Hollywood Hunter

Burbank.

The headquarters of Alistar Records is located on Oliver Avenue in the north of Warner Studios.

Today is already June 7, Wednesday.

Alista Records President Clive Davis arrived at the company early in the morning and ushered in Mark Belford, the director of Daenerys Entertainment's "Bodyguard" announcement.Mark Belford was personally transferred to the "Scream" team at a meeting last year. Through the outstanding performance of the subsequent films, he was quickly promoted to Daenerys Publishing Company. vice president.

In the office, Clive Davis entertained Mark warmly, but he did as much as possible for his hope that Whitney Houston would return from Toronto as soon as possible to continue to complete the follow-up publicity work of "Bodyguard".

After the release of "Bodyguard", the word of mouth quickly collapsed, and Clive Davis saw the opportunity, and immediately sent Whitney Houston to Canada in the name of vacation. He wanted to avoid the "Bodyguard" in this cold treatment. The loss may have an impact on Whitney Houston's singing career.

In fact, from the box office alone, "Bouncer" is not a commercial failure.Just the $50 million local box office expected in North America is basically enough for Daenerys to recover the full budget cost.However, the reputation of this movie is really bad, and many critics will also point at Whitney Houston's acting skills.

After years of ups and downs, Alistar Records finally ushered in a top star. Whitney Houston is the lifeblood of Clive Davis. Out of caution, he did not intend to make this pillar of the company like. Madonna's "fights and losses" in Hollywood.

As for the soundtrack of "Bodyguard", Clive Davis has no expectations. He just hopes that fans will not give up support for Whitney Houston because of this low-quality album.

"Mark, Whitney was exhausted during the promotion process in the past few months. Now that the movie has been released, I don't think she has to participate in these follow-up activities."

"It's just an interview with MTV, Clive, or, if Miss Houston can't take the time to come back, we can let the MTV set-up team fly to Canada, you just need to arrange someone to cooperate there."

MTV was originally the best publicity platform for singers.

However, Clive Davis has made up his mind to let Whitney Houston get rid of the entanglement with "Bodyguard" as much as possible, so he insisted: "Unfortunately, Mark, Whitney is on vacation now, she does not want to be People bother."

Mark Belford continued to communicate patiently with Clive Davis, seeing each other's attitude persist, the atmosphere will inevitably stalemate: "Clive, the success or failure of the project in Hollywood has always been difficult to determine. If only Because the reputation of a movie is not good, Miss Houston responds negatively, and it is difficult for her to develop too much in Hollywood."

Clive Davis is still unimpressed, saying: "Mark, after this experience, I think Whitney is not too suitable for the development of actors, she will focus on singing career in the next few years."

Mark Belford didn’t give up so easily, and he planned to work harder, the office door was knocked, and Clive Davis’s secretary came in.

If it were other times, Clive Davis would definitely be displeased with the secretary’s move, but this time, he happened to get up and said, "I have other jobs here, Mark, and I will talk again when I have time. Right."

Departing Mark Belford, Clive Davis took Charles Rhode, a member of his distribution department, into the office, turning to his desk and casually asking, "Charlie, you didn't want to do it this morning. Go to New York?"

Charles Rod waited for Clive Davis to sit down and handed over a folder, saying: "Clive, about the original soundtrack record for "Bodyguard", things seem a bit strange."

Clive Davis frowned slightly when he heard his subordinate mentioning the "Bouncer" soundtrack. After sitting down, he opened the folder and looked at it: "What is this?"

"Since yesterday afternoon, we have successively received calls from some record distributors. This is the record of all relevant calls from yesterday to now..."

Clive Davis gave a bad hunch and interrupted: "They all have to return?"

It was originally expected that the sales of the "Bouncer" soundtrack records would not be too good. Only under the persistence of Daenerys Entertainment, the two parties jointly produced the first batch of 500,000 records, which were completed through the sales channel of Alista Records. Shop for goods.

Clive Davis reacted just as he blurted out.

It's just two days since the record was put on the market, and it's impossible for distributors to ask for a return.After all, even if the reputation of "Bodyguard" is worse, with the popularity accumulated by Whitney Houston in recent years, 500,000 records can definitely be sold.

Charles Rod also immediately shook his head to deny Clive Davis's guess, saying: "No, Clive, they, seem to be requesting an order to add the "Bouncer" soundtrack."

If his own guesses were unlikely, Clive Davis felt that Charles Rod’s words were more unlikely.

Additional orders?

What a joke.

500,000 records in Clive Davis's view is already a big number, and more than 90% of the total sales of music albums in this world may not necessarily reach so much.After Whitney Houston became famous, the second record released two years ago, after a series of long-term publicity campaigns, eventually ranked first on the 200 list of the airborne billboard, and the sales statistics for the first week were only 460,000.

This is already a rare achievement for female singers.

Now, a love movie that has been criticized by the media as'dog blood vulgarity' and'lack of new ideas', a patchwork mash-up record, and a sales volume of 500,000 copies, has only been available for two days. The distributor requested additional supply.

is it possible?

or.

If it is true, what does it mean?

After staring at the subordinate for a moment, Clive Davis suddenly looked down at the document, found a familiar name, picked up the phone on the desktop and dialed it.

The phone was connected, and Clive Davis changed his sophisticated familiar tone: "Hey, Jeff, good morning...Oh, it's almost noon in New York. I forgot about it, haha... That’s it, Charlie said that you called yesterday about the original bodyguard record of Whitney..."

After making five or six calls in a row, Clive Davis put down the microphone and looked back at the document with a long list of phone records, somewhat stunned.

Actually, it really happened!

