Chapter 650: God Duke

After finalizing the crew's on-location shoot at the Pentagon and other details, Duke returned to Los Angeles and took a day off. While he was idling at home, Scarlett Johansson checked on the release status of The Man from Earth.

Sitting in front of the computer in the lounge, she took a sip of her juice.

"These figures are so dismal that even I feel sorry for David Ellison," she said to Duke.

Sitting in a high-backed sofa chair, Duke was flipping through a Transformers comic book. Hearing this, he looked up.

"Tell me the exact numbers," he said.

David Ellison had, after all, snatched this movie right out of his hands. If Duke claimed he wanted to see The Man from Earth become a huge hit, it would definitely be a lie.

"The Man from Earth has been in theaters for ten days now, grossing a total of $28,521 across 126 North American theaters. The per-theater average over these ten days hasn't even broken $3,000..."

Scarlett Johansson shook her head.

"The IMDB rating is actually quite high at 8.4, but unfortunately, that's just because too few people have rated it. Less than five hundred people have given it a score," she added.

For any movie, the fewer people who rated it, the higher the IMDB score tended to be. This was a very simple truth, and the main reason why The Man from Earth had such a high rating.

Duke couldn't help but feel a little curious.

"With such a low per-theater average, the theater chains haven't forced it out yet?" he asked.

"I'll ask someone."

Scarlett picked up her phone, dialed a number, and spoke for a few moments. After hanging up, she turned to Duke.

"The people at the Warner Distribution Department say that if The Man from Earth doesn't see a major box office improvement this weekend, it'll be pulled by the theater chains," she told him.

She adopted the tone of an expert.

"It's impossible for there to be any improvement. There are only a few days left before the weekend. The North American box office for The Man from Earth won't surpass $50,000."

"Mm..." Duke nodded, his eyes falling back to the comic book.

"The box office is so bad..."

This time, Scarlett was the curious one. She turned off the computer, pulled over a chair, and sat down next to Duke.

"Why did you take a liking to it in the first place?" she asked.

"I read the novel. The premise is absurd, but it's somewhat interesting," Duke said after a moment of thought. "I think if it's pushed to the home video and rental market, this film might find a certain audience. You should know that some cult films find their crowd in the rental market and can often bring in a lot of revenue."

"Like Quentin Tarantino's films?"

Scarlett immediately thought of the famous cult film director.

Duke turned to a new page.

"Pretty much," he said without looking up. "Some films just aren't suited for a theater atmosphere. The revenue from DVDs and videotapes for many of Quentin's films often far exceeds their North American box office. That might be part of the reason."

If one only looked at Quentin Tarantino's box office numbers, they would definitely wonder how he always managed to secure investments and why the Weinstein Brothers supported him so much. But looking at the offline revenue of his films made it clear that this was perfectly normal.

Just as Scarlett Johansson had heard, exactly two weeks after its release, The Man from Earth was forcibly pulled from theaters across North America, ending its brief theatrical run.

What remained in front of David Ellison was the dismal figure of $32,567 from 126 theaters, of which at least half would be kept by the theater chains. Compared to his investment, it was truly better than nothing.

Setting down the data report, David Ellison frowned. The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong. His thoughts unconsciously drifted toward a conspiracy; he felt as if he had fallen for Duke Rosenberg's trick and bought a completely worthless film.

He slammed his fist heavily against the desk, venting a bit of the frustration in his chest. He didn't care too much about this minor loss. After all, the North American box office for I Am Legend was about to cross the $200 million mark, and its global box office had already surpassed $400 million. The revenue it brought in far exceeded these losses.

It was just that the thought of inexplicably losing to Duke Rosenberg yet again made him feel entirely unsettled.

In fact, just seeing the film The Man from Earth made his blood boil.

Seeming to understand David Ellison's thoughts perfectly, the head of the distribution department sitting across from him spoke up at just the right time.

"Mr. Ellison, a home video distribution company contacted Sky Film Studio. They want to buy out the offline rights to The Man from Earth," he said.

David Ellison looked up at the man across from him.

"Oh? How much did they offer?" he asked.

"$300,000."

To the executive, this was a very reasonable price. After all, with The Man from Earth's current box office numbers, it was impossible to sell it for a high price.

"I think this price is decent. It can also recoup some of our losses," he added.

Starting from a few days ago, David Ellison had wanted nothing to do with this film that was destined to bring him humiliation. He thought for less than ten seconds before waving his hand.

