Joey never expected Megan Foster to get back to her so fast.
She'd barely mailed the Twilight screener DVD when her phone rang. Megan had watched the whole thing in one sitting and was already losing her mind.
"Hey, babe! Screw whatever those crusty old men told you; they don't get women at all. This movie is PERFECT. Romantic, gorgeous, deliciously over-the-top; everything we actually want!"
Before Joey could get a word in, Megan kept rolling. "OH MY GOD, Henry Cavill? Who is this British guy? I've never heard of him, but he is GORGEOUS. After Tom Cruise's Lestat, he's officially the only vampire I'm interested in."
Joey still couldn't squeeze in a reply.
"And props to both of you for having the guts," Megan went on. "After Tom's Lestat, nobody dares touch another vampire role. Everyone knows they'll just get crushed in the comparison. But you two said 'screw it' and did it anyway!"
Yeah, Joey had almost forgotten: on screen, there have been tons of vampires since; The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Twilight itself in the future; but the untouchable king is still Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire.
After him? Crickets.
They've tried a million times to reboot that franchise and failed every single time. Because there is no second Lestat.
Tom owns the definitive vampire, the definitive pilot (Top Gun), and one of the definitive action heroes (Mission: Impossible). Some icons just can't be topped.
Finally Megan paused to breathe. Joey seized the gap.
She heard Megan take a huge gulp of air like she'd just surfaced from a deep dive. "Anyway, I'm obsessed. Edward Cullen has a 45-year-old woman acting unwise. Only a female distributor gets a female director. Those guys wouldn't know quality if it bit them. Okay, business time."
Joey laughed. "Hit me."
"Tom said you want a split deal, right?"
"Yep."
Megan didn't even hesitate. "I'll give it to you. But not 28 or 37. I want 55."
"…"
Joey's brain short-circuited.
Holy hell. Fox Searchlight wasn't playing around.
Zero upfront, they handle prints and advertising, and still take 55%?
Joey recovered fast. "How much are you putting into marketing?"
"Eight million max."
Joey frowned. "Eight million's pretty standard… for 55%?"
Megan laughed. "Sweetie, good luck finding another distributor in this town who'll give you 55. I'm the only one crazy enough."
"So let me get this straight," Joey said slowly. "The eight million covers marketing only. Everything else; prints, agency fees, guild residuals, taxes; comes out of my side first?"
"Yep."
Damn.
"And all ancillary revenue; DVD, Blockbuster rentals, streaming, pay-per-view, cable; 55% too?"
"Yep."
Joey went silent for a solid five minutes. Megan just waited.
Finally: "One condition."
"Shoot."
"Everything you just listed applies only to this first movie. If I make sequels, none of this deal carries over."
"Deal."
––––––––
Catherine, Hughes, Joey, and Fox Searchlight finally signed the contracts.
Hughes was still teasing her. "55% to them? You're insane."
Joey just shrugged. What choice did she have?
But Fox Searchlight really did put their money where their mouth was; they dropped the full eight million on marketing and actually gave a damn.
They went hard on the romance angle.
They scheduled advance screenings in cities across the country weeks before the wide release, invited critics, and pushed for reviews to build word-of-mouth.
They dropped the soundtrack early. Every track slapped. The main theme by The Black Ghosts; that dreamy, haunting electronic vibe; was absolute perfection for a vampire love story. It blew up overnight.
Official website, blog, everything went live and stayed active. Beyond the usual posters and trailers, they released fan-friendly content: gorgeous illustrations of Bella and Edward, cute chat backgrounds, silly vampire-food memes.
They even got "bigcat"; North America's biggest blogger; to shoot a parody ad where she turns into a vampire à la Emma Watson's Bella. It was hilarious and went viral.
The hype paid off fast.
In one month the official blog gained 140,000 followers. Book fans were screaming in the comments:
"Hermione as Bella?! TAKE MY MONEY."
"Henry Cavill is actually perfect as Edward."
"The posters look straight out of the book; I'm not ready!!"
On the biggest soundtrack site, the album racked up 2,566 comments, 7,022 shares, and 17.62 million streams. Covers were popping up everywhere.
Traditional ads hit hard too: bus shelters, subway cars, TV spots, print, online; everything.
Word spread like wildfire: the #1 bestselling YA novel for years was finally becoming a movie.
Romance-loving teens and young women were already obsessed.
Two straight months of nonstop marketing; all timed to hit right before winter break so students would flood theaters.
The advance screenings were next-level. Most movies do them a week or two early; Searchlight started them crazy early to build buzz and lock in reviews.
October 4th: nationwide advance screenings.
In just three hours, average occupancy hit over 30%.
Then the reviews started dropping.
Before wide release, critic reactions are basically the only thing steering public perception. Fox Searchlight wined and dined every major critic to make sure the takes were kind (or at least polite).
The Hollywood Reporter critic wrote on his blog:
"Every girl's teenage fantasy of the perfect guy looks something like this.
Sometimes he's a prince in a castle. Sometimes he's Spider-Man swinging through the city. Sometimes he's the rebellious bad boy. Sometimes he's a vampire with ice-cold hands.
He's gentle, devastatingly in love with only you, capable of terrifying things yet endlessly tender with you. Brilliant, super-powered, but somehow still humble in your presence.
That's the dream.
Joey Grant just filmed the dream. And it's beautiful."
A huge blog influencer wrote:
"100% pure female fantasy. Gorgeous doesn't even cover it.
Men are visual; women are emotional. Twilight is a female movie top to bottom; book, script, director; all women.
It won't have a single male fan. And it doesn't need one to shine."
With women critics and influencers going to bat for it, female audiences started swarming.
Subsequent screenings saw occupancy climb from 30% to 66%, averaging 79 people per showing.
Nobody saw it coming. 30% was already great for a low-budget romance. 66% was insane.
With just 2.16% of the weekend's screens, the advance screenings alone grabbed nearly 5% of Sunday's nationwide box office.
And pre-sales? Five days out, Twilight shattered every record on Fandango; 86% of all tickets sold; crushing Revenge of the Sith and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
This little vampire romance nobody believed in?
It was about to explode.