"What's the rating? B? Oh, thank you."

Ronald received a call from Richard, and Cinema Score sent preliminary ratings to Daydream and Paramount based on exit polls from test screenings.

This is the lowest score Ronald has received among the movies he has shot with great care since he became famous. Those musicals and romantic comedies usually have a score lower than ordinary genre films, but they are still less painful than B.

The score for itching should be higher.

Richard realized Ronald's silence, and he immediately said on the phone that he would contact Cinema Score and come over immediately to discuss how to deal with it.

"Oh well……"

Ronald put down the phone without saying anything else, and then sat alone in a chair, thinking about something.

I am not the kind of author who pursues certain artistic expressions. I have always relied on box office success as my reputation. But this B...

Generally speaking, Cinema Score is the direct response of the audience. It has a very high correlation with the total box office. Usually if it gets an A, the total box office is about 4.8 times that of the first weekend. For a movie that gets an A, the total box office is about 3.6 times.

For C, it is only 2.5 times.

This number is called the box office multiplier in the industry. Generally speaking, a score of B is about 3 times, and the difference between before and after will not be very big.

What is the problem? Or is the rating inaccurate?

Ronald felt like he was back in high school, writing homework and waiting to be graded by the teacher, and he was in a bad mood. The only trump card he still had was that the leading actor in this movie was Tom Cruise.

S.

Tom Cruise is the only star who can reverse the Cinema Score, but he can't reverse it every time.

The previous "Cocktail" co-starred with Elisabeth Shue, with a B rating, received an A-level box office multiplier of more than 5. However, "Earth" with Nicole Kidman only received an A rating.

Normally slightly lower box office multiplier.

…

"Ronnie, why are you sitting here? Richard is here to find you..."

After a long time, Diane found Ronald sitting in the aisle, lost in thought.

"Huh? Ah, it's okay, I have something to think about." Ronald seemed to have not recovered from his fugue, and his eyes felt a little vacant.

"Ah, are you okay, Ronnie?" Diane quickly touched Ronald's forehead. Could it be that he was sick?

"It's okay, I'm just thinking about something. I need to concentrate and think..." Ronald came back to his senses and took a sip of the mineral water brought by Diane.

"Hi, Richard..."

"I communicated with Cinema Score, and they said that Paramount has also expressed concern. The score itself will have a 6% error interval. After the official release of the sampling results in many places, considering that Tom Cruise is in

The popularity of some areas in the south may rise to a B.”

Ronald knew as soon as he heard this that this was an attempt by a large company to exert some pressure to alleviate the impact of this score on the box office. Although Cinema Score is very good in terms of fairness and objectivity, it is not without room for accommodation.

It can go up or down one level, but there is still some discussion.

"Thank you for your hard work, but this is not important."

Ronald thought very clearly that the key to this matter actually lies in the audience's opinion of the movie itself. The audience's reputation itself is an objective fact, and the score is only an intuitive response. If the score is too distorted, it can no longer objectively reflect the audience.

response. The final box office will not have any impact just because you cheated to get a better score.

Richard didn't say much. Everyone thought Ronald was in a bad mood because it represented a record low box office rating, so they kept him company and said a lot of meaningless words.

"I have to go out and find a movie theater to watch it and listen to what the audience has to say. You don't have to wait for me."

Ronald simply turned a deaf ear to what Richard and others said. He himself thought of many reasons that might lead to the audience's bad impression, but there was no evidence for any of them.

As the afternoon approached evening, Ronald felt that he had to go to the scene to hear real audience feedback. Regardless of the opinions of a group of subordinates, he stood up, put on his sunglasses, and prepared to go out.

"If you come back late, give me a call and I'll leave you some food..." Diane felt that Ronald's behavior was very manly, and it aroused her memories of that time, when Ronnie was old

The same is true for me. She has the courage to face everything. You must know that for a practitioner, it takes a lot of courage to watch the movies she created. She has never wanted to go to the movies she has made now.

look.

…

When Ronald was in the cinema, he specifically found a show that had already started for a few minutes, then went in and sat in the area with the largest number of spectators, paying attention to what they were saying and watching their feedback.

"Why isn't he afraid of gangsters coming to trouble him?"

"Because Mitchell left evidence? Didn't he say that he would prevent them from chasing him?"

In the second half, the two audience members were discussing the plot quietly in front of Ronald.

While the entire movie was being shown, the audience made some noise from time to time. This was different from Ronald's other movies. The audience seemed to break away from the immersive experience from time to time, and then be attracted by the plot and fall into immersion.

However, once someone escapes the magic of that plot, there will be some who may no longer

"Then why didn't he turn it over to the FBI?"

