Chapter 441: Such a High Attendance Rate

"Didn't George invite you?"

Walking along the beach on the Gold Coast, Ivanka Trump held Duke's hand and asked, "Why didn't you attend the premiere?"

"I'm busy with promotional tours all over the world," Duke said. He squeezed Ivanka's hand, stepping through the golden sand, and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "You wanted to come here for your summer vacation, so I had to turn George down."

It was currently autumn in Australia. The temperature on the Gold Coast was too cold for swimming, making it the off-season for tourism, but since Ivanka wanted to come on vacation with him, Duke wasn't going to refuse.

"The sea breeze is a bit chilly."

Ivanka rubbed her arms. Duke took the jacket draped over his free arm, settled it over her shoulders, and said, "Let's go back."

"Okay."

Nodding, Ivanka followed Duke back the way they had come. She could see paparazzi hovering in the distance, but she didn't care. She had gradually gotten used to it over the past year, and focused instead on chatting with Duke. "I have one year left until I graduate from the Wharton School of Business."

"Has time really gone by that fast?" Duke turned to look at her. "I remember when I first met you. You were just a fresh-faced student, and now you're about to graduate."

"My final year will be mostly internships."

Giving Duke a sweet smile, Ivanka continued, "I've discussed it with the others at the company, and we're moving it to Los Angeles next month."

"If you need me for the promotional side, just say the word."

Even after rewarding a few core technical staff with a small amount of stock options, Duke still held over forty percent of the shares. He was a major shareholder just like Ivanka, so this was also an effort to increase the value of his own assets.

Ivanka had recruited three computer and networking experts from the University of Pennsylvania and brought them into the newly incorporated Instant Sharing website. In an era of rapid IT development, such people were scarce resources. If you wanted them to put in the effort, you had to offer them some incentives.

Expecting someone to work with unwavering loyalty while a single person monopolized one hundred percent of the company's shares—how could that be possible in this commercial society?

Besides, what they held right now were merely options.

As the two walked toward their rented seaside villa, they continued discussing company matters. Ivanka's intention was very clear: relocate the company to Los Angeles as soon as possible.

"You had people post posters for Return of the King on Instant Sharing twice in a row, and it's already attracted a lot of attention."

Holding onto Duke's arm, Ivanka recalled the data she'd seen yesterday. "In the last half month, the number of users on Instant Sharing has increased by nearly two hundred thousand. Darling, your appeal is still quite strong."

"It's the appeal of The Lord of the Rings," Duke corrected. "If it weren't for the massive popularity of The Two Towers drumming up anticipation for Return of the King, we never would have seen such great results."

He laughed. "Actually, I really wanted to upload a trailer, but Instant Sharing doesn't support video sharing yet."

"The technical department is perfecting that feature right now." Ivanka's pace slowed. "Once the company moves to Los Angeles, we'll roll out video sharing as soon as possible. But with current internet bandwidth, it can only support small video formats."

"There's no need to rush." Duke slowed down to match Ivanka's pace. "You have to take things one step at a time. The internet's speed of development is astonishing."

Ivanka nodded, then suddenly asked, "Where's Tina? I haven't seen her since we got off the plane."

"She went to New Zealand," Duke reminded her. "Did you forget I have an estate in New Zealand? Some tax issues came up recently, so she went over to handle them."

"Are you going to sell that estate?" Ivanka asked curiously.

Duke shook his head. "I'll keep it. I can use it as a vacation home in the future. I still really miss the scenery in New Zealand."

That this tiny nation had preserved so much of its natural landscape had everything to do with its geographical location and development strategy. New Zealand had almost no heavy industry. As one of the five English-speaking allies, it was entirely a little brother trailing behind; its heavy industrial products were almost entirely imported.

Compared to the densely populated Los Angeles, the climate and scenery of New Zealand were far superior.

"What are we going to do next?"

As they reached the beach villa, Ivanka asked, "We can't just stay here, right?"

Duke thought for a moment. "Let's go change and go watch a movie together."

Even though she wasn't much of a moviegoer and had little interest in seeing films not produced by Duke, Ivanka nodded. She pulled Duke back into the room to change into matching casual clothes, called for a car, and arrived at the nearest theater in just over ten minutes.

She knew exactly what Duke wanted to watch. She went straight to the box office, bought two tickets for the newly released Attack of the Clones, and they walked into the theater hand in hand.

Sitting in the couple's seats, Ivanka asked, "Will The Two Towers lose this week's North America box office crown?"

"Darling," Duke nodded heavily. "This is Star Wars."

