From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

To some extent, Hayden was right—

"Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" missed its opportunity.

If they waited for the premiere box office data to come out before following up with the "Ticket Stub Action," the intention to piggyback on the hype would be too obvious.

Not only would it fail to achieve the desired publicity effect, but it could also become the target of netizens' complaints, and might even further trigger resentment, inadvertently pushing the audience away.

It would be better to maintain their stance, continuing the consistent attitude and position since the premiere, at least avoiding the predicament of being criticized from all sides.

Twentieth Century Fox had the same idea.

By the time they recovered and prepared to follow up with the "Ticket Stub Action," the public opinion trend had quietly changed, and they realized that they had missed the opportunity and fallen into a passive position.

Obviously, there were too many strange things happening in this year's summer movie season, and they couldn't be judged according to common sense.

Twentieth Century Fox was not fully prepared psychologically.

Moreover, to make matters worse, the 2002 World Cup arrived as scheduled.

Although the World Cup's influence in North America was limited, with American football being the number one sport, and soccer being incomparable to American football, baseball, ice hockey, and basketball, the World Cup was still a quadrennial carnival.

Naturally, the number of people in movie theaters was inevitably affected.

Not only "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones," but also "Spider-Man" could not avoid market fluctuations, and the summer movie season market that had just begun to recover was once again hit.

Thus—

On one hand, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" was constrained by its own reputation, and its subsequent box office trend was significantly lower than expected.

Although the Memorial Day weekend ushered in a small wave of moviegoing frenzy, and the second weekend's box office drop was controlled at a good level, the impact of the World Cup immediately forced the film's weekend box office to plummet.

After being severely damaged, it was never able to recover.

The drop was far beyond expectations, completely deviating from market predictions.

Twentieth Century Fox made one wrong step after another, blindly believing that the miracle of "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace" could be replicated and pasted onto the second film in the series:

Even if the reputation collapsed, it could still sweep through everything.

But they made the mistake of clinging to the past, ignoring the objective fact that the market was constantly changing.

The terrible reputation of the first film in the series did not prevent audiences from entering the theaters, because their "Star Wars" filter and feelings were at play, and they didn't even notice the film's reputation as they bought tickets and entered the theaters.

However, now that the second film had arrived, the situation was completely different.

After being fooled by buying tickets and entering the theater in the past, casual viewers and ordinary movie fans were not in a hurry this time, but patiently waited for the reputation to come out, and refused to pay for sentimentality.

That is to say, only hardcore fans and die-hard fans were still willing to enter the theater and enjoy it.

When casual viewers realized the film's terrible reputation, the enthusiasm for buying tickets and entering the theater was hindered; and Twentieth Century Fox missed the opportunity for publicity and failed to break the situation, so the film's subsequent box office trend was also hit in all directions, unable to replicate the previous film's miraculous trend.

Accurately speaking, the halo of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" was no longer there, and it became the same as other ordinary summer commercial genre films, with no difference.

From the heat of discussion to the box office data, everything was synchronized with the summer movie season's boom, becoming one of the countless mediocre genre films.

By the time Twentieth Century Fox realized the predicament and tried to repair and save it, it was already too late.

Obviously, this was the result of a series of errors colliding.

In the end, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" accumulated a North American box office of $302 million, very reluctantly and very thrillingly barely crossing the $300 million threshold; plus other countries and regions, the global box office landed at $645 million, continuing the "Star Wars" series' lack of enthusiastic box office performance in overseas markets.

Of course, the film was still a success.

With the production cost controlled at $115 million, plus Twentieth Century Fox's meticulous promotion budget, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" still easily made a profit, and the production of the third film in the series was put on the agenda immediately.

However, there is no harm without comparison.

Compared with the box office performance of "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," which wrote countless records, the performance of the second film in the series fell by two whole grades, and even became the object of ridicule and complaints by major talk shows, which was definitely not what Twentieth Century Fox wanted to see.

Could this be considered the turning point in the "Star Wars" series' fall from grace?

Rumor has it that George Lucas was under tremendous pressure, tossing and turning, unable to sleep or eat, and even seriously considered giving up the development of the third film in the series.

This was also the case.

Although George Lucas still directed "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith," it was his last directorial work.

Since 2005, he has entered a semi-retired state, never again taking the directorial helm, and more often active behind the scenes as a screenwriter, producer, and technical consultant.

When they prepared to produce the "Star Wars" prequel series, they were holding the thought of easily making money and filling their coffers, but they never expected it to be a roller coaster ride, with their hearts almost exploding.

Until the year-end box office data for 2002 came out, looking back, there were many reasons why the box office performance of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" was far below expectations, including the work itself, the publicity strategy, the encounter with the World Cup, and so on.

But one thing that cannot be denied is the ambush of "Spider-Man."

This work was once considered a suicide squad that served as a pioneer during a downturn, and even if it wasn't cannon fodder, it was estimated that it would be difficult to achieve anything; but unexpectedly, it broke a bloody path, shining brightly and overturning the entire summer movie season—

Not only did it withstand the pressure and write history, breaking the shackles of the North American box office market in one fell swoop; but it also faced "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" head-on without falling behind.

Accurately speaking, it wasn't just not falling behind.

"Spider-Man" used the competitor's traffic to transform it into its own opportunity to break through the ceiling, once holding "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" down and rubbing it hard, and completely shaking off the entanglement of North America's number one traffic, unbelievably riding the dust and sprinting at full speed.

History was written in this way.

No one expected "Spider-Man"'s opening success, no one expected "Spider-Man" to overturn "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones," and no one expected "Spider-Man" to ride the dust and chase the highest historical record.

Exclamations came one after another, and even on the World Cup field, "Spider-Man" was mentioned without exception, and the out-of-circle index was evident.

Four hundred million US dollars in North America? Or five hundred million US dollars in North America?

No.

Six hundred million US dollars in North America—

The second film after "Titanic" directly raised the benchmark to a new height, even "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace" was eclipsed.

The entire North America witnessed the birth of a superstar!