Although the retail network has not yet sold out, distributors in various regions generally said that according to the sales situation in the previous two days, this "Bodyguard" original record is much more popular than expected. The first batch of stores The amount is not enough, at least it needs to be doubled.

Double it.

This is one million.

Clive Davis has been 57 years old this year and has been in the recording industry for more than 20 years. For more than 20 years, he has only been envious of watching other singers achieve the first week of sales such as breaking millions, or, Only a few people, such as Michael Jackson, can achieve this miraculous goal.

Alistar Records was established in 1974. In the past 15 years, it was on the verge of bankruptcy several times. The parent company changed from Columbia Pictures to RCA, and now it has become Bertelsmann.

Clive Davis didn't expect that in his career, he might have created a record with a million sales in the first week.

For a moment, Clive Davis picked up the phone again and dialed a hotel number in Toronto, Canada, promptly instructed Whitney Houston to return to Los Angeles as soon as possible.

Ending the call with Whitney Houston, I remembered that I had just perfunctory the senior executives of Daenerys Entertainment Distribution Department. Clive Davis only tangled for a moment, and decided not to notify the other party for the time being.Alistar Records should now have a lot of initiative.

But, thinking about the share contract that was signed with Daenerys Entertainment, Clive Davis immediately felt aching again.

Records with million sales in the first week, according to Clive Davis’s more than 20 years of experience, the global sales of the "Bouncer" soundtrack in the next few years should be about 40 to 50 times the data of the first week. That's 40 to 50 million copies, which is more than the total global sales of Whitney Houston's first two records.

At the end of the 1980s, although there were different materials such as vinyl tape, the average selling price of each record was about 10 dollars.The total global sales of 40 million to 50 million copies means revenue of 400 million to 500 million US dollars.Based on the 50% gross profit calculation, Daenerys Entertainment also has a 50% gross profit split, which is equivalent to taking $2.50 from each record. This data is multiplied by the total sales, which is 100 million to 125 million US dollars.

A single record of more than 100 million US dollars in revenue, even if it has just completed the integration of Arista Records Bertelsmann Music Group, the net profit for a year may not be so much.

Concerning how to find a way to intercept more profits, Clive Davis said that he ordered Charles Rod to convene an emergency meeting of the company's top management.In any case, make sure to sell this record first.

Clive Davis did not immediately notify the accidental sales of the "Bouncer" soundtrack, and Daenerys's entertainment soon received the wind.

Initially, employees of the Daenerys Entertainment Records Department heard the news and reported it to Nancy Brill who was in charge of the company's record business.Realizing the importance of this matter, Nancy Brill called Clive Davis's office for the first time, and then rushed to Burbank from Santa Monica.

In this era, it is not uncommon for global sales of a record to reach 10 to 20 million, which is roughly equivalent to Hollywood's box office sales of over 100 million.However, a record with an expected global sales of 40 to 50 million copies is entirely a phenomenon-level movie level such as "Alien ET" and "Star Wars."

Except for Simon, whether it is Daenerys Entertainment or Alista Records, there is no expectation that the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" will be so popular.Everyone's original expectation was that the "Bouncer" box office sales led to the sale of acoustic records. As long as the global sales of this record exceeded 10 million, it would be a success for many people.

Later, in people's memories, referring to the soundtrack of the movie, most people may think of "Titanic".

But in fact, until Simon was reborn, the best-selling soundtrack in music history has always been "Bodyguard"."Titanic" soundtrack sales were only 30 million, but "Bodyguard" album sales reached an astonishing 45 million.Even in the total list of all types of record sales, the sales of the "Bodyguard" original record can be squeezed into the top five.

Now, the word-of-mouth of the "Bouncer" movie has failed, and the unexpectedly best-selling soundtrack has become a breakthrough at the box office.

Clive Davis is also a man who is good at seeing the wind.

"Bouncer" soundtrack record North American sales have been formed, however, the sales of this record, overseas markets, if you want to achieve the North American sale, you must cooperate with the "Bodyguard" movie, although this film does not discuss filmmakers Like, but also a carrier to convey the influence of the original record.If it weren't for the emotional transmission of the story content of the movie, an old song from the 1970s, such as "I Will Always Love You", which is the main feature of the original soundtrack, would never be able to flourish.

Therefore, when the record was successful, Clive Davis immediately forgot that he had refused to let Whitney Houston continue to participate in the film promotion, and actively negotiated with Daenerys for the subsequent announcement of the film and record. Matters.

In order to achieve the maximum'event marketing' effect, under the active control of Daenerys Entertainment and Alistar Records, the second batch of "Bouncer" soundtracks was artificially delayed by a day in some designated areas.So, in the last few days of the week, New York and Los Angeles, cities with huge media influence, soon appeared the news of the "Bouncer" original record because it was too hot to sell out.

Things are always unexpected.

The "I Will Always Love You" released by Dolly Parton in 1974 has not attracted many people's attention for more than a decade. A love film with a plot and blood like "Bouncer" has also been criticized by film critics. But the addition of the two is like a cup of carefully prepared wine, which produces a magical chemical reaction.

With the popularity of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" and the rapid popularity of "I Will Always Love You", viewers who were prejudiced against "Bouncer" by the media's word of mouth began to re-focus on this movie.

In the week from June 2 to June 8, "Raiders 3" easily took the throne of the weekly box office champion, and received another 30.85 million US dollars, with a cumulative box office of 86.76 million US dollars.The box office of "Bodyguard", as expected, ended up with $23.63 million in the first seven days of the week, which is almost half the number of the first full week box office in "Raiders 3".

However, when the news of the "Bouncer" soundtrack miraculously sold out unexpectedly, no matter whether it was a movie company or outside media, it is generally no longer considered that the "Bouncer" local box office potential is only 50 million US dollars.