America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 902 The Victorious Clown and the Defeat of Justice

Bang! Bang—

Gunshots echoed through the theater, the audience's hearts tightened, and their suppressed emotions gradually became tense.

As the clown fired his gun repeatedly, the heads of the wealthy elites who mocked him, bullied him, and oppressed him exploded like rotten watermelons, with bright red juice gushing from the back of their heads, staining the white walls and floors.

The corpse twitched on the ground, and the clown went out the door and started running wildly.

His face was painted with pale white greasepaint, a gaping, blood-red mouth, and he wore a purple performance suit. He ran wildly in the wind, as if running towards a free future.

The audience's suppressed emotions were released, and the clown on the screen, who killed and ran towards freedom, seemed to be themselves.

Many ordinary people live difficult lives, hoping to see the future, and their biggest worry is also seeing the future.

Their future is clear at a glance.

A heavy burden weighs on my shoulders, yet I am powerless to change it.

People who are content with the status quo can at least get by.

Those who wanted change were squeezed dry, their very essence drained by the massive and stubborn upper class, as vast and unyielding as the Andes Mountains.

Too many people have already overdrawn their future decades, sinking into a quagmire like the clown, unable to extricate themselves.

The clown seems to represent them, eliminating those bastards who exploit others, shattering the existing order, and rushing towards an unknown future.

It may have truly revealed the psychology and hidden thoughts of some people.

As the clown on the screen ran wildly, applause suddenly erupted from the back row of the theater where ordinary audience members were gathered.

Then applause swept through the entire theater!

This wasn't the Cannes Film Festival, where applause is a business; it was just a regular film premiere.

Martin, the production team, and the distributors did not hire any shills.

Almost all ordinary viewers applauded the film.

The thunderous applause drew Zack Snyder's attention, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "Is it really that exaggerated?"

Deborah said, "It seems that the film's content resonated with them emotionally."

Gal Gadot, standing nearby, paused for a moment before saying, "It feels like the Joker is more popular than Batman, Superman, and my characters combined."

Zack Snyder said, "Don't get the feeling, this kind of scene didn't happen in Batman v Superman."

The applause subsided, the theater fell silent, and only the increasingly frenzied clown remained.

All energy was refocused on the film.

The film is gradually coming to an end.

On the silver screen, countless people swarm around the Joker, regarding him as a hero.

The Gotham citizens who were marching and demonstrating carried the Joker on their shoulders and regarded him as their spiritual leader.

The Joker became a symbol of freedom, and the ultimate form of freedom is chaos.

He is the symbol of Gotham, the agent of chaos!

The city of Gotham, a place blessed with outstanding people and resources, has welcomed a leader who can guide them towards a new beginning.

As the premiere ended, applause erupted once again like a tidal wave.

In the first row, Daniel stood up and hugged Martin, saying, "Although I've seen several preview screenings before, I gain new insights every time I watch it. This is definitely a masterpiece that perfectly combines commerce and art."

Martin smiled and said, "Thank you."

Elizabeth stood to the side, simply smiling and clapping, without saying a word.

The main cast and crew members hugged each other, all of them very excited.

The film received rave reviews during its test screenings, and having witnessed the quality of the final cut firsthand, they had a basic understanding that this film was definitely not bad.

Martin called the cast and crew to come on stage for a curtain call.

The audience's applause rang out again and again.

The premiere screening has now ended.

As soon as the show ended, Warner Bros.' professional investigation team was already out in action, collecting comments and ratings from ordinary audience members.

"A+! This film by Martin Scorsese perfectly captures my feelings!"

"I'll still give it an A, because this is only Martin Scorsese's second film, and he still has room for improvement! Of course, the film is very well made, and the acting is excellent. This is DC, this is the Joker!"

"No doubt about it, A+! Martin not only acts the Joker well, but he directs it well too. I thought Martin's Joker in 'The Dark Knight' was his peak, but this one is actually the real deal!"

"I used to have so much pressure bottled up inside, it was really suffocating. Today I finally let it all out. This clown isn't a god, he's a person, just like any other one of us, an ordinary person like you, me, and everyone else! An A+ isn't enough to express how much I love this film and this character. If 100 is the highest score, I'd give it 1000!"

The bespectacled movie fan's words resonated with those around him, and many people echoed his sentiments.

"I'd give it 2000 points!"

"No, it should be 1 points!"

The film is about to be released nationwide and enter the North American film market; now it needs the approval of ordinary audiences.

Without a doubt, Martin did an excellent job in this regard.

At least several hundred viewers who saw the premiere left ratings.

Martin received feedback immediately.

Louise hurried into the lounge, nodded to Elizabeth, and handed Martin a statistical report: "The latest statistics are in. A total of 366 viewers rated the film, and the average score is A+!"

