Chapter 303: First Week Box Office Exceeds Expectations

The end of the world was approaching, and the male lead played by Bruce Willis was humanity's last hope. At the critical moment, he pressed the Nuclear Bomb's control button. A massive explosion filled the silver screen, lighting up the theater. The footage cut rapidly, showing the excitement of the saved humans back on Earth.

The film clearly used explosions to evoke emotion. Its fast, sharp cuts easily stirred the audience's feelings.

Earth was saved, and the film ended. Allen and Jones walked out of the theater.

"Why does this feel so familiar?"

As they walked out of the theater, Jones said to Allen, "The constant rapid cuts, the crazy explosions, the cities being blown to pieces..."

Allen picked up the thought. "This movie is exactly like Duke's earliest style. Speed, Independence Day, and The Rock were all like this."

"Exactly." Jones nodded in agreement. "Michael Bay really lives up to the name Little Explosion Maniac. It looks like he learned a lot from Duke."

"It's a pity he only learned the outdated stuff, the things Duke doesn't use anymore." Allen sighed. "Duke has long since moved past the stage of relying purely on sensory stimulation to attract audiences. Michael Bay is just The Second Duke Rosenberg. The gap between Armageddon and The Matrix is far too obvious, and the gap between Michael Bay and Duke is even more apparent."

At the turn of the century, various rumors of the world's end circulated through society. Deep Impact and Armageddon were born for the times. However, due to their different distribution companies, their treatment differed drastically. Because of DreamWorks, the former was simultaneously suppressed by all the major studios. The latter was a Walt Disney production, boasting a massive opening across 3,127 theaters!

Explosion Bay had conquered countless North American audiences early in his career with dazzling editing and a crazy talent for explosions. The current Michael Bay was walking that same path. However, on some paths, the first person to walk them got to eat the meat, the second might only get to gnaw the bones, and anyone coming after might only get to drink the broth.

Armageddon was undoubtedly the culminating work of Michael Bay's early era. It even pushed the film genre that combined emotional explosions with other vulgar Summer Season elements to a new peak.

But the situation had long since changed. Since the early nineties, North American audiences had been continuously baptized by Duke with three films selling explosive visual effects. Their expectations for this type of movie had undoubtedly fallen significantly.

No one could deny that Armageddon was an excellent Summer Season popcorn flick. But the results it delivered on its first day of wide release didn't quite match the film's 140 million dollar production budget.

On its opening Friday, Armageddon raked in 9.66 million dollars across 3,127 theaters.

This film, themed around an asteroid striking Earth, had an opening performance only slightly better than its counterpart, Deep Impact.

Without a doubt, the steady box office momentum of The Matrix was clearly affecting the films opening after it.

At the start of this new weekend, compared to the steady daily box office decline of the previous few days, The Matrix experienced another rebound. Across 3,110 theaters, it jumped twenty-seven percent from Thursday's 7.52 million dollars to bring in 9.7 million, perfectly edging out Armageddon.

The box office rebound of Godzilla was also a factor impacting Armageddon. The monster film saw a twenty-five percent increase on Friday, raking in 5.43 million dollars.

Compared to The Matrix and Armageddon, Godzilla had already fallen behind. This weekend's North American film market was entirely a bloodbath between the first two.

Online discussions and analyses of The Matrix had been constantly heating up. At this stage, there was absolutely no need to rely on paid online shills for further guidance. Duke had already walked the path Michael Bay was on. He knew very well that the demographic most fond of these films was teenagers, and teenagers were also the largest group the internet could influence.

Penny Kalis's internet PR department had already sprung into action the moment the Armageddon premiere ended. Traces of their activity could be seen across major websites and forums, including IMDB.

"The movie Armageddon is sheer agony for your sight, hearing, brain, common sense, and your simple desire to watch a good movie."

"Trying to pick out errors in a film like Armageddon is like shooting an elephant with an 'ant gun.' It lacks none of the fatal cinematic flaws—absurd plotlines, weak characterizations, baffling performances, and relentless noise—it has them all."

"Let me count the reasons to hate Armageddon... one... two... three..."

"Armageddon is confusing, lacking thrilling pacing or compelling character performances. This is largely due to aesthetic fatigue. Michael Bay is entirely imitating the young Duke Rosenberg, and it's an incredibly clumsy imitation."

On the relatively free-speech platform of the internet, remarks detrimental to Michael Bay and Armageddon spread everywhere in just a single day. Facing this new, virus-like method of spreading negative discourse, a massive, sluggish traditional conglomerate was utterly unprepared to respond.

