Chapter Seven Hundred and Eighty-Ninth Cliff-Type Word of Mouth
Peter Rogier is an English teacher at Santa Monica Middle School, but he has another identity, a freelance film critic. ? ? ? Liewen? ???? ???????? Peter has been obsessed with movies since he was a child. When he was studying at the University of California, he tried to submit some film review articles to several newspapers. Fortunately, he was accepted and graduated. Afterwards, when he found out that this extra job could allow him to support a nice house in the high-end community of Santa Monica, he persevered. More than ten years later, he also became a little famous in the circle, and he showed A collection of film reviews.
Sunday is Easter, and Peter was planning to stay home with his wife and children, but was temporarily invited by The Hollywood Reporter to review "First Degree Fear," which is an R-rated crime thriller and not suitable for The family watched the movie together, and Peter drove to downtown Santa Monica by himself after dinner.
Parked the car, walked into the multiplex cinema where I often watched movies, it was nearly nine o'clock, just when the next screening was about to start, joined the crowd in line to buy tickets, Peter remembered the recent news about "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "The Seven Deadly Sins" Media Discussion on First Degree Fear.
Peter received an invitation to an internal test screening of New Line, having seen "The Seven Deadly Sins" two weeks ago, and although he didn't like the film's desperate theme, he also had to admit that David Fincher's kind of The interlocking narrative style is amazing, and in a review submitted to The Hollywood Reporter, Peter gave "Seven Deadly Sins" an 8.
As for "First Degree Fear," the film seems to have ramped up its publicity efforts in recent weeks, even aggressively trying to take on The Seven Deadly Sins.
After staying in this circle for a long time, Peter is of course aware of the tricks. Although many newspapers have appeared in many newspapers that "First Degree Fear" overwhelms "Seven Deadly Sins", these are basically second- and third-rate newspapers with low credibility. Most mainstream newspapers don't stand in line so lightly. However, since Paramount dares to use the slogan of "First Degree Fear" and "Seven Deadly Sins", this film must not be too bad, and Peter still has some expectations in his heart.
They were slowly moving forward along the line to buy tickets. There was a slight commotion in front of the ticket window. Peter looked over, and it turned out that two young men and women had a disagreement on which movie to watch. Under the urging of the conductor, the four of them finally Divided into two groups, choose "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" respectively.
Peter didn't pay too much attention to this episode, he just envied the exuberant energy of several young men and women. The night temperature in Los Angeles in April was still a bit cold, but these young people were wearing thin clothes, and the exposed skin was still light. Sunburn, Peter decided that several people should surf at Santa Monica Beach during the day, because he liked this sport very much when he was in college, but, looking down at his beer belly, maybe he can't even climb a surfboard now Come on.
Not bothering about the lost youth, Peter got the movie ticket, bought another popcorn, and walked towards the screening hall.
find a place to sit,
Looking around habitually, the attendance rate was about 40%. Peter also unexpectedly found that the man and woman who were arguing with the students just now were sitting in an empty space away from him, and the girl among them noticed that Peter was looking over. , and nodded politely.
Peter nodded slightly and looked away, but heard the girl say to her boyfriend, "Zach, it's just a movie, we don't need to be separated from Vincent and the others."
The young man named Zach said: "Michelle, I said it during the day, I have no interest in religious movies, and the newspapers seem to say that this movie is better than the "Seven Deadly Sins" that was hyped up by propaganda. more."
Michelle seemed to curl her lips and said, "How do you know this movie is not advertised?"
"But its reputation should be stronger than "Seven Deadly Sins". It seems that there is a very good actor," Zach said, hugging his girlfriend again, lowering his voice slightly, and teasing: "It's not bad not to be with them. Ah, at least no one will bother us... um..."
Michelle pushed Zach away and scolded with a smile: "Go away, hate it."
Hearing these conversations, Peter felt a little uncomfortable, and was considering whether to change the position. The lights in the projection hall dimmed, and the man and woman became quiet. Peter dismissed the idea.