"Because the FBI can't guarantee his safety..."

"How do you know? Is it your own imagination?"

"You are imagining that this is a conclusion that the director deliberately left for you to think for yourself."

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "I don't believe it..."

"Shh..."

Finally, an audience member in front couldn't bear it anymore and turned back to stare at them.

But not long after, the two people began to whisper again. It seemed that their understanding of some aspects of the plot had fallen into some deviations, and they needed to discuss and confirm with each other before they could figure out some directions of the plot.

"Tell me, why did Mitchell's wife Abby go back to look for him again? Didn't she already know that Mitchell had betrayed her and had an affair with another woman? She also went back to seduce Mitchell's boss to get evidence to prove that Mitchell

Che’s innocence?”

After the performance was over, Ronald ran to the bathroom again and continued to listen to the audience's comments.

"I don't know, if my wife finds out that I am with other women... she will have to kill me, or find a lawyer to empty all my bank deposits, and then demand a large amount of my salary every month as alimony.

…”

"I think Abby may have an appreciation for Mitchell in addition to love, and she can't bear to let such a promising lawyer turn into a criminal..."

"Go ahead and dream, could your wife do this to you?"

Ronald listened silently and stood in line to wash his hands.

These discussions all point to one problem, that is, the appeal of the plot and performance to the audience has not decreased, and they still like to watch it. This kind of suspense film with some professional details, plus Tom Cruise, Bridget

·Beautiful men and women like Fonda, many powerful supporting actors, and many very beautiful vases are still powerful tools to attract the audience.

But this time the audience has a problem, that is, the plot is a bit too complicated, so that many viewers did not understand it, and this is the scene that they still want to discuss after watching it.

If you are not interested, you will not discuss the plot. If you are comfortable watching it, you will not discuss some of the twists and turns in the plot.

In the final analysis, this "sugar-coated trap" still made the audience's attention wander away halfway through, and they did not fully immerse themselves in it from the beginning until the end.

Eighty percent of this is because the audience did not understand the plot, which caused problems. Fortunately, the subsequent plot was exciting enough, and a considerable proportion of the audience still watched it, and there was no situation where they got distracted midway and could no longer be immersed in it.

And this is the most common phenomenon when movies fail miserably at the box office.

"Bridget Fonda is really beautiful, and she is a perfect match for Tom."

In the area where people were washing their hands, some comments from female spectators floated intermittently. Ronald pricked up his ears and listened.

"I think the secretary (Holly Hunter) is very beautiful, and the way she walks is so coquettish."

"You..., you can't walk when you see a hip skirt. I think that black beauty flirting with my Tom on the beach is very beautiful (Halle Berry)"

"Your Tom? Tell me clearly, you Bichi, who is your Tom?"

"Just say, my Tom, if I could spend the night with him, I would live ten years shorter..."

"Um..." Ronald wiped his hands and walked out quickly. It seemed that the movie god was still on his side, and the female audience was still so crazy about Tom Cruise.

…

"The box office in the first weekend is 25 million. Coupled with the extended Independence Day holiday, this movie will be very popular in China."

By Monday morning, the box office results for the first weekend had come out. "Sugar-coated Trap" was released in 2,393 theaters, with an average box office of US$10,600 per theater, ranking first on the box office list.

Jurassic Park's decline was very low, still ranking second with 18 million.

Sleepless in Seattle maintains the unique resilience of romantic films and ranks third. However, considering that this movie is only shown in more than 1,300 theaters, the box office of a single theater is actually not much different from a sugar-coated trap.

"Nora Ephron's performance is still convincing." Ronald looked at the box office statistics and knew that this time he topped the box office largely because of Tom Cruise.

Through communication with several director friends, and myself staying in the cinema for two consecutive days, I heard first-hand audience feedback. The biggest problem with this movie is that there are some places in the editing. In order to meet the two and a half hours of the cinema line

The length of the movie is about 10%, and some details and transitions are not handled coherently enough.

Many critics have said that the film could have been better if the script had developed the story more clearly, rather than just being a good movie with a few scattered great performances.

In other words, there is a high probability that if you follow the creative rules, ignore the requirements of the theaters, and keep the market open for a longer period of time, you may get much better results.

In other words, if I could allocate more time to the editing room and work more with editing masters like Walter Murch, maybe the film's turning points would feel more natural and smooth to the audience, and there would be no doubts about sudden dramas.

"Yeah, okay, I will go. This movie is also a good education for me. After the video, I came up with a director's cut version."

Paramount CEO Shirley Lansing was very satisfied and made a congratulatory call. After she took office, the first major production she led achieved very impressive box office results.
To be continued...