Chapter 715: Water in the Desert Oasis

Warner Brothers had invested heavily in Fury Road. Duke's films had always been the pillar of Warner's movie business, and they hadn't let up on promoting Fury Road for a single second.

On the second Friday of April, WonderCon kicked off. Although it lacked the massive influence of San Diego Comic-Con, its attendees were younger—the core moviegoing demographic in the North American film market.

On this day, over a hundred thousand comic fans, sci-fi enthusiasts, and other pop culture devotees would gather here. Eager to pour into the Anaheim Convention Center—an hour's drive southeast of Los Angeles—they had traveled from far and wide for the three-day convention.

Now in its twenty-second year, WonderCon was organized by a group of pop culture fanatics and served as a prelude to the annual San Diego Comic-Con each summer.

While not as grand in scale as San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon remained a fan favorite—especially since the smaller crowds allowed attendees to pack more events into each day.

Aside from franchise retrospectives for Back to the Future, Star Trek, and Star Wars, this year's schedule added licensed game exhibits, interactive panels with best-selling comic authors, and a massive wave of showcases from film studios and television networks.

In reality, WonderCon's biggest draw was the premiere of the first trailer for Fury Road.

Norman Hiller entered the Anaheim Convention Center early. Bypassing the other booths entirely, he headed straight for the Warner Brothers hall. He had come this early just to secure a good spot near the front, but that hope was completely dashed; the place was already packed.

Nearly ten thousand people had crammed in front of the Warner Brothers hall, buzzing with talk about Duke, the movie, and the posters.

"Charlize Theron's look is absolutely badass!"

A fan pointed at the massive poster hanging high above.

"Tom Cruise wearing a muzzle looks cool as hell too!"

"Their looks are so unique!"

"Are they trying to ruin their own images?"

"Ruin their images? This is a breakthrough! I'd go to the theater just to see these two looking this intensely cool and incredibly badass."

Looking at the two massive character posters, Norman Hiller had only one thought: Duke was probably the only director in Hollywood who could make two superstars willingly play these kinds of roles.

However, he immediately tossed that thought aside as the trailer premiered.

Famous talk show host Ellen DeGeneres walked onto the stage of the Warner hall to personally introduce the trailer.

But few people paid the famous host any mind; their eyes were glued to the big screen.

In the video on the big screen, Tom Cruise woke up in a dusty wasteland, dizzy and disoriented. Wearing a metal mask, he was chained to the wreckage of a car alongside James Franco. He found a shotgun and tried to shoot off his companion's arm, but the gun misfired.

Just as he was about to aim for the man's wrist, he heard a noise nearby. He hoisted his unconscious companion onto his shoulder and walked toward a truck, only to discover a group of women in white using a hose to wash the dust from their bodies.

They were five Victoria's Secret angels, their white clothes fluttering like Grecian holy maidens. They were as alluring as an oasis in the desert. Yet when the camera cut to Charlize Theron, almost everyone forgot about the Victoria's Secret supermodels—because to them, a bald Charlize Theron was like the water in that desert oasis!

With water, everything else in the oasis could be temporarily ignored.

Even more staggering was the life-and-death struggle between the two badass characters played by Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise—a fight so intense it drove the crowd wild.

Tom Cruise leveled his gun at one of the women, demanding she hand him the hose and use bolt cutters to snap his chains. Just then, the female leader played by Charlize Theron ambushed him, and the two launched into vicious close-quarters combat.

Tom Cruise fended off her attacks just as his partner, James Franco, woke up. Seeing Charlize Theron about to grab the gun off the ground, Franco scrambled to help. Tom Cruise ultimately snatched the weapon and fired several shots into the sand right beside Charlize Theron's head...

It was an action sequence so tight it left the audience breathless. There were no flashy moves, only a brutal fight for survival!

Norman Hiller let out a long breath. He had known Duke wouldn't disappoint, and the footage proved he certainly hadn't.

The trailer continued with high-speed car chases across the desolate wasteland, thrilling stunt performances, and a dangerous showdown in a canyon between Tom Cruise, Charlize Theron, and a biker gang...

Every single clip was absolutely brilliant!

"The most ambitious, anticipated, and exciting movie of the year is here!"

