Chapter 285: Gunfight Master

"Please let us in!"

Standing at the doors of the test screening theater, Norman Hiller and his companion pleaded with the staff member blocking their way.

"We've waited in line for so long just to see this movie early. If there are no seats, we can sit in the aisle!"

The Warner staff member wasn't fooled by his disguise in the slightest.

"Sir, if I remember correctly, this is your third time attending a test screening, isn't it?" he pointed out.

"Uh..." Hiller trailed off, scratching the back of his head. "The movie is just so good. I only wanted to..."

"Sorry!"

The staff member picked up his walkie-talkie, spoke a few words into it, and shook his head.

"I can't let you in! The theater is already full!"

He pointed at the long line of hundreds of people trailing behind them.

"If I let you in, we won't be able to control the rest of the line."

Far too many people had shown up for today's test screening. Even though Warner Brothers had chosen the largest independent theater in Burbank City, and only general audiences and Warner's market researchers were participating, the seating was nowhere near enough. The commercials and trailers had simply attracted an overwhelming number of young viewers.

A considerable portion of the crowd hadn't actually secured passes for the screening; they were just hoping to get lucky at the door. Others, like Norman Hiller, had attended a previous screening but hadn't gotten enough and were trying to watch it all over again.

As the long line voiced its ongoing protests, cameras from Warner's affiliated media outlets recorded the scene. It was incredible material for generating hype—a movie sparking such a massive reaction from just its test screenings...

The final outcome was predictably disappointing. Norman Hiller and his companion had to leave the theater, but unwilling to just go home, they ducked into the Burger King next door. At least there, they could keep admiring the movie's cool character designs.

Just last week, Burger King had launched a promotional meal for The Matrix, with packaging plastered in character images from the movie's posters.

Norman Hiller sat down with a tray lined with a poster for The Matrix and a burger wrapped in matching promotional paper. His companion, Huggins, pulled out two newly purchased bottles of Coca-Cola. Unlike the classic red design, this was a new promotional line launched by the Coca-Cola Company. The packaging was entirely black—the black of The Matrix!

The most prominent figures on the bottles were still Neo and Trinity!

"I really want to take Trinity home!" Huggins said, his thumb constantly rubbing her image. "The long legs, tight leather, and high-heeled boots are the absolute best."

Norman Hiller nearly did a spit-take with his cola. "Who could handle a woman that fierce?"

"She's only tough inside the Matrix!" Huggins argued. "In the real world, she's just a normal woman."

"What is real?" Huggins added, quoting a line straight from the movie. "Is everything you see and feel definitely real?"

Hiller shook his head. "I still haven't gotten enough of the first movie, and I'm already wondering if there's going to be a sequel."

Across its three test screenings, The Matrix had earned massive word-of-mouth praise. All kinds of statistical data were swiftly gathered and sent to Warner Brothers, Duke Studio, and the North American Theater Alliance. This market research feedback would directly influence the film's upcoming promotional and distribution strategies.

"Give it to me, Tina," Duke said.

Penny Kalis took the test screening reception statistics from Tina Fey and turned to Duke, who was sitting in front of his computer.

"Congratulations. The test screening reception is incredibly strong. The audience approval rating has climbed to 97.5 percent," she said.

Duke wasn't surprised by the high approval rating; the first two test screenings had already pointed toward this outcome. Instead, he brought up the other major factor that would determine the film's box office.

"Were there no representatives from the theater chains at this screening?" he asked.

"No," Penny Kalis replied. "During the first two test screenings, buyers from every major chain in North America watched the film. Out of 58 buyers, 50 gave it a solid A for commercial viability. Six of the remaining eight gave it an A-minus, and the only two who rated it as a failure did so because they couldn't understand the movie."

"We just got word from Warner," Tina Fey spoke up. "The theater chains have confirmed that the movie will open on a minimum of 2,800 screens in North America. Whether that number increases will depend on how the first few films of the Summer Season perform."

"In other words, the box office performance of Deep Impact, which is guaranteed to have a massive opening, will directly affect the number of screens The Matrix gets?" asked Scarlett Johansson, who had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room like a well-behaved child.

Glancing at the young girl his mother had brought along, Duke nodded.

"It will indeed," he said.

He didn't have the time or energy to explain further to Scarlett Johansson. He turned back to Penny Kalis.

"How are things going with your internet PR department?" he asked.

"They've been constantly posting on all the major forums, building hype for The Matrix!" she replied.

Despite being a veteran Hollywood publicist, Penny Kalis had a very sharp, adaptable mind. Back during the promotional campaign for Chicago, she had witnessed the growing power of online discourse and immediately developed targeted strategies to harness it. Her thoughts had aligned perfectly with Duke's, leading her to establish a dedicated internet PR department specifically to serve him.

It was no exaggeration to say that she and Duke were already at the forefront of Hollywood in this regard.

