Chapter 274: The Big Ship's Promotion and Distribution — Don't Talk Market Rules with the Big Ship

Drying off and putting on her bathrobe, Kate Winslet stepped out of the bathroom and into the dining room. As she passed Duke, she reached out and gently ruffled his short, spiky hair. She circled the oak dining table, sank lazily into the chair opposite him, and picked up her knife and fork, expertly slicing into her breakfast.

"Darling." She swallowed a piece of fruit and asked Duke, "Any good news?"

They had abandoned their drawing session halfway through last night and woken up quite late. Given the time, yesterday's midnight box office figures were definitely out.

As one of the investors, Duke had received the notification and the relevant data early that morning.

He took a spoonful of his oatmeal and said, "The midnight screening did all right. 5.2 million dollars."

5.2 million dollars? Kate Winslet frowned. Compared to the massive investment, that figure was simply too low.

"Don't worry, Kate," Duke said.

To Duke, this midnight box office was a massive improvement over the original timeline. Even James Cameron's two legendary masterpieces had never seen a truly explosive opening day or opening week.

To be precise, from this point forward, there would never be a single instance where an original, non-sequel film—one not adapted from a popular comic or existing property—broke 100 million dollars in its opening weekend.

"What about the reviews?" Kate Winslet asked. "The professional ones."

Duke picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth.

"Unfortunately, the professional reviews are terrible," he said. "Aside from Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times and Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post giving it a perfect ten, critics like Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, Todd McCarthy of the Hollywood Reporter, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, and David Denby of The New Yorker all gave the film a failing five out of ten."

Unlike Duke's indifferent attitude, the lazy ease vanished from Kate Winslet's face. Her mood clearly soured.

Duke shook his head.

"Relax, Kate," he added. "Their reviews of your performance are actually quite good. The attacks are basically concentrated on James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio."

"Really?" she asked, seemingly unconvinced.

Duke spread his hands.

"Do I have any reason to lie to you? The awards season is about to start. Have your agent and agency coordinate with the production crew. We might just be able to secure a few acting nominations for you."

Hearing this, Kate Winslet's eyes immediately lit up.

Poor Xiao Li...

Perhaps because Duke was involved, and the critics couldn't directly target him as a mere investor, they simply turned Leonardo and James Cameron into their punching bags. The two men were enduring far more vicious attacks now than they had during the film's original theatrical run.

After breakfast, Kate Winslet stepped out onto the balcony to call her agent. She soon returned to the room. In truth, both she and Duke knew perfectly well that their time together was destined to be nothing more than a fond memory. Knowing that, they naturally wanted to make that memory as profound and beautiful as possible.

At noon, Duke and Kate Winslet had lunch at the restaurant downstairs, then took separate cars and parted ways. Their brief fling was destined to remain just a memory.

After resting for the afternoon, Duke threw himself back into the post-production of The Matrix and maintained constant communication with New Zealand for the pre-production of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, considering his massive investment in Titanic, keeping a close eye on the film was also essential.

Just as Duke had predicted, Titanic didn't set off a box office frenzy in its opening week. Its performance was actually a tier below many of the popcorn flicks from this year's Summer Season. However, thanks to the extensive promotion and distribution efforts, its reception wasn't quite as lukewarm as it had been originally.

The original Titanic's initial theatrical run could only be described as average at best. Even though audience word-of-mouth was overwhelmingly positive from the start, no one could have ever imagined the massive energy it would eventually unleash. The film was an absolute anomaly in the history of world cinema. Standard market rules meant absolutely nothing to it. The big ship was like a heavy tank, crushing the dignity of professional critics and trampling every known market trend beneath its treads.

To be precise, in the entire history of world cinema—even factoring in the later Avatar—the big ship remained the only film capable of creating such a market miracle.

On Friday, the day of its wide release in North America, the film's reception and attendance rates were mediocre at best. Even including the midnight screenings, it only brought in 13.81 million dollars for the day. But by Saturday, Titanic's word-of-mouth began to spread. This wasn't hype manufactured by the media, but genuine, person-to-person recommendations. Across the major theater chains screening Titanic nationwide, audience numbers noticeably surged. By the time Saturday ended, the film's single-day box office had seen a significant jump over the previous day: 15.95 million dollars!

Titanic wasn't without competitors, but films like Sony Columbia Pictures' Starship Troopers, released the week prior, and Disney-owned Buena Vista Pictures' Flubber, released that same weekend, completely lacked a competitive edge. While those two movies had a modicum of commercial appeal, they were completely eclipsed by the big ship.

