America: Child stars start with The Shining

Two weeks later, it was the end of May.

Today happens to be the official release date of "The Shining".

However, it's clear that Shire will no longer be able to travel around America with the crew for promotional purposes as he did before.

Although the Shining crew would provide him with compensation during the promotional period, without any box office revenue sharing as an incentive, he naturally had little motivation to continue following the crew around.

Moreover, he is currently filming "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and his schedule is very tight every day, so he simply cannot spare the time.

Moreover, The Shining's release strategy was quite different.

Unlike "Friday the 13th," it did not have a large-scale promotional campaign from the beginning and was released in more than a thousand theaters.

The Shining will first be released in several major theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and then gradually expand over the next month.

On the one hand, May is typically a peak season for horror films, and while *The Shining* caught the last train, there was no need for it to participate in this fierce competition and get embroiled in rivalry with other films of the same genre.

Rather than confronting them head-on, it's better to stabilize the situation first and wait patiently for the right opportunity.

This is also one of Warner's most frequently used tricks.

Rather than throwing all their promotional resources at the beginning, Warner Music prefers to observe market feedback first before deciding whether to increase investment further.

While this approach may not generate immediate buzz or attract a following from audiences at the beginning of the release, it is more reliable and allows Warner Bros. to adjust its promotional pace and mitigate losses in a timely manner.

More importantly, with Kubrick's name on the board, Warner Bros. might not be able to make "The Shining" a huge hit, but as long as the film is of high quality, it will at least not lose money.

While Kubrick may not necessarily be popular with audiences, he has always received positive reviews from film critics. Therefore, Warner Bros. decided to give "The Shining" enough time to allow word-of-mouth to develop gradually.

Moreover, Warner Bros. has long-term and stable cooperative relationships with a large number of theater chains, giving it ample room to maneuver in terms of film scheduling, so there is no need to rush.

But Paramount was a completely different story.

The reason why Hollywood film companies cannot directly own theater chains is directly related to antitrust regulations.

In 1948, the implementation of the Paramount Decree directly led to the end of the era in which the "Big Eight" Hollywood studios monopolized film distribution.

As a result, Paramount now avoids establishing overly close partnerships with theater chains to prevent unnecessary trouble.

That's why Friday the 13th was released on a large scale in the early stages, in an attempt to generate buzz and box office revenue in the shortest possible time.

Paramount simply cannot afford to delay; every extra day of delay would exponentially increase marketing and distribution costs.

......

"Hey, Ciel, isn't your movie 'The Shining' coming out today?"

Tupac, seeing Charles back at school today, couldn't resist coming over to ask him a question.

Although he also had a supporting role in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", his role was obviously not that big, and it could be filmed in a day, so he still had to attend classes as usual.

Of course, he wasn't such an honest kid. Influenced by his good black genes, he basically skipped school every day during this period and ran around with Dogman, ostensibly to help Charles expand his business.

For him, the gang life on the streets was much more appealing than sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher read from a textbook.

Charles would never do such a thing.

Even when he was on set, he was still forced to study every day.

According to mandatory provisions of California's laws regarding child stars, minors must ensure a certain amount of study time while working on film sets.

Therefore, Spielberg even hired a tutor for the children to come directly to the film set and give them lessons.

He had never encountered anything like this when he was on the set of "The Shining".

Since he was the only child in the crew at that time, they naturally wouldn't go to great lengths to invite any teachers over.

But E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is different.

The crew was basically full of kids, and they were incredibly noisy every day. If we didn't hire a professional teacher, we simply couldn't control these unruly children.

"Yeah, that's right. What's up, you want to go see it?"

Charles glanced at Tupaik and couldn't help but ask.

If this guy actually watched that kind of movie, he'd probably be too scared to sleep at night, right?

Tupac said excitedly:

"I'm planning to go to the movies with Doggo and the others to support you!"

Charles paused for a moment, then suddenly imagined a group of Black children flooding into a movie theater, and couldn't help but chuckle. He said:

"Well, you'd better be prepared, this is a horror movie."

Tupac, displaying an air of fearlessness, began to speak:

"Fuck, are you looking down on me? It's just a horror movie! I'm not the kind of kid who gets scared by gory scenes."

Charles twitched the corner of his mouth and then asked:

"By the way, how are the videotapes selling lately?"

"Ha! Let me tell you, we've completely surrounded all the movie theaters in Los Angeles!"

After the release of "Friday the 13th", it became a huge hit, and their videotape project also went very smoothly.

Sure enough, Shire's sales strategy worked perfectly. Young people were very interested in this novelty, and sales were good.

However, Paramount and WMA seem to have noticed some unusual box office activity in the Los Angeles area recently, with security personnel frequently patrolling outside movie theaters.

But it's alright, Dog and his crew are very clever, and so far they haven't attracted the other side's attention.

At the same time, taking advantage of this momentum, Charles bought the video rights to The Shining.

Thanks to Kubrick's connection, Shire got a friendly price from Warner Bros., unlike with "Friday the 13th".

This guerrilla-style sales tactic is currently very effective. Charles has no plans to open a video store for the time being because the videotape market is not as hot as imagined, and he will have to wait a while longer.

Charles thought for a moment, then reminded Tupac again:

"Don't rush to sell the VHS tapes of 'The Shining' yet; wait until it's almost finished showing in theaters."

On the one hand, doing so would not affect the box office of "The Shining". On the other hand, "The Shining" has a different marketing strategy, and if they were to sell videotapes at this time, the effect would definitely not be ideal.

Upon hearing this, Tupac patted his chest, indicating that he was relieved.

......

the next day.

Tupac arrived at school with dark circles under his eyes, looking like he hadn't slept all night and not in very good spirits.

He had a nightmare last night.

In his dream, he was being relentlessly chased by Jack, who was wielding an axe. When he woke up, he found that his pants were a little wet.

Fuck, this movie is absolutely terrifying!