During the online promotional campaign for The Matrix, at Duke's suggestion, they had deployed paid online shills on a massive scale. While the internet of this era couldn't compare to its future state, they still managed to generate staggering momentum among regular netizens. The fact that Duke's personal website had been crashing from heavy traffic recently was directly tied to their overt and covert promotional efforts.

He waved Penny Kalis over.

"Penny, come take a look at this website," he said. "This is currently the most famous professional film and television website on the internet, and the one with the largest gathering of movie fans. It even has a dedicated movie rating section. Although there's a slight barrier to entry for users, it can still reflect a film's audience reception to a significant degree."

It was a website called the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB for short.

"I know this site," Penny Kalis said, glancing at the screen. "It was just acquired by Amazon earlier this year. Our people will start building hype on it right away. Its scoring system doesn't use a simple average, but we can definitely still influence it. Leave it to me."

Duke Studio and Warner Brothers had already utilized almost every promotional method and channel available at this stage, and the overall results were highly promising. Meanwhile, a smear campaign targeting their competitors was quietly brewing. They were just waiting for their rivals to enter the crucial ten-day window before their premiere to launch a surprise attack for maximum damage.

At the same time, the competitors going up against The Matrix weren't sitting idle either.

Inside a luxurious office at CAA, Martin Bob greeted Spielberg as the director walked through the door.

"Good news, Steven. The rating for The Matrix is out. It's R-rated!"

A faint smile touched the corners of Spielberg's lips. As the producer of Deep Impact, the success or failure of the film was closely tied to his own.

The same went for Martin Bob, who was serving as the package project head; its fate was just as crucial to him.

"The movies releasing on our opening weekend can basically be ignored," Martin Bob said. "The Matrix comes out the following week with an R-rated restriction, while Deep Impact secured a PG-13 Rating. We already have the upper hand."

Deep Impact was virtually impeccable in terms of its plot and content. Even if the Big Six Companies wanted to make things difficult for them, they wouldn't be able to find a good enough excuse.

As he took a seat across from Martin Bob, the faint smile on Spielberg's face quickly vanished.

"We may have the upper hand with the rating, but we're being suppressed when it comes to the theater chains. Martin, I need you to fully mobilize the power of CAA!" he demanded.

The Big Six Companies had banded together to pressure the North American Theater Alliance, and to make matters worse, DreamWorks' past few films had met with mediocre reception. Both of these factors had directly impacted the number of opening screens for Deep Impact. Spielberg had originally planned for a release across roughly 3,000 screens, but the actual number had shrunk significantly.

"It's difficult for CAA to do much," Martin Bob said, his expression darkening. "You should know how it is, Steven. With Eno Martin..."

Spielberg frowned at the mention of Eno Martin's name. Truth be told, his relationship with Eno Martin was much closer than his relationship with Martin Bob. However, there were some problems that friendship simply couldn't solve. He had spoken with the man on the phone a while back, and Eno Martin had rejected a few of his minor requests without a second thought.

That interaction had made Spielberg realize just how irreconcilable the conflict between Eno Martin and Martin Bob truly was. Their struggle could only end with one of them quietly resigning and leaving CAA. Behind its seemingly invincible facade, the internal friction meant CAA wasn't nearly as powerful as it appeared to the outside world.

But at the end of the day, since Deep Impact didn't face any serious competition on its opening weekend, The Matrix remained their most pressing target.

"The audience reception for The Matrix's test screenings has been through the roof," Spielberg said slowly. "Furthermore, the theater chains have made a fortune off of Duke's movies in recent years, so they're bound to push this film aggressively. If it genuinely becomes a box-office hit, it will absolutely cut into our second-weekend earnings."

Just hearing Spielberg mention Duke's name was enough to make Martin Bob's expression turn incredibly ugly. He had suffered plenty of setbacks at Duke's hands over the past few years, and he was determined to score a victory this time around. Sometimes, the advantage of a more lenient rating created a gap that sheer cinematic quality simply couldn't bridge. If not for that, why else would he have remained silent while Spielberg was discussing cooperation with Michael Ovitz?

Sometimes, the line between a partner and a competitor was razor-thin.

"Steven, I've already mobilized a substantial portion of the media," Martin Bob declared. "Between our efforts and a pincer attack from DreamWorks and Sony Entertainment, we'll definitely deal them a heavy blow. The projected opening weekend for Deep Impact is forty million dollars! I'm confident we can keep our second-weekend drop under forty percent!"

Spielberg nodded. If the movie tracked with those projections, it was guaranteed to be a blockbuster. He had also caught wind that Warner Brothers' own internal projection for The Matrix's opening weekend was thirty-five million dollars—a number clearly hindered by its restrictive rating.

"Once May rolls around," Martin Bob added, his voice ringing out again, "we'll give The Matrix a little surprise!"