Chapter 79: Mutual Smearing

If he followed the habits and mindset of his past life, Duke would have had to be modest and cautious when faced with this kind of question. He would have been expected to offer a few words of praise for his competitors before appropriately downplaying himself and The Rock. Otherwise, he would inevitably draw criticism.

However, having lived in this country for over twenty years, even if his way of thinking wasn't entirely westernized, he had assimilated quite a bit. Appropriate humility was fine, but excessive humility would only be seen as a sign of weakness and a lack of confidence. Besides, this was the fiercely competitive world of Hollywood. The other side had already stepped on him; if he remained humble and cautious, he would only be treated as a pushover in the future.

"I watched Interview with the Vampire, but I didn't finish it."

In the morning, Duke had gone to the theater to briefly check out his competitor. "Maybe it's just not my favorite genre. The biggest impression the film gave me was its slow pacing and dull content..."

Bursts of laughter erupted below the stage, followed by applause. Most of the people sitting here were action movie fans and, to a certain extent, understood Duke's production style.

Spreading his hands, Duke shrugged again, silently interacting with the audience through his expression alone.

"It looks like I'm not the only one who thinks so," Duke continued. "In the theater screening Interview with the Vampire, I noticed a few things too. A lot of the audience were bored to the point of nodding off and letting their minds wander. Many even left early, just like I did, because they found it dull and uninteresting."

This wasn't just empty talk. According to data fed back from the research company, compared to a fast-paced popcorn flick like The Rock, Interview with the Vampire did indeed have a higher walk-out rate.

"Also, there are problems with the actors." Duke had no intention of stopping. "The vampires played by Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are certainly cold and handsome enough, but their acting..."

He simply shook his head. "To be frank, I think Kirsten Dunst's performance was far superior to both of theirs!"

"You think Tom Cruise's performance in the film was flawed?"

The host, Leno, immediately caught the main point of Duke's words. This was juicy material guaranteed to boost ratings. "Can you elaborate on that?"

"It's actually a very obvious problem." Spreading his hands, Duke spoke directly without a second thought. "Starting from Top Gun or even earlier, in subsequent films like Days of Thunder, Born on the Fourth of July, and Far and Away, Tom Cruise has left incredibly deep impressions on people. But did anyone actually remember the characters he played?"

After thinking it over, Leno simply shook her head. Even more people in the audience below the stage were shaking their heads.

"The reason is simple. In these movies, Tom Cruise turned all the characters he played into Tom Cruise!"

Hearing Duke's words, a wave of understanding sighs rose from below the stage. Clearly, his statement resonated with many people.

These were once widely acknowledged facts. Tom Cruise and the guy from the big ship were undoubtedly the classic examples of playing every role as themselves. The difference was that the latter, in order to make a breakthrough, had the resolve to let himself go and look like an old uncle, while the former spent decades playing it cool, acting handsome, and selling his face, showing practically zero improvement in his acting skills.

Smearing was also a discipline that required technical skill. Duke naturally wouldn't just spout nonsense, lest he end up making a fool of himself. Whether it was his review of Interview with the Vampire or his opinion of Tom Cruise's acting, both were based on objective facts.

When he returned to the lounge, Duke suddenly realized that he had forgotten to throw a few jabs at Sean Connery. But thinking about it, it was no big deal. Regardless of whether he smeared him or not, the old man's image was already at rock bottom. Just a few days ago, he had heard Nancy mention that Connery's divorce case was going through legal proceedings, and his son and wife might even sue him for domestic violence!

Walking out of the NBC Studio, Duke specifically called Nancy Josephson into his car.

"Nancy..."

After starting the car and pulling onto the road, Duke said, "I heard Tom Cruise believes in Scientology?"

"That's right, yes." Nancy Josephson nodded. "He was allegedly introduced to Scientology by his ex-wife."

"I hear this cult has a terrible reputation?" Duke turned the steering wheel, and the car merged onto Seventh Street.

Nancy was a smart person and immediately grasped his intent. "Duke, are you suggesting...?"

"I believe many tabloids would be happy to report on it."

Hearing Duke's casual tone, Nancy was slightly dissatisfied. "This should be PR's job, not an agent's!"

"Hey, darling." Duke tilted his head toward the passenger seat. "Don't forget that you get a cut of the profits from my investment. Suppressing the competitiveness of Interview with the Vampire and boosting The Rock's box office numbers as much as possible is good for both of us."

No amount of sweet-talking or buttering up could be as convincing as that. Before they even reached the Duke Studio in North Hollywood, Nancy had already pulled out her phone and started making calls. She contacted Warner Brothers' PR and marketing department while simultaneously activating her own and ICM Company's media connections.

