The Best Director

Chapter 26 Blowout

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Some typos were corrected and re-uploaded. This update is for the 16th; today’s update will continue in the evening.

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As the film ended with Mel, played by Rachel, eerily shutting off the DV camera with a smile, the Lionsgate logo appeared on the big screen once more. Underneath the logo were a few lines of very small text: “Producers: Young-Wang” and “This film is entirely fictional,” but these words were tiny and only stayed on the screen for one or two seconds, hardly noticeable; plus, the audience had all been frightened to the point of stupor, not a single person had paid any attention to that text.

When the audience came to their senses, sighs and discussions arose, filling the entire theater. These first-timers, who deeply believed “Paranormal Activity” was based on real events, had the highest level of immersion and fear while watching the film. Their opinion would be crucial, as it would determine whether they would engage in “viral marketing” in real life.

“That was insane! Oh, God! That last part really scared me to death, my goodness, could there really be evil spirits in this world?” “We’ve got to get Shaun to see this, I can’t wait to see what kind of a mess he’ll be scared into…” Two Caucasian youths walked down the aisle between the seats, one still unable to shake off the fear from the film; the other was bubbling with excitement about his upcoming prank.

“This is the scariest horror movie I’ve ever seen, damn it! I regret coming now, I think I won’t be able to sleep at all, and if I do, I’ll have nightmares, damn…” A black youth incessantly cursed as he made his way down the aisle with a friend.

Wang Yang sat in his seat, listening to these words from the departing audience, and he felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment. He closed his eyes slightly, savoring everything, enjoying everything. He had found it, the very thing he’d been seeking since childhood, his dream. He had made people react like the villagers in “Cinema Paradiso,” creating something that could make people laugh, cry, and go insane.

He had broken out of his cocoon and become a butterfly, ready to soar at any moment!

Jessica, sitting next to him, did not disturb him. She looked at Wang Yang with a serene expression on her sweet face. She could feel Wang Yang’s heart, a heart that had touched his dream and tasted success. She remembered the excitement and joy she felt at her first performance, believing she had found the true meaning of life.

They sat for a long time as one by one the audience left, and then a few new viewers entered the theater. Wang Yang suddenly opened his eyes, let out a breath, and looked at Jessica, who smiled at him and said, “Congratulations, Yang.” With a broad smile, Wang Yang replied, “Thank you, Jessica.”

No sooner had the two walked into the theater than Wang Yang received a call from Joshua. Over the phone, Joshua’s voice was filled with excitement as he exclaimed, “Man, this is too much fun! They were almost peeing their pants with fright! Haha, a guy sitting next to me jumped up and dashed around wildly, yelling ‘Save me, aaah’ after that last part! What a huge success, it’s a pity it’s so late, otherwise I’d really want to see it again, the audience’s reactions were so amusing.”

After Wang Yang finished with Joshua’s call, Jessica also ended her own. She shook her phone and reported with a smile, “Yang, Eileen said she and her friends were almost scared to death, and their hearts are still not calmed down yet.” Wang Yang exclaimed “Wow” and laughed, “Good news, as long as they’re not disappointed, that’s great.”

While retrieving the car in the parking lot, Wang Yang received another call, this time from Jon Feltheimer, the manager of the distribution department at Lionsgate. In a calm voice, Jon said, “Young man, I have good news and bad news! The good news is that the audience was basically scared out of their wits; the bad news is, the attendance for the first screening wasn’t very high.”

As Wang Yang got into Jessica’s car, he responded to the phone with a smile, “Hey, Jon, don’t worry about that! I believe the box office will get better and better, as long as the audience is scared.” He paused and then asked Jon, “By the way, you didn’t forget our second step in the marketing plan, did you?”

The second step involved Lionsgate sending out five employees, each with a camera, to secretly film the reactions of viewers at the five theaters holding the previews. These reactions would then be uploaded online with the teaser, “Will you be scared like this?” It was believed that this would surely pique people’s curiosity and make them eager to test the waters – what kind of horror film? I definitely won’t be scared like that.

“Don’t worry,” Jon assured him with a laugh, “it’s all in a day’s work for us, and we won’t delay. We also have our people filming at Vitagraph Projectors cinema; that’s where you watched it, right? You might even see yourself in the footage.” Joking aside, he spoke seriously, “Alright, Yang, wait for the first-day box office figures to come out tomorrow. You know, we only continue screenings next week if the first week’s box office exceeds $100,000; if it goes over $150,000, we’ll consider increasing the number of theaters to 50.”

“I understand, Jon,” nodded Wang Yang.