Someone in the crowd shouted that out, drawing a chorus of agreement from the people around them. Even a veteran movie buff like Norman Hiller couldn't stop nodding.

If a movie like this wasn't worth anticipating, what was?

The film's promotion then entered its most frantic and intensive phase leading up to the release. Over the following month, Warner Brothers released four consecutive short TV trailers.

These trailers featured a fierce, highly visual style. Amidst the arrival of a massive tornado, violent maniacs slaughtered each other in the desert, staging massive car explosions that delivered a thrilling visual spectacle for fans awaiting the film's release.

"Just as director Duke Rosenberg said, Fury Road features a massive amount of car chases. While packed with gunfights, vehicles, and explosions, it carries a strong post-apocalyptic..."

Staring at the television screen, David Ellison wore a very serious expression. Even though the movie pushed the boundaries of its rating, he was fully aware that this was an incredibly formidable competitor.

"Hey, David, good news."

His younger sister, Megan Ellison, ran in from outside and announced loudly, "I just came from the company. We have confirmed news: the MPAA's rating for Fury Road is R-rated."

"It'd be weird if a movie like that wasn't R-rated," David Ellison muttered.

Megan Ellison walked over, sat down next to him, and said, "I remember The Adventures of Tintin being PG, right?"

David Ellison nodded.

"Steven Spielberg's PG family-friendly feature against Duke Rosenberg's hardcore R-rated flick..." Megan Ellison shook her head. "This is just a completely unfair match-up."

"Unfair?" David Ellison let out a sneer. "There's never been any fairness in business competition! The one being treated unfairly is The Adventures of Tintin!"

Megan Ellison looked at her brother and asked curiously, "Did something happen that I don't know about?"

As she grew older, Megan Ellison was also able to control some of the funds in her trust. Just as interested in the film industry, she had bought shares in David Ellison's Sky Film Studio.

"Those idiots in the theater chains would rather give an R-rated film like Fury Road over 4,000 theaters than invest any more resources in a PG movie like The Adventures of Tintin!"

Speaking of this, David Ellison slammed his fist onto the sofa's armrest.

Megan Ellison just shrugged and said nothing. She knew exactly why, and she also knew that David Ellison understood the reason better than she did.

Though arrogant, David Ellison was no fool, and he quickly regained his composure. The Adventures of Tintin had fewer than 3,600 opening theaters, and that was already preferential treatment from the North American Theater Alliance because Steven Spielberg was the director. Otherwise, the number would have been even lower.

Why was this? The reason was simple. The distributor for Fury Road was Warner Brothers, while the distributor for The Adventures of Tintin was Sky Film Studio!

At this point, David Ellison felt some regret—regret that he hadn't sought out another distributor for The Adventures of Tintin. He had grossly overestimated his own company's capabilities and underestimated the difficulty of building distribution channels.

Distribution was far from something you could master just by setting up a department and hiring some highly paid professionals.

But it was too late to change the North American distributor now. All David Ellison could do was hand the overseas distribution rights for The Adventures of Tintin over to Disney Pictures.

However, David Ellison still had a certain degree of confidence. After all, the director of The Adventures of Tintin was Steven Spielberg.

Most importantly, PG movies held a massive demographic advantage over R-rated films, an advantage more than enough to offset the gap in opening theater counts.

Furthermore, as long as the opening week's per-theater average for The Adventures of Tintin surpassed that of Fury Road, adding more theaters later on would be a matter of course.

There was also the China market, which David Ellison had his sights firmly set on. Transformers had already fully shown him the potential there. Coming from a business family, his commercial instincts were quite sharp, and he knew that market represented the future.

He certainly couldn't compare to Duke Rosenberg right now, but how many years had he even been in this circle? And what about the other guy?

He had high enough expectations for his own future and the future of Sky Film Studio, and to realize those expectations—to become a force in Hollywood that couldn't be ignored—he had to rely on solid market results!

The Adventures of Tintin entering the China market was a sure thing. Disney Pictures had already received a confirmed reply from across the ocean. Spielberg's global influence remained massive.

But if Fury Road wanted to enter that market, things would probably be difficult. Even with Warner Brothers' various collaborations with China Film Group, whether it could pass the board over there known as the...

David Ellison couldn't remember the exact name. He only knew that the chances of Fury Road passing censorship were incredibly slim—virtually non-existent.