Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 82: The Box Office Continues to Explode (Please Read)
In the sixth week of the release of "Paranormal Activity", a big news broke out in the media.

Tina Westerton, the suspect in the Murrieta husband murder case, accused director Link's new film "Paranormal Activity" of drawing on her case and that the plot of the film was highly similar to her case.

But later on they refused to pay for the adaptation, which is an infringement of personal privacy and copyright.

The representative lawyer asked Guess Pictures to compensate the client with 1 million US dollars.

After this news was reported by the media, it caused heated discussions across the United States.

Some discussed the case, some discussed the movie, some discussed whether there are ghosts in the world, and some discussed whether this was a promotional activity by the Guess What film studio.

No matter how we discuss it, "Paranormal Activity" is an unavoidable topic.

In order to find out the truth of the matter, in order to avoid being marginalized in group conversations, or to satisfy curiosity, join in the fun, etc.

Many people who had not seen this movie went to the cinema to watch it.

The box office data of "Paranormal Activity" also rose accordingly.

According to data collected by AMC Theaters, on Thursday, the attendance rate of "Paranormal Activity" jumped from 25% on the previous day to 80%. For this reason, AMC Theaters had to temporarily increase the screening rate of the film from six shows a day to more than 12 shows.

It is expected that attendance will be higher on the weekend, and AMC, Regal Cinemas and others are considering whether to expand the scale of movie releases again.

The Hollywood Reporter predicts that there is a high probability that Paranormal Activity will reach more than 4000 million at the box office this week.

If this number is reached, "Paranormal Activity" is expected to exceed $2 million in seven weeks, becoming the first movie this year to gross more than $2 million in North America.

When Paranormal Activity was booming at the box office.

There was also a lot of negative press regarding Link and Paranormal Activity, more so than in previous weeks.

Many well-known film critics criticized the methods used by Guess the Picture Company to promote the film under their real names.

It was said that "Paranormal Activity" was suspected of excessive marketing before its release, which aroused the disgust of many filmmakers.

Under such circumstances, Link and Guess What Pictures not only did not stop, but instead intensified their actions, using the criminal case to bundle the marketing of the film, creating social topics and attracting national attention.

Regardless of whether this practice is in accordance with the rules, the media has been reporting on "Paranormal Activity" non-stop during this period, occupying a large amount of public media resources. Even major international news such as the new general election, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the split of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Barcelona Olympics have been overshadowed by this broken news.

This is extremely excessive.

Film critic Sean Thorpe used strong emotional words such as "despicable", "evil", "no bottom line", and "disgusting" to describe his personal feelings.

Rob Reiner, director of "The Fourth of July", publicly expressed his grievance, saying that he could accept losing to films like "Batman Returns" and "Unforgiven" at the box office, but he really could not accept losing to the B-level film "Paranormal Activity".

Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson discussed movies and publicity and marketing while attending a New York Film Forum event, saying that the box office success of a movie depends mainly on the quality of the movie.

A high-quality production that increases its publicity and promotion after its release will be supported and welcomed by movie fans.

On the contrary, it is extremely undesirable for a low-cost movie to be over-marketed after its release, disrupting the market order.

Simply put, the money invested in the promotion of a movie needs to be worthy of its level. "Paranormal Activity", a movie with a production cost of only 2 US dollars, is obviously not worthy of a large-scale publicity and marketing.

The New York Times commented that Paranormal Activity was a catfish that disrupted the film market, and so was Link.

"Haha, Link, look, everyone is going to hate you."

In the Golden Oak Apartments, Sofia Coppola raised the newspaper in her hand and laughed.

"Everyone wants to kill him?"

Link put down the script in his hand and looked at her in confusion.

"Didn't you read today's newspaper? Many famous filmmakers have spoken out in the newspapers, strongly condemning you for over-marketing the movie Paranormal Activity, which gave this low-budget movie an unnecessary amount of publicity, and also caused a drop in the attention of other movies released during the same period, causing a sharp drop in the box office. Everyone thinks you don't follow the rules."

Sofia Coppola laughed.

"Yes, Link. The publicity for your Paranormal Activity is really too much. When you turn on the TV, you see the new episode of Paranormal Activity. When you open the newspaper, you see Paranormal Activity news. The publicity is overwhelming and pervasive. It's easy to get annoyed."

Quentin Tarantino pouted.

