“Seriously, this movie is wonderful! Oh, my God. Yesterday, hundreds of us just started to dance in the screening room! Man, it’s hard to describe how that felt. Cool! I didn’t know until yesterday that I like to dance. I’m going to enroll myself in some dance classes.”
“Anyone know when the original soundtrack of the movie will be released? I want to buy one! Those songs are amazing.”
“I wanna watch it again in the school cinema, cuz I found I fell in love with Troy. He looks so handsome when he plays basketball!”
Sitting in the chair, Wang Yang was looking at the computer screen with a smile. He was browsing through the comments the fans of High School Musical had left on the official website. Basically, all of those comments were compliments, which were paid to the singing and dancing, the cast, and East High. He felt satisfied and happy. This meant students across the country had accepted and liked High School Musical. Whether a fever for High School Musical would start would depend on those students’ word of mouth. That was viral marketing for the movie in real life.
He dragged the scrollbar of the page down with his mouse again. Then, he saw a comment that made him frown and smile at the same time. “Yang, honey, I love you. I want to date you. I want to marry you!” And the comment was followed by another comment in parentheses. “(Don’t let me know which woman has got you. Otherwise, I will go crazy!)”
Shaking his head, he murmured, “I’m actually a man hiding behind the camera…” However, he had become an idol director who had many fanatical female fans. Should he feel happy or sad?
Of course, it was not just student fans who were dropping comments for High School Musical. The movie critics and the media who had attended the premiere had also published their opinions.
In the entertainment section of the latest issue of the Los Angeles Times, although the review of High School Musical was not a headline, it occupied pretty much the same space on the newspaper page. The title was “A Novel Teen Musical”. In this article, they wrote that the movie had a novel style, including its bright images, the simple but beautiful story, and the singing and dancing that blended perfectly into the school life and everyday life. All these aspects were worth some attention.
“This movie is not so terrible as people imagined. In fact, it is not terrible at all. For a director who is 19-years young, this is an excellent movie.” Although the newspaper did not say it explicitly, it was actually implying the box office gross of High School Musical would surprise everyone.
Compared to the reserved attitude of the Los Angeles Times, California Film Reporter revealed a drastic change in their opinion. They had questioned Wang Yang a lot, describing him “hot-headed and blindly confident”. However, at the moment, they paid a great compliment to him as if they wanted to make up for their mistake. “This movie is beyond expectation. Not many people would suppose it is such a great movie before they really watch it! It has a magic which could make young people sing and dance while watching it, giving off their youthful vibe to the fullest. This 19-year-old director knows perfectly what an outstanding teen musical needs, and in his movie, he offered all of them to the audience in a very mature way.”
“In this movie, he proved to us his ability as a playwriter, a director, and a producer. ‘I’m more than a DV guy. I can also make a good camera film.’ It is a little plain to call him promising. Maybe we can expect more. Let’s wait quietly and see how far he could go!”
Chicago Sun-Times commented in a kind of sarcastic way, “Is Magic Yang trying to atone? His Paranormal Activity scared too many people, including a poor little girl who was almost scared to death. Thank God she is in good health now. However, if Paranormal Activity left her any haunting shadow, she could go and watch High School Musical. This movie has a youthful and warm vibe. It is positive and cheering. It is hard to believe that this is the work of the same director whose thriller reached $310,000,000 at the box office.”
There were critiques as well as compliments. Kevin Thomas, who had dropped pretty terrible comments for Paranormal Activity, was a freelance movie critic at that moment. His review was published in a tabloid. “I haven’t watched this movie yet because it is shown in schools only, while I, obviously, left the school a long time ago. However, it is imaginable that this will be a new disaster. A story of a kid director striving for candies. Would he use those disgusting, shaky shots again? Come on. Give us a break!”
However, apparently, Kevin Thomas’s comment did not get any attention. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, asking for candies, but unfortunately, he was ignored.
Flames Films got the first day’s box office figure of High School Musical in the afternoon. The first week’s screening of the movie involved 500 schools. Every school had 300 seats on average. All of the tickets were 40% off, which meant each ticket had cost 3.9 dollars. There were two sessions every day. The attendance rate of last night’s two sessions had reached 75%, which was incredible! The movie had reached $877,500 at the box office on the first day! This result excited Flames Films and the whole crew of High School Musical. Closing his fist, Wang Yang kept shouting, “Yes!” and then let out a long sigh.
The production cost of the movie was $8,000,000. The promotion cost was $10,000,000. The copies, transportation, and others were estimated to cost over $2,000,000. In short, the total cost of the movie was $20,000,000, which meant the total box office gross should at least reach $50,000,000 to recoup the cost after the tax was paid. In fact, this investment accounted for two-thirds of the assets under Wang Yang’s name. Such a big investment was once doubted by the media. “Is this young man incredibly brave or hopelessly foolish?”
