In the North American film off-season, the first weekend of April seemed to play a joke on all Hollywood film companies.
“The Blair Witch Project,” a low-budget mockumentary, landed at number one at the weekend box office with $10.35 million.
In second place was Warner Bros.’ “Major League II,” with just over $6 million.
Third place went to “D2: The Mighty Ducks,” with a bit over $5 million.
Fourth was Universal Pictures’ “The Paper,” barely reaching around $4 million.
These three films were significantly squeezed by “The Blair Witch Project,” resulting in much lower box office figures than they had in previous years.
In the top ten of the weekend box office, there was almost no film from 20th Century Fox. The only one, “Mrs. Doubtfire,” had been in theaters for several months, making just $1.35 million, and was nearing the end of its run.
As of now, 20th Century Fox only had “The Blair Witch Project” in theaters, so they were sparing no effort in promoting it.
A Fox News truck was even parked outside a rescue team’s office for live broadcasts, causing much distress among the rescue team since they couldn’t find any records of the three missing college students.
Unable to explain such an oversight, they remained silent.
At the same time, the crew of “When a Man Loves a Woman” held an emergency meeting. Even Disney dared not take “The Blair Witch Project” lightly.
According to the original distribution plan, Touchstone Pictures scheduled “When a Man Loves a Woman” to release on April 29th, just before the summer blockbusters, avoiding direct competition with “The Lion King.” With no major blockbusters in the preceding weeks, it seemed like a perfect release window.
Touchstone is one of Disney’s subsidiaries, as is Buena Vista Pictures, which handles distribution.
“My opinion is to wait and see how ‘The Blair Witch Project’ performs at the box office,” Carter Eisner said with a frown. “Films like this don’t stay hot for long. By the time ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ is released, the hype for ‘The Blair Witch Project’ should have died down.”
As the decision-maker at Touchstone, he easily saw through “The Blair Witch Project” as nothing but a scam.
However, producer Jon Avnet didn’t want to wait. “The promotional strategy of ‘The Blair Witch Project’ is unique. Some theaters reportedly made $55,000 in single-show box office revenue.”
“That’s per screening! Last weekend, with just a hundred theaters, it grossed $10.35 million. Imagine what 20th Century Fox will do to expand its release.”
“Given Fox’s distribution power, I can’t predict how high the box office will go.”
“It could impact the release scale of ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’.”
As Avnet was about to continue, Eisner interrupted, “So what do you propose?”
“Remember, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ is a 20th Century Fox release. I don’t want any friction with them because of your maneuvers.”
“I’ll handle the release scale of ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ personally.”
“Don’t do anything rash without my approval.”
With a stern look, Eisner emphasized the importance of avoiding conflicts with 20th Century Fox, supported by News Corporation.
Even Disney, one of Hollywood’s big seven, wouldn’t risk clashing with Fox, especially with the summer release of “The Lion King” approaching.
To Disney, “The Lion King” was the summer’s highlight, with live-action films being secondary.
“Alright.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
Jon Avnet fell silent and eventually left the office, dialing a number as he walked away.
“Plans have changed. Don’t contact the media; we’ll discuss the rest in person.”
On the other end, Meg Ryan’s face fell. “We could get in touch with some tabloids; no one would know.”
“Meg, stay calm and don’t do anything impulsive.”
Avnet felt a pang of frustration. “Remember, you’re dealing with 20th Century Fox, not some small distributor. If things go south, have you considered the consequences?”
“Fox is not someone you want to provoke,” he said before hanging up.
After the first weekend, the hype for “The Blair Witch Project” showed no signs of waning. The box office reflected this.
On Monday, “The Blair Witch Project” earned $3.7 million.
Tuesday saw a rebound with $4.1 million.
Wednesday ended with $5.2 million.
Experts predicted that the film’s North American box office would likely surpass $80 million, generating tens of millions in profit for 20th Century Fox.
This didn’t include revenue from video sales, merchandising, broadcast rights, and adaptations.
Simultaneously, “The Blair Witch Project” began showing in the UK, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, and other European countries.
In its previous release, “The Blair Witch Project” had grossed $100 million overseas.
Given that 20th Century Fox was distributing, the film was poised to bring in over $100 million in revenue.
This highlighted that in Hollywood, distributors sit at the top of the food chain, pocketing the majority of a film’s earnings.
As the sole investor, producer, director, and writer of the film, Ryan only stood to earn $80,000, plus box office bonuses.
According to Ryan’s calculations, if “The Blair Witch Project” grossed over $100 million in North America, he would earn 2.5% of the total, potentially over $2 million.
This 2.5% was based on the total North American gross, not net profit after distributor and theater cuts.
Although the maximum bonus was 5%, Ryan was satisfied. Earning over $2 million would be enough to fund his next film.