After a few commercials, the Paramount Pictures intro appeared.
The film begins with a discussion about whether lawyers should adhere to the law or pursue justice. Martin Weir, a lawyer played by Richard Gere, insists that lawyers should try their best to win the courtroom for their clients, regardless of whether the other party is really guilty or not.
If this is a film below the pg-13 level, in Masaji's right line of thinking, this dialogue may well imply that the film is about Martin Weir's transformation from a mercenary indifferent lawyer to a guardian of justice.
Of course, since this is an R-rated crime thriller, the themes are hard to predict.
The story takes place in Chicago, where a bishop is brutally murdered and a suspect named Alan Stampler is quickly captured.
Because of some emotional entanglements with the prosecution lawyer Janet Venable, Martin Weir decided to serve as Allen's defense. During the communication with Allen, Martin Weir gradually discovered that the other party may be a spirit with multiple personality disorder. The patient, then applied to the court for a psychiatric evaluation of Allen.
At this point in the plot, Peter, who was sitting in the screening room, looked at his watch and saw that 45 minutes had passed, and in these forty-five minutes, except for the important plot twist that Alan might be a mental patient, the movie did not give any clues. There is too much useful information, and even, in Peter's opinion, many details are superfluous, the director seems to be paving the way, but what it is, it is confusing. However, there is no doubt that these lengthy foreshadowing It will only make the audience gradually lose interest in watching movies
Because he was a little disappointed with the movie, Peter unconsciously began to lose his mind. The nearby couple had been quiet all the time, which surprised him, so he looked over and saw that the girl now named Michelle fell asleep on the boy's shoulder.
Peter smiled, and for most people, the slow pace of the film does make people drowsy.
The plot of the movie continues. Although there are many signs on Allen's body that prove the possibility of him suffering from mental illness, the doctor Molly did not find conclusive evidence. Instead, it was Martin who accidentally discovered a box of bishops to force Allen to be with him. The videotape of his girlfriend making love in front of him immediately became the key evidence of Allen's motive for killing the bishop. Martin angrily asked Allen why he was hiding this from himself, which accidentally stimulated another personality in Allen's body. Loy.
Peter, who had already lost interest in the movie, watched the submissive and even stuttering Allen on the screen suddenly turn into a violent and violent villain, and he finally regained his spirits. There was also a commotion in the movie theater. Someone gave a slight admiration.
It is a pity that the process of Allen's 'multiple personality disorder' was not filmed. In order to prove his judgment, Martin used some means to arouse the other side of Allen in person at the trial scene, and finally made the court judge Ai. Allen's illness, the charges against Allen are dropped and he is sent to a mental hospital.
When it seems like this is coming to an end, the plot of the movie flips again, Martin meets Allen for the last time, accidentally notices a flaw in Allen's words, and now that Allen does not have multiple personality disorder, all of this, It's all just the result of Ellen's subtle disguise.
In the end, Martin walked out of the prison with a bewildered expression, and the desolate and desolate freeze-frame scene in the square seemed to be a great mockery of Martin's own remarks at the beginning of the film.
The subtitles rose, and the audience in the auditorium started to get up and leave, and Peter could faintly hear the comments of some people.
"It's so boring, I wasted more than two hours on such a movie."
"I would have seen 'Seven Deadly Sins' if I knew it, at least there was Diane Kruger in that movie to be eye-catching."
"Didn't the newspapers say that this movie is better than 'The Seven Deadly Sins', and if both movies are at this level, I'd rather stay at home and watch TV this Easter."
"That guy named Edward Norton did a really good job, but he wasn't as good as the media had touted."
"I almost fell asleep."
"..."
Peter waited for a while, then stood up, the couple on the left also got up and walked out, and he could still see the girl drowsily leaning on her boyfriend and rubbing her eyes.
