Chapter 393: One Billion in Three Days

Box office revenue was by no means the only way to judge a film's quality. This was an undeniable fact, and even a quintessential commercial director like Duke could not deny it. However, for the studios, for Duke himself, and for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the box office was the sole metric that mattered. This was especially true in the Chinese market, where ticket sales accounted for over ninety percent of the film's local revenue.

Star Wars merchandise had indeed penetrated every corner of the globe, but the Chinese market was the absolute exception. While Star Wars toys and themed T-shirts could be spotted in major and mid-sized cities across the country, the vast majority of them were cheap knock-offs.

Duke knew perfectly well that expecting merchandise like BB-8 and the Jedi Lightsaber—which sold phenomenally in North America and other mature film markets—to flood the Chinese market with the same success was completely impossible at this stage. While the merchandise industry within the Chinese film market had reached a certain scale, for a blockbuster like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, its sales figures could only be described as better than nothing.

According to Lucasfilm and Duke's plans, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens project was not expected to turn a profit from the Chinese merchandise market. Instead, the goal was to cultivate Chinese consumers' interest in Star Wars and its merchandise, laying the groundwork for future box office hauls and merchandise sales.

Markets had to be nurtured. There was no such thing in this world as a market that was extremely mature right from the start.

To lay that groundwork, Chinese consumers at the very least needed to go watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Duke's decision to cast Daniel Wu, along with the series of plans formulated by Lucasfilm and Warner Brothers, were all deliberate extensions of this established strategy.

Therefore, the box office was the sole metric for determining the success or failure of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the Chinese market.

The previous Star Wars: The Force Awakens had lacked a hype-generating promotional hook like Daniel Wu, and its director certainly had not been a Hollywood director with Duke's level of influence in China. Walt Disney's promotional and marketing strategy had focused too heavily on first-tier megacities. This directly resulted in the film performing brilliantly at the box office in those major hubs—accounting for nearly seventy percent of its Chinese box office gross—while its performance in non-first-tier markets was lukewarm at best, ultimately suffering a disastrous defeat in both ticket sales and audience word-of-mouth.

To avoid these issues, Duke had Lucasfilm and Katherine Kennedy put in ample work well in advance. They even went so far as to grant free broadcasting rights for the first six Star Wars films to local television networks and online video platforms.

Based on Duke's expectations and the preliminary market research feedback from the Warner Greater China Region, Lucasfilm had set a Chinese box office target for Star Wars: The Force Awakens: two billion RMB!

Perhaps Lucasfilm and Warner Brothers had simply done enough work; perhaps it was Duke's unparalleled box office draw among all global film directors; or perhaps it was because the previous month's releases of The Crossing Part 1 and Gone with the Bullets had kicked off a solid month of terrible films, driving the market's hunger to an absolute peak and causing all of its potential to suddenly erupt...

As a result, the opening day of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in China delivered a massive surprise to Duke, Warner Brothers, and Lucasfilm.

During its public release in the Mainland China market, Star Wars: The Force Awakens followed the same trend it had in most regions of the world, taking the lead by shattering the midnight screening box office record with 51 million RMB. Once daylight broke, it displayed a crushing momentum, frantically sweeping up 340 million RMB. Combined with the midnight screenings and accounting for statistical error, its exact opening day box office reached 410 million RMB, far exceeding the previous Chinese market opening day record of 230 million RMB set by The Avengers in May and June two years prior.

In truth, the so-called "midnight screenings" were not restricted exclusively to midnight. Because an overwhelming number of theatergoers had mobilized in the dead of night, major theater chains like Wanda Cinemas had even arranged 2:45 AM showtimes—all of which completely sold out. By the time many audience members finished the movie, it was already past five in the morning. They could basically dawdle a bit and step straight into the sunrise.

Once the sun rose, Star Wars: The Force Awakens advanced into a frenzied mode. Theaters across the nation were packed with people, making a single ticket incredibly hard to find. Anyone wanting to get a good seat had to buy tickets for several days in advance.

By the end of the day, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had swept up a single-day box office of just over 400 million RMB, establishing a new record in Chinese cinematic history. The previous historical record had similarly been set by The Avengers, directed by Duke.

"Last time, Director Duke Rosenberg's The Avengers already gave us our most optimistic projections yet for the Chinese film market," a theater chain executive said in an interview, absolutely unsparing in his praise. "His work directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens this time has doubled everyone's imagination for what the Chinese market can achieve."

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens is raking in gold daily!"

