Chapter 384: The Last Scene

In the office building on Wilshire Street, Michael Ovitz stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows. He gazed far out toward the Hollywood District, as if trying to see the Chinese Grand Theater, the premiere taking place there, and the crowds protesting outside.

Behind him, Michael Bay sat quietly on the sofa, his brows pinched into a tight knot on his long face.

His face was the perfect portrait of Pearl Harbor—a film that had opened high only to sink low.

"Is this really their doing?" Michael Bay asked suddenly.

Ovitz didn't turn around, his gaze still fixed on the distance. "Who can trace what gets said on the internet? I don't know if Duke and Warner Brothers are involved. I just know they're the ones benefiting from this wave of attacks against Pearl Harbor!"

It didn't matter who stood behind this surging tide of online negativity. Knowing who stood to gain was enough.

Following its second weekend, the box office for Pearl Harbor had taken a massive hit. Even the crisis public relations campaign launched by Disney and the Artists Management Company did little to help. The wave of criticism had already spilled from the internet into the real world. Fueled by people with ulterior motives, the backlash was impossible to fully suppress.

There was no hard evidence, but Michael Ovitz didn't need any to figure out that Warner Brothers and Duke Studio had to be the instigators. Moreover, the distributors behind the films currently competing with Pearl Harbor—Universal Pictures for The Mummy Returns and DreamWorks for Shrek—were certainly not just sitting on the sidelines. The target demographics for these films differed, but they were still competing for market share. Only a fool would pass up a chance to keep Pearl Harbor down.

Besides, doing so came with real benefits.

Over the past three weekdays, the film—widely mocked for using the attack on Pearl Harbor as mere background dressing for a melodramatic love triangle—had seen its daily box office plummet below 2.4 million dollars. The drop was so shockingly steep that even Michael Ovitz found it hard to stomach. Not only would the movie fall vastly short of expectations, but theater chains were already slashing its screen count.

Pearl Harbor had initially been playing in around 3,200 theaters, but right before the start of the new weekend, 300 locations had been axed. A hundred of those screens had been carved up by The Mummy Returns and Shrek, while the remaining two hundred were scooped up by The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring!

The epic masterpiece jointly crafted by Duke Rosenberg and Warner Brothers was set to open across an unprecedented 3,802 theaters in North America!

Just thinking about that number made the fury flare up in Michael Ovitz's chest.

Of course, he had never been the type to just sit back and play defense. If someone wanted to profit at his expense, they would have to weather his counterattack.

However, time was tight, and their opponents were technically playing within the rules. He and Disney couldn't afford to completely cross the line, so they settled for giving a firm push from the shadows behind certain events.

A premiere accompanied by a massive wave of protests was bound to be quite the spectacle.

A sea of people had gathered outside the Hollywood Chinese Theater. One star after another stepped onto the red carpet. Sitting in her car, Ivanka Trump flipped open the mirror on the back of the front seat to check her makeup and outfit. Once she was certain everything was perfect, she sat back carefully, mindful not to wrinkle her pale yellow evening gown as she waited to walk the carpet.

Unlike Tina Fey, she had an unusually high-profile father and had already made several media appearances herself. Even though she had zero interest in pursuing a Hollywood career, she wasn't entirely opposed to showing her face to the press.

After all, which major business leader in North America wasn't a constant focus of media attention?

Through the car window, Ivanka could see a relentless barrage of camera flashes lighting up one side of the red carpet. The sheer glare seemed to outshine even the fading western sun. It was obvious that The Fellowship of the Ring, hyped to the heavens by the studio's massive promotional campaign, had already commanded absolute attention!

However, the moment Ivanka rolled down her window just a fraction, a deafening roar of protests blasted into her ears like a howling hurricane. The shouts were so overwhelming that they almost entirely drowned out the cheers of the supportive fans lining the red carpet.

A premiere held amid protests? Hadn't it been enough for those people to protest in New Zealand? Were they really showing up here, too?

Ivanka's expression turned grim. As the car came to a halt and she stepped onto the red carpet, her face remained taut. She couldn't stop her gaze from shifting to the left. Not too far away, she could make out hundreds of fans of The Lord of the Rings. They were waving signs and banners, letting out wave after wave of shouts to express their dissatisfaction over the film adaptation.

To make matters worse, members of the press were stationed right in front of them, snapping photos and recording video. It looked to be a crew from Disney's ABC Television.

She had heard Tina Fey mention it before. Massive blockbusters released during the Summer Season often ran into all sorts of inexplicable troubles. These issues didn't just spawn out of thin air—they were usually tied to the rival films releasing around the same time.

Ivanka knew perfectly well that plenty of people in Hollywood were just waiting for Duke to become a laughingstock. The people who wanted to see him crash and burn were by no means few.

"Too bad you won't get the chance!" she muttered to herself, brimming with confidence.

