Chapter 300: Sci-Fi Masterpiece

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

At the Santa Clara Cinema, as Friday's workday neared its end, Zhou Xin welcomed another batch of customers.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Neo's trench coat, sunglasses, and leather boots," the man said immediately. "And a backpack and keychain... oh, right, and one each of the Neo and Trinity action figures."

Before Zhou Xin could even catch his breath from ringing him up, another customer spoke.

"I also want The Matrix merchandise..."

The final evening show had just let out. As with the previous days, a considerable number of moviegoers headed straight over to browse the merchandise after watching The Matrix. Trench coats, sunglasses, action figures, backpacks, keychains, and even Nokia Slider Phones were all bestsellers.

After ringing up over a dozen customers for The Matrix merchandise, Zhou Xin finally caught his breath. Sales this past week had been booming.

"Can you show me the Godzilla model?"

After more than a dozen customers, someone finally asked about Godzilla merchandise. Zhou Xin chatted with him briefly and closed the sale.

Merchandise sales were directly tied to his income. He had assumed that the arrival of a new weekend and Godzilla's strong theatrical release would trigger a massive surge in sales—and a larger commission—since his counter stocked merchandise for both films.

Reality, however, often fell far short of expectations.

Seeing off yet another customer for The Matrix, Zhou Xin glanced at his assigned section. The counter space dedicated to The Matrix was completely bare, while the Godzilla display remained fully stocked.

"Hey, George, shift's over."

A boy from the popcorn counter walked over and offered amiably, "Need a hand putting things in storage?"

"Sure, Burt."

The two of them were good friends, and Zhou Xin had no intention of refusing.

"You take The Matrix side, and I'll pack up the Godzilla products."

"Does The Matrix side even need packing up?"

Glancing at the merchandise area, Burt said with dissatisfaction, "It's almost completely empty! And your side is still full. I remember these Godzilla items being put on display this morning—did they not sell at all?"

Zhou Xin shrugged helplessly; the Godzilla merchandise had been incredibly disappointing.

A pitch-black night sky blanketed the North American Continent. When the sun peeked over the horizon once more, Saturday quietly arrived.

Inside the headquarters of Sony Columbia Pictures on West Washington Boulevard in Culver City, the atmosphere had been heavy since the workday began. The secretary who brought coffee into Executive President Shinobu Ohga's office didn't even dare to breathe too loudly, as if Michael Ovitz and Shinobu Ohga were the terrifying Godzilla from the silver screen.

The secretary hurriedly left the office after serving the coffee. Shinobu Ohga and Michael Ovitz sat in silence on separate sofas, merely staring at the statistical reports in their hands.

This was especially true for Michael Ovitz. A close look at his calm face revealed a slight twitch at the corners of his eyes.

He had projected an opening-day box office of $13 million to $15 million for Godzilla, an estimate he personally considered rather conservative. But ever since he received yesterday's statistics, the twitching hadn't stopped.

It wasn't out of excitement, but sheer disbelief—an unwillingness to accept the numbers, followed by the crushing disappointment of realizing they were true.

Yet, having worked in the industry for so many years, Michael Ovitz knew all too well that statistics were more real and reliable than anything else in Hollywood.

It was just that this reality was as hard for him to endure as it was for Neo to accept the real world described by Morpheus.

Godzilla had opened in 3,310 theaters in North America, with a first-day box office of $8.42 million!

'This is just too far below expectations!'

Staring at the numbers on the report, Michael Ovitz thought, 'Even if it fell short, surpassing $10 million would have been acceptable.'

The production cost of Godzilla stood at a staggering $130 million, and another $30 million had already been sunk into promotion. How could anyone accept a first-day box office like this?

This was his first package project since returning to the talent agency industry. If it failed, how would he survive the fallout?

"Why?" Shinobu Ohga suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. "Why is it like this?"

Why? Why indeed? Michael Ovitz merely offered a bitter smile; he didn't have a clear answer either.

Their crushing disappointment wasn't just about the opening day box office. After all, there were plenty of films in cinematic history that had mediocre opening days but later became massive hits.

What truly unsettled them was the film's abysmal word of mouth.

After one day in theaters, Godzilla's audience approval rating sat at only sixty-four percent! This was merely the first day of release. Following a normal trajectory, as more audiences saw the film, this rating would continue to drop. Dropping below a passing grade was practically inevitable.

And a catastrophic failure in word of mouth essentially guaranteed zero box office stamina.

Especially since Michael Ovitz had heard from his young assistant that on IMDB, the internet's largest movie database, Godzilla's rating was a mere 5.3!

