As we all know, North America is currently the most mature film market in the world, thanks to the great commercial success of American films in the 70s and 80s, the film industry has also entered a new era of rapid development, during this time, American films are gathered, although mainly based on the great success of commercial films, there is still a gap between European films in terms of art, but this is still enough to make Hollywood the center of world cinema.

The development of modern American films has experienced many ups and downs, but what really brought the entire North American film market into a stage of rapid development was the sensational "Godfather" in 1972, a film directed by Francis Ford and Co. 'Bo'La', by the century-old giant Pyra Mongol's release, which was also the first Hollywood work to truly operate according to the rules of modern blockbusters, was a huge box office success, prompting the huge American film to eliminate the first-round theatrical system in distribution and start implementing simultaneous national premieres.

On the other hand, distributors also gradually realized that they should launch specific types of films with different audiences in specially arranged time slots to ensure box office success, and since then, the concept of "movie schedule" has officially entered the film field. Since then, American films have gradually formed a complete and mature market operation mechanism, and the North American film market has gradually developed into a world center.

The development of the past 20 years has basically formed the schedule of the North American film market, which is bounded by weekends and festivals throughout the year, and can be divided into five schedules: winter, spring, summer, autumn and holiday.

The winter season is generally from January to March 10 every year, and the specific division is from the end of the New Year's holiday to the second Thursday of March. During this time, a large number of award ceremonies such as the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammys summarized the work of the year and occupied all people's attention on the weekend, so the film market was relatively deserted.

The 'spring' season runs from March 11 to May, and should be from the day after the end of the winter season to the first Thursday of May. During this time, heavyweight sports competitions are the protagonists, the Super Bowl of football, the playoffs of B Field A, as well as various operations such as 'baseball' and ice hockey have become the focus of people's lives.

Summer is undoubtedly the top priority of every year, the first Friday in May to the first Monday in September can be counted as the summer file, due to the hot weather during this time, people are willing to end hibernation and go out of the house'door', choose a variety of outdoor activities, movies have naturally become an indispensable part of pastime activities, which also makes the summer box office repeatedly exploded, almost can occupy more than 40% of the overall box office, after entering the 21st century, this situation has intensified, and there are " got the summer file to win the world".

The movies released in the summer file undoubtedly locked in the main box office market of men, and action movies, science fiction films, and adventure films have become the main theme on the big screen, which is also one of the unspoken rules of Hollywood: major film companies always believe that men are the main force in the film market, and the movies that can really drive the box office are often men as the main target group. It was not until more than half of the first decade of the 21st century that the ability to pull the box office market of "female" and "sex" was valued by major film companies, and a small number of films with "female" and "sex" as the main goal also left the "spring" season or autumn file and entered the popular summer file.

After entering the autumn file, the period from the first week of September to Thanksgiving, on the one hand, due to the start of school for students, on the other hand, the return of other audiences from vacation, so the entire film market is very depressed, especially because the summer file consumes the main energy of the entire market, and the autumn file is more deserted than the winter file. During this time, small-scale independent films will become the main force of the screen.

The final holiday schedule is relatively special, during this time, the first three major festivals include Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, which is also a time period for family fun, all kinds of works of all ages and young Xianxuan will land in theaters to seize the box office, which is also an important schedule that is enough to be compared with the summer file throughout the year, the top three "Aladdin", "Yihai Xiongfeng", and "Home Alone 2" at the end of last year are all from the holiday schedule, which makes people ear-grabbing, and the summer box office champion "Batman Returns" It can only be relegated to fourth place.

In addition to the fierce competition at the box office, the holiday schedule also bears another task, that is, movies that hope to make a difference at the Golden Globe Awards, Oscars and other award ceremonies will also choose to be released during this time period. Since the nomination voting is carried out at the end of the year, the films released at the end of the year have an advantage in terms of both impression depth and publicity, which also makes many award ceremonies choose to be released on this schedule.

However, at present, the concept of "awards season" has not really been formed, so the "award-seeking works" released during the holiday season have not reached the crowded Cheng dù, and the major film companies have not deliberately scheduled the release schedule of these award-winning films at the end of the year. The holiday season of the 21st century has become a lively scene of awards season works, and it is not yet possible to see it.

