Chapter 295: Women and the Savior

"It won't be very high. I'm prepared for that."

Sunlight filtered through the windows into the dining room. Jeff Robinov took his glasses from his daughter and sat down at the table.

"This is an R-rated film, after all. The audience is relatively limited."

"Too bad you missed the premiere yesterday, Dad."

Amanda Robinov put down her newspaper, giving her father a look of pity.

"Do you know how intense the audience's reaction was? My classmate—the one who's been over to our house... Miley—she almost went crazy."

Jeff Robinov picked up his coffee cup and looked at his daughter.

Amanda continued, "Not just her. All the young people there were losing their minds. I never thought a movie could be so cool, so stylish, and so fun."

"Honey, no newspapers at breakfast."

A middle-aged woman walked in. Amanda stuck out her tongue playfully.

"Mom, I've already finished breakfast."

"Liz, still nothing?" Jeff Robinov asked his wife.

Liz Robinov sat down next to him and shook her head.

"Doug Walter just called. The tracking company had a small issue, so the data will be a little late."

"Are you talking about the midnight screening box office for The Matrix?" Amanda asked curiously.

"Yes."

Hearing her father's reply, Amanda looked thoughtful.

"Dad, what are you expecting for the midnight screening box office?"

Jeff Robinov set down his coffee cup and replied, "Like I said, it won't be very high. Warner and I are expecting $5 million."

"What about the first week?"

"$35 million."

Amanda scoffed. "You guys are too conservative! You have no idea how popular Duke's movies are with young people!"

"Honey, don't forget this is an R-rated film..."

Before Jeff Robinov could finish, the family maid walked into the dining room holding a fax. Liz Robinov took it and placed it in front of her husband.

"The numbers are in," she said.

"How much is it?" Amanda asked eagerly. "Dad?"

"It seems I was a bit conservative."

Adjusting his glasses, Jeff Robinov said, "$7.85 million! If I remember correctly, that's a midnight screening box office record for an R-rated film."

"Yes!"

Amanda pumped her fist. "That's awesome!"

Catching both her parents looking at her, she shrugged playfully.

"I'm just happy for a movie I like!"

She grabbed her bag from the next chair.

"I'm heading out, Dad, Mom. I made plans with my friends last night."

"What are your plans?" Liz Robinov asked.

Amanda looked back and said, "We're going to watch The Matrix. We plan on living at the theater today."

She vanished, and the dining room fell silent again, save for the sound of the Robinovs finishing their meal. It wasn't until breakfast ended and Jeff was getting ready for work that the quiet broke.

"Congratulations, honey," Liz Robinov said to her husband. "Warner has another massive hit on its hands."

"It's only the midnight screening. The overall trend in North America will depend on the opening week's results."

Santa Clara Cinema was part of the Regal Entertainment chain. Located in the southern San Francisco Bay Area, right next to Silicon Valley and Stanford University, it was a massive multiplex with foot traffic ranking in the top five across the entire San Francisco region.

Zhou Xin worked at this cinema, managing a merchandise counter. Though a first-generation immigrant, he was steadily integrating into the society in both language and lifestyle.

After parking and walking up to the cinema entrance, Zhou Xin noticed people already waiting outside before opening. What was even more ridiculous was that San Francisco in May could hardly be considered cool, yet some people were actually wearing long black trench coats...

However, remembering the movie getting its wide release today, Zhou Xin understood exactly what was going on.

"They're just knockoffs. They don't look quite like Neo's."

He shook his head and walked inside. After clocking in, he went straight to the warehouse and wheeled out boxes of stock. He opened them and arranged the items on the shelves of the merchandise display cabinet. Among them were trench coats, sunglasses, action figures, and keychains...

A colleague passing by glanced over in curiosity. "Why are there cell phones? George, since when do we sell phones as merchandise? Will those even sell?"

"Who knows?"

Zhou Xin shrugged. Aside from two display models, he stowed a total of fifty Nokia Slider Phones under the counter.

At nine o'clock, the cinema opened on time. Although it was a Friday during the summer season, mornings usually didn't see much traffic. However, the moment the main doors unlocked, nearly a hundred young people flooded in. Most didn't even glance at the movie showtimes board, walking straight to the box office.

"The Matrix..."

"I want a ticket for The Matrix!"

Similar requests echoed one after another. It seemed everyone had come for this single movie getting its wide release today.