There was certainly a big gap between $877,500 and $50,000,000. However, this first day’s box office gross had come from school cinemas with 40% off! Judging from the attendance rate and the response of the audience, this movie’s potential seemed to be as great as Paranormal Activity’s potential had been.
The second day’s box office gross further proved the movie’s potential. The attendance rate of the first session of the second day, incredibly, reached 100%, and it reached 85% in the second session! And those were only school cinemas! However, if those who found such a result shocking knew anything about the complete promotion plan of High School Musical, they probably would not be so surprised anymore. This was the result in which the viral marketing online and in real life had both been aiming for.
Those schools that showed the movie in the first week were filled with High School Musical’s posters, and they had been bombed with the “Come to Dance” show for almost two months. Once the students that attended the first screening of the movie were lavish with their praises for the movie, other students would follow in a domino effect. Then, the whole school would be excited about the movie. Every student would feel curious. Naturally, some enthusiastic ones would be drawn to the cinema to watch it with their own eyes.
The two sessions of the second day had gained $1,082,200 at the box office. Together with the over $10,000 gained at the Vitascope Cinema, the movie reached $1,967,200 in all of two days! Then, the first week of April 23rd to 29th ended. High School Musical was ranked 11th at the North American weekly box office, with its revenue gained at the 500 school cinemas and a city cinema in two days. In the meantime, The Matrix remained in the first place at the weekly box office.
“Yang, many theater chains are contacting us.” On the phone, Mark Strong’s laugh sounded very insidious.
Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders, not thinking it a big thing. He said into the cellphone, “Ignore them for the moment. The movie is so popular at the moment. We’ll have more and more bargaining chips to negotiate with them. We will collaborate with the one who gives us the best offer at the end of the second week.” He would not change his plan to show the movie in school cinemas for two weeks. This was to drum up enthusiasm for the movie, and it made the market hungry as well. It was a new bomb, which would not be ignited until May 14th.
“Yeah, I think so too, boss.” Mark Strong laughed. He had a good reason to feel happy. Wang Yang had told him if High School Musical turned out to be a success and he proved his ability to the fullest, he could be a partner of the studio.
A new week had started since April 30th. At the same time, some new movies were released, including Entrapment, distributed by 20th Century Fox, which was shown in 2,814 cinemas in the first week; and Idle Hands, on which Sony and Columbia had pinned great hope. It had cost $25,000,000 to produce Idle Hands. According to the usual proportion, its promotion cost should be at least $10,000,000, and there were other costs, too. It would need to break $80,000,000 at the box office to recoup the cost. As a result, it was shown in 1,611 cinemas in the first week.
High School Musical was still shown in those 500 schools, and it would be shown in another 500 schools in the next week. The discussion on the internet and those great comments for the movie piqued the interest of many students. They went to the school cinemas where the movie was shown to watch it, but the problem was that there were only two sessions in those schools and it was not even enough for their own students.
As the only non-school cinema where the movie was shown, Vitascope Cinema was full of students at the moment. It was even more crowded than when Paranormal Activity had been shown. In that period, Paranormal Activity was showed in five cinemas in Los Angeles, while High School Musical was only showed in one at the moment.
“Come on. Can’t you show it in more screening rooms?” At the ticket booth, students who failed to get any tickets were pretty unhappy with the situation. They were yelling, staring at the owner of the cinema as if he was their enemy. A blond, white, high school student was standing at the front. He swore, “Boss, are you stupid? Why don’t you talk to Flames Films? We want to watch High School Musical!”
The boss was a middle-aged, white man, a little bald, and fat. Looking at the students, he tried to calm them down with a smile, “Hey, boys and girls, why don’t you watch some other films first? What about Entrapment and Idle Hands? They are both newly released, and they are great!” If it was possible, why wouldn’t he show High School Musical in his cinema? However, the contract had been signed, and they were only allowed to show it for one week. Besides, Flames Films refused his request to open more screening rooms for the movie.
“Idle Hands? Oh, come on! Who would watch a thriller now?” That blond student was amused. Looking back, he shouted, “Would you watch it, my friends?”
The students behind him shook their heads and pouted their mouths. “No!”
A girl standing by the poster wall was looking at the poster of Idle Hands in a disdainful manner. She said, “What is that? I wouldn’t watch it! The leading actor is so disgusting. He can’t be compared to even one finger of Troy! Gosh, Troy is so handsome!”
