I'm just trying to ride the wave of popularity!

Chapter 266 Rainy Night, Slaughter!

Paimon.

The rain outside the window was getting heavier.

Every now and then, lightning would pierce through the dark clouds, flashing a blinding light.

A set of data was placed on Mark's desk.

Mark stared at the numbers on the three box office reports, his pupils contracted sharply, and then he fell into a long silence.

9 Month 20 Day!
Saw's global box office has surpassed $7200 million, with daily box office still at $420 million, it's still crazy!

Despite his previous disdain for the old Chinese film "The Lost Tomb: Reboot," it still raked in a staggering nearly $250 million at the North American box office. Meanwhile, "The Black Robe Alliance," despite the overwhelming success of "Catwoman," still managed to take in an astonishing $550 million, maintaining an impressive 85% occupancy rate, nearly matching "Catwoman's" global occupancy rate...

Mark stared at the numbers on the box office report, his fingers unconsciously tapping the table.

The lightning outside the window cast flickering light and shadow on his profile.

He suddenly laughed, but the laugh carried a complex emotion.

“550 million,” he repeated the number in a low voice.

That throne that should have belonged to Paimon was now pushed aside by his own hands!

I wonder if, after tomorrow, I'll be nailed to the pillar of shame and laughed at by my peers...

Just then, the door opened.

The secretary's expression was also somewhat complicated.

"Catwoman..."

What's wrong with Catwoman?

"The feedback on the opening day of 'Catwoman,' which [DV Pictures] invested heavily in, doesn't seem to be as enthusiastic as expected... This movie..."

"Ok?"

"According to our professional analysis team, this might be in trouble!"

"..."

....................................

9 month 21 day.

early morning.

China!

Due to the huge popularity of "Catwoman" at its premiere and the impact of market screenings, the daily box office of "The Black Robe Alliance" in China dropped to around $450 million!
However, the opening day box office of "Catwoman" was incredibly high, exceeding 2950 million RMB and topping the Chinese film box office history!
The moment this box office figure appears!
Haters swarmed in from all directions!
It's bombarding the entire Chinese internet film industry!

At 3 a.m., Entertainment Weekly's website suddenly posted explosive news: "Zhou Yang causes a scene at the premiere of 'Catwoman'! He angrily denounces it as 'a piece of dog shit'!"

The blurry photo of Zhou Yang raising his middle finger at the camera instantly went viral online.

In just two hours, the hashtag #ZhouYangCan'tCantLoss# saw its readership soar to 700 million, and related discussion posts spread like wildfire.

[Quick Blog] Film and television influencer "Superhero Observer" published a long article overnight: "Some directors talk about 'anti-superhero,' but their actions speak louder than words as they come to ride the coattails of the premiere. Leaving after only ten minutes? This shows a complete lack of basic movie-going etiquette!" The accompanying picture shows Zhou Yang's gloomy profile as he leaves, a stark contrast to Anne Dessereau's elegant smile on the "Catwoman" poster.

The comment section was instantly flooded with thousands of abusive messages: "Hypocritical! In 'The Black Robe,' they criticize TD Company for manipulating public opinion, yet they themselves engage in malicious marketing!"

"His heart is smaller than the eye of a pinhole! He can't stand seeing others film real superheroes!"

"A clown jumping around like that! He'd better wait until 'Black Robe' surpasses 'Catwoman' at the North American box office before he barks!"

An even more devastating blow came from [Movie House].

At 4 a.m., the veteran forum moderator "Film Hunter" suddenly switched sides and published "Beware of the New Tactics of 'Plagiarism Marketing' in the Film Industry": "When a film needs to rely on discrediting its competitors to gain attention, it has essentially admitted its failure." The article was quickly reposted to twenty related forums.

Zhou Yang's homepage on [Kuaibo] was instantly flooded with comments.

The latest promotional post is flooded with parodies photoshopped into funeral portraits, and the most upvoted comment is: "If you hate superhero movies so much, why did you have to replicate the web pattern under the armpits of Spider-Man's suit in 'The Black Robe' 1:1?"

The accompanying image highlights nine similarities in costume details between "The Black Robe" and "Spider-Man" using red circles.

"Everyone calm down!" The account with the ID "Yang Ge's Iron Fan" tried to defend itself: "Director Zhou was just expressing his opinion as an audience member." Before the sentence was finished, it was drowned out by the ridicule of "filial son whitewashing".

Netizens discovered that the account had posted a message praising "Spider-Man" four days prior, and screenshots were quickly compiled into a nine-grid image titled "Zhou Yang's Fans' Split Personality Scene" and went viral...

At 10 a.m., the marketing accounts employed by the five major companies launched a collective attack, viciously attacking Zhou Yang. Despite the desperate resistance from Zhou Yang's fans, they were ultimately unable to suppress the relentless barrage of insults...

The hashtag #ZhouYang'sHistoryOfFakeActs# lists instances of him "riding the coattails" of films from "The Haunted Village" to "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Worlds." The most insidious part is when a prominent Weibo user slowed down the video of Zhou Yang leaving the scene by 0.5x: "Notice the way he was stealing glances at Annie's chest? Is this what they call 'artistic pursuit'?"

However, Zhou Yang, at the center of the storm, remained silent and never uttered a word in his own defense!

This frenzy of excitement lasted until around noon.

Until 12:15 PM.

[Tianyu]

"problem occurs!"

"Catwoman's premiere reception was terrible!"

"..."

The office door was pushed open.

Just as they were enjoying the fruits of victory and discussing with everyone how to give it another push to completely drive the movie "Black Robe Alliance" out of theaters...

