Made in Hollywood

As soon as the sun climbed into the sky, a Rolls-Royce Phantom stopped in front of the Warner Building in Burbank. Duke pushed the door and got out of the car. Together with Tina Fey, they walked towards the large conference room of Warner Bros.

Although it was still a while before going to work, the senior management of Warner Bros. had already been waiting in the conference room. CEO Doug Walter sat at the top of the conference table and did not say a word, just like everyone else, just waiting quietly, waiting for this The arrival of the protagonist of the meeting.

That man has reason for them to wait, because he has created a brilliant performance for Warner Bros., one person almost holds up a small half of the sky for Warner Bros., and he will never be short of blockbuster movies under the Warner Bros. banner.

And this time, he is very likely to save Batman!

It was a series that once fell into a cliff, and now he is holding it up with one hand. Judging from the performance of the midnight show, it is almost about to fly into the sky again.

There was a light knock on the door of the conference room, and a secretary walked in with Duke and Tina Fey, and everyone's eyes instantly focused on him, as if they were looking at the savior.

Duke nods to the gaze as he walks toward his seat.

Others can think of him as Batman's savior, but he can't, and such thinking is dangerous.

Just as he walked to the conference table, Doug Walter stood up and waited here. He took the initiative to extend his hand and shook Duke's hands. After he sat down, he announced the start of the Jane meeting.

This is a very targeted and targeted business meeting, without any rambling, the meeting goes straight to the point.

"Batman: Hour of War's midnight box office tally is out."

The speaker is Doug Walter himself. As the parent company of DC Comics, Warner Bros. has always wanted to reproduce the glory of DC superhero movies. Doug Walter even dreamed of seeing Batman in Duke's hands. out of the downturn.

Everyone's ears perked up. There are executives from Warner Bros., whose future and destiny are closely related to the company's performance, and no one wants to see "Batman: War Hour" be a huge success.

"Midnight at the box office was $7.56 million!"

As Doug Walter said these words, a smile appeared on the faces of many people.

Indeed, compared to Duke's $11.26 million midnight box office record with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the $7.56 million figure isn't too dazzling. But here are all real industry insiders, who know very well that this number means a lot to the rebooted Batman.

This is a series that has been a complete failure. To get such a midnight box office, Duke Rosenberg's name and brand name may play a bigger role in it than Batman itself.

Maybe some people are worried about the stamina of the film. But the data that the head of distribution Jamie Johnson said later made these people basically put their hearts back in their stomachs.

"The CinemaScore audience rating is as high as 89%, the average audience score is 'A', the 38,775 users of the IMDB website scored 9.1 points, and the audience favorite popcorn index is 88%. MetaCritic 45 media reporters A series-high 86 points."

By the same token, such word of mouth is good enough for a reboot of a failed franchise.

And they all understand that there is such audience word-of-mouth as the basis. Even if the subsequent word of mouth will decline, it will never become a super bad movie like "Batman and Robin".

As long as the first weekend box office can continue the performance of the midnight show. "Batman: Hour of War" is undoubtedly a success, and the Batman series can be reborn on the big screen!

"For DC Comics, for Warner Bros., this summer is a pivotal moment."

Doug Walter's eyes swept over the top executives of Warner Bros. He said very seriously, "The focus of this summer is "Batman: War Hour", mobilize all the corresponding resources to fully support this film!"

The specific tasks were assigned one by one, and the meeting ended soon. Duke basically didn’t speak much. He was good at making movies, and the professionals from Warner Bros.

"Hi, Duke."

After the meeting, Duke was just about to leave when Doug Walter stopped him. He hurried over and said, "Can we have a chat?"

"Of course." Duke naturally would not refuse.

"I believe that Batman will create glory in your hands."

The experience of the past few years has given Doug Walter strong confidence in him. "Batman: Time for War has already had a good start, why don't we continue?"

"Doug, it's just a gap of a year."

After thinking for a few seconds, Duke said, "I went to direct "Iron Man", and the publisher is also Warner Bros. We are still working together, and next year there will be Zach's "Three Hundred Spartans"."

"Did he agree to direct Superman?" Doug Walter asked again.

