America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 346: First Week Exceeding Cost
After the premiere, the snow was still falling, and the crew gave each audience member an umbrella and a warm hat. The latter was a piece of movie peripheral specially made for the European and northern North American markets.

Richardson put on a hat with the crew's logo and got into a business car with his assistant. The weather was too cold, so he quickly started the engine and turned on the heater.

The assistant looked toward the side door of the Metropolitan Opera House and saw that Martin Davis had just come out and was surrounded by reporters.

"It's only been three years!" He muttered, "Boss, don't you think the protagonist in the movie is an alternative portrayal of Martin's three-year Hollywood career? Life is like turning on a game cheat, from a poor boy to a big star."

Richardson took off his hat, looked at the logo, and said, "For the leading actor, a successful movie can change his destiny."

After waiting for a while, the rest of the people came back one after another.

Richardson asked his assistant to drive and instructed others to collect audience ratings after the film ended and enter them into the system quickly.

The two little black books from IBM were passed around among the crowd, and the system quickly came up with an average score.

“A+!” Richardson, who is experienced, judged: “After the first week of Limitless, the audience’s score on site cannot be lower than A. With Martin Davis’s appeal and the scale of the release, this movie can be expected to do well at the box office.”

The assistant asked: "North America exceeds 100 million again?"

Richardson nodded: "Very likely."

The snow is still falling, endlessly.

The day after the premiere, Martin woke up from his sleep, broke free from Aniston's entanglement, and immediately took his phone after washing up.

There is a text message from Warner Bros. above, saying that the premiere audience gave the film an average score of “A+”!
Warner Bros. also lifted the ban on word-of-mouth ratings in all aspects.

Martin turned on his computer and logged into two websites. The Rotten Tomatoes rating of "Limitless" was 88%, and the MTC media average score was 78.

The bathroom door opened, and Aniston came out brushing her teeth and asked, "How is the film's reputation?"

Martin said directly: "The audience's word of mouth is overwhelming, and the media has a good reputation."

Aniston was completely relieved and went back to the bathroom to rinse her mouth. After a while, she said, "Let's go out for breakfast and celebrate."

Martin said, "Call the rest of the crew, it's my treat."

Aniston quickly went to get dressed.

Martin started making calls.

Everyone in the crew is in a good mood, and the audience’s good reputation means the box office will not be bad.

In addition to the normal film salary and union share, you can also get an additional bonus.

…………

Los Angeles, Brentwood.

Leonardo, who washed his face last night, got up very early today and felt particularly energetic.

Now I can run 15 meters for at least seconds.

Bar Refaeli brought him breakfast and poured him some milk.

Leonardo smiled and said, "Do you have today's newspaper..."

Bar Refaeli brought over a huge pile of papers and said, “I opened every newspaper or magazine I could find that covered Limitless.”

"You are very considerate." Leonardo was very satisfied with this temporary female companion, so he gave her more opportunities to be exposed.

He read the comments in the newspaper while eating breakfast.

Because Limitless has just premiered and has not yet been released widely, most of the reviews are quick reviews.

"A strange and entertaining pseudo-sci-fi thriller."

"Very funny, good mainstream entertainment."

“It allows all audiences to realize their daydreams while sitting in the theater.”

Leonardo couldn't help but laugh, he had seen the film during its preview and he had also fantasized about some of the plots in the film before he became famous.

Continuing to read, he found some information about the protagonist, the bastard Martin.

"Martin's performance was very impressive. He once again proved with his work that his acting skills are as outstanding as his looks."

"Most of the film's plot relies on Martin Davis's performance. He can quickly pull the audience into a daydream. His character is as fascinating as the leader of the Coca-Cola Cult."

Leonardo thought back to before he took on the role in Titanic. At that time, he had a very good reputation in the critical community and many film critics praised his excellent acting skills.

But the huge success of Titanic changed all that.

It was a box office miracle that Hollywood had never seen before. I don’t know if those people were doing it out of jealousy or some other weird mentality, but he became a fool who had no acting skills and could only sell his looks.

Leonardo had a feeling that Martin was on that path.

One day, maybe the critics will use their pens as swords to punish the stupid Martin.

It will definitely be very lively then.

After breakfast, Leonardo stopped reading the newspaper and called Martin in New York.

"Hey, Martin, is your new movie gonna be a big hit?"

"It hasn't been released on a large scale yet, so who knows for sure." Martin was a little confused: "It's snowing heavily in the northeast, and it's freezing cold, which will definitely affect the box office."

The weather is out of our control. On Thursday, it was still snowing in New York. Although the snowflakes were much smaller, there was thick snow piled on the roads.

The weather became even colder. "Limitless" was released across North America as planned.

