Capítulo 239: Continued growth
Pouring in a substantial amount of money brought about immediate results in terms of publicity.
And "Saw" saw a steady increase in box office sales for several consecutive days, which thoroughly impressed giants in the theater industry like AMC.
Additional screenings were established as a sure thing, and the number of theaters surged to 1300. For a dark cult film, this number was definitely noteworthy.
The consequences of the coordinated efforts between the publicity and theater chains were an unrelenting exploitation of the film's commercial value.
"Saw" unexpectedly ignited a wave of enthusiasm for moviegoing in the otherwise "quiet" month of October.
Of course, those most affected by this were the competitors that were simultaneously released, especially "Kill Bill", which shared a substantial overlap in audience.
In MiraMax's office, Harvey Weinstein looked at the freshly compiled market report, his expression grim, as he smoked a cigar.
"Kill Bill" had started with a bang, but over the past few days, the situation had gradually taken a turn for the worse.
On the first day, the box office was $3.12M, with an occupancy rate close to 60%. The second day fared slightly better, with a daily box office of $3.5M and an average occupancy rate of 64%. On the third day, the numbers continued to climb steadily, with an average occupancy rate of nearly 70%, culminating in a three-day total box office of $10.2M. The fourth day's occupancy rate rose further, reaching a high of 73%, leading to a four-day total box office of $14.76M. The fifth day, a weekend, saw an explosion in attendance, with a daily box office of $7.32M, and a five-day total box office of $22.08M.
But what about "Saw"? Its opening day box office had already outperformed "Kill Bill". After five days of screening, despite an increase in the number of theaters, their occupancy rates remained consistently high. Even sellout showings were occurring. The total box office had already reached $33.56M. Not only was the total box office $10M higher than "Kill Bill", but its momentum was different from the gradually decreasing "Kill Bill". Both online and in traditional media, discussions surrounding "Saw" remained fervent.
Moreover, despite "Kill Bill" experiencing a continuous increase in occupancy rates, the trend was unmistakably slowing down. And this was just the first week. If the movie's fan base decreased, it was likely that its decline would accelerate. This was the source of Harvey Weinstein's rather gloomy mood. As a seasoned industry professional, certain data, when looked through the lens of what they actually meant, was enough to make one not want to see it.
Now, many newspapers were already touting "Saw" as a box office miracle. Although many of these reports had traces of Paramount's public relations efforts behind them, the tremendous box office growth of "Saw" was an undeniable fact.
Two days later, a new week began, and Harvey Weinstein's complexion became increasingly overcast. On the box office chart, that vexing name still loomed large.
Naturally, after a week of screening, the total box office for "Saw" had settled at $46.52M.
And with a weekly box office score of $46.52M, "Saw" undoubtedly claimed the top spot on the North American weekly box office charts from October 11th to 17th. Naturally, "Kill Bill", which was among the few movies still managing to garner ticket sales, took second place, with a weekly box office of $33.22M. In third place was the already two-week-old youth campus film "School of Rock", with a weekly box office of $18.76M...
Such a performance was truly the cause of envy for many film companies. To recoup their investment in just a week, leaving only pure profit, no matter how you looked at it, was a massive success.
As for Paramount, one of the parties involved, they were undoubtedly more at ease.
If their other film releases had fared well, they would have considered throwing an internal party to celebrate.
After all, the kind of market potential that "Saw" displayed basically guaranteed it would be a major hit. The only unknown was just how much Paramount would reap from this film.
A week later, another second-tier film company was left dejected.
On October 17th, New Line Cinema premiered the movie "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". However, it quickly flopped.
Originally, their company had banked on the created chaos, with tactics like retreating to advance and hitching onto trends to make a quick buck.
They quickly moved up the release date for a movie originally scheduled for November to October 17th, precisely when "Saw" began to take off and "Kill Bill" had been in theaters for a week, its momentum slowly waning.
If everything had gone according to their expectations, there would have been benefits: First, with "Saw" booming, their film with a similar cult theme and a closely related name would have attracted some audience overflow. Second, "Kill Bill" and other concurrent releases seemed lackluster and were hung up by the success of "Saw". There was a real possibility of seizing their spot and becoming the second in line, gaining a share of the market flow.
However, New Line Cinema never could have anticipated that not only would "Saw" continue its dominance, firmly securing the top spot in weekly box office rankings, but "Kill Bill" was also an anomaly. Even though it appeared to be faltering, it managed to pull in more than $30M after just one week.
With the market being what it was, and these two companies raking in over $80M in ticket sales between them, the result was that "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was caught in the crossfire. The premiere day went relatively well, with a nearly 70% occupancy rate, as the audience sought novelty. However, on the second day, attendance didn't increase, it decreased. New Line Cinema knew it was in for trouble.
Sure enough, the audience voted with their feet, choosing instead to watch "Saw" and "Kill Bill".
With this state of affairs, the market dynamics remained unchanged after the second week.
On the weekly box office chart for the second week of October 18th to 24th, the top spot and the first three remained the same, while the new release "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ranked fifth, barely managing to rake in $10M.
When the figures were revealed, it was like a clap of thunder on a clear day, stirring up the entire Hollywood cult scene.
Why?
Because due to the $55.37M earned in the second week, Paramount Pictures officially announced that the box office earnings of "Saw" had crossed the $100M mark.
Is crossing the $100M mark impressive?
Certainly, it's impressive, but you need to compare.
In the film market, box office earnings are inevitably dominated by mainstream commercial films. The annual box office rankings are mostly monopolized by so-called blockbuster movies. Given the performance of "Saw", whether it could make it into the top twenty is uncertain.
However, in terms of production cost and return on investment, "Saw" was different.
At a production cost of $10M, which big-budget film dared to compare?
Moreover, James Wan was a newcomer. Quentin Tarantino also spent many years in obscurity before finally making a name for himself. He had acclaimed works like "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" to build on.
Yet now, a newcomer director was outperforming Quentin in his first film, even crossing the $100M mark in box office earnings.
Had anyone in Hollywood heard of this person before?
No, but now he was a rising star in the industry.
Hollywood had never hidden its pursuit of success.
In fact, many film companies and directors had started to study the success of "Saw".
Following the trend was commonplace; it prevailed globally. In other words, this was about learning from the experiences of the successful?
Perhaps in their eyes, as long as they grasped the formula, the tricks, replicating this level of box office performance was feasible. At worst, earning slightly less would still be acceptable.
More accurately, they believed the film market was undergoing some changes in trends, that horror and thriller genres were on the rise.
Just as the popularity of "Spider-Man" highlighted the market value of superhero films, perhaps this time the success of "Saw" was due to the audience's renewed interest in such themes.
Unfortunately, most of these copycats lacked thorough analysis.
Just like the "intelligent" people at New Line Cinema, who were already facing the consequences of their hasty actions.
If replicating success were so easy, there wouldn't be any need for James to make it happen, right?
Furthermore, the previous "Saw" in their previous life hadn't achieved such immense popularity. There wasn't a grandiose promotion, nor adequate media coverage. It had earned $50M solely based on the audience's choices, which was already the upper limit.
But now, backed by a behemoth like Paramount, with distribution channels not being an issue, and the potential for box office earnings being further developed, even though these results were somewhat beyond Leman's expectations, they weren't surprising.
After all, there weren't any strong competitors during this period. Besides "Saw", were there better options for the audience?
In the film industry, it was always the winners who reaped all the rewards.
Blindly watching movies wasn't worth discussing; after all, who would go watch those "mediocre" films instead of high-grossing ones?
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