1novels Chapter 276
Chapter 276
Although "Happiness Knocks" is scheduled for mid-December, Sherman Entertainment Group and MGM Films launched a nationwide promotion in September.Even before "Happiness Comes Knocking", Sherman Entertainment Group and Lionsgate Films still have a "Fatal Prestige" to be released, but the entire group's promotional resources are still all inclined to "When Happiness Comes Knocking".
Because this movie is not only the annual masterpiece of Sherman Entertainment Group hitting the Oscars, but also the first appearance of MGM after its rebirth, there can be no mistakes in any case.In fact, there are two indicators to measure the success of a movie, one is the box office, and the other is awards, and both of them are actually related to publicity.The box office is easy to understand. If a movie is promoted there every day, then the theater manager is naturally willing to arrange the movie, and the audience is also willing to choose this movie, so the box office will unconsciously increase.As for the awards, despite the fact that the judging committee of each award claims to be "fair, fair, and open", in fact, how can people who have been in Hollywood all the year round not understand the tricks in private?
There are actually three types of film awards in Hollywood: Film Critics Awards, Association or Union Awards, and Audience Awards.Although it is difficult for Jed to influence film critics like the New York Film Critics Association who pursue film avant-garde, it is not difficult to influence the business-oriented Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Philadelphia Film Critics Association with humanistic care as its concept.As for the so-called audience awards such as the MTV Movie Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Teen Choice Awards, they were purely created by smashing advertisements.
Although association or trade union awards are claimed to be non-profit, there are ways to operate them.For example, these associations or unions will require that nominated films must be advertised in newspapers to announce that they have been nominated by these associations, so Jed directly buys full-page ads in the "New York Times" and "Washington Post" to mention these associations , Do you think these associations will secretly love you more?And from time to time, a few judges are invited to participate in the next film screening, experience meeting, exchange meeting and so on. They can eat, drink and get gifts. As long as the gifts do not exceed the regulations of the "Lobbying Law", everything is allowed.
And although the promotion of the film only started in September, the promotion of the original book started early.Sherman Entertainment Group also has a publishing house, so it naturally signed the agency rights of Chris Gardner's "Happiness".The original publishing house was not overly embarrassed, after all, the sales volume of this book itself was mediocre, and it was almost worthless after many years.But after Sherman Entertainment Group bought the book, it immediately gave the book a makeover.
At Jed's suggestion, John directly renamed the book "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", and the cover was replaced with stills taken by Will Smith and Jaden Smith and his son.The overall cover is a warm yellow tone, and the beautiful sunset on Sunset Boulevard elongates the figures of the father and son.Jaden's head was resting on Will's lap, and Will was looking at his son happily.And at the bottom of the cover is Chris Gardner's headshot, next to the headshot are three lines of big words. "Written based on real events"; "Jed Sherman, Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, Hillary Clinton jointly recommended"; "The film of the same name will be produced by MGM Films".
When the new version of the book was re-released in major bookstores in the United States, it won the first place in the non-fiction category of the "New York Times" best-seller list after only one week, and won the title for ten consecutive weeks, becoming a strong contender for the annual best-seller list. By.The most surprising thing is that "When Happiness Comes Knocking" actually has a book review written by Hillary Clinton.In fact, this is also a cooperation between Jed and the Democratic National Committee. Hillary Clinton is indeed one of the strong candidates for the Democratic Party to run for president in the future.And Hillary is naturally willing to have a relationship with a media tycoon like Sherman, not to mention that this book is very much in line with the mainstream values of the United States-the American dream of paying for what will be rewarded and the middle-class ideal of having both a family and a career.
With the support of many celebrities, this second-published book suddenly became popular in the United States, and the author Gardner also became the darling of major programs.Although Gardner is not a celebrity signed by Sherman Entertainment Group, Sherman Entertainment Group and Sherman Media Group still gave the green light to Gardner's publicity.First of all, many channels under Sherman Media have notified Gardner that as long as Gardner's schedule is available and the content is relevant, then Gardner will either appear on We TV Network or Art Entertainment TV Network. Months of visual bombardment abruptly turned Gardner into a TV celebrity.
Even "The Oprah Show", which has always been uninterested in celebrity stars, invited Gardner twice in three months.Once, Gardner was invited to talk about his family and life on the show; another time, "The Oprah Show's Oprah Reading Club" invited Gardner to bring "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" to participate in the show.
After Gardner became popular in the United States, naturally his promotion for "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" also gained more weight.According to a survey conducted by Yahoo Entertainment Channel, the movie that American audiences are most looking forward to during the Christmas period is actually "When Happiness Comes Knocking on the Door", a biographical film of contemporary characters with a relatively low production cost.
