Chapter 543: Five to One

The sun was just climbing into the sky when a Rolls-Royce Phantom pulled up in front of the Warner Building in Burbank. Duke pushed the door open, stepped out, and headed toward the main conference room of Warner Brothers alongside Tina Fey.

Even though it was well before regular working hours, the top executives of Warner Brothers were already waiting in the conference room. CEO Doug Walter sat at the head of the table without a word. Like everyone else, he was simply waiting quietly for the central figure of this meeting to arrive.

He had given them every reason to wait, having built a brilliant track record for Warner Brothers and single-handedly held up nearly half the sky for the studio. With him in their ranks, Warner Brothers would never lack a blockbuster hit.

And this time, it was highly likely he would save Batman!

This was a franchise that had once plummeted off a cliff, only to be caught single-handedly by him. Judging by its midnight screening performance, it was practically ready to soar into the sky again.

A light knock sounded at the conference room door, and a secretary led Duke and Tina Fey inside. Everyone's gaze instantly locked onto him alone, as if they were looking at a savior.

Duke nodded to them one by one as he walked to his seat.

The others might view him as Batman's savior, but he could never see himself that way. Thinking like that was dangerous.

As soon as Duke reached the conference table, Doug Walter stood up and waited for him. He offered his hand for a firm handshake, and once Duke sat down, announced the start of the briefing.

This was a highly targeted and specific business meeting. There was no fluff; they cut straight to the point.

"The midnight screening box office numbers for Batman Begins are out."

The speaker was Doug Walter himself. As the parent company of DC Comics, Warner Brothers had always wanted to recreate the glory days of DC superhero movies, and Doug Walter dreamed of seeing Batman shake off its decline in Duke's hands.

Everyone's ears perked up. Those seated were all Warner executives whose careers were closely tied to the company's performance. Every single one of them wanted to see Batman Begins achieve massive success.

"The midnight screening box office is 7.56 million dollars!"

As those words left Doug Walter's mouth, a hint of a smile appeared on quite a few faces.

True, compared to the 11.26 million dollar midnight screening record Duke had set with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the 7.56 million figure wasn't incredibly dazzling. But everyone here was a true industry insider, and they knew exactly how significant this number was for a rebooted Batman.

This was a franchise that had once failed completely. To pull in a midnight screening box office like this, the name and brand of Duke Rosenberg had likely played a bigger role than Batman itself.

Some might have been worried about the film's staying power, but the data Warner's distribution head, Jamie Jensen, revealed next put their minds entirely at ease.

"The CinemaScore audience approval rating is as high as 89 percent, with an average audience grade of 'A'. On IMDB, 38,775 users gave it a score of 9.1, and the audience Popcorn Index sits at 88 percent. On MetaCritic, 45 media journalists gave it a score of 86, the highest in the franchise."

By that same logic, word of mouth like this was more than good enough for the reboot of a failed franchise.

They all understood that with this kind of audience reception as a foundation, even if word of mouth declined later, the movie would never turn into a massive disaster like Batman and Robin.

As long as the opening weekend box office could sustain the midnight screening's momentum, Batman Begins would undoubtedly be a success, and the Batman Series would be reborn on the big screen!

"For DC Comics and for Warner Brothers, this summer is a crucial moment."

Doug Walter's gaze swept over the Warner executives one by one. "The focus of this summer is Batman Begins," he said with utter solemnity. "Mobilize all relevant resources and put our full support behind this movie!"

Specific tasks were assigned one by one, and the meeting quickly wrapped up. Duke barely spoke. He was an expert at making movies, but when it came to promotion and distribution, Warner's professionals could leave him in the dust.

"Hey, Duke."

Just as Duke was preparing to leave after the meeting, Doug Walter called out to him. He hurried over and asked, "Can we chat for a moment?"

"Of course," Duke said. Naturally, he wouldn't refuse.

"I believe Batman will definitely achieve greatness in your hands."

Their experiences over the past few years had given Doug Walter immense confidence in him. "Batman Begins already has a good start. Why don't we keep going?"

"Doug, it's only a one-year gap."

Duke thought for a few seconds before adding, "I'm directing Iron Man, and Warner Brothers is still the distributor. We're still working together. Plus, there's Zack's 300 Spartans next year."

"Has he agreed to direct Superman?" Doug Walter asked.

