In a large screening room, there were more than 20 people sitting in the front rows of seats in the middle. These were staff members from several theater chains in North America, as well as several advertisers invited by Henry Chelsea.
On the screen, a little man was playing with two stupid thieves. The people watching the video below did not laugh, but took notes with smiles on their faces, or whispered to each other to discuss something.
Kang Jianfei and Guan Zhilin were sitting very far back. "Home Alone" was cut by Kang Jianfei himself, so naturally he had no interest in watching it anymore and had already fallen asleep leaning on his seat. Guan Zhilin found it very interesting and leaned on Kang Jianfei's shoulder to watch the movie.
, bursting into laughter from time to time.
By the end of the movie screening, the audience who had been invited to watch the movie applauded in unison.
Henry Chelsea waved to Kang Jianfei, and after Kang Jianfei came over, he introduced: "This is Mr. Kang from Hong Kong, and "Home Alone" is his work."
"Oh, he's actually an Asian."
"Hello, Mr. Kang."
"Are you the director of "Home Alone"?"
"..."
Kang Jianfei didn't understand what these ghost guys were talking about, so he just smiled and shook hands with them.
Henry Chelsea smiled and asked: "How is it? Everyone."
"It's a great movie, but the movie schedule for Christmas this year is already full," said Paulette Gies from MTI Cinemas.
Another advertiser also said: "The Christmas advertising schedules in major newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and even buses and subway stations are all full, and we cannot promote this movie."
Henry Chelsea said: "Everyone, don't mention those excuses, you can definitely think of a way. You know, if "Home Alone" works well, everyone can make a lot of money.
Theater operators and advertisers have fallen silent, each calculating their own profits and losses.
Everyone talked for three hours in the screening room, and made at least dozens of phone calls. Finally, several theater chains freed up a total of 600 screens, and "Home Alone" was scheduled to be released on December 21st.
However, because it was a temporary canvas, these exhibitors charged very high prices, and they actually wanted to take away the box office of RMB 45. In addition, 20th Century Fox also charged a distribution fee of RMB 30, and Kang Jianfei had to pay for the advertising expenses.
In other words, if "Home Alone" has a box office of 100 million U.S. dollars, ignoring film taxes and fees, theater chains and theater companies will share 45 million, and 20th Century Fox will receive 16.5 million (30 of 55 million). Kang Jianfei bought
There are only 38.5 million left, and part of the 38.5 million will be used to pay for advertising costs.
After those theater operators and advertisers left, Kang Jianfei said to Henry Chelsea: "Henry, how much do you think "Home Alone" can earn at the box office in North America?"
Henry Chelsea thought for a while and said: "At least 50 million."
"I think the box office may exceed 100 million," Kang Jianfei said with a smile. In his impression, the North American box office of "Home Alone" was close to 300 million. Although that figure was eight years later, if calculated at this time, the box office would still be half of that.
It should be achievable.
Henry Chelsea did not think that Kang Jianfei was telling a joke. He nodded and said: "This kind of Christmas movie, if you are lucky, might really have a box office of over 100 million."
"If the box office exceeds 100 million, I will consider selling the peripheral and sequel rights of "Home Alone" to 20th Century Fox." After Kang Jianfei said, he patted Henry Chelsea on the shoulder and walked out of the screening room.
Henry Chelsea looked at Kang Jianfei, who was dragging Guan Zhilin away, and suddenly grinned.
In 30 years' time, as people's entertainment choices become more and more diverse, the proportion of people choosing to watch movies will become smaller and smaller. By that time, a Hollywood movie with a production cost of US$50 million will have a box office of US$100 million.
The production company will lose at least 25 million. All of this money will be earned through movie peripherals.
According to Hollywood statistics in 2005, movie companies' box office profits accounted for less than 15% of total revenue, while money earned from home entertainment projects such as television, cable TV, the Internet, DVDs, and videos accounted for 85% of total revenue.
Of course, 1982 was different from 2005. At this time, movie box office revenue still accounted for the majority. But with the popularity of home video recorders in the United States, the revenue from video tape sales in the past two years has almost reached 30% of the studio's box office revenue. Click here
Proportionally speaking, if "Home Alone" can sell 100 million at the box office, then Kang Jianfei can earn 15 million US dollars just by selling the video tape of "Home Alone".
Kang Jianfei's selling of movie peripherals and sequels to 20th Century Fox was an act of giving away money, and Henry Chelsea, who was in charge of this matter, naturally achieved an impressive performance.
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For the sake of his own performance and US dollars, Henry Chelsea decided to personally take charge of the distribution of "Home Alone". From the next day, he led his team to work out a publicity plan with several advertisers, and officially started on a large scale on December 5
publicity.
