Chapter 931: The God of Fate

"This story synopsis actually reads pretty well."

Looking away from the computer screen, Scarlett Johansson turned to Duke beside her and asked, "This wasn't leaked by someone on your staff, was it?"

Duke shot her a glare.

"You're overthinking it."

This online version actually looked quite plausible, essentially adapting the plot of the original Star Wars trilogy and deliberately adding details like Rey being a descendant of Obi-Wan to support its theory.

That being said, it wasn't completely without merit, so Duke kept reading.

"Rey has no desire to shoulder such a heavy burden; she only wants to rescue her friend. But Maz tells her that she will face the most severe of trials on this journey. As Maz watches Rey's ship depart, a green shadow emerges beside her..."

"Guided by The Force, Rey finds Finn. Waiting for her is Kylo Ren, who has completed his dark side training and intends to avenge his past humiliation. Ren battles Rey once more but is defeated, his right hand severed by her. At this moment, Supreme Leader Snoke appears, showing Rey the immense power of the dark side. He offers a condition: if she submits to him and learns the dark side, he will let Finn go."

"Rey agrees to Snoke's demands. Finn insists on staying by her side and passionately confesses his feelings for her. Rey tells Finn that she has her own mission, and that he will always be a friend in her heart."

"A dejected Finn returns to the Resistance Headquarters. The war between the Resistance and the First Order ignites once more. This is Supreme Leader Snoke's last chance for Hux and the Stormtrooper Legion. The Stormtrooper Legion invades the Resistance Headquarters, sparking fierce battles both in space and on the planet's surface. Poe's flight squadron remains unable to destroy the enemy's flagship. Finn returns just in time, infiltrating the enemy fleet with Chewbacca. Finn persuades Captain Mafas and more Stormtroopers to remove their helmets and defect from the First Order. With the help of the mutinying Stormtroopers, the Resistance defeats the Stormtrooper Legion, and General Hux is killed by Finn."

"Poe's flight squadron destroys the Star Destroyer, achieving a great victory. But Leia reminds the Resistance that the war is not over, sensing that her son is suffering. Meanwhile, a general of the First Order creates a brand-new legion of black-armored clones based on himself, preparing to launch a new war against the Resistance."

"Kylo Ren's defeat makes him question the dark side, and the remorse of patricide torments him. Snoke tells Kylo Ren that his failure was due to pride; he inherited Darth Vader's dark side, and Darth Vader also once lost to Obi-Wan because of pride. Snoke believes Kylo Ren needs more trials, sending him alongside the clone army to wipe out the Resistance and the light side of The Force."

"Finn asks Poe to take him to see Luke, begging Luke to step in and save Rey. Snoke speaks with a weakened soul—'Your Majesty, I have found a Force-sensitive with even greater potential. If she can fall to the dark side, she may help resurrect you!'"

"'Bring her to the Sith Temple to see me...'"

After reading this fan's imagined plot for the next two Star Wars films, Duke looked at the replies below. The pageviews were incredibly high. Although it was a fan-adapted story, to a certain extent, it would benefit the promotion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Duke then made a call to Tina Fey, asking her to contact the media and this fan so that this highly marketable plotline could appear in print as soon as possible.

The joint post-release promotional campaign launched by Duke, Warner Brothers, and Lucasfilm played an absolutely crucial role in the box office trajectory of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, especially in preventing a steep dive in ticket sales on Saturday and Sunday. The film's single-day box office never suffered a drop of over forty percent.

For an ordinary film, a single-day drop of over thirty percent during its opening weekend would make its producers and distributors extremely nervous. But this rule didn't apply to a movie like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Everyone knew that its daily box office couldn't possibly stay above 150 million dollars for two consecutive days, let alone pull off the super miracle of breaking the 100-million-dollar mark for three days straight.

Driven by the continuous, all-around generation of trending topics, combined with the inherent box office appeal of Duke and the Star Wars Series itself, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had completely ascended from media marketing to the level of a society-wide marketing event.

For most moviegoers, interest in a film stemmed from selling points like stars, plot, and special effects. Very few people cared about who was behind the scenes distilling and delivering those selling points, yet this was exactly the job of film marketing.

It was difficult to calculate the exact amount invested in the film marketing phase, but in the face of the dividends distributed by such a massive market, the business opportunities within the marketing sector were self-evident.

