he box office is always a popular topic of conversation. Readers always want to know the numbers and what they mean. But did you ever wonder where they come from? This week, Working Hollywood will take you into the process. It's probably a lot simpler than you think. But that simplicity is deceiving, because the simple business of getting the numbers to you is a high-pressure, high-stakes game, every single day of the week. The elegant portal to box office insight. Annice, Research Goddess - "Sometimes you get oversaturated by movies." Bryce, The Utility Infielder - "That phone rings at 7:30 every Sunday morning." Paul, The President - "The name of the game is comparison." Randy, The Numbers Guy - "People don't realize we're a small company." Normally, Working Hollywood features a story and a lot of interviews with the people behind-the-scenes. But the focus of this week's column, Exhibitor Relations, is basically a four person operation with two or three interns working at any given time. Four people are there to track the box office of every movie that gets released. Four people who see every film, read every bit of film industry media they can, and keep the official records that allow writers, like me, to comment on how the fourth weekend of Saving Private Ryan compared to the fourth weekend of Titanic. MEET THE STAFF There's Paul Dergarabedian, the president of the company, who took the job over from Hollywood icon Jon Krier when Mr. he passed away earlier this year. There's Randy Sanchez, the guy who talks to all the distributors, large and small, every week to extract the numbers and gets them to the company's clients. There's Annice Burdeos, the research queen, who keeps an eye on every film out there, with a special fondness for the indie business that has become so significant in recent years. And there's Bryce Currence, the utility player, who does whatever is needed, from gathering film development information to keeping the computers working. The interns who come through, including Mark Mitchell, get a truly inside look at the studio business. Mark will soon have a paying job at ICM, on his way to being a talent agent. And he'll go to work with that advantage. The point is, this place is not about talking box office. An interview won't tell this story. Remember "It's time to make the donuts?" Well, at Exhibitor Relations, it's time to deliver the box office. It's all about the work. Every day. Every week. For the last 24 years. The weekend has become the central focus of all the box office hype. How did a film open and how did the other films hold up? The weekend starts on Thursday at Exhibitor Relations. That's the day ER confers with The Hollywood Reporter to bring some statistical insight into the upcoming weekend. But no predictions. "The name of the game is comparison," says Paul (that would be Mr. Dergarabedian on his business card), "I've seen people try to analyze how the box office will do, whether it's going to be sunny on a Saturday in July, but that never works. We don't predict grosses." What ER gives The Reporter (and other subscribers) is comparisons. How did musical biographies open in the past? How did the last five Eddie Murphy movies do? What were the best openings in August? Friday is a pretty quiet day. Movies are opening. Audiences are on the job. Industry analysts have already published their thoughts on the weekend, so the questions about conceptual box office relationships that constantly come into the offices through the week fall silent. It's a good day for the staff to catch up. On Saturday morning, the phone rings at either Randy or Bryce's home. The majors and mini-majors are calling with their figures on movies that are likely to make the Top 10 for Friday night. These are still estimates, but they are generally pretty accurate, just hours after the last show played on the West Coast. In this world, the studios deliver numbers and Exhibitor Relations passes them along. There is no mysterious way to check the figures. It is a relationship based on mutual trust. (More on that later.) By 11 a.m., Randy or Bryce (they switch off the duty) has put together the Top 10 listing for Friday and sends it out to subscribers, who pay to get the service, on a Saturday. By noon, the information has been spread across the Internet. And Paul warns, surfers beware. "I don't pay attention to the Websites that print numbers I can't verify," he worries, "You never know if you can trust those numbers." DOLLARS AND CENTS A word on dollars and cents: Exhibitor Relations is a rather remarkable boutique of a company. Every client has their own profile. Some just get the film release schedules that the companies maintain and update twice a month. Some just get weekend box office figures. Some get the Top 12 numbers only (ER delivers a Top 12 because it feels that when you crunch the numbers, somehow the Top 12 ends up making more sense in a statistical framework than does the Top 10.) Entertainment Weekly exclusively receives a Top 20 every Monday, which is printed in the issue that hits the street on the following Saturday. A few people get a Top 30. The company offers analysis of upcoming films for studios and independents. There is a semiweekly newsletter that analyzes the previous week's grosses, looks ahead to the upcoming weeks and reprints news stories ER feels will be particularly interesting to their clients. And there is the Alpha-list, which lists over 1,700 films in every stage of life from being optioned to being released. As a client, you can get a lot of information or a little. And you can pay a lot or you can pay a little. There is no set price list for ER clients. Guidelines, but no set prices. They often get calls from non-industry people looking for free information. "This lawyer called and wanted some stats, so I said, 'Fine it would be like $50,'" Paul remembers. "And he can't believe I'd charge him anything. I ask him, 'If I came to your office, would you charge me? He says, 'Of course.' Well, this is our business. It has value." Exhibitor Relations is not the only company out there gathering the studios' numbers. Entertainment Data Inc., The Hollywood Reporter and Variety all compile box office numbers each week. Four separate independent companies all doing the same job each week. Of course, all four pretty much have to rely on the numbers the studios provide. After all, this is business information and that is, by its nature, confidential. The relationship between these outlets and the studios is kind of like the relationship between the studios and the MPAA ratings board. It's checks and balances. It's rare to find a serious conflict between a major studio and the MPAA over a rating. Smaller studios, art houses, yes. But not so much