Chapter 381: Old Friends

After the 2001 Oscar Awards Ceremony, Duke finished editing the footage for The Fellowship of the Ring, but post-production was far from over. He still needed to add Howard Shore's musical score before tackling the sound effects.

Overall, Howard Shore's score perfectly met Duke's requirements, but he didn't immediately begin those final two tasks.

For the score, Shore had blended symphony and opera, extensively gathering world music elements from Africa, India, and Celtic traditions. He carefully crafted a new-age fantasy epic melody, unleashing a stirring, awe-inspiring majesty that surged in massive waves.

There was no issue with the compositions themselves. What Duke wasn't satisfied with was the performance.

"Howard, I don't have a single complaint about your music."

In the conference room of The Lord of the Rings Studio, Duke sat at the head of the table. The project naturally deferred to his judgment.

"But the performance level of the musicians is just a little weak," he said.

It was a glaring issue. Even a musical layman like Duke could hear it.

This was also because, as a massive fan of The Lord of the Rings, he carried far too deep an impression of the score and performances from his previous life.

"Duke, our schedule," Doug Walter reminded him. "We have less than a month until the test screening."

Duke frowned and thought for a moment.

"The test screening will use the un-scored version," he said.

This was a common practice in Hollywood. Doug Walter considered it for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Charles..." Duke turned to his production manager. "You're responsible for contacting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Lock them down as quickly as possible."

After Charles Roven nodded, Duke continued, "Howard, once Charles reaches an agreement with the Philharmonic, I need you to communicate with them immediately."

"No problem." Howard Shore nodded.

Finally, Duke looked at Doug Walter. The man was highly likely to become the next CEO of Warner Brothers, making it necessary to maintain a good relationship with him.

"Doug, Howard's compositions are brilliant," Duke said. "I think they have the potential to become classics. Having a far superior orchestra perform them will be a huge help for the original soundtrack album down the line..."

He slowly drew out his words. "If the film succeeds as well as I expect it to, we can even collaborate with the Philharmonic in the future to host The Lord of the Rings concerts!"

Doug Walter's eyes immediately lit up. This would undoubtedly add another lucrative revenue stream for the film.

Currently, various promotional products for the film were deep in development and production. Numerous accessories—such as the Lord of the Rings Necklace, the Elven Shortbow, elven headpieces, and the Evenstar Pendant—along with character action figures, were nearly ready to enter distribution.

The revenue sources for this franchise wouldn't just come from the box office, DVDs, and television broadcasting rights; the various merchandise lines were an equally critical priority.

The meeting concluded. Adding the score and editing the sound effects were put on hold. Charles Roven and Doug Walter set off to tackle their respective negotiations and promotional duties based on Duke's decisions.

Charles Roven's negotiations with the Philharmonic yielded results first. The Los Angeles Philharmonic certainly had a resounding reputation and a massive scale, but that also meant staggering expenses. Still, it wasn't their first time recording a movie score. Faced with a high enough offer, the two sides quickly reached an agreement. Howard Shore then headed to the Philharmonic's headquarters to help them familiarize themselves with the sheet music and performance style as quickly as possible.

Beyond that, at the recommendation of Howard Shore and the Philharmonic, The Lord of the Rings Studio also brought in famous soprano Renée Fleming, legendary singer Annie Lennox, and flutist James Galway to polish the score.

This directly meant that the final cost of The Fellowship of the Ring would exceed Duke's original estimate of 115 million dollars.

Duke hadn't been idle during this time either. Together with Weta Studio, he continued to perfect the film's visual effects. Since they were already over budget, he simply raised the film's total production budget to 120 million dollars!

At the same time, the various promotional campaigns for the film were proceeding in an orderly manner.

In mid-April, on the eve of the test screening, every property across the United States associated with Trump Industries replaced the billboards in their most prominent locations with massive posters for The Fellowship of the Ring, drawing sideways glances from countless passersby.

It was undeniable that Donald Trump's showboating marketing tactics easily provoked resentment, but his eye for real estate was quite sharp. The various skyscrapers under Trump Industries were almost all located in the most prosperous districts of major American cities. Perhaps his reputation had grown even louder after that previous mega-show, or perhaps it was because he was making a cameo in this film, but he showed absolutely no intention of violating their contract. After Duke made a single phone call, he actively coordinated with the promotional efforts for The Lord of the Rings.

In fact, during the latest episode of Walk with a Billionaire that he recorded for NBC, he specifically mentioned The Lord of the Rings and invited cast members like Elijah Wood and Sean Astin to appear on his show after the film's release.

