Chapter 363: A Very Interesting Scheduling Slot

The fact that *The Fault in Our Stars*, which topped the North American weekend box office, managed to outperform *Rush Hour 3*—released in the same period—as well as the second-week blockbuster sequel *The Bourne Ultimatum*, truly exceeded many people's expectations.

However, considering that *The Fault in Our Stars* is yet another film adapted from a Cao Yang novel and carries such high buzz, its appearance at the top of the charts is not entirely unacceptable.

Looking at the current box office, a massive breakout is certainly impossible; after all, which of those blockbuster films that easily rake in 300 or 400 million in North America doesn't pull in around 100 million in its first three days?

According to North American box office patterns, a performance of around 50 million for the opening weekend usually sees the total box office stall at around 150 million.

Of course, there are exceptions, but they require exceptionally good word-of-mouth or the influence of special events.

Good word-of-mouth isn't enough; it must be exceptionally good.

For example, *The Bourne Ultimatum*, released last week, is a series that solidified Matt Damon's status as an A-lister, and its word-of-mouth has always been quite good.

*The Bourne Ultimatum* pulled in over 70 million USD in its first three days, but because its word-of-mouth didn't reach "exceptionally good," its box office for this weekend was cut in half, totaling less than 34 million USD.

This is considered a normal drop, not falling past the 60% line.

As long as the word-of-mouth doesn't collapse and it doesn't fall past the 60% line, for most Hollywood films, taking the first three days' box office and multiplying by three gives a rough range for the total North American box office.

For instance, *Rush Hour 3* took 50.4 million in its first three days; if the second weekend's box office doesn't fall past the 60% line, one can estimate the total box office will fluctuate around 150 million.

The extent of that fluctuation is the manifestation of word-of-mouth.

Of course, if the second-week drop is extremely low—for example, not falling past the 30% line—then it is a film with exceptionally good word-of-mouth, and the final box office won't be as simple as the first three days' total multiplied by three.

Therefore, Hollywood film companies place great importance on the second-week drop.

Cao Yang was actually not surprised by the performance of *The Fault in Our Stars*, nor was it outside his expectations.

In the original timeline, because *The Fault in Our Stars* was adapted from the bestselling novel *The Fault in Our Stars*, its opening day box office in North America reached over 26 million, and over 48 million for the first three days.

And now, while the novel's fame might not be as great as in the original timeline, Cao Yang's influence is huge; "Adapted from a Cao Yang novel..." is not just a simple string of words.

Coupled with the "Wish Day" activity organized by Columbia being in full swing, taking 51.6 million in the first three days is perfectly normal.

In Cao Yang's view, the power of the Wish Day activity hasn't been fully revealed yet; next week's box office might give everyone a surprise.

For Cheng Long, the opening weekend box office of *Rush Hour 3* was, generally speaking, a mix of joy and worry.

The joy is that after the massive flop of *Around the World in 80 Days*, *Rush Hour 3* at least didn't crash, and the box office is passable.

The worry is that *Rush Hour 3* didn't sell big either; based on current word-of-mouth and box office, reaching 150 million in North America is the limit.

A North American box office of around 150 million USD looks decent, but one cannot just look at the box office; one must also look at production costs.

One must know that New Line Cinema poured 140 million in costs into *Rush Hour 3*; a North American box office of around 150 million isn't enough to look at, so they can only pin their hopes on the global box office.

But the distribution costs for overseas box office outside North America are very high, and the share New Line can get is much less, generally around 30%.

That is to say, even if the overseas box office can match the North American box office, it is very difficult for New Line to recoup costs from the box office alone.

Not to mention, New Line still has to give Cheng Long and the "Big Black" so much of a share.

New Line can still recoup quite a bit from disc rentals and other areas later; Cheng Long's films can generally stabilize between 50 million and 80 million, but this also requires giving both of them a share.

After subtracting the shares, the remaining money, plus the box office revenue, will likely still not recoup the costs.

New Line won't be thinking about making money on this film for a while.

Cheng Long knows that his opportunities to star in Hollywood films are likely not many.

However, it's not that there isn't a single opportunity; if Director Cao is willing...

Cheng Long's mindset toward Cao Yang now is truly one of looking up to him.

The man acted as a producer and controlled an art-house film with an investment of only around 10 million, yet he managed to suppress his own *Rush Hour 3*; this is truly a bit of a blow.

Cheng Long estimates that even if the final box office of *The Fault in Our Stars* is about the same as *Rush Hour 3*, that is still a massive breakout, alright!