It was late at night now. Wang Yang didn’t ask Jessica to take him all the way home; she needed to get back as soon as possible too. When the car arrived at the nearby subway station, Wang Yang got out, waved through the car window, and said, “Bye, Jessica! Be careful on the road, and give me a call when you get home.”

Jessica held the steering wheel with one hand and waved to him with the other, smiling as she said, “I will. Yang, thank you, I had an unforgettable evening tonight.”

“So did I.” Wang Yang smiled, watching her press the gas pedal and start to leave, then waved goodbye again, saying, “Goodnight, Jessica.”

Returning to his apartment near three in the morning and receiving a call from Jessica confirming her safe arrival home, Wang Yang lay down to sleep. He felt very tired, but his mind was still buzzing with excitement that occasionally roused him from the edge of sleep. It took a long time before he fell into a light, dream-filled slumber. In his dream, he sat in a movie theater that could hold a thousand people, filled to the brim, with everyone screaming…

Despite having slept for only a few hours, his years of habit still got him up as usual in the morning. After completing his daily routine of washing up and practicing boxing, he sat down at his computer with a bowl of cooked noodles, ready to check the online reactions to his movie. As his computer booted up, his phone rang; it was a call from Jon Feltheimer.

Wang Yang couldn’t help feeling puzzled; why would Jon call so early, could the box office results already be in? He answered the phone, laughing, “Good morning, Jon. Did you not sleep well?”

“Yang, something’s happened; I was woken up early with a racket,” Jon spoke gravely. Wang Yang’s heart skipped a beat, and he asked, “What happened?” Jon took a deep breath and sighed, “Last night in San Francisco, a 14-year-old girl watching ‘Paranormal Activity’ was so scared that she ended up completely paralyzed.”

“Oh my God!” Wang Yang was stunned, his forehead creasing with worry as he quickly asked, “How is the girl now, is she alright?” Jon’s tone shifted as he chuckled, “Not to worry, she’s fine now.” Thank God!

Wang Yang involuntarily closed his eyes, relieved, then scolded with a laugh, “Damn it, Jon, the way you were talking gave me such a scare! You made me think it was something very serious.” It was a huge relief. If an audience member had been frightened to death by his film, he would have felt guilty for the rest of his life.

Jon, having achieved his goal, laughed heartily, teasingly saying, “Ha, I just wanted you to get a taste of being scared, to do justice for that girl.” After chuckling a few times, he added, “Yang, it’s on Yahoo’s news section—go have a look. They’ve got a report on it.”

“OK, I’m right at the computer.” Wang Yang clicked on the mouse to open Yahoo’s homepage and indeed found the news. Instead of under entertainment or movies, the story was categorized under community news with the headline “San Francisco 14-Year-Old Girl Paralyzed from Fear After Watching a Horror Movie.”

As it turned out, a 14-year-old white girl from San Francisco and her 20-year-old brother went to see a horror film at the cinema, both staunch believers in the “Kevin case,” so they headed to the cinema for the first showing. Towards the end of the film, the girl was so terrified that she experienced complete paralysis, unable to move her body. Her brother, who was also severely frightened, quickly called for the cinema staff, and together they rushed the girl to the hospital. Luckily, she was not in serious danger and just needed to be observed in the hospital.

The cinema staff told reporters, “She laid there paralysed, her face turning blue, lips black, trembling non-stop. You know… as if she was about to die. Oh, just thinking about it is horrifying!” The cinema owner, angered, stated, “Why is ‘Paranormal Activity’ rated PG-13? It should be NC-17! My cinema will enforce this rating; I don’t want my guests to be scared to death.”

The news piece concluded with a suggestion that people with heart conditions and teenagers should fully consider their psychological endurance when watching horror movies in cinemas, or better yet, avoid watching them altogether to prevent any tragedy.

“It’s a real blessing no one was harmed.” After reading the news, Wang Yang was in the mood to joke, “Oh, Jon, that’s not fair. That cinema’s enforcement of NC-17 on my movie is going to cost me a lot in ticket sales.”

“Haha, Yang, I think we should be thanking that owner!” Jon laughed once, speaking mysteriously, “Do you know? This is a fantastic marketing opportunity.”

Wang Yang paused for a moment before realizing, “You mean to use this news story for publicity?” This news piece only mentioned ‘Paranormal Activity’ once, quoting the cinema owner, while elsewhere it referred to the film simply as “a horror movie.”

Jon confirmed with a “Yes,” his voice light and possibly shrugging, “Yang, it’s no big deal, the girl is fine now. This is a fact, and all we’re doing is letting people know this fact, how terrifying your film really is.”

“So, what’s the plan then?” Wang Yang asked, frowning.