Given the current reality in Hollywood, low-to-mid-budget films usually entered the marketing phase after production was complete. In contrast, annual commercial blockbusters often brought in professional marketing and distribution teams right from the project planning stage to formulate comprehensive strategies. For promotional marketing and distribution, the core of the work was collaborating with the production crew and the distributor to distill the film's selling points at different stages and deliver them to the audience.

Unlike simple brand marketing, a film possessed rich content resources of its own that could feed back into the brand and generate talking points.

Of course, in cases where a single film lacked sufficient content volume, one could also analyze and filter current social trending topics to draw connections back to the movie.

Specifically within the marketing process, traditional media, on-the-ground events, and new media internet promotions were unavoidable standard procedures. The information reach rate and the market conversion rate during actual execution were also key metrics for evaluating a marketing team's creative ability and execution.

Undoubtedly, whether it was Duke's own team or the PR and publicity department at Warner Brothers, their performance in this regard was utterly outstanding.

As a result, with the film's quality adequately guaranteed, and backed by the foundational appeal of Duke and Star Wars, the massive explosion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the first-week box office was only a matter of course.

On Monday morning, inside a coastal villa in New York Long Island, Natalie Portman finished taking care of her son's breakfast. After handing him over to the nanny to take out to the garden, she picked up today's New York Times.

Unlike in the past, the front-page headline of the New York Times wasn't about social or political news, but rather information on Hollywood and the film industry.

"Duke Rosenberg once again breaks the North American opening weekend box office record! Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes the first film in North American history to break the 300-million-dollar mark in its opening week!"

Sitting on the living room sofa, Natalie Portman saw the headline, and her thoughts couldn't help but drift back to the past. How many times had Duke Rosenberg set a new North American opening record now? Independence Day, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight, The Avengers...

It had happened so many times she had lost count.

Thinking of this, Natalie Portman couldn't help but let out a laugh. So many years had passed, yet she still remembered everything about Duke Rosenberg with absolute clarity. There were many things she still couldn't forget even now. Perhaps this was what they called fate?

She knew what kind of person Duke Rosenberg was, and she marveled at how lucky that girl named Daisy Ridley truly was. Just because her aura was extremely similar to her own, she had earned the favor of the god of fate.

"The god of fate?"

Natalie Portman shook her head. Since when had she started equating Duke Rosenberg with the god of fate?

But she knew very clearly in her heart—to Hollywood actors, wasn't Duke Rosenberg exactly the god of fate who could change their lives?

Putting those thoughts aside, Natalie Portman shifted her focus back to the New York Times in front of her.

"The North American film market during the penultimate weekend of 2014 was thoroughly ignited by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This powerful Force has finally shattered the sluggish state the North American film market has been stuck in for the past month, scoring a strong opening victory for the Christmas box office. The space sci-fi sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens, distributed by Warner Brothers and directed by Duke Rosenberg, aggressively raked in 344.51 million dollars in its opening weekend. Without any suspense, it broke the North American opening weekend record, massively raising the benchmark previously set by The Avengers by nearly 100 million dollars!"

"With a production budget reaching 200 million dollars, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was helmed by Hollywood's premier super-director Duke Rosenberg. The old iron triangle from the original trilogy—Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher—made a full return, while Daisy Ridley, Daniel Wu, Lee Pace, Oscar Isaac, and others took on the roles of the new generation. The script was penned by Duke Rosenberg himself."

"The film held its premiere screening in Los Angeles at 7 PM on Thursday, with the midnight screening exploding for 72 million dollars, shattering the midnight screening record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for four years and nearly doubling the original figure. On Friday, the film expanded to 4,534 theaters nationwide. Backed by the largest December release scale in North American history, the film raked in 165 million dollars on its first day, massively smashing the North American single-day opening record held by The Avengers for two years."

"Although the film expended massive energy on its opening day, its subsequent trajectory showed no signs of being a mere fan-driven movie. It captured another 104 million dollars on Saturday, and combined with the 75.51 million dollars earned on Sunday, Star Wars: The Force Awakens closed its opening weekend with a final tally of 344.51 million dollars."

"Based on the film's word-of-mouth and the historical trends of this release window, it is almost guaranteed that the North American box office for this film will charge toward the 700-million-dollar mark. It's even entirely possible that it will compete with Avatar for the title of the highest-grossing film in North American box office history."

"The film's opening weekend audience was predominantly male, accounting for fifty-eight percent. The demographic under twenty-five accounted for forty-nine percent, proving that the Star Wars Series has not suffered a cultural disconnect among young people. The film's per-theater average for the opening weekend hit 75,000 dollars, rewriting the record for the highest per-theater average for a wide-release film."