Martin glanced at it quickly: "Not bad."

Louise said, "This is 'okay'? It couldn't be better."

Elizabeth took the statistics sheet from Martin and began to look at it carefully.

Daniel then came in from outside and said, "The reputation remains strong!"

Martin stated directly, "For the final pre-release promotion, we will still focus on word-of-mouth marketing."

"No problem," Daniel replied. "Warner Bros. is ready."

He had a feeling that this was very likely to be the first film he made to gross $10 billion worldwide since taking over Warner Bros.

Martin glanced at the time and said, "Let's call it a day."

The group left the Chief's Stone Theater one after another.

The film's online buzz continues, with positive reviews appearing on major social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

On Thursday night, "Joker" premiered in 3500 theaters across North America ahead of schedule.

Theaters across the United States were transformed into a hub for the mad clown, and the R-rated film grossed $1860 million in midnight screenings.

By Friday daytime, the film had been expanded to 4250 theaters.

On this day, all the monsters and demons in America have only one image—the clown!

The millions of Joker-themed dark purple suits that Warner Bros. had prepared in advance almost sold out on Friday.

The latest clown figurines and dolls are sold out immediately.

The production team signed a contract with Lily for a handmade commemorative edition, which is currently in high demand and short supply.

Street artists in North America spend most of their time doing the same thing on this day: providing clown makeup services for movie fans.

On the internet, the clown has long been deified.

Now, the transformation from god to man has been realized.

"It was very dark and oppressive, just like our society, where there wasn't a glimmer of light."

"Martin's Joker did what we wanted to do but couldn't."

"After watching Martin Scorsese's 'Joker,' you'll understand that our society is truly sick."

Perhaps one movie fan has expressed the true feelings of many people.

"The real world is not as hopeless as depicted in the movies. Violence, slaughter, and anarchism are not solutions. However, after watching Martin Scorsese's 'Joker,' you will feel exceptionally relieved, as if all the pent-up frustration of the past few years has been released through the film. You will not only sympathize with the Joker but also identify with him and even begin to understand the real world through his eyes."

Excellent reputation leads to extremely high attendance.

Also released in October, last year's "Split," starring Martin Scorsese, is not even a little brother to "Joker."

On its opening day in North America, including midnight screenings, "Joker" grossed $6452 million!

This set a new record for the highest single-day box office in North America in October.

The latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter features a detailed analysis of Martin Scorsese's new film.

"What is the appeal of 'Joker'? It represents a kind of freedom, depicts the living conditions of a person from the bottom of society, and expresses a heartfelt cry of pain and disgust against the current morbid and indifferent power and rule system."

The film resonated with the general public, and its positive word-of-mouth drove people to continuously buy tickets to the cinema.

On Saturday, the film grossed another $5766 million in North American theaters!

By this point, Hollywood and everyone else could see clearly that the film that would compete with Captain America 3 for the North American and global box office crown had arrived!

The latter's box office of $4.08 million in North America and $11.55 billion worldwide doesn't seem so far off.

The opening weekend box office performance of "Joker" also proves its strength.

After three days over the weekend, the film grossed $1.68 million in 4250 theaters across North America!

This also broke the previous record for the highest-grossing R-rated film in North America, previously held by "John Wick 3".

Similarly, this is also the highest opening weekend record for the North American film market in October.

…………

"I never expected that the real threat to Marvel superhero movies would be Martin."

In a meeting room at Disney headquarters, Kevin Feige adjusted his baseball cap: "DC movies are utterly worthless, except for Martin Scorsese."

Robert Iger, seated at the head of the table, said, "Thank goodness it's Martin, not Justice League."

Alan Horn looked at Kevin Feige: "Back then, I advised you to sign Martin with a base salary of $2000 million plus a share of the profits, but you didn't listen. If we had Martin, the Avengers would have had a much greater impact."

Kevin Feige doesn't deny the mistakes he made back then: "It was my fault. Given the circumstances, I could only cut back on the budget and spend more money on the film itself..."

Robert Iger waved his hand: "Let's not talk about what happened back then. DC's Justice League is about to be released, and Joss Whedon has worked with us before. You know his capabilities. What are the chances that DC poses a threat to Marvel?"

Kevin Feige said, "It's very small. The real essence of DC movies is precisely their darkness, seriousness, and depth, as proven by both The Dark Knight and Joker! Joss Whedon is not good at these things. Justice League is not a complete overhaul, but rather a patchwork of Zack Snyder's work, which Joss will find difficult to handle."

Alan Horn agreed: "Yes, starting over might actually lead to greater success, but Warner and DC don't have that kind of determination."

"There aren't many people with that kind of determination," Robert Iger chuckled. "If they just threw away over two hundred million dollars, the boards of Warner Bros. and Time Warner would go crazy."

