Chapter 68: An Example of Winning by Smaller Means

Police Academy finally went off the screens in North America, raking in 180 million dollars, making everyone's eyes pop out. And that's just in North America; globally, the film's box office was around 250 million dollars. This year's runner-up was Kramer vs. Kramer, a big production that also swept the Oscars. How's the box office now? Only 50 million dollars. Not too long ago, people were hyping it up as the must-see movie of the year. Comparing these two films unfairly, the fact remains: it's an Oscar-winning movie. Box office doesn't mean much; it's the number of golden statues that shows the level. Even so, it's hard not to feel envy and jealousy, but you can't be too blunt about it. Call the audience blind? Doing that could sink the company; the choice is in the audience's hands. Being upset does no good; today's audience is easily influenced by outside factors. Running your mouth will only trigger backlash. ... By November, Home Alone started ramping up its promotional efforts. Posters of a blonde boy filled every billboard around the cinemas. Posters even appeared as full-page ads in newspapers, which certainly weren't cheap. Meanwhile, the first TV trailer debuted as well. Clearly, their promotional efforts were greater than Police Academy, and they weren't just focusing on kids. It's a family-friendly film, with a Christmas theme. Though there were no pre-sales, third-party surveys showed that at least 40% of families surveyed expressed interest in watching it. If they had kids of the right age, that number became astonishingly high. ... Seeing the situation unfold like this, ignoring it would be foolish. Hollywood's distribution model was facing a complete overhaul. Regardless of the movie, their promotional model was a step ahead of its time. Hollywood looked utterly weak in comparison. Say their promotional method is chaotic? Don't be ridiculous, they've got a system. This interconnected promotional strategy isn't something these local yokels can match. Now that you understand it, hurry up and learn it. Even if you're just copying, so what? Wanting to learn is one thing; learning it well is another. For starters, making a trailer isn't easy; it needs to attract viewers while maintaining suspense. And there's another big problem. What if the audience doesn't buy it? The foundation and precondition for all this is having enough confidence in your movie. Throwing out millions of dollars is no joke; screw up, and you're done for. At this time, having a 20-million-dollar filming budget for movies was decent. Adding another 10 million for promotion could make the big guys want to end it all. This was only the film company's dilemma. Wall Street didn't see it that way; there were too many things to play with here. No money? When has Wall Street ever been short on money? The question is, what's your return rate? No one's asking you to reach Police Academy's level. Even getting half would make them feel on top of the world. Darn, this thing includes merchandise too. If you mess up, that's another tens of millions of dollars. Add the sequels, and it's a treasure trove. Why isn't there a sequel? As money-driven creatures, Wall Street doesn't get it. To them, William White has gone mad, ignoring such easy money. No time to make movies? Don't be silly. Many directors wouldn't refuse this movie. White Films' profit-sharing system is still pretty good. As for the difficulty of filming, the Police Academy script is long exposed. If you can't shoot this storyboard-level script, you might as well retire; directing isn't your game. Since it's his script, there's no one to complain. Otherwise, you'd hear claims that anyone could shoot such a script. Judging by the current situation, White Films' second movie should succeed too, at least not be too bad. In today's Hollywood, getting a box office of over 30 million dollars is considered good. Movies making hundreds of millions are just legendary, and those masterpieces can be counted on one hand. The ranking might not be fair; tickets used to be cheaper. Films like Roman Holiday or Waterloo Bridge have unwavering status in the movie world. But in terms of audience, Police Academy's numbers are still outrageous. Only Star Wars compares. Jaws and Superman don't even measure up. Don't forget, the number of screens isn't the same, nor are the production companies. The difference in production cost is even scarier. No matter the doubts, the title of the most profitable movie is rightly earned, leaving everyone speechless. In a place where money rules, arguing is just a waste of expressions, a single line from someone could shut you up. The most profitable movie, do you dare to disagree? Why not make one and show us? The conversation at this level pretty much wraps things up. Whether the finesse was highbrow or lowbrow, massive dollars have gone into their pockets. The most irritating part? It's just the beginning. No one knows how much this IP will ultimately profit. ... Regardless of how many institutions want to invest in White Films, it's nearly impossible because, so far, the company is honing its skills. The new movie plans are proceeding step-by-step. While outsiders are making a racket, the boss seems indifferent. Wall Street hopes he'll acquire some giant, giving them room to maneuver. But the boss is building his own system, entirely different from Hollywood's prevailing mechanism. William White has clearly modularized the workflow, not merely the distribution; the entire film process is modularized. The people in charge know exactly what to do. Their fast movie production is definitely for a reason. Compared with others, White Films' productions resemble an assembly line, all having a standard process. You could say it's a desecration of art. But go ask Wall Street; what kind of films do they like investing in? Investment uncertainty is what Wall Street dislikes the most. White Films' method avoids uncertainty to a large extent. The risk is actually very low and entirely controllable. They even know White Films has a unique standard for evaluating a film's quality, which directly determines the promotional budget. Unfortunately, the outside world cannot grasp the specifics. Key personnel involved in the assessment have signed confidentiality agreements. Outsiders will have to wait. Knowing such a mechanism exists, Hollywood's film companies are now uncomfortable. According to Home Alone's promotional budget, this movie is at least on par with Police Academy, if not higher. For such a model, Hollywood has no choice but to learn. If you don't, how will you decide the promotional budget? Flip a coin to decide? Now they finally understand why they're confident enough to invest a million in promotions. Once they've roughly gauged box office data, they can target effectively. If this method really works, they'd have to learn it too. ***** https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.