Generally speaking, the distribution models of art films and commercial films are completely different. The reason is simple. The audience groups and market potentials targeted by the two films are different, and the audience's expectations of the works are also different.

Imagine showing "Blue Valentine's Day" like "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" in four thousand theaters in the first week, but ordinary audiences didn't buy it at all, and there was a lot of cheating; while art audiences refused to enter the commercial theaters. Watching, word-of-mouth can't spread at all, and the final outcome is a miserable defeat. The distribution costs and the dividends required for the four thousand theaters to show are enough to make the distribution company lose money.

Art films always follow a certain distribution model. First, click on a few art theaters to see the film critics’ reputation and the audience’s reputation; then, gradually expand the screening to further test the market’s response. If the response is flat, then shrink as soon as possible, change the strategy, and focus on the minority group. The dissemination of the school is operated in the way of the awards season. If the response is good, then it will be further expanded and developed in the direction of fame and fortune. The college’s public relations strategy also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Therefore, some works are always screened in less than 500 theaters from release to next; while some works seem to be screened in more than 500 theaters last week, and 2,500 theaters the next week. It's in theaters. The seemingly casual screening mode is actually strategy-oriented. The same is true for last year's "buried alive".

Don’t underestimate the expansion process. It has a set of procedures and models. It requires accurate judgments on the direction and trend of the entire market, and a strong ability to respond to emergencies. The most important thing is the box office potential of the work. It has a strong foresight ability with market positioning, which is also a manifestation of the ability of an issuing company.

Almost every year, there will be several works, because of the wrong expansion strategy, the effect is not satisfactory, and finally withdrawn from the competition for the awards season.

Among Hollywood, Weinstein Pictures, Focus Pictures, and Fox Searchlight are undoubtedly mid-level masters with a keen sense of smell; relatively speaking, Warner Bros., Paramount Classics and other independent publishing companies have always made big and small mistakes. , Expansion mistakes are not uncommon, and this is directly reflected in the nominations for Oscars and Golden Globes.

But now, "Love Is Crazy" has only been screened for a week, and will it go directly to the public screening in the second week? And there are still two thousand three hundred and thirty-seven theaters? Is Focus Pictures really crazy?

Although, at the Toronto Film Festival, many media compared "Love Crazy" with Ryan Gosling's famous work "Lian Lian Notebook". The reason is simple. Ryan and Lan Li are close friends. , And "Lianlian Notebook" is the most outstanding love story movie at the box office since the new century. Naturally, the good news media are simply and rudely connected in this way.

But in fact, everyone knows that "Love Is Crazy" is not "Lian Lian Notebook" but "Blue Valentine's Day". The difference is that "Lianlian Notebook" is a commercial movie, while "Blue Valentine's Day" is an art movie. Box office numbers and later video tape rental numbers clearly reflect this.

At present, Focus Pictures is equivalent to operating and publishing "Blue Valentine's Day" as a "Lianlian Notebook". If this is not a madness, there is no other explanation.

This is not alarmism, but a lesson. In 2005, the "Memoirs of an Artist/Artist" was a lesson of blood.

That year, this film costing 85 million US dollars was jointly created by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks, bringing together countless elites from China, Japan, and the United States.

At that time, with works such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "Ambush on All Sides" and other works, Zhang/Zi/Yi, who was so popular in Hollywood, played the leading role. She is the first Chinese actress to truly make a name in North America since Cheng/Long and Li/Ann. Her resources back then can be said to be top-notch, and she has the potential to become a first-line actor. She signed a contract with Innovative Artist Agency and Lan Lishi to go out in the same door, and the work "Memoirs of an Artist/Artist" was specially tailored for her by Innovative Artist Agency.

After "Memoirs of a Geisha" arrived at the Toronto Film Festival, it received a lot of praise. Media such as "Hollywood Reporter", "Hollywood Weekly", "Vanity Fair" and other media all rushed to pursue it, believing that this work is expected to compete for the best picture of the year , Which also made the confidence of Sony Columbia Pictures swell, and then launched a series of propaganda.

In December, the film was officially screened in North America. Eight theaters created an astonishing $85,000 for a single library, which was even comparable to the "Brokeback Mountain" released in the same year, and aroused cheers. But what's sad is that after the official screening, the media review plummeted, and only scored 53 points, which is really hard to say. For the awards season works, the competitiveness suddenly weakened.

However, the award season has never been that simple. A high media review does not mean winning the prize. The media review of "Boyhood" is 100 points, but it lost to "Birdman" at the Oscar; a low media review does not mean being out, "Iron Lady" "The media review is 54 points, Meryl Streep successfully won the statuette for the third time.

