America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 469 The Beginning of the End

Davis Studios, Burbank.

"We have contacted all the Academy actors in North America."

Rita, the head of the PR team, is briefing Martin on the progress of the Oscar PR: "The acting awards only count their votes. I am 100% sure that you can get an Oscar nomination."

Martin nodded slightly.

Thomas asked directly: "What are the odds of winning?"

Rita would not mislead her clients and would tell the truth: "No more than 60% at most. Martin's performance and role have been widely recognized, but the inherent flaws of the film's subject matter cannot be ignored."

Martin said: "Don't stop lobbying and propaganda. After the Academy votes are mailed out, spend a lot of money to buy pages in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair and Hollywood Reporter, and continue to publish soft advertising articles."

"I've made the contact." Rita's team has been in close contact with the media.

Martin added: “We stay in communication.”

Rita left the office.

Thomas then said: "Cartier has notified us that they will be shooting the advertisement near the old Santa Monica Pier in a few days."

He opened the bag and took out a text: "This is the script. It's very simple."

Martin took it and looked through it. Actually, there was nothing special about it. There were only a dozen scenes in total. If everything went well, it could be shot in one day.

No more than two days at most.

Thomas added: "Cartier has released information about the shoot for publicity purposes. Let's do some advertising first."

This kind of thing is very common in commercial endorsements, and Martin had no objection. He said, "Tell them I will be there on time."

Thomas said, “I’ll write them back right away.”

Martin checked the time and called Bruce, "Let's go to Century City Plaza. Warner Bros. is holding a promotional event for The Dark Knight today."

Before going out, Martin picked up a few newspapers and quickly browsed through them after getting in the car. On the business and entertainment pages, he saw all the relevant news released by Cartier.

The content was similar, both saying that he was going to shoot the latest Cartier men's watch commercial at the old Santa Monica Pier.

Martin understood that this was to notify the media reporters in Los Angeles in advance, asking them to come and shoot and report as soon as possible.

Cartier Men's Watches spends $1000 million every year on endorsement fees, so it's natural that it will use it to the fullest extent.

Arriving at Century City Shopping Plaza, Martin reunited with Nolan and continued to campaign for the sale of The Dark Knight's discs.

In offline DVD sales, Bell and Martin each enjoy a 2% share of the gross profit.

The share of the North American box office is a one-time deal and will disappear after the film is taken off the shelves. Although the share of DVDs is very low, it is a long-term income.

As long as the DVDs are sold, Martin will continue to earn income.

Even more than a decade later, when streaming media has risen and DVDs have declined, DVDs of many films can still sell $60 to 70 million in North America.

Of course, it can't be compared with now.

Around 2010, Hollywood was in the DVD era. The DVD sales of popular films like Spider-Man 3 and The Lord of the Rings 3 were even comparable to the North American box office.

Warner Bros. has launched three versions of The Dark Knight DVD, priced at $19.9 for the regular version, $29.9 for the Blu-ray HD version, and $64.99 for the Blu-ray Commemorative Edition.

In addition to the behind-the-scenes footage disc, the latter also allows buyers to choose any of the Joker, Batman, and Batmobile models.

When the first week's sales statistics came out, the clown model accounted for nearly 70% of sales.

After The Dark Knight broke a series of North American box office records, it created a series of new North American film market records as the DVD was released.

On the first day of the disc's release, the two Blu-ray versions sold more than 80 copies. Including the regular DVD set, The Dark Knight broke the record of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, with sales of $6645 million on the first day of the DVD's release!

This doesn’t even include leasing!

In the first week of its release, the Dark Knight's discs sold $1.55 million in North America alone, also setting a North American record.

This was an era when DVDs created sales myths.

In the era that Martin experienced in his previous life, the sales of "Avatar" Blu-ray discs in four days exceeded the cumulative sales of the Dark Knight in more than a year and a half.

The former "Avatar" sold more than 320 million copies of various versions on the first day of the DVD release in North America!
Of course, Martin remembered James Cameron's blockbuster. Before the Avatar crew publicly recruited actors, Thomas contacted them, but James Cameron directly rejected Martin.

James Cameron never considered using first-line stars, and wanted to invest all the funds as much as possible into special effects production.

There is no need to think about bringing in money. Major film production companies are vying to share the investment share of "Avatar", so there is no way a star's studio would get its turn.

Without sufficient strength, even if you have money, you won’t be qualified to invest in James Cameron’s projects.

The next day, Martin turned down another public event for "The Dark Knight" and went to Paramount Studios. The crew of "Benjamin" had several scenes that needed recording and motion capture shooting again.

