Chapter 825: A Number Destined to Be Remembered in Film History

"The Avengers Opens with a Bang, Midnight Screening Box Office Ranks Second in Film History!"

Early Friday morning, nearly every major entertainment media outlet that received the statistics published similar news on their front pages.

"In the early hours of the morning, Duke Rosenberg's meticulously crafted blockbuster, The Avengers, officially hit North American theaters. Its midnight screening raked in $33.8 million, successfully surpassing The Dark Knight to set a new midnight box office record for both superhero films and Duke Rosenberg's own career."

"Although this figure falls short of the staggering $43.5 million midnight gross set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 last year, Marvel's heroes have proven the immense appeal of teaming up to fight monsters. With phenomenal word of mouth and massive fan enthusiasm, box office analysts are highly optimistic about The Avengers' continued market performance..."

Just as the media reported, the North American film market—primarily driven by teenagers and young adults—erupted with terrifying enthusiasm on Friday.

In Los Angeles, the three chain theaters located in Santa Monica Commercial Square each welcomed dozens of customers the moment their doors opened that morning. Fifteen minutes later, the number of people inside had multiplied fivefold.

By noon, the AMG, Regal Entertainment, and Artist chain theaters in the square were buzzing. Every corner of their lobbies was packed. Amid the frantic ticketing and screening operations, each theater had to divert staff to maintain order as people who couldn't get tickets began to complain loudly.

There was nothing they could do; the three theaters had allocated almost every available screen to The Avengers. Yet, because they were in such a prime location, there simply weren't enough tickets to go around.

"I don't care how you explain it to the distributors!"

In an office of the Regal Theater Chain, the theater manager roared at the scheduling supervisor, "Aside from keeping a fifteen percent screening rate for The Hunger Games and having one auditorium rotate through other films, I want all screens showing The Avengers!"

The Avengers craze arrived naturally. Long lines had already formed in New York's Times Square, and the people waiting had only one purpose: to watch The Avengers!

This spectacular sight immediately caught the media's attention. CNN and NBC broadcast vans and reporters had rushed over early, continuously interviewing the fans in line.

One fan showed off the Captain America Shield backpack he was wearing to the camera.

"I'm a Captain America supporter!"

Many interviewed fans shouted out their favorite heroes to the cameras.

"I'm an Iron Man fan!"

"I love Thor and Loki the most!"

"I like Black Widow, and I like Scarlett Johansson!"

"I'm not a fan of any superhero! I came to see this movie because I like Duke Rosenberg's films!"

Even though it was only Friday, The Avengers ignited a viewing frenzy across America. From the afternoon onward, the attendance rate for auditoriums showing The Avengers generally hovered over sixty percent. For theaters in hot spots like Santa Monica Commercial Square and New York's Times Square, "full house" couldn't even begin to describe the sheer number of fans gathered.

The craze sparked by The Avengers perfectly matched the expectations of Duke, Warner Brothers, and Marvel Pictures.

First, the scale of the film's promotional preparations was massive. Starting with Duke's direction of Iron Man, up through Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor, a steady stream of Avengers-related films had been released over a few short years, undoubtedly accumulating massive popularity for their current assembly. The post-credits scenes after every movie laid direct groundwork for this culmination, rolling the snowball larger and larger. As the business expanded, Duke and Marvel Company had successfully pushed the superhero genre into a virtuous cycle.

Second, gathering so many superheroes together was exceedingly rare. As representatives of American pop culture, it was hard for the predominantly young moviegoing audience not to develop a sense of star worship. The movie merchandise filling the streets and the related topics flooding internet forums were clear evidence of this.

Third, the film's quality was absolutely top-tier. Even before its release, it had amassed strong word of mouth through early marketing, and audiences universally praised it after the premiere. Furthermore, the film's visual effects were stunning, making it well worth a trip to the theater, and the 3D version only accelerated its box office surge.

Finally, the movie's atmosphere was light and humorous. Heroes who previously seemed lofty and unapproachable gained human relatability; breaking their established stereotypes made the characters much easier to like, rendering the film suitable for all ages.

Of course, the most important factors behind The Avengers' massive popularity were the marketing and the fact that... this was a lighthearted, exhilarating popcorn flick!

Even with Duke taking over as director, The Avengers still lacked any so-called depth or philosophical meaning. It was a story where one knew the ending just by watching the beginning: the bad guys wanted to rule Earth, the good guys formed an alliance, and after a period of friction, they defeated the villains and saved the world.

It was also a movie that gathered all of Hollywood's usual tricks: dazzling fights, a dense barrage of deadpan jokes, a cast full of handsome men and beautiful women, and themes championing justice and friendship.