Under normal circumstances—provided it wasn't a heavily fan-driven movie like Batman—a film's Friday box office rarely exploded, simply because it was still a workday. Come Saturday, if the film's quality and marketing were solid enough, it would hit a minor peak for the opening weekend, only to begin sliding back down on Sunday.

This trend was especially obvious for non-franchise, original films.

Titanic, however, completely defied this rule. Following its Saturday boost, the film's box office continued to rise on Sunday, pulling in 16.88 million dollars for the day.

In its three-day opening weekend, Titanic raked in 46.64 million dollars across North America!

For an ordinary commercial film, this would be an opening weekend worth celebrating. But stacked against Titanic's massive 200-million-dollar production budget, it looked a bit underwhelming.

"Based on the opening weekend's box office trends, Titanic's final North American gross will likely land somewhere between 200 million and 250 million dollars."

In the lounge at Duke Studio, editing work had just paused for a break. Tina Fey brought over a few of the latest newspapers and read aloud to Duke.

"This film still cannot avoid failure. It is a giant ship destined to sink. Perhaps Paramount Pictures, safely aboard, will survive, but Twentieth Century Fox, Duke Studio, and James Cameron are doomed. Has Duke Rosenberg prepared for bankruptcy?"

Zack Snyder set down his coffee mug.

"Duke, if you go bankrupt, we're all out of a job," he said with a laugh.

"Is that The New Yorker's review, Tina?" Anna Printz asked.

"David Denby." Tina Fey shrugged at the group. "His usual style."

The rest of the room seemed completely unfazed, brimming with absolute confidence in Duke.

Only the veteran Robin Grande frowned. Having worked in Hollywood for over twenty years, he knew better than anyone that no one in this industry could guarantee eternal success—especially since Duke hadn't been involved in Titanic's actual production at all.

"Duke, are we going to be okay?" he asked worriedly.

Duke shook his head.

"I can't say for sure," he said. "How Titanic's box office develops all depends on today, tomorrow, and the day after—the trends over these three workdays leading up to Thanksgiving."

The others nodded one after another. If Titanic's box office followed the standard theatrical trajectory for normal films, they truly might never recover their costs.

Typically, after a film's massive opening weekend, its daily box office numbers would quickly dive during the subsequent workdays. Any drop kept under thirty percent was considered an absolutely stellar performance.

But when Titanic's first workday box office figures came out, they delivered a heavy blow to everyone who had doomed the film. Compared to Sunday, Monday's single-day box office had shrunk by a mere twelve percent, bringing in an astonishing 14.85 million dollars!

The vicious attacks gradually quieted down. After fermenting for a few days, the film's stellar audience word-of-mouth began to spread rapidly. Starting on Tuesday—despite it not being a holiday or a weekend—every commercial theater chain noticed that their auditorium attendance had more than doubled compared to a typical workday!

"We're here just to see Titanic!"

That was the answer many audience members gave during surveys. Meanwhile, quite a few girls were busy swooning.

"We are absolutely in love with Leonardo DiCaprio!"

On Tuesday, Titanic's North American box office didn't just hold steady—it experienced a reverse increase. Surging by a massive eleven percent, the single-day box office hit 16.48 million dollars!

Some critics' jaws were already starting to drop.

And when Wednesday's box office numbers came out, those jaws hit the floor!

It seemed Titanic was only just now showing its true power. Its unstoppable momentum and its complete disregard for standard market rules were finally laid bare for all to see. Using hard numbers and a constantly mounting box office as its weapons, it viciously slapped the faces of the industry professionals who had so maliciously attacked it!

The film saw another reverse increase on Wednesday. Although the growth rate had dipped slightly, it still climbed by eight percent, raking in 17.8 million dollars for the day!

Six days into its wide North American release, Titanic's cumulative domestic box office sat at 95.77 million dollars, poised to shatter the 100-million-dollar threshold.

Thursday brought a holiday unique to North America: Thanksgiving, a statutory national holiday. On this very day, Titanic expanded its North American theater count from 3,200 to 3,358. Its screen share across major commercial theater chains surged to sixty-eight percent. With even greater, more ferocious momentum, the film launched a full-scale assault on the vast, ocean-like market.

On Thanksgiving Day itself, Duke left Los Angeles and flew to New York, ready to spend the holiday with his mother.

The Matrix's post-production was proceeding smoothly, and Titanic's market performance never once left his sight.