At that time, the creative artist agency aimed at the Oscar nomination for best actress, and hoped that Zhang/Zi/Yi could become the first Chinese in history to be nominated for a queen!

In fact, Zhang/Zi/Yi is very close to this goal. She has won a series of film critic outpost nominations, and successfully won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in the Drama category, and even won the United States. The nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, it is no exaggeration to say that she is only the last step left to make history.

However, at this last step, she fell on the threshold, and Keira Knightley used "Pride and Prejudice" to complete the counterattack at the last moment. The latter was only twenty years old and won her first Oscar in her career. Nominated!

Later, when people review the entire award season process, it can be seen that the fatal mistake of Sony Columbia Pictures' distribution strategy has become a turning point. After the outstanding performance of the screening results, Sony decided to expand the screening next week, from eight theaters to fifty-two theaters.

With this move, "Memoirs of an Art/Artist", with a single library of US$25,000, won the weekend box office of 1.3 million, and the cumulative box office reached 2.3 million. The outstanding performance is so impressive. Overjoyed. Afterwards, Sony decided to go all out and skip the step-by-step expansion process, from 52 to 1,600 theaters.

However, the performance of "Memoirs of a Ge/Giu" was a disaster. Although it achieved a weekend box office of 6.7 million US dollars in the single week of the expansion, the performance of the single hall has fallen to 4,300, and the results are really unsatisfactory. Worse still, ordinary audiences walked with curiosity. After entering the movie theater, they were disappointed. After the art audience watched the movie with full expectations, it was even harder to meet expectations.

It erupts and annihilates in an instant, just like fireworks, bursting out the last splendor and brilliance, and then quickly disappearing. After that, the box office of the movie went from bad to worse, and the negative impact of media reviews and audience reputation began to affect industry feedback, which in turn dragged down the follow-up college public relations, and it was no longer difficult to open up the situation.

The end result is that the powerful and ferocious momentum gradually weakened, and even the voice of Zhang/Zi/Yi's queen voice became lower and lower, and finally was counterattacked by "Pride and Prejudice" in the sprint stage, and it was missed to create history.

If we say that the media reputation of "Memoirs of a Geisha" has more or less affected the expansion effect, but in the past ten years, the media reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes Index have performed exceptionally well, as well as the imdb score and the popcorn index. I have gained affirmation, but after the expansion, the box office results are still unsatisfactory, and this situation is not rare.

The running-in of art films and the broad film market cannot be done by statistics based on a few figures alone. Otherwise, marketing will not become an enduring science.

Now, "Crazy Love" seems to have embarked on a path of arrogance and blind advancement. It is very likely to follow in the footsteps of "Memoirs of Geisha", but the problem is that the "Memoirs of Geisha" "At least it's been a huge momentum for a while, but "Love Crazy" has just risen. The Toronto Film Festival has just ended, and the momentum hasn't had time to spread; and now there are still four months before the Oscars. Choose ten. I made a bold leap forward in June, what is going on in the end?

Is there a better answer besides brain flooding?

However, Focus Pictures is not Sony Columbia. For so many years, Focus Pictures can compete with Weinstein Pictures and Fox Searchlight. Their public relations department, distribution strategy, and publicity programs are all top among the top. Focus Pictures also make mistakes, but is it so obvious, so stupid, and so low-level illusion? It’s almost impossible ~lightnovelpub.net~ The only explanation is... Focus Films’ positioning of "Love Crazy" has changed. It is not an award season art film, but an award season commercial film. Like last year’s “weakness”, “Juneo” in 2007, “Little Sunshine Beauty” in 2006, and “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005. The common points of these works are:

The awards season has distinct attributes, but at the same time it possesses the attributes of being close to the people. Unlike "Blue Valentine's Day" or "The Hurt Locker", which uses a clear-cut artistry that keeps ordinary audiences away from the audience, these works have achieved excellent results at the North American box office. With good results, they can often get 60 million or more box office numbers, and it is common for them to exceed 100 million.

This seems to be the best explanation. At least, this answer is much more reliable than "the brain is flooded." But, "Love is crazy" can really shoulder such expectations? Or in other words, can Lanly-Hall really continue its box office appeal? Or in other words, did Focus Pictures really make no mistakes in judgment?

In the second week of October, "Crazy Love" was screened in 2,337 cinemas, and finally the answer sheet was handed in. The box office of the single library was US$8,100, and it won 1890 for three days on weekends. Ten thousand US dollars, after adjusting the data, the exact figure just passed the whole number, reaching 19 million US dollars!