Following the flow of people out of the screening hall and out of the cinema, Peter unexpectedly found that the four people he had met were walking in front of him, as if he was going to a parking space not far away.
"This movie is so exciting, Kevin Spacey actually used himself to complete the last two original sin punishments, and also, Diane Kruger is so fucking beautiful, and she was killed recently, unfortunately without a head. close up……"
A tall and thin young man recounted the feeling of watching "The Seven Deadly Sins" with great interest, and the girl holding his arm interrupted with a smile: "Hey, Vincent, the tone of your words is so changeable. "
"Okay, baby," Vincent changed the subject and asked his companion next to him: "How about "First Degree Fear"?"
Zach didn't answer, but his girlfriend Michelle didn't hide it and smiled: "It's boring, anyway, I'm asleep, Zach, what do you think?"
Zach hesitated and said, "At least, that guy named Edward Norton is very good at acting."
"Haha," Michelle consciously took Zach's words as hard-lipped, and said to her companion: "Or, let's watch "The Seven Deadly Sins" again tomorrow."
Vincent waved his arms and said: "Of course, you should really go and see that "First Degree Fear", let it go to hell."
It was already past eleven o'clock, and Peter had no intention of eavesdropping on the conversation of several young people, and quickly got into his car.
Driving down the slightly empty streets late at night, Peter began to consider his review of Fear of the First Degree.
He thinks he can only give the film a maximum of 6.5 points, of which o.5 is the performance bonus of Edward Norton. However, Edward Norton's performance, while stunning, doesn't quite make up for the film's overall mediocrity.
In pursuit of an O'Henry-style unexpected ending, the director deliberately added a lot of unnecessary details in the early stages of the film.
Although many comments in the media these days relish the reversal of the film's ending, in Peter's view, this deliberately pursued reversal is the biggest failure of the film.
If the film abandons this reversal from the beginning, then the director can tell a more compact thriller and suspense based on Allen's multiple personality disorder, instead of spending a lot of space on paving the way for the final reversal ending.
Under these redundant foreshadowings, it was not until more than 70 minutes into the film that there was a plot conflict that could cheer people up. However, 70 minutes was enough to make 90% of people lose patience with the film. This can be seen from the girl named Michelle who fell asleep in the theater just now.
Conceiving the film review article, Peter also felt that the media manipulation of "First Degree Fear" seemed too obvious these days, and even Peter had a hunch that Paramount was likely to shoot himself in the foot this time. .
During the Easter period, in the entire Hollywood film market, only "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear" can attract people's attention. Due to the influence of the media in the recent period, the popularity of both films is very high.
However, after the film was released on a large scale, many talents discovered that "First Degree Fear" is far from being as good as the media commented, at least, it is far from being compared with the "Seven Deadly Sins" with a compact plot.
The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
The Internet has not yet been widely popularized, and it is difficult for ordinary people to express their opinions. However, after the film is released on a large scale, media comments are no longer difficult to control.
"A failure with a lengthy plot, Edward Norton's performance is wonderful, but it can't reverse the overall mediocrity of the film. Compared with the tight plot setting of "Seven Deadly Sins", I can't see it. What's so great about the film."
"The director is so obsessed with creating an O'Henry-esque surprise ending, ignoring whether the audience is patient enough to wait two hours for an ending that doesn't bring them many more surprises."
"It's hard to imagine that some people would compare this mediocre work to The Seven Deadly Sins, undoubtedly the best thriller in recent years since The Silence of the Lambs, and Fear of the First Degree. "Apart from Edward Norton's remarkable performance, it didn't surprise the audience."
"..."
At the same time when the media comments exploded, Firefly also stopped all the small actions to manipulate the word-of-mouth of "Tier 1 Fear" in time, and lost the support of a large number of positive film reviews. sliding down. Even some media who were originally optimistic about Edward Norton's performance, because of the public hype of "First Degree Fear" before the film's release, have also rebounded, and their comments on the film have become more harsh.