Xu Haibo saw his flustered secretary!
He instinctively put down the phone. Then he looked at the message on the screen!
Next!

His face changed drastically!

....................................

August 9, early morning.

The heavy rain in Los Angeles has stopped.

The global premiere grossed an astonishing 1350 million RMB, which should have been a cause for celebration for everyone at DV Films.

but……

Countless filmmakers throughout Hollywood, and indeed the global film industry, could never have imagined this...

This film, which was highly anticipated by DV Pictures, Warner Bros., and even Columbia Pictures, saw its Hollywood celebration abruptly turn into a disastrous collapse in critical reception the day after its release…

Anne Descartes' silver suit is still hanging on the Times Square screen, but on the internet, her Rotten Tomatoes score has plummeted to 29%!

Film critic Roger Ebert slammed the film in the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "This isn't Catwoman; it's a domesticated cat tamed by capitalism!"

The "Van Loon-style fight" sequence in the film, touted by Warner Bros., was ridiculed by audiences as a "gymnastics performance" due to its excessive reliance on special effects and slow-motion. Social media was flooded with screenshots of Descartes' costumes coming undone under the hashtag #CatwomanGymnastics, and even more damaging was the comparison to "The Black Robe Alliance"...

Just as Paddy Picker ignited a flame of rebellion by tearing apart false memories on screen, Catwoman enraged audiences with a 20-minute lipstick commercial in a shopping mall!
An AMC theater manager revealed that during the midnight screenings, some audience members even shouted "refund!" while screams could be heard from the adjacent screening room of "The Black Robe Alliance".

Some critics have pointed out that while "Catwoman" features Oscar-winning actress Anne Dessereau in the lead role, it suffers from fatal flaws in character portrayal.

The script's portrayal of the protagonist, Pattynes, is superficial. In the first half, she is depicted as a timid cosmetics company employee, but in the second half, after being framed, she suddenly transforms into an arrogant and violent avenger.

This abrupt character gap left the award-winning actress with superb acting skills but unable to showcase them, forced to rely on exaggerated physical movements and emotional outbursts to barely fill the void left by the script.

Most regrettably, the film completely ignored the most dramatic transformation process—from an ordinary girl to a night hunter—and Descartes' Oscar-worthy eyes didn't even have a chance to show the subtle layers of the character's inner metamorphosis...

……

The numerous criticisms from Hollywood film critics and the internet naturally caught the attention of the management of [DV Films]!

April 21, 2004.

evening!

sunset.

DV Films Headquarters.

The projector in the conference room hummed, projecting Rotten Tomatoes' 29% freshness rating onto the screen.

Buster stared at the data, his fingers trembling slightly. He was shocked, incredulous, but mostly furious!
"How did the freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes drop to 29%? It was 82% last night! How could it drop so quickly!"

He took a deep breath and looked at Kate, the marketing director.

"This is impossible!" Marketing Director Kate jumped to her feet, her face turning pale. "Someone is attacking us! Look at these accounts! They're all unregistered users!"

As she watched, her expression suddenly stiffened slightly!
She noticed that among these negative review accounts were official IDs from authoritative media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter!

After a brief silence, she suddenly grabbed the phone and frantically dialed the technical department, her voice trembling slightly: "Investigate the Rotten Tomatoes backend immediately! Investigate right now! I need to see the latest data!"

Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor as the head of the legal department burst through the door.

"With an IMDb rating of 4.1, Yahoo Movies forum is flooded with 'refund' posts... It seems netizens aren't buying it!"

He held up a newly printed webpage, the A4 paper densely covered with angry comments from viewers such as "lipstick ad interspersed with fight scenes" and "Annie's acting was a waste."

After he finished speaking, his throat felt as if something had grabbed it, and he stopped abruptly!

The conference room was deathly silent!

Buster, who was sitting in the main seat not far away, took the data handed to him by the data department!

With almost the same screening schedule as on the 20th, but with a shockingly low pre-sale ticket and occupancy rates in North American cinemas, each screening had fewer and fewer people...

On the last page, here are the data just calculated by the data department. Due to the influence of online word-of-mouth and feedback, the box office of "Catwoman" is very likely to drop by close to 20% today!

this moment……

His face turned bright red, as if he had been slapped hard across the face!

"Initiate crisis management immediately!" Buster took a deep breath. "Get Annie on the Oprah Winfrey Show! Get Hendrik Willem Van Loon's team to issue a statement! Sue all those critics who said it was 'like gymnastics'! We can't let this continue!"

No sooner had those words been spoken than an even more devastating blow followed!

The secretary stumbled in: "The Los Angeles Times just released behind-the-scenes video! The screen clearly shows evidence that Descartes's stunt double performed 90% of the action scenes!"

See this scene!
Buster's vision went black instantly!
Then, he clenched his fist tightly!

He seemed to be thinking of the scene when "Superman II" was released last year...

seem!

The collapse of this "Catwoman" movie is even more insane than that of "Superman 2"!

boom!
The moment that thought appeared in his mind, his brain felt like it had been stabbed by something and exploded instantly!

……

October 2004, 9!
Four o'clock in the morning.

The latest box office figures for "Catwoman" are out!
It grossed $1350 million on its opening day, but by the second day, its global box office had dropped to $1000 million...

Although the box office remained at $1000 million, seemingly still quite good, the pre-sale ticket data for the third day provided by various cinemas was unbelievable to everyone!
Tickets for the third day in advance were almost half price!
(End of this chapter)