Chapter 382: The Man with a Problem

Test screenings were crucial for any upcoming film. Based on the feedback, some producers would even make necessary cuts or recut the movie entirely.

Duke and The Fellowship of the Ring, however, were not among them.

The reason was simple. Both he and Warner Brothers were incredibly satisfied with the data from the test screenings.

Numerous Warner Brothers executives had gathered in a conference room on the executive floors of the Warner Building. Duke and Charles Roven had also been invited to attend, and the topic of discussion was The Fellowship of the Ring.

Doug Walter chaired the meeting. He wore an irrepressible look of excitement, acting as if the project he oversaw were already a massive blockbuster.

His voice was as soaring and loud as his mood as he announced, "Over the past week, we held a total of three test screenings, and the detailed data has been tallied!"

Even though everyone held a copy of the relevant documents, Doug Walter spoke anyway. "In terms of general audiences, a total of 1,345 people watched The Fellowship of the Ring, and the number who gave it an A+ rating is..."

He paused briefly, as if to grab everyone's attention. "1,215 people! Excluding the A- scores, the film's approval rating for A and above is a staggering ninety-eight percent!"

Despite having the relevant data right in front of them, many Warner Brothers executives widened their eyes upon hearing Doug Walter's words, as if they couldn't quite believe it.

Jamie Jensen was arguably the calmest person in the room. As the head of distribution and marketing who had been involved with both The Matrix and The Fellowship of the Ring from start to finish, he was already used to this!

Back when the film was still in post-production, he had watched the dailies and cut footage multiple times. Aside from shock and awe, he couldn't find the right adjectives to describe the feeling.

Sitting here now and hearing such explosive audience word-of-mouth, Jamie Jensen couldn't help but think of the promotional slogan he had devised—If there is anyone in this world who can successfully adapt The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is none other than Duke Rosenberg!

He felt that he was so brilliant, so visionary, to have foreseen Duke Rosenberg's success so early on!

The quality of the film was exceptionally outstanding, his marketing campaign had been incredibly effective, and the test screening buzz was overwhelmingly positive. The Fellowship of the Ring clearly showed the potential to be a massive blockbuster in the summer season!

Unlike the Warner executives with their varying thoughts, Charles Roven felt a wave of relief. He also felt that such acclaim was only natural. Having worked with Duke since The Rock, he knew just how outstanding the man's cinematic talent was!

Moreover, what stood out even more than his talent was his hard work and diligence. A continuous string of successes didn't seem to have brought him much arrogance or complacency; he treated every film with the same consistent dedication.

Only Charles Roven knew just how much effort the crew, including himself and Duke, had poured into this trilogy. New Zealand had practically become their home. They had been stationed in Australia since 1997, spending two years on pre-production. If Duke's time preparing the script was factored in, the entire pre-production period spanned a whopping four years!

The countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears poured in by hundreds of people had resulted in the final cut and the achievements they had today. There was no luck involved whatsoever.

Comparatively, Duke was one of the calmest people in the conference room. Judging from the test screening results, his decision to cut some shots that existed solely to showcase New Zealand, slightly accelerate the film's pacing, and enhance the visual effects had garnered an initial response that was more than satisfactory.

Doug Walter didn't stop speaking. "On the theater front, a total of 159 film buyers from major commercial theater chains across North America participated in the test screenings. In the end, 143 people gave a market expectation of A+, 11 gave an A, and there were also two A- and three B ratings."

He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping across everyone present. "The overall commercial assessment from the theaters is an A+. This means we can fight for the largest possible number of opening screens!"

The number of opening theaters would directly impact a film's first-week box office performance, and the first-week box office was critically important for summer season films.

It wasn't just distribution companies working the theater angles; in reality, the theaters themselves would select key projects to heavily promote from the massive slate of upcoming releases. Although the profitability of North American theaters increasingly relied on concessions like popcorn, the box office remained the key. No box office meant no audience, and without an audience, where would the concession sales come from?

A film capable of detonating the summer season was always the most anticipated project for theaters.

By late April, the feedback from the theaters had also reached Duke. Barring any accidents, The Fellowship of the Ring, which had the best test screening reception, was set to break the all-time opening weekend record.

The film would officially premiere in North America on the weekend before Memorial Day, opening in around 3,600 theaters!

"There's nothing we can do, Michael..."

Sitting at his desk, Michael Ovitz looked at Michael Bay sitting across from him. "I've called the top executives at AMG and Regal Entertainment more than once. As it stands, Pearl Harbor can only open in around 3,200 theaters."

Michael Bay's long face was somewhat gloomy. Since last year, he had been holding in a lot of pent-up energy, determined to compete with Duke Rosenberg in the summer season to prove he wasn't just an imitator. In fact, to prevent the media from once again attributing his success to imitating a certain someone, he had specifically increased the weight of the romance plot amidst the explosive battlefield scenes.

