Heads Up Hollywood

At the end of October, the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" crew finished filming in France and went to New York for the final part of the filming.

Not surprisingly, in mid-November, the movie can basically be completed.

It is said that it is basically finished, because Mel Gibson still has a part of the scene that needs to be re-shot.

This will have to wait until "Unsinkable" is completed in mid-December, and then filmed again in January next year.

"A Beautiful Mind" directed by Tang En is procrastinating, and it is estimated that it will be completed in early December.

Right now, Tang En's main concern is of course the screening of "Chain Saw", which Focus Pictures is responsible for distributing.

Based on the quality of this movie, Twain can guarantee that if Miramax operates and distributes it, there is no need to order screenings, and it can be screened directly in the United States, and the number of theaters open will definitely not be less than 2,500!

However, Focus Pictures has just been acquired and has not yet expanded its business, so its strength is limited.

Fortunately... there is no round of trial screenings.

American movies have a very complete distribution model.

Screening, in fact, is a wave of early publicity before the official release in the most developed cities in the United States.

The screening of "Chain Saw" will be screened in 20 theaters in 20 major cities including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc., to collect word of mouth.

For the early publicity, Tang Ente approved 1 million US dollars.

Director Zack Schneider edited a 20-second trailer and put it on Fox TV. Because of the limited scale, the response was mediocre.

And the publicity reports of several second- and third-tier gossip tabloids have attracted limited attention.

A million dollars in publicity expenses is a drop in the bucket for the marketing of a movie, perhaps not as effective as Tang En's words.

But Tang En didn't want to trade his reputation for the promotion of this movie.

"Saw" is so scary that many viewers even fainted in the movie theater.

This certainly shows that the movie is terrible, but the impact is not good.

Twain will never waste his reputation in this area, promoting a value orientation that is quite questionable.

It is better to let "Chain Saw" ferment through word of mouth and slowly attract the attention of movie fans.

October 30th, late.

Tang En invited Natalie to watch "Saw" at the AMC theater in downtown Boston.

The two dressed in disguise and looked very inconspicuous. Under the protection of two plainclothes bodyguards, they sneaked into the cinema quietly.

Tang En searched around the wall full of posters, and finally found the poster of "Saw" in a corner.

The poster design is simple - a bloody hand sawn off!

Natalie's face turned pale, "I... I regret coming here."

"Let's have a look first. If it's really not good, let's not watch it." Tang En patted her waist, grabbed her little hand, and took the movie ticket bought by the bodyguard, and sneaked into the screening room.

This is a small hall, but there are very few people, less than ten.

"The response wasn't great!" Natalie frowned. As Tang En's girlfriend, of course she was all honored.

Tang En was rather indifferent, "Anyway, it's a screening, take your time."

...

Five minutes later, the movie starts.

The first shot created enough horror elements.

Dark, damp, confined spaces; lonely, frightened, bound people.

Tang En's hand was grabbed by Natalie at once, and her little hand could feel a little cold.

Tang En smiled, leaned over and kissed her tender cheek, and said in a low voice: "Don't be afraid, I'll see the audience's reaction, it's really not good, we will withdraw in half an hour!"

Natalie bit her lip and remained silent.

After a few cryptic and fast conversations, the light on the big screen changed, and the lights in the closed room came on. Only then did the audience know that there were other people in the room.

As the camera advances, a dead man with his head smashed and bleeding all over the ground is lying on the ground.

"ah!"

In the movie theater, the first scream of horror sounded.

Tang En is a little funny, but it's just a picture of blood plasma, so he was so scared, and when the plot unfolds in a while, won't you be scared to cry?

With the development of the plot, the context of the story is gradually presented to the audience.

The bound "Lawrence" was prompted to kill another man "Adam" before 6 o'clock, so that he could escape.

This is a test of human struggle. Should we save ourselves with the lives of others, or ignore our own lives for the sake of others?

And the audience already knew that this Lawrence, he is a doctor!

Natalie couldn't bear to watch such a cruel choice, so she couldn't help but dragged Tang En out without saying anything.

"I will never watch this kind of movie again!"

Walking out of the cinema, Natalie vented her dissatisfaction angrily.

Tang En was a little helpless, and spread his hands, "You look at those audiences, how serious are you?"

"Seriously?" Natalie satirized angrily, "Everyone is so scared that they dare not breathe, and they are still serious. In my opinion, people who like this type of movie are all psychologically deformed."

Tang En shook his head and smiled, "It's a shame that you are still majoring in psychology. This is called psychological curiosity! People with psychological abnormalities are the leading actors in movies, not movie audiences."

Natalie frowned, "What if... I mean, what if some mentally deformed people watched the movie and then imitated the plot?"

Tang En rolled his eyes, "What does this have to do with me? Some people watched the movie and shot the president. Is "Taxi Driver" going to be banned? No one can restrict the freedom of speech in Hollywood!"

"But whether it's director Scorsese, Robert DeLoney, or Jodie Foster, their careers have been silent for a long time because of this incident." Natalie said with a frown.

Tang En smiled, and said cynically: "My Nat, you are so smart!"

Natalie pursed her lips, and said solemnly: "Anyway, I think it's best for you not to participate in similar film productions in the future. You are not short of this little money, and there is no need to waste your reputation. Look at those big-name directors, even if some Movies are sensitive subjects, and what they finally expressed is the correct value orientation, "Chain Saw"...is too controversial."

Tang En was slightly silent, then smiled and said: "Okay, listen to you! In this world, there is only one person who can control me, and that is Natalie Portman!"

Natalie pursed her lips and chuckled, and gave him a white look, "You can talk nonsense, I can't control you."

Tang En shook his head, "It has already had a great impact."

Natalie smiled with her lips pursed, her face pretty.

...

Early the next morning, Tang En was on the set of "A Beautiful Mind" when he received a fax from Focus Pictures.

The results of yesterday's screening are out.

In 20 movie theaters in 20 cities across the United States, each theater had an average of 9 screenings, sold a total of 2,548 movie tickets, with an average ticket price of $5.4, and a total revenue of $13,759!

Such a result made Dunn shake his head.

I'm used to the box office data of hundreds of millions or tens of millions, so the box office of such screenings is really a bit appalling.

Fortunately, the most important thing for screenings is not the box office results, but the audience's viewing experience!

Every audience who bought a ticket and entered the venue received a questionnaire to rate "Chain Saw".

Among the 2,548 questionnaires, 1,789 were returned, of which 478 were rated A+ and as many as 1,047 were rated A! There are only more than 50 ratings below B.

It is no exaggeration to say that for a "shoddy" B-movie with an investment of only 1.5 million US dollars, such a scoring result is definitely better than expected!

The word-of-mouth of the audience exploded overnight!