Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 22 Top Ten Box Office
The weather was nice at noon, the temperature was neither too cold nor too hot, which is the most comfortable season of the year in Los Angeles.

Link made an appointment with lawyer Sean Tang to come to the Burbank-Union Theater to sign the contract.

The last time I signed a contract with William Mason, this time I signed a distribution contract with a representative sent by United Cinemas.

Consolidated Theatres is one of the more famous art theater chains in the United States. It has 28 theaters and 400 screens in total, and is not a large chain.

It mainly screens independent art films, and sometimes also screens high-quality commercial films.

This time, United Cinemas signed a two-week distribution contract with him. In the next two weeks, "Buried" will be released in five theaters under United Cinemas.

If the box office performance of "Buried" exceeds the passing line in the next two weeks, United Theaters will consider showing "Buried" in its 28 theaters.

Since theaters need to invest in venues and publicity funds when distributing movies, they take an active position in the cooperation and account for the largest share of box office revenue, 65%.

Link got 35%, and in the recent publicity, he needs to cooperate with the activities of the theaters.

This method of film distribution is also common in the film industry.

The producers skip the distribution companies and work directly with theaters.

For example, the low-cost movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", which was expected to be a big hit in the future, had average box office data after its release. The distribution company was unwilling to continue investing in publicity, but the theaters were optimistic about the film and insisted on continuing to release it.

Ultimately, the film grossed $500 million worldwide with a cost of $3.69 million, setting a box office record for romantic comedy films.

The advantage of this type of cooperation is that producers and theaters can get more share of the profits, but the disadvantage is that box office data is prone to opacity during cooperation.

When something like this happens, the producers will be more passive.

So far, United Theatres has done a good job on this matter, and all aspects of the box office data are open and transparent.

Link is also willing to continue cooperating with United Cinemas.

After the contract was signed, Buried was released in five theaters across the United States on Friday, including four premieres, and Link attended the premiere at the Union Theater in Beverly Hills.

At the premiere, Link answered questions from more than a dozen media reporters, including what the film is about, what the theme of the film is, what difficulties were encountered during the filming process, etc.

United Cinemas also invested $300,000 in media promotion and released the trailer for "Buried" on AMC, an American classic movie cable TV channel.

Compared to the last premiere, the scale and impact are many times greater.

Quentin Tarantino, Jerome Preston and others saw the relevant information in the news and called to inquire.

"Link, did you really release 'Buried Alive'?"

Quentin asked over the phone.

"Yes, I said I would get Buried Alive released, and I'll keep my word."

"You're crazy. How much is Buried doing now?"

"Not much, just over 80,000 dollars."

"Eighty thousand dollars is not bad. The production cost of your film is only 2 thousand dollars. Eighty thousand dollars is four times the box office performance. It is not a loss. This is a very good start for a new director. Maybe a film company will contact you and ask you to cooperate. You should seize the opportunity."

"understood."

Three days after "Buried" was released in five theaters under United Cinemas, Link received box office data from William Mason.

The five cinemas earned a total of $5 over the three-day weekend, with the average daily box office per theater reaching $14.8 and the attendance rate reaching over 9866%.

Among art films, a single-theater daily box office of more than $1 is considered excellent and has great box office potential.

Buried Alive is just a little bit short of being excellent.

In its first week, "Buried" earned $5 in five theaters in the United States, ranking 28.8th in weekly box office among the movies released during the same period.

The average daily box office of a single theater reached US$8228, ranking third during the same period, demonstrating great box office potential.

According to the distribution contract signed between Link and United Cinemas, starting from this Friday, United Cinemas will expand the screening scale of "Buried" to screen it in its 28 theaters.

Link continued to follow the publicity team arranged by United Cinemas on roadshows in several important box office cities to promote the film and increase its popularity.

"Ben, look over there, it looks like Link's movie Buried Alive."

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Matt Damon stood on the street and pointed at a movie poster in front of the local Union Theater. The more than three-meter-long poster was very conspicuous. It featured "Buried" and information about the lead actor and director Link.

"So he's really a director." Ben Affleck raised his eyebrows.

"He said that last time."

"I thought he was lying. He was dressed so shabbily, worked in a fast food restaurant, and didn't even have a car. Who would have thought he was a director?"

"He's also an actor, he directs and stars in his own films, that sounds really cool, do you want to go in and take a look?"

"Let's go! I hope it's not a bad movie."

The two walked into the cinema together and lined up to buy tickets.

More than an hour later, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck walked out of the theater with complicated expressions.

"How could this be? How could Link be so amazing? Not only is he good at making movies, his acting is also outstanding. Ben, he's the same age as us, how could he be so amazing?"

Matt Damon was thinking about "Buried" which he had just watched in the cinema. He couldn't help but think of the waiter carrying the tray in the hamburger shop, the courier delivering takeout on the street on a bicycle, and the young man who looked like a homeless person on the train. For the first time, he admired a person of his age.

"It's nothing, he's just a little bit better than us. As long as we work hard, we can catch up with him in less than two years."

Ben Affleck said expressionlessly, his hands in his trouser pockets.

"It's difficult! Let's not talk about his performance, just his writing and directing skills. An actor, a phone, in an extremely small wooden box, using simple lines to present a super grand worldview, and using this method to reflect on the Cold War and oppose war. It's amazing. I absolutely can't do this."

Matt Damon said dejectedly.

"Hey, man, don't be like that. You're an honor student at Harvard University, there's no way you can't do it. You think Link is amazing, you can set him as a goal and aim to surpass him within three years. If you do it, wouldn't you feel cool?"

Ben Affleck patted him on the shoulder.

"That sounds great. I accept your proposal. I will make Link my target. I will surpass him within three years. No, within five years."

"Haha, this is my good buddy."

Ben Affleck puts his arm around Matt Damon's shoulders.

-

"Good news! Good news! Link's movie is a big hit, making it into the top ten of this week's movie box office charts, with box office sales of over a million dollars."

Los Angeles - In a youth apartment, Chris Ball rode his bicycle and waved a Los Angeles Times to the bottom of the apartment building, where a group of young men and women were partying in the open space.

"What? Link's movie is a big hit?"

"Ranked in the top ten of the weekly box office rankings?"

"Didn't you say that this movie was terrible and no one would watch it? How come it was such a big hit at the box office?"

"Chris, let me see!"

A group of people stopped drinking and dancing and scrambled to read the newspaper in Chris Bauer's hand to see how much "Buried" made at the box office this week.

After seeing the data in the newspaper, everyone couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

At this time, Monica Bellucci was walking along the middle sidewalk carrying a shoulder bag. Her graceful figure quickly attracted the attention of the men present.

"Hey, Monica, did you know that Link's movie was a big hit, grossing over a million dollars?"

Eric with flower arms shouted while holding a newspaper.

Monica Bellucci ignored him, with a cold face, twisting her sexy waist and hips, and entered Apartment 13.

"Fuck, what an arrogant girl! When I get her, I'll make sure she knows how powerful I am."

Eric with flowery arms said unhappily.

Monica Bellucci walked up to the third floor, and when she took the key to open the door, the newspaper in her bag fell to the ground.

On the spread, a still from "Buried" was very prominent. The face of the male protagonist and the face of the boy met in the aisle gradually merged into one.

Monica Bellucci blinked her long eyelashes, squatted down and picked up the newspaper on the ground.

(End of this chapter)