The premiere of blue is the warmest color did not go too well, based on a rough estimate.
Audiences still had high expectations for Eric's new movie, so the 400-seat theater was full. In the end, 74 seats were empty, making the walk-out rate 18.5%, almost one-fifth.
The walk-out rate will affect subsequent attendance. These audience members who left early naturally won't speak well of the movie.
Those with a good attitude might say, "Oh, that movie? I watched half of it and left. It was really boring."
Those with a bad attitude would rant about homosexuality, God not allowing it, a piece of trash, deformed love, etc., and might even maliciously leave bad reviews on various websites.
This was still in Los Angeles, where the atmosphere is relatively open, yet so many audience members did not approve or accept it. Conservative regions would be even worse.
"Eric, I'm a little worried," Ashley said uneasily.
"Worried about what? Didn't you see? We received applause, and those film critics didn't find fault. It's not easy to satisfy those guys," Eric comforted.
"Those film critics were being polite because of you. If it were a regular director or if you weren't there, they would definitely start tearing it apart."
"Haha. You're overthinking it. Your performances were excellent, contributing groundbreaking acting. My eyes are sharp; I can tell who is sincere and who is not."
Mary vigorously massaged Eric's shoulders: "It's not just about word-of-mouth; there's also the box office. With fewer than 500 cinemas, you might lose money."
"That's right, I haven't even asked, what was the investment for blue is the warmest color?" Ashley looked over curiously.
"40 million US dollars."
"That much!" Both sisters' eyes widened simultaneously.
"How could it cost 40 million US dollars! It was filmed in two months, didn't use too many extras, only a few scenes rented locations, and the rest was completed at MGM's studio lot."
"There were no special effects needed, and Ashley's and my salaries are negligible."
"Eric, you must be mistaken, it's impossible for it to cost 40 million US dollars no matter how you calculate it!"
"That's right, I think at most 20 million US dollars. Did you hire a ridiculously expensive behind-the-scenes team? Soundtrack? Voice acting? It doesn't seem like it."
Seeing their surprised expressions, Eric chuckled.
"40 million US dollars is the publicly announced figure. If you want to know the real figure, it's actually around 15 million US dollars."
Upon hearing this, Mary rolled her eyes: "I know big companies like to exaggerate some costs, but not like you, almost double."
"It's not that ridiculous, not double. Maybe 0.5 times."
"40 million and 15 million, has American elite math gotten that bad?"
Eric pointed to his nose: "And my fees as a screenwriter and director. The youngest Best Screenwriter in history, is that title worth 3 million US dollars?"
"Plus, I'm also the screenwriter and director of transformers, which grossed 800 million US dollars globally. Is that title worth 10 million US dollars?"
"When transformers surpasses finding nemo and takes the box office championship this year, the youngest box office champion director, adding another 2 million US dollars wouldn't be excessive, right?"
"15 million US dollars is just because I didn't pay myself a salary; otherwise, it should be 30 million US dollars."
"So that's how you calculate it." The two sisters were both annoyed and amused.
"That's right. It means that during filming, MGM was almost entirely my sole proprietorship, so not paying myself a salary was fine. But after the listing, it's a different story; I won't take a single cent less than what's mine."
Ashley breathed a sigh of relief: "If it's 15 million US dollars, the pressure to break even will be much smaller. If we expand the screening scale a bit, say to a thousand cinemas, it should be no problem."
"Tsk tsk. Who told you it's only 15 million US dollars? That's production; promotion and distribution haven't been factored in yet."
"Didn't you keep it mysterious and not do any promotion and distribution?"
Mary lightly punched him in the chest, making him like to draw out his words.
Eric took the opportunity to grab her fist, pull her into his arms, and brazenly, in front of Ashley, reached into her top and squeezed her vigorously.
"That was before the movie was released. Now, promotion and distribution should start, especially for the Golden Globe Awards and Oscar. These two awards ceremonies are where the real money is spent. Have you forgotten what I promised you?"
The two women certainly hadn't forgotten. They had been completely swayed by Eric's repeated mentions of "Golden Globe Awards Winner" and "Oscar Winner."