Professional film magazines such as "Influence" and "Box Office" analyzed the possibility of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" won the award. The views of the two magazines are that there is basically no problem for this film to win the audience award; Winning the Critics Humanity Award depends on the quality of the film and the preferences of the critics at the time.
However, the two magazines are not very optimistic about "When Happiness Comes Knocking" to win the trade union or association award. After all, the mainstream trade union association awards are the Oscar and the Golden Globe Award. "Super War Movie" is famous, especially if it can also involve a little bit of British style, then the chances of winning the award will be even greater.But "When Happiness Comes Knocking" is an American movie through and through, and has nothing to do with history or war.
The editor-in-chief of "Box Office" believes, "If you have to look at Oscar-winning movies, then in recent years, only "Forrest Gump" and "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" are the most similar. But "Forrest Gump" uses A "black humor" and "criticism" method to describe, so it is more popular with the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Hollywood Reporter Association. Therefore, "When Happiness Comes Knocking" has a very high possibility of receiving a large number of nominations, But the chances of winning are very low, and you will only get a few consolation prizes.”
The comments of "Box Office" are like pouring cold water on the film promotion of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" which is in full swing, but Jed has to think that the analysis of "Box Office" is indeed correct.Although the Golden Globe Awards are slightly more commercialized than the Oscars, the essence of the two awards is still similar. The three themes of "History", "War" and "Biography" are the movies that are most likely to win votes from the judges. Although "Happiness Comes Knocking" is in line with the "biography", it is after all a biography of an existing contemporary figure, so it cannot be photographed in depth.
Although Hollywood has never opposed the traditional American values-humanity and family, it is almost impossible for this kind of film to win the "Best Picture" award.But it is very likely to win such awards as "Best Director", "Best Screenplay" or "Best Actor or Actress".Of course, if the movie was strong that year, the judges would give "Best Supporting Actor and Actress" as a consolation prize as appropriate.
But the hope of Jade and MGM is not only to win several important awards in this category, but it is best not to let go of the "Best Picture" award.So when the comments on "Box Office" came out, Sherman Entertainment Group, on the one hand, invited friendly film critics or media to speak for themselves through public relations means, and on the other hand, it also launched a troop on social media to make a contribution to "When Happiness Comes" Knock on the door" campaign.
However, before "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" lands on the Christmas file, Christopher Nolan's new movie "The Prestige" will seize the previous small schedule-the Thanksgiving schedule.This is an iconic work of director Christopher Nolan's mature art. In this film, Nolan not only invited powerful Mesozoic actors such as Hugh Jackman and David Bowie to join him, but also used his queen actor afterwards. —Christian Bale.Of course, in addition to the three acting men, the addition of Scarlett Johansson, the darling of the new generation of Hollywood, also adds a lot to the movie.
In Jed's view, this film may not be Nolan's highest artistic achievement, but it is a milestone for him to become the most successful commercial director in Hollywood.Jed does not think that Nolan will become a Hollywood director with strong artistic flavor like Coppola or Eastwood, and of course he will not become a technical director like Lucas or Cameron, his ideal template It's Spielberg.Like Spielberg, Nolan can not only add deep humanistic thinking to big commercial productions, but also make dull literary themes as compact as commercial movies.
Jed also regards Nolan as the pillar director of Sherman Entertainment Group for the next few decades, so he fully supports and never interferes with the films he shoots, and the performance of this "Fatal Magic" is indeed not bad.
"The Prestige" became the weekend champion with a box office of 2000 million US dollars in the first week of its release, beating "The Departed" which won the championship for two consecutive weeks.However, the artistic flavor of "The Prestige" is still too strong, and Nolan's personal characteristics are too obvious, so he was defeated by Lionsgate's "Chain Saw Massacre 3" in the second week. "Chain Saw Massacre" is the copyright film of Lionsgate Films, because there have been two episodes of filming, so Jed did not interfere with the production and distribution of this film.As expected, Lionsgate Films pushed the film to the top of the weekend box office in North America.
However, both "Saw Massacre" and "The Prestige" were kicked out of the top three the following week, as Fox's "Borat," Disney's "Santa Claus 3" and Paramount DreamWorks' "Mouseland" co-produced. Wanderings" are both released this week.But what depressed Jed the most was that in November, Sony's "007: Casino Royale" was released.Although Jed finally took away the copyright of MGM and all previous 007 movies, the copyright of the sequels of the 007 series of movies is in the hands of a group of rich British second generations.I don't know why they were fooled by Sony, and they actually gave the copyright to Sony Group.
In order not to turn against these rich second generations and get back the copyright of the next sequel, after Sony Group promised to share the copyright with MGM, Jed authorized Sony Group to use the copyright of the previous films of the 007 series.While analysts see it as a "win-win" situation, Jed sees it as an outcome that frustrates him.