Chapter 405: A New Weekend Box Office Record

To contact the eyes of Hollywood, Duke certainly wasn't going to use his own people. There were countless people in the world willing to work for money. Besides Anthony Pellicano, he also tapped his connection with Sheriff Carter of the Los Angeles County Police Department to secretly hire a former FBI agent named Edward Newgate. With this two-pronged approach, he intended to dig into Christophe Rocancourt's background to see if the man was exactly what he feared.

Of course, Duke wasn't doing this simply because the man had the audacity to show up at his doorstep. After giving it some thought, he saw the potential benefits the situation could bring.

Simply put, he wasn't Hollywood's peacekeeper. Why would he go to such lengths if there was nothing in it for him?

An investigation like this couldn't be concluded overnight. It required a significant amount of time. After instructing Nancy Josephson to keep stalling negotiations with Christophe Rocancourt, Duke turned his focus back to the post-production of The Two Towers.

The Two Towers required far more visual effects shots than The Fellowship of the Ring. After the computer graphics team at Weta Studio finished rendering Treebeard, they split into three main working groups. A small number of people continued working on effects for scenes like the Battle of Minas Tirith, which belonged to Return of the King. Another group handled the scattered effects shots for The Two Towers, while the remaining team focused all their energy on creating the effects for the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of Isengard.

Duke, meanwhile, worked with Mike Dawson on the film's rough cut. Although the amount of footage he shot was nowhere near what Peter Jackson had once filmed, the trilogy still used over two million feet of film. Cutting down the first version to a five-hour workprint was an incredibly tedious task.

He adhered to the same editing philosophy he had for The Fellowship of the Ring. Unless absolutely necessary, he discarded any landscape shots that existed solely to show off the scenery. He also planned to make some adjustments to Sam and Frodo's storyline to avoid the sluggish pacing of the original timeline.

The final film was bound to exceed two and a half hours, perhaps even pushing three. With such a massive runtime, keeping the audience from feeling the pace drag was a challenge Duke had been mulling over since his work on The Fellowship of the Ring.

Meanwhile, The Fellowship of the Ring was still going strong in its North American theatrical run. However, after dominating the North American market for four consecutive weeks, its most explosive period was clearly in the rearview mirror. A cooling trend was inevitable. Moreover, the competition in this summer season was exceptionally fierce, with one familiar film after another hitting the big screen.

Over the following weekend, the third installment of Jurassic Park—the most successful monster movie franchise in North American film history—made a strong debut. Despite abysmal audience word-of-mouth, the film leveraged the massive influence of its two predecessors to rake in a 50.77-million-dollar opening weekend, knocking The Fellowship of the Ring off the top of the box office charts.

The Fellowship of the Ring only pulled in 14.21 million dollars over the three-day weekend. Combined with the 13.56 million dollars earned over the previous four weekdays, it successfully pushed its North American box office past the 350-million-dollar mark, reaching 358.37 million dollars.

The film's overseas box office had also broken the 400-million-dollar threshold, and its global total was marching steadily toward 800 million dollars. Surpassing Duke's highest-grossing film, Independence Day, was now an absolute certainty.

Corresponding to its commercial success was the film's stellar reputation. The audience approval rating in theaters had remained steady at around ninety percent. Although its IMDB rating had slightly dropped, it still sat at an impressive 9.3.

The original franchise had been the most successful fantasy work in global cinematic history. The later hobbit and Pirates of the Caribbean series couldn't even begin to compare in terms of status and critical acclaim. While the later installments of Pirates of the Caribbean matched the box office heights of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, no one would be foolish enough to compare a maritime popcorn franchise with The Lord of the Rings.

The two simply weren't on the same level.

The biggest issues with the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy were its length and somewhat plodding pace. Certain plotlines clearly revealed how Peter Jackson—a die-hard fan of the books—had hesitated when making cuts.

But Duke would not hesitate. The professional opinions of critics and considerations for the Oscar meant nothing to him.

Of course, the film would definitely make a push for the Oscar. After Sofia Coppola's warning deepened his suspicions, he didn't cut contact with Christophe Rocancourt. Instead, he had Nancy Josephson string the man along, all as part of his scheming for the future Oscar race.

The Oscar was still a long way off. Right now, what The Fellowship of the Ring needed to do was maximize its profits in the market.

The July night sky was exceptionally bright, its pristine moonlight spilling over the outskirts of Chicago. Roger Ebert sat beneath a vine-wrapped porch, looking at the agent sitting across from him.

The agent pulled a document from his briefcase and was about to hand it over, but Roger Ebert shook his head and stopped him.

"Just tell me what it says." His expression was rather grim.