Beneath these smear posts, there were often numerous replies from incited netizens. Moreover, to the vast majority of audiences, it truly looked like Michael Bay was imitating Duke's earliest cinematic style.

"Michael Bay is just copying Duke; his movie has absolutely nothing new to offer."

"I went to see Armageddon. Sure, there are plenty of explosions, but those are just the tricks Duke tossed aside. And compared to The Matrix, what kind of garbage is he filming..."

Walt Disney had heavily participated in reporting last week's shooting incident, and their subsidiary, ABC Television, had been one of the most active participants. Even now, Disney's media outlets were still exploiting the shooting incident for coverage, influencing the choices of many moviegoers.

Competition was everywhere in this industry, let alone during the Summer Season, the most critical period for commercial films. No one could say anything against Disney's actions, but Warner Brothers wasn't about to settle for playing defense in this rivalry either.

Aside from Duke's internet campaign, Warner was also actively smearing this Walt Disney blockbuster across traditional media.

"Although Armageddon is spectacular and loud, it has absolutely no originality. Michael Bay uses all the cinematic techniques Duke Rosenberg has already abandoned. Both men are famous for creating explosions, yet the gap between them is glaringly obvious..."

—Time

"This is a sci-fi film, yes, but the science fiction in Armageddon is built on the foundation of the real world. We just want to ask, just how unreliable is the film's plot? Is there anything more absurd and laughable than sending a bunch of ordinary oil drillers into space to drill holes on an asteroid?"

—Los Angeles Times

Today's Michael Bay, in every aspect other than age, lagged massively behind Duke. Perhaps traditional media's influence on teenagers was waning, but in North America—the birthplace of the internet—years of development had made the web an indispensable part of life for many youths and even office workers.

For commercial films, the opening Saturday box office was generally higher than Friday's. However, impacted by this series of unfavorable factors, Armageddon's Saturday box office unexpectedly dropped by twelve point seven percent, taking in only 8.44 million dollars for the day.

The Matrix continued its steady trend, seeing a slight uptick on Saturday. It raked in 10.11 million dollars for the day, once again suppressing Armageddon and establishing an absolute advantage during this weekend release window.

Once Saturday passed, the weekend competition between Armageddon and The Matrix became clear. Following that, Armageddon continued to slide on Sunday, finishing the day at 8.11 million dollars.

The Matrix couldn't escape normal market trends either. Its weekend rebound lost momentum, and its Sunday box office slipped to 9.21 million dollars.

"Los Angeles Times reports: Over the just-concluded fourth weekend of May, The Matrix continued its strong performance since its release. In its third weekend, it pulled in 29.02 million dollars, astonishingly securing its third consecutive championship on the weekly box office charts."

"Impacted by the dominant run of The Matrix, the opening weekend box office for Armageddon fell short of Walt Disney's expected 40 million dollars, finishing its first weekend with 26.21 million dollars to take second place on the charts."

"Coming in third is Godzilla, a massive investment by Sony Columbia Pictures. Hit hard by a severe drop in audience word-of-mouth, the film's box office took a massive dive this weekend, plummeting by fifty percent to bring in only 13.15 million dollars."

"As of now, the cumulative North American box office for The Matrix has reached 200.07 million dollars, temporarily securing the top spot on the North American annual box office charts. Meanwhile, the film has expanded into more overseas markets, amassing 156.99 million dollars internationally. Its global box office is already approaching 400 million dollars, making it the highest-grossing film released so far this year!"

After the weekend passed, the final Monday of May arrived. This was a traditional North American holiday—Memorial Day. The box office for the vast majority of films saw some decline, though the drop was extremely limited.

The Matrix took in another 8.95 million dollars, pushing its North American box office to 220.42 million dollars. Armageddon also trended steadily, closing out the day with 8.05 million dollars and bumping its North American haul to 34.26 million dollars. After claiming 4.95 million dollars, Godzilla saw its North American box office rise to 64.82 million dollars, making it highly likely to eventually break the 100 million mark domestically.

DreamWorks, meanwhile, had become the biggest loser since the start of the Summer Season. From its marketing to its screening and theater distribution, Deep Impact had suffered a comprehensive siege by the Big Six Companies. After passing its fourth weekend in theaters, both its per-theater average and its overall box office fell below the theater operators' psychological bottom line. Coupled with pressure from the Big Six Companies, it became the target of a mandatory withdrawal by the North American Theater Alliance. Its final North American box office figure stalled out at 70.06 million dollars.