The Best Director

Fixed some typos and uploaded again. This is the update on the 16th, and today's update continues at night.

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With Rachel's Meier turning off the DV player with a strange smile, the movie also came to an end. The logo of Lions Gate appeared on the big screen again, and there were a few lines of small words under the logo, "Producer: Young-Wang" and "This film is purely fictional", but these words are very small, And the stay time is only one or two seconds, which is inconspicuous; and the audience is frightened like a dementia, and no one has noticed the words.

When the audience came back to their senses, exclamations and discussions filled the entire movie hall. Those of them who were the first to eat crabs all believed that "Spiritual-Ghost Records" is a real thing, and the sense of substitution and fear of watching the film is naturally the highest. Their evaluation of the film is very important. It determines whether they will "viral marketing" in reality.

"It's crazy! Oh my god! It scared the hell out of me in the end, oh my god, are there really evil spirits in this world?" "We're going to have to ask that guy Sean to see it, I can't wait to see it How will that guy be scared..." Two white youths walked through the aisle between the seats, one of them still couldn't get rid of the fear brought to him by the movie; the other was enthusiastically preparing a scary plan.

"This is the scariest horror movie I've ever seen, damn it! I regret watching it now, I think I won't be able to sleep, and I'll have nightmares when I fall asleep, damn it..." A black youth said to Friends babble and curse as they walk down the aisle.

Wang Yang sat on his seat, listening to these words from the audience, he felt unprecedentedly full in his heart, he closed his eyes slightly, felt and enjoyed all of this, he found, found what he had been looking for since childhood, The stuff of dreams, he makes people like the villagers in Cinema Paradise, he makes things that make people laugh, make people cry, make people go crazy.

He bit his cocoon and turned into a butterfly, ready to soar into the sky!

Jessica next to him didn't bother him, she looked at Wang Yang, her sweet face was peaceful, she could feel Wang Yang's heart, the heart that touched her dream and achieved success, she remembered her first participation Acting, I was so excited and happy, and felt that I had found the true meaning of life.

After sitting for a long time, the audience left one by one, and then sporadic new audiences entered. Wang Yang suddenly opened his eyes, took a breath, looked at Jessica who was smiling, and Jessica smiled at him and said, "Congratulations, Yang." Wang Yang grinned and said, "Jessica ,thanks."

As soon as the two entered the movie hall, Wang Yang received a call from Joshua. On the phone, Joshua's voice was very excited, and he yelled: "Dude, it's so fun! They were so scared that they almost peed Pants! Haha, there's a guy next to me who jumps up from that last kick and runs around like crazy, yelling 'Help me, ahh'! Haha, what a catch, too bad it's too late It's too late, otherwise I would really like to watch another one, the reaction of these people is so funny."

Wang Yang finished listening to Joshua's call, and Jessica next to her also ended her call. She shook the mobile phone in her hand and said with a smile: "Yang, Erin said that she and her friends were so scared. Dead, their hearts haven't calmed down yet." Wang Yang let out a "wow" and said with a smile: "Good news, it's good that they didn't disappoint them."

While picking up the car in the parking lot, Wang Yang received another call from Jon Filtimer, the distribution manager of Lionsgate. Jon said in a calm voice, "Young man, good news and bad news! Good news Yes, audiences were basically terrified; the bad news is that attendance for the first screening was not high."

Sitting in Jessica's car, Wang Yang smiled into his phone: "Hey, Jon, don't worry about this! I believe the box office will get better and better,

As long as the audience is intimidated. After a pause, he asked Jon again: "By the way, you haven't forgotten our second promotional plan, have you?" "

The second step of the plan is that Lionsgate dispatched five employees to each of the five movie theaters participating in the test screening with a camera, secretly filmed the panic reactions of the audience, and then put them on the Internet, and then added a slogan "You Will it scare you like this?" I believe that doing so will definitely arouse people's curiosity and make them want to try it, what horror movie? I'm not going to be so scared.

"Don't worry." Jon said with a smile: "These are our jobs, and we won't delay. Our people are also filming in the 'Vitai Projector' cinema. Did you watch it there? Maybe you will be there I can see myself in the video." After talking about the joke, he said in a serious tone: "Okay, Yang, let's wait for the box office data for the first day when it comes out tomorrow. You know, in the first week of screenings, the box office only exceeded 100,000. Weeks will continue to show; more than 150,000 box office, we will consider whether to increase the number of theaters to 50."

"I know, Jon." Wang Yang nodded.