The ratings for this program were quite impressive. As a businessman, Donald Trump had his reasons for being so enthusiastic; chief among them was his belief that the film would be a massive hit, meaning inviting The Lord of the Rings cast would continue to expand his show's influence...

Besides, this was an invitation for after the release. If the film flopped, he could simply cancel the offer altogether.

In short, just like in the past, Warner Brothers unleashed every promotional tactic at their disposal. The slight difference this time was that they heavily increased their marketing efforts on the internet.

In the successes of The Matrix and The Blair Witch Project, internet marketing had played a vital role, especially for the latter.

The major Hollywood studios weren't fools. Given those examples, how could they fail to see the immense value the internet held for the film industry?

However, compared to the major Hollywood companies who were late to the game, the army of paid online shills controlled by Duke's camp was already massive. Even in the Rotten Tomatoes poll for the most anticipated Summer Season films, The Fellowship of the Ring pulled in a 99 percent anticipation rate and a 9.9-out-of-10 score with over 100,000 users participating.

While the film truly was highly anticipated by audiences, the role played by the paid online shills could not be ignored.

Duke was very clear on the fact that both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB could be swayed by paid online shills. After all, the farce of a certain director's rabid fans review-bombing scores in his past life had been far too notorious.

To put it bluntly, Duke and Warner Brothers were using every trick and avenue available to build momentum for the film.

No blockbuster became a massive hit simply because it was produced with sufficiently high quality. Looking throughout Hollywood's history, the number of exceptionally well-made, even classic films that flopped due to inadequate marketing and distribution was countless.

True, Duke possessed the relevant memories from his past life, but making a movie wasn't as simple as copying and pasting. If he didn't have his past experience and hadn't spent his first decade in this world grinding and working tirelessly, what would it matter even if he had watched or meticulously studied those films?

Directing was highly professional work!

Then came promotion. Could a film become a massive hit without marketing support? There was only ever one Titanic in this world.

Even regarding that legendary big ship, although its early marketing had been relatively average, once the film showed signs of becoming a hit, the subsequent promotional blitz had been a truly overwhelming bombardment!

Then there was distribution, which was even more critical to a film. Lacking the backing of a distributor meant failing to secure enough theater screens. Without screens, where would the box office revenue come from? Without sufficient ticket buyers, where would the high merchandise revenue come from?

Duke knew that these films had been massive hits in his previous life, but did anyone else know that? Hollywood churned out so many movies every single year. If he didn't have enough clout now, and this had been a few years earlier, why would distributors and theater chains ever throw their full weight behind his movie?

There was also the release window. Ordinary directors had zero say in the matter. What if The Matrix had collided with that big ship? What would the consequences have been?

Whether a film could achieve massive success at the box office and in merchandise sales relied on its quality only as the most fundamental prerequisite. The subsequent factors that could influence the outcome were simply far too numerous.

Take Spider-Man from his past life, for example. If the theatrical release hadn't cut out the scene of Peter Parker crawling on the World Trade Center, what kind of disastrous backlash would it have triggered?

Any successful film relied on much more than just the film itself.

Duke had never once harbored the delusion that if he neglected the promotion and distribution for The Fellowship of the Ring, he could just casually toss the film out there to effortlessly slaughter the competition and claim the top spot on the North American box office charts, especially when facing a gauntlet of massive, heavily marketed blockbusters like Pearl Harbor, Shrek, and Tomb Raider.

That was nothing but a total pipe dream!

Success never just delivered itself to your doorstep; it always required a person to put in the hard work.

To that end, Duke had prepared an 80 million dollar promotional budget for The Fellowship of the Ring, pushing the first installment's total investment up to a staggering 200 million dollars!

The importance of the first installment's success or failure to a franchise went without saying. As long as The Fellowship of the Ring became a massive hit, the subsequent two films would save a massive fortune in promotional expenses.

Factoring in the fees the film had to pay to the Tolkien estate representatives and the original copyright holders, The Fellowship of the Ring would need to hit a global box office of at least 600 million to 650 million dollars to break even from ticket sales alone.

This was undeniably an immense amount of pressure. However, Duke carried mountain-like pressure on every single one of his major productions. No matter how heavy the burden, it could not crush his rock-solid shoulders.

Time slowly crept toward May. Although the score was still being recorded, the test screening could no longer be delayed. During the last weekend of April, Warner Brothers organized three consecutive test screenings attended by theater chain representatives, media journalists, and ordinary audiences. The statistical data gathered from these screenings would directly impact the distribution of The Fellowship of the Ring.

If the word-of-mouth from both the theater chains and the general public turned out to be terrible, even if it was a Duke production, there was no way it would open on a massive scale.