Jon discussed his plan, “First, we will make a public apology to that little girl, and then we will invite her and her brother to come have fun in Santa Monica and visit Lionsgate, of course, with all expenses paid by us. Most importantly, we will release this news on our official website and then publicize it, ensuring that every forum sees the news.”

Go have fun in Santa Monica? That’s not bad; the girl is lucky in a way. Wang Yang nodded and smiled, “Alright, this plan sounds good, it’s harmless for us and the girl.” Jon smiled, “Of course, this campaign is not only to promote your movie but also to promote Lionsgate.”

After a few more words, Wang Yang ended the call with Jon, who said he hadn’t slept well all night and needed to catch up on sleep.

In fact, even if Lionsgate didn’t pay attention to this news, the news wouldn’t lose its promotional value for nothing, because it had already been shared by “Paranormal Activity fans” everywhere. It’s a fact and not a publicity stunt by the movie company, making people wonder out of curiosity and skepticism, “Is this movie really that terrifying?”

Wang Yang was browsing through forums like Yahoo, and these forums had many new posts about the viewing experiences of “Paranormal Activity.” Of course, many of these posts were made by Lionsgate employees, but a significant portion were from netizens, with the majority saying the movie was incredibly scary: “Scared to death, strongly recommend everyone to watch, it’s so scary, poor Kevin died so pitifully!” and “I can totally understand that girl who was paralyzed from fright, I myself fell off my chair, it was my most embarrassing moment watching a horror film.” and so on. But not all were like this; there were also comments such as, “Boring and terrible, a lousy film, I nearly fell asleep watching, the picture was blurry, and the camera was shaking…”

There was no need for Lionsgate or Wang Yang to reply to this post; many people would respond, saying, “Mate, this is supposed to be a real documentary, all shot on DV; you can’t expect too much.”

People who praised it praised; those who cursed it cursed. There were also many questions like “Is the story of this movie true or false,” “Is Kevin really dead,” “Where is Mel,” “Is there a director at all,” etc. People’s desire to know the truth grew stronger, and more and more were saying they were preparing to go to the cinema to find out for themselves.

This momentum was good. Wang Yang didn’t expect everyone to rave about “Paranormal Activity.” That was impossible; everyone’s viewing experience would differ, especially for horror films. Divided into psychological horror and visual horror, psychological horror doesn’t scare a large part of Americans. Their brains seem to be all muscle; they disdain psychological horror tactics and only like the blood-splattered visual horror.

Therefore, Wang Yang never expected much box office from them.

The first day’s box office statistics came out in the afternoon. Nowadays, cinema box office statistics are networked; each ticket sold is recorded immediately, naturally convenient and quick. Lionsgate received data that showed a total of over 22,000 in ticket sales for the first day.

There were 25 cinemas operating all night, with “Paranormal Activity” occupying one screen in each, with an average seating capacity of 500. From midnight to 6 a.m., they would show it three times, and the first-round ticket price was 6 US Dollars each. More than 22,000 in ticket sales meant that “Paranormal Activity” had an average attendance rate of only about 10 percent in 75 screenings in 25 cinemas.

This performance was average and within the expectations of Lionsgate and Wang Yang. If they could maintain a 10% attendance rate, they could collect 154,000 in ticket sales for the week, exceeding the target of 100,000 for continued screening the following week.

Wang Yang told Zachary, Rachel, Jessica, and others about the box office performance. He laughed with Rachel, “As long as it can continue to be shown, that’s fine. In two weeks, we can recoup the costs, and we won’t be known as box office poison. Maybe I could even get a dozen or so US Dollars, haha!” Rachel joked along, “Wow, a dozen US Dollars, that’s great! But I don’t think it’ll be just that little, um, at least a few hundred US Dollars.” Wang Yang laughed half-jokingly, “Yeah, I’m definitely going to make a killing.”

While Lionsgate was considering whether to continue the screening next week or not, the second day’s box office results for “Paranormal Activity” surprised everyone. The average attendance rate for the 75 screenings actually went up to 35% And for the midnight screening, it reached an astonishing 87%! The second day’s box office reached more than 78,700 US Dollars!

The cumulative box office for the first two days had already exceeded 100,000 US Dollars, meaning that “Paranormal Activity” could continue to be screened next week. Moreover, exceeding 150,000 in ticket sales was easy, indicating that Lionsgate would increase the number of cinemas showing the film!

“Looks like there’s a chance I can recover my own investment of ten thousand bucks, maybe even make a little profit,” Wang Yang said cheerfully to Jessica. “Haha, so I’m a ‘profitable director’ now!” Jessica laughed happily, “Yeah, a ‘profitable director’ who almost scared people to death.”

