Chapter 131: Sony's Hope

As the sun rose on Friday, another fiercely competitive weekend kicked off. Just as they had collectively slammed Independence Day the previous weekend, professional film critics spoke out in unison again to shower The Shawshank Redemption with praise. They heaped almost all the year's best reviews onto the film, stopping just short of crowning it the greatest in cinematic history.

Much like the backlash from the week before, the critics' glowing praise failed to ignite any massive chain reaction at the box office.

Perhaps the cast lacked box-office appeal, or the slightly religious title turned people away. Perhaps the genre itself was a bad fit, or the audience was simply experiencing the aftereffects of last week's disconnect, where critics slammed Independence Day while moviegoers loved it. Whatever the reason, the market response to The Shawshank Redemption could only be described as unusually flat.

Friday night typically marked the first peak of weekend moviegoing. Parker, a market investigator for MXEB Company, walked into a downtown commercial plaza theater early to observe the frontline market reaction to The Shawshank Redemption.

After 7:30 PM, the crowds entering the theater noticeably swelled. Through lengthy exit interviews and data provided by the theater, Parker gradually formed an initial impression of the film he was tracking: things were not looking good.

It was painfully obvious. Even as Independence Day entered its second weekend, it remained a juggernaut, claiming nearly half of all moviegoers!

This, of course, fell well within the expectations of both the distributor and his company. The data feedback for Independence Day was clear for all to see. Nobody was foolish enough to believe The Shawshank Redemption could compete with it at the box office.

It made sense that the film could not rival Independence Day, but why was its audience share only matching The Lion King and Forrest Gump? Those two had been out for weeks, while The Shawshank Redemption was barely in its first weekend!

Just as Parker was wondering about this, a screening of The Shawshank Redemption let out. A sparse crowd trickled out of the auditorium. He quickly walked over and began his routine exit interviews.

"The movie was wonderful, really moving, and the plot was fantastic..."

Much like the moviegoers he had surveyed earlier in the day, the young man he stopped had nothing but praise for the film. Parker followed up, "Would you recommend it to the people around you, or bring your family and friends to watch it again?"

"No!" the young man answered without a second of hesitation. "Absolutely not!"

"Why?" Parker quickly asked.

"The movie is just too heavy. It weighs on you and makes you feel awful. Even when you watch a tragedy, you can usually find some joy in it."

The young man furrowed his brows. "But The Shawshank Redemption is incredibly depressing. The people I know go to the theater to be entertained. They definitely won't want to sit through this kind of atmosphere."

Parker went on to interview a few more moviegoers. Several shared similar views: they thought the film was brilliant but refused to recommend it to others.

In terms of Friday's box office, attendance rates, and raw viewer numbers, Independence Day maintained a steady lead over all competing films. Early Saturday morning, Duke received the detailed data from Independence Day Studio.

The box office was bound to bounce back over the weekend. While the surge wasn't massive, Independence Day pulled in $15.57 million on Friday, seizing the initiative for the weekend.

Sitting in second place was the newly released The Shawshank Redemption, which grossed $5.12 million on Friday, edging out The Lion King's $4.78 million and Forrest Gump's $4.27 million to claim the runner-up spot.

In Duke's view, as long as The Shawshank Redemption maintained this daily pace, it could easily break $15 million or even $20 million in its opening weekend, potentially avoiding its fate as a massive flop.

However, this film—dubbed by some as the best and strangest in history—simply defied normal cinematic laws. Even the boldest assessment agencies failed to predict a box office trend that completely subverted all expectations.

Under normal circumstances, explosive critical acclaim would generate strong promotional momentum. Coupled with its already solid audience word-of-mouth and standard weekend release trends, The Shawshank Redemption should have seen a small surge on Saturday, at the very least surpassing its Friday gross. Instead, something jaw-dropping occurred: while the film's audience word-of-mouth and professional ratings continued to climb, its box office took a brutal dive.

On Saturday alone, The Shawshank Redemption plummeted by more than fifty percent, its daily box office nose-diving to $2.24 million. Meanwhile, Independence Day, The Lion King, and Forrest Gump ended up as the beneficiaries, raking in $16.34 million, $8.22 million, and $7.43 million, respectively, utterly crushing every new release of the week.

It was a truly subversive box office window. Independence Day had been torn to shreds by critics, yet it continued to sell out theaters in a blazing hot streak. The Shawshank Redemption had been elevated to the highest echelons of cinematic history, yet it was playing to empty rooms.