Alan Horn said, "DC poses no threat to Marvel. I've discussed this with Martin, and he said something like, 'The more successful Joker is, the more awkward it will be for Justice League, which is coming out next month.'"

Robert Iger himself is not involved in the film's production and doesn't quite understand it.

Kevin Feige easily guessed: "Joker's themes and plot are extremely dark, heavy, and serious, and then suddenly a bunch of hilarious DC heroes pop up in the next one, haha..."

Robert Iger laughed and said, "Martin's new film couldn't be better, both critically and commercially."

The success of "Joker" is also noticed by executives at Warner Bros. and DC Films.

In order to facilitate the release of "Justice League" next month, the Warner Bros. team used the company's normal procedures to exert pressure and force "Joker" to be placed next to "Justice League" in the trailer.

Media reporters also interviewed Martin, who was promoting "Joker," about this matter.

Facing the camera, Martin said directly, "Sorry, I don't want to talk about anything unrelated to the Joker."

Undeterred, the reporter pressed on, "But the Joker is from DC, right?"

Martin spread his hands, looking utterly helpless: "DC executives have said more than once that 'Joker' doesn't belong to the DC film genre. My film has been fired by DC."

After leaving the scene of the announcement, Martin got into the car, and Thomas, who was following behind, sat in the passenger seat.

He said, "Justice League is riding on our coattails."

"Our popularity isn't so easy to ride," Martin said to Thomas, having already planned ahead. "Have someone launch an operation to create some buzz in the media and online."

Thomas replied, "It's ready."

Martin looked at Bruce: "Any updates from over there?"

Bruce knew he was asking about Ivan: "You've taken photos of the two of them being intimate."

Martin nodded: "Very good. Normally, these things wouldn't affect Kevin Tsujihara, but if Justice League fails, it'll be a knife to Daniel's side."

During this period, Joker and Justice League have been the subject of much discussion.

A film that Warner Bros. and DC executives didn't have high hopes for, and even refused to acknowledge as a DC film, still achieved high box office returns and explosive critical acclaim.

Hollywood insiders, the media, and movie fans are all praising Warner Bros.' amazing move.

Vanity Fair even published a special analysis article on this: "Since the new management of Warner Bros. took office in 2010, in just over six years, they have ruined more than a dozen big projects with investments of over $100 million. Warner Bros.' film business has been in a slump. The truly commercially successful works during this period were either left over from the previous administration or, like Joker, projects that were marginalized by Warner Bros. management in the early stages."

"Therefore, the Hollywood industry has also dubbed the 'Warner Bros. Dream Team.' The most formidable ability of this management team is to use their genius-level creativity and thinking to circumvent every element of a film project's success, resulting in huge losses for Warner Bros...."

The higher the box office of "Joker" is, the more it demonstrates Warner Bros.' unique vision.

Although the number of viewers increased and word-of-mouth inevitably declined, the film's box office performance remained stable without a significant drop.

In its second weekend in North America, "Joker" earned another $8657 million, continuing to dominate the North American box office charts.

Including the revenue from the previous four business days, the film's cumulative North American box office reached $3.27 million.

This number far exceeds that of "Captain America 3" when it was in theaters for ten days.

Also in that week, Joker opened simultaneously in 78 overseas markets, raking in $1.805 million in its opening week and easily surpassing the $5 million mark at the global box office.

The competition for the highest-grossing film in North America and worldwide in 2016 has gradually lost its suspense.

In stark contrast is Justice League.

This highly anticipated superhero blockbuster, which embodies the hopes of Warner Bros. and DC, released its official trailer, hand-edited by Joss Whedon, in late October, marking the first time the six main members of the Justice League have come together in a live-action film.

Warner Bros.' idea was to capitalize on the increased attention given to DC characters by "Joker" to grab as much attention as possible and attract movie fans.

But things didn't go as planned; the trailer was met with a barrage of criticism as soon as it was released.

Even though the change of director from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon was somewhat expected, it still shattered the psychological threshold for DC fans.

Wherever the trailer was shown, it was met with a flood of negative reviews from DC fans.

"God, is this a DC superhero movie? It's all slapstick and lowbrow humor. The trailer alone looks like a mass-produced piece of crap. I hope the actual movie will be better."

"Sure enough, the worst fears came true. Zack Snyder was kicked out of the cast, Joss Whedon became the director, and the style completely changed. The trailer already foreshadowed the outcome; this is a Justice League without a soul!"

"Just watching the trailer gave me a serious case of embarrassment. I can't believe that such a terrible thing is a trailer for Justice League."

The fans next door, on the other hand, were full of mockery.

"If you changed the heroes' costumes, people would believe it was an Avengers movie."