On Thursday afternoon, many people wearing red cotton hats came to the snowy ground in front of the AMC theater in Times Square. They did not fear the snow and severe cold, and entered the theater, which was still operating normally, to buy tickets for "Limitless" to support Martin with practical actions.

In Brooklyn, near one of Martin's fan clubs in New York, there was even a long line in front of a movie theater.

The heavy snow and severe cold weather discouraged some people from going out to watch movies, but it could not stop the enthusiasm of the Coke Cult and Martin fans.

Because red T-shirts are inconvenient to wear this season, red hats have become the mainstream audience at theaters across North America on Thursday nights.

On this night, cola red was the most common color in theaters across North America.

…………

In an office on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.

Robert put on a red Coke cult baseball cap, but because his head was so big, he found that the cap didn't fit him well, so he took it off, adjusted it, and put it back on.

Wearing a red coat, he took out a bottle of Coca-Cola produced in 03, solemnly smeared olive oil on it, and placed it on the old-fashioned office desk facing west.

Robert had a serious expression, like a cardinal holding a mass, muttering to himself.

In this country where evil cults are everywhere, the Cola Cult has a huge number of supporters despite its extremely loose organizational structure.

If he was not still a partner in the company, Robert would have planned to resign and concentrate on being the high priest of the Coke Cult.

The ceremony was completed, and as he was walking out, he suddenly thought of something.

From the leader Martin, to the deputy leader Bruce, to the saint Elena, all of the members of the Coca-Cola Cult are part-time.

"It's better to continue working part-time." Robert went downstairs wearing his hat and muttered, "It's impossible for the high priest to be a full-time person alone."

Driving home, Robert passed by the Peachtree Street Cinema and found that the area in front of the cinema had turned into a sea of ​​red.

No need to ask, just look at the color and you will know that this is the crowd going to see "Limitless".

…………

Thursday passed and early Friday morning, the latest box office reports came out and appeared in the entertainment pages of many newspapers.

With 2800 advance screenings, "Limitless" easily earned $468 million.

At the same time, the film also gained good reputation.

By the first day of release on Friday, the scale of screenings had expanded to 3285 theaters.

As severe weather continues in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, everyone, including Martin, has lowered their box office expectations for the film.

However, "No End" still attracted a large number of audiences with its good reputation and strong sense of immersion.

It earned $1245 million on its first day in North America, beating out "Catch and Release" starring Jennifer Garner, which was released at the same time, and became the box office champion of the day.

On this day, the show's endlessly excellent audience reputation spread rapidly across North America like a virus through the Internet.

"The life and desires of cheating seem to be extremely exciting!"

"Playing the leading role of Martin is exactly my life dream."

"The plot is very attractive. I don't know why, but I felt like the protagonist was another me. It made me feel really good in the cinema!"

“The plot and character settings are quite novel and make people immersed in it.”

With the support of word-of-mouth from the audience, the film attracted many passers-by to watch the movie. The box office of the film rose significantly on Saturday, grossing 1444 million US dollars on that day.

Adverse weather conditions did affect the film, but not as much as some had hoped.

Christian Bale and Heath Ledger met for coffee on Monday morning.

He wanted to help his friend get out of trouble as soon as possible and get back on track.

The snow stopped completely yesterday and the main roads were cleared. Heath Ledger walked into the coffee shop with a newspaper, ordered a cup of hot coffee, and sat opposite Bale.

Bell glanced at his red face from the cold and asked, "What happened? Are you in a bad mood?"

Heath took off his scarf and pushed the newspaper to Bale: "The snow can't stop that bastard Martin Davis and his movies."

Bell picked up the newspaper and saw that on the front page of the entertainment section of the New York Times was a report on last weekend's box office results.

"Limitless" earned 3897 million U.S. dollars in North America in just three days, defeating "Catch and Release" which was released at the same time and taking the top spot on the weekend box office chart.

Bale put down the newspaper and said, "The heavy snow in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada still had an impact on the box office of this film."

Both places are densely populated areas. Heath was a little annoyed: "The North American box office exceeded the production cost in the first weekend. Martin's new movie has been a success again."

He added: "CS gave it an A rating and predicted that the North American box office would exceed 100 million."

"Calm down." Bell was calmer than him and said, "If you want to make him unlucky, you can't rely on the weather."

Heath took a sip of coffee, the bitter taste dissipated in his mouth, and his mood stabilized a lot: "I had a fantasy, hoping that he would hit hard, but fantasy is just fantasy, Martin Davis' momentum is unstoppable."

Bell said: "There is a lot of time. Only when we stand on a higher ground can we step on them."

Heath nodded: "You are right."

(End of this chapter)