But even so, the excitement of the holiday period is still comparable to the summer season, and it is the busiest time of the year.

In these five schedules throughout the year, the target audience groups are different, and the major film companies have figured out a set of experience in the long development process, and the schedule arrangement of any film is very particular, only the correct schedule arrangement can make the movie box office burst out with greater energy, of course, the wrong schedule arrangement can even ruin a movie, and the director zhì film company is rude. Distribution has gradually become the most important link for major film companies.

This was still the case in the summer of 1993, when the comedy film "President Dave" successfully unveiled the annual summer war, and then relied on "Ben." Sharon Stone, who was able to rise to the top quickly, brought the same type of movie "S1iver" to create a topic again, and the other two action-hit blockbusters "Bruce Lee (Dragoory)" and "C1Iffhanger" led by the highest-paid superstar Sylvester Stallone in the 80s have also achieved good results.

After entering June, "Jurassic Park" directed by Steven and Spielberg easily became the focus of attention around the world, breaking the record of the highest debut box office in film history just set by last year's summer file "Batman Returns", with a premiere box office of $47 million, and at the same time adding another great feat to Steven's box office performance. Of course, this is not the end, and then "Jurassic Park" easily won the championship with an incredible drop of 18%, and the cumulative box office easily reached 120 million in two weeks, achieving a new myth in the history of the movie box office.

In such a situation, "Sleepless in Seattle" officially premiered, this "wave" love chick movie actually chose a summer file full of monsters, all professionals think that Columbia Pictures, which is responsible for distribution, is crazy, and completely regards "Sleepless in Seattle" as an outcast in a situation that is not optimistic.

In the history of the North American box office, the chick movies that have achieved huge box office success are "Pretty Woman", "The Secret of My Success (the. secret。 of。 my。 success)", "Mooruck", "Bird. on。 a。 wire)" and "Mermaid (Splash)" choose the release schedule of the 'spring' season, and occasionally choose the holiday file of the whole family's carnival, which is also because the "female" and "sexual" audience market has not received enough attention at present, and there is no place in the summer file.

The only exception to this was "When Harry Met Sally", which originally premiered in the second week of July, but it did not premiere on a large scale at the time, and was only expanded after it was screened in 40 theaters and had an explosive 'sexual' response, thus achieving an unexpected success.

Summer file, this is a field that belongs to men, and it is impossible for chick movies to find a place here, this is an experience left by time. And now, Columbia Pictures actually put "Sleepless in Seattle" in the June schedule, and there is the oppression of "Jurassic Park" in the past, the competition from the comedy film "Naughty Adan (Deenace)" in the same period, and the threat of the summer blockbuster "Sugar-Coated Trap", which is obviously a schedule that has been abandoned. Columbia Pictures' completely broken jar distribution attitude has made box office forecasting professionals wail.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the summer file is a schedule that relies on actors to pull the box office, and the important Cheng dù of the actor is particularly prominent, "Sleepless in Seattle" was originally a chick movie, which weakened the driving force of the actor, and this time the actor is still Hugo Lancaster, which makes people sneer even more.

Prior to this, Hugo had challenged the summer file three times before and after, "Detective", "Hudson's Eagle", and "Dead Poets Society" were all works released in the middle of summer, even the best-performing "Dead Poets Society" was not able to achieve a box office of more than 100 million, not to mention Hugo's other two works, "fiasco" is the only adjective.

Although "Yihai Xiongfeng" and "Smelling the Fragrance and Knowing the 'Woman'" made Hugo fight a successful turnaround, but they were all works of the holiday file, although the holiday file was lively, but the competitors were not of the same grade at all compared with the summer file. What's more, after the Golden Globe Awards, Hugo did not have the scenery that people expected in the past six months, but was discouraged, and "Sleepless in Seattle" was not favored by people, complaining, if Hugo hadn't participated in the filming of "Schindler's List", at least with the great director Steven in front, Hugo's current situation is estimated to be even worse.

So, when "Sleepless in Seattle" was about to be released, it can be said that no one was optimistic about the film's prospects, including Columbia Pictures itself, and even though the "Los Angeles Times" and "Us Weekly" surprisingly continued to maintain a wait-and-see attitude, they still couldn't resist the five million premiere box office predictions given by box office forecasting professionals, which is really bleak.