"DC has not found the right path at all. They can only follow the path that the Avengers have taken. I dare to predict that they will not even get the scraps left by the Avengers on this path."

"They had Nolan and Martin, yet they insisted on clashing with them and firing them from DC. The Warner Bros. team truly lives up to their reputation as a group of super geniuses!"

Even with poor pre-release reception, Warner Bros. and DC had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue promoting Justice League, releasing it as planned before Thanksgiving.

As long as the film is released, regardless of its success or failure, it will always be able to recoup some of the investment.

Warner Bros. and DC certainly did a lot of work, investing heavily in publicity and distribution. They also used their influence as one of the Big Six studios to suppress all dissatisfaction with Joss Whedon from the crew, in order to avoid negative news and further impact on the film.

The reshoot crew, which was originally like a powder keg, was able to maintain a temporary calm. If the film is successful and everyone can benefit from it, everything will disappear.

However, the pre-sales for Justice League, which began in early November, made Warner Bros. and DC anxious.

North American moviegoers seem to have lost interest in the film or are taking a wait-and-see approach, with first-week advance sales in North America not even reaching $150 million.

This created a chain reaction, with pre-sales declining one after another.

Some professional entertainment media outlets have pointed out that after several test screenings, Justice League has yet to receive positive reviews.

In contrast, for "Joker," major websites and media outlets opened their rating systems well in advance of the test screenings.

There is already a consensus in the North American film market.

A film that releases its ratings in advance is not necessarily a good film, but a film that keeps its ratings from being released until the very last day before its theatrical release is definitely not very good.

As of the premiere, ratings for Justice League, including those on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, were still not available.

Warner Bros. held a grand premiere for the film, even inviting all the other stars who had appeared in DC superhero movies, including Martin Scorsese, and tried to be as faithful to "Joker".

In a final gamble, Hamada forgot what he had said before and, in a media interview, said: "Joker is a great movie and an integral part of the DC superhero force. It is only because of the contrast with other DC superheroes such as Batman that the Joker has such extraordinary charm."

The interviewer was from WarnerMedia, and the reporter was very accommodating, asking a pre-prepared question: "Will there be any interaction between this 'Joker' and 'Justice League' in the future?"

Hamada said with a smile, "DC is considering a collaboration between the Joker and the Justice League, and we plan to invite Martin to help us draft the plan..."

Martin walked quickly across the red carpet without going into the media area. He and Bruce went into the Dolby Theatre and went up to the second floor together.

Louise and Danielle stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, looking at Hamada and Joss Whedon in the media area.

Daniel said with a smile, "Congratulations on our film surpassing one billion dollars in global box office revenue."

After five weeks in North America, Joker grossed $4.62 million, bringing its global box office total to $10.15 billion.

It's only a matter of time before it surpasses Captain America 3.

When speaking to his allies, Martin said something very nice: "Warner Bros.' strong support was crucial."

He then asked, "What were Warner Bros.' actual expectations for Justice League?"

"The pre-sales were not ideal, so we simply stopped announcing anything after that." Daniel lowered his voice: "Hamada and Kevin Tsujihara were still hoping that the film would gross around $1 million in its North American opening week. In my opinion, even $7000 million would be difficult."

He told the truth: "Without the fame that Superman and Batman have built up over the years, this movie would be lucky to make $4000 million in its opening weekend."

Martin understood and asked, "Are you ready on your end?"

"Of course, the Warner Bros. and Time Warner boards can hardly tolerate this any longer," Daniel said. "They just need a suitable reason and excuse."

Martin said, "Someone will give you a copy when the first-week box office results come out."

Daniel nodded slightly: "It's in our best interests, so I won't say thank you."

Martin simply said, "When you're going to kill a snake, either don't do it at all, or if you do, kill it completely and don't give it a chance to bite back."

Daniel said, "The internal struggle is a life-or-death battle."

The three chatted for a while, and before the premiere, they went downstairs and into the theater lobby.

As expected, this Justice League film felt particularly disjointed, with a lot of Avengers-style jokes and numerous reshoots interspersed throughout, causing noticeable problems with the film's pacing.

The problem of imbalance in combat power has never been resolved, and Superman always ends up finishing with one punch.

The film received a barrage of negative reviews after its release. The fans who had been cultivated were not satisfied, while casual viewers found it dull, boring, and incomprehensible. A small number of viewers who had seen it regretted their decision and complained on various online platforms about the wasted dollars.

With its North American opening weekend, the DC Justice League cinematic universe, which took nearly seven years from planning to final release, has essentially come to an end.

Because the opening weekend box office was only $6638 million.

Multiple market research firms predict that Justice League will gross less than $2 million in North America and a maximum of $5 million worldwide.

The film's production cost alone was as high as $3.5 million.

(End of this chapter)