This circle was just like that. In front of the media and the public, they could stand together for pictures with beaming smiles, looking like the tightest of friends in the industry. Yet, when competing in private, they would ruthlessly sling mud at each other. Duke wasn't the first to smear a competitor, nor would he be the last.

And so, on Sunday, many tabloids across the United States, especially gossip rags owned by the Warner Group, began to criticize Tom Cruise's faith as problematic. They specifically accused him of interfering with Nicole Kidman's freedom of belief, alleging that after they got married, he forced her to abandon Catholicism and convert to Scientology.

This was a country with freedom of religion. Generally speaking, no one could interfere with another person's religious freedom, and the same applied to the media. However, tabloids were not major newspapers; they simply had no bottom line. While making an issue out of Tom Cruise's faith, they also separately listed a number of absurd things Scientology had done, terrified they wouldn't be convincing enough otherwise...

Among them, some tabloids even published claims that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's marriage was not based on love at all. Instead, it was a scheme orchestrated by Scientology and their talent agencies, completely a game designed to fool the public.

It was no exaggeration to say that many tabloids subtly painted Tom Cruise as a textbook cultist.

As for whether Scientology would come looking for trouble, these tabloids couldn't care less. They practically wished someone would come looking for trouble every single day so they could constantly attract eyeballs.

While Duke and Warner were smearing the Interview with the Vampire creative team led by Tom Cruise, the other side was likewise smearing him. They claimed he recommended actresses he was intimately involved with for his crew, that his success was due to family connections rather than personal effort, and that his films lacked any originality beyond just blowing things up.

Compared to the Cruise couple, who supposedly got into a sudden argument while shopping, Duke had a much better mindset. He would laugh it off and forget it right after reading. He was inherently resolute, and coming from an era of information explosion, what kind of bottomless promotional tactics hadn't he seen?

Of course, based on Duke's guess, Tom Cruise losing his temper was also related to Interview with the Vampire's single-day box office on Saturday.

Nobody could deny that Interview with the Vampire had maintained a professional media score of around 8.7, absolutely crushing The Rock's professional score, which had plummeted straight to 7.3. If both films were positioned for the awards season to contend for School Faction awards, the latter would have zero chance of beating the former.

Unfortunately, this was the summer season, a release window dominated by popcorn flicks. CAA and Twentieth Century Fox had clearly overestimated the box office draw a megastar could bring and underestimated the impact of the film's genre, while simultaneously ignoring the effect of a movie trailer appearing on the Super Bowl for the very first time!

In Friday's North American box office, Interview with the Vampire did indeed securely hold a lead over The Rock. However, the role of hardcore fans couldn't be ignored. As the premiere day temporarily exhausted the enthusiasm of their respective hardcore supporters, audience word-of-mouth and promotional efforts played a crucial role.

The audience word-of-mouth for Interview with the Vampire had been steadily declining, followed by a drop in box office numbers. Its Saturday single-day box office slid to $8.2 million. On the other hand, The Rock's upward momentum was incredibly obvious. The power of word-of-mouth brought tangible box office figures, with its North American box office for the day surging from $10.13 million to $15.66 million!

Most importantly, Duke was certain there was no padding in The Rock's box office. As for how much of Interview with the Vampire's take came out of Tom Cruise's own pocket, that was hard to say.

If it weren't for the smears from their competitors, Duke even felt the film's second-day box office could have made a run for $20 million. But he knew that was impossible. A movie trying to steamroll its way through a purely benevolent world with no competition? Please, this was Hollywood!

This box office figure galvanized the spirits over at Warner Brothers. Although they had never explicitly told Duke, Warner's expectation for the film's first weekend was $25 million. As long as it could hit that number, breaking $100 million in North American box office ultimately wouldn't be an issue at all with Warner's promotional push.

"I didn't expect that in just two days,"

Sitting in his office chair, Warner Brothers CEO Kevin Tsujihara sighed with some emotion. "The film's box office has already reached $25.79 million. Jeff, your hard push to collaborate with Duke Rosenberg was a very correct move."

Although he only wore a faint smile, anyone could see that Jeff Robinov was in an excellent mood. He said, "The next issue is still the theater chains. Kevin, CAA and Twentieth Century Fox have been constantly pressuring AMG and Regal Entertainment. We should make a move too."

"I will personally call their CEOs!"

If he could achieve such a beautiful performance record in the final stages of his tenure, Kevin Tsujihara would not only be able to find a better next destination for himself but also pocket a hefty bonus. "I will notify the Warner Group and have them exert pressure as well."

With Kevin Tsujihara's words, Jeff Robinov let go of the little worry he had left. The box office numbers for The Rock were right there; the theater chains wouldn't just throw away profits to push a film with worse box office and potential. He wasn't even asking for an expanded release scale. As long as they could maintain the current number of theaters next week, that would be enough!