday, the second day of its release, the attendance rate of "Latent" has increased significantly, and the average box office of a single hall on the day has risen to 5,000 US dollars. , and individual theaters even approached $10,000.

After this weekend, which was considered to be a test of water, "Latent" received a total of 1.42 million US dollars from 120 theaters in North America, and the single-house box office exceeded 10,000 US dollars!

For a horror movie, that's pretty good.

After all, this is not a major commercial production, and October is not a traditional summer and holiday season for movies.

More importantly, "Insidious" has a very good response among horror film fans. According to the data obtained by Warner Bros. in the field survey in theaters, those horror film fans have given this film a relatively high evaluation.

"To be able to make such a **** story so terrifying, James Wen is really amazing! The atmosphere is almost perfect. The suspense and horror in the first half made people sweat, and the second half of the plot turned straight but did not destroy the atmosphere at all. Instead, it adds a sense of tension and excitement to the plot! The cinematography is excellent, and the soundtrack is even more terrifying! A very good horror film!"

"It seems that James Wen is going to take over the title of the contemporary horror master. The movement of the camera, the location and time of the ghost appearing are all so accurate. Although the pace of the first half is a little slow, the later part is so exciting, and the cow The ending. This is the best horror movie Hollywood has produced in two years!"

"Senior viewers of horror movies said: It's really scary. When the male protagonist was leaving get out of class in the classroom, James Wan's name was actually written on the blackboard... So interesting, this director."

Warner Bros. is just an on-the-spot investigation for horror movie lovers. Horror movies are a major category of Hollywood movies, but not a popular genre. Enter the theater to watch a horror movie.

Horror movies that have exploded at the box office in Hollywood history, such as "The Sixth Sense", have never been the biggest selling point.

"Insidious" is a very pure horror film.

In Cinema's theater audience rating, "Latent" scored an average of "A-", and the overall media score was 70 points.

This is very rare for a horror movie, especially the type of horror movie that is becoming more and more stereotyped in Hollywood today.

"James Wing has deliberately avoided the cliché of a horror film, and the characters in the film react and act exactly what the audience on screen is doing in this situation, which is the most important point. Without revealing too much, the quick stitching of the film's horrific, gory scenes is traditional but scary enough."

"The reason why the film stands out among the many confined space ghost films is because the director has never been lazy to use blood plasma to spray the audience, and deliberately avoids tacky and mystical things, and directly throws out the real hard goods, which scares many fans to their souls. Fly away."

In terms of media evaluation, "Latent" also received generally favorable reviews.

Taking into account the performance of all aspects of the market, it is not difficult to see that "Latent" has the potential to sell well at the box office.

As a result, both Matthew and Warner Bros. increased their confidence in the film and increased their investment in publicity and distribution accordingly.

The first is to expand the screening. Starting from Monday, the number of screening theaters for "Latent" has expanded to nearly 600. Warner Bros. is still mobilizing resources and copies, especially for copies, it takes time from production to coverage to theaters.

Matthew had had enough communication with Warner Bros., and under the circumstance that "Latent" showed enough potential, Warner Bros. made it clear that it would maximize the screen size of the film this weekend, so as to strive for the weekend before Halloween. largest market share.

In the following four working days, "Hidden" guaranteed an average revenue of more than 1,000 US dollars per venue every day, and added more than 2.4 million US dollars at the North American box office in the four days.

In the run-up to a new weekend, "Insidious" had grossed nearly $3 million at the North American box office.

Even if the subsequent expansion of the screening does not go well, it is not a problem for Matthew to recover the investment of 1.5 million US dollars. After all, there are still overseas markets and surrounding TV and Internet copyrights and so on.

"Latent" was released for a week~lightnovelpub.net~ His investment has been successful.

Matthew also had a detailed chat with James Wen. The plot of "Hidden" is obviously meant to serve as a foreshadowing. The world view has not been unfolded at all. It is completely possible to make a sequel, as well as the new horror film series mentioned by James Wen. The same There is also operational value.

As an investor and producer, Matthew is very realistic, which is also a common situation in Hollywood, otherwise he will cry every minute by some unreliable projects.

In Hollywood, as across the Pacific, there is never a shortage of directors and producers with so-called movie projects swaggering.

In addition, when James Wen's new horror film project starts, Matthew is also preparing to start formal negotiations with Nicolas Cage.

A new weekend has arrived, and "Skull" has rapidly expanded its release scale, and the number of theaters has exploded to more than 3,100, making it one of the largest horror films screened this weekend before Halloween.

Subsequently, many horror films, including "Piranha 3D", have entered the theater one after another to **** the cake of the traditional Halloween horror wave.