"Just sell it to them," he said.

"I'll go handle it now."

A few days later, Duke heard the latest news from Scarlett Johansson. The Man from Earth's offline rights had been bought out from David Ellison by Netflix for $300,000...

While he sighed a little at the thought that Netflix might have snagged a massive bargain, Duke didn't care too much. Amidst his busy preparations for Transformers, he focused most of his market attention on The Dark Knight, which had yet to leave theaters.

Since the beginning of July, The Dark Knight had been gradually shrinking in North America in both theater count and box office figures. Its cumulative North American box office for the entirety of July was $14.19 million, dropping to $7.65 million in August. Now, in early September, the film's North American box office had reached $567.66 million. Although it was getting closer to the $600 million mark, its growth rate was becoming increasingly sluggish.

Ultimately, before it left theaters, whether its North American box office could surpass the second-place film on the all-time North American box office chart, The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King, was something even Duke and Warner Brothers couldn't say for sure.

However, in terms of the global box office, The Dark Knight definitely couldn't surpass The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King.

The overseas reception for this darkened film had always been weaker than in North America, and that remained true even in September. Let alone surpassing The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King, it was a massive question whether the film's overseas box office could even reach the $636.4 million figure of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

To date, The Dark Knight's overseas box office totaled $561.22 million, still failing to surpass its North American box office. However, the combined total of the two reached a staggering $1.12888 billion, which was more than enough to satisfy Duke and Warner Brothers.

On the other hand, the film's word-of-mouth remained exceptionally high. The audience approval rating consistently held above ninety percent, and it continued to dominate the number one spot on IMDB's TOP250 rankings.

Of course, this also had something to do with the fact that the IMDB website still hadn't reopened the rating and review sections for the two films.

The war between the fans of The Dark Knight and the fans of The Godfather had long since spread from IMDB to every corner of the internet. As long as a website was related to film and television, one could see the two factions clashing. Moreover, the war showed a trend of continuous expansion; as time went on, more and more of Duke's fans who weren't specifically fans of The Dark Knight joined the fray.

It had to be said that the sheer number of Duke's fans was massive. Against the fans of The Godfather, they held an absolutely overwhelming advantage.

Whenever a post or comment criticizing Duke and The Dark Knight appeared online, it would quickly be followed by over a dozen replies attacking the original poster.

The term "Duke fanboys" gradually spread out from North America, diffusing into moviegoing demographics all over the world.

It could be said that no director in history, including James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, had ever won the wholehearted support of so many fans while solely occupying the role of a director, quite like Duke had.

This was a truly unprecedented phenomenon in the history of cinema.

Even on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the fans had gradually given Duke a new, exalted nickname: "God Duke."

Of course, where there were fans, there were haters. The war sparked by The Dark Knight inevitably spread to the internet over there as well.

However, an announcement from the China Film Group quickly drew away all the fans' attention.

In mid-September, the China Film Group officially announced that Duke's new live-action film, Transformers, would hold its global premiere in Shanghai in June of the following year. Furthermore, the China Film Group had reached an agreement with Warner Brothers and Duke himself: two Chinese actors would appear in this massive blockbuster production.

The post-80s generation had already risen up and was becoming the backbone of society. The Transformers cartoon, which swept the nation in the late eighties and early nineties, was undoubtedly an indelible memory in the hearts of these people. Coupled with the special global premiere and the casting of two homegrown actors, it immediately ignited the passion of countless fans.

This was only the first step in the promotional campaign by the China Film Group and Warner Greater China Region. Since they valued this market, Warner would naturally spare no effort in promoting their flagship product.

Duke's films were undoubtedly Warner Brothers' biggest draw.

No one knew better than Duke just how much power and appeal Transformers possessed on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. To exaggerate slightly, as long as the special effects were guaranteed and Optimus Prime and Megatron made an appearance, the countless members of the post-80s generation would readily pay to see the Transformers film.

Bringing in Chinese actors was both Warner's suggestion and a market necessity for the film, and Duke had no objections to it. However, while the two actors cast in Transformers wouldn't just be walking props, their roles weren't considered important either, and their screen time would be quite limited.

In truth, their presence held more of a symbolic meaning.

As for the casting choices, Duke's requirements were very simple: the actor had to be handsome, the actress had to be beautiful, neither could have too many scandals, and ideally, they would speak fluent English.

In this regard, he only put forward his requirements; the specifics were still up to the China Film Group and Warner Greater China Region to handle.