Except... except before the film had even premiered, he had already lost at the starting line!

A gap of around 400 opening theaters would likely lead to an even wider gap in box office numbers.

Forcing a tight smile, Michael Bay knew perfectly well that this was the theater market's most direct reaction to test screening buzz and the director's own influence. If he wanted to surpass Duke Rosenberg, he clearly still had a long way to go.

Michael Ovitz didn't say anything else to Michael Bay. He had already done everything he could, but the gap between Pearl Harbor's double A- rating from test audiences and theaters and The Fellowship of the Ring's double A+ rating simply couldn't be bridged by words and connections alone.

He and Disney had connections with the theater alliances, but Warner Brothers was no slouch in that regard either.

Warner Brothers had seen a significant increase in both performance and influence over the past few years. Within the MPAA, for example, they had quite a few supporters. During the rating process for The Fellowship of the Ring, Ovitz had tried to team up with Disney to push for an R-rated classification, but ultimately failed. The final rating for The Fellowship of the Ring was the same as Pearl Harbor's—a PG-13 Rating.

In this regard, Disney also didn't want to completely burn bridges with Warner Brothers. After all, if The Fellowship of the Ring had sensitive scenes, Pearl Harbor had its fair share as well.

If the two companies went to war following his suggestion, the only ones to benefit in the end would be the other studios.

Right now, Michael Ovitz's greatest hope was that Pearl Harbor's first-week box office would be outstanding enough. After all, examples of films with poor test screening buzz going on to become massive hits were not only present in Hollywood, but actually quite common.

Besides, Pearl Harbor's audience score of A- wasn't actually bad.

Summer season commercial films ultimately had to rely on market performance to speak for them. Michael Ovitz and Walt Disney had already done all the work they possibly could; all that was left was to wait for the movie to be released.

Every year, May marked the beginning of the North American film market's summer season, and every opening weekend was usually kicked off by the release of a massive blockbuster.

This year, the first weekend of May belonged to Universal Pictures. Directed by Stephen Sommers with a massive production budget of 98 million dollars, The Mummy Returns was the first to hit the screens in the summer season. Although the film's freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes dropped to sixty-five percent within three days, it scored a massive success in both audience word-of-mouth and opening weekend box office!

The Mummy Returns opened in 3,400 theaters across North America, raking in a staggering 68.13 million dollars in its first three days. Not only did it seize the crown on the North American weekly box office charts, but it also secured the best opening weekend box office numbers of the year so far.

However, in its second weekend, the film faced the onslaught of Pearl Harbor, a World War II epic with a 140 million dollar budget.

Walt Disney and the Artists Management Company had crafted an epic premiere for this film. Not only did they invite numerous Hollywood stars to show their support, but they also took a page out of Saving Private Ryan's premiere playbook and brought in dozens of veterans who had personally survived the Pearl Harbor attack.

The only problem was that after watching the movie, these veterans didn't really buy into the film or Disney's agenda.

Having survived the baptism of brutal war and now living at an age where they could pass away at any moment, they couldn't care less about Disney and the Artists Management Company's public relations. If the film had been as realistic and touching as Saving Private Ryan... no, even if it had only been half as good, they wouldn't have minded singing its praises.

But what the hell was this movie? The war lacked any realism whatsoever. It was one thing for it to look like a romantic fireworks show, but for it to dedicate the vast majority of its main plot to a melodramatic love triangle rather than the brutal realities of war... that director clearly had a screw loose!

During an interview, one veteran stated bluntly, "Is this a war movie? Why can't I feel it? This is clearly a movie about a love triangle, with the war just acting as a backdrop. Filming it like this is deeply disrespectful to that battlefield!"

Although the veterans were extremely dissatisfied, their comments struggled to appear in mainstream media under the weight of Disney's PR machine. Furthermore, in this day and age, as long as the media employed clever tactics, veterans could sometimes be the center of public attention, and other times become targets of public disdain.

In the face of Walt Disney, they ultimately had no way to make their voices heard.

Pearl Harbor's production cost was a massive 140 million dollars, and the advance promotional hype had been well executed. Although Michael Bay was known as the Little Explosion Maniac, this also indirectly proved that his works were quite popular with the market and mainstream audiences. The film's attendance rate over its first three-day weekend was actually fairly decent.

Opening in 3,214 theaters in North America, it raked in an opening weekend box office of 59.07 million dollars, successfully dethroning The Mummy Returns—which earned 33.74 million dollars over the same period—from the top of the box office charts.

However, compared to its dazzling box office numbers, the film's audience word-of-mouth was absolute garbage!