Chapter 933: Box Office Buying

After just one weekend in theaters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had already set a series of box office records.

"Midnight premiere record: $72 million; Friday box office and highest single-day box office record: $165 million; the first film to surpass $150 million in a single day; the fastest film to break the $100 million, $150 million, and $200 million marks; the December premiere record, quadrupling the $84.6 million set by the previous record holder, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; the highest IMAX midnight screening record, highest IMAX single-day box office record at $34 million, and highest IMAX opening weekend record at $70.1 million."

"Wide release opening weekend per-theater average record: $75,000; broke opening weekend box office records in Britain, Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, and New Zealand, ranking second in history for opening weekends in France, Belgium, Israel, and Chile; global IMAX premiere record: $98 million; North American opening weekend record: $344.51 million; global opening weekend record: $595.15 million..."

Ivanka Trump then checked the North American release schedule for January and February. No heavy-hitting films were slated for either month, meaning there was absolutely nothing capable of truly threatening Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Just how high would its final box office climb?

She would keep a close eye on the film's performance.

No one could say for sure how high the film would ultimately reach, let alone guarantee whether it could shatter Avatar's global box office record of over $2.7 billion.

But Duke knew very well that to secure a massive box office haul, even with its current level of hype, they still needed to ramp up their marketing efforts.

After Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke both the North American and global opening weekend records previously held by The Avengers, another company under Duke's banner immediately sent its congratulations.

Marvel Pictures released a brand-new poster on its official Twitter, Instant Sharing, and multiple other websites. In the image, Captain America—the brains and commander of The Avengers—hung a gold medal around BB-8's neck.

This was a tradition within the North American film industry, one that originated with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Years ago, when the box office of Star Wars surpassed Jaws, Jaws director Steven Spielberg released an image to congratulate Star Wars director George Lucas. Later, when Jurassic Park eclipsed Star Wars, Lucas returned the favor and congratulated Spielberg.

At the same time, Duke also posted an image on his official Twitter and Instant Sharing. It featured Black Widow Natasha Romanoff and Captain America Steve Rogers—the connective tissue of The Avengers—officially inviting Rey and the adorable BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens to join The Avengers...

North American fans immediately let their imaginations run wild.

"Are the Marvel and Star Wars universes going to merge?"

"The Skywalker Family joining The Avengers to fight alongside Cap and Iron Man? Oh. My..."

Obviously, Duke was doing this for marketing and to generate buzz. It wasn't just for Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Avengers 2, directed by brothers Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, was slated for release next May, and this served to promote that film as well.

Without a doubt, starting from Marvel's Phase Two plans, Captain America Steve Rogers had become exceptionally important. The plans for numerous films would revolve around Captain America.

Because of this, Duke's personal signature on Instant Sharing had also become rather strange.

Beneath all his Instant Sharing posts, he had added this special block of text.

"He is seen as the symbol of the American spirit."

"His strength, speed, and endurance far exceed those of ordinary men."

"He achieved illustrious military exploits for America and the world during World War II."

"He was gifted by the government with an alloy Shield as unyielding as his will."

"He leads The Avengers through life and death, winning impossible victories time and time again."

"He is not a born hero. Nor does he possess an immortal body of steel; he is simply stronger, braver, and sharper than the average man."

"He disregards life and death for the people, and he sacrifices everything for freedom. He believes that as long as they stand united, there is no enemy they cannot defeat."

"He is Captain America—Steve Rogers!"

While the promotional campaign in the North American market had already reached a fever pitch, Duke had also eased up on the promotion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the Chinese market. Even though the release date across the Pacific Ocean was a full half-month behind the global premiere, this was a good thing in some respects. After all, the phenomenon of watching a movie just to follow the trend existed not only in North America and the Western world, but across the Pacific Ocean as well.

"Tina..." Inside the corporate jet flying to New York for a promotional event, Duke closed the file in front of him and spoke quite seriously, "Tell Warner Brothers and Phil, the head of the Warner Greater China Region, that I do not agree with this."

Sitting across from him, Tina Fey nodded and immediately opened her laptop, ready to send the email.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of Hollywood directors had zero say in the marketing and distribution of their films. Duke, of course, was the exception. As long as he strongly opposed it, Warner Brothers and the Warner Greater China Region certainly wouldn't push forward with it.