Another pretty white girl said, “I’m here to support Yang! He is my idol!”
The students started to yell. Some of them had come to see handsome Tom Welling, while others had come to see pretty girls like Jessica and Rachel on the big screen. Many of them were Wang Yang’s fans, while more of them only wanted to follow the trend and be in one of the first batches to watch High School Musical. They were all here to watch High School Musical.
At this moment, the blond student shouted loudly, “Guys, what team?!”
All of the students here had watched the trailer. Laughing, they responded, “Wildcats!” Such a party atmosphere was one of the reasons they stayed here. They might be able to make friends here.
“What team?!”
“Wildcats!”
Seeing them so excited, the owner of the cinema started to sweat. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned around, intending to disappear without anyone noticing. He took a few steps. Then, suddenly, something hit his head. He was given a scare. Looking back at the ground, he found it was a die. He asked in anger, “Who was it?!” The students burst out laughing, whistling, but no one answered his question. He gnashed his teeth, resigned, and left in a disgraceful manner. On his way, he kept murmuring unhappily, “Magic Yang, you created a disaster…”
As to the box office of the week of April 30th to May 6th, it was good news for some people and bad news for others. Entrapment nabbed the top spot at the box office with $26,126,000 in this week, while High School Musical was in fourth place with $5,123,000 million at the box office. It had been showing in the same cinemas—those 500 school cinemas. The attendance rate of 65% this week shocked the movie industry once again. People felt that this was Paranormal Activity’s story repeated again. If this black horse was shown on a large scale, what result it would get?
Another movie came as a surprise as well. That was Idle Hands. It went contrary to the expectation. The result it got was not too good, but too bad. In the 1,611 cinemas where it was shown, it only grossed $2,300,000 at the box office. From the first day to the seventh day, it kept dipping substantially every day. It became a has-been without even getting popular. This movie was a total failure.
Sony was shocked. Columbia was shocked. Idle Hands’ producer Andrew Licht was shocked. The director, Rodman Flender, was shocked, too. What on Earth happened? Why would it end up like this? $2,300,000 at the box office?! Only $1,400 in every cinema! The ticket price was $6.50. That meant in every cinema, only a little more than two hundred people had chosen to watch this movie this week.
How come?! How come?!
Here was the comment from the Los Angeles Times, “Idle Hands is a failed attempt. It attempted to create a comedy effect with bloody scenes, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a bad idea, especially when what it targeted was the teenage audience. Teenagers are absolutely not interested in it at all. What are they interested in? I think High School Musical has taught Idle Hands a big lesson. What the teenagers need is not black humor or bloody scenes, which, by the way, are not funny at all. Sometimes, they only need a simple and beautiful story, like a fairytale, full of sunshine, which they can relate and makes them feel their youth through it. You won’t find Idle Hands’ failure so hard to understand if you have watched High School Musical.”
Idle Hands had tried to use High School Musical, Wang Yang, and Jessica to create topics for itself, but in the end, it turned out to be a joke. They brought shame onto themselves. A tabloid called Entertainment Daily, even dropping a harsh and sarcastic comment, “Now we know who was out of their mind. Andrew Licht paid the price for his arrogance, while Jessica Alba’s smart choice brought her a promising future.”
They even interviewed Andrew Licht for his opinion. Reluctant to accept the interview, Andrew Licht put on a straight face. But since it was impossible to get rid of the journalist, he said, quite bothered, “The more childish a thing is, the more people it will attract.” He was implying that Idle Hands had overestimated teenagers’ taste, and that was the reason they had failed. By comparison, High School Musical was only a childish work for children. There was nothing great about it.
His comment did not bring Idle Hands any good luck. Instead, those young men who had some interest in it lost the desire to watch it. On the internet, High School Musical’s fans were all cursing Idle Hands. “A terrible movie. It’s so terrible that even the projectors are reluctant to screen it. Why would we go and watch it? If anyone is childish, it’s Andrew Licht and Rodman Flender. They don’t even know how they fell into a burrow!”
“Yang, thank you!” Jessica thanked Wang Yang sincerely on the phone. Then, with a lingering fear, she said, “I really feel lucky that I made the right choice. If I had chosen Idle Hands, I really don’t know what would have happened.” What she was scared of was not only the movie’s box office gross. More importantly, she and Wang Yang might have missed each other forever.
Wang Yang tried to comfort her, “Jessica, we should feel happy and enjoy our success now. Stop thinking about Idle Hands. Let it go.”