"Jane dragged me to see Star Wars Episode I." Ivanka clearly had no Star Wars nostalgia. "I thought it was very mediocre. Other than the special effects..."

She shook her head, and upon seeing the big screen light up, stopped talking.

Less than halfway through the runtime, Ivanka's brows knitted tightly. For someone like her who wasn't a Star Wars fan, this film was sheer torture. She eventually just leaned against Duke, no longer trying to focus on it.

In her eyes, Duke's marble-carved profile was far better looking than that movie.

Aside from the special effects, there was almost nothing in this film that could compare to The Two Towers. Ivanka even felt that if it wasn't George Lucas's Star Wars, the box office would probably be a total flop.

Especially the characters of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala—not only were they completely unbalanced, but the progression of their relationship was incredibly melodramatic.

True, movie romances were often melodramatic, but the leap between those two was far too abrupt.

Ivanka knew very well that Duke wasn't great at filming romance scenes, but it seemed George Lucas wasn't much better.

Frankly speaking, Padme Amidala's performance was still excellent, but standing next to Anakin Skywalker, that male actor's clumsy acting...

Suddenly, Duke's voice drifted into her ear. "George still chose him."

"What?" Ivanka whispered, leaning close to his ear.

Duke turned his head, looked at Ivanka resting on his shoulder, and briefly explained. "I once suggested to George that for the actor playing Anakin Skywalker, he should find someone whose acting skills were at least not too far behind Natalie Portman. But George..."

Duke sighed. He had no idea what George Lucas was thinking. He had still chosen Hayden Christensen; one of the most famous and critically panned on-screen couples in cinematic history had been thrown together once again.

Ivanka, however, ignored the rest of his words and asked, "Is Natalie Portman's acting that good? Why do I feel like she isn't much better than Kirsten Dunst?"

"It's decent." Duke shrugged without any guilt. "Among actresses her age, she's one of the best."

As Duke's former assistant, Ivanka knew quite a lot. She was actually very aware of the gossip hyped up by the tabloids, as well as the scandals the media didn't know about.

However, the smart woman said nothing. Some things were in the past, and they stayed in the past; she wanted to look toward the future.

The film finally ended with a wedding that no one cared about. Thinking of Natalie Portman, Duke gently shook his head. The two of them were destined to never have much contact again; the former idol was already a thing of the past.

In all his years in Hollywood, he hadn't done many foolish things, but his involvement with Natalie Portman counted as one of them.

"What are you thinking about?" Ivanka deliberately tugged his arm. "You've been spacing out since we left the theater."

Under these circumstances, Duke naturally wasn't stupid enough to tell the truth and add friction between them. "I'm estimating how much box office George's movie will eventually pull in."

"Aside from the special effects, this movie..." Ivanka shook her head. "If it wasn't Star Wars, I feel like five hundred million dollars would be a pipe dream."

"Grossing over 500 million dollars globally definitely won't be a problem." Duke pulled her toward the car, shrugging as he spoke. "What do you expect? It's Star Wars."

If he remembered correctly, Attack of the Clones was the worst in the Star Wars series in terms of both box office and audience reception, seemingly only earning a little over 600 million dollars globally.

Even so, in its fourth weekend of release, The Two Towers couldn't compete with Attack of the Clones in its opening weekend.

The latter opened in 3,520 theaters across North America, raking in 80.02 million dollars in its three-day opening weekend, easily claiming the throne as the champion of the North America box office charts.

After winning the North America box office for three consecutive weeks, The Two Towers slipped to second place, but its decline remained healthy and stable. Dropping by forty-one percent compared to the previous weekend, it brought in 22.6 million dollars.

Counting the 19.25 million dollars from the previous four workdays, its North America box office had already reached 361.9 million dollars, putting the 400 million dollar threshold in sight.

On the international front, The Two Towers entered its final few markets, such as North Africa and South Africa, this weekend. Its overseas momentum remained strong. The cumulative overseas box office broke through the 450 million dollar mark, and its global box office successfully surpassed 800 million dollars, reaching a staggering cumulative total of 817.55 million dollars!

In addition, the merchandise received a strong response overseas. Although it was met with a cold reception in a few markets like South Korea and Southeast Asia, sales figures continued to climb in the Western world and in countries and regions deeply influenced by Western culture. Not even counting the nearly 200 million dollars in merchandise sales in North America, overseas merchandise sales were also approaching that figure.

However, with the release of Attack of the Clones, the impact on The Two Towers was quite obvious, with both its box office and merchandise sales beginning to slide.