Just as Jon Feltheimer and other distribution staff were discussing whether to increase to 50 or 100 more cinemas next week, the third day’s box office performance once again caught them off guard. Lionsgate received a jaw-dropping report: the 25 cinemas had taken in 145,000 US Dollars on the third day! The average attendance rate climbed to 64%, and the attendance rate for the midnight premiere was a staggering 100%…

When Wang Yang heard this news, despite being psychologically prepared, he couldn’t help but pause, and then jumped up, pumping his fist and exclaimed, “Oh my God!”

Jessica, Rachel, Zachary…everyone was stunned. The box office results completely exceeded their expectations, with the film accumulating $247,570 over three days, and the growth rate was multiplying by the day—it was clearly the posture of a dark horse destined for blockbuster sales!

Lionsgate, having essentially recouped the distribution costs, was looking at the online “Paranormal” craze and the explosive box office growth. Now, everybody in the company, including the receptionist Jennifer, knew that Lionsgate had truly stumbled upon a treasure! At the meeting, the management unanimously agreed that the number of theaters showing “Paranormal Activity” would increase to 200 the following week!

But the surge continued, and when Lionsgate faced the fourth day’s box office of $181,000 with an 80% average occupancy rate; and the requests for screenings from all over North America on the official website’s message board, they changed their minds. Next week, the number of theaters would increase to 750, with some cities having multiple auditoriums showing the film simultaneously. At the same time, they added to the promotional budget, uploading the videos of the audiences’ terrified reactions to the official site, along with exploiting the “girl paralyzed by fear” event for a new round of hype.

Now, everyone who frequented online forums knew about this—the “Kevin case,” the “girl scared nearly to death,” and that slogan “Do you dare to watch?”

This incited the curiosity and competitive spirit in the youth; taking advantage of the summer break without the need to get up early for school, they flocked to the cinemas in groups to watch this “most terrifying real movie”; and those who managed to get scared duly dragged their friends who hadn’t seen it yet to watch it the next day…

Los Angeles cinemas also saw a situation where tickets were hard to come by, with the first midnight showing’s tickets often sold out as soon as they were available; those who failed to get tickets simply sat in the lobby, eagerly waiting for the second and third showings.

At the “Vital Projector” cinema’s ticket lobby, there were now over a hundred young people standing or sitting around, ranging from 14-year-old kids to university students in their twenties. Some were chatting on the phone, some were playing with their GameBoys or other handheld consoles, and some groups of people sat on the floor playing cards…

“Look at them… their parents must be cursing you,” Jessica said to Wang Yang as they stood in one part of the ticket lobby. She looked at the young people filling the lobby with pride and smiled, “Yang, they are here because of your movie, because of you.”

“Yeah, it feels really good,” Wang Yang said with a content smile, admiring the crowd waiting for the next showing. He sighed, “Jessica, it seems I’ve succeeded. Wow, life is really amazing! Just a few months ago, when I was just expelled from the University of Southern California, I was so depressed, it felt like the sky had fallen; but now, I’ve become a director earlier than anyone else, with a movie that’s been released. It’s incredible.”

Jessica nodded silently, recalling how she felt when Wang Yang first talked about shooting a DV film. A $10,000 budget? Are you kidding? She couldn’t understand how to make a film with $10,000.

Back then, Yang had said to her seriously, “$10,000 is enough, enough to make a good movie!” She remembered how eager he was for someone to agree with him, to support him when he said, “Jessica, please believe in me! You will see, but I need your support!” Then she told Yang, “I believe in you.”

What followed was how she saw a movie being made with $10,000, how people went crazy for it, how she witnessed his success. It was unbelievable, but it was all happening. Yang didn’t just talk big; he made her see the charm of a $10,000 movie, his charm.

Jessica thought again, yet she was still just a bit player constantly failing auditions. While happy for Wang Yang, she also felt a sting of discomfort.

“Man, how much longer do we have to wait?” A curly-haired high school-aged white guy walked past them, his face showing impatience, complaining, “Why are there only five cinemas showing it, and just one auditorium! God, if I don’t see this movie soon, I’ll be like a caveman…”

He suddenly spotted the beautiful Jessica leaning against the wall, his eyes lit up, and then he saw Wang Yang next to her. He paused, seemingly pondering something, and looking at Wang Yang, said, “Hey, man. You look familiar; I think I’ve seen you somewhere?”

“No, you haven’t seen me!” Wang Yang replied seriously, mentally adding with a chuckle, You saw me in the trailer for the movie, perhaps? Without waiting for the curly-haired guy to ponder further, Wang Yang winked at Jessica and ran outside the cinema, shouting with a laugh, “Jessica, we’ve got to go!”

“Wait for me!” Jessica laughed, breaking off her chaotic thoughts, and ran after him.