"How many is it?"
Although she had grown up and her personality had changed a lot, Scarlett Johansson was still curious. "Is it some astronomical number?"
Duke shook his head as he looked at her. "Darling, this is just the advance screening."
The advance screening was only shown in over 2,800 theaters in North America. Even though IMAX theaters were all extra-large venues, how high could the box office possibly be?
Tina Fey walked over while holding the fax document and said, "$18.87 million, this is the highest box office number for an advance screening in North America so far."
Hearing this figure, Duke first breathed a sigh of relief. So much promotional and marketing work wasn't wasted.
Scarlett leaned over Tina Fey's shoulder, glanced at the fax, and said, "It says here that as of midnight, the IMDB rating is still a perfect score."
"Yeah."
Duke nodded but didn't care much. IMDB users were either paid reviewers or relatively seasoned movie fans. This kind of film obviously suited the latter's taste.
Standing up, Duke reminded the two, "It's getting late, go rest, we still have to head back to Los Angeles tomorrow."
The long night was just beginning. For many theaters, tonight would be a sleepless night.
In major theaters across the U.S., crowds gathered, with the attendance rate for screenings of The Dark Knight approaching two-thirds full, and all 125 IMAX theaters were completely sold out, creating a scene never seen before since IMAX entered Hollywood.
But the IMAX company was well prepared. Firstly, they had great confidence in Duke, and secondly, the intense publicity increased their confidence even more.
A few days ago, IMAX had already decided to start increasing screenings of The Dark Knight from 6 a.m. on Friday morning.
In North America, when a popular movie is released, theaters often schedule screenings at "abnormal" times to maximize profits. Advance and midnight screenings have now become a tradition for summer blockbuster box office hits.
With the widespread use of online ticket sales, tickets can sell out in advance. To welcome the upcoming "Batman" craze, besides IMAX, over 2,500 theaters that normally open after 10 a.m. had their first customers arriving at 6 a.m.
And these early customers were quite numerous.
"I'm here to see Heath Ledger's Joker."
"This is Duke's film; of course, I want to watch it."
"The IMDB rating is a perfect score. Isn't such a film worth watching?"
Everyone who entered the theater early had their own reasons but all bought tickets to support The Dark Knight.
Of course, like Kyle and Ella, a small group of viewers leaving the theater were somewhat dissatisfied.
Kristin was a market researcher for CinemaScore, which differed from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings. It relied more on face-to-face communication with audiences, resulting in data that was often more accurate.
This was also why major companies valued CinemaScore ratings much more and paid little attention to IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
Early on Friday morning, Kristin got up early and hurried to the Nokia Plaza IMAX theater. She had some complaints who wanted to get up at five or six in the morning to work?
Damn The Dark Knight! Damn Duke Rosenberg! Why did you have to be so popular, attracting so many people to theaters and forcing theaters to schedule early screenings!
Although she was full of complaints, Kristin didn't let this affect her work too much. She entered the IMAX theater and looked at her watch. There was still some time until the screening ended. After making a phone call, she went to the theater manager's office like she was familiar with the place.
"Hi, Jason. I'm back."
Knocking and entering the manager's office, Kristin sat across from the desk and asked, "Still not awake?"
The middle-aged man named Jason tried to open his eyes and said, "I worked until 3 a.m. last night, got up at 5:30 this morning, and didn't even go home. How could I be awake?"
"Looks like attendance is pretty good?" Kristin leaned back in her chair.
Jason understood her purpose and didn't hide anything. He said directly, "The midnight screening last night was sold out, and many people without tickets refused to leave. We had to temporarily add a dozen chairs in the theater."
He sighed, "IMAX theaters have never experienced this before. The company really should have partnered with Duke Rosenberg earlier."
"This morning's attendance dropped a bit."
This was not surprising. The advance and midnight screenings had consumed a lot of the audience's enthusiasm. These were the screenings starting at 6 a.m. "But the attendance here still exceeded 90%."
Kristin recorded the data Jason provided one by one. Seeing the time was about right, she said goodbye and left the manager's office, coming to the theater exit corridor.
Standing here waiting, Kristin had a vague feeling that the always lukewarm situation of the IMAX company might be about to change.
