Chapter 135: Unexpected

Embassy Pictures refurbished a storage room into an office for their newly established online publicity department. With over twenty workstations and corresponding computers, the space felt a bit cramped.

This was the recently established online publicity department.

"In our market research, even arthouse films with a small audience are included," Ronan whispered to David Beliavsky as they entered the office. "Among all moviegoers, one-third are teenagers under twenty, over one-third are young adults in their twenties, and viewers over thirty account for less than one-third."

David Beliavsky added, "The audience for 'Final Destination' is under thirty."

Ronan continued, "As long as we can win over some of the under-thirty audience, 'Final Destination' will be successful." He glanced at the busy employees in front of their computer screens. "The internet is already widespread in North America, with young people being the majority of users. We don't have an advantage in traditional media, but on the internet, our gap with the major companies is smaller."

"In fact, after the success of 'Blair Witch,'" David Beliavsky said confidently, "our internet promotion has been at the forefront of the industry."

Ronan smiled and said, "Now that 'Final Destination' is released, let our people pose as movie enthusiasts and participate in various movie websites and popular forums to stir up more interest."

Ronan didn't make targeted arrangements for people over thirty. This demographic group is mature in their thinking and has already formed their preferences in movie choices. It's hard to impress them with something outside of their preferred genre.

It's not realistic to have teenagers influence their parents to watch horror movies together as a family outing. The thought of the entire family watching a horror movie together is thrilling.

The marketing strategies for family-friendly movies and horror movies are completely different.

Following David Beliavsky to someone's workstation, Ronan glanced at the computer screen where a post filled with letters and accompanied by several stills from "Final Destination" had just been posted.

The person turned around and stood up. "Director, Chairman..."

David Beliavsky introduced, "Chairman, this is Bill Montens from the online publicity department."

Ronan took a quick look. Bill had an extremely ordinary appearance, the kind that would blend into a crowd without notice. He didn't seem too old, probably not even twenty-five.

"Hello," Ronan shook his hand.

David introduced, "Bill joined the company during the promotion of 'Blair Witch.' He used to run an online studio and, after collaborating with us, led his team to join Embassy Pictures. The website for 'Blair Witch' and the initial stage of its promotion were all done by Bill and his team."

Ronan said satisfactorily, "Well done."

Bill Montens seemed not very good at socializing, scratching his head and smiling awkwardly.

"If you encounter any difficulties, report to David promptly," Ronan emphasized the importance of the online publicity department and reminded, "Be mindful of legal issues."

Bill Montens assured, "Everything we do is legal and compliant, in accordance with freedom of speech on the internet."

Ronan shook his hand again. "Carry on with your work. I won't disturb you."

In fact, this online publicity department was now more akin to the internet water army of the previous life. Legitimate internet advertising, like those official ads, would cost money, and they wouldn't be given to them to handle.

After leaving the office, Bill Montens instructed his subordinates to pause their current tasks, summarized the current situation of "Final Destination" on the internet, redistributed tasks, and then plunged back into work.

In just one morning, he and his team quickly manipulated the IMDb audience rating of "Final Destination" from 7.2 to 7.8.

In this era, IMDb's rating system was far from perfect, with plenty of room for manipulation.

The comment section on the webpage was filled with praise.

"The plot of 'Final Destination' is very tight, with a unique perspective, innovative theme, full-bodied characters, and flawless plot development. The film's greatest shock comes from two psychological suggestions: one, every everyday item around you could be a deadly weapon, and two, if you survive a disaster, you should despair even more because the next one is coming."

Not only on IMDb, but major forums were also flooded with posts from the water army department.

Originally, enthusiastic movie fans who had watched the film spread news about "Final Destination" everywhere. With the help of the water army department, their enthusiasm spread even further.

Some movie fans were indeed worthy of the name. Just after watching the midnight screening, they began analyzing the relatively subtle aspects of the film.

A movie blogger named Jerry commented on his blog, saying that "Final Destination" had numerous suggestive scenes in its plot and shots.

"This film foreshadows all subsequent plot points right from the beginning."

