Chapter 627: Horribly Unwatchable

"How much is it?"

Though she had grown up and her personality had changed quite a bit, Scarlett Johansson was still curious. "Is it an astronomical number?"

Duke looked at her and shook his head. "Darling, this is just the advance screening."

The advance screening was only showing in a little over 2,800 theaters across North America. Even with the massive capacity of the IMAX theaters, how high could the box office really go?

Fax in hand, Tina Fey walked over and said, "$18.87 million. That's the highest box office figure in North America since advance screenings began."

Hearing the number, Duke breathed a sigh of relief. All their marketing and promotional work hadn't been in vain.

Scarlett leaned close to Tina Fey, glanced at the fax, and said, "This says that as of midnight, the IMDB rating was still a perfect ten."

"Yeah."

Duke nodded, but he didn't pay it much mind. IMDB users were either paid online shills or relatively hardcore film fans, and a movie like this undoubtedly suited the latter's tastes.

Standing up, Duke reminded the two of them, "It's getting late. Go get some rest. We have to head back to Los Angeles tomorrow."

The long night was just beginning. For many theaters, tonight would be a sleepless one.

Major theaters across the United States were packed. Auditoriums showing The Dark Knight reached nearly two-thirds capacity, while all 125 IMAX theaters were completely sold out, creating a grand spectacle unseen since IMAX first entered Hollywood.

However, the IMAX Company had long been prepared. For one, they had absolute faith in Duke; for another, the frenzied marketing campaign had bolstered their confidence.

Days ago, the IMAX Company had already decided to add extra screenings of The Dark Knight starting at six o'clock on Friday morning.

In North America, whenever a highly anticipated film premiered, theaters frequently scheduled showings at irregular hours to maximize profits. Advance screenings and midnight screenings had now become a tradition for summer blockbusters.

The widespread adoption of online ticketing made it possible for movie tickets to sell out well in advance. To welcome the impending Batman craze, over 2,500 non-IMAX theaters across the country—which normally opened after ten in the morning—welcomed their first guests at six o'clock.

And this wave of guests was quite massive.

"I'm here to see Heath Ledger's Joker."

"It's a Duke film, so of course I have to watch it."

"The IMDB rating is a perfect ten. Isn't a movie like that worth seeing?"

The people walking into the theaters so early in the morning all had their own reasons, but they eagerly bought tickets to support The Dark Knight.

Of course, just like Kyle and Ella, a small group of viewers left the theater feeling less than satisfied.

Christine was a market researcher for the CinemaScore Company. CinemaScore's surveys differed from the ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. They relied more on face-to-face communication with audiences, yielding data that was often much more authentic.

It could be said that this was a major reason why the big studios valued CinemaScore ratings much more, paying very little attention to IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Waking up bright and early on Friday, she rushed over to the IMAX theater at Nokia Square. Christine harbored a few complaints—who would willingly get up to work at five or six in the morning?

'Damn The Dark Knight! Damn Duke Rosenberg!' she thought. 'Why do you have to be so popular? Drawing so many people into the theaters, and even making them add morning screenings!'

Despite being full of complaints, Christine wouldn't let her mood affect her work too much. She walked into the IMAX theater and checked her watch. There was still some time before the movie let out. After making a phone call, she familiarly made her way to the theater manager's office.

"Hi, Jason. I'm back again."

Knocking and entering the manager's office, Christine sat down across the desk and asked, "Are you still half-asleep?"

The middle-aged man named Jason struggled to open his eyes. "I worked until three in the morning last night and got up at five-thirty this morning. I didn't even go home. How could I possibly be awake?"

"Looks like attendance was pretty good?" Christine leaned back in her chair.

Jason knew why she was here and didn't hide anything. "Not only was last night's midnight screening packed," he said directly, "but there were also many people without tickets who refused to leave. We had to temporarily add over a dozen chairs inside the auditorium."

He sighed. "This kind of situation has never happened in an IMAX theater before. The company really should have collaborated with Duke Rosenberg much earlier."

"Things have died down a bit this morning."

This wasn't surprising. The advance screenings and midnight screenings had exhausted a massive amount of audience enthusiasm, and this was a showing that started at six in the morning.

"However, the attendance here still exceeded ninety percent," Jason added.

Christine recorded the data he provided one by one. Seeing that it was about time, she said her goodbyes, left the manager's office, and headed for the auditorium's exit corridor.

As she stood there waiting, Christine had a faint feeling that the IMAX Company's historically lukewarm situation was about to change.

Once the movie ended, audience members began trickling out, and Christine started her work. This was a very common occurrence in the North American film market; as long as they weren't in a hurry, audiences were happy to cooperate.

After all, they could offer a few words of praise for a movie they liked or trash a disappointing one, all while receiving a small gift.

