Chapter 552: Ascent and Descent

PS: Please vote with your monthly and recommendation tickets! Saturday was crucial for films releasing that weekend. It often marked the highest single-day box office of a movie's entire theatrical run, especially for non-sequels.

No matter how overwhelming the pre-release promotion was, audience word of mouth needed time to build. A significant number of massive blockbusters hit their peak attendance on Saturday, right after Friday's screenings sparked conversations.

Naturally, Saturday was also the busiest day for every commercial theater chain.

At the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, no employee was allowed to take a day off on Saturdays, ensuring they could handle the surging crowds.

Night had just fallen. Standing behind the counter, Philip James looked out at a dense sea of heads; the sheer number of people flocking to the famous multiplex was staggering.

As the operations manager, Philip James did not have to man the ticket windows himself, but he still dared not relax. He frequently came over to check on the front lines. After all, ticket sales directly affected his income and future promotion.

"Honey, aren't you really into airplanes?"

A customer's voice suddenly drifted over from the counter. Philip James looked up and saw a married couple; the speaker was the young woman.

"There's a movie here about planes called Flyboys," she suggested to her husband. "We could pick that one."

"No, no, no..." Her husband shook his head repeatedly. "Don't pick that one. I looked it up online, and most people are saying it's garbage. A coworker of mine saw it too."

"Oh?" the woman asked, intrigued. "What did he say?"

"He fell asleep after ten minutes." The husband didn't even glance toward the poster for Flyboys.

The woman scanned the list of titles. Kingdom of Heaven featured a handsome lead, but it had no immediate showtimes—they would have to wait until nearly midnight for a screening. Flyboys was playing in fifteen minutes, but just how boring did a movie have to be to put someone to sleep?

Finally, her eyes landed on Batman Begins. Although she wasn't particularly interested in superhero movies, she chose it anyway.

The reason was simple: among all the films currently playing, it seemed to be the only one worth watching.

Even though it was a superhero film, she knew very well that the name Duke Rosenberg in the director's slot was an absolute guarantee of quality!

"Two tickets for Batman Begins..."

Philip James wasn't surprised by the couple's choice. Over sixty percent of the people coming to the Nokia Theater today chose Batman Begins. In contrast, Flyboys—another big-budget film in its opening week—was drawing barely any interest. It couldn't even match the ticket sales of several niche genre films.

If yesterday's underwhelming opening day box office was an anomaly, then based on today's Saturday performance, Philip James was absolutely certain that Flyboys was a terrible film. At least for the theater, it was terrible.

Theater chains judged movies by a very simple standard: films that sold tickets were good films, and films that didn't were garbage.

Fifteen minutes flew by. Philip James had just returned to his office when a projection technician rushed in.

"Phil..." the man said as quickly and directly as possible. "I'm afraid we have to cancel the 7:15 screening of Flyboys."

"What?" Philip James frowned.

The technician quickly explained, "There isn't a single viewer in the auditorium."

"Empty again?" Philip James didn't even have to think before making a decision. "Cancel the screening. Add another showing of Batman Begins half an hour from now."

The technician quickly left. Philip James sat behind his desk and shook his head slightly. The performance of Flyboys was even worse than he had imagined.

This was the Nokia Theater's second empty screening today, both belonging to Flyboys. It was Saturday, and this latest showtime was right during prime time, yet nobody showed up. Just how abysmal was the audience word of mouth for this aviation film?

Philip James had taken some time that morning to check out the movie. Though he hadn't finished it, he had watched several major scenes. Frankly, Flyboys utilized plenty of elements that should have spelled success—handsome actors, romance, heroism, and rescue missions. Yet when combined, they made for an incredibly awkward movie, as if everything had been forcefully crammed together.

In the next moment, his thoughts shifted to Flyboys's main competitor, Batman Begins. This massive reboot of Batman truly excelled with its themes of fear, anger, and power. Its plot beats were all classic Hollywood tropes, but when Duke Rosenberg wove them into a single film, it delivered an incredible feast for the audience's eyes, ears, and emotions.

As far as Philip James was concerned, Flyboys, in its opening week, losing to the second-week showings of Batman Begins was entirely justified.

Then again, how many people actually thought Duke Rosenberg didn't deserve to win?

