Chapter 454: Because It's Star Wars

"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 go to the premiere?"

"I'm very busy running around the world for press tours," Duke said, squeezing Ivanka's hand in return. Stepping across the golden sand, he leaned over and kissed 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 spend her vacation with him, Duke wasn't about to say no.

"The sea breeze is getting a little cold."

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

"Mhm."

Nodding, Ivanka followed Duke back the way they came. She could see paparazzi moving around in the distance, but she paid them no mind. She had grown accustomed to it over the past year, so she simply went on chatting with Duke. "I'll be graduating from the Wharton School of Business in a year."

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

"My final year will mostly be focused on internships."

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

"Just let me know if you need me for any of the promotions."

Even after rewarding a few key technical staff with a small number of stock options, Duke still held over forty percent of the shares, making him a major shareholder just like Ivanka. This was, after all, an effort to increase the value of his own assets.

Ivanka had found three computer and networking experts from the University of Pennsylvania and brought them into the now-incorporated Instant Sharing website. In this era of rapid IT development, such talent was a scarce resource. If you wanted people to put in the effort, you had to give them a taste of the profits.

Taking one hundred percent of a company's shares for oneself while still expecting others to work with total devotion—how could that be possible in today's commercial society?

Besides, what they currently held were only options.

The two continued to discuss company matters as they walked toward their rented beach villa. Ivanka's intentions were very clear: move the company to Los Angeles as soon as possible.

"Having people post the posters for Return of the King on Instant Sharing two times in a row has already attracted a lot of attention."

Holding Duke's arm, Ivanka recalled the data she had seen the day before. "In the last half month, Instant Sharing's user base has grown by nearly 200,000. Darling, your appeal is still quite massive."

"It's The Lord of the Rings's appeal," Duke corrected. "If not for the massive popularity of The Two Towers stoking everyone's anticipation for Return of the King, there's no way the results would have been this good."

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

"The tech department is perfecting that feature." Ivanka's footsteps slowed. "Once the company moves to Los Angeles, we'll launch the video-sharing feature as soon as possible. But with the current network bandwidth, it will only be able to support smaller video formats."

"There's no rush." Duke matched her slowing pace. "We have to take things one step at a time. The speed of the internet's development is already astonishing."

Ivanka nodded. Suddenly, she 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? There were some recent tax issues, so she went over to handle them."

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

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

The fact that this tiny country had been able to preserve 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 from behind; its heavy industrial products were basically all imported.

Compared to densely populated Los Angeles, New Zealand's climate and scenery were vastly superior.

"What are we doing next?"

Arriving in front of the beach villa, Ivanka asked, "We can't just stay here the whole time, right?"

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

Although she wasn't a film buff and didn't have much interest in watching a movie not produced by Duke, Ivanka still nodded. She pulled Duke back into the house to change into matching casual wear, then called for a car. It took them only ten minutes to reach the nearest theater.

Knowing 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 headed into the theater with him, 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 emphatically, "this is Star Wars."

"Jane dragged me to see Star Wars: Episode I," Ivanka said, clearly harboring no nostalgic feelings for the franchise. "I thought it was very mediocre, except for the special effects..."

She shook her head, then fell silent as the big screen lit up.

Less than halfway through the movie, Ivanka's brows knitted tightly together. For a non-fan like her, this film was simply torture. Later on, she just leaned against Duke's shoulder, no longer focusing on the screen.

In her eyes, Duke's profile, sculpted like marble, was much better looking than the movie.

Except for the special effects, there was almost nothing in this film that could compare to The Two Towers. Ivanka even felt that if this wasn't George Lucas's Star Wars, the box office would probably have flopped completely.

This was especially true for the two characters, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. Not only were they completely unbalanced, but the progression of their romance was incredibly melodramatic.

Sure, romance in movies was often melodramatic, but the relationship between them was far too jarring.

Ivanka knew perfectly well that Duke wasn't good at filming romance scenes, and it seemed George Lucas wasn't much better.

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

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

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

Duke turned his head, kissed Ivanka as she rested on his shoulder, and gave a brief explanation. "I once suggested to George that for the actor playing Anakin Skywalker, he should find someone whose acting skills weren't too far behind Natalie Portman's, but George..."

Here, Duke let out a sigh. He had no idea what George Lucas was thinking. He still chose Hayden Christensen, bringing together one of the most famous and worst-received on-screen couples in film history all over again.

Ivanka, however, ignored everything else and asked, "Is Natalie Portman's acting really that good? Why do I feel like she isn't much better than Kirsten Dunst?"

"She's all right." Duke shrugged, not feeling a shred of guilt. "Among the actresses in her age group, her acting is one of the best."

Having been Duke's assistant in the past, Ivanka knew quite a lot. She was actually well aware of some of the gossip hyped up by the tabloids and the secrets the media didn't know about.

However, this smart woman said nothing. Some things were in the past, and they would stay in the past. What she wanted to look toward was the future.

The film finally concluded with a wedding that nobody cared about. Thinking of Natalie Portman, Duke shook his head slightly. The two of them were destined to not have much more contact; his former idol had become a thing of the past.

In his years since entering Hollywood, he hadn't done many foolish things, but his involvement with Natalie Portman could be considered one of them.

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

In this situation, Duke naturally wasn't stupid enough to tell the truth. That would only create conflict between them. "I was estimating how much box office George's movie will ultimately pull in."

"Aside from the special effects, this movie..." Ivanka shook her head. "If it wasn't Star Wars, I think even 500 million dollars would be a pipe dream."

"Breaking 500 million dollars globally definitely won't be a problem." Duke pulled her toward the car, shrugged, and said, "After all, it's Star Wars."

If he remembered correctly, Attack of the Clones was the Star Wars film with the worst box office and audience reception, earning only somewhere over 600 million dollars globally.

Even so, in its fourth weekend of release, The Two Towers was unable to contend 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 over its three-day opening weekend, easily claiming the throne of the North America box office charts without any suspense.

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

Adding the 19.25 million dollars from the previous four weekdays, the North America box office had reached 361.9 million dollars, with the 400-million-dollar threshold already in sight.

Overseas, The Two Towers entered its final few markets, including North Africa and South Africa, this weekend. Its overseas momentum remained robust, with the cumulative overseas box office breaking past the 450-million-dollar barrier. The global box office had also successfully crossed 800 million dollars, reaching a staggering total of 817.55 million dollars!

Additionally, merchandise had garnered a strong response overseas. Although it saw a lukewarm reception in a few markets such as South Korea and Southeast Asia, sales figures soared in the Western world and regions deeply influenced by Western culture. Excluding the nearly 200 million dollars in merchandise sales from North America, the overseas merchandise sales were also approaching that number.

However, with the release of Attack of the Clones, the impact on The Two Towers was still rather obvious; both box office and merchandise sales were slipping.