"Eric, are you really going to contend for Oscar Winner for us?"
Eric nodded very seriously: "For my women, I always keep my word."
"Kiss me, darling!"
Ashley extended her tongue, her eyes like water. Mary pressed Eric's hand tightly against her chest.
There are too many cases where art films don't break even. Even with box office, DVD, and various copyright revenues, many still lose money.
Because the audience itself is small, and it's not a type the market likes, if it doesn't make money in cinemas, the theater chains refuse to screen it.
Theater chains refusing to screen it leads to reduced influence, making it even less known, which then leads to poor sales of DVDs and copyrights, forming a vicious cycle.
The only way to break the cycle is to participate in various influential film festivals, win awards or at least get a few nominations. This can more or less build a reputation, and with a reputation, it's easier to sell.
Among all film festivals, the most famous is undoubtedly the Oscar. A film that wins a major Oscar award can immediately increase its value by hundreds of millions of US dollars.
It's that exaggerated; even the three major European film festivals are slightly inferior.
So, pursuing awards according to the established goal is a must. Although he disdained using Harvey Weinstein's underhanded methods like slandering opponents and currying favor with judges.
However, conventional methods such as buying advertisements, hiring internet trolls, and manipulating public opinion must all be used. This process will also cost several million US dollars.
If no award is won in the end, the money is essentially wasted. There's a reason why Harvey Weinstein hates The Coopers so much.
This year, MGM's marketing targets for awards have been set: monster and blue is the warmest color, plus get out.
He would do his best to contend for Oscar Winner for Theron or the Olsen Sisters, and an Original Screenplay for himself. These two major awards do not conflict with the lord of the rings: the return of the king.
Best Actor was out of the question; among the films produced by MGM this year, no particularly outstanding male lead seemed to have emerged, and the competitiveness was too weak.
transformers can only contend for technical awards, and it conflicts with the lord of the rings: the return of the king, so it is highly unlikely to win any awards.
The jury has neglected the lord of the rings crew for two years. If they don't give an award to this phenomenal work, hailed as a masterpiece that saved the epic fantasy genre, it wouldn't be justifiable in terms of both emotion and reason.
While the lord of the rings was advancing triumphantly and transformers was cleaning up, the word-of-mouth for blue is the warmest color began to be released.
Various newspapers, forums, and websites successively gave their viewing evaluations.
Los Angeles Times: "blue is the warmest color is an experiential film, a film for ordinary people, a film about life itself."
"In the simple shots, one can clearly see the freckles on the actors' faces; the sparse soundtrack seems to declare that life itself has no main theme; the unadorned dialogues come rushing straight at you."
"Putting aside the homosexual elements expressed in the film, this is a very lifelike movie, suitable for everyone. When we watch such a movie, we are watching ourselves."
New York Times: "blue is the warmest color is a high-quality romantic masterpiece. If you delve deeper, you will find that homosexual love is merely its superficial aspect; at a deeper level, it speaks of love, regardless of gender, only love and life."
Salt Lake City Entertainment News: "I was invited to the premiere of blue is the warmest color. I had high expectations for this mysterious film."
"Facts also proved that Eric Cooper is not just an excellent commercial film director; he is equally adept at handling art films, like a seasoned veteran who has immersed himself for many years."
"Rarely has a film, for almost the entire first hour, used only close-up shots, showing the protagonist attending class, eating, sleeping, masturbating, making love, showering, flirting, yet without making the viewer feel annoyed or invaded."
"An excellent film, an excellent director who combines commercial and artistic elements. This film is worth savoring."
NBC Entertainment Online: "A good film only needs to present life in its most reduction form, and blue is the warmest color is such a film."
"Adele's story is just an entry point, and what truly moves the audience is actually our own world; everyone can see themselves in Adele."
"The brilliant portrayal of the two female protagonists benefits both from Eric Cooper's directing skills and the Olsen Sisters' own efforts."
"They truly shocked me; they completely broke free from the constraints of their past teen comedies, and their acting reached a state of returning to simplicity."