Generally speaking, Hollywood practice is that the publicity fee is equivalent to 50% of the production cost. The production cost of "Home Alone" is 2.78 million U.S. dollars, but the publicity plan formulated by Henry Chelsea is at the 5 million U.S. dollar level, which is equivalent to the production cost.
twice of.
The publicity cost of 5 million was considered a sky-high price. In Hollywood at this time, it was equivalent to blockbuster-level publicity. The production cost of "Terminator", which was released two years later, was only over 6 million, and the publicity cost was less than 3 million.
However, the effect was still very obvious. Advertisements for "Home Alone" soon appeared overwhelmingly in the eyes of people in the United States and Canada.
While "Home Alone" was on a promotional offensive, "Baby 2" was released as scheduled two weeks before Christmas, with a box office of US$2.45 million in its opening weekend.
The so-called weekend box office in the United States refers to the box office on Friday, Saturday and weekdays. Because there is a huge difference between the box office on holidays and working days, the United States generally uses weekend box office as reference data.
There are many movies released around Christmas this year. The opening weekend box office of "The Royal Sisters 2" was very good, ranking sixth in the weekend box office rankings for that week. However, due to the release of many blockbuster movies in the second week
, the weekend box office of "The Royal Sisters 2" instantly dropped to 18th place.
When "Home Alone" was released, after three days of warm-up, it had already achieved good box office results. With the efforts of Henry Chelsea, the number of screens provided by theaters for "Home Alone" also increased to 800. By that time
When Christmas Eve came on Friday, the box office of "Home Alone" exploded instantly, with almost every venue sold out.
For the sake of huge US dollars, with the coordination of Henry Chelsea, the theaters urgently vacated the screening halls and finally increased the canvas of "Home Alone" to 1,050.
Take the North American box office list in recent years as an example. Movies that rank among the top ten have at least 1,000 screens. As for super blockbuster movies like "ET", the screens even exceed 1,700.
Judging from the release screen alone, "Home Alone" is already qualified to enter the top ten in North America's annual box office list.
…
In front of the ticket window of a movie theater in New York, people celebrating Christmas lined up in a long queue to buy tickets. Compared with various forms of entertainment in later generations, watching movies to celebrate Christmas is the best choice for many Americans in this era.
"Are there any movies that the whole family can watch? I have four young children," one father asked.
The ticket seller replied: "I think you should choose "Home Alone". It is suitable for people aged 7 to 70."
The father said: "Here are 6 "Home Alone" tickets. I want the back row tickets."
"Sorry, sir, there are no seats in the back row. Do you want a seat in the second row?"
"Okay, just the second row."
After buying the tickets, the family played outside for a while. When the time was almost up, they came to the cinema screening room. Four children sat in the middle, and their parents sat on both sides to look after them.
The eldest of the four children was only 14 years old. At this time, he was holding popcorn and Coke and eating deliciously. The theater was also noisy, with the sound of children laughing and playing from time to time.
Soon the movie started, and the children became quiet under the restraint of their parents. Only the sound of chewing popcorn came from all over the screening room.
The opening title of the movie is very inferior. It was an animation made by Zeng Bolin for several hundred dollars and asked a group of college students. A flying dragon flies out diagonally. The funniest thing is that this oriental dragon has two small wings on its body.
Naturally, the group of American college students who made the opening animation didn't know the Chinese Yinglong, so this little winged dragon looked quite weird. After two circles, the words "Oriental Film Company" appeared.
After the film officially started, it was a group show as soon as it started. Five or six children were making a fuss at home, several adults were also busy, and a policeman stood downstairs not knowing what was going on.
Such a lively scene is very suitable for Christmas, especially since the protagonist is still a child, which makes the children who watch the movie very fond of it.
As the plot develops, the two families travel from New York to Paris. The plane is almost flying to Europe, and the mother realizes that she has forgotten her son at home.
When the young male protagonist Kevin woke up, he found that his whole family was gone. He thought that the wish he made before going to bed last night "that the whole family would disappear" had come true, and he immediately danced happily.
Seeing little Kevin using his father's hair wax, his mother's perfume, and rummaging through boxes to play with his brother's toys, the adults in the audience who were a little worried about him all smiled knowingly.
"Mom, I also want to be like Kevin and stay at home alone." A little boy pointed at the screen and said.
"Oh, that's not possible." Mom touched his head and smiled.
As the plot progresses, the theme of family love in "Home Alone" becomes more and more apparent. Children may not feel it at all, but adults are deeply moved by it and feel that this movie is so well made. Especially Kevin's
The mother's anxiety at the airport and the scene of following a street singer on her way home made the tearful female audience even start to shed tears.
When it came to the final climax, the children were the most excited. Watching the movie in which little Kevin used traps to deal with stupid thieves, and when the two stupid thieves were fooled around, the children all laughed happily, and some even
Stand up and cheer for the little protagonists, as if they are defeating the bad guys.
While the children were excited, the adults also laughed, and the cinema was filled with laughter.