Regrettably, this formula succeeded yet again.

Although some complained that the villains were too weak or that the heroes weren't utilized enough, The Avengers was enough to make audiences scream and laugh in the theater while happily emptying their wallets.

This was the biggest factor in The Avengers' success: it wasn't pretentious or profound. The viewing experience could be summed up in one word—exhilarating!

On the Instant Sharing website, the fastest and most widely reposted message on Friday was about The Avengers. An ordinary viewer had written a single sentence after watching the film: "With the release of The Avengers, there are no other movies left to watch this summer!"

This naturally made those full of artistic pretensions very displeased.

However, no matter how much they cursed it, they couldn't change the fact that The Avengers was destined to succeed and achieve unparalleled fame.

Certain people always looked down on commercial films, believing that any random director could produce an excellent commercial movie as long as they had an ample budget.

But was that the truth? In Hollywood, almost everyone acknowledged that shooting a big-budget commercial film was far more difficult than an independent movie!

Rome wasn't built in a day, and The Avengers wasn't going to succeed just by throwing a few superheroes together. Seemingly mindless popcorn flicks couldn't be directed by just anyone; they also required constant innovation and improvement.

When audiences grew tired of heroes fighting alone, they considered uniting them; after the team-up succeeded, they would tailor individual series for each hero. Constantly studying the market was the only fundamental way to ensure this industry continuously produced high-yield products, and it was the bedrock for the film industry to maintain its status and growth!

As the film's screening scope expanded, dissenting voices naturally appeared, even resorting to cold mockery.

"There are many types of pacing in movies; there is visual pacing and emotional pacing. For a film, emotional pacing is a necessary condition, while visual pacing is irrelevant. A visually paced movie devoid of emotional pacing truly puts people to sleep. The characters fight intensely, but it feels like watching a bunch of snot-nosed kids brawl over a piece of bubblegum. It's baffling, yet people still have to pretend to be enthusiastically cheering them on. It's simply ridiculous."

Superhero movies like this couldn't possibly please everyone, especially those who fancied themselves as having an artistic eye. The film wasn't made for them in the first place.

"No one forced you to buy a ticket for a superhero movie. If you want to watch a slow-paced film driven by emotional storytelling, you can go to an art house theater. Why run off to a commercial film just to torture yourself!"

The reply immediately following that comment could be considered the best response to that type of moviegoer. After all, even an idiot knew what a Hollywood superhero movie looked like. Deliberately bringing an artistic mindset and an "art" perspective to specifically scrutinize a film in a commercial theater only showed that these people had severe masochistic tendencies.

Moreover, this was just the opinion of a very limited handful of people. It couldn't affect The Avengers' explosive momentum in the slightest.

The sky outside the window was just beginning to turn pale when David Ellison put on his clothes and stepped out of his bedroom. Ever since "Vin Diesel's fatal car crash," his sleep quality had been extremely poor. That bald head constantly appeared in his dreams, disturbing him so much that he couldn't sleep normally, even waking him from nightmares on several occasions.

But David Ellison had never regretted it. Even though Vin Diesel's reputation was smeared after his death, the car crash had sparked widespread attention. This was already highly beneficial for Fast and Furious 5.

Stepping onto the spacious balcony, David Ellison looked toward Malibu. He had never hoped for anything as much as he did right now—for Duke Rosenberg to fail just once!

Even for someone as powerful as Duke Rosenberg, if The Avengers failed, it would still be a massive loss.

As he sat at the table on the balcony, his butler brought him coffee, as well as the newspapers he read every day.

David Ellison flipped straight to the entertainment section. Yesterday was the day The Avengers fully hit North American theaters, so the opening day box office numbers should be out by now.

"Crack!"

With a crisp snap, the white porcelain coffee cup in David Ellison's hand slammed heavily onto the matching tray. The tray instantly shattered into pieces, and the brown liquid splattered out, landing on the newspaper. Right next to those spotted stains was an exceptionally striking number. Paired with the specks of coffee, this number looked like Jim Carrey's exaggerated expressions, mocking certain people's wishful thinking.

"A new single-day box office record for North America! The first film in history to break $100 million in a single day at the North American box office, created by The Avengers! $100.66 million!"

This was the headline of the entertainment section. This was a number destined to be remembered in the cinematic history of North America, and even the entire world!

Taking several deep breaths in a row, the expressionless David Ellison finally calmed down. As the owner of a film company, he naturally understood how terrifying this number was.

This wasn't the final box office, nor the opening week box office—it was just the North American box office gross for a single day of The Avengers!

He slowly closed the newspaper, but this number, like a curse, remained permanently entangled in David Ellison's mind, denying him even a moment of peace...