282 Expanding the pace
It has an outstanding reputation, excellent single venues, a lot of focus, and continues to be popular... "Buried Alive" has undoubtedly occupied an excellent position. Everything is ready and all it needs is the east wind..
What's more, next week's only new movie "Saw 3D" can be said to be the weakest competitor in the next two months..
This work is the seventh in the series. The box office results of the two previous sequels have been unsatisfactory. However, because of the low investment cost and simple implementation strategy, Lionsgate Pictures has created one after another. , but in fact, in terms of box office success, it can be said that the oil is exhausted. This time, it relies entirely on 3D gimmicks, hoping to drive the box office.
This is undoubtedly the best opportunity for "Buried Alive". If you miss this window, you will face repeated crushing by several powerful competitors. Just relying on the spread of word-of-mouth, it is really difficult for "Buried Alive" to create miracles at the box office. The prospects are immediate. It dimmed.
But no one expected that Focus Features refused to expand on a large scale. In the fourth week of October, it only added ten theaters, from eleven to twenty-one, and it was still limited to Los Angeles and New York. This city has conducted small-scale screenings for the second consecutive week. Compared with the attention "Buried Alive" received in the previous week, the pace of such expansion is almost negligible..
Focus Features’ choice is really puzzling and makes people wonder: Could it be that Focus Features was not prepared enough and did not anticipate the huge response of “Buried Alive”, so it missed the opportunity?？
However, veterans like Focus Pictures will not only conduct internal test screenings, collect information, and then formulate corresponding expansion plans; they will also make multiple preparations to respond immediately when unexpected situations occur..
Therefore, this also means that Focus Features is proceeding step by step and following the plan for expansion.？
If this is really the case, then Focus Features is really cunning and strategizing.！
Because, in the fourth week of October, the single-venue box office performance of "Buried Alive" not only did not decline due to the increase in venues, but also increased, repeating the feat of "Blair Witch" eleven years ago, and with 50,000 The single-theater box office figure of US$0.700 surpassed last year's weekly single-theater box office of "Paranormal Activity", ranking third on the all-time list of single-theater box office for horror movies.！
In fact, this is not difficult to understand and can be summarized as: thirsty marketing.
The more limited, the more out-of-print, the more precious, and the more unavailable, the more eye-catching it is. After Zhou set off a frenzy of praise, the reputation accumulated by Toronto and Telluride finally ushered in an explosion. , people's expectations for "Buried Alive" have skyrocketed. Regardless of whether they like it or not, and whether they agree or not, people have decided to go into the cinema to watch it in person. It is up to them to judge whether it is good or bad..
Moreover, "Buried Alive" is not one of those dull literary movies during award season. Although this movie has received rave reviews, it is still a thriller and horror movie. In other words, this is a popcorn movie, which is suitable for ordinary audiences. The attraction increases further.
However, Focus Features went in the opposite direction and refused to expand the screening on a large scale. It still limited the screening scope to Los Angeles and New York, the two cities with the strongest artistic atmosphere, the highest quality of the audience, and the best artistic aesthetic ability. The outstanding city attracted a large number of senior movie fans to watch the movie, which further spread the word of mouth..
The most intuitive manifestation is that imdb's audience ratings have made a qualitative leap. The audience rating directly exceeded 3,000 people. A total of more than 3,600 netizens voted, which is five times more than last week. More than enough; at the same time, the score also dropped from 8.5 to 8.4. Although the average score dropped, the drop was very weak and within the acceptable range. On the contrary, it further proved that movie fans have strong feelings towards "Buried Alive". The quality was affirmed.
As we all know, on imdb, senior users account for a larger proportion of ratings, and Los Angeles and New York are undoubtedly two of the top gathering places for senior users. If the quality of "Buried Alive" is excellent, then professional movie fans in these two cities will give more pertinent opinions, and the movie's reputation will be further confirmed; of course, if "Buried Alive" cannot stand the test, these picky and demanding netizens will not hesitate to send it to hell..
This is Focus Pictures’ little calculation, but it can also be seen that they are absolutely confident in the quality of “Buried Alive”.
As a result, "Buried Alive" ushered in a miraculous counterattack in its second week. Not only did the box office of a single venue hit a new high, but its excellent reputation was further spread! This tightrope victory truly gave "Buried Alive" its name, which spread overwhelmingly throughout North America..
Now, more and more people compare "buried alive" with "127 hours".
Although this situation has been experienced in Toronto before, due to the inherent shortcomings of "Buried Alive", facing the partnership of Danny Ball and James Franco, and the quality of "127 Hours" also won over film critics fanatical pursuit, so this kind of speech is only lively in Toronto. It cannot find a market after coming to North America..
