Hollywood Production - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Junket Whore

After the screening ended, the people in the theatre quickly divided into two groups. The people in the Fox publicity department took film critics and journalists to a nearby hotel, while some people in the distribution department stayed in the theatre to collect feedback surveys from the audience.

After the movie completely ends, the people from the distribution department, including Harry Dunn, quickly return to Fox Tower in Century City to sort through and analyze the contents of the questionnaire.

For an industry that has to put out new products every day, it is extremely important to accurately grasp the market pulse, and the diversity and changeability of the film industry determine that film distributors must collect a large amount of data and apply the analysis results to the marketing of the work.

Pre-screening research is not only concerned with the audience’s level of interest in the film, but also with the information feedback from different audience groups through data analysis, so as to formulate targeted publicity plans.

In short, promotion is often much more complex than production.

“Mr. Rothman …”

In a huge studio, Dunn is giving the head of the distribution department, Tom Rothman, the latest questionnaire summary. “This questionnaire is very representative… I feel like I’ve been sitting on a high-altitude elevator, taking a high-speed bus, and being hijacked on a high-speed subway. The sense of tension and excitement has never disappeared. Although the whole story looks a bit simple, the dangerous action scenes make me feel very good, especially the several explosion scenes in it. I think it completely exceeds the explosion scenes in 《Terminator 2》. “

Tom Rothman sat in a spacious chair, stroking his chin with one hand while reading the consecutive positive reviews from the audience, as well as Dunn’s description of some of the audience members who went to the bathroom backwards so as not to miss a scene, further increasing the importance of the film.

“The statistical results are out.”

The staff member who conducted the survey came over, and Rothman looked up slightly. Data doesn’t lie. In the end, it all comes down to the data.

“We distributed 265 questionnaires to the audience and received 263 back.”

The staff member spoke as concisely as possible: “There are 205 A+ evaluations, 44 A evaluations, 7 B+ evaluations, and 7 C+ or below evaluations…”

The studio suddenly quieted down; this can be said to be a super high audience reputation, which obviously gives Fox more confidence in 《Speed.》

Meanwhile, in the banquet hall of the Four Seasons Hotel, Duke is being introduced to professional film critics by Robin Grand, even though he hasn’t heard of 90 percent of them, let alone their names. But when it comes to laughing, Duke will not be stingy with his smile.

After all, he doesn’t have the capital now, 《Speed》 also needs these parasites in the film industry to wave flags and shout.

Duke does not care about the group’s evaluation of the film at all. Since they came to the party, they would naturally accept the gifts sent by Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. Next, they will try to arouse the curiosity of the audience about 《Speed,》 regardless of whether it is good or bad.

Doing things for money is the most basic rule, whether it’s filmmakers or film critics.

Everyone knows that reviewers are only ‘relatively’ impartial, and ‘relatively’ can be interpreted in many ways.

Let’s just say that this time, in addition to the round-trip travel expenses and the accommodation and dining expenses at the Four Seasons Hotel, Fox also prepared gifts or checks according to the different positions of the film critics in the industry. Even the most unknown of them had a souvenir worth nearly $500. Fox had a budget of more than $50,000 for these people.

Similarly, these people’s reviews have to be sent to Fox’s publicity department for review before they can be published. If they are published without Fox’s consent, they will be censored by Fox and will not enjoy the benefits of free tickets to movies from Fox’s extremely cooperative partners for a long time.

This is the default rule in both the film and film review industries, and no one would break it intentionally. The distributors also wouldn’t allow them to give out such nauseatingly good reviews, even if the criticisms could be accepted, but only if the criticisms could arouse the audience’s interest in the film.

For example, if the other party writes, “In addition to countless explosions, fighting, and chasing cars, there is nothing in the film,” Fox will accept it because mainstream audiences like these things and the film review also directly states the selling point of the film, which will inevitably attract audiences.

These are not secrets at all within the Hollywood circle. Since the 1930s, when the first film critics’ association in the world, the New York Film Critics Association, was founded, Hollywood has had a relationship of both cooperation and opposition with the film critics’ circle. The film industry needs film critics to wave flags and shout, and the film critics need to suck blood from the big film industry.

Those kind of film critic has a special title “Junket Whore”.

If you find any Mistakes or Poorly Written Paragraphs in this chapter, pleas tell me in the comments below so I can fix them.