Once the screening ended and the audience began to leave, Kristin started her work. This was very common in the North American film market. Unless there was an emergency, audiences were also happy to cooperate.
After all, they could praise the film they liked or criticize the disappointing ones, and also receive small gifts.
A movie fan in his twenties said, "I think this is a great Batman movie. Heath Ledger was an unbelievably talented actor. As for the rating, I think it's definitely at least an A+."
"I also give it an A+," another fan said. "The story Duke told is really flawless and worth watching several times. If I didn't have to work soon, I'd watch it again right away."
Nearby, a fanboy-like young man said, "I want to say Duke isn't human, he's a god!"
But the film's style is too distinctive, so inevitably there are people who dislike it, even hate it.
When Christine asked a male fan around twenty years old, he looked somewhat angry.
"At most a C. If this weren't Duke's movie, I think it wouldn't even deserve a D. I'm a fan of Duke and really like Iron Man. This Dark Knight was so disappointing, who likes all that dark despair? And it's not thrilling enough that nagging Joker is annoying."
Although such viewers are few, they definitely exist.
Another fan in his thirties said, "Not interesting at all, only that motorcycle is okay. A boring movie that drove a poor kid crazy, it's terribly ugly to watch."
For such a dark style film, it's normal to be deeply detested, but none of this stops The Dark Knight from earning huge revenue in the North American market.
Just as work started on Saturday, Richard Galphon, head of the IMAX company's Los Angeles branch, eagerly gathered everyone in the LA office into the conference room.
Since IMAX's business in Hollywood was still developing, the LA branch's conditions weren't great, and the conference room was a bit small. Dozens of people sat inside, feeling quite crowded.
But they didn't mind; their faces showed some excitement and anticipation this company had already shown them hope for leapfrog development.
"Everyone. I believe you've all received the news. Last night's midnight show of The Dark Knight, shot using IMAX technology, took $22.18 million from 3,160 theaters in the North American market!"
Putting down the documents, Richard Galphon stood up, seemingly to strengthen his tone with this manner. "This is the latest North American midnight show box office record, which also includes IMAX company's contribution."
All eyes in the conference room were on Richard Galphon.
Clearing his throat, Richard Galphon continued, "The 125 IMAX theaters in North America contributed $920,000! And the average attendance rate of all cinemas reached 100%!"
As soon as he finished, the conference room immediately erupted in a wave of applause.
Seeing his excited subordinates, Richard Galfhon also felt some emotion. This move was clearly right. At first, he had doubts about using IMAX cameras since the company only had a handful, and if any were damaged, he wouldn't have an explanation for the headquarters.
But now it seemed this gamble paid off!
As the applause gradually died down, Richard cleared his throat softly, sat down again, and said, "From now on, we will fully cooperate with Warner Brothers' promotion work. The headquarters already notified me that IMAX will invest as many resources as possible in The Dark Knight, increasing the number of cinemas showing it all day from 50 to 100!"
After reminding some specific work details, Richard Galphon announced the meeting was over and returned to his office. Looking at the Dark Knight poster hanging on the wall, he gradually had other thoughts.
He had heard from Warner Brothers executives that Duke's new film would be sci-fi, also a big-budget commercial movie. Duke's commercial films were basically a guarantee of box office success and circulation. Judging from the reaction to The Dark Knight, it could easily become a hot event. IMAX wanted to grow, so cooperating with such a director was wise!
No matter what, he must push to continue the cooperation between IMAX and Duke Rosenberg.
Thinking this, Richard Galfhon picked up the phone and dialed. After the female assistant transferred the call, he smiled and said a few congratulatory words.
As long as the other party was willing to continue working with IMAX, it wouldn't just be a few words of congratulations; even serving as his driver for a while would be acceptable to Richard.
After hanging up the phone Richard had called, Duke looked at the person opposite him and asked, "Tina, what about the market response and audience reputation statistics?"
"This is the data Warner Bros just sent over."
Tina Fey put a faxed document in front of Duke and said, "CinemaScore audience approval rating reached 94%, average audience grade 'A+,' popcorn index of audience liking was 92%, and 55 media reporters at MetaCritic gave a high score of 98."
She paused, then added, "On IMDb, from 38,977 users, the average rating is… 10 out of 10!"
...
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