Chapter 642: Over a Billion Worldwide

"Smile, Duke."

Scarlett lowered the camera from her face and called out to him, "Is it really that hard to take a picture with a tuna?"

"Hey, honey," Duke said, turning his head aside to keep his nose away from the hanging tuna. "It really stinks!"

"Just hold on for ten more seconds. Catching a tuna this big is lucky, and I want to record that luck."

She raised the camera again. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."

With the click of the shutter, Scarlett captured the image of Duke standing by the edge of the fishing boat with his hand on the tuna.

"Done!" She lowered the camera, walked over to look at the tuna, and added, "I've already contacted air express. They'll freeze the fish and ship it to Malibu."

Duke shrugged helplessly, not bothering to argue. "If you want to ship it back, go ahead."

"We caught this together!" Scarlett was clearly still excited. "I'm sending it back to have it taxidermied."

Duke pulled a tissue from his backpack, wiped the fishy smell from his hands, and backed away from the fish. "I'll have Emma put it in your walk-in closet."

He crumpled the tissue, tossed it into a trash can by the bulwark, and pointed toward the pier. "They're here. Let's let the professionals handle it."

Duke pulled Scarlett aside. Watching the men take the three-foot-long tuna down from the hanging net, he decided to gather everyone for a massive tuna feast once they got back.

Wrapping up their overseas fishing trip, the two stepped onto the pier and left the dock area.

Although it was winter in the Southern Hemisphere, Vanuatu was hot year-round. Even after changing into very thin clothes, Duke and Scarlett hadn't walked far before working up a heavy sweat.

"Let's take a break..." Scarlett dragged Duke into a roadside shop. "Let's get something to drink."

Since they had already visited Fiji, the two had flown directly to Vanuatu after leaving Sydney. The area was famous for its volcanoes, islands, and tuna.

Duke and Scarlett had been here for a while now. They had even visited the famous Mount Yasur.

Sitting under the shop's awning, they waited less than two minutes before their drinks arrived. Scarlett had ordered Vanuatu's most famous beverage, called kava, also known locally as intoxicating pepper.

Locals often said that if you hadn't drunk kava, you hadn't truly been to Vanuatu.

The raw ingredient for kava came from a pepper shrub widely grown across the South Pacific island nations. The plant itself was called kava, and the drink ground from its roots shared the same name. It was an all-natural painkiller and sedative, highly effective for treating nervous tension and depression. Once brewed into a drink, however, it looked a bit like thin mud. It tasted faintly of peppercorn water with a bitter edge, and it left the tongue numb.

Perhaps because it didn't taste very good, it was meant to be downed in a single gulp. After drinking it, most people felt physically and mentally relaxed, uplifted, and completely drained of fatigue.

For someone as sensitive as Duke, his eyes had grown heavy shortly after his first time drinking it. He had thought eating something would help, but after moving around following the meal, he ended up throwing up everywhere, as if dead drunk...

Because of that, he respectfully declined the local specialty and simply asked for a glass of water.

Scarlett, on the other hand, not only found it delicious but also suffered no adverse reactions after drinking it.

Downing the mud-like kava, Scarlett set her cup down. Looking out at the emerald sea in the distance, she said, "I really just want to toss all my work aside and take a trip around the world, just to see the different sights everywhere."

"There will be opportunities for that in the future," Duke said, setting down his water glass.

Scarlett muttered, "A workaholic like you will never find enough time to travel."

Duke shook his head, not bothering to entertain her nonsense.

"We're heading back to Los Angeles soon," Scarlett continued to mutter. "I really don't want to leave."

Following Scarlett's gaze to the edge of the horizon, the sun hung above the sea like a crimson fireball. As it set, it shifted in color, as if trying to display its dazzling hues to all of creation one last time.

It bathed the ocean in a shimmering glow, as though the water had been paved with gold...

The view was truly beautiful.

"Once the yacht is finished," Duke said slowly, "if we have time again next year, we'll go sail around the world."

"Mhm." Scarlett nodded firmly.

Duke checked the time and stood up. "Let's go. We should head back to the hotel."

From late May through the end of June, Duke had been on vacation. Even he couldn't just crank out one movie after another without stopping; he needed time in between to rest and recalibrate. His team needed the same. People weren't machines, after all.

Film production had its own rhythm. Some movies simply couldn't be rushed. Producing a quality film took both time and money.

