Chapter 632: Duke Fanboys

"Haven't you checked IMDB over the last two days?" Aerin Lauder slowly stirred her coffee, looking across the table at Duke in a cafe on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "It's gotten really lively."

"Did something happen?" Scar, sitting beside Duke, was even more curious.

Duke took a sip of his coffee before venturing a guess. "Is it about the IMDB ratings?"

Though he hadn't been following it closely, Tina Fey's report this morning briefly mentioned that fans of The Dark Knight were currently at war with fans of The Godfather on IMDB.

"Your fans are review-bombing The Godfather with low scores, and The Godfather's fans are review-bombing your Dark Knight," Aerin said.

She offered a teasing smile. "I even went on IMDB and gave The Godfather a one-star rating myself."

Scar pinched her chin in thought. "I think The Dark Knight is still ranked first, right?"

Aerin Lauder nodded. "It's still first, but the score has dropped to 9.7."

"What about The Godfather?" Duke asked.

From the seventies to the present, that film had cultivated a massive fanbase of its own.

"Down to 9.0." Aerin recalled the numbers she had seen that morning and added, "Your fans are mostly teenagers. They're full of fighting spirit, their emotions run high, and they have the numbers advantage. It's going to be hard for The Godfather to stay above a nine."

Scar suddenly looked at Duke with an absurd suggestion. "Why not have Penny lead her team into the fray? I'm sure they could completely tank The Godfather's score."

"You know too much." Duke shot her a glare, then shook his head. "This is just a dispute between fans. There's no need to drag a professional team into it."

Duke wasn't the only one with these thoughts. Many people were keeping a close eye on The Dark Knight, and David Ellison was naturally one of them.

This kind of online conflict couldn't escape the notice of anyone paying attention. Initially, David Ellison had wanted to pull some strings from behind the scenes to take advantage of the chaos, but after careful consideration, he abandoned the idea.

Given The Dark Knight's current momentum, a minor dispute like this wouldn't be enough to drag it down. Rather than scatter his forces, it was better to concentrate all his resources on handling the crucial final phase of promotion and distribution before I Am Legend hit theaters.

I Am Legend was about to open in North America, and the situation it faced was rather grim. Even on weekdays, The Dark Knight was still pulling in over $20 million a day at the box office. That was a single-day figure many big-budget productions only managed to hit on weekends.

For the premiere, he had naturally chosen New York, where the story took place. David Ellison had specifically contacted a theater in Washington Square to serve as the venue. He had also watched The Dark Knight. Now, he felt some regret that he hadn't considered IMAX earlier. Had I Am Legend been shot in IMAX, it surely would have generated a massive response.

Though he had been in Hollywood for several years now, and despite retaining his arrogant pride, David Ellison's thinking had grown much more realistic. He wasn't asking for much from I Am Legend. It would be enough if it could dent The Dark Knight's second-weekend box office and claim the North American box office crown.

To do that, I Am Legend needed to pull in at least $80 million in its opening weekend.

Even without professional teams and paid online shills getting involved, the IMDB review-bombing war only grew fiercer.

As the scores for The Godfather and The Dark Knight steadily slipped, their respective fanatics deliberately showered the opposing side with low ratings in a battle for the top spot. By Thursday, the one-star votes for The Godfather had rapidly surged to nearly five percent. The Dark Knight wasn't faring much better, with its one-star votes reaching three percent, but its staggering count of over a hundred thousand ten-star votes ensured the film held firmly onto first place on the TOP250 list with a 9.6 rating.

Fan behavior was often spontaneous and fanatical. Not only were the fans of both films tanking each other's scores, but they also began attacking each other in the review sections, eventually escalating into outright abuse.

The Godfather fans, for example, furiously branded The Dark Knight fans as "Duke fanboys."

But the internet ultimately belonged to the youth. If it were purely a discussion about directors, Duke held an absolutely unrivaled status in the hearts of young moviegoers. The fanbase for The Godfather skewed much older; while they certainly didn't lack passionate supporters, they simply couldn't compete with the younger generation online.

Anyone with eyes could see that in a mudslinging match like this, The Godfather was bound to lose.

As a result, The Godfather fans chose to expand the war zone. Some began impersonating fans of Duke and The Dark Knight to attack other films in the top ten of the TOP250. Classics like Pulp Fiction, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all became their targets.

In just half a day on Thursday, a massive influx of one-star votes appeared in the ratings for those films.