the majors. Likewise, Exhibitor Relations and the others aren't looking to investigate the numbers. They look to report them. And by analyzing the figures, they add another layer of business analysis, even though every studio has number crunchers of their very own. Does Dergarabedian ever feel like he's, in effect, working for the studios? "Hey, we're not here to second guess them," he offers, "It's their film. It's their product." ONLY ON A SUNDAY Which brings us to Sunday (somehow). Things heat up a lot on Sunday. At about 7:30 a.m., the first phone call comes in. "It's Tom Sherak," laughs Randy. "It's always Tom Sherak first!" Sunday morning duty used to be one of Paul's duties, as it had been Jon Krier's for years and years before. But Paul's finacée decided she wanted a perk from his ascension to the presidency of the company sleep on Sunday mornings. So Randy or Bryce gets the call. Friday's numbers are etched in stone. So are Saturday's. When these calls are completed, only Sunday's box office number will be considered an estimate. The race is on. By 9 a.m., the ER rep has spoken to every studio in the Top 10. By 9:30, Paul has gotten the fax at his home to proof it, add to it or add his two cents. By 10 a.m., the Top 10 list for the weekend is being faxed all over the country. First to the news wires, who pass it on to their subscribers and throw the info onto the Internet as well. By noon, anyone who wants to know the weekend winner can find out. But Monday is when the fun really begins. The staff arrives at the office between 9 and 10 a.m. The Sunday numbers go out to any of the people who can't be reached by fax on Sunday. It's time to finalize the numbers. But now, it's not only the Top 12, it's every film in release for the week. From the eight digit Top 10 entry, to the art film that has only one print which grossed $517 in Idaho over the weekend, the goal is to track every movie. With a bunch of films in wide release, during any given weekend, some of the studios fax in their numbers. Others still just call them in by phone. Small companies, like Zeigeist Films, may have just one film on one screen out there. If it does well (this week, their double feature See the Sea and A Summer Dress did a strong $10,268), ER is likely to get the call. If the film falls to $500 in a few weeks, they may just skip the call. But Randy Sanchez wants to get them all, if he can. But he can't chase 50 different people every week, either. And while some people consider me picky in my box office analysis (at The Hot Button), try getting a change in the number of screens past Randy without a long conversation. "Thirty screens difference. That's a big change," he says. "Let's check that." And he's back on the phone. Randy's spent 12 years in the industry, (including nine at Sony) and Exhibitor Relations is the place he enjoys the best. As for so many ERers, Jon Krier set the tone. "He taught me so much more than I knew," says Randy, "We don't just do this for us every week. We do it for Mr. Krier. He built this company." Randy takes the figures and throws them into his box office database, one by one, as they arrive. Some studios take longer than others. He'll make a call. "Not ready yet." Another calls in. They have some figures, but some others still aren't set. In the meantime, work begins, searching through the trades and the papers, acquiring any info that might be useful for the semiweekly newsletter. On the morning I'm there, there is a film that's been advertised as opening on Friday, when they were told the film wouldn't be released that week. On top of that, the film's distributor had shifted between the major studio and one of the studio's mini-major labels. A few phone calls later and the issue is cleared up. But it is the responsibility of this company to make sure the world it services knows what's coming out and that they get the info right every single time. By 1 p.m., all the box office slots that are going to be filled have been filled. On the Monday I was observing, there were four slot changes from the estimates in the Top 10. (Why Do Fools Fall In Love pulled ahead of Ever After and How Stella Got Her Groove Back moved ahead of Snake Eyes). Percentage changes from the week before went from hopeful estimates to studio reality (There's Something About Mary went up just nine percent, not 14 percent and Dead Man on Campus fell 44 percent, not 38 percent and it fell out of the Top 10). GETTING IT RIGHT Now it's time to get it out. First, the official Top 12 goes to AP and The L.A. Times. The Top 20 goes to Entertainment Weekly's offices in New York. The Top 30 goes down under to Australia. And then the Top 12 heads out to all the ER weekly box office subscribers. But this is not as easy as it sounds. The office computers are still running Windows 3.0. Why? Because the machines they are running on are 386s. At first, it's a little shocking to realize we are all relying on a technically retro-fit company to make the pronouncements that have become so much a part of the nation's weekly habit. But then, you realize that's Exhibitor Relations. Get the job done. Don't worry about the frills. Worry about the numbers. "Most people don't realize we are a small company," says Dergarabedian. Well, now a few more do. Calls come in all day. Where do the summer numbers fall in history? How is each studio performing? How many tickets were sold this summer? You name it, they are asked to analyze it, estimate it and swear to it on a stack of bibles. The real pressure is that this company is committed to getting it 100 percent right every time. Occasionally, they make a mistake (Men In Black was left off the list of All-Time Highest Grossing Films Based On Comics, because they didn't know it was based on a comic. On the other hand, they know what indies will be released next March on 10 screens.) But what they tell The L.A. Times or USA Today ends up on your breakfast table and getting it wrong is not an option. Tuesday, the first newsletter goes out. There are screenings to attend. More media to catch up on. More reporters, studios, lawyers and others calling up with questions. Wednesday comes and goes. More screenings. Lunches. Schmoozing. Building the company. Providing quotes to more reporters looking for a hot, edgy angle. Analyzing the weekend to come. Preparing the Thursday newsletter. And then, on Thursday morning, the weekend rush begins all over again. And why do we all seem so fascinated with these numbers every week? Paul Dergarabedian offers this insight: "People are fascinated by money. My money. Their money. Money in general. People can relate to money. And the box office figures give them another way to talk about money." And so we do. And so we will.

		2 September 1998