The High School Musical crew broke up as soon as the shooting was all done. Wang Yang and others went back to Los Angeles. The leading actors and actresses, David Lawrence, the composer of the movie’s original soundtrack, Wally Pfister, the cameraman, and some others would surely go on with the post-production, while Anne Fletcher, the choreographer, the lighting engineers, the stylists, and others had finished their duties and fulfilled their contracts. They had no more responsibilities for the movie.
The finishing of the shooting was announced at the earliest possible moment on the official website of High School Musical. A new batch of movie photos was released, too, including some of Wang Yang’s great pictures on set in which he was gazing at the camera’s viewfinder, instructing Tom Welling how to act, or being absorbed in scripts. He looked extremely cool in some of the photos. Such photos were specifically taken to impress the audience. The makeup artist had worked a lot on him, and then the lighting engineers had adjusted the lights before Wally Pfister had finally taken the photos from a perfect angle.
This all had been for the promotion of the movie. Compared to Tom Welling, Jessica, and other leading actors and actresses, Wang Yang actually received more attention. The fans of this movie, who’d always been following the updates of the movie, were more interested in Wang Yang than some big star. What really intrigued them was Magic Yang’s second film being the first time he’d made a movie on film. They wondered whether or not this would be good and create another miracle at the box office.
Paranormal Activity was almost off the big screen overseas. Like the stir it’d caused in North America, this thriller, filmed on a digital video camera, had also made a hit in other parts of the world. It had achieved $150,000,000 at the box office overseas! Together with the $160,000,000 it had grossed in North America, Paranormal Activity had pulled in $310,000,000 at the box office worldwide! And how much had it cost? The whole world knew it had only been $10,000.
Wang Yang and Lionsgate had become literally a “robber couple”. Some media had even made a casual remark that Paranormal Activity would achieve a clean sweep of all Oscar awards in the 71st Academy Awards, which would be held this March, just like what Titanic had achieved in the previous year. It would beat great films like Saving Private Ryan and Life Is Beautiful to win the Best Picture. Magic Yang would beat great directors such as Steven Spielberg and Peter Weir (the director of The Truman Show) to win Best Director. “Oh, wait. Are you serious? Paranormal Activity was not nominated in even one category?!”
Despite those jokes, one thing was certain – no media or magazine would miss Paranormal Activity when it came to the film summary of 1998.
The Los Angeles Times said, “James Cameron conquered the world with one ship and became the King of the World in 1998. The whole world cried a river for the love story of Jack and Rose. Rumor had it the revenue of the tissue business soared because of that. We also had many outstanding films this year: Saving Private Ryan, Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, among others. Last but not least, we definitely could not avoid mentioning an eighteen-year-old young man who startled the world with a digital video camera. Yeah, that’s the Magic Kid, Wang Yang, and his first film, Paranormal Activity.”
“Two weird things happened in 1998. The first was that everyone rushed to the cinema to watch Titanic again and again. The second was that every young man rushed to the cinema to watch Paranormal Activity again and again.”
With a total box office gross collection of 310 million dollars and the coverage in all important media and magazines at the end of the year, Wang Yang reached his peak of popularity, which was unprecedented for him. No one would dislike a man who had “gotten rid of the control of gravity”. Everyone idolized heroes. Teamwork was extremely valued in the United States, and the Americans admired comic-book superheroes. An eighteen-year-old created a miracle of 310 million at the box office alone with only ten grand – wasn’t he a superhero? If Wang Yang were white, he would have been much more popular. At least he had not got onto the cover of Time Magazine yet, hadn’t he?
As a result, the fans of High School Musical were expecting the film with great enthusiasm. The news of the shooting being finished excited many cinephiles, as well as Wang Yang’s female fans. They could not wait to watch this teen musical.
However, the current problem was: when would High School Musical be released? Its release date had not been decided yet.
A meeting was going on in the meeting room of Flames Films. Mark Strong the CEO, Simon Willis the Vice President of Publishing, Sandy Parks the Vice President of Production, and all department managers were in the meeting. Wang Yang, sitting at the head of the meeting table, was reading a file—the financial statement of High School Musical by the time the shooting had ended.
It was very detailed. All expenses were included, from the paycheck of the cast and the crew, to the rental of filming devices, to the purchase of films, to the buy-out of songs, to the hotel cost. Wang Yang ran down each item. Jessica Alba, $500,000; Tom Welling, $300,000. Although it was his own money, Wang Yang was really bored. He read everything carelessly. At the bottom of the statement, the expenses by far had almost reached $7,000,000. It had been estimated that, when the post-production was done, the total cost would be over $8,000,000. Fortunately, not many special effects would be needed in this film. They only needed to make one special effect for fireworks.
$8,000,000—the estimated total cost—exceeded their initial budget. Besides the fact that they had wasted too much film and spent half a month more in shooting, the main reason for this situation was the paycheck of the crew. For example, the budget for the choreographer was only between $100,000–$200,000, but in the end, they got Anne Fletcher. She’d actually refused the offer from the Flames Films at the beginning, but Wang Yang had called her many times and offered her $500,000. So Anne Fletcher had finally taken the job. She was as well-paid as Jessica, who’d been paid the most among the cast.
