Chapter 887: The Safest Plan

Without a doubt, The Interview couldn't hit theaters in many countries, but it spread even further across the internet. Although the film suffered from online piracy, its paid on-demand views consistently broke new records, even rivaling the online VOD numbers of The Dark Knight Rises, which had just ended its theatrical run in North America.

To a certain extent, the massive buzz around the film made The Interview what it was.

Just as Duke had once said, in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, being talked about was many times better than being ignored.

While The Interview continued to squeeze out its final profits through TV broadcasts, video-on-demand, and offline channels like DVDs, far away on the Korean Peninsula in the Western Pacific, the film had become a political weapon.

Certain organizations in South Korea used hot air balloons to drop Warner Brothers' newly released discs into North Korea, sparking a fierce reaction from the North. This time, it wasn't just a simple verbal protest. Artillery fire rang out once again on Yeonpyeong Island, which had enjoyed a ceasefire for the past few years. North Korea fired over a hundred shells at the South, and South Korea, refusing to be outdone, returned fire with nearly eighty. The situation on the Korean Peninsula instantly escalated to a boiling point.

Yet none of this concerned Duke. His role in the incident was purely that of a businessman. Even setting his financial interests aside, he didn't possess any grand internationalist sentiment.

Besides, what did the life or death of the two warring sides have to do with him?

Duke harbored no special sympathy for certain people who were supposedly suffering.

"Compared to North Korea and South Korea..."

Sitting in his office at Warner Studios, Duke sipped his black tea and said to Tina Fey, "I care much more about the box office numbers for The Dark Knight Rises."

The film had officially ended its theatrical run in North America, and Warner Brothers had just faxed the precise statistics to Tina Fey. She knew Duke had no interest in reading the report himself.

Glancing at the numbers on the fax, she read aloud, "The North American box office is 596.75 million dollars. It's guaranteed to take this year's North American box office crown."

She glanced at Duke. Seeing no reaction from him, Tina Fey added, "Although it hasn't finished its run entirely overseas, there aren't many countries and regions still screening The Dark Knight Rises. Plus, they bought out the distribution rights, so whatever box office they generate doesn't have much to do with us."

Even though The Dark Knight Rises had been affected by various factors and ultimately fell short of Warner Brothers' expectations, Duke still gave a slight nod. Warner Brothers had believed it would be a film on the same magnitude as The Avengers. But reality had proven once again that a solo superhero's output simply couldn't compete with a team-up.

Tina Fey didn't stop there. "Adding in North America's 596.75 million dollars, as of right now, The Dark Knight Rises has grossed a total of 1.54567 billion dollars at the global box office," she continued.

Compared to her anxiety when the film opened, Tina Fey was perfectly calm now. Box office figures like these were more than enough to prove the success of The Dark Knight Rises.

Even after encountering so many setbacks, The Dark Knight Rises still claimed the 2013 North American box office crown with unrivaled momentum.

After listening to Tina Fey, Duke temporarily set The Dark Knight Rises aside. The film's merchandising profits were equally staggering, and there were still many commercial avenues left to explore. There was no rush at the moment, especially since Warner Brothers had dedicated personnel handling that side of the business.

Duke went back to flipping through his paperwork, signing document after document. Among them was a backend profit-sharing report for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises that Tina Fey had submitted.

For both films, the contracts Duke had signed with Marvel Pictures and Warner Brothers consisted of a base salary plus a cut of the revenue. Not counting his 15-million-dollar base pay for each film or his stock dividends from the two companies, with the recent arrival of a 23.5-million-dollar backend payment, Duke's pre-tax income on The Avengers had reached 232.7 million dollars. He was absolutely one of the biggest winners.

Even though this was only the first round of director's backend payouts for The Dark Knight Rises, Duke still raked in a massive sum of nearly 45 million dollars.

Naturally, out of all the actors and directors in Hollywood, Duke was the undisputed highest earner. His compensation was also the largest single line item in the budget of any project he directed.

Yet no one ever questioned this, because Duke created far more value for his investors. If he wanted to, the queue of projects waiting for him to direct could stretch all the way from Duke Manor in Malibu to San Diego, south of Los Angeles.

However, Duke always maintained a clear head. He knew that among Hollywood's litany of records and achievements, there was still one person and one film standing firmly ahead of him—James Cameron's Avatar.

Duke was a technical director. He never rejected new technology, nor did he pointlessly insist on unnecessary location shoots. But compared to James Cameron's innovations in film technology, Duke knew he couldn't catch up even if he were driving a sports car.