Even without looking at the statistical data for The Fellowship of the Ring, Roger Ebert knew it had to be a number that would make him lose face.

Glancing at Roger Ebert's darkened, aged face, the agent hesitated for a moment but still prepared to read out the string of numbers. After all, he had delivered the statistical reports for The Fellowship of the Ring one by one. Roger Ebert should have been mentally prepared by now. Even getting slapped in the face was something a person could get used to if it happened often enough.

"Just yesterday, the North American box office for The Fellowship of the Ring officially crossed the 400-million-dollar threshold, reaching 401.01 million dollars..."

Roger Ebert took a deep breath, seemingly suppressing his frustration, and then interrupted the agent. "What about the global box office?"

"978.52 million dollars!" the agent said directly. "It has already become the best box office performance of Duke Rosenberg's entire film career."

"Merchandise!" Roger Ebert's question seemed squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Looking at the numbers released by Warner Brothers, global merchandise sales are sitting at roughly 380 million dollars, and the film's licensing revenue is around 200 million dollars."

Suddenly, the agent heard rapid breathing from across the table. He quickly looked up and saw Roger Ebert taking several deep breaths in a row. The critic then picked up his long-cold coffee and chugged half the cup before the gloomy cast over his face finally began to dissipate.

"Roger..."

He wanted to offer a few words of comfort, but Roger Ebert raised a hand to cut him off. "I'm fine. I won't collapse before I see Duke Rosenberg fall!"

The agent shut his mouth. Roger Ebert fell deep into thought, and silence descended over the porch.

"I have reliable information, Roger."

As Roger Ebert's agent, he naturally knew where critics wielded their greatest influence these days. "Warner Brothers has already begun preparing an Oscar campaign for The Fellowship of the Ring."

If it were just a pure popcorn flick like Independence Day, it would have zero chance at the Oscars. The problem was that The Fellowship of the Ring was not some summer season popcorn movie. Its original source material had a massive audience, and many past Hollywood films and directors had been profoundly influenced by it.

Roger Ebert understood his agent's implication. He slowly shook his head. "This is just the beginning of the trilogy. No matter how much groundwork Warner Brothers lays, they'll only win a few irrelevant awards. Duke Rosenberg will get a nomination at best; there's no way he'll take home the Best Director Golden Statuette."

Hearing this, the agent nodded. The logic was incredibly simple. The trilogy was shot and produced together. Unless the School had water in the brain, they wouldn't toss out their heavyweight awards for the very first installment.

"So..." Roger Ebert's sinister voice sounded as if it came from hell. "We don't need to do much for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. We'll save all our strength for Return of the King!"

He scoffed coldly. "As long as I'm still breathing, he can forget about winning Best Director!"

By now, Roger Ebert saw things very clearly. It was impossible for Duke Rosenberg to step away from massive blockbusters and pivot to arthouse cinema. Trying to win Best Director with a commercial blockbuster? It was certainly possible, but if he rallied the majority of film critics to launch an attack, it would undoubtedly slash Duke's chances of winning.

After having his butler see the agent out, Roger Ebert dialed the numbers for David Denby, a man wielding massive influence in the New York Film Critics Association, and Todd McCarthy, a veteran figure in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Although the three of them were in competition to varying degrees, they shared common interests when it came to matters concerning the film criticism industry.

A targeted sabotage campaign was already being planned while Return of the King was still in production.

By late July, when the accumulated North American box office for The Fellowship of the Ring reached 426.11 million dollars, its global box office officially broke through the one-billion-dollar barrier. Aside from preparing a massive celebration party, Warner Brothers mobilized the media for another wave of hype. Even though the film's fever was cooling globally, there were still profits to be reaped. At the same time, this laid early groundwork for next year's awards season.

"The Fellowship of the Ring's global box office surpasses one billion dollars! Duke Rosenberg officially enters the billion-dollar club, becoming one of only two directors in the world to do so..."

"A film that changed world cinematic history, a director who changed the world. Duke Rosenberg has made the name of The Lord of the Rings resound across the globe, even spreading it to the distant and isolated East."

"One billion dollars is not the end. The Fellowship of the Ring is climbing toward even greater heights..."

"There is a cultural phenomenon sparked by film, and its name is The Lord of the Rings!"

Similar news reports popped up endlessly across the media. Whether on the internet or television, in newspapers or magazines, voices cheering for Duke and the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings could be found everywhere.

Riding this fiery momentum, Duke had Warner Brothers release the first set of concept posters for The Two Towers, sparking a massive reaction and intense anticipation among the fans.

However, he personally shifted his focus back to Christophe Rocancourt.

After more than a month of investigation and verification, the former FBI agent and the eyes of Hollywood had obtained some things that couldn't be acquired through normal channels.