The two films were released at the same time on April 5. On Wednesday, "Seven Deadly Sins" easily won the box office title of the week with 1.39 million US dollars. Although "First Degree Fear" has fallen rapidly in word of mouth, it still earned more than 1.12 million US dollars at the box office over the weekend with the same topicality as "Seven Deadly Sins".
Then, in a full week, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached 1.84 million US dollars. Although the word of mouth of "First Degree Fear" began to collapse, "Weekly Box Office still reached more than 1.55 million US dollars. Compared with the screen size difference of 6oo between the two sides, the average attendance rate of "First Degree Fear" is not much worse than that of "Seven Deadly Sins". .
Paramount was still a little worried that the collapse of the word of mouth would affect the box office of "First Degree Fear", but after seeing the total box office data of 1.12 million US dollars for the weekend and 1.55 million US dollars for the week, it was relieved. At least, the hype in the early stage still played a very important role. Paramount originally expected the film's weekly box office to be only about 1200,000.
Most film practitioners understand a truth. The marketing scale of a film determines its box office starting height, but the word-of-mouth of a film determines the length of the film's box office curve.
Although the weekly box office of "First Degree Fear" was not much worse than that of "The Seven Deadly Sins" by virtue of its joint promotion with "The Seven Deadly Sins", as the word of mouth of the two films began to diverge rapidly, the subsequent box office curves of the two films also began Very different.
With a strong reputation, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" dropped by only a very weak 9.7% in the next week, reaching 1.66 million US dollars. The collapse of the reputation of the movie "First Degree Fear" caused a 46% drop in the box office of this same type of thriller in the second week. Compared with "Seven Deadly Sins"'s $1.66 million second week box office, "First Degree Fear" only gained 8.37 million, which is only half of the "Seven Deadly Sins".
In the third week, the box office drop of "Seven Deadly Sins" is still only a magical 15%, and the box office reached 14.11 million US dollars. At this time, the weekly box office data of "First Degree Fear" has been left far behind, fans The rebellious psychology of turning from expectation to disappointment led to a significant drop in the movie attendance rate again. In the third week, it only earned 4.77 million US dollars, which is almost only a fraction of the "Seven Deadly Sins". Edward Norton's wonderful performance was also influenced by the film's reputation contrast. , there is very little left that has been diluted.
Entering May, the box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" in the fourth week has remained in the tens of millions, reaching 11.32 million US dollars. Although the box office decline of "First Degree Fear" has begun to shrink, the weekly box office of 3.19 million US dollars also indicates that the film has entered the brink of the next painting.
In the four-week screening time, the cumulative box office of "Seven Deadly Sins" reached 60.43 million US dollars, while the total box office of "First Degree Fear" was only 31.83 million US dollars, which was worthy of breaking through the cost line.
With the current box office curve, "Seven Deadly Sins" is destined to survive the hot summer season, and it is not difficult to break through 100 million at the box office, but "First Degree Fear" can only stay in theaters for at most two weeks.
So far, the two movies are better or worse, and there is no suspense about the outcome.
It is worth mentioning that during the tit-for-tat process between "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear", "Red Zone" quietly persisted in North American theaters for six weeks, and finally accumulated a total of 4.3 million US dollars at the box office. It is close to 5000,000. However, this box office data also makes the company very satisfied. New Line has invested only 1000,000 US dollars for the film before and after. Just relying on the box office share, the company will gain more than 100% of the profit.
"Red Zone" also received good reviews in the media, and Jack Cheng was awarded the title of one of the cutest action actors.
New Line then nominated Jack Cheng for Best Fight Scene at the upcoming mTV Movie Awards in June. However, in view of the discord in the release of "Seven Deadly Sins" and "First Degree Fear", Jack Cheng wants to win this award, and the success rate is almost non-existent.
After all, mTV TV station is a media owned by Viacom. The two sides have just torn up a game, how can someone else give you the trophy.
What, fairness, stop making trouble. (To be continued.)