Chapter 783: Argo Project

The Oscar campaign was still ongoing. None of the contenders would give up easily before the final voting concluded. Gravity had also finished its third weekend in the North American market. Its box office trend remained strong, dropping only thirty-five percent from its second weekend to take in $37.29 million. Combined with its earnings from the previous four workdays, the North American box office had broken the $250 million barrier, reaching $258.97 million.

Overseas, the film's release expanded to 108 regions. The international box office was also growing rapidly, pushing the global total steadily past the $500 million mark to reach $527.88 million!

More importantly, even after a prolonged theatrical run, the film's word-of-mouth remained robust. This was incredibly beneficial for its subsequent Oscar campaign.

Time slowly slipped into late January. When Sunday arrived, Duke dropped all his work and headed to Pasadena City in the Los Angeles suburbs, his destination the famous Rose Bowl Stadium.

One of the most famous stadiums in America, it could currently accommodate over ninety thousand people. Built in the 1920s, the Rose Bowl Stadium was renowned for hosting the annual college football bowl game, also known as the Rose Bowl.

However, during the NFL season, it served as the temporary home of Duke's Los Angeles Raiders.

After the Raiders relocated from Oakland to Los Angeles, they had no stadium of their own and could only lease this famous venue as their temporary home. But Duke had already secured the land and finalized the designs. Construction on the new Raiders stadium had officially begun in the summer.

In two seasons at most, his Los Angeles Raiders would be able to move into their own home stadium.

Joining Duke to watch the game were Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney. But as they walked down the stadium's long corridors and were led into the VIP section by the team's dedicated reception staff, they also spotted many industry peers.

These included Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Jessica Chastain, among others.

Although this wasn't the Super Bowl, it was the AFC Championship. The winner between Duke's Los Angeles Raiders and the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers would advance straight to the Super Bowl next month.

"Hi, Duke."

"Hi, Duke..."

While he sat in the private box the team had prepared specifically for the owner, nearby acquaintances came over one after another to say hello. Duke responded to them one by one. It wasn't just the people he had seen earlier; among those trickling in, he spotted quite a few familiar faces.

There was Orlando Bloom, whom he had worked with before, and a certain recently risen Canadian singer, Justin Bieber.

For some reason, Duke noticed that things seemed a bit tense between Justin Bieber and Orlando Bloom. However, their seats were far apart. They merely exchanged a look of obvious hostility in front of Duke before returning to their respective spots.

"Attendance isn't bad."

Sweeping his gaze around the stadium, Leonardo DiCaprio said to Duke, "It's much better than I imagined."

"Imagined?" Duke said, leaning back in his seat. "Did you think the entire stadium was going to be empty?"

"Of course not." Leonardo shook his head. "I originally thought we'd be lucky to hit fifty percent attendance."

George Clooney had gone over to Ben Affleck's side, leaving only Duke and Leonardo here. The conversation between the two was much more relaxed and casual, and Leonardo occasionally threw out a teasing remark.

"I get it!" he said with sudden realization, pointing to his left and the opposite side at two grandstands covered by massive Raiders team logos. "You covered up these two large grandstands, so attendance looks higher."

Duke shrugged but didn't say anything.

Although he didn't participate in the club's direct operations, he knew the Raiders had yet to truly become Los Angeles's team. Even though Nancy Josephson's ICM and the team itself had done a massive amount of promotional work, achieving this goal still required time.

Coupled with the Rose Bowl's capacity of nearly one hundred thousand, the direct consequence was that attendance rates for the team's games weren't particularly high. Since the NFL had strict regulations regarding attendance, the team simply covered the two uppermost grandstands of the Rose Bowl on game days so the empty seats wouldn't be as noticeable.

This was also the most common practice among all professional sports leagues in America.

The Los Angeles Raiders' attendance last year was far worse than it was now. Professional sports always spoke through on-field results. This season, not only had the Raiders fought their way into the playoffs, but they had also reached the AFC Championship. They were only two steps away from the Super Bowl. This massively stimulated the market, and ever since the playoffs began, game day attendance had vastly improved.

Los Angeles was the second-largest metropolitan area in America and a massive market. Whether the Los Angeles Raiders could snatch a large enough slice of the pie from the multitude of professional sports teams still depended on whether they could deliver correspondingly good results.