She strode down the red carpet, completely ignoring the reporters begging her to stop for photos, and made a beeline for the interview area.

She had arrived somewhat late. The cast and crew had already finished their group photos and were clustered in twos and threes taking interviews from the press. Spotting a few familiar figures, Ivanka decided against interrupting them and simply walked straight into the Chinese Theater.

Stepping into the VIP lounge inside the theater, Ivanka found that she barely knew anyone there. Although many of the guests were massive stars who constantly graced the media, she was already immune to their aura, having spent so much time beside a top-tier director like Duke. Sweeping her gaze across the sprawling lounge, she spotted a middle-aged woman sitting with Tina Fey and immediately walked over.

"Hi, Tina," she greeted simply, before turning to the middle-aged woman with a polite smile. "Hello, Aunt Leah. It's so nice to see you."

"Hello, Evie," Mrs. Leah said, offering her a warm nod. "It looks like you've grown taller again."

"Just a bit." Ivanka looked distressed. "I think I might be getting a bit too tall."

She was now fully six feet eleven inches tall. She couldn't help but remember someone's comments about her imposing height and build, a thought that never failed to annoy her.

Just then, a lively clamor broke out at the lounge entrance. The entire cast and crew began coming in one after another. The three women glanced over, casually chatting about fashion and other women's topics as they waited. After spending a dozen minutes making his obligatory rounds, Duke quickly walked over to them.

But when Ivanka saw a woman walking right alongside him, her eyebrows knitted into a slight frown.

The woman exchanged a familiar greeting with Tina Fey and even leaned in to share a light hug with Mrs. Leah. She seemed incredibly close with both of them.

"Hi, Evie."

"Hi, Aerin."

Ivanka shook her outstretched hand. The woman was the older sister of one of her best friends.

Ivanka glanced over at Duke. He didn't bother to greet her—they were close enough that such pleasantries weren't necessary. He stepped straight up to Tina Fey, evidently discussing work, and Mrs. Leah's attention immediately shifted to him as well.

"Aerin, I had no idea you'd be here," Ivanka said, flashing a bright, deliberate smile.

Aerin Lauder frowned slightly but brushed it off. "Duke and I have been close friends for years. I almost never miss his premieres."

"And Jane?" Ivanka was smart enough to immediately steer the conversation elsewhere. "Didn't she come with you?"

"Jane is doing an internship at the company," Aerin replied. She then moved to excuse herself. "I'm going to go say hello to some of the others."

She worked in the fashion industry, a field heavily intertwined with Hollywood. Socializing at an event like this was inevitable.

Watching Aerin Lauder walk away, Ivanka furrowed her brow in thought, then gave her head a slight shake. Seeing Duke finish his conversation with Tina Fey, she approached him.

"There are people protesting outside," she said, her voice laced with concern. "Is that going to cause problems?"

"It'll definitely have an impact," Duke replied.

Duke took Mrs. Leah by the arm, offering a gesture to lead the way as they headed toward the screening room.

"But it doesn't matter," he told Ivanka as they walked. "Let them keep protesting. We've done plenty of promotional work. As long as the film wins over the audience, the spreading positive word of mouth will completely offset the negative impact of the hardcore book fans' protests."

The original The Lord of the Rings trilogy—from The Fellowship of the Ring to Return of the King—had always been accompanied by protests from book fans. No one could ever say for sure where the outrage truly came from, or if it was merely dissatisfaction with the adaptation. But the trilogy had ultimately crushed every obstacle in its path through stellar marketing and the sheer quality of the films.

Duke had confidence in himself.

Taking her seat in the front row, Ivanka turned to him with an encouraging tone. "We're definitely going to succeed."

It wasn't just the cast and crew who had faith in Duke; the fans who had watched the trailers shared that confidence. Norman Hiller had claimed a spot in the screening room early on. This die-hard Matrix fan had made meticulous preparations for the premiere. Starting an hour before he left home, he hadn't touched a drop of water. The very first thing he did upon entering the Hollywood Chinese Theater was hit the restroom to completely empty his stock, guaranteeing he wouldn't miss a single second of the movie due to a bathroom break once the film began.

After seeing the trailer, he had begun evolving from a Matrix fan into a The Lord of the Rings fan. Waiting to watch the full film was the final step of that evolution. He truly believed Duke wouldn't let the audience down. He never had!

Well, abandoning the Matrix franchise to make The Lord of the Rings had disappointed them at first. But if The Lord of the Rings proved outstanding enough, they were completely ready to forgive him and throw their loudest support behind him.

"Bly, why are we even here to see this movie?!"

A voice suddenly drifted over from the side.

"What we should be doing right now is standing outside and protesting with the others..." a middle-aged man grumbled to the nearly fifty-year-old man sitting next to him.

Hiller's eyebrows immediately shot up. A protester was in the theater?