Had this been a fleeting phenomenon, audiences might not have noticed. However, the media outlets under Time Warner and News Group had been aggressively hyping the contrast, making it impossible to ignore. The relentless noise of the past ten days was enough to make even the most oblivious moviegoers realize a glaring truth: the films critics praised weren't necessarily meant for them, and the films they actually enjoyed would never earn critical respect.

The major Hollywood studios recognized a different truth: the correlation between professional critics and the market was worth five cents at best.

That very weekend, Paramount and Universal Pictures hosted a test screening for their joint investment, Clear and Present Danger, while New Line Pictures held one for The Mask. Neither studio invited a single film critic. The bottom line of this bloodsucking industry had clearly been shaken.

Also this weekend, Independence Day began its overseas run, landing first in Britain, France, New Zealand, Spain, and Australia. The international reaction was a perfect mirror of North America: it triggered a ticket-buying frenzy among audiences while being ruthlessly torn apart by foreign critics.

"Independence Day is an amalgamation of numerous alien invasion movies, and its underlying theme reeks of American aggression!" — France's Le Figaro.

"Independence Day reflects director Duke Rosenberg's Great Americanism delusions and ambitions!" — Spain's Marca.

"The American President's pre-war speech in this film is the most sensationalist piece of dialogue in Hollywood history!" — BBC

"Duke Rosenberg has lost his mind. He is delusional enough to think he can rape the whole world with a sci-fi blockbuster, essentially demanding that every country change its national day to July 4th!" — Britain's The Times.

Over this single, brief weekend, this one film triggered a massive sensation that far exceeded the sum of Duke's entire career over the past few years. Film critics across the globe launched a furious crusade against him. Meanwhile, Independence Day Studio leveraged News Group's vast network of media outlets across the Western world to broadcast Duke's earlier rebukes against the critics. This stoked the outrage of Western critics even further; they wanted nothing more than to drag Duke out and nail him to the pillar of historical shame.

Attacking Duke had effectively become political correctness within the critic community. Even the few reviewers who wanted to speak up in his defense were forced to tread carefully.

Duke refused to stay silent. Instead, he kept feeding the promotional hype. During an interview with the infamous Weekly World News, he stated:

"I'm not going to lose sleep over the overt spears and covert arrows shot by critics. Everyone has to accept the reality of the free market. If people didn't want to buy my product, I would stop making it. But the audience has proven time and again that they love watching my work. No matter how much the critics hate it, the audience's needs will always come first."

As if that wasn't enough fuel for the fire, Duke deliberately added, "I work as hard as I possibly can, and I'm thrilled to see that everyone outside of the critics loves this movie. So let's just ignore the critics. I make movies to entertain the audience."

The critics gnashed their teeth in fury over Independence Day's sustained success. They unleashed their most vicious, venomous attacks, yet they were entirely powerless to stop the film from sparking a Jurassic Park-level box office frenzy in every region it played.

Particularly in North America, the louder the critics slammed Independence Day, the higher its box office numbers climbed. Conversely, the more praise they heaped upon The Shawshank Redemption, the less anyone cared to watch it.

When the new weekend box office figures dropped, the North American critic circle fell silent for a brief moment—only to launch an even greater wave of attacks. But in the face of Independence Day's massive box office numbers, their outrage seemed pale and entirely powerless.

In its second weekend, Independence Day raked in a staggering $42.96 million in North America. Not only did it obliterate every other movie in theaters, but it also eclipsed the opening-weekend numbers of the vast majority of films. The movie's cumulative North American box office soared to $159.89 million, handing Duke yet another record in North American cinematic history: the fastest film to break the $150 million mark!

Naturally, this phenomenal performance allowed it to comfortably retain its throne as the champion of the North American weekly box office chart.

Looking down from the very top, there were absolutely no new releases anywhere near second or third place. The Lion King, now in its fourth week, took second place with $16.88 million. Forrest Gump, in its fifth week, secured third place with $14.18 million. Taking fourth place was a film called Weekend Holiday with a gross of $9.87 million, which Duke had absolutely no impression of.

Meanwhile, The Shawshank Redemption, the darling of countless film critics, ultimately landed in fifth place with $8.57 million, as its box office continued to hemorrhage throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Just as Duke had anticipated, Independence Day's explosive success crushed the glamorous self-image of the critics. It thoroughly exposed their increasingly weak influence on the market to both Hollywood and the moviegoing public.

Independence Day's first weekend overseas was equally triumphant. Although it only launched in Western Europe and English-speaking international markets, it closed its three-day weekend with a massive overseas haul of $75.28 million—more than enough to make all the investors smile from ear to ear.

As the new week began, every film in theaters inevitably began its box office decline. Furthermore, they were all about to face a formidable competitor the following weekend: James Cameron's $115 million blockbuster, True Lies.