He took another glance at the file and did not find anything wrong, so Wang Yang closed the financial statement. Leaving it on the meeting table, he said with a smile, “Done. What’s next?”
The next thing they were going to talk about was the release date of High School Musical. Only when the release date had been decided could the promotion of a film be started. It was the same with post-production. No proper plans could be made without deciding the release date. Of course, independent movies were an exception, since they would not look for publishing until the post-editing had been complete.
“Where are we for our releasing plan in schools?” Wang Yang asked, looking at Simon Willis, the Vice President of Publishing.
Simon Willis looked at the secretary, Fiona Hudson, who was responsible for arranging the meeting. He gestured at the file she had at hand, so she gave it to Wang Yang. Simon Willis said, “We’ve established a connection with various, important theater chains for schools. If we release the film, we will occupy the cinemas in most elementary schools, middles schools, colleges, and universities in the United States. For the other schools, many of their cinemas are operated independently. It will be hard for us to contact them one by one, and some don’t even have a cinema.”
Wang Yang took the file from the secretary and flipped through it. There were thousands of schools listed in it, and these schools were all over the United States. He nodded involuntarily. Smiling, he said, “Great! That’s good enough. It’s enough for our plan to work with these schools.”
Simon Willis went on, “However, they usually only show old movies or movies that will be off the big screen soon. And they almost sell all tickets at half price.” Shrugging, he said, “Few films will choose school cinemas for the first week after release. There will be little profit.”
Wang Yang shrugged, not thinking of it as a big problem. He said, “What we need are popularity and influence. The profit for the first week isn’t important. What’s important is the next step—to show our film on a large scale. That’s where we will get most of our profit from.” After the release of Paranormal Activity, it had only been shown in fewer than 30 cinemas in the first week. The number soared to over 700 in the second week and over 2,000 in the third week. The key was to make an influence and intrigue the market. Otherwise, if a film had been shown in over 1,000–2,000 cinemas in the first week, and the cinema number dropped to half in the second week, it would meet its Waterloo.
“You are right, boss.” Mark Strong smiled. He went on, “I think we should pick some school cinemas with great gross collection at the box office—maybe about five hundred cinemas—as a trial in the first week. The film will be off the big screens there in one week and be shown in another five hundred schools in the same cities so that we won’t sacrifice too much profit in the market. If the result is good, those theater chains will come to us.”
“Good. That’s a great plan.” Wang Yang nodded. If they could get a good result from the first two weeks’ trial, the influence would be made. They will show the film on a large scale after that.
Actually, they had chosen this way to show their film for two main reasons. Firstly, the focus of the promotion of the film was put onto schools. Secondly, theater chains in cities were not very interested in High School Musical. Maybe the downturn of the musical market made them unsure of High School Musical, or maybe this film did have all the elements those bad movies usually had. Regardless, those theater chains only agreed to give High School Musical the prime-time slots in some old remote cinemas or bad time slots in good cinemas.
Wang Yang and Mark Strong liked neither of these two options. The first option could easily lead to achieving less than millions at the box office, even with the film being shown in one thousand cinemas. In this way, it was beyond doubt that High School Musical would be regarded as a terrible movie. As to the second option, who would go to the cinema to watch a teen musical at midnight? This was not a thriller. It could not excite the audience in the way a thriller could. They might even fall asleep in the middle of the film. And consequently, High School Musical would be regarded as a terrible movie as well.
So, they’d chosen to persuade those theater chains and cinemas, with a great result. Theater chains and cinemas were all fence-sitters. They would fight to show a film which they knew would help them make money because, if they were one step slower, others would beat them to the box office.
“Yang, you know, the next busy season will be the summer,” Mark Strong said to Wang Yang.
Wang Yang nodded with a smile. “The summer is perfect for us.”
The summer would start in June. There were still more than five months to go. Both Wang Yang and Mark Strong knew they should not release High School Musical too late because things change too fast in this world. New things come up every day. Wang Yang’s popularity would not last forever. He could be a has-been very soon, and his name would be forgotten, unless he could seize the right timing. So, they should take advantage of his current fame. That was when they could get the most out of it. If they released the film when Wang Yang had been forgotten, there would be a greater chance the film would fail.
Mark Strong added, “Due to our plan in the first two weeks after the release, we need to release the film before the summer vacation starts. So, the release should be at least two weeks before the summer starts.” Spreading his hands helplessly, he said, “The thing is that “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” will be released on May 19th. We cannot coincide with its premiere, so we have to bring forward our release by two more weeks.”
“Okay. That means we will bring forward the release by one month.” Wang Yang thought for a while. Then, a date occurred to him. He blurted out, “April 28th!” Looking at Simon Willies, he asked, “Do you think we can release it that day?”
Nodding, Simon Willies said, “I think we can.”
Wang Yang smiled happily. Looking at Mark Strong, he said, “So, that’s it. The premiere will be on April 28th.”