Jonathan Bing and Dade Hayes discuss their book, “Open Wide.” They begin by explaining the genesis of the book, which came about through Dade Hayes' work for “Variety” as a reporter who covered new films’ opening weekend box office grosses. It it these opening weekend grosses that often determines a movie’s ultimate destiny. This caught the interest of Hayes who decided to further investigate into this phenomenon and later started collaborating with his colleague from “Variety” Jonathan Bing. Bing then goes on to explain that they decided to focus on a single weekend and the competition between the movies that were released that weekend. They then chose a weekend at the height of the summer, when the box office competition is at its peak and the most money is spent to boost promotion. The weekend selected was July 4th, 2003 when three blockbusters were released, each with a different target audience: “Terminator 3”, “Legally Blonde 2”, and “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.” Once the weekend was chosen they go on to chronicle the anxiety filled months leading up to weekend of box-office release, following each major decision that had to be made. They discuss the importance of focus groups to critique movie trailers and advertising campaigns, press junkets, re-cutting, and publicity stunts.
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