Chapter 155
On July 10th, the first week of《Running Out of Time》's box office was officially released. Although the question posed by George Northern caused a storm in the public, the reputation of the《Running Out of Time》movie itself had not been affected much. More than 70% of the film reviews had praised the film. The first week of《Running Out of Time》was still under the pressure of «Batman», meaning it just won more than 27 million US dollars during the three day box office weekend. For this data, Colombia's view was mixed.
They were happy because this meant that they would likely occupy 40-50% of this summer catalogue week at the box office. The box office of the first seven days of《Running Out of Time》still had the opportunity to hit the $40 million mark, although because of «Batman», they were sure it couldn't catch up with the first week of《Ghostbusters II》's 45 million, but this number was already enough to allow for a good night's sleep for the senior officials of the Colombia who had been worried about the《Running Out of Time》box office. If first week reached 40 million, then the total box office had a good chance to break through 200 million US dollars.
Because of the precedent set《Ghostbusters II》, Colombia was very worried that this film would follow in the footsteps of《Ghostbusters II》, which dropped more than 50% of it's box office in it's second week, and did not rebound again afterwards like «Batman» which became a blockbuster. After the box office curve of《Ghostbusters II》, it was inevitable that Colombia had such concerns. Movies are like gambling, no one knows what will happen next.
Therefore, when the turmoil caused by George Northern's questioning article had just surfaced, Colombia would of course soon convene all the executives to discuss countermeasures. The consequences of such a thing are hard to predict, perhaps after people read it, they would forget after chatting a few words. But Colombia also found that many people do not want this argument to be easily overlooked by others. In just a few days, many media have begun to help fuel the flames.
They would never allow the《Running Out of Time》, which originally had good momentum, to be affected by this question. What's more, Colombia has already understood Eric's idea of 'topic marketing', with the placement of ads in the movie and fragments of Eric's TV series. They wanted to use these to increase hype for the movie in the second week of the box office, but for this plan to be implement smoothly, they must first clarify this wave of doubts, otherwise it will be difficult to predict the effect of topic marketing, as it is likely that because of the previous questioning fans might superimpose their negative ideas creating a worse situation.
When a group of executives had some troubles about how to clarify that《Running Out of Time》was not a ringer's work, the small box of video that Eric bought into the conference room made everyone shine, after playing a few videotapes. The people quickly discussed the possible countermeasures.
CBS was located in a branch office building in Los Angeles. Eric was preparing for an appointment with a female host named Sophia Temple, and they would record a program called «Sophia Talk show». If you want to remove doubts as soon as possible, what better way than to play a videotape on the spot for more than than a million spectators on a talk show?
When an executive made this suggestion, Eric first thought of the famous «Oprah Talk show», after all, this program is really famous, but unfortunately his thoughts were quickly dispelled. Because the airing period of the «Oprah Talk show» was from September of each year to May of the following year, it was currently in the break period of this talk show. Moreover, even if the Oprah talk show was not on break now, it would be impossible to arrange their schedules in just a few days.
As such, Colombia quickly arranged another program called «Sophia Talk show» through their connections at the CBS TV station. This talk show is obviously imitating the «Oprah Talk show», but unfortunately Eric had not heard of it in his past life.
Sophia Temple was a very temperamental caucasian woman, dressed in a sleek burgundy professional suit, dark blue hair, with the fringe of her nose curling upwards, Eric felt she looked quite like the Courteney Cox from his previous life's《Friends》, but whilst their appearance was a bit similar, it seemed she had a little more scholarly refinement than Courtney Cox.
After their exchange, Eric also understood why this type of talk show was unknown in his past life. He estimated that this type of show would not last long.
Because Sophia Temple's character was very literary, and she spoke with a fair air, Eric guessed that the other party must have been born into a wealthy family and has received a complete elite education. Although this woman is very talented, her personality was somewhat conservative. Therefore, Eric felt that she was more suitable for a more serious high-end talk show, interviewing entrepreneurs, scientists or senior government officials, and was not suitable for this talk show that needed her to interact with the guests and mobilize the audience atmosphere.
In contrast, Oprah, who was born at the bottom, is different. Her influence on the audience can make them distraught following a retelling of her experience being intimately harassed in childhood. Or she can make a lot of funny jokes on the spot, and make the audience burst into laughter on the spot. Eric could be sure that the conservative Sofia Temple couldn't do this.