"The image of wings reflected in the window seems unsteady in the rain, hinting at the airplane accident to come; the hanging doll's shadow on the ground resembles a hanged person, foreshadowing Todd's death; the magazine depicts the guillotine of the French Revolution, foreshadowing Billy's demise; the image of a woman lying in a pool of blood and a person stabbed in the chest with a knife on the magazine cover foreshadows Ms. Lewton's death; the cover of the book 'Death of a Salesman' shows a person with a big sign behind them, foreshadowing Carter's fate; Eileen tearing off the tag on the suitcase while packing symbolizes the start of a major disaster..."

"Final Destination" seemed to have left an exceptionally deep impression on this enthusiastic fan. Not only did he analyze the beginning of the film, but he also analyzed various hidden details before each character's death, writing about it for nearly a whole page.

This article was quickly discovered and shared on major movie forums, garnering the attention of many movie fans.

Then, the water army department led by Bill Montens also noticed this article. With their help, it became the hottest movie post of the weekend, with thousands of comments on Jerry's blog alone.

"I've seen this movie, and the plot is terrifying, intricately woven!"

"We might die at any moment, not knowing why or when, or even how we will die. The success of the film lies in its strong psychological suggestions that make us believe in this."

"'Final Destination'? I'm going to see it after work tonight."

"Anyone from Boston? Let's go together. I love horror movies, but I'm a bit scared..."

With the quality of the film assured and the marketing in place, coupled with some innovation on top of traditional popular horror movies, "Final Destination" surpassed all other films playing in theaters on its opening day, with a single-day box office revenue of $9.3 million, snatching the title of single-day box office champion from "Toy Story 2," which earned $6.5 million on the same day.

On Saturday, CinemaScore released the latest statistics. "Final Destination" had an audience score of "B," and its expected North American box office was projected to be no less than $60 million.

Furthermore, after the opening day, "Final Destination" had an IMDb audience rating of 7.5 and a media composite rating of 64.

For an R-rated horror film, this was excellent word-of-mouth.

However, there was one thing that Ronan hadn't anticipated, even catching the entire management of Sandsea Entertainment and Embassy Pictures off guard.

Rotten Tomatoes, the website that collects reviews from film critics to determine ratings, also unveiled its consensus after gathering 50 reviews nationwide. Out of these 50 reviews, 15 were positive and 35 were negative, resulting in a freshness rating of only 30%, with a critics' average score of 4.7 out of 10.

Ronan was greatly surprised by the fact that the community of film critics didn't seem to appreciate "Final Destination" so much.

Considering that earlier in the summer, "The Blair Witch Project" had received a freshness rating of 90% after its premiere, the mere 30% for "Final Destination" was quite shocking.

The contrast was stark, as the quality of the two films seemed to be reversed. If you were to ask a hundred people who had watched both "The Blair Witch Project" and "Final Destination," at least 80 would likely say that the latter was of much higher quality. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if 99 out of 100 shared this opinion.

Yet, inexplicably, "The Blair Witch Project," a film that was arguably mediocre from an artistic perspective, had garnered the approval of critics, while "Final Destination," a film of significantly higher quality, received low ratings across the board from them.

It was an enigma that couldn't be explained from an artistic standpoint. One could only conclude that this was a group whose tastes defied conventional understanding. Perhaps, their preferences were truly unconventional.

Ronan also couldn't ignore another factor: it was awards season, a time when film critics were particularly discerning. "Final Destination," with its strong commercial appeal as a horror film, might not have been well-received in this context.

Nevertheless, this didn't significantly affect the promotional efforts of Embassy Pictures. Centered around internet and traditional media industries, the marketing campaign for "Final Destination" continued to expand.

By the premiere day, Embassy Pictures had invested nearly $10 million in the promotion and distribution of the film.

The results were evident.

By Saturday, the film's daily box office receipts weren't significantly affected by the negative reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and film critics. In fact, they increased compared to Friday, with a single-day gross of $12.95 million, surpassing the $12.7 million earned by "Toy Story 2" and securing the top spot in the daily box office rankings.

In just two days, "Final Destination" had grossed over $20 million at the North American box office.

By Sunday, the film's momentum showed no signs of slowing down, with its screening rate rising to the top position among all films being shown at the same time.

For the December North American film market, this was extremely rare, akin to the situation several years ago when "Scream" premiered.