November 9.
Paramount Pictures' long-in-the-making new film, sleepy hollow, finally premiered today!
The movie's leading man, Johnny Depp, has been riding a meteoric wave of fame thanks to Paramount's recent publicity blitz.
"Oh? You want to know how sleepy hollow is?"
Facing the reporter's camera, Johnny Depp flashed a grin. "Of course it's terrific. sleepy hollow is the product of two full years of work by Paramount—over sixty million dollars just in production costs, with more than a thousand people involved start to finish. You tell me: does that sound anything less than top-notch?"
"And since August we've held thirty-two advance screenings in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago—you name it. Eight hundred and seventy-two viewers handed out an A+ grade."
The words had barely left his lips.
Every journalist on the scene nodded in agreement.
Across every Halloween season North America had ever seen, a sixty-million-dollar production like sleepy hollow was undeniably a heavyweight.
For a horror/thriller, Paramount's willingness to sink that much cash screamed blockbuster ambition.
This season, Page Pictures' final destination carried a price tag of twenty-two million;
Warner Bros. Pictures' the haunted house came in at nineteen.
Look at Artisan Entertainment, Lionsgate Films, Dimension Films, Searchlight—none of their Halloween releases cracked the ten-million mark.
A bigger budget isn't a guarantee of quality, but it's a pretty reliable indicator of polish.
Without question, Paramount's sleepy hollow was the number-one heavyweight of this year's Halloween corridor.
"Damn it!"
Lionsgate chief Gustav fumed. "I was counting on Warner and Page to tear each other apart, but they've barely scuffed each other's shoes—no room left for our picture to breathe."
And now it's worse!
With Paramount's sleepy hollow hitting screens, every mid- and small-size outfit's box-office dreams are lying in shards.
"sleepy hollow just opened with more than thirty percent of the bookings. Add Page and Warner into the mix—what scraps are left for us?"
"I'm flipping the table—count me out!"
Gustav was livid…
Miramax Films.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk—"
Harvey Weinstein scanned the report and clicked his tongue. "Nicely done. First Page and Warner carve up the calendar and squeeze the little guys; now Paramount storms in. Plenty of people will be crying this Halloween, tsk tsk."
The moment the words left his mouth.
An exec across the office chuckled. "Let 'em rot. We're still turning a profit."
Hearing that, Harvey joined the laughter.
Sensing a bloodbath, he'd already shelved the next Scream installment and slotted in an eighty-thousand-dollar micro-budget horror flick.
Result?
Easy money.
After barely two weeks in release, it had cleared four-and-a-half million across North America.
"Box-office alone gives us a tidy gain. Toss in later DVD and tape sales, and we're looking at three million profit this Halloween," the exec crowed.
"Exactly."
Still, Harvey sighed. "Had the big three sat this season out, we'd have pocketed another one-point-five million."
…Meanwhile.
Just as Harvey predicted, plenty of indie bosses were on the verge of tears.
"We're toast—guaranteed loss."
"Same here. In past years I'd at least break even on theatrical, maybe even profit. This year? Even with ancillaries and TV, I'm down two million minimum."
"Infuriating!"
"No point whining now!"
"All we can do is pray—pray sleepy belly-flops, or our films are dead on arrival."
Every one of those producers was seething, yet none dared voice it.
Page Pictures and Warner Bros. were giants they couldn't afford to cross.
Paramount Pictures was simply not someone they could afford to offend.
After all, as one of The Big Six, Paramount's parent company is Viacom Group, and among Viacom's subsidiaries is a little outfit called Blockbuster Video.
Blockbuster Video!
It's currently North America's largest chain for renting and selling DVDs and videotapes, with more than 4,000 stores across the U.S. and a market cap of over 30 billion dollars.
All the Hollywood studios count on the DVD and videotape market for their profits.
Who would dare mess with Paramount Pictures?!
Yet… this time someone actually did.
Warner Bros. and Page Pictures, determined to protect their own films' earnings over the Halloween season, both aimed their fire at Paramount's new release, sleepy hollow.
Online forums.
Page Pictures' trolls surged into action!
'More than 800 people gave sleepy hollow an A-plus at its test screening'—who said that? Johnny Depp, right? Let me tell you, he's a liar!
I saw the movie—absolute garbage!
'Headless'? More like brainless!
I won't deny that a 60-million-dollar sleepy hollow is a big production, but when you look at Paramount's output in recent years, how many of their films have actually stood out?
A good movie? Keep dreaming.
Tens of thousands of smear posts and hundreds of thousands of comments instantly blindsided the film's producers.
'That damn Kyle Page!'
Ms. Sherry Lansing, president of Paramount Pictures, forgot all decorum and cursed, 'He'd stoop to trashing our movie online? These trolls are vicious.'
Jordan, head of distribution, couldn't help grumbling, 'I told you last year we should build our own troll team, but you refused.'
Sherry Lansing's face froze at the words.
Jordan was clearly shifting the blame.
While Page Pictures stirred up trouble online, Warner wasn't idle either.
One 'prominent Hollywood critic' after another published reviews in newspapers and magazines.
'I'd give sleepy hollow five points at most—out of a hundred.'
That was the lead entertainment story in today's issue of Time Magazine, owned by Time Warner.
Across the U.S. and even the World, Time stands for authority and credibility.
Sure, it's run plenty of false stories, but people still believe it—still buy it!
Many moviegoers who'd been curious about sleepy hollow couldn't help being swayed.
'Is it really that bad?'
With that preconception in place, even if the film turned out to be excellent, the loss of potential viewers would inevitably hurt the box office.
The theater chains reacted fastest.
Thirty percent of the schedule? Let's trim that a bit.
Though not yet as dominant as they'd become after 2000, the chains still looked out for themselves; adjusting screens was only natural.
So final destination and the haunted house quietly picked up a few extra slots.
Sumner Redstone, Paramount's tireless boss, ground his teeth in fury.
'I knew Kyle was shameless, but this is a new low.'
'One minute he's chatting me up about co-producing lara croft: tomb raider, the next he's savaging our new film—no hesitation at all.'
'I vastly overestimated that bastard's limits!'
Redstone burned with rage.
His daughter Shari was dumbstruck.
Most stunned of all, though, was sleepy hollow's leading man, Johnny Depp.
'Tsk tsk tsk…'
Depp sighed. 'We were drinking together just a few nights ago, celebrating Halloween, and now he's online letting people tear me apart—no mercy whatsoever.'
His buddy Keanu Reeves laughed. 'So you're only just figuring out what kind of guy Kyle Page is?'
Keanu, who'd worked with Kyle plenty, had seen his own films slammed whenever their release dates clashed.
In truth, the moves by Warner and Page Pictures didn't hurt Paramount much—Paramount isn't made of clay—but they sure were disgusting!