Chapter 249 It looks glamorous on the outside, but it is actually losing money and making money

   Born as a human being, all are leeks.

  As long as people have desires, the merchants will definitely raise the scythe of harvest.

Although "Titanic" has swept the entire box office market, smashing its competitors in the Christmas file in 1997, and made countless audiences actively contribute their wallets while being distraught, this does not mean that the public There is no money in my pocket.

"Titanic" has indeed become a social topic, and the audience covers a wide range of audiences, but there are very few people who are willing to spend their fortunes on it, and those who have watched it more than a dozen times are **** fans, but other than that In addition, the rest of the guys will only watch it once or twice if they die. In this way, how to make profits from these people under pressure has become the primary goal of the merchants.

   The children are the first to be targeted, because their money is the best earned.

   On January 23, the "New York Times" published an "objective" review of "Harry Potter" first.

   On January 25th, George Lucas was interviewed by FOX and talked about his inner worries.

   On January 27, David Olsen, who broke into the top 100 of the "Fox" Global Rich List, described the helplessness of life.

   On January 29, Steven Spielberg said in an interview with CBS that he wanted to make "Harry Potter".

   On the surface, none of the four bombings hit the target accurately.

Because children between the ages of eight and twelve don't read The New York Times at all. They don't know who is Lucas, who is Olsen, and who is Spielberg, but it doesn't matter, their parents know That's it.

After "Home Alone", America has never produced a serious kid king. In addition, in the past month, the family celebrations that should belong to children have become the love season for young people, with the greatest consumption potential. The children were neglected, so when the "Harry Potter" was pre-heated for sales, the parents who were compensating for the children quietly revealed the news, and when the first child got the book , magic, they easily knocked open their little world.

  On the first day, people who didn't know who the author of "Harry Potter" bought 60,000 books.

  In the first week, the sales volume of "Harry Potter" has already exceeded 500,000.

   While stocking up one after another, "Harry Potter", the mountain monster, showed its power.

  Before "Harry Potter", how many children have seen magical protagonists based on their own age?

Like "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park", the core selling point of "Harry Potter" is number one. For the first time, it created a magical world for children and sold its contents to children. Fantasy and beauty.

  When children naively ask their parents if the wizarding world really exists, and if the Boy Who Lived is really a wizard, "Harry Potter" has already succeeded.

   And what it will do next is to take over from Roland Allen and grow up slowly with a generation.

  Of course, the fact that the book sells so fast has something to do with the comparison mentality among the children.

  The most popular children's book on the market, if my classmates have it and I don't, isn't that a loss?

   While snapping up, the book topped the bestseller list.

  At this time, I am the only one in the class, so I am the brightest kid in the class!

  As long as parents can afford it, sales will skyrocket!

  The second one targeted by merchants is young men.

   "Titanic" is a movie starring Roland Allen after all, and in terms of exposure, no one can match it.

   Even though many male fans who like him don't like "Titanic", it doesn't matter, the merchant can prescribe the right medicine!

  After reaching an agreement with Sony for the Olympics, the idea of ​​making a fortune while it was hot appeared logically.

   It took half a month to produce the original album of the "Spider-Man" movie, and it was released when Roland was at its peak.

  500,000 copies of the regular edition and 200,000 copies of the collector's edition were sold out within three weeks, with a profit of tens of millions.

   This is no longer called stealing money, this is called picking up for nothing!

   The third and last one targeted by merchants is middle-aged men.

   It's not that there is no market for middle-aged women, but that middle-aged women will spend their money on "Titanic" and "Harry Potter".

  The former is for oneself, while the latter is for the children.

   In this way, as the last enemy in Roland Allen's career, "Star Wars", which can represent a generation, has also raised the harvest sickle to the leeks while the popularity is skyrocketing.

Coincidentally, 1997 was the twentieth anniversary of the release of "Star Wars". On such a day, Roland challenged it by driving "Titanic". Do you want to sell it casually?

  When the father likes "Star Wars", when the son and daughter like Roland Allen, in the case of mutual opposition, those guys who were crazy about Luke Skywalker twenty years ago will naturally pay for it.

  Not for anything else, just to maintain the number one in the world in my heart.

  Although many people will no longer be as obsessed and crazy as they were back then, but can merchants increase the unit price...

  It is like the precise distribution of pig farms and goose factories.

  For the current popular ones, let 10,000 people spend one dollar each.

   For those who are chasing nostalgia, then go for the quality and let one person recharge 10,000 yuan for their beliefs.

  Capital has never had integrity, or in other words, even George Lucas himself is thinking about making money.

After the success of "Star Wars" that year, George Lucas came up with a "Star Wars Holiday Special Edition" to make money. The script was written in October 1978, and it was published on December 17. The TV station aired it, a two-hour show, so shoddy that for years, the show has been rated as the worst two-hour show in TV history, bar none.

With the collapse of word-of-mouth, all the leading actors and directors regarded it as a disgrace, just like Steven Spielberg ruined the game "E.T." In the end, they who screwed up everything will regret it.

   But now, they have no psychological pressure, because it is Roland Allen who cashed in his name!

  ...

   "It's a pity that this should be the last time we cooperate with him as an actor."

More than two months after "Titanic" was released, the global box office has also reached 1.3 billion. Although it broke the record of "Jurassic Park" and became the new No. The sound wave did not appear.

  Everything seems to be a matter of course, regardless of whether it is inside or outside the circle, when people hear the news, they will have a reasonable concept in their minds - Roland breaking the record is the norm, and not breaking the record is an accident.

   But when this idea appears, it means that the public is tired of Roland.