An investment of 10 million and an investment of 140 million are certainly not the same concept.

If *Rush Hour 3* has a 150 million box office, that is losing money.

If *The Fault in Our Stars* has a 150 million box office, that is making a huge profit.

Cheng Long knows that Cao Yang's status and influence in Hollywood are likely to increase once again.

Consequently, Cheng Long patted his own cheeks to make himself smile as naturally as possible, then picked up the phone and called Cao Yang to congratulate him on achieving success once again.

After the North American weekend box office rankings came out, Cao Yang received many congratulatory calls in succession.

There were calls from Columbia executives he had worked with, from Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox, and the CEO of Disney, with whom he is currently collaborating, Robert Iger, called personally.

There were also calls from Warner Bros., with whom he is about to collaborate; CEO Barry Meyer also called personally, as did Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov, and the company's Vice President in charge of the production department, Ian Howard.

Besides that, directors like Spielberg, Director Dong Mu, Old Martin, Nolan, and others also called Cao Yang.

The number of stars who know Cao Yang and called was even greater.

It made it seem as if *The Fault in Our Stars* had set a box office record.

Cao Yang knows that the reason these people called despite the "mediocre" box office of *The Fault in Our Stars* is mainly because they were shocked.

Anyone can see that all those fancy things *The Fault in Our Stars* did were aimed at the Oscars, a "campaign" for the Oscars in advance.

Who could have imagined that a low-budget art-house film could have such a powerful box office performance?

Of course, everyone's main goal was to get closer to Cao Yang—film companies want to collaborate with him, directors want him to write scripts or adapt his novels, and actors want to appear in his films.

Cao Yang's continuous success made everyone who knew him become kind and enthusiastic; it seemed there wasn't a single "bad" person left.

At the very least, after Cao Yang's *Milk* was released, the people surrounding him in Hollywood all turned into good people, and very few people opposed him.

Even the executives and CEOs of the seven major Hollywood film companies talked and laughed with him, without a hint of arrogance.

The world, in essence, is just like this!

Just as Huang Bo said, when you are successful, you are surrounded by good people.

Even Zhang Jingchu, in the few hours before she left, was still desperately "showing off" her shy and clumsy techniques.

After these few days of getting along and deep, thorough communication, Cao Yang was quite satisfied with Zhang Jingchu's hardworking performance.

He is not a heartless person; in his past life, he would even tip the author when reading a novel he liked, so for Zhang Jingchu's such hardworking performance, he certainly had to give a reward.

He did not give Zhang Jingchu extra resources; it was a transaction to begin with, and extra resources would have to be calculated separately. Cao Yang just gave her a phone number when she was leaving, saying that if she was bullied while filming, she could call this number, and it could help her solve a problem once.

Don't underestimate just helping to solve a problem once; if used well, it makes people unable to see through your true strength, and then very few people will dare to bully you again in the future.

Just like Dong Xuan, who hadn't won the Venice Best Actress award yet; Han Zong knew about her relationship with Cao Yang. Once, after she was made difficult by a very famous actress in the crew while filming, Han Zong took action in secret.

The crew was shut down directly for a week; the director and producer didn't even figure out which big shot had taken action, and in the end, that actress was directly kicked out of the crew.

Consequently, there were all kinds of rumors about Dong Xuan in the film and television circle; anyway, no matter which kind, whether good or bad, the bottom line was that Dong Xuan definitely had a big shot behind her and was not someone to be easily provoked.

Since then, no matter what role Dong Xuan played, everyone treated her with courtesy, and she never encountered any difficulties again.

Another week passed, and *Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot), a collaboration between Cao Yang and Disney, finished production.

After discussing with Disney CEO Robert Iger, this rebooted film was officially named *Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl*.

Originally, for the sake of sequels, Cao Yang thought he would have to come up with a new name for the film.

Who knew that after that *Pirates of the Caribbean* that flopped was made, because it wasn't filmed in a fantasy direction, it didn't use the name *The Curse of the Black Pearl*.

Now it's just right to use it, saving the trouble of thinking of other names.

"My dear Director, what do you think of the Christmas scheduling slot?"

Robert Iger was even more enthusiastic than last time; the way he looked at Cao Yang now made Cao Yang feel a little scared.

The reason is very simple: this week's box office is out.

*The Bourne Ultimatum* took another 18 million-plus in its third weekend, bringing its total North American box office to 160 million USD.

However, although the total box office is high, the 18 million-plus from the three-day weekend could only rank fourth on the weekend box office chart.

Ranked third is Cheng Long's *Rush Hour 3*, which took 21 million in the three-day weekend, a drop of 58%.