On the second day of the film's public release, headlines like this appeared in highly prominent positions on almost all major websites and mainstream media outlets. The ripple effect brought by its ultra-high box office was operating at maximum capacity.

Currently, the total number of screens in the Chinese film market exceeded 25,000, with a total of roughly 150,000 daily showtimes. Under normal circumstances, any film reaching a screen share of around fifty percent could be called a "phenomenal film." The Crossing Part 1 had a first-day screen share of 54.2 percent, while Jiang Xiaojun's Gone with the Bullets hit 58 percent when it was released last month, both setting the highest screen share records at the time.

These were privileges that only domestic films over here could enjoy, but there was one thing that could never be forgotten: capital would never, under any circumstances, oppose profit.

Originally, the opening day screen share for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was only fifty-one percent, but the 400 million RMB box office haul it secured acted like a shot of adrenaline, stimulating the nerves of the distributor, the China Film Group, and all the theater chain companies. Completely disregarding the fact that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a film from Hollywood, they eagerly rushed to increase the number of screens showing the film.

By the second day of its public release in China, the screen share for Star Wars: The Force Awakens skyrocketed directly to seventy-one percent. The massive Chinese film market practically became the sole domain of Star Wars: The Force Awakens alone. Although the rest of the films combined still held nearly thirty percent of the screen share, out of the 380 million RMB grossed by nationwide theater chains that day, Star Wars: The Force Awakens alone contributed 340 million RMB, accounting for nearly ninety percent. It was simply too crazy.

After just two days of release, the cumulative box office for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Mainland China had already surpassed 700 million RMB. The media churned out report after report, the internet boiled over, and discussions about the film echoed everywhere. In the shortest possible time, it formed a societal trend, creating the feeling that anyone who did not watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens was outdated and incapable of conversing with others.

Although this feeling triggered resentment among a small minority of people, it was able to hook the interest of the mainstream demographic. In this world, North American audiences were not the only ones susceptible to following trends; the vast majority of audiences in the Chinese market were no exception.

Therefore, following the 400 million RMB and 340 million RMB it earned over the previous two days, the box office on the final day of the first Chinese weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens remained strong, easily breaking the 300 million mark to rake in 310 million RMB.

The Chinese film market decided its weekly box office champion based on the total box office amount over the full seven days of the week, but with Star Wars: The Force Awakens amassing a staggering 1 billion RMB in just three days of release, it undoubtedly faced no rivals, easily securing the top spot on the Chinese box office charts.

Meanwhile, the Warner Greater China Region had not relaxed its promotional marketing for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the slightest.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes one billion in three days, shattering multiple Chinese box office records."

In China's rapidly developing film market, promotional reports like this were undoubtedly even better at attracting the attention of potential audiences—especially casual viewers—thereby pulling them into the theaters.

After the three-day opening weekend of Star Wars: The Force Awakens concluded, the focus of the promotion was very direct: the brand-new Chinese cinematic history box office records it had created.

"1. Highest midnight screening record: 51.3 million RMB; 2. Highest single-film single-day record: 410 million RMB; 3. Highest daily overall market record: 430 million RMB; 4. Fastest record to break 100 million: 8 hours; 5. Fastest record to break 200 million: 13 hours; 6. Fastest record to break 300 million: 17 hours; 7. Fastest record to break 400 million: 23 hours; 8. Fastest record to break 500 million: 28 hours; 9. Fastest record to break 1 billion: three days..."

Beneath news like this, almost all the media outlets mentioned another matter.

"The previous holder for every single one of these records was The Avengers, directed by Duke Rosenberg!"

Without a doubt, Duke's box office draw in this land and market was far beyond what any other Hollywood director or even all Hollywood superstars combined could match. Over the course of twenty years, through multiple formats such as videotapes, DVDs, internet downloads, and theatrical releases, he had used a production style that was the most mainstream and catered to popular tastes to cultivate tens of millions of Chinese "Duke fanboys" and a massive potential audience group of hundreds of millions who knew or had heard his name.

These were the most precious and scarce film resources. It was exactly because of their existence that the unparalleled trend driven by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in China was created.

The three-day box office for Star Wars: The Force Awakens had instantly crushed every Chinese film save for two. Furthermore, completing the overtake of those two domestic films was merely a matter of the next two or three days.

Just as Hollywood film workers did not want to see foreign films occupy the North American theatrical market, Chinese film professionals absolutely did not wish to see their own country's film market completely dominated in such a short time by a foreign invader from North America.