Due to plot considerations, Batman: The Dark Knight had a runtime of 151 minutes, a full 13 minutes longer than Batman Begins, which ran for 138 minutes.
Warner Bros' strict control over film length had already been clearly demonstrated during the Justice League fiasco.
This time, however, Warner had no say in the matter.
In Hollywood, every major studio ultimately had to adapt to the talent. If your status was high enough, the studio would bend over backward to accommodate you.
Inside the grand hall of the Holy Citizen Auditorium.
The plot of Batman: The Dark Knight had finally reached its climax.
Justice had once again triumphed over evil.
The Batwing, carrying Two-Face and the dirty bomb that the Penguin had intended to use to destroy Gotham City, flew toward the distant sea horizon before exploding.
The city was saved from danger.
People who had narrowly escaped death all turned their eyes toward the sea, praying for a certain figure to appear.
Then.
A black silhouette emerged in everyone's view.
Then.
The screen faded to black.
The credits began to roll.
A light murmur spread through the hall. No one moved from their seats. Following the pattern from the first film, there should be a post-credits scene next.
When the five-minute end credits had played halfway through, the screen finally lit up again.
It was the interior of a large building.
The crime scene was in chaos. A large group of police officers were rescuing the injured and maintaining order. Firefighters were spraying streams of water into the smoke-filled building. Commissioner Gordon struggled through the busy crowd, then suddenly stopped. He picked up a playing card from the rubble.
It was a card featuring the Joker.
The screen faded to black once more.
After the second set of end credits, the big screen showed Bruce Wayne's usual table at an upscale restaurant for another blind date.
On one side of the table sat an elegant woman with her hair in an updo.
She was holding a newspaper in her hands.
Bruce Wayne appeared and politely extended his hand toward the woman. "Diana Prince?"
"Hello, Mr. Wayne."
The two sat down together. Bruce Wayne glanced at the newspaper in front of the woman, a flash of confusion crossing his face. "The Central City Times from three months ago. I happen to know that someone reportedly saw a person as fast as lightning."
Diana looked at Wayne. "So, do you think it's real?"
Instead of answering, Wayne said, "Are artists usually so interested in superhuman events?"
"Of course," Diana said, the corner of her mouth curving up. "I'm also quite interested in a certain little boy who likes to dress up as a bat."
After this line, the camera did not show Bruce Wayne's reaction. The big screen simply went dark.
A wave of disappointed sighs rose in the hall.
In just over ten seconds of post-credits scene, with the appearance of Wonder Woman and the indirect mention of The Flash, the DC Movie Universe had officially begun to unfold.
More importantly.
It left everyone wanting so much more!
Everyone was extremely curious about what would happen next in the short but spark-filled exchange between Batman and Wonder Woman. At the same time, they wondered whether this was setting up the plot for the third Batman film.
Despite the lingering feeling of wanting more and the curiosity, enthusiastic applause soon erupted throughout the hall and continued for a long time.
There was no doubt.
The second film in the DC Movie Universe had delivered a perfect report card.
After the screening ended and the media interaction segment concluded, Simon and the others headed backstage.
There was still an after-party to entertain the media and guests today, but Simon had no plans to attend. He was becoming less and less interested in these kinds of social events. Unless it was necessary, he usually skipped them. With Amy and other senior executives along with the main cast of the Batman series handling the socializing, he was not worried that the after-party would have any issues.
Just as he was about to leave directly through the backstage passage to the parking lot, Lisa Collins pulled Jennifer along and chased after him.
Learning that Simon was about to leave just like that, Lisa directly grabbed his arm and whined, "Come to the party with us, Simon. It's so hard to see you once. Who knows how long it will be until next time."
Simon felt Lisa pressing against him without any restraint, rubbing here and there in a way that seemed very likely to pull her already low-cut dress even lower.
She was about to have a wardrobe malfunction.
Simon helplessly glanced at his female assistant and saw expectation in her eyes as well. He could only nod.
Lisa giggled and refused to let go of Simon's arm. "Jennifer and I will ride in your car."
She then turned to her best friend and explained, "Don't worry, I won't steal Simon from you. I have a boyfriend. I just didn't bring him tonight on purpose. I'm only borrowing him for a little while, just a tiny bit."