Then, even more fans joined the fray. While attacking The Godfather, The Dark Knight fans also went to other films' sections to pose as attackers and drop low scores. The fans of those other films didn't bother distinguishing between the two sides; they simply retaliated by review-bombing both The Godfather and The Dark Knight.

Although paid online shills frequently haunted IMDB, order on the site was usually well maintained. This time, however, the fans' behavior severely wrecked that order. People had far less self-control on the internet, and hurling abuse in the comments had become an everyday occurrence.

These battles even spilled over into various film forums and social media sites. Not even Duke's Instant Sharing account was spared; his comment section was flooded with a massive wave of abusive remarks.

With things escalating to this point, it naturally drew the attention of the media.

"In the previous IMDB rankings, The Godfather was first, The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King was second, and The Godfather Part II was third."

"Until one day, The Dark Knight made its shining debut. Like a dazzling meteor streaking across the sky, it shattered the once-peaceful night. Countless sleeping moviegoers opened their eyes and turned their gazes to the heavens, and the gears of fate began to turn."

"Duke Rosenberg was already a god, and The Dark Knight was like a newborn deity he had forged. It attracted throngs of believers and absorbed massive amounts of faith. These fanatical devotees swore to push their god to the pinnacle of the world."

"To defeat the imperious Godfather, they spent day and night creating accounts to give The Dark Knight ten stars and The Godfather one star. Meanwhile, fans of The Godfather have been doing the exact same thing..."

Yahoo Entertainment's report undoubtedly elevated this online feud to the media level.

Some tabloids, eager to stir up as much chaos as possible, began exploiting the event to hype up a bitter rivalry between Duke and Francis Coppola...

On Friday morning, as Sofia Coppola had morning tea with Duke, she said, "Those guys always love to exaggerate. Yesterday, some paparazzi even ran to my dad's front door to hound him about this."

"The media needs a news hook." Duke looked out through the glass window and gestured with his eyes. "Quite a few paparazzi followed us here. Can you believe it, Sofia? Tomorrow, the tabloids will be claiming there's some illicit affair between us."

"They've been saying that for over a decade." Sofia shrugged. "Let them say whatever they want."

She then changed the subject. Setting her teacup down, she asked with considerable interest, "I Am Legend premiered yesterday. In his interviews, David Ellison claimed his film would definitely take this weekend's box office crown. The statistics should be mostly out by now. Have you gotten them?"

"Not yet." Duke pointed a finger upward. "Tina is waiting on them. It probably won't take much longer."

The reception for David Ellison's new film was quite good after its release. Moreover, Will Smith had practically gone all out for the promotion. Not only had he sparked a divorce crisis during the pre-release press tour, but during his interviews at the premiere last night, he also declared that he was preparing to run for president and aiming for the White House within the next ten years.

These attention-grabbing antics gave many media outlets plenty to hype up.

"Where's Scar?" Sofia asked, shifting topics again. "How come I haven't seen her?"

"She left New York yesterday." Duke set his teacup down and withdrew his gaze from the window. "Captain America has entered post-production, and quite a few of her scenes need voice dubbing."

Unlike The Incredible Hulk, which was in the final stages of post-production and slated for a winter release this year, Captain America wouldn't be out until next year's Summer Season at the earliest.

Strictly speaking, the superhero was somewhat outdated, but the orthodox American spirit he represented naturally won over the audience's goodwill.

However, the film's reception in overseas markets might face some issues; after all, he was far too Americanized.

"Here comes Tina," Sofia said, looking toward the restaurant's entrance.

Duke turned his head to look as well. Tina Fey walked over at a leisurely pace in her high heels, waved in greeting to them both, and took a seat next to Duke.

After ordering her own morning tea, Tina Fey got straight to the point. "I Am Legend didn't have any advance screenings. We just received the midnight screening box office figures: $8.82 million. It basically matches external expectations."

Sofia Coppola sighed. "Will Smith's box office draw is still incredibly strong."

"David Ellison made a wise choice," Duke said.

Just as he had always said, superstars were a rare resource in all of Hollywood, and their status simply couldn't be measured by the standards of ordinary actors.

"If the numbers don't crash later on, I Am Legend will probably meet Disney's expectations," he added.

Tina Fey chimed in, "That's going to have some impact on us."

Duke thought for a moment before asking, "Did you confirm what I asked you to check?"

"Already confirmed." Tina Fey pointed to the faint dark circles under her eyes. "I specifically went to see the midnight screening of I Am Legend."

Without a second thought, Duke said, "Pass the word to the Animal Protection Organization and those Dog Lovers Associations."