It was already late at night, and Wang Yang didn't ask Jessica to take him back. She also needed to go home as soon as possible. When the car came to a nearby subway station, Wang Yang got out of the car, waved to Jessica through the car window: "Goodbye, Jessica! Remember to be careful on the road, and call me when you get home."

Jessica held the steering wheel with one hand, waved to him with the other, and said with a smile: "I will. Jan, thank you, I spent an unforgettable night tonight."

"Me too." Wang Yang smiled, seeing that she was about to step on the accelerator and was about to leave, he waved goodbye again: "Good night, Jessica."

When he returned to the apartment at nearly three o'clock in the morning, he received a call from Jessica that he had arrived home safely, and Wang Yang lay down on the bed to sleep. He felt very sleepy, but there was always an excitement in his head that woke him up from time to time, and he fell asleep in a daze after a long sleep. In his dream, he dreamed that he was sitting in a movie hall that could accommodate a thousand people, and there were no seats left. , everyone was screaming...

In the morning, although he had only slept for a few hours, the habit he had developed over the years still made him get up as usual. After finishing washing up, boxing and other daily necessities, he came to the computer with a bowl of cooked noodles, ready to check the reaction of the movie on the Internet. While the computer was entering the system, the cell phone rang, and it belonged to Jon Filtimer.

Wang Yang couldn't help being a little puzzled, Jon called so early, has the box office already been counted? He connected the phone and said with a smile, "Good morning, Jon. Didn't you sleep well?"

"Yan, something went wrong. I was woken up early in the morning." Jon's tone was heavy. Wang Yang was stunned, and asked, "What happened?" Jon took a deep breath and sighed, "Last night in San Francisco, when a 14-year-old girl was watching "Spiritual Ghost Records", In the end, I was paralyzed from fear.”

"Oh my God!" Wang Yang was stunned, frowning tightly, and hurriedly asked: "How is that girl now, is she okay?" Jon changed his tone and said with a smile: "It's nothing No, she's fine now." Thank God!

Wang Yang couldn't help closing his eyes, breathed a sigh of relief, and then scolded with a smile: "Damn it, Jon, your tone of voice just now shocked me! It made me think that girl's condition is serious." Fortunately, if someone Any viewer who is scared to death watching his movie will feel guilty for the rest of his life.

Jon laughed triumphantly, and said narrowly, "Ha, I just want you to taste the feeling of being scared. This is to get justice for that girl." He laughed a few times and said, "Yang, this matter It happened on the news section of Yahoo, go and check it out, there are reports there."

"OK, I'm right in front of the computer." Wang Yang held the mouse and opened the Yahoo homepage, and found this news. Girl Watching Horror Movie Scared to Paralysis."

It turned out that there was a 14-year-old white girl in San Francisco in the early morning. She and her 20-year-old brother went to the cinema to watch horror movies. to the cinema. At the end of the movie, the girl was so frightened that she became completely paralyzed. Her brother, who was also frightened, quickly called the staff of the movie theater, and together they sent the girl to the hospital for emergency treatment. Fortunately, Nothing serious, just need to stay in hospital for observation.

A staff member of the movie theater told the reporter: "She was paralyzed there, her face was blue, her lips were black, and she was trembling constantly. You know, uh... like she was about to die. Oh, it's scary to think about it! "The owner of the cinema said angrily: "Why is "Spiritual-Ghost Records" rated PG-13? It should be rated NC-17! My cinema will implement this level, and I don’t want my guests to be frightened die."

Then the editor of this news suggested that heart patients, teenagers and children should fully consider their own psychological endurance when watching horror movies in movie theaters, or avoid watching horror movies directly to avoid tragedy.

"It's really lucky that no one has anything to do." After watching the news, Wang Yang also laughed in the mood: "Oh, Jon, it's not fair, that movie theater will implement NC-17 rating for my movie, which will make me less Lots of box office."

"Haha, Yang, I think we should thank that boss!" Jon laughed and said mysteriously: "You know what? This is a good opportunity for publicity."

Wang Yang was slightly taken aback, and then realized: "You mean to use this news for publicity?" There is only one "Spiritual-Ghost Record" in this news, which comes from the words of the movie theater owner, In other places, "a horror movie" is used instead.

Jon said "yes" in a light voice, as if shrugging his shoulders: "Jan, it's no big deal, the girl is fine now. This is a fact, we just let everyone know that fact, that your movie has What a horror."

"Then what are you going to do?" Wang Yang asked with a frown.

