Chapter 439: Forbes Rich List

As the weekend ended and the workweek began, an inevitable box office decline set in—even with The Two Towers surpassing 100 million in its opening weekend and theaters expanding its screen count and screen share. However, because The Fellowship of the Ring had primed the market last year, The Two Towers faced absolutely no substantial competitors in its release window, apart from a slightly better showing by the American remake of The Eye.

Even the performance of the American remake of The Eye—which featured a different female lead than the original—was negligible.

After all, The Two Towers had grossed a massive 103.03 million dollars in its opening weekend, while the American version of The Eye had managed just over 17 million dollars.

By Monday, a compressed screen share caused the single-day box office for the American version of The Eye to plummet straight to 1.02 million dollars. On the other hand, thanks to its increased screen share and theater count, The Two Towers saw its box office drop by only forty percent on its first workday, raking in 20.71 million dollars.

Although its box office showed a steady downward trend over the following days, it remained generally stable. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, The Two Towers pulled in 19.75 million, 19.53 million, and 18.66 million dollars in North America, respectively.

When The Two Towers completed its first full week of release, its cumulative North American box office reached 185.75 million dollars!

The film was completely crushing the market.

Whether in an art house cinema or a commercial multiplex chain, from the border towns of Washington State in the northwest to the beach districts of Miami in the southeast, traces of The Two Towers could be found in every theater. When people gathered, whether or not they had seen the film was inevitably one of the main topics of conversation.

In schools especially, those who hadn't seen the film were subtly ostracized and considered out of touch with the times.

Duke's movies didn't particularly appeal to older housewives, but they were quite popular with younger girls and working women.

In this world, the boost marketing provided to a film's commercial success was massive, even critical. But even the fiercest promotional campaign couldn't draw people into theaters as effectively as good word-of-mouth.

The series had established incredibly strong audience word-of-mouth with The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers took that even further. When a movie sparked a viewing frenzy, it inevitably triggered contrarian reactions in some, but it ignited the curiosity of far more viewers. This drew them into theaters to contribute to the box office, and even turned them into staunch fans who spent lavishly on merchandise.

The two already-released films of The Lord of the Rings trilogy were textbook examples of this. Moreover, the PG-13 rating ensured a suitably broad target audience.

Before the second weekend arrived, the crew split in two. Duke led some members to Europe to promote the film's impending European run, while the rest continued making appearances in major cities across North America.

To say that today's Hollywood movies had conquered the entire world would certainly be an exaggeration, but no one would deny they had no real rivals on a global scale.

The first stop for Duke and his team was Cannes, France. Although The Two Towers hadn't been submitted to the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, it would still be screened during the festival.

While he had no personal interest in the Three Major European Film Festivals, Duke wouldn't deny their influence. Screening the film in Cannes was also part of Warner Brothers' established promotional strategy.

It was just that no one expected The Two Towers to completely steal the spotlight at the Cannes Film Festival. The film's Cannes premiere was scheduled for the exact same afternoon as Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Consequently, the film heavily promoted by the organizers was ignored by both the media and fans. There were barely any spectators or reporters lining the premiere's red carpet—the turnout could only be described as better than nothing.

On the other hand, the scene for The Two Towers was grander than the opening ceremony of this year's Cannes Film Festival. Waiting fans lined up from the Festival Palace all the way to the beach across the street. The interview area was packed with a sea of reporters constantly bumping into each other as they jostled for position. Were it not for the formal setting, fists probably would have started flying long ago.

Much like the reactions the two films sparked among general audiences, this side was a bustling sea of people, while just a short distance away, The Pianist was cold and deserted.

"The world's finest artistic directors have gathered in Cannes, only to have their thunder stolen by a commercial director from Hollywood. This is undeniably a tragedy."

France's Le Figaro published a dedicated commentary on the matter the next day. "Who knows what the organizing committee was thinking, agreeing to let The Two Towers screen during the festival. Did they really believe the entries in the competition section could suppress Duke Rosenberg? Facts have proven that the organizing committee of this year's Cannes Film Festival has made a massive joke of itself!"

After The Two Towers screened consecutively for three days in Cannes, with tickets becoming nearly impossible to find, Le Figaro spoke up again. "The combined impact of every film in the competition section still doesn't match the intense response to this single film, The Two Towers. Even if we don't want to admit it, we must face reality: Duke Rosenberg alone will defeat the entire Cannes Film Festival."

Sitting on his hotel room's balcony, Duke looked at the yacht marina across the way. This was his first time in Cannes and his first time attending a European film festival, but he was destined to be nothing more than a passerby.