"The investment in the promotion of this film was only $600 million, which is much less than the promotion investment of blockbusters such as "The Last Airbender" and "Batman Returns". How can you say that we over-promoted? We don't want to take the blame."

Link waved his hand, took the juice from Monica and took a sip.

"It's not over-promotion, it's just that Link's promotion work is very clever, with a few million investment to achieve tens of millions of publicity effects. This can't be blamed on Link and Guess the Movie Theater for over-marketing, but on the peers who are not careful enough in promotion."

Jim Carrey laughed.

"Jim is a man of understanding."

Link praised Jim Carrey's statement.

“Okay, I admit that your promotion in the early stage was very good, and the idea of updating the movie viewing summary every week was also very good, but you linked the murder case with the movie and bundled the marketing together, which was too much.

My father said, if everyone does this, filmmakers will not seriously study how to make good movies, but will focus on how to market and promote movies. In the long run, the film industry will become a mess. "

Sofia Coppola laughed.

Link shook his head. "You are wronging me. I didn't do the publicity for the Murrieta City murder case. My reputation is already bad, and I am still doing this kind of thing. What good will it do me? Just make tens of millions more at the box office?"

"You mean this case has nothing to do with you and Guess What? It's not a means for you to market the movie, but Tina Wasterton is wrongly accusing you?"

Quentin Tarantino frowned and asked. "Obviously, I am a serious director. I can always make money by focusing on making movies. There is no need to deliberately give myself the stigma of plagiarism for the sake of tens of millions of box office. It is obviously not cost-effective, and I will not do such a thing."

"It sounds like that. In other words, they all wronged you? Then why didn't you refute it?"

Sofia Coppola felt bad for him.

"When everyone thinks it's my fault, even if I stand up to refute it, it won't have much effect. Besides, as directors, no matter whether we have a bad reputation or a good reputation, we still have to rely on our film works to speak for ourselves. As long as I can make good films, I don't care about other people's comments."

Link smiled calmly.

clap clap clap!
Sofia Coppola clapped her hands and smiled, "You are indeed a very gentle gentleman. I think everyone will understand your difficulties over time."

"Thank you!"

Link chuckled.

Quentin curled his lips. He didn't completely believe what Link said. Even if he didn't take the initiative to arrange for someone to do this, it still had a lot to do with him.

Because after this incident broke out, the biggest beneficiary was Link, who could earn tens of millions more dollars.

Infer based on who benefits and who is suspicious.

Link will never be able to escape suspicion in this matter.

"Link, what are you reading? Why does it look like a script?"

Sophia asked.

"Yes, a new script."

"What? Paranormal Activity hasn't even finished airing yet, and you're already preparing a new script?! How many movies do you make in a year? What are we going to do with this?"

Quentin stood up excitedly, his face red and gasping for breath.

He and Link made their debut at the Sundance Film Festival at the same time.

Link has now released two movies in a row, both of which were huge hits, but his second movie is still in production.

By the time Link started preparing for his third film, his second film was still in production.

How could he not be excited by this situation?
"Quentin, please speak softly and don't act like we're quarrelling."

Steven Soderbergh tugged at his clothes.

"Link, you're preparing for the third movie again? Without taking a single day off?"

Sofia Coppola asked.

"No, this is a script Jim brought to ask for my opinion, not the script for my next movie."

Link said.

"So that's it."

Quentin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Link, when is your next movie going to be shot?"

asked Steven Soderbergh.

"Maybe next year. It's tiring to shoot two movies in a row this year, so I'll take some time off to rest."

"You are right to think so. We are directors, not workers on a construction site. It is enough to make one or two movies a year. We should pay attention to the balance between work and rest."

Quentin persuaded.

Link smiled.

"Link, what will your next movie be? Do you have any plans?"

Sofia Coppola asked.

"I wrote four scripts last year and submitted them to film companies, including Buried. I was originally planning to film it with them, but they didn't agree. I will shoot the remaining three scripts first."

"In other words, the third film project has been confirmed, and we can start filming once the preparations are completed?"

Quentin took back the air he had let go.

"The third film is a big project, which will take a long time to prepare, so it won't start shooting soon."

Link laughed.

"All right!"

Quentin nodded in satisfaction.

Fortunately, Link's third movie is not being filmed right away. If it were, he would be driven crazy by Link, the director of the same period.

(End of this chapter)