The My Hollywood System
Chapter 40

It was still early morning when Will opened his eyes and woke up to the sound of alarm.

Getting out of bed is not a difficult task for Will; he is a morning person, after all. But today is a bit different.

She dreams early in the morning, and she keeps waking up from time to time because of that, waking up and going back to sleep only to experience that dream again.

Will dreams of a full theater featuring [The Blair Witch Project], and when the film ends, everyone stands up to give a standing ovation.

'Get a standing ovation for a horror movie.'

While sitting on his bed, he stared at the digital clock hanging on the wall to his right.

[07:34]

[26 October]

It's Halloween weekend, and Will is thrilled with the number of viewers this week at the movie theater.

"I have a feeling this week is going to be the best week of my life."

Taking a light breath, he removed the blanket from himself and headed to the restroom while recalling the incident last night at Uncle Ben's house.

Last night, she had dinner at her uncle's place, and then, Jennifer dropped her off at her apartment, which she insisted on despite Uncle Ben inviting her to spend the night at his house.

Will doesn't want to rely too much on Uncle Ben and make their family trouble. And the other thing is, he prefers this place.

He remembered the call Benjamin spoke of, and he decided to remember it for now because it was not his priority.

While brushing her teeth, she turned on her phone. His cell phone battery ran out while he was watching the movie, and by the time he returned to his apartment, he was already too tired to turn it on.

'In retrospect... I don't even remember much... how did I leave Jennifer's car to go to my room?'

Before he could think about it again, the phone turned on, and a series of notifications flashed before his eyes.

[12 Unanswered Calls]

[23 Messages]

“…”

Will put down the phone and immediately went to gargle.

He called June for the first time. Most of the missed calls came from him.

She is currently at her parents' house, visiting them for Halloween weekend. Although she wants to watch a movie in the cinema with Will, she tells him that it would be best if she watched it with her family, as she believes this will be a big turning point in her career.

It was still early in the morning, and there was no answer from the call, Will thought he was most likely asleep.

The next person he called was Carl.

The latter has played a major role in making this film a reality.

- Hello, Will, is that you?

"Good morning, Carl, it's me."

good morning, Son. Where were you yesterday? No one picked up your phone. Do you go to the cinema to watch a movie?

“I sleep most of the day, and at night, I rush to the cinema. Uncle Ben had invited me, and during that time, my phone battery died."

- Oh, it's okay that I asked for a way to ask about the number of spectators in the cinema hall. How's it?

“Uhm. Even half of his chair wasn't full."

yeah, it's kind of natural. I called you yesterday afternoon to tell you to be prepared for this scene and not to be discouraged. This is the opening weekend of your first film. I feel like the real show is going to start in the next few days.

"Yes," Will nodded, "I'm sure it will attract more spectators. However, we must not be careless. I hope you can keep uploading interviews on MeTube, about people coming out of movie theaters after watching movies.

oh, don't worry about that, I'll handle everything. In any case, the official date of occupancy level in each cinema will come out in the afternoon.

The occupancy rate is calculated from how many people buy tickets, both from the cinema and online sites. All of this reaches the distribution company in a day and is the best way to know if a movie is going well or not.

"How much do you expect?"

I'd be happy if it was 15 percent.

"That's roughly the same as I predicted. Well, it's only going to increase this week. Nothing beats a horror movie on Halloween week."

Will was on the phone for a few more minutes, and after hanging up, he stared at the phone screen for a few minutes with a frown.

'Did I forget something?'

Just then, a thought flashed through his mind, and he recalled the system prompt he had obtained during the award function at the Annual Film Festival.

It had been over a month, and he remembered it now. Shaking his head, he carried the system screen.

[Congratulations for winning a foundation level award at a film festival.]

[Access - Gobbler Awards (Retractable)

'Huh. So this time, this was a round of luck instead of fame points.'

Instead of waiting and dying from anticipation, Will immediately took advantage of the lucky spin opportunity he got.

The see-through screen started rolling down quickly and then stopped, leaving Will shocked as he could not help but smile at his gift.

***

In the next few days, Will is used to getting up and opening up online forums and social media platforms to see what people are saying about [The Blair Witch Project].

The only time he came out was to see the immediate reaction of the people in the cinema hall, and he could see that gradually, more and more people were interested in his film.

Because of the way it is made, many people doubt that this is really a documentary and not a film. Wheel Works did not clarify anything related to the rumors, and instead added to the public's curiosity.

As it is Halloween week, more horror movies are also released. Will had already watched most of them, and he had to say that their quality was not something that could surpass [The Blair Witch Project].

One of those movies is [The World of the Dead]. The film was distributed by Lauren Studios.

Will had watched it yesterday, and it wasn't anything special. It's easy to guess that Lauren's studio just wanted a movie released during Halloween and rushed to pick.

In the end, it was the wrong choice.

Unlike that, [The Blair Witch Project] was increasing every day. And at that moment, a big incident happened.

A 16-year-old boy who was watching the movie had a heart attack due to the sudden appearance of the witch Blair. The incident brought a wave of media outlets and articles on the web to write about the film.

The incident caused an uproar, especially on social media, as people began to wonder about the film.

Will, who heard the incident, contacted George.

“It's me, Will. Did you hear that news? ”

- Yes I did. Honestly, don't worry about that. If someone tries to find a problem, we will handle it easily. This isn't the first time a victim has appeared in a horror movie.

"Yes I know. I'm not worried about that. It's time for us to get a massive ad boost, and this incident will prove very useful in determining our total number at the box office next week.”

– K-you ... You mean?

A strange smile appeared on Will's face, making him look charming and innocent like a sage, his next words did not match his wise-like aura.

“Yes, someone who had a heart attack from our movie is actually pretty good. The news will spread like wildfire and give our movie a free promotion. I expect audience ratings to increase by at least 30% on weekends.”

- That's .. it's true. I don't think so.

George's tone of voice was like he was impressed. They spoke in a moment, and George promised that he would do everything to use the heart attack incident as publicity.

For a moment, Will thought he was using someone to make a profit, but that was Hollywood, and he needed to do everything to make sure the movie became a big hit.

The next day, the incident spread.

Many news websites have covered it, and one of those major websites is Movie flex. There's an article titled 'Horror movies cause heart attacks'.

It was more than enough to attract people, and soon, many people read the article and commented on it.

wow! Is this true?

my brother said he saw this movie yesterday. He was sleeping with the lights on.

it looks like marketing tactics.

I'll try this movie. I heard it was based on real footage.

just as I thought I wouldn't get a good horror movie, this article pops up in my feed. I'll try it today.

- Is the child okay?

is this movie really that scary? seems like a joke….

yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Is it really scary to have a heart attack?

These are the comments below the article, and are increasingly being read from hour to hour.

At the same time, those who have watched [The Blair Witch Project] recommend it to their parents, especially teenagers and young adults.

Since they could not change costumes and go from house to house to ask for tricks or treatments, they decided to watch a horror movie, and the Blair Witch Project was the obvious choice.

All of this resulted in a huge increase in the occupancy rate in theaters by the day. On the first day, only about 15 percent.

The next day, it was 30 percent.

Then, 45 percent.

70 percent.

The film is getting hyped. At the end of the week, George called Will to tell him about the film's weekly gross earnings.

Will expected a fair amount, but when George finished speaking, even his eyes widened.