The latter was just as important. This was Hollywood, a circle that spoke exclusively through commercial success. It was precisely by delivering one blockbuster hit after another that Duke had cemented his power and status in the industry.

Every director was free to choose their own cinematic path, but Duke firmly believed that if he hadn't chosen the commercial route in the beginning, he never would have reached his current heights.

He had even reached the point where his word alone could decide the future direction of both the DC Comics and Marvel Series films.

Warner Brothers took Duke's input extremely seriously. They had already vetoed superhero scripts that were too serious or dark, not just because of Duke's glorious track record, but because his films continued to set terrifying new box office records.

Although the box office momentum of The Dark Knight had begun to slow following the release of Spider-Man 3, the film had still crossed the $500 million threshold in North America right at the start of June. Reaching that mark in just 29 days, it had set a new record for the fastest film to hit $500 million at the North American box office.

Looking back from where The Dark Knight now stood, nearly every past North American box office record had fallen.

After passing its sixth weekend in North America, The Dark Knight used its $521.45 million box office to officially surpass the $521.32 million of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, breaking into the top three highest-grossing films in North American history, trailing only behind The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King and Titanic.

However, after crossing the $500 million milestone in North America, The Dark Knight clearly slowed its pace, much like someone exhaling in relief after achieving success. Especially after overtaking The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which seemed to have exhausted the bulk of fans' enthusiasm, its weekday daily box office had slipped to around $1.3 million.

At that daily earning rate, breaking $600 million would be incredibly difficult without a miraculous surge or an exceptionally long theatrical run.

Furthermore, according to Duke and Warner Brothers' plans, the film's theatrical run would last only until next year's Oscar nominees luncheon at the absolute latest.

Warner Brothers understood even better than Duke the critical role Heath Ledger's passing would play in helping him secure a Golden Statuette. They clearly wanted to capitalize on the predictably one-sided media frenzy following the announcement of next year's Oscar nominations to launch The Dark Knight's DVD release and rake in another massive windfall.

Duke had no objections; this was the best way to maximize the profits of The Dark Knight.

Once the DVD was released, the North American Theater Alliance would swiftly terminate The Dark Knight's theatrical run, even if Warner Brothers didn't want to pull it from screens.

It was fair to say that Warner Brothers had formulated a strict series of plans for The Dark Knight and was already putting them into motion. Submitting Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, for instance, was a crucial link.

Beyond Best Supporting Actor, there were also a host of technical awards. Warner Brothers was even preparing to submit The Dark Knight for Best Picture and Best Director.

Of course, both Duke and Warner knew very well that winning a Golden Statuette for either of those two awards would be nearly impossible—even securing a nomination would be immensely difficult.

The School and the Oscars held deep-seated prejudices against superhero movies.

It wasn't completely out of the question. If Duke ended up like Heath Ledger, the School would undoubtedly drop its bias and, nine times out of ten, toss the Best Director Golden Statuette his way.

However, that was a scenario Duke absolutely did not want to see.

He also wasn't going to go out of his way to chase after an Oscar anymore, and he didn't even plan on campaigning for a nomination.

Starting in mid-June, The Dark Knight fully entered a phase of slowly accumulating box office numbers over time. By late June, its daily earnings dipping below $1 million had gradually become the norm.

No film could remain a massive hit indefinitely. The early theatrical run of The Dark Knight had consumed too much of the audience's enthusiasm, leaving its late-stage performance slightly weaker compared to The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King from a few years prior.

As time crossed out of June 2007, The Dark Knight's North American box office failed to breach the $550 million mark, stalling at the figure of $545.82 million.

Meanwhile, the film had successively hit theaters in nearly 120 countries and regions. Over its nearly two-month run, it had grossed a total of $512.85 million overseas.

The film's style virtually guaranteed that the international response would trail behind North America.

But a total global box office of $1.05867 billion was still more than enough to look down on all of its competitors for the year.

The theatrical run for The Dark Knight wasn't over yet, leaving room for both its North American and overseas box office to continue climbing. However, Duke was bringing his vacation to a close. Warner Brothers had already given him definitive word: even with his demand that the minimum production budget for his new project be no less than $200 million, Warner's review committee had still greenlit it.

Such a colossal investment set a new record for Duke's highest single-film production budget. The vast majority of those funds would be spent on special effects. His new movie would require incredibly realistic CG effects to bring a legion of giant, sentient robots to life.