What Duke was opposing was actually quite simple. Phil from the Warner Greater China Region had suggested that when Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened in China, they should adopt the marketing tactic of secretly box office buying during its opening week, much like most hot-selling Chinese films did. This would make the film's numbers look sufficiently dazzling to increase its appeal to casual moviegoers.

In the Chinese film market, this was indeed an effective promotional and distribution strategy. Someone like Duke didn't suffer from any so-called moral mysophobia; as long as it provided a big enough boost to a film's commercial performance, he didn't mind employing some underhanded methods.

The problem was that while such a strategy suited the domestic films across the Pacific, it absolutely did not suit a Hollywood film acting as a foreign invader.

It was fundamentally impossible to keep this sort of thing completely under wraps. The moment it leaked, the media and film companies across the Pacific would undoubtedly gang up on them, turning them into a universal target of condemnation.

Simply put, this strategy was only meant for local films, not outsiders.

Even though fierce competition existed between local film crews and studios, they were always connected in countless ways. Even if they were exposed for using such methods, no one would relentlessly hound them for it. This was because the vast majority of popular, locally produced films were doing the exact same thing; if you exposed someone this time, you would receive the exact same treatment the next time.

When dealing with Hollywood films, however, they naturally had no such reservations.

The release window for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was not a good one. Duke knew this very well. First, December was domestic protection month—something the big scissors across the ocean never officially acknowledged, but which very much existed. Second, Duke and Lucasfilm had rejected the China Film Group's request to invest.

The top executives at Duke's company and Lucasfilm would have to have water in the brain to accept outside investment on a project like Star Wars, even if the other party only wanted a cut of the box office.

As Tina Fey quietly sent the email, Duke continued to ponder the matter. Extrapolating from his past self's experiences during his final few years, the far side of the Pacific was undoubtedly in an era where such distribution strategies ran rampant. He couldn't entirely blame Phil from the Greater China Region for thinking of such an unreliable tactic.

When everyone else was doing it and you weren't, you were clearly at a disadvantage.

Duke unconsciously recalled the final year his past self had experienced. He vaguely remembered it was a Saturday when the third installment of a certain film about Bruce Lee's master put on a distribution performance that was perhaps unprecedented in Chinese film history. At the time, he and all his colleagues in the film industry had the privilege of witnessing a day that would likely go down in history.

Late that night, at the theaters screening this film, the front two rows of seats in several auditoriums were completely sold out—despite the fact that almost no tickets had been sold for the optimal middle rows. What was more, the late-night tickets, which were historically discounted, were priced as high as 111 and 203 yuan.

Anyone who had ever been to a movie theater knew that the front two rows were the worst possible seats for watching a film. Yet, they had been bought out in near-perfect unison, and at several multiplexes where the ticket prices exceeded 100 yuan to boot. Given that the much better seats in the middle were clearly still available, buying up huge chunks of terrible seats in such an abnormal fashion could only mean that these "audiences" were trying to be Good Samaritans.

Not only that, but in even more theaters later on, every single auditorium showing this film on a Monday morning suddenly saw its presale tickets completely sold out. And this was on a workday!

If this had happened in one or two auditoriums, it might have been explained away as a coincidence, but what about so many auditoriums suddenly experiencing it all at once?

It was a weekend that could only be described as miraculous.

Naturally, such a situation couldn't be hidden from anyone with a discerning eye. Quite a few voices crying foul appeared on the internet, and the big scissors even called in the relevant companies and executives behind the film for a talk. However, after raising the paddle high, they brought it down with the lightest of taps—ruling that this action was merely the individual behavior of specific multiplexes trying to secure third-party ticket subsidies...

No one could say for sure if it was truly individual behavior. Perhaps only the insiders really understood the truth.

Duke, however, knew that just because domestic films across the Pacific could use these methods didn't mean Warner Brothers and Star Wars: The Force Awakens could do the same. Truthfully, these tactics, the investigation by the big scissors, and the better than nothing punishment were all completely normal. Every region and market had its own local protectionism, and North America, which claimed to be the most open, was no exception.

Stubbornly ramming one's head against the wall when they knew perfectly well that local protectionism existed was purely courting death.

Indeed, judging by the data sent over by the Warner Greater China Region, box office buying among domestic films across the Pacific had reached a state of utter madness.

A famous director had even gone so far as to say: "Are there any domestic films out there right now capable of breaking a hundred million in a single day without buying over 50 million in opening day box office?"