Having worked in the theater chain industry for a full decade, Philip James was long used to this. He was used to Duke Rosenberg's movies premiering, Duke Rosenberg's movies dominating, and Duke Rosenberg's movies sweeping the box office championships...

Putting aside these thoughts, he picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Boss, it's Phil. I have a suggestion regarding tomorrow's schedule. Keeping just one auditorium for Flyboys is more than enough. Based on my observations and analysis today, even one screen might be pushing it..."

If not for the stipulations in their exhibition contracts, Philip James wouldn't have wanted to spare a single screen for that destined money-loser of a film.

It probably wouldn't be more than a few weeks before the movie was forcibly pulled from theaters.

With these thoughts in mind, Philip James finished his day's work. The general ticket sales data was finally in his hands. Just as he expected, Flyboys showed a clear downward trend, while Batman Begins maintained its strong rebound momentum.

The sun set and rose again, raising the curtain on a new day.

Peter Coe, the West Coast's largest brick-and-mortar distributor of film merchandise, walked into the Santa Monica Commercial Square with his girlfriend. He took a brief look around the theater area before heading into his own chain store.

"Hi, George."

"Hello, boss."

George Zhou shook hands with Peter Coe first, then turned to the woman beside him.

"Hello, Miss Seyfried," he said with a smile. "Your performance in Taken was absolutely fantastic."

Amanda Seyfried knew this was someone her boyfriend trusted deeply, so she replied with utmost politeness, "Thank you."

There were quite a few customers in the shop. Many of them had probably recognized Amanda Seyfried and kept stealing glances in her direction. George Zhou hurriedly ushered the couple into the manager's office.

After sitting down, Peter Coe asked, "How are sales looking?"

"Excellent." George Zhou smiled radiantly. "Whenever Duke's movies hit theaters, it's always peak season for our stores. Ever since Batman Begins premiered, our daily sales have stayed above 150,000 dollars. And that doesn't even count the five Batmobiles we sold."

"That much?" Amanda Seyfried was somewhat surprised.

A hundred and fifty thousand dollars might not sound like much, but she knew perfectly well that Peter Coe's shops were spread across nearly every mid-to-large city in the American Midwest. Even if the other stores couldn't match the volume of the Santa Monica Commercial Square branch, their combined sales would undoubtedly form a staggering figure.

Moreover, movie merchandise was basically all low-cost, high-margin goods.

"It's decent enough," Peter Coe said calmly. "It's still a bit behind the merchandise sales for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Matrix."

"You'll still make a lot of money," Amanda Seyfried flattered him smoothly.

"Me?" Peter Coe pointed to himself, then shook his head. "We're just making pocket change. The ones raking in the real fortune are Warner Brothers and Duke Rosenberg. If nothing goes wrong, Duke Rosenberg will be pulling in another massive paycheck."

Amanda Seyfried knew exactly how immense the earning power of the director Peter Coe spoke of was. His movie compensation absolutely ranked number one in Hollywood!

Seeing Peter Coe and George Zhou dive into business matters, Amanda Seyfried fell silent. She peered through the one-way glass window, observing the shelves and merchandise outside. When the two men paused their discussion, her curiosity got the better of her.

"Why don't I see any merchandise for Flyboys out there?"

Peter Coe's company primarily headlined Duke's films, but they still sold merchandise for other movies as well.

"We had them on display the day before yesterday, and yesterday too."

George Zhou was the one to answer. "But over those two days, we only sold a few James Franco action figures and plushies," he explained concisely. "Daily sales didn't even break 100 dollars. This morning, after the Saturday box office numbers for Flyboys came out, I had the staff pull all of its merchandise from the shelves. We replaced them with products from Duke's other films."

"As for the other stores," Peter Coe added, "I had them clear out the stock too."

According to the statistics, let alone comparing it to Batman Begins, the merchandise sales for Flyboys couldn't even match the sales of Duke's ten-year-old films, which were currently enjoying a resurgence fueled by his new movie's ripple effect.

Why keep merchandise like that on the shelves?

Amanda Seyfried pressed another point of interest. "Just how much did Flyboys make at the box office on Saturday to make you pull its merchandise completely?"

"2.62 million dollars!" Peter Coe shook his head. "The movie's Saturday box office actually dropped significantly from Friday. The opening weekend numbers are probably going to be so low the investors will vomit blood."