好莱坞赚线之道：续集成风，３Ｄ抬头_好莱坞十一月3D
时间：2019-01-08 03:18:41 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
I’m sure by now you’ve all heard the exciting news: Ghostbusters 3 is due out next year. That’s
right, the Ghostbusters franchise[特许权] is back (with the full original cast[演员阵容]), which continues
Hollywood’s decades long obsession[迷住] with
sequels � not to mention prequels and spin-
offs[副产品]. Take a minute and name as many franchises
as you can: Indiana Jones, The Matrix, Jaws, Alien, Saw (what are we up to now, Saw 12?), The Mummy, American Pie, Austin Powers, Rocky, Rambo, James Bond, Shrek…this list could go on and on.
A joint study last year by professors at
Binghamton University and Florida Atlantic University
finally put the whole thing in perspective[正确地]:
sequels almost never do as well as the original film, but week-by-week they almost do better than
non-sequels, particularly when they quickly follow the original film.
As Subimal Chatterjee, marketing professor at Binghamton University said, “Indeed, we have found that some franchises are closely following this practice. For instance, New Line Studios released The Lord of the Rings trilogy[三部曲] in almost clocklike precision[精确]:
The Fellowship of the Ring in December, 2001; The Two Towers in December, 2002; and The Return of the King in December, 2003. A shorter time gap for
releasing a sequel is better than a longer time gap, given that the ‘buzz[(谣言等)流传]’ and anticipation[预期] is likely to dissipate[使消散] in consumers’ memory with a longer wait.”
Turns out star power has a lot to do with it too. As Chatterjee also notes, “For example, people were quite willing to wait for over ten years to see Bruce Willis back in Die Hard or Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones.” But having big stars does not guarantee success.
The success of a franchise mainly depends on the quality of the sequels themselves. “If consumers
perceive[感知,感到] that the sequels are better than the original film,” said Suman Basuroy, assistant professor of marketing at Florida Atlantic University, “the number of sequels can have a positive[正面的,积极的] impact on the current sequel’s box office performance.”
This whole sequels business follows along with another trend[趋势] in recent Hollywood productions � 3D movies. The success of Monsters vs. Aliens, which set an opening weekend record with a total take of just under $60 million in the U.S. and Canada, signals that 3D movies
are here to stay. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer
of Dreamworks’ Animation Department, has already
announced that his studio will release all future films in 3D. “I think this is the beginning of an era,” Katzenberg said, “and I think we’re going to see a lot of very exciting films and
filmmakers using this new technique.” It is Katzenberg’s hope that over the next year and a half, the number of theaters equipped with 3D technology will have quadrupled[成为四倍] from just over 2,000 in the U.S. to around 7 or 8,000.
As Hollywood continues to struggle with the combined trends of fewer moviegoers and more online piraters[盗版者],
it’ll only make more sense for movie studios to back[支持]
sequels or filmmaking techniques like 3D. In fact, 3D movies may someday be the only movies people are actually willing to go to the theater to see. Sequels on the other hand, tend to cost less, can be made faster, and don’t require nearly as much promotion as an original film. Producers for a movie like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, can rely on Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg to sell the film with a minimal[最小的] amount of advertising. Repetition is just the name of the game[问题的实质].
我敢肯定你已经听闻那则让人兴奋的消息了吧:《捉鬼敢死队3》即将在明年公映。没错,《捉鬼敢死队》系列将(带着原班人马)卷土重来。这延续了好莱坞几十年来对续集电影的迷恋――更不要说前传和衍生作品了。用一分钟说出那些系列电影,越多越好:《夺宝奇兵》、《黑客帝国》、《大白鲨》、《异形》、《电锯惊魂》(现在拍到第几集了?《电锯惊魂12》吗?)、《木乃伊》、《美国派》、《王牌大贱谍》、《洛奇》、《第一滴血》、《詹姆斯・邦德007》、《史莱克》……这张清单可以一直列下去。
去年,由(纽约州立大学)宾汉姆顿大学和佛罗里达州大西洋大学的教授联合进行的一项研究终于对这种迷恋作出了正确分析:续集的表现基本上不会比第一集好,但一周接一周地放映,它们会比非续集电影表现得更优秀,特别是当它们与第一集的间隔很近时。
宾汉姆顿大学营销学教授苏比
马尔・查特吉说:“确实,我们发现一些电影系列严格地遵照这种模式,例如新线电影公司发行《指环王》三部曲的时间就规律得像时钟一样:《护戒使者》于2001年12月发行,《双塔奇兵》在2002年12月发行,而《王者归来》则在2003年12月上映。鉴于消费者记忆中对电影的‘兴趣’和期望会随着长时间的等待而消失,发行续集的时间间隔越短越好。”
原来明星效应也很有关系。查特吉同时指出:“举个例子,人们愿意等上十年去看布鲁斯・威利斯再次出演《虎胆龙威》,或者去看哈里森・福特的《夺宝奇兵》。”但是大明星不保证电影一定会成功。系列电影的成功主要取决于续集本身。“如果消费者认为续集比第一集好,”佛罗里达州大西洋大学营销学助理教授休曼・巴舒罗说,“续集的数量会对正在上映的那一集的票房表现有正面
影响。”
最近,除了这种续集模式以外,好莱坞生产线又出现了一种新潮流――3D(三维立体)电影。《怪兽大战外星人》在美国和加拿大的首周票房创下近6千万美元的纪录,它的成功标志着3D电影正式登堂入室。梦工厂动画部首席执行官杰弗里・卡岑贝格已经宣布,其制片公司将来发行的所有电影都将是3D电影。“我认为这是一个时代的开端,”卡岑贝格说,“我们将看到很多精彩的3D电影,更多电影制作者会使用这种新技术。”卡岑贝格希望在未来一年半的时间内,美国配备3D技术的电影院的数目可以翻四番,从两千家增加到七八千家左右。
在电影观众越来越少、网上盗版电影日益猖獗的双重夹击下,好莱坞继续在夹缝中求生,制片公司支持续集的拍摄以及3D这类电影技术也合情合理。实际上,也许有一天,人们真正想到电影院看的只有3D电影呢。另一方面,续集的费用往往更低,更容易制作,也无需像原创电影那样进行大量宣传。像《夺宝奇兵4:水晶头骨》这类电影的制片人可以依赖哈里森・福特和史蒂文・斯皮尔伯格,以最少的广告宣传将影片推销出去。重复就是王道。
