Hollywood Starts with Animation

I have to say that Zucker's guess was right at all.

Yesterday, the number of viewers ranked first, and it is still the fifth season of the classic old American drama "Friends". But once "Prison Break" was broadcast, it was extremely powerful.

According to the report given by a professional viewing statistics company, "Prison Break" received 15 million views on the first day of its premiere, which is 1 million more than the number of people counted by the WB TV network. The number of viewers is second only to the 26 million viewers of the ninth episode of the fifth season of "Friends".

The difference between the two is 11 million viewers.

It looks quite different, but you must know that "Prison Break" has just started broadcasting!

On the other hand, "Friends" has already aired its fifth season. It is a well-known and well-known ace series, and it is broadcast on TV giant platforms such as NBC. The new WB TV network is naturally incomparable!

Therefore, when the number of viewers of "Prison Break" was reported by the media, it naturally attracted the attention of many viewers and the industry.

The New York Times entertainment section bears the brunt.

"A creepy TV show!"

This was the headline of the day in the entertainment section of The New York Times, given the title of a review of the "Prison Break" TV series.

"The actor Michael Schofield just entered the prison in order to rescue his brother from prison, but why is he so convinced that his brother was wronged?"

"This is undoubtedly a TV series involving justice and family affection!"

"The various prison inmates that appeared in the first episode each have their own story."

"Although the film only airs one episode, we might as well boldly predict that the next content of the film will definitely contain a lot of political satire and expose a lot of social justice injustice."

"Whose hands is the law in?"

"Is it justice, justice, fairness and justice?"

"Let's wait and see!"

......

"The prisoner's world, should we ignore it?"

This is the headline article given by the Boston Herald,

The same is the headline position.

The article said: "This is not the first movie/television involving prisons and prisoners, but "Prison Break", which only aired one episode, has left a very deep impression on us."

"why is that?"

"High-cost, high-quality boutique TV series, it's the most important leap in American TV history!"

"The number of viewers of more than 15 million people on the day of the premiere is enough to prove that high-cost TV dramas are the mainstream direction in the future. Even if it is not, it is a direction that cannot be ignored."

"The performance of one prisoner after another in prison shown in the film, especially the prisoners who were sentenced to hundreds of years or even life imprisonment, makes us wonder whether they are really hopeless? Or are they really Is it illegal?"

"The male protagonist's gaze tells us that some of them must be wronged!"

"This is definitely a loophole and unbearable judicial, and even artificial manipulation of the law that should be fair and just!"

......

"Los Angeles Entertainment", "California Morning Post", "TER Entertainment Weekly"...

Early that morning, as many as 45 media and newspapers across the United States made professional reports on "Prison Break"; as many as 62 film critics also gave targeted positive or negative comments.

Below the official website of WB TV, there were 78,000 comments about "Prison Break" in less than 12 hours.

The influence of "Prison Break", which only aired one episode, is already terrifying.

An executive of NBC TV even shouted: "WB TV network is about to rise!"

A representative of ABC TV station: "WB TV network is a subsidiary of Jin Shuguang TV Group, and Jin Shuguang TV Group and Wald Pictures are both subsidiaries of Jin Shuguang Entertainment Group. As we all know, Wald Pictures Since its inception, it has launched a number of best-selling works, so we are not surprised that the WB TV network can launch a high-quality TV series such as "Prison Break". Of course, we are still very surprised."

CBS, TNT, FOX, HBO......

The main executives of the TV station, etc., also received interviews from a number of media reporters on the same day, and their content mainly mentioned the views of "Prison Break".

There is no doubt that the influence of "Prison Break" is spreading.

However, this is just the beginning.

a few days later.

Episode 2 of Prison Break Season 1 airs.

The number of viewers reached a new high, reaching 17.5 million, an increase of 2.5 million viewers;

After the third episode aired, the number of viewers reached 21 million.

20 million people, but the American TV field evaluates whether a film and television drama is the most important indicator of the ace drama.

Undoubtedly, Prison Break did it.

And it only took 3 episodes!

The peers in the American TV field have changed from surprise to shock!

The ace drama is not a small fish, it represents the comprehensive strength of a TV station, and it represents profit and money.

In more than two weeks, the advertising fee income of WB TV network increased by 330% from the previous month, and reported a revenue of 8 million US dollars.

The market analysis department of ABC TV gave a rough forecast.

"50000000!"

"Prison Break alone will generate 50 million for WB TV, and if you add in the later video and DVD market revenue, it will generate $100 million in total revenue for WB."

"This is still the income of broadcasting on the WB TV network platform. If it were changed to a large platform like our ABC, the annual income is conservatively estimated to be more than 150 million US dollars."

The major TV stations in the same industry in the television field, while shocked, are more envious, jealous, and hateful.

The income of the ace TV series is so huge!

In the future, "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" produced and broadcast by HBO will generate $3.58 billion in revenue for HBO in the first five seasons alone.

The huge profits of TV dramas, with the development of the times, are not much worse than the income of Hollywood movies.

......

December 27, 1998.

Just a few days after Christmas, Zucker accepted an interview with the California Entertainment News.

Reporter Elena: "Mr. Wald, did you expect "Prison Break" to be as popular as it is today?"

"certainly!"

Zucker sat on the sofa and said without hesitation: "I wrote the script of "Prison Break" myself. After finishing the script, I made this judgment. After all, we have invested an unprecedented amount of money in the history of American television. Very rare."

"To put it mildly, our Jin Shuguang is one of the pioneers of high-cost, high-quality TV dramas!"

This title, Zhu Ke shamelessly won it!

This will play a key role in the future development of the TV group.

At the end of the interview, Zhu Ke said mysteriously: "You might as well pay more attention to the UPN TV network. After all, on January 1, UPN TV will launch the excellent series "The Walking Dead"."

The Walking Dead?

"Huh?" Reporter Elena was stunned for a few seconds.

The second update of "" was delivered, and the minister continued to open the code.