"Ms. Temple, Mr. Williams, the scene is ready, we can start recording." A staff member opened the door to the rest room and told Eric and Sophia, who were communicating details.
Eric and Sophia left the lounge side by side and walked to the studio.
"Speaking of a director, the first impression that many people have in mind is definitely an old man with a big beard, messy hair, and an eccentric character. But since last year, there has been an alternative in the Hollywood director circle. He is not only young and handsome, he's also more talented. What’s even more amazing is that this young boy has gotten a jaw-dropping box office score for several consecutive movies. Oh, I think everyone already knows who he is, then, please welcome our guest today: Mr. Eric Williams!"
After a skilled opening remark, following Sofia's instructions, Eric walked in with his small box. The program crew had suggested that the box with the video tapes be placed in the scene beforehand, but Eric refused. The main reason for this program was to clarify the ringer rumours, and so of course, the deeper the impression on the audience, the better.
Whilst the girls under the stage screamed, Eric smiled and waved at the camera before he sat down with Sophia.
"Eric, is this a gift you have prepared for everyone, do you want me to help you?" Sophia smiled and pointed to the box that Eric was holding.
Not waiting for Eric to answer, the girls in the audience shouted excitedly again, and several girls couldn’t help but stand up and look at the things in the box.
Eric pressed his hands together slightly and then gestured to everyone to be quiet. He explained: "Sorry, everyone, I was too rushed to get presents today. As for these, they are just some videotapes. As for the content, I will be keep it for the time being. Wait a minute and I'll give everyone a surprise."
Although many people below the stage gave a disappointing sigh, they all went quiet.
Sophia and Eric started going through the standard motions for talk shows, and they tried to get a little intimate. They recalled his childhood, and looked back on his past, got a taste of his present, and looked forward towards his future.
Most of the questions were discussed in advance. Sophia did indeed work with Eric, so her evaluations were as conservative as before, and even the few minor surprises did not make Eric feel the slightest difficulty.
After chatting about Eric's past for more than ten minutes, the two began to turn the topic to the focus of the interview.
"Eric, many people say that compared to your first few movies, the style of《Running Out of Time》has changed too much. What do you think of these people's hypotheses?"
Eric was staring at Sophia's beautiful face, as he began to talk nonsense: "Actually, to be honest, there were many circumstantial factors in the making of my first few movies. At that time my father had just died suddenly, I had dropped out of school and began working in a small restaurant, but that was not the life I wanted. I was very interested in movies since I was a child. So I wrote the script «17 Again» and «17 Again» was what prepared me for work in Hollywood. «Home Alone» was inspired one time when I had chatted with Stuart. The little guy came to my house one night, when I was filming «17 Again», and Stuart asked me if he could also get to make a movie, and I said yes, so «Home Alone» appeared. And the script of《Pretty Woman》also has circumstances. So, 《Running Out of Time》was a movie that I had truly wanted to shoot for a while. I had the idea of making the movie a long time ago. For this reason, I even went to Mr. Hanks before the filming of《Pretty Woman》and gave him an invitation"
"Oh, so then you felt licensed to treat your first few movies lightly. If you told that to many Hollywood directors, they would be heartbroken!" Sophia asked as the her voice intonated somewhat mischievously and the audience once again rang out with laughter, if Eric really casually made a few box-office movies, it could be estimated that many Hollywood directors who have struggled for many years to make movies would hit a wall.
Eric quickly smiled and denied: "Of course not. For every movie I have done before, I tried hard to do it. I think that for people needing to get achievements, it's very important that even if you are not very interested, you still try to do well.”
Sophia nodded thoughtfully: “Eric, we know you are still young, but with your achievements, you will definitely not stop making movies. As you wont have too many constraints or restrictions, does that mean that your future movies will be in the style as《Running Out of Time》?"
"No, I prefer to try new things, so in my future movies there will definitely be many kinds of things, and I don't want to be labeled as only a film director at such a young age."
"But I have heard a viewpoint in the past few days, that is, even with those excellent directors, their movies always have certain similar factors, but some newspapers have analyzed that《Running Out of Time》has nothing in common with your first few movies, it's just like... it’s like two different shoots from the same person." Sophia stared at Eric, and raised this relatively divisive topic.
The audience at the scene immediately became breathless. In fact, many people had already guessed the reason why Eric came to participate in this talk show, so they were very curious at how Eric would defend himself.