This meant the film's reception among the teenage demographic was exceptionally poor!

Of course, the old-school Michael Ovitz didn't yet understand the concept of paid online shills.

He only knew that Godzilla was currently in grave danger. Its biggest perceived competitor, The Matrix, was marching steadily forward through the debates over its violence, just like its director. Even with Sony Columbia Pictures and the Artists Management Agency Company exerting the maximum pressure allowed within the rules, they couldn't hold it back.

With 3,220 theaters, The Matrix had raked in $12.35 million in North America just yesterday, firmly securing the leading position among all films released simultaneously this weekend!

Then there was the word of mouth. After over a week in theaters, the film's audience approval rating remained steadfast at ninety percent!

Looking at the numbers on the statistical report, Michael Ovitz suddenly felt that he had grown old, as if he could no longer grasp market dynamics.

During their meeting before the start of the Summer Season, both he and Spielberg believed that Deep Impact and Godzilla absolutely had the strength to contend with The Matrix. But the result?

Godzilla was actually doing well by comparison. Besieged by numerous Hollywood giants, Deep Impact was faring the worst. Its single-day box office yesterday was only $3.12 million—and on a weekend, no less!

Spielberg's face had to be looking even uglier than his own right now.

Even at a moment like this, Michael Ovitz didn't forget to comfort himself with the misery of others.

Seeing Shinobu Ohga's bitter, anguished expression, Michael Ovitz realized he should do something. Regardless, he was the one who had packaged this film. A complete failure would inevitably damage his relationship with Sony Entertainment and hurt the Artists Management Agency Company.

"Ohga, the box office is only part of a movie's revenue," Michael Ovitz reminded him. "Don't forget, Godzilla also has merchandise. As long as the merchandise sells well, we can just as easily turn a profit."

"Mhm." Shinobu Ohga nodded.

Right at that moment, a knock sounded at the door, and an assistant walked in with a document.

"Mr. Ohga, this is the rough statistical report on merchandise sales we just received."

Shinobu Ohga immediately perked up. "Give it here, quickly!"

Taking the document, Shinobu Ohga's eyes locked directly onto the data row. Michael Ovitz also glanced over, equally anxious to see the merchandise figures.

The assistant quietly slipped out. Unable to read the document from his angle, Michael Ovitz shifted his gaze to Shinobu Ohga's face.

Shinobu Ohga's expression started out calm, but a moment later he turned pale, flushed red, and then went pale once more.

A sense of dread welled up in Michael Ovitz. That was absolutely not excitement!

"Ohga..." he spoke up.

Shinobu Ohga simply handed the document over. "See for yourself."

Taking the document, Michael Ovitz locked onto the data. A sudden wave of dizziness hit him. Fortunately, his wealth of experience allowed him to mask his emotions in an instant.

Even so, the numbers stung his eyes.

For the entirety of yesterday, Godzilla's merchandise sales revenue was $570,000!

Although this was only a rough estimate, and thus generally conservative, the actual finalized data couldn't possibly be more than twenty percent higher. Merchandise sales under a million dollars was nothing short of a mockery to those who had invested heavily to make a massive splash!

Furthermore, the adjacent statistical figure truly turned Godzilla's sales into a joke. The estimated single-day shipment volume for The Matrix merchandise yesterday was $8.79 million!

Doing a quick mental calculation, Michael Ovitz realized that not only had The Matrix brought in $12.35 million on Friday—pushing its North American box office up to $110.97 million—but its North American merchandise sales had also blown past the $60 million threshold in one fell swoop!

Was Duke Rosenberg really this hard to defeat? Was his nickname—the King of the Summer Season—actually the absolute truth?

Michael Ovitz sighed inwardly, but forced a confident look into his eyes as he told Shinobu Ohga, "This is only the first day. We cannot lose heart. We must continue to push forward. It's not as if Godzilla has no chance to turn things around!"

Shinobu Ohga looked at Michael Ovitz, then gave a slight nod. Sony Entertainment's plan was to turn Godzilla into a wildly successful film franchise like Jurassic Park. No matter what, continuing with the promotion was their only path forward.

This weekend, Sony Columbia Pictures intensified their promotional efforts for Godzilla, and the monster's silhouette could be seen everywhere across media and advertisements.

"Godzilla, a giant monster without precedent in history. Its film is incredibly spectacular and thrilling..."

Commercials and hype like this rolled out in an overwhelming wave, but as their competitor, Warner Brothers wasn't going to sit idly by.