Jon talked about his plan: "First, we will publicly apologize to the little girl, and then we will invite her and her brother to come to Santa Monica to play and visit Lions Gate, and of course we will pay for it. The most important thing is that we will publish these news on the official website, and then publicize them to ensure that every forum can see these news.”

Heading to Santa Monica? That's not bad, the little girl is a blessing in disguise. Wang Yang nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, this plan sounds good. It will be beneficial to us and that girl." Jon smiled and said: "Of course, this promotion is not only to promote your movie, It’s also promoting our Lionsgate company.”

After chatting for a few more words, Wang Yang and Jon ended the call. According to Jon, he didn't sleep well all night and needed to catch up on sleep.

In fact, even if Lionsgate ignores this news, it will not lose its publicity value in vain, because it has been forwarded everywhere by "ghost fans". This is a fact, not a hype by the film company, which makes people wonder and wonder: "Is this movie really that scary?"

Wang Yang browsed the Yahoo forums and other places, and there were many posts on these forums about the experience of watching "Ghost Story". Of course, many of these posts were posted by Lionsgate employees, but there were also quite a few of them. Most of the netizens’ posts said that the movie was very scary: “It’s scary to death, I strongly recommend everyone to watch it, it’s really scary, Kevin’s death is so pitiful!”, “I understand the one who was scared to death. Paralyzed girl, I myself fell out of the chair in fright, this is the most embarrassing time I have watched a horror movie." etc.; but not all of these voices, some people commented: "Boring sucks, A bad movie, I almost fell asleep watching it, the picture is blurry, the camera shakes..."

Without Lionsgate and Wang Yang replying to this post, many people followed up and said: "Dude, this is a real documentary, all shot on DV, you can't ask for too much."

Those who praise are praising; those who scold are also scolding. There are also many more questions such as "Is the story of this movie true or false", "Is Kevin dead", "Where is Mel", "Is there a director", etc. People's desire to know the truth has become stronger and more and more people said that they were going to go to the cinema to find out.

This momentum is very good, Wang Yang will not ask everyone to be full of praise for "Spiritual-Ghost Story", that is impossible; everyone's viewing experience is different, especially for horror films, it is very psychological Horror movies and visual horror movies, psychological horror can't scare a large number of Americans. Their brains seem to be full of muscles. They dismiss psychological horror techniques and only like the bloody visual horror.

So Wang Yang never expected to get much box office from them.

The box office statistics for the first day of the show came out in the afternoon, and now the box office statistics for theaters are all connected to the network system, and every ticket sold is recorded as one ticket, which is naturally convenient and fast. According to the data obtained by Lionsgate, it received more than 22,000 box office on the first day.

All 25 theaters are open all night. "Spiritual-Ghost Story" only occupies one movie hall, with an average of 500 seats. From 12:00 midnight to 6:00 am, three shows are played every day, and the first round of the movie The ticket price is 6 US dollars a ticket, and the box office is more than 22,000, which means that the 75 screenings of "Spiritual Ghost Story" in 25 theaters only have an average attendance rate of 10%.

This result is very average, within the expected range of Lionsgate and Wang Yang. If the attendance rate of 10% can be maintained, the box office can still receive 154,000 in one week, exceeding the target of 100,000 that can continue to be screened next week.

Wang Yang told Zachary, Rachel, Jessica and others about the box office results, and he said with a smile to Rachel: "It's fine if we can continue to screen, and we can recover the cost in two weeks, so we are not box office poison." Now, maybe I can get more than ten dollars, haha!" Rachel joked with him: "Wow, more than ten dollars, that's awesome! But I don't think it's just that, well, at least a few hundred dollars. "Wang Yang smiled half-truthfully and said: "Well, I will definitely make a lot of money."

Just when Lionsgate was considering whether to continue screening next week, the box office results of "Spiritual Ghost Story" on the second day surprised everyone. The average attendance rate of 75 screenings actually rose to 35. %! And the first game at midnight was as high as 87%! The next day's box office reached more than 78,700 US dollars!

The cumulative box office in the first two days has exceeded 100,000 US dollars, which means that "Spiritual Ghost Records" can continue to be screened next week; Movies increase the number of theaters!

"It seems that my own cost of 10,000 yuan has a chance to be recovered, and maybe I can make a small profit." Wang Yang smiled happily at Jessica: "Haha, then I can be regarded as a 'profitable director'!" Jessica smiled happily: "Well, the 'profitable director' that almost scares people to death."

