[Chapter 205: The Four-Way Scandal Promotion Plan]
Linton didn't realize that simply refusing CAA's bundled services had invited their conspiracy and pushback. But even if he knew, he wouldn't have cared. After all, movies still needed to prove themselves through quality and strength. He was absolutely confident in The Rock and Happy Death Day. Soon enough, it would be clear who would crush whom.
Besides, he wasn't someone to be underestimated, and Universal was not to be taken lightly either. If CAA dared to plot behind his back, they'd have to face his wrath.
---
After 40 days of shooting, Happy Death Day finally wrapped. Cristiana Reali, Monica Bellucci, and Noriko Sakai quietly moved into the estate, and with Izumi Sakai joining, Linton again enjoyed a blissful, yet outrageous, life.
Every night, sweet and joyous singing echoed endlessly throughout the mansion...
...
Before Ryan started post-production, Linton called Kenneth, Ryan, and Harvey and Clinsman from distribution into the conference room to discuss Happy Death Day's marketing and distribution plan.
This was the first commercial film independently distributed by his company, so he had to take it seriously. Although Harvey and Clinsman had rich experience in film distribution, most of their prior projects were art films, which are fundamentally different from commercial films.
To achieve box office success with a commercial movie, promotion was indispensable. The bigger the production, the more important the publicity -- and the bigger the budget.
For example, Speed spent $20 million on North American marketing -- not that Universal shared their real costs publicly.
While marketing costs hadn't yet inflated to match production costs as they would in later years, promotion still required necessary investment, and Hollywood had long summarized marketing into four phases for major productions.
First: the teaser phase; second: the guidance phase; third: the warming-up phase; fourth: the maintenance phase.
Though Happy Death Day was a low-budget film, Linton had high expectations, and with The Shallows as precedent, everyone shared his confidence. Naturally, the promotional budget had to be guaranteed.
...
"Harvey, Clinsman, have you chosen the release window?"
"Two options. Since Happy Death Day is a horror thriller, the best release would be around Halloween.
We could pick the Friday, October 29 release, taking advantage of the following three-day holiday weekend to boost box office. Though the Halloween slot is relatively small, theaters generally are more willing to schedule screenings then.
The second choice would be Christmas in December, but that period is fiercely competitive, with A-list blockbusters every week, making it hard to secure prime theater slots."
"Kenneth, Ryan, your thoughts?"
"No objections. I'm fine with whatever," Ryan said, not knowing much but wanting to be clear.
"I recommend the Halloween release. Not only does it fit the movie genre, but it's better than a spring release in April. I believe Happy Death Day will do as well as The Shallows."
"Alright, it's set for Halloween, October 29. Ryan, speed up post-production."
"Got it. I can have a final cut for your review in two weeks."
"Harvey, Clinsman, what's the promotional plan?"
Harvey handed out promotional plans for everyone. "Following your directives, we allocated $6 million total for marketing, matching the production budget, with $4 million dedicated to promotion.
Although Happy Death Day's marketing budget is modest, we'll follow commercial film promotion rhythms.
In the first step, the teaser pahse, we kept things relatively simple. We only held a project announcement and start-of-shoot press conference, and did not carry out any other casting hype.
Second, the guidance phase starts next month, with plans for Cristiana Reali, Matt Damon, Monica Bellucci, and Noriko Sakai appearing frequently on TV. We'll also hype the friendship among the three actresses, Cristiana, Monica, and Noriko.
From October, we'll post posters nationwide and purchase ad slots on TV and outdoor media, showing trailers edited by Ryan.
We even have an idea, I wonder if it is feasible?"
"What idea?"
"To create a scandal between the leading man and lady, Cristiana and Matt Damon. Even though nothing actually happened between them, gossip can be the most cost-effective promotion."
"Is that okay? We should ask their consent," Kenneth said. He knew a bit about Linton's unusual relations with Cristiana, Monica, and Noriko, so he objected quickly.
"I don't think that's appropriate either," Ryan agreed.
"But this is standard Hollywood practice! Everyone does it. It benefits both Cristiana and Matt Damon. I'm confident they would agree," Harvey argued somewhat foolishly.
"Harvey, please finish your overall plan first."
"The third phase is warming-up. Starting October, we plan audience screenings in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco to collect viewer feedback.
Following that, we'll hold a screening with theater representatives to secure more showings. Then, the cast and crew will do intensive media interviews and TV appearances.
Considering the leads aren't famous and the investment is small, we won't hold a big premiere. Critics notoriously don't favor horror films, and our PR budget doesn't cover courting critics.
Fourth is the maintenance phase, from opening to end of run, generating buzz based on performance and increasing media communication.
Ryan will lead the team, with Cristiana, Matt Damon, Monica, and Noriko touring the top 15 U.S. box office cities for promotions, attracting ongoing coverage."
The plan was standard with no outstanding highlights but fairly comprehensive, basically reusing the publicity strategy from The Shallows.
And a $4 million promotional budget to achieve all this was not easy -- especially since it was managed by his own company. If Universal were involved, it wouldn't even be possible without a six-million-dollar spend.
"Kenneth and Ryan, any suggestions?"
"The leads aren't well known. Could we possibly leverage your celebrity status for promotion?"
Kenneth envied Linton's cameo in The Shallows, which had boosted that movie's popularity. Unfortunately, there were no suitable cameo scenes in Happy Death Day for Linton, so Kenneth dared to propose this idea.
"Tell me your thoughts in detail."
"Earlier, Harvey suggested promoting a scandal between Cristiana and Matt Damon. I think promoting a scandal between you and Cristiana would be even more effective.
If you don't mind, we could even escalate to a love triangle scandal involving you, Cristiana, and Monica -- definitely explosive publicity." Kenneth glanced at Linton for a reaction and, seeing no displeasure, continued boldly.
"We could even push it further -- create a four-way love scandal involving you, Cristiana, Monica, and Noriko. I can't imagine the media frenzy that would ignite!"
*****
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