From May 7th to 13th, the box office gross for the second week of Idle Hands despaired the owners of the 1,611 cinemas. They were deeply regretting that they had agreed to put one clause into the contract—show the movie for at least two weeks. Some cinemas suffered more losses because they had promised a longer period for showing it. Only $453,000 were grossed in the 1,611 cinemas! It was worse than a failure.
On the other hand, in the third week of High School Musical, it was shown in another 500 school cinemas, and its box office gross remained surprising. An attendance rate of nearly 75% and $6,152,500 at the box office in one week! Only shown in school cinemas, it had pulled in $13,242,700 at the box office in sixteen days. And it remained the fourth in the North American weekly box office. This week’s champion was the newly released The Mummy. It had pulled in $55,724,000 million in 3,210 cinemas.
As early as the first week’s box office figure for High School Musical came out, the telephones in Flames Films never stopped ringing. All theater chains were striving for a chance to cooperate with them. They certainly regretted that they had given Flames Films cold shoulders, but if they failed to obtain the Public Performance Rights of the movie, which would absolutely be a sell, they would regret it even more!
It was time for Flames Films to choose. Mark Strong used his business talent to the full. He stuck with the 90/10 split with a minimum floor of 70%, but he extended the duration of the 90/10 split by one week. And all of the cinemas where the movie would be shown were close to schools, with great facilities, a clean environment, and a history of high attendance rates.
In the fourth week of High School Musical’s screening, and the first week of its large-scale screening, 3,150 cinemas across the country would show it. Every student was expecting the arrival of May 14th. They were so eager to watch the movie that they felt they could not wait anymore. Due to the viral marketing strategy of Flames Films, they kept seeing stuff related to High School Musical. And they heard all those schools where it had been shown were crazy for it. The songs in the movie were very popular. They wanted to watch it, watch it, and watch it!
However, in the entire North American region, it was only shown in one non-school cinema. But fortunately, the situation would change very soon. They finally could walk into the cinema to watch this mysterious movie. Although it was the 14th tomorrow, the Vitascope Cinema was still packed with students. They seemed to regard it as an honor if they could watch High School Musical before its large-scale screening.
“We are at the Vitascope Cinema now. As we can see, the ticket hall is full of young students. They told us they had come here to watch High School Musical…” On the TV screen, this white female reporter was holding a microphone. Behind her were students who were talking or having fun. She said with a smile, “This scene would make people think Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is on ahead of schedule. Will this be the start of a new round of cinema fever? Will Magic Yang bring us another miracle? Let’s wait and see.”
On the sofa, Jessica looked at Miranda, who was sitting next to her. She said with a proud smile, “Miranda, you see? I made the correct choice.” Then, she looked back at the TV screen.
Miranda did not speak. She looked like she was kind of embarrassed. She could say nothing to refute at the moment because the fact was the fact. Idle Hands was a total failure, while High School Musical was really taking off. If her client had been someone else but Jessica, she, as an agent, might have been fired. Although she was a good friend of Jessica’s mother, she was also Jessica’s agent since the latter was a young girl. However, this time, she’d definitely made a severe mistake in her job. She would not complain if she was fired.
“Jessica, I didn’t see that coming.” Miranda let out a sigh. She said apologetically, “I’m really sorry. I almost brought you into a disaster.” In fact, she had come to apologize to Jessica.
“It’s all right, Miranda.” Waving her hand, Jessica said happily with a smile, “This is beyond the expectation of many people. It is a ‘supernatural’ thing!” She looked as if she were very happy. She said in a gentle voice, “Sometimes, you just need to trust a person—trust him unconditionally, and support him…”
Joshua, sitting on the other end of the sofa, looked disdained. He said, “Jessica, as far as I recall, you were hesitating a lot back then. Don’t you think you should thank me for the decision you finally made?”
Jessica flushed. Rolling her eyes at Joshua, she said, “Fine. I always feel very grateful to you! Are you happy?”
Joshua sat up. He said, “A thank you isn’t enough. I want a present. Hey, there is a sports car that I really like!” His eyes lit up. He went on, “Wow, if I drive it out, oh my God… all the girls would look at me, and I would be the most popular guy in the world!”
“Joshua, I will not buy anything for you.” Shaking her head, Jessica said with a smile, “Yang doesn’t even need a sports car to get girls’ attention. This is what a really popular guy should be like. You understand?”
Joshua shrugged his shoulders helplessly. He said, “Okay! Okay!” Pretending he was not very happy, he said, “You are always talking about Yang. Always using him to crack me down. I’ve had this enough.”
“Ha, you will hear more!” Jessica broke into a smile. High School Musical would have been shown in 3,150 cinemas since the next day. It would absolutely create a greater fever for it! And Yang would be talked about a lot by people. This would come without a doubt.