Just as Jon Filtimer and other personnel in the distribution department were discussing whether to add 50 or 100 theaters next week, the box office results on the third day caught them off guard again. Lionsgate received a jaw-dropping report that 25 theaters collected $145,000 in box office on the third day! The average attendance rate rose to 64%, and the attendance rate of the first midnight show was as high as 100%...

When Wang Yang heard the news, even though he was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but startled, then jumped up and waved his fist, shouting: "Oh my god!"

Jessica, Rachel, Zachary... Everyone was stunned. This box office result completely exceeded their imagination. The cumulative box office of the movie reached 245,700 in three days, and the growth rate was several times a day. This is clearly a dark horse movie that will sell well!

Lionsgate, which has basically recovered its distribution costs, has seen the "ghosting" craze on the Internet and the box office growth spurt. Now, the entire company, including Jennifer, the front desk lady, knows that Lionsgate has really found a treasure this time. ! At the meeting, the management of the company unanimously agreed that the number of screening theaters for "Spiritual-Ghost Records" will increase to 200 next week!

But the blowout continued. When Lionsgate faced the box office of 181,000 on the fourth day, with an average attendance rate of 80%, and the message boards on the official website, they changed their minds. Next week, the number of screening theaters will increase to 750, and theaters in some cities will even broadcast in multiple movie halls at the same time. At the same time, they increased the cost of publicity, put the images of the audience's panic reactions on the official website, and started a new round of promotion in conjunction with the "Girl Paralyzed by Scaring" event.

People who often go to online forums now, there is no one who doesn't know about it, "Kevin's murder", "The girl who was scared to death" and the slogan "Do you dare to see it?"

Now, the young people are all aroused with curiosity and competitiveness. Taking advantage of the summer vacation, they don’t have to get up early to go to school. They go to the cinema in groups to watch this "scary real movie"; The next day, I took my friends who hadn't seen it to watch it again...

Movie theaters in Los Angeles also faced a situation where tickets were hard to come by. Tickets for the first show at midnight were often snapped up as soon as they went on the counter; Game three.

At the ticket office of the "Vitai Projector" cinema, there are now more than a hundred young people standing and sitting everywhere, ranging from 14-year-old children to young college students in their 20s. Some of them are chatting on the phone, Some were playing with handheld devices such as GameBoy, and some were sitting on the floor playing cards together...

"Look at them...their parents must be scolding you." Jessica and Wang Yang stood in one part of the ticket office. She looked at the young people who crowded the entire ticket office and smiled proudly: "Yang , they're here because of your movie, because of you."

"Well, this feeling is really good." Wang Yang looked at the crowd waiting for the next movie with a satisfied smile, and sighed: "Jessica, it seems that I have succeeded. Wow, life is really amazing! When I was kicked out of USC a few months ago, I was devastated and the sky was falling; but now, I have become a director before everyone, and I have a movie that is released, it is unbelievable. "

Jessica nodded silently, thinking of her reaction when Yang wanted to make a DV movie just now, the cost of 10,000 US dollars? Are you kidding? She couldn't figure it out, how could a movie be made with $10,000?

At that time, Yang said to her very seriously: "Ten thousand dollars is enough, enough to make a good movie!" She remembered Yang's eagerness for someone to agree with him and support him, and he said: "Jessica, Please trust me! You will see, but I need your support!" Then she said to Young: "I trust you."

Next, she saw how it took $10,000 to make a movie, saw people go crazy for it, saw his success. Unbelievable, but it was all happening, Jan wasn't talking big, he had shown her the glamor of a $10,000 movie, the glamor of him.

Jessica thought again, but she was still a small role who kept failing auditions. While she was happy for Wang Yang, she also felt a little uncomfortable.

"Hey, how long do we have to wait!" A curly-haired white guy who was a high school student walked past them, he looked impatient and complained, "Why are there only five movie theaters showing it, and it's just one movie hall! God, if I don't watch this movie, I'll be like a primitive..."

He suddenly saw the beautiful Jessica leaning against the wall, his eyes lit up, and then saw Wang Yang next to her, he was startled, as if he was thinking about something, looked at Wang Yang, and said: "Hi, buddy You look familiar, I seem to have seen you somewhere?"

"No, you haven't seen me!" Wang Yang said seriously, and added with a smile in his heart, is it in the trailer of the movie? Without waiting for the curly-haired white man to think about it, Wang Yang blinked at Jessica, ran out of the cinema, and shouted with a smile, "Jessica, we have to go!"

"Wait for me!" Jessica laughed, interrupted her messy thoughts, and ran to follow.