"The support the organizing committee is providing us is decreasing."

Across from him, Tina Fey set down her coffee, pulled her gaze back from the distance, and said, "And the difficulties we're encountering are increasing."

"That's normal." Duke slowly stirred his coffee with a spoon. "To the Cannes Film Festival, we're nothing but disruptors."

Anyone would be unhappy if their thunder was stolen by a movie merely using the festival for publicity.

Tina Fey's phone suddenly rang. She answered, spoke a few words, and hung up. "The guests are here," she said to Duke. "They're in the first-floor cafe."

"Let's go down."

The clients Duke was going to meet had been introduced by Warner.

Down in the first-floor cafe, while the Warner representative went to the hotel lobby to wait for Duke, one of the two men sitting quietly seemed slightly anxious.

"Old Liu..." the slightly younger man said, "you've been through plenty of big scenes, and every major domestic director treats you with the utmost respect. Why are you suddenly nervous?"

"How could they compare to him?"

The middle-aged man, Old Liu, knew the young man sitting across from him had always been in China and didn't understand the foreign film market very well. He explained simply, "Do you know how much box office his new movie raked in over three days in North America? Over 100 million dollars! Do you know what the final box office for his last movie was? 1.1 billion dollars!"

"1.1 billion dollars!" The young man couldn't help but gape. "The box office for one of his movies is more than our country's entire total box office over the past two years?"

"And that's just the box office!" Old Liu sighed with deep emotion. "Do you know about movie merchandise? They say the combined merchandise sales for his last movie have already reached 1 billion dollars!"

"How much?" The young man couldn't believe it. "1 billion dollars? Merchandise—as in those toys and stuff? They can sell for that much? Those are just cheap trinkets."

"Back home they're cheap, sure..." Old Liu shook his head. "But in Hollywood, the profit margin for merchandise can exceed fifty percent."

The young man drew in a sharp breath. A single movie making 500 million dollars in pure profit just from merchandise...

Old Liu spoke again. "Do you know how much his directing salary is for a single movie?"

"I've seen domestic reports saying some Hollywood megastars can get a 20 million dollar salary. I heard that's the absolute top pay in Hollywood."

Hearing this, Old Liu shook his head and held up two fingers, waving them at him. "At the most conservative estimate, he took home 200 million dollars in profit sharing from his last film!"

The young man nearly spat out the coffee he had just sipped. Hurriedly swallowing it down, he asked, "200 million dollars—how is that possible?"

"It could only be more, never less!" Old Liu said with absolute certainty. "Don't let the fact that he hasn't won an Oscar fool you. The status and treatment he enjoys in Hollywood and America is equal to, if not higher than, Spielberg's."

Just as they reached this point in the conversation, footsteps approached from nearby. The two men turned to look and hurriedly stood up.

"This is Director Duke Rosenberg, and this is Miss Tina Fey."

"This is Smith Liu, and this is Jensen Han..."

The Warner representative made a brief introduction for both sides, then sat off to the side without saying anything more. Coming from Warner's North American headquarters, he was well aware of Duke's temperament and personality, and wouldn't rashly interfere in an affair like this.

This was a business meeting, so Duke didn't beat around the bush. He asked directly, "Mr. Liu, Mr. Han, you reached out to me through Warner. What can I do for you?"

"It's like this."

Between the two, Smith Liu was clearly the lead, and he had no trouble speaking and understanding English. "Since 1995, our conglomerate has successively imported The Rock, Speed, Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, and The Fellowship of the Ring, all of which were directed by you. These films received fantastic responses back in our country. Director Rosenberg, much like Director Spielberg and Director Cameron, you are one of the Hollywood directors most familiar to domestic audiences."

Duke looked at him. He wasn't quite used to this manner of speaking anymore; he preferred people to be direct.

Fortunately, the other man didn't make him wait long. He continued, "The leaders of our conglomerate hope to invite you, Director Rosenberg, to attend the premiere of one of your imported films at an appropriate time. This would also serve as a cinematic cultural exchange between China and the US."

Hearing this invitation, Duke didn't feel surprised. Given his achievements, it was completely natural. Furthermore, ever since Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman went over there to promote Moulin Rouge! last year, Hollywood's top-tier actors and directors had gradually begun to realize just how vast that market was.

With Paramount Pictures leading the charge, the major Hollywood studios were gradually establishing Far East branches. A few had even set up liaison offices in the north. Although the region's film industry was extremely backward at the moment, markets were always cultivated over time.