As she spoke, she rubbed against Simon again.
Simon thought to himself.
He was clearly the one being taken advantage of here.
Dragged along by the clingy girl to the relatively private VIP parking area inside the auditorium, the driver was already waiting. Simon nodded in greeting to some other guests who had also arrived at the parking lot. Just as he was about to get in the car with Lisa and the others, a timid soft voice called out nearby.
"Simon..."
Following the sound, they saw a petite girl walking over from the other side of the parking lot, weaving through the crowd.
The soft call had drawn quite a bit of attention from others. Feeling embarrassed, the little girl kept her head slightly lowered. The lighting in the parking lot was not particularly bright, so Simon did not immediately recognize her. Lisa, however, spoke up first. "Hey, aren't you that little girl who cried on stage at Madonna's concert?"
As the girl came closer, Simon also recognized her.
Jennifer Bree.
That should be her name.
Last year at Madonna's concert, the little girl had unexpectedly rushed onto the stage and nearly caused a commotion.
Simon had calmed her down at the time and even sang a song for her.
American Pie.
That single had later gone on to top the sales charts for several consecutive weeks, even outperforming the new song Simon had written for Madonna.
However, after that day, Simon had not seen the little girl again.
Coming up to Simon, the girl called out timidly once more. She glanced at Lisa, who was practically hanging on Simon, and gave a gentle smile.
The girl was wearing a light pink straight-cut long dress today, with a silk ribbon tied around her waist. It made her waist look especially slender, giving her an almost doll-like appearance.
For some reason, recalling the details from before and comparing them to now, Simon felt something was a bit strange.
The girl gave Simon a sense of déjà vu.
Of course, it was not the same impression from the stage back then.
It was more like...
Refined.
The word popped into his mind, and Simon immediately thought of Janet's smiling face.
And.
The kind of refined elegance that ABCD and the female housekeeper maintained with their team of maids.
That level of refinement that came from spending several hundred thousand dollars more than their annual salary each year on meticulous maintenance.
To maintain that kind of look, constant maintenance was required.
However, most Western women lacked both the time and the money for it, which was why they often gave the impression of aging more quickly.
Lisa Collins clearly did not notice what Simon was thinking.
She stepped forward enthusiastically to greet Jennifer Bree and even joked, "I already thought you were really short last year. I didn't expect that after so much time, you still haven't grown taller. But being able to climb onto such a high stage is pretty impressive."
Blah blah blah.
After chatting for a while, Lisa even invited the little girl to the after-party, but she was politely declined.
After saying goodbye to Simon once more and receiving a smile in return, the girl seemed very satisfied and took the initiative to leave.
The three of them got into the car. Lisa was still chattering away, but Simon noticed that his female assistant was looking at him with a suspicious gaze.
Simon helplessly shrugged and leaned close to his assistant's ear. "I don't know what's going on either, but it should be Janet messing around again."
Feeling Simon's breath against her ear and the warmth on her cheek, Jennifer did not doubt the man's words. She gave a small nod in response.
Lisa, however, was displeased. "Hey, you two, don't whisper in front of me like that. It's too rude."
The female assistant glared at her best friend. "You're the rude one, clinging to Simon like this."
Lisa refused to back down. She reached out with her little paw to pinch her friend's rosy ear and threatened, "How dare you glare at me, Jennifer. Be careful or I'll break up with you as friends and then steal your man."
Back in the parking lot, only after watching Simon's car drive away did Jennifer Bree walk toward a sedan parked nearby.
The driver in the car was C-girl Claire Grey.
The two women had come to the premiere together tonight, though of course they had not walked the red carpet or received any special treatment. They had entered and left quietly like ordinary moviegoers.
With 2,000 audience members attending the premiere tonight, no one had paid much attention to the two of them.
After Jennifer Bree got in the car, Claire started the engine and left the parking lot. "You'll stay at the Beverly Hills property tonight. That's one of the boss's houses. Madam will meet you tomorrow morning."
"Okay. Um, Claire, will Simon be home tomorrow morning?"
"Tomorrow is Thursday, not the weekend. The boss will obviously be working."
The little girl immediately looked disappointed again.