   "Now the public already thinks he is a legend."

In Fox's conference room, the marketing manager held the latest research report and talked eloquently, "For most people, Roland Allen will always live in the 1990s, living in the background of their memories , become a beautiful past that they can continue to recall, because even the people don't know what to expect."

   "Box office record?"

   "Sorry, the box office of film history is one, two and three, that is, "Titanic", "Jurassic Park", and "Spiderman"."

   "Awards?"

   “This is what we and the other five are doing.”

"When all this happens, "Spider-Man 2 and 3" will be the last hole he should fill in. When the feelings are all sold out, he will not be able to afford 18% of the global box office share, because the public is interested in it. His freshness will also be exhausted."

When the first issue of "Titanic" was divided into box office, Fox held an internal meeting to discuss the personal value of Roland Allen. Although the external momentum was very strong, Roland's return on the box office was a cliff fall.

Since Roland and the truck driver did not receive a fixed salary, the production cost of the entire film did not reach 200 million, but stopped at 1.9, but the global publicity cost was as high as 1.6. The cost is three and a half.

At present, the box office is 1.3 billion, 18% of which Roland personally took is 234 million, and the box office share that Fox got is only 624 million. After deducting Roland's box office share and total cost, Fox Only earned 40 million...

   When seeing this number, Fox was actually beeping.

  The project was approved for capital injection in 1995, the filming was officially launched in 1996, and it was announced globally in 1997. It invested 350 million yuan.

Although the box office of a blockbuster film only accounts for about 20% of the total revenue, and in the case of "Titanic", the box office will eventually reach hundreds of millions, but compared to Roland's previous terrifying rate of return Bi, it's not worthwhile to vote for him now.

  Because Roland is too expensive, and the production cost of the movies he participated in is also rising.

  Why did Hollywood come up with the concept of the Ten Million Club?

   Isn't it just to curb the crazy inflated salary of actors?

Because of this, the ladder concept of 10 million B-list, 20 million A-list, and 20 million plus box office divided into A+list came into being, but the problem is, after "Jurassic Park", Roland , I never got a fixed salary.

  What 20/20?

   Direct 18% of the global box office share, I don't take a penny of your production cost!

   On the surface, it looks like this is a risk-sharing with the producer, but after a few consecutive films, the producer almost stopped scolding her.

  One or two hundred million dollars for a movie is simply too expensive, and they simply don't want to bear it.

  Combined with the fact that the public is becoming more and more accustomed to the achievements made by Roland, the probability of continuing cooperation is infinitely close to zero.

   As for asking Roland to lower the box office share?

   Oh, stop kidding, okay...

  If Roland is just an ordinary person, then the producers are already thinking about these things, but behind him, there is the only teacher in the circle who pays for himself! Roland's high film salary was brought out by Spielberg's "Jurassic Park". If you talk to this kind of guy to reduce the cut, it's better to put money in the past and let them continue filming!

   "So, what the parent company, News Corporation, means, is to get together and get away."

After listening to the market research report, the Chairman of Fox stated the content of the document signed by the chairman of the parent company group, "From the current box office trend, the whole movie of "Titanic" will bring us one or two at most. Compared with the total cost of 350 million yuan, the net income of 100 million yuan is indeed a bit low, but the risk of high investment in the box office was suppressed by Roland. Although the profit did not meet expectations, it was not like "Future Water" "The World" to lose everything."

   "What's more, according to the agreement we reached with Roland, the follow-up DVD income and movie peripherals will sell well. Although everyone may not cooperate in the future, we still want to grab the benefits that are at our fingertips."

   “Also, sucking his fans’ wallets dry is something we all agree on.”

   "So, let's take a look at this kind of document internally, and don't spread it out."

   "Let the radio station release the promotional draft according to the previous plan, and pass on the statement that Roland won the Oscar."

  ...

  Compared with Fox, who found out that he was losing money and making money, but was glad that "Titanic" was not "Waterworld", Time Warner, who saw that "Harry Potter" could represent the future, was much more excited.

  500,000 copies in the first week, this kind of sales volume is amazing!

   "It's unbelievable!"

   "No one thought that the children who had been bored for the whole Christmas would burst out with such a strong purchasing power!"

  In Warner's conference room, a bunch of people were overjoyed at the sales data compiled by third-party research agencies.

Although they understand that the success of "Harry Potter" has a lot to do with the endorsement of various bigwigs. More than half of the sales of 500,000 in the first week were directed at the news of the film adaptation, but after the success In front of this result, the means are not important.

  How much publicity bonus "Harry Potter" has eaten, what does it have to do with the public?

  As long as the public is willing to pay for it after seeing the propaganda and think it is good, that is enough.

  As Jobs said, 'A lot of people don't know what they want until you show it. '

  Propaganda is a process of displaying products, and the purchase of customers is the embodiment of what they want.

Because of this, after learning that the 500,000 copies in the first week were not too much water, an additional one million copies were printed in three weeks, and they were sold out within half a month, Warner made a big deal about the entire film and television business. project, full of confidence.

   "According to the agreement, the "Harry Potter" project will start after the Oscars."

   "Now, Roland Allen has shown us his sincerity, so we have to respond accordingly."

   "FOX will definitely create momentum for Roland recently. We can just use CNN to forward their news."

  "Isn't what he wants to be popular? We just help him create a popular one."

   And when Fox took the lead and Warner followed closely, the other four companies that had been prepared for a long time also raised their guns.

  For a time, the same title was forcibly embedded in people's lives by the limited television network and print media—

  【Jack Dawson, the perfect image of Roland Allen in his business journey】

  (end of this chapter)