I'm in Hollywood Chapter 146

Compared to the 《Indiana Jones》 series, which has a strong box office appeal around the world, the series «Ghostbusters» had no advantages, because the movie type was comedy, and comedy movies are not easy to remember as, after everyone laughed and laughed, there was nothing left. 

And the shooting time between the two parts of the series is five years apart. For a comedy, the loss of popularity over time is even greater. If it weren’t for Colombia not having a continuation for any other series of movies to put out this summer, they would not have started this project. 

However, Colombia’s efforts to spare no expense in this film have made up for most of the disadvantages. Although it is still worse than the frenzied propaganda of《Running Out of Time》, compared to the summer advertising of other film companies, the propaganda in Colombia was completely as if they didn't want to make money, but simple make their box office goals, their true goals were indeed this.

Negotiations with Sony for acquisition have entered the final stage. The Japanese are determined to eat a fat sheep this time. As a result the ultimate goal of all business operations in Colombia is to raise the stock price. For listed studios, box office data is one of the most influential factors in stock prices. 

《Ghostbusters II》 was released on June 16th. After the first week at the box office, the $45 million data made the Colombia executives ecstatic, knowing that the first week of the 《Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade》 was only 46 million. This also means that 《Ghostbusters II》 is likely to be like the 《Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade》, and according to the evaluation agency's expectations, get nearly 200 million US dollars in the North American box office. 

But this excitement only lasted for a week. In the second week, the box office of 《Ghostbusters II》 dipped directly, with a drop of 55%, and only got just more than 19 million in the second week at the box office. 

The box office appraisal agency quickly lowered the box office estimate of 《Ghostbusters II》, and the box office valuation of 200 million US dollars was reduced to 110 million US dollars. The Colombia share price that had been rising rapidly did not fall due to this news, but the rising momentum slowed down. After all, as one of the six giants, the summer film is the main film, and it is really nothing special to get a box office of about 100 million.

The reason for this drop is that, except for the film's reputation after the film was released, the film was not as good as the first one. The most important thing was that the film had a bad luck and ran up against «Batman». 

«Batman» started from the first serialisation in 1939, and now it has run for half a century. For this first superhero in the history of North American comics, Warner was not very optimistic the chances of this movie. This lack of optimism was reflected in the budget.

Compared to the large-scale productions budget of nearly $50 million, Warner had only provided $35 million in production costs for Batman, which is inferior when compared to the size of blockbuster budgets, even that of «Ghostbusters» and 《Running Out of Time》. Although 《Running Out of Time》only cost 34 million, Colombia provided a budget of 40 million US dollars at first, whilst 《Ghostbusters II》 had a budget of 40 million US dollars. 

Because Warner was not optimistic about Batman, Colombia did not put it in their eye, so they put 《Ghostbusters II》 in the week before «Batman» was released. 

But everyone had far underestimated the influence of this half-century superhero in the eyes of Americans. On June 24th, «Batman» was released. A week later, this comic book hero had swept away the rivals with a $68 million box office, occupying 45% of the total box office in a week, and smashing the box office of many other movies. 

The biggest impact was on Columbia’s《Ghostbusters II》, and after a 55% decline in the box office, the dream of the 200 million box office for 《Ghostbusters II》 was completely broken. After all, after the box office crash, there was very little chance for a bounce back.

Therefore, Colombia can only place its hopes on Eric's 《Running Out of Time》. After all, this film has been internally audited, and the film critics have screened it and been consistently optimistic. 

However, after the box office of «Batman» was released in the second week, it brought down the people at the top's expectations of《Running Out of Time》, because «Batman» dropped only 23% at the box office in the second week. It got a box office of $52 million, which is much higher than the box office of many large-scale screenings in the first week.

Although the weekly box office total will be about 150 million US dollars in the summer, this $150 million is spread between more than a dozen movies from the summer catalog, so each will not appear too much. either the movie will go big and gross well, or it will become cannon fodder. Even if it is a good movie that is highly anticipated, the proportion of the latter is still larger. In this case, the movie «Batman» occupies one-third of the market, and if there is no large-scale box office decline next week, the box office pressure on《Running Out of Time》can be imagined. 

In a conference room at the Colombia headquarters, a group of high-level executives were nervously discussing the response plan. CocCola also sent a vice president to attend the meeting. Eric sat next to Amy Pascal and patiently listened to everyone’s comments.

Although he is the director of this film, Eric doesn't have much of voice in the film's distribution. He appears here only because he is the director of《Running Out of Time》. The film production process is completely completed by Colombia. Autonomy of direction was given to him, but he was almost not involved in the distribution. Eric had previously submitted a paper of his own ideas about film advertising, but he did not receive a response from Colombia. 

"I feel that the《Running Out of Time》should be postponed for release, at least one week later. The momentum of «Batman» is too fierce. It is very unwise to act stubbornly with the schedule of July 7. We have lost a lot to《Ghostbusters II》, and if the box office of《Running Out of Time》cannot meet expectations because of «Batman», then we have completely squandered the plan to push up the stock price with two blockbusters." The executives of the department expressed their opinions. 

When the other party just finished, another executive asked: "Bob, according to your plan, what should we do with the agreements with the theaters?" 

"Coordinate with the other parties, properly compensate the losses of the theaters, this way they can push our film to the top. In short, we have to be sure that the box office of 《Running Out of Time》 is the first." 

The management of the data analysis department interjected: «Batman»'s box office has already broken 100 million, this momentum is unlikely to continue, and the critics’ evaluation of the film is not too high. I think the box office in the third week should have a normal decline of more than 40%."

"According to your previous statement, the film should have had a normal decline in the second week, but the fact is that this did not happen. In the second week, it only fell slightly by 23%," some people retorted. 

"The media has begun to ridicule our schedule for the two films. If we do not follow the current schedule, it will definitely give a signal that we have no confidence in the quality of the 《Running Out of Time》. This is very dangerous because once the fans have such misunderstandings, they will think that the《Running Out of Time》is a bad film. This blow to the movie would be the most deadly. As a result, it would be the safest way to release the movie according to the original plan. It is not that we do not want to delay the release, but in accordance to the current situation, we must not postpone it." 

"I also agree with Rhett that we want to postpone, but we can't postpone it. Once it is postponed, it is equivalent to telling everyone that we are not confident about《Running Out of Time》. They will say we are afraid《Running Out of Time》 is actually not as good as our advertising makes it out to be." 

"But even after «Batman» has another drop of about 20% in the third week, it will still get around 40 million at the box office. Can you imagine how much box office pressure《Running Out of Time》will have in this case?"

The crowd noisily discussing for another hour, and the vice president of CocCola who was watching the whole scene during this process, listening, sat up straight when there was a lul in the conversation, but this change was ignored by everyone, and then he turned his gaze to Eric, who listened as silently as himself: "Mr. Williams, I see you haven't spoken yet, why not talk about your opinion?" 

Chapter end