However, it didn't fall past 60%.

This drop is actually a bit large; it seems that reaching a total North American box office of 150 million is a bit precarious.

Adding the 17.1 million from the four weekdays, plus the 50.4 million from the first week, the total box office reached 88.5 million USD.

Ranked second is not *The Fault in Our Stars*, but a newly released film called *Superbad*, with a three-day weekend box office of 28 million USD.

It is worth mentioning that the production company of *Superbad* is Sony Pictures Entertainment.

That's right, it's the parent company of Columbia, Sony Pictures, and also the company where Cao Yang's old friend Tang Mu Rothman is going to serve as Global Vice President.

And *The Fault in Our Stars* was produced by Columbia under the leadership of Tang Mu Rothman, and it is also the last film old Tang Mu made at Columbia before his transfer.

This is a bit interesting.

Could it be that old Tang Mu's new position as Sony Global Vice President blocked the promotion path of some people at Sony Pictures, so they want to give old Tang Mu a "welcome" blow?

Pity, if that's the case, they underestimated the explosive power of *The Fault in Our Stars*.

*The Fault in Our Stars* achieved a box office of 33.5 million in the three-day weekend, a drop of only 35%; although it fell past the 30% "super" line, this is already a very, very healthy drop.

Moreover, it also took 28.3 million in the four weekdays, and adding the 51.6 million from last week, it has already achieved a brilliant result of 113.4 million in ten days of release.

One must know, these are not those art-house films released after winning an Oscar; to be able to achieve this result now is already quite remarkable.

Not to mention this is just a low-budget art-house film.

This is also the reason why Disney CEO Robert Iger is even more enthusiastic toward Cao Yang.

When Cao Yang heard Robert Iger ask him about the Christmas slot, he knew he wanted *Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot) to go into the Christmas slot.

The Christmas slot is one of the most important scheduling slots in North America; compared to the summer slot crowded with blockbusters, it is no less inferior, and its status is similar to the Spring Festival New Year slot in China.

In the Christmas slot, the audience's demand for viewing is relatively concentrated, and the requirements for the quality and word-of-mouth of the film are also relatively high; a film with good word-of-mouth can easily achieve good box office results in this slot.

It is now just entering late August, and there are only ten or so days left in the summer slot; it is not appropriate to release *Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot) on the tail end of the summer slot.

Unless one doesn't want the box office.

Speaking of which, besides the Christmas slot, there is no other slot this year suitable for a film with such super-large investment as *Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot).

"Is the competition fierce in this year's Christmas slot?"

Cao Yang asked curiously; it wasn't that he was afraid of competition, but he wanted to understand the situation of the Christmas slot, and Robert Iger must be quite knowledgeable about such information.

The reason is also very simple.

Films released in North America also need to be reviewed and classified, and the one doing this work is the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America.

And the main members of the Motion Picture Association of America are seven, which are the current seven major Hollywood film companies.

So, do you understand now why for so many years, those new American film companies, even DreamWorks formed by Spielberg and Jewish capital, couldn't play against the seven majors?

Because the seven majors possess "core technology"; they can just make "strict" requirements during the review, finding even a barely plausible reason.

A film that could have passed as G-rated or PG-rated, if they give you an R-rating, meaning those under 17 must be accompanied by parents to watch, how much box office would be lost?

To give an example that is a bit inappropriate but very apt, this is a bit like the five permanent members of the UN; if you are not one of the five, you will never be able to play against the five, and it is very difficult to become one of the five, unless you have the ability to beat all five of them up.

"If you're talking about a major threat, it would be Warner's *I Am Legend*, right? It stars the superstar Will Shi Misi.

In addition, Disney also has a film *National Treasure 2* planned for the Christmas slot; if *Pirates of the Caribbean* (reboot) chooses the Christmas slot, we can stagger the scheduling with *National Treasure 2*."

Disney CEO Robert Iger said to Cao Yang with a smile.

"*I Am Legend*?"

Cao Yang nodded; Will Shi Misi is one of the few superstars among black actors who has box office appeal, and he even entered the 20 million club.

This film's box office seems to be quite good.

A film produced by Warner is quite interesting.

Then let's bump into Will Shi Misi and Warner in the Christmas slot?

It just so happens that by then it will be about time to go to Warner to film, and just thinking about it is very interesting.

For Europeans and Americans, the language they can quickly understand and the way to gain their quick respect is direct collision.

"Then let's release it in the Christmas slot; it's a very good slot, and it will certainly be very interesting."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 364 =====