Before the emergence of The Avengers, public opinion held that no one could match Duke in total lifetime box office gross. But as for surpassing the single-film box office of Titanic and Avatar, the only director capable of doing that was James Cameron himself.

That was, until The Avengers came along.

He had to admit, the sheer power of a superhero team-up was absolutely massive.

The highest-grossing single film in cinematic history was just a title, but the prestige and influence that came with it were truly unimaginable. Just look at a certain film across the Pacific—why would they exhaust every possible trick, even throwing in massive amounts of money, just to snatch the title of highest-grossing film in history on that side of the ocean?

It wasn't just about fame; it was about profit.

Ever since Terminator 2, James Cameron's films had been synonymous with exquisite production values and box office explosions. Anyone who had studied the film industry even slightly would easily realize that the King of the World's movies never won on creativity; in fact, their creativity was merely average at best.

The most classic examples were Titanic and Avatar. When it came to originality, those two films probably couldn't even be considered average.

Without a doubt, the greatest feature of both films was their technology.

Duke was distinctly different from James Cameron. To shoot Avatar, Cameron could spend years improving and experimenting with new technologies, willing to wait five years or more. Duke, on the other hand, maintained a pace of roughly one film per year. This meant it was impossible for him to hunker down and research new cinematic tech like Cameron did; he would only ever apply the latest, most mature existing technologies to his own productions.

Surpassing James Cameron by utilizing new technology was completely impossible.

Duke was very clear on this point. Unless he also took a few years out of his life to plunge purely into film technology just like Cameron, there wasn't a chance.

Squandering several years on a single movie was obviously not going to be his choice.

Choose a highly original script? Setting aside the enormous risks that so-called originality represented, the very nature of massive blockbuster films dictated that their core stories didn't actually need too much creativity.

Of course, adaptations were another option.

Over the past few months, Duke had also been paying attention to news regarding web serials and popular books. He even had his people acquire the film adaptation rights to a web novel called Fifty Shades of Grey, but he still hadn't found a project that truly made his eyes light up.

Across the Pacific, the Warner Greater China Region had recommended a popular hard sci-fi novel to Duke that boasted significant popularity and influence. However, Duke had no interest in directing it himself. He was an incredibly rational man. The most irrational thing he had done in this life was merely getting involved with his former idol, Natalie Portman. When it came to that popular sci-fi novel, his head remained remarkably clear.

Up until now, the most important film market in the world was still the Western market, led by North America. The North American market in particular—the very foundation of Hollywood—was xenophobic toward foreign cultural products to a degree far beyond what most people could imagine. The most suitable market for a film adaptation of that sci-fi novel was still across the Pacific; it was absolutely impossible for it to become a massive hit in the Western market, especially in English-speaking regions.

Lacking the English-speaking market and relying solely on the market across the Pacific as its main pillar, how could it possibly sustain Duke's typical investments that easily exceeded 200 million dollars?

As for thinking that filming that sci-fi novel would rake in a box office higher than Avatar... that was simply wishful thinking.

That sci-fi novel was excellent, but it wasn't suited for the Western market. Duke was absolutely certain of this. Therefore, after the Warner Greater China Region secured the novel's film adaptation rights, they partnered with several of the strongest film companies across the Pacific, striving to produce a meticulously crafted Chinese-language co-production. Its target demographic would squarely be Chinese audiences.

If a film wanted to be a massive hit, it first needed a sufficiently clear positioning of itself.

Unlike the film adaptation of this sci-fi novel in his memories, the plan submitted by the Warner Greater China Region detailed that the first installment of this temporarily unnamed franchise project would have an investment exceeding 100 million dollars and take at least three years to produce. It would absolutely not be the kind of trash film cranked out just to make a quick buck.

Co-productions would also become a major format in the future, and the Warner Greater China Region was pursuing more experiments in that area. One of Duke's film funds was also attempting to enter the Chinese market, and Duke had personally approved investment plans to participate in a story about monsters and an animated adaptation of Journey to the West.

Duke signed his name on document after document, which Tina Fey then gathered and relayed to the various relevant departments.

Finally, he opened a script. Based on his outline and character designs, this was the completed script written by the writing team hired by Lucasfilm. The script bore a striking title: Star Wars: The Force Awakens!

Under the circumstances of being unable to find a suitable subject and genre, this was undoubtedly the safest plan.