A film fan in his twenties said, "I think this is a great Batman movie, and Heath Ledger is an incredibly talented actor. If I had to rate it, I'd definitely give it an 'A+'."

"I'd give it an 'A+', too," another fan said. "The story Duke told is truly beyond reproach. It's worth watching several times. If I didn't have to go to work in a bit, I'd want to watch back-to-back showings."

A young man nearby, acting like a die-hard fanatic, chimed in, "I just want to say that Duke isn't human at all. He's a god!"

But the film's style was incredibly distinct, which inevitably meant some people wouldn't like it—or would even hate it.

When Christine questioned a male fan around twenty years old, the young man had a rather angry look on his face.

"I'd give it a 'C' at most. If this weren't a Duke film, I don't think it would even be worth a 'D'. I'm a fan of Duke's, and I loved Iron Man. This Dark Knight is just too disappointing. Who likes all that dark, despairing content? Plus, it's not satisfying enough. That rambling Joker is just annoying."

Although there were very few viewers like him, they definitely existed.

Another fan in his thirties said, "It wasn't interesting at all, though that motorcycle was alright. A boring movie literally drove a silly kid crazy. It's just horribly unwatchable."

For a dark-styled film like this, being deeply detested by some was perfectly normal. However, none of this could stop The Dark Knight from raking in massive earnings in the North American market.

As soon as work began on Saturday, Richard Gelfond, the head of the IMAX Company in Los Angeles, couldn't wait to gather everyone in the Los Angeles branch into the conference room.

Because their Hollywood operations were still in the developmental phase, the conditions at the IMAX Los Angeles branch weren't exactly stellar, and the conference room was a bit small. With dozens of people sitting inside, it felt exceptionally crowded.

However, none of them minded. Their faces faintly bore traces of excitement and thrill, as this company had already shown them the promise of exponential growth.

"Everyone. I think you've all heard the news. In last night's midnight screenings, The Dark Knight—shot and produced using IMAX technology—raked in $22.18 million from the North American market across 3,160 theaters!"

Putting down the documents in his hand, Richard Gelfond stood up, seemingly wanting to use this gesture to emphasize his tone.

"This is the latest North American midnight box office record, and the IMAX Company deserves some of the credit."

Everyone in the conference room had their eyes fixed on Richard Gelfond.

Clearing his throat, Richard Gelfond continued, "The 125 IMAX theaters in North America contributed $920,000 of that total! Furthermore, the average attendance rate across all our theaters reached one hundred percent!"

As soon as his words fell, applause erupted in the conference room like a tidal wave.

Looking at his excited subordinates, Richard Gelfond felt a bit emotional. This move had clearly been the right one. Back when Duke had used the IMAX Camera with such intensity, Richard hadn't been without his doubts. After all, he could count the total number of cameras the entire IMAX Company owned on one hand. If any had been damaged, he would have had a hard time explaining it to the head office.

Now, it seemed that the gamble had paid off entirely!

The applause gradually died down. Coughing lightly, Richard Gelfond sat back down and said, "From this moment on, we will fully cooperate with Warner Brothers' promotional work. The head office has already notified me by phone that the IMAX Company will invest as many resources as possible into The Dark Knight. The number of our theaters showing The Dark Knight all day long will be increased from 50 to 100!"

After advising them on a few more specific work details, Richard Gelfond dismissed the meeting. Returning to his office, he looked at The Dark Knight poster hanging on the wall, and other thoughts gradually formed in his mind.

He had heard from Warner executives that Duke's new film would be a sci-fi project, yet another big-budget commercial movie. Duke's commercial films were virtually a guarantee of box office success and widespread circulation. Judging by the reception of The Dark Knight, his projects could easily become hot topics. If the IMAX Company wanted to grow, cooperating with a director like this was the only wise choice!

No matter what, he had to push for the IMAX Company to continue collaborating with Duke Rosenberg.

With this in mind, Richard Gelfond picked up the phone and dialed Duke's number. Waiting until the female assistant transferred the call to Duke, he smilingly offered a few words of congratulations.

As long as the other party was willing to keep working with the IMAX Company, let alone a few words of congratulations, Richard Gelfond would have gladly acted as his driver for a while.

Hanging up Richard Gelfond's call, Duke looked across the room and asked, "Tina, what about the statistics on the market reaction and audience word-of-mouth?"

"This is the data Warner Brothers just sent over."

Tina Fey placed a faxed document in front of Duke and said, "The CinemaScore theater audience approval rating is as high as ninety-four percent, with an average audience grade of 'A+'. The audience favorability Popcorn Index is at ninety-two percent, and 55 media journalists on MetaCritic have given it a high score of 98."

She paused for a moment before adding, "As for IMDB, the average rating from 38,977 users is... a perfect ten!"