However, the situation now is completely different.
Although the comprehensive media review by professional film critics is only 69 points, it is estimated that it will be difficult to compete with "127 Hours", but for thriller horror movies, this is already second only to "The Exorcist", and even better than "The Exorcist". Excellent works such as "The Sixth Sense" and "The Shining" are even higher, which also means that the door to the awards season has slowly begun..
What's more, the audience's enthusiasm is rising steadily. In the desperate situation of the secret room, they only performed a song of ups and downs with a one-man show. They don't think that "127 Hours" can do better than "Buried Alive" Even better, I don’t think James’ performance can be better than Renly’s.
“127"Hours" will be released in the North American market next week, and will be the first to be screened in four theaters, which is very exciting..
Fox Searchlight realized that such a duel could attract more attention to the movie, so it quietly began to tilt resources, hyping up the confrontation between "Buried Alive" and "127 Hours". Coupled with the starting power of Focus Features, the two movies It has indeed become the focus of discussion. It is not yet known who will win..
New director, new actor, new screenwriter, new team, even before "Buried Alive" appeared at the Toronto Film Festival, no one knew about the movie. But now, "Buried Alive" has quietly entered the awards season The sight of the show started a duel with "127 Hours". Such a pace of expansion can have.
A new single-house record of US$50,700 helped "Buried Alive" achieve weekend box office figures of US$1,060,000, making it into the top fifteen of this week's North American weekend box office rankings, temporarily ranking at No. twelve！
As people expected, "Saw 3D" was indeed weak at the box office. It only achieved a weekend score of 22 million, narrowly beating out "Paranormal Activity 2", which had a 60% box office drop the following week. won the title of North American weekend box office champion in the fourth week of October.
Of course, compared to the movie's cost of 20 million, there should be no pressure to recover the cost of "Saw 3D", but if you want to make a profit, you need to work harder..
There is no doubt that among the top 30 movies in the box office list, "Buried Alive" is the only movie that has counterattacked and increased in box office. It has once again taken the most attention-grabbing title without hesitation. This is for a movie that is still being watched. For a work in this stage, it can definitely be said to be a fantastic victory. This also gives people more expectations for the film’s subsequent box office trend..
In the following week, Focus Features finally opened screenings in other cities, and carried out small-scale expansion in three cities: Seattle, Chicago and Houston. In addition to the previous ones in Los Angeles and New York, the number of screening theaters reached 53..
However, this week's North American box office market is in chaos. Three new works will be screened in more than 3,000 theaters. They are "Superbad" produced by DreamWorks and the creative team of "The Hangover" teamed up with Robert Downey Jr. - "Due Date" created by Downey, and "Half the Sky" launched by ty1er-perry, a famous black director who specializes in making spoof movies, are coming. The competition is so fierce that it is hard to imagine.
What's more, in addition, four art films including "127 Hours" will be screened on a small scale. The craze of the awards season has finally begun, and the following award season works will only become more and more dense. , the competition will only become more and more fierce. Among the dazzling awards season works, it is definitely not easy to stand out..
In this way, the position of "Buried Alive" is a bit embarrassing. If it is considered as an awards season work, it is too commercial and the connotation is not explored deeply enough. The thriller genre is not favored by the Oscars; but if it is considered as a commercial work, As a work, it is too niche, "a one-man show in a secret room?" It sounds like the style of a stage play, and the market may not buy it..
In the face of competition, "127 Hours" perfectly digested the topical effect of the previous week. It was screened in four theaters and successfully converted the audience's attention into substantial box office with a single theater box office data of US$66,000. Easily completed the opposition to "Buried Alive"; at the same time, the media reputation also completed the crushing without any accident.
The overall media review score is 82 points, the Rotten Tomatoes freshness index is 93%, and the mass media score is 8.3 points..
Not only is it ahead of "Buried Alive", it can be said to be an overwhelming advantage. Faced with the reputation of "127 Hours" that has swept thousands of troops, "Buried Alive" has no power to fight back..
So, what does this mean? Does this mean that "Buried Alive" can't compete with "127 Hours" in the awards season competition? Does this mean that in the competition at the North American box office, "127 Hours" will also dominate the competition?？
The jury is still out on awards season, but amid the box-office battle, that's clearly not the case.
“"Buried Alive" delivered astonishing box office figures for the third consecutive week. With the support of 53 theaters, it earned an average of $41,100 per theater, earning $210. The weekend box office hit $80,000!！8
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