After working hard for most of the day, the work was completed successfully and Martin found David Fincher.

The two went to the rest area of ​​the studio together. Martin handed David Fincher part of the manuscript of "Gone Girl" and said, "This is the novel about love and marriage that I told you about last time. I was going to give it to you last time, but the author Gillian informed me that another part of the content was about to be completed, so I waited for her for a while."

"Let me take a look first, you can do whatever you want." David Fincher flipped through the manuscript, ignored Martin, and began to read it carefully.

In just a few minutes, he was immersed in the plot of the novel.

The suspenseful and neurotic plot, as well as the very dark themes, are really what David Fincher likes.

Among Hollywood's top directors, David Fincher's style is undoubtedly the darkest.

Martin ordered a cup of tea and waited patiently.

After a long time, when David Fincher saw the heroine appear in the middle part, he couldn't help laughing, which was exactly the same reaction as Martin when he saw this part.

After laughing for a while, David Fincher said: "This novel is so interesting. It is dark and suspenseful with some black humor."

Martin put down his teacup and said, "Did you see the heroine officially appear?"

David Fincher nodded slightly: "Yes, the heroine has appeared, and this novel is a masterpiece."

He knew why Martin brought it here, and said directly: "Can you wait for me for a while? After I finish all the post-production of "Benjamin", I can concentrate on thinking about how to adapt it and whether it is suitable for me to direct it."

Martin didn't hesitate at all: "No problem, David, I can wait for you for a year."

It might take more than a year to complete a novel and publish it, so he has plenty of time to wait for David Fincher.

David Fincher was very particular. He returned the manuscript to Martin and said, "I'll call you when I'm free."

Martin nodded: "Okay."

…………

At the Santa Monica Commercial Plaza, on the makeshift stage built by the Dark Knight crew, Bale and Nolan were answering questions from fans.

A large number of fans gathered around, and Boris, with his beard shaved, was not conspicuous at all.

He sat on the bench and waited for the whole afternoon, but the target person never showed up.

Victor came over from the sidewalk, sat next to him, and said, "Boss, he probably won't come."

"What's going on?" Boris asked.

Victor whispered, "Just now I asked the bearded guy to dress up as a clown and asked an entertainment reporter. Martin Davis temporarily turned down the event."

Boris stood up and said, "Notify everyone to retreat."

I spent so much time planning the layout, even planned a retreat, but in the end, no one showed up...

Back in the car, the bearded man was very angry and said, "These Hollywood stars have no professional ethics at all. They are lazy at every turn. They are a bunch of bastards who look good on the surface!"

Boris glanced over and the bearded man quickly shut his mouth.

Victor drove back to the detached house he rented in Santa Monica.

Not long after, two more cars stopped near the back door of the house, and the bodyguard and five people slipped into the house quietly.

Several people carried bags with rifles on their backs, and Boris asked them to put them away.

The blond man said, "Boss, these American guns are not very useful. It would be better if we could get a few AK series."

Boris said: "This is America, not Russia. You can use whatever guns you can get!"

Victor continued, "The AR series is also very easy to use. You can get familiar with it later."

The Russian underground forces in Los Angeles have been targeted by the LAPD since the Burbank Middle School incident. Boris and Victor and their crew couldn't find their own people, so they had to rely on the introduction of middlemen to purchase guns from the black market, but the black market dealers were only willing to sell them the high-priced AR series.

When playing away from home, you just have to adapt to many things.

For example, there were originally more than a dozen people coming, but six of them were blocked outside customs because of bad records and had to return the same way.

"We can't wait any longer." The closer they got, the more Boris wanted to kill his enemy: "We have to solve this problem as soon as possible. I don't want to stay in this damn country for even a day longer."

Victor had been reading the newspaper and said, "Boss, in two days, Martin Davis will be shooting a men's watch advertisement for Cartier at the Santa Monica Pier!"

"Are you sure?" Boris asked, "It won't be like today again?"

Victor said: "The news released by Cartier has been confirmed by Martin Davis' agent, so it can't be wrong."

The bearded man took a map from the side, spread it on the table, and pointed to the seaside: "The old pier is here."

Boris took a look and asked Victor: "Can we retreat from the sea to the safe house?"

Victor said, "I'll go over and take a look later. It shouldn't be difficult to prepare the speedboat and car in advance."

Boris took the glass bottle of Coke, opened it and took a big sip, then said, "First, capture him alive. We can injure him, but we can't kill him. I'm going to use these glass bottles to smash his head one by one!"

(End of this chapter)