America 1987

Chapter 29 Oscar Public Relations

"Oh, really?" Michael strategically took a sip of water to calm himself down, but his other hand, which he instinctively covered his collar that had almost been splashed with water, betrayed his excitement.

"That means your film is pretty good," the uncle said, using his usual tactful approach. "But this is only the first screening, and things haven't settled yet. Don't get too excited yet. Let's see the rest of the screenings first."

Hollywood test screenings typically involve three or four screenings to obtain representative audience feedback through a sufficient sample size, while avoiding too many screenings that could increase the risk of leaks or overspend the budget.

However, the data from the first game is usually quite similar for the following games, without much fluctuation.

David glanced at his uncle's stern face and thought to himself, "My uncle is clearly just putting on a show."

"Oh right, David, judging from your test screening schedule, you're probably planning to release the movie during the Christmas season, right?" Michael, being a well-known workaholic, quickly steered the conversation back on track.

It's September now, and test screenings are usually held about three months before the official release.

The American film market is often divided by weekends and holidays. The Christmas season usually refers to the period from November 19th to January 2nd, that is, the week before Thanksgiving and lasting until the weekend of New Year's Day.

That's why Michael asked that question.

"That's right, I definitely can't make it into this year's summer blockbuster season, and next year would be too late. But if I try to get it in this year's Christmas season, maybe I'll get lucky and become this year's champion?"

Michael Ovitz frowned slightly, not because he thought his nephew was being too arrogant, but because...

"Do you really have to wait for me to ask before you'll tell me, David?"

"Huh?" David scratched the back of his head, somewhat surprised by his uncle's keen observation. "Oh right, I almost forgot, there's also Whoopi Goldberg's Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Look at my brain, I almost forgot about that."

The Christmas season, along with the summer season, is one of the two most important periods in Hollywood's five major film seasons throughout the year.

If we draw a parallel with the domestic film market, then the Christmas film season is essentially a combination of the "Chinese New Year film season" and the "Chinese New Year film season".

In China, films released during the Spring Festival season are generally commercial films aimed at boosting box office revenue; those released during the Lunar New Year season are generally intended to compete for the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards.

The Christmas season combines both elements, so its functional positioning naturally incorporates both.

First, there's the box office harvest, leveraging the large audience base during holidays to achieve high box office returns; second, there's the Oscar strategic positioning, as the Oscars require nominated films to be released at least a week before December 31st, and films aiming for awards must be released during this period to ensure "freshness".

Yes, you heard right, "novelty".

When Oscar voters cast their votes, the impression of a film seen two months prior is drastically different from that of a film seen a year ago. The Christmas season is the last release window before the Oscar nomination voting, ensuring that the films remain "fresh" in the voters' memories.

拿2015年第88届奥斯卡举例，提名投票12月30日开始、1月8日结束、1月14日公布提名。

Films released during the Christmas season can build momentum during the nomination season, forming a complete chain of "release - media buzz - film critics' association selection - Golden Globe hype - Oscar nomination".

If a film is released earlier, such as in the spring or summer, even if it is successful at the box office, it will be essentially "outdated" by the time the vote is held in January of the following year.

If things had gone according to the original timeline, next year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actress would have gone to Olympia Dukakis for her role in "Moonstruck".

The film "Moonlight Seduction" was released on December 16th this year, making it a very typical Christmas release.

If David wants to change history and get Whoopi Godwin to win Best Supporting Actress, he'll have to find a way to beat the winner from the original timeline.

Putting aside the quality of the film and the actors' performances, the judges at the film academy actually value seniority and balance the most when voting.

From a seniority standpoint, Olympia Dukakis had never been nominated for an Oscar before "Moonstruck," making this her first nomination.

Whoopi Goldberg had already received an Oscar nomination before, and it was the most prestigious Best Actress nomination. Now, if she were to settle for second best, winning Best Supporting Actress wouldn't be a problem, right?

So, in terms of seniority alone, Whoopi Goldberg is far superior to Olympia Dukakis.

Looking at balance again, if he remembers correctly, the Best Actress at that year's Oscars was also the lead actress in "Moonstruck"—Cher.

The fact that one film won two Oscars for acting is inherently unbalanced.

This situation can only mean that the film didn't have any equally matched competitors back then. The film academy judges wanted to distribute the cake as evenly as possible but didn't know who to give it to, so they ended up giving both pieces to the other.

The movie "Moonstruck" tells the romantic comedy story of a widow who, after getting engaged to her fiancé, unexpectedly falls in love with his younger brother.

The subject matter itself doesn't offer much of an advantage. After all, the perception of comedy films among professional film critics and judges is the same both domestically and internationally. Those who understand, understand; those who don't, just look at Stephen Chow and Jim Carrey and you'll get it.

So the reason this film won awards was largely due to its strong box office performance. With a global box office of $1.4 million and a production cost of approximately $1800 million, its market performance and return on investment were indeed quite high. Back then, there were probably very few films that could rival it.

If it weren't for "Ghost," David Ovitz couldn't help but think that if his film had been released during this year's Christmas season, it would have had a very high chance of taking away the niche of "Moonstruck," or at the very least, the Best Supporting Actress award would have been taken from him.

and so……

"Luckily, my uncle reminded me," David Ovitz said with a feigned憨厚 smile. "I was just worrying about this myself. I'm new to the industry, I don't know many directors or actors yet, let alone film school judges, so..."

He didn't say the second half of his sentence, but instead gave me a look that said, "Uncle, you know what I mean."

"You said you wanted to be the next Spielberg," Michael said, feigning disdain, "but you end up asking your uncle for everything..."

"No, no, no," David shook his finger, "It's not helping me, it's helping us. Uncle, have you really forgotten, or are you pretending? Besides being your nephew, I'm also a contracted director with CAA. The movie 'Ghost' is essentially a project you packaged."

I'm giving you another project on par with "Back to the Future" for free, and you still...?

To avoid being beaten, David Ovitz swallowed the second half of the saying, "He got the benefit but pretended to be innocent."