If the team could win a Super Bowl within the next two years, the marketing work would undoubtedly become much smoother.

"Hey, Duke."

A greeting rang out from the side again as George Clooney walked over with Ben Affleck.

Duke stood up and shook hands with Ben Affleck. "Hello, Ben."

The upper circles of Hollywood were only so big. The two weren't very close, but they had seen each other around before.

"Right now, all the Vegas odds favor your Raiders."

In contrast to his usual swagger, Ben Affleck was quite humble in front of Duke. He offered a subtle compliment, "The Raiders are the hot favorites right now. The combination of Tom Brady and Marshawn Lynch is unstoppable. Reaching the Super Bowl definitely won't be a problem."

"Thank you."

After exchanging pleasantries, Duke gestured to the chairs inside the box. "Have a seat, Ben."

Just as Ben Affleck had said, after over a season of finding their rhythm, the Los Angeles Raiders were on the right path. However, reaching the Super Bowl required more than just team strength and proper tactics; it also required a good deal of luck.

The few of them sat together and chatted about the Raiders for a while. Taking advantage of the fact that the game hadn't started yet, Ben Affleck suddenly shifted the topic to movies.

It was obvious that this was Ben Affleck's true purpose for coming over.

The Hollywood star—whose acting career had been narrowing until he rejuvenated it by transitioning into directing—asked, "Duke, have you heard of Hollywood's Argo Project?"

The name sounded quite familiar, but Duke couldn't recall it in the moment. He shook his head. "I think I've heard it somewhere, but I can't remember clearly."

With that, Duke looked at Ben Affleck, waiting for his explanation.

"It's like this. In 1979, when the Islamic Revolution in Iran reached its peak, militants attacked the American embassy in Tehran and took fifty-two hostages. However, six Americans managed to escape. To rescue them, the CIA collaborated with Hollywood to devise a film production plan called Argo. They wanted to bring them back to America under the guise of a film crew scouting locations in Iran..."

Hearing about the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Duke immediately realized what Ben Affleck was talking about. He didn't interrupt, however, patiently waiting for Ben Affleck to finish.

"I want to adapt this event into a film."

After saying this, he glanced at Duke. Seeing no reaction, he continued, "I've already secured the adaptation rights, and I'm looking for someone to write the script, but I just haven't found the right investors yet."

Duke thought for a moment and asked, "Ben, who do you plan to get to direct this project?"

"Well..." Ben Affleck scratched the back of his head. "I want to direct the film myself."

Even though he had already directed a movie, he was still an absolute rookie in the directing industry. Ben Affleck was well aware of this.

Thinking back to that film, its budget hadn't been very high, and its box office was quite decent. In truth, films like this had a solid market in North America. After decades of consistent smear campaigns by the mainstream North American media, certain countries were synonymous with terrorism in the minds of the North American public.

This film capitalized on that perfectly, ensuring a sufficient market audience.

Because of this, Duke only considered it briefly before saying, "How about this, Ben? Put together a detailed proposal as soon as possible. If it looks good, one of my film foundations will invest in your movie. As for distribution, we can hand it over to Warner Brothers."

Ben Affleck clearly hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. His long face lit up with overwhelming joy, and he hastily said, "I promise I'll get the proposal into your hands as soon as possible."

He was very tactful. After saying that, he took the initiative to stand up. "Duke, I won't bother you any longer. See you around."

"See you around." Duke gave him a slight nod.

Being inclined to invest in Ben Affleck's film wasn't just because it was a low-investment project with decent returns. To a certain extent, Duke was also doing George Clooney a favor, seeing as he was the one who brought Ben Affleck over.

Regardless, after Gravity premiered, George Clooney had put a lot of effort into the film's PR work and activated his own network of connections.

Afterward, Duke and the other two turned their attention to the upcoming game. Perhaps spurred by the Los Angeles Raiders reaching the AFC Championship, this game set a new high since the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles; the number of ticket-holding spectators in the stadium exceeded sixty thousand.

For the Los Angeles Raiders, this was a gratifying achievement, and it meant the team was gradually integrating into the fabric of Los Angeles.

However, if they wanted to truly become a part of Los Angeles, the Raiders still had a long way to go. But Duke had plenty of patience.