"I'm still thinking about it..." Duke didn't mean to hide, he said directly, "But the interest is very strong, but it will be determined after the release of "Three Hundred Spartans"."

Due to the distribution agreement between Marvel and Warner Bros., Marvel's cosmic plan is no secret to Warner Bros. Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics, also wants the heroes of the Justice League to assemble on the big screen, as Justice Three One of the giants, Superman, was inevitably put on the agenda again. This time, they did not move rashly, and still set their sights on the side of the Duke studio.

The directors at Duke's studio have independent directing ability. Strictly speaking, only Duke and Zach Snyder are two. Wallace Lee's film is in post-production and will be released in September. Can it be successful? No one can tell.

If Underworld doesn't live up to expectations, Duke is sure to kick him out.

Although the other party is his college classmate, these are not obstacles at all in the face of business profits.

Both of them were very busy. After a few simple chats, Duke left the Warner Building. Just after getting into the car, Tina Fey, who was in the co-pilot seat, turned her head, obviously something happened.

"Just got a call from a chain of marketers around the west coast. It's Pete Coe."

Seeing Duke reminiscing, she reminded, "The one who recommended Amanda Seyfried, whose company is the largest chain of gift storefronts on the West Coast."

Duke nodded, thinking of the Chinese, who seemed to have left a phone call to the other party, and asked, "What's the matter with him?"

"His company has a total of five Batmobiles, and they have all been sold out since last night," Tina Fey looked at the work log and added, "There are still seven people who have ordered him, Lamborghini and Warner Bros. The supply was tight, so he asked us for help."

Sales means profit. Duke didn't even think about it, and said directly, "You help him solve it."

The Batmobile is undoubtedly one of the most eye-catching parts of "Batman: Hour of War". Batmobile toys, models and real vehicles are also the main peripheral products of the film.

On Friday, both to promote the surrounding area and to promote the film, the crew organized a Batmobile parade in Los Angeles. A convoy of 16 Batmobiles was driven by the same number of stunt drivers in Batman uniforms. , hit the streets of Los Angeles.

The parade passed the famous streets of Los Angeles such as the Walk of Fame, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, etc., attracting tens of thousands of people to take to the streets to watch. Several TV stations with good relations with Warner Bros. also sent helicopters to report and interview the whole process. , CNN is continuously inserting relevant reports in the hourly news.

The main actors such as Christian Bale and Lawrence Fishburne participated in the parade throughout the whole process. Duke also showed up at the beginning and the end of the parade. , praised the performance of the entire crew, from the actors to the props to the Batmobile design team one by one.

Perhaps such an interview is not surprising, but with 16 powerful Batmobiles as the background, it can easily steal people's attention.

Undoubtedly, at the beginning of the summer of 2005, "Batman: War Hour" easily overtook its competitor "Kingdom of Heaven" in the same period and became the most watched movie. This is reflected on the Internet. particularly obvious.

On the instant-sharing site, as of Friday night, "Batman: War Hour" had been retweeted 523,255 times, while "Kingdom of Kingdom" had 101,211 retweets.

On Google, there are 657,856 searches for "Batman: Hour of War" and 133,578 for "Kingdom of Heaven", and the gap between the two is equally obvious.

The most important thing is the disparity in audience word-of-mouth. The audience rating of "Kingdom of Kingdom" CinemaScore is only 57%. The average audience score is 'C'. The 18,775 users of the IMDB website scored 6.7 points, and the audience's favorite popcorn index. At 63 percent, MetaCritic's 45 media reporters scored an average of 68.

In any respect, "Kingdom of Kingdom" and "Batman: Hour of War" are not in the same order of magnitude.

With the arrival of Friday night, twice as many people as on weekdays flocked to theaters across the United States. These people's goals are very clear, that is, the movies that have just been released in the summer, in the highly mature film market of North America, The first choice for audiences in the summer is the commercial production.

Batman: Hour of War and Kingdom Come are both preferred targets.

However, the effect of audience word-of-mouth and various data is reflected in the two movies, that is, when five audiences buy tickets for "Batman: War Hour", only one audience chooses "Kingdom of Heaven".

Therefore, after the first-day box office of the two films is released, the gap will be clear at a glance. (To be continued ~^~)

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