Claire smiled as she turned the steering wheel onto the city road outside the auditorium. "Since you got into Stanford through your own efforts without Madam having to pull any strings, just keep working hard. If you work for the boss in the future, you'll be able to see him every day. Madam has put so much effort into you. She doesn't just want to raise a pretty vase. The boss doesn't like vases either. The more outstanding you become, the more likely you'll catch the boss's attention."
The little girl nodded seriously. "I understand."
It was ultimately just a small interlude. Coupled with the fact that he drank some wine at the after-party afterward and immediately dove back into busy work the next day, Simon unknowingly forgot to ask Janet about Jennifer Bree.
The next day was Thursday.
After the Wednesday premiere, Batman: The Dark Knight opened in 3,036 theaters across North America for midnight screenings, once again setting a new record for opening screen count.
During the media interaction segment after the premiere, some reporters had actually asked Simon about this, wondering whether it was necessary to use more than 10% of all North American screens at once, and whether it was overly aggressive.
After all, in 1991, the total number of movie screens in all of North America had only just exceeded 25,000.
Simon had not given a detailed explanation at the time, but privately he had thoroughly explained his reasoning to Amy and the other executives.
This summer season alone, there were eight films related to Daenerys Entertainment: four co-productions and four self-distributed films.
Not to mention anything else, this week, besides Batman: The Dark Knight, two other major films opening in the shadow of its massive release included Universal Pictures' new Spike Lee film Jungle Fever, which had just won Best Supporting Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.
With Daenerys Entertainment's film schedule becoming increasingly crowded, in order to avoid internal competition between their own films in the same period, they had to maximize the box office potential of their blockbuster titles as quickly as possible.
Across all of Hollywood, let alone an $80 million marketing budget, even spending $8 million on promotion for a single film represented less than 20% of all movies entering theaters each year. Batman: The Dark Knight's massive $80 million marketing budget and its unprecedented opening on over 3,000 screens were both designed to achieve this goal.
With an $80 million marketing budget blanketing everything, the results naturally needed to show as quickly as possible.
Compared to the typical six-month theatrical run of previous blockbusters, this kind of full saturation release would allow most of the box office to be recouped within four weeks. Not only would it free up market potential for subsequent films, it would also quickly shift audience attention away from this movie.
Therefore, it was not just Batman: The Dark Knight.
If Daenerys Entertainment wanted to achieve Simon's planned goal of distributing 40 films per year across Daenerys, New World, and Highgate's three distribution networks, and further extend its influence to major Hollywood studios like MGM, it had to adopt the saturation release strategy that would only become mainstream in the late 1990s ahead of schedule.
With Batman: The Dark Knight now officially released, under the nearly omnipresent promotional bombardment and the massive screen presence, large numbers of North American audiences flocked to theaters. Beyond the core fanbase, many casual viewers were also drawn in by the phenomenal hype surrounding the film's release.
The North American media, with their sharp sense for news, naturally would not miss such a hot topic.
Once the film was widely released, almost every newspaper across North America, big or small, was discussing every detail about the film, inside and out. Any gossip even remotely connected to the movie could make it onto important pages.
Although the overall critic scores inevitably dropped after wide release, for a phenomenon-level commercial blockbuster, the overwhelming heat made such things largely irrelevant.
Thus, Batman: The Dark Knight displayed a phenomenon-level viewing trend right from the start of its release.
Entering the 1990s, North American box office tracking had become more digitized, making it faster and more convenient.
After the Thursday midnight screenings and a full day of Friday showings, around 1 a.m. Saturday on the West Coast, the official opening day box office figures for Batman: The Dark Knight were released.
And.
It left many North American media outlets and Hollywood executives who had stayed up late waiting for the numbers tossing and turning in their beds.
$23.76 million!
This was the opening day box office for Batman: The Dark Knight.
Compared to many super blockbusters in later years, $23.76 million was not actually that high for an opening day.
However, in 1991, $23.76 million could only be described as earth-shattering.
After all, in this era, only about 50 films per year in North America grossed over $20 million total at the box office, roughly 10% of all films that entered theaters. On its very first day, Batman: The Dark Knight not only surpassed the entire opening week of most blockbuster films but also exceeded the total domestic lifetime gross of over 90% of all films released in North America each year.