"He's still considering it." Duke had no intention of hiding anything and answered directly, "But his interest is very strong. We just won't know for sure until after 300 Spartans is released."

Since Marvel had reached a distribution agreement with Warner Brothers, Marvel's grand cinematic universe plan was no secret to the studio. Warner Brothers, owning DC Comics, also wanted to assemble the heroes of the Justice League on the big screen. As one of the Justice Big Three, Superman was inevitably put on the agenda again. This time, they didn't act rashly, instead keeping their eyes fixed on Duke Studio.

Strictly speaking, Duke and Zack Snyder were the only two directors at Duke Studio capable of directing a film independently. Wallace Lee's movie was in post-production and wouldn't be released until September, so it was still too early to tell if it would succeed.

If Underworld failed to meet expectations, Duke would definitely kick him out.

Even though Wallace was his college classmate, that connection was hardly an obstacle in the face of commercial profits.

Both men were very busy, so Duke left the Warner Building after a brief chat. He had just gotten into his car when Tina Fey turned around from the passenger seat, clearly having something to say.

"I just received a call from the West Coast merchandise chain distributor. It was Peter Coe," she said.

Seeing Duke trying to recall the name, she offered a reminder. "He's the one who recommended Amanda Seyfried. His company is the largest retail gift chain distributor on the West Coast."

Duke nodded, remembering the Chinese-American man. He had apparently left his number with him. "What did he want?" he asked.

"His company had five Batmobiles in total, and they've all sold out between last night and now." Tina Fey glanced at her work log and added, "He currently has seven more people placing orders. Lamborghini and Warner Brothers are both short on supply right now, so he reached out to us for help."

Sales meant profits. Without a second thought, Duke said, "Help him sort it out."

The Batmobile was undoubtedly one of the most eye-catching elements in Batman Begins. The toys, models, and real vehicles were also the film's flagship merchandise.

On Friday, to promote both the merchandise and the movie, the production team organized a grand Batmobile parade in Los Angeles. A fleet of sixteen Batmobiles, driven by an equal number of stunt drivers dressed in Batman suits, took to the streets of Los Angeles.

The parade passed through famous Los Angeles avenues like the Walk of Fame, Hollywood Boulevard, and Sunset Boulevard, drawing tens of thousands of people into the streets to watch. Several TV stations with good ties to Warner Brothers dispatched helicopters to cover the entire event, and CNN even ran continuous breaking news segments during their hourly broadcasts.

Lead actors like Christian Bale and Laurence Fishburne participated in the entire parade. Duke also made an appearance at the beginning and the end, giving brief interviews to reporters. Facing the microphones, he praised the entire crew's performance, commending everyone from the actors to the prop masters, all the way to the Batmobile design team.

Such interviews might not have been extraordinary, but paired with sixteen fiercely styled Batmobiles in the background, they easily captivated the public's attention.

Without a doubt, at the start of the 2005 Summer Season, Batman Begins easily crushed its rival, Kingdom of Heaven, becoming the most highly anticipated movie. This was especially evident online.

On the Instant Sharing website, by Friday night, posts about Batman Begins had been shared 523,255 times, while Kingdom of Heaven only had 101,211 shares.

On Google, Batman Begins had been searched 657,856 times, compared to 133,578 searches for Kingdom of Heaven. The gap between the two was just as stark.

Most importantly, there was a vast difference in audience reception. Kingdom of Heaven only had a CinemaScore audience approval rating of 57 percent, with an average grade of 'C'. On IMDB, 18,775 users gave it a 6.7, and its audience Popcorn Index sat at 63 percent. On MetaCritic, 45 media journalists gave it an average score of 68.

No matter how you looked at it, Kingdom of Heaven was not even in the same weight class as Batman Begins.

As Friday night fell, double the number of people compared to a weekday flocked to theaters across the country. Their targets were incredibly clear: the newly released summer blockbusters. In a highly mature film market like North America, audiences' first choice during the Summer Season was big-budget commercial productions.

Batman Begins and Kingdom of Heaven were both prime targets.

However, the effects of audience reception and data across the board impacted the two movies in a very real way: for every five viewers who bought a ticket to Batman Begins, only one viewer chose Kingdom of Heaven.

Thus, once the opening day box office numbers for the two films came out, the gap was clear at a glance.