"Especially their performances in the two emotional scenes, which are completely master-level. They will undoubtedly have a place at next year's Golden Globe Awards and Oscar."
ABC Entertainment: "This is a film that deeply analyzes emotions, from which we can see the impact of life on love."
"Love is beautiful, but life is often a mess, without so much passion; daily necessities are the ultimate destination."
"And the gap in values and class is even more the reason why the two must break up. They cannot integrate into each other's lives, have no common language, and estrangement will appear sooner or later."
"If they were to look at each other from afar, their love would be deep, but living together is unnecessary; it would only destroy the beauty they've built."
"Just like the line in the movie, they are like birds and fish; they can love each other, but they are absolutely not suitable for being together."
Of course, not all media spoke well of it. The Independent routinely jumped on the bandwagon and started criticizing again, which angered Mary so much that she tore up the newspaper.
Film critics mainly approached it from an artistic perspective, and most praised the film, but the audience's reaction was not the same.
There was no shortage of online abuse, and the most direct reflection was the IMDb rating.
From an initial score of 8.7 yesterday, it continuously dropped. By today, it had fallen to 8.4, with a sudden surge of one-star reviews. The proportion of one-star ratings reached 1.8%, which is quite high for a good film.
Furthermore, it is foreseeable that the proportion will continue to rise, and the rating will continue to fall.
The Olsen Sisters' Facebook accounts also suffered large-scale attacks, with many people leaving comments.
Eric instructed them to close comments and then blocked a batch of accounts, which improved the situation.
"Utterly disappointed, why didn't Adele and Emma reconcile? Why did they have to separate? Boycott homophobic films masquerading as gay-themed. Please don't blindly believe film critics; this is a disappointing movie."
"Why make such a movie? Homosexuality is not recognized; God does not allow such behavior from humans!"
"Disgusting story, disgusting actors, disgusting director. I swear I will never watch Eric Cooper and the Olsen Sisters' movies again."
"Sisters working together, don't the Olsen Sisters feel disgusted? Don't you know what shame is? Go to hell!"
"This kind of movie is completely blasphemous to Christ. If I find out that a cinema in Louisiana dares to screen it, I'll go burn down the cinema!"
Overall, the movie's reviews were mixed. It grossed 8.63 million US dollars in its opening weekend, which was an average figure.
It cannot be called good, but it cannot be called bad either. Currently, the attendance rate is around 40%.
If this trend continues, it should be able to add one or two hundred more cinemas for screening in the second week.
But reality often does not develop as expected.
In his sleep, Eric was shaken awake. Theron handed him her phone.
"Eric, your call, the Olsen Sisters."
Eric checked the time; it wasn't even 8 AM. He had fought hard with Theron all night and only slept for just over 3 hours, so his eyelids were drooping.
"Look, what if your little lovers have something urgent?"
Slap!
He slapped Theron's shapely bottom, scolding her for speaking nonsense.
Ashley and Mary were relatively well-behaved, and he had trained them to be more obedient, unlike Nicole, who liked to launch surprise attacks.
He answered the phone calmly: "Mary, it's me, is something wrong?"
"Eric, where are you? Are you still sleeping?"
An urgent voice came from the other end.
"Of course I'm sleeping. Please check the time before you call. It's not even time to work yet."
"Eric, you'd better get up quickly and check your computer. A cinema in Massachusetts is on fire."
"Huh? What does a cinema fire have to do with me?"
"Would I bother you with unrelated matters? Just look quickly, stop talking nonsense."
After she finished speaking, the call ended, and the two looked at each other.
"Darling, go take a look. It's probably something urgent. Her tone didn't sound like a joke."
At Theron's urging, Eric yawned, got out of bed, and opened his computer, only to see the news prominently displayed on Yahoo News.
"Social news?" Eric suddenly had a bad feeling.
He saw several pictures of a burning building, and several more of a cinema reduced to ruins.
There was also a picture of a man being held down by the police.
Beside the man, a sign lay on the ground, with blood-red letters written on it—"Against Homosexuality!"