Because very few people came over to ask about merchandise, and his station directly faced the corridor leading to the auditoriums, a bored Zhou Xin roughly estimated the foot traffic for each hall.

Taxi only seemed to pull in 3 viewers for its first morning show.

Deep Impact, despite having been out for a week, did much better than Taxi with 6 viewers.

Ronin hadn't sold a single ticket, so it probably wouldn't even screen.

The Matrix... never mind, it was better not to count. There were simply too many people to calculate.

Under normal circumstances, a small auditorium with around 6 viewers could cover its screening costs. For these early morning shows, if the theater wanted to turn a profit, it could only count on The Matrix.

Over at the popcorn stand, his colleague asked, "George, still haven't made a sale?"

"No!"

Zhou Xin shrugged, watching the bustle at the box office with some envy. As more and more people filtered into the halls, snippets of conversation constantly drifted his way: "cool," "Explosion Time," "Neo and Trinity," and "illusion and reality."

Looking down at the newly stocked merchandise for The Matrix, Zhou Xin sighed. His income was closely tied to his sales performance. Not having made a single sale yet today was a bad sign.

"Perhaps things will change when The Matrix lets out?"

After he sat there in boredom for nearly two hours, the first showing of The Matrix finally let out. Zhou Xin watched the crowd walk out. Their faces showed none of the usual post-movie fatigue—they were excited! No, they were absolutely exhilarated! To use a phrase from back home, it was as if they'd been injected with chicken blood!

They were chattering away, incredibly loud. Their voices carried from down the hall, and almost every sentence contained the word "cool." It was as if they couldn't say anything else.

Walking out of the auditorium, Adam asked his companion, "Where did you buy your trench coat? It looks totally different from Neo's. When we were outside earlier, Roman, I thought you looked cool, but after watching the movie..."

He shook his head.

"I had my sister alter my dad's old trench coat based on the poster," Roman said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Adam, however, barely heard him. His eyes lit up as he quickened his pace. Directly facing the corridor, Neo's black trench coat hanging in the display cabinet was impossible to miss...

There was a good reason the merchandise counter directly faced the theater's main corridor.

Like many others, Adam hurried over. Managing to squeeze his way to the front, he shouted, "Hey, I want a trench coat! And sunglasses! Do you have Neo's leather boots? If you do, I'll take a pair! My size is..."

In just a few short minutes, Zhou Xin went from having nothing to do to being completely swamped. With the massive crowd, he had to pull his colleague over to help.

A good twenty or so people were crowded in front of the counter to buy merchandise. The bare minimum anyone bought was a trench coat and sunglasses. A few girls even picked out Trinity's leather jacket and tall boots. He even sold two of the deluxe limited-edition trench coats priced at $999.

Upon receiving the trench coat and sunglasses, Adam put them on immediately, feeling very much like the Savior. Just as he was about to swipe his card, he heard the salesman mention, "We also have Neo's cell phone here."

"Is it the Nokia Slider Phone?" Adam asked impatiently.

"Yes!" Zhou Xin immediately pulled out a sample. "The original, authentic Nokia Slider Phone! Today is its first day on the market!"

'At worst, I'll just eat bread for this month!' With this thought in mind, Adam gritted his teeth. "Give me one. I was wanting to buy a new phone anyway!"

The twenty-odd people who had arrived in everyday clothes turned into a group of Neos and Trinitys as they left.

This was essentially a portrait of his entire day. From the moment he rang up that first batch of customers, Zhou Xin didn't have another free second. As more and more people watched The Matrix, his merchandise sales skyrocketed. By the time his shift ended in the evening, not only were relatively cheaper items like trench coats and sunglasses nearly sold out, but all fifty Nokia Phones were completely gone!

Dialing the theater manager's number, Zhou Xin spoke as urgently as possible: "Boss, we need to restock right now. The sunglasses need restocking, the keychains need restocking, the trench coats need restocking, the phones need restocking... otherwise, we won't have any merchandise left to sell tomorrow!"

Hanging up, Zhou Xin let out a long breath and began to tally the sales. When the calculation was complete, his eyes widened. Today, he had sold $58,950 worth of The Matrix merchandise!

That was practically the total single-day box office revenue for the theater on a regular off-season weekday!

Because he didn't work at the ticket window, Zhou Xin didn't know how much box office revenue The Matrix had brought in today. But he was absolutely certain that for a movie with such incredible merchandise sales, its box office numbers definitely wouldn't be bad!