Chapter Thirty-Three: Marketing Tactics?

Even those who usually paid little attention to films had begun to take an interest in this topic, many of them being fans of William White’s books. With the vivid imagery of "Forrest Gump," surely William White’s screenplay wouldn’t be lacking—there was no reason it shouldn’t reach theaters. There must be a hidden agenda at play. Now that the cover-up had surfaced, conspiracy theories ran rampant. Clearly, William White was being deliberately targeted, and the general consensus was that Hollywood was nothing more than a den of scoundrels and ruffians, resorting to brute force, coercion, and shameless manipulation—no one could match their level of brazenness.

Good heavens, this director is actually a bestselling author as well? That’s quite formidable—who can tell me just what kind of prodigy this is?

Thanks to the book’s stellar reputation, more and more people were speaking out in his defense, and book sales soared in tandem. Naturally, the publisher threw all integrity to the wind, launching a wave of melodramatic publicity stunts, determined to make the matter as big as possible.

This year’s box office takings were abysmal; the Hollywood giants were already feeling the pinch, and things had only gotten worse—ticket sales had all but collapsed. Theater owners were at their wits’ end; with barely a trickle of moviegoers, the box office couldn’t even cover the electricity bills.

For them, it was a disaster, but for William White, it was good news. He could now secure support from the theater chains with relative ease. In less than a week, he had amassed five hundred cinemas.

William White’s unexpected entrance had disrupted Hollywood’s established distribution system, offering new opportunities to smaller companies—after all, Hollywood’s exploitation wasn’t limited to just one or two firms.

Meanwhile, "Police Academy" began its own publicity drive. When NBC aired the first trailer, the industry was thrown into an uproar.

At that time, movie promotion was little more than getting a few media outlets to write puff pieces, hanging posters around theaters, and perhaps announcing the premiere date in the newspapers—these efforts pretty much summed it up.

Who had ever seen television commercials for a film? Those were outrageously expensive, and one wrong move could wipe out the entire budget. It was simply too risky.

Spending millions of dollars on advertising was sheer madness, especially when there were plenty of films that never made more than ten million at the box office—this was truly a roll of the dice.

After viewing the trailer, the public responded positively; it was clearly a lighthearted, entertaining film. If the timing was right, they saw no harm in giving it a watch—it even looked quite funny.

The commercial went so far as to promise: if you don’t laugh, we’ll refund your ticket.

This series of promotional maneuvers left Hollywood insiders utterly dumbfounded; they felt like fools, playing in an entirely different league from their rivals.

Given the film’s promising market performance, the University of Southern California, of course, rallied behind its own students. A full thirty percent of the crew were USC students; failing to show support would have been idiotic.

What’s that? This film was made by a bunch of kids?

For this movie, they had endured countless hardships—they hoped society would support their efforts. A bit more tolerance, a bit more understanding. The old professor from the film school declared it was the most entertaining comedy of recent years: if you’re not satisfied after watching, you can come and complain to him.

Hollywood finally caught on—they were dealing with a group of kids. However slick William White might be, he was still under nineteen, and provoking a gang of young people could have unpredictable consequences.

Most importantly, these kids were anything but strapped for cash and had extraordinarily complex social connections. If possible, it was best not to cross them.

“Boss, are you having any funding issues? Should we pool some money from the fraternity?”

“No need, I’ve already received the first script payment, and they even advanced me part of it. I’m well within budget.”

“Understood, but if you run into any trouble, let us know—we’ve got your back.”

“Just ramp up promotion on campus, spread it to other schools, leverage friends and classmates, and quickly widen our reach. California and Texas are covered, but our influence in other states needs work. We’ve got classmates from all over, right?”

“Got it, boss. I’ll get on it right away.”

After much negotiation and compromise, no one brought up race or religion anymore. Everyone agreed to play by the rules; if things escalated further, many would be in over their heads.

William White was simply in it for the money, but this time, they had truly angered him—and he wasn’t known for having a gentle temperament. It was a relief he hadn’t shown up with a posse of cowboys.

A wild and cunning rascal was many people’s worst nightmare. He’d leave you alone if you didn’t bother him, but threatening him? That was just asking for trouble.

Even Wall Street’s investment banks had hit snags without resorting to threats.

What does “billionaire” mean? It means someone who can solve just about any problem with money. He was even considering buying out a theater chain outright, while you were busy with pointless schemes—how absurd.

Soon, a second trailer appeared, drawing even more attention. Only three days had passed—was a third trailer on the way?

If you show all the best scenes in the trailers, who will bother to see the film itself?

They soon had their answer. With its July 1st release approaching, advance ticket sales opened, responding to audience demand.

Hollywood had never done this before—who pre-sells movie tickets? If word of mouth turns out poor, people will be lining up for refunds.

The theaters didn’t want the hassle either—if they spent all their time dealing with returns, they’d never get anything else done.

But this time was different. Nearly all five hundred theaters were effectively sold out, as a guaranteed minimum payment had been made. When certain demands were made, the theaters had no choice but to comply.

A jaw-dropping scene unfolded: all tickets for the first weekend’s three-day run quickly sold out. The only way to meet demand was to schedule additional showings.

Regardless of the film’s actual quality, these marketing tactics alone were enough to strike fear. Everyone knew these were mere contingency measures, hastily devised in response to serious setbacks.

Hollywood was utterly bewildered by these maneuvers. Compared to these professionals, they looked like children.

It was now almost an industry consensus that the film would be commercially successful. While trailer-based predictions weren’t always reliable, the skill level on display was clearly high, quite different from the rumors that had been circulating.

Amidst all the public uproar, the Hollywood titans chose to keep their mouths shut. They dared not make any inappropriate remarks—if they provoked him further, even their own bosses could suffer the consequences.

Most of the time, the public sympathizes with the underdog. It’s best not to test the limits of public patience—serious trouble awaits those who do.

With the release of the final trailer, the publicity campaign reached its zenith.

On an NBC talk show, not only did the main cast appear, but several behind-the-scenes moments were aired as well, with the cast showing off their charm and wit.

At this point, the Hollywood bigwigs could only hope that the box office results wouldn’t be too outrageous; otherwise, the embarrassment would be too much to bear.