{1st Person POV, Oliver}
A general rule of thumb for a movie to be considered successful, i.e, make a profit, is for it to make 2.5x its budget. Though this is mainly applicable for movies that cost more than $70M or so. But why 2.5x? Well, it is generally assumed that the marketing costs for these movies is about the same as their budget or higher. This number can go as high as 3x if the movie is very China-heavy.
Now, obviously this isn't really detailed enough. So, another more detailed and realistic method, the 50-40-25, is used by trades like Deadline.
What is the 50-40-25? Well, the 50 is 50%, the percentage of revenue a studio gets from the final domestic total of a movie. The 40 is 40% of the international gross – China. Why is it without China? Well, because a studio only gets 25% of the final total a movie makes there. However, if the movie was co-produced by a Chinese firm, then this number rises to 40%.
The 50% can get as high as 60%, as seen when The Last Jedi released back in December 2017, and Disney took 60% of the revenue hoping that TLJ would replicate The Force Awakens success. TLJ's underperformance is another thing, but it does show that a distribution studio can take more than the normal if they try hard enough.
Now, onto Prints and Ads costs. As the name suggest, this is the marketing costs. Generally speaking, a movie that costs more than $150M (or even $100M sometimes) has marketing costs almost always above $100M.
For example, if a movie makes $120M domestically, $10M in China, and $80M elsewhere, its worldwide total will be $210M. $120M x 50% = $60M, $10M x 25% = $2.5M, $80M x 40% = $32M. Total = $94.5M.
Let's assume the budget was $40M, and it cost $35M to advertise. That's $75M, and lets assume the miscellaneous costs were $5M. That's $80M total.
So, $80M - $94.5M = $14.5M profit. This is only for theatrical revenue, by the way. Stuff like TV rights, Video-on-Demand (VOD), Premium Video-on-Demand, Blu-Ray, streaming rights, rentals, etc. Were not included in this.
Got all that? Good.
Moving on, the marketing for 'Halloween' has been good to fantastic. The Secret Service is slated to release in November, so there's no need to panic.
Red Fox has been going all out to get the word out about 'Halloween' to as many people as possible, and it was certainly working. The discussion about this movie, especially on forums, FaceAlbum (This world's Facebook equivalent) and Twatter (This world's Twitter equivalent) has increased a ton and has been mostly positive.
I also asked them to post the trailer on all available social media platforms, for which they had to create a special channel because they didn't have one for the company :/. I also posted it on my account, which I had to create for places like Chirper and FaceAlbum
It had 168K views, which is pretty good for the time frame I'm in.
Anyways, today was the day! The day for the release of 'Halloween'! Yes, it's October 12th, 7:27 A.M to be precise, and the midnight preview numbers will be uploaded in a few minutes or so.
They will decide the trajectory of how the movie will perform, with the help of Cinemascore of course.
You may ask, 'What is a Cinemascore?' Well, it's a company that polls random people to grade movies on an F- to A+ scale in 5 cities across USA and Canada.
Basically, it's a metric that gauges if the movie delivered on what it promised in the marketing and satisfied the audience or not.
For IP driven movies, a score below B+ is pretty awful, mostly because they already have a built-in fanbase who would rate the movie higher than your average moviegoer.
The exception to the rule is R-rated and Horror movies, both of which rarely reach B+.
Cinemascore also helps in predicting a movie's final gross, with higher CS indicating that the movie will have staying power and people will rewatch it.
And I was expecting 'Halloween' to get at least a B-, which while lower than the 2018 'Halloween's B+, would be still great considering that one was a direct sequel in an already established franchise.
However, Cinemascore wouldn't be released till tomorrow, aka Saturday, so I'd have to make do with the midnight previews.
I was currently constantly refreshing the Google page, waiting for the news to show up.
And finally, it did.
' 'Halloween' slashes $500K+ in midnight showings, heading for a $8M+ opening day.' (A/N: I tried my best, Deadline)
I was stunned.
$500K+ in midnight showings isn't small, especially so for a horror movie which is a directorial debut.
And $8M+ in opening day is also insane. That means a $17M+ opening weekend. That'll place 'Halloween' in the top 3 for the highest opening weekend for a slasher.
'I think it'll go higher.' I thought. I'm not sure why, but I just had this feeling that 'Halloween' would crack the $20M barrier
I checked the time, and realised I was going to be late.
"Welp, time to leave."
I got out of my house and went to one of the largest theatres in the city. I had booked tickets in advance, and it was relatively easy to do so. Like, yeah, I get that it's the late 2000s and all, and that 'Halloween' is a small horror movie, but it makes me feel a little sad.
*bzzt*
My mobile phone, which I had placed in my pocket, started buzzing. I checked, and it was a call from Uncle David.
-Hello? Oliver, my boy! Congratulations on releasing your movie!-
"Thanks, uncle." I replied while a smile formed on my face. I felt really happy today, for some reason. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with 'Halloween's release, because just thinking about that movie made me nervous.
-You don't sound excited at all!-
"I don't?" I asked, a but confused. As far as I was concerned, I was pretty darn excited.
-You should be more proud, y'know? The fact that you were able to sell me 2 scripts, got your movie made AND were able to release it is a great achievement many people can't accomplish! So cheer up!-
Uncle's words made me smile more. Even though I wasn't the real Oliver, and neither had I spent much time with the people he knew, somehow, I felt... at ease? Comfortable? I'm not sure. It just felt nice, is basically what I'm getting at.
"Will do." I replied in a more cheerful voice this time, or atleast I think so.
--That's the spirit! Anyways, where are you?-
I was now getting close to my destination, just one block away from the theatre.
"Oh, I'm going to the **** theatre. I want to see how the people react."
-I see. Anyways, are you free in afternoon or evening? I have some important things I'd like to talk with you about.-
"Hmm? What is it about?"
-It's about the 2 scripts you sold to Sky Mount. They've hired directors for Ticket to Paradise, but not for Night At the Museum. The reception from 'Halloween' has made some execs want you to direct it now. Even if you don't want to do that, atleast show up and say no to their faces.-
"That's fine. Just message me the place and I'll be there.:
-Okay, kiddo! Enjoy yourself till then!-
"Bye." I said and cut the call.
*Sigh* "What is my life going to be from here?" I said in a defeated tone, and entered the theatre.
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A/N: There it is, ch 12!
Chapter 13 on Tue, 14 on Thur and 15 on Sat.