"The North American first-week box office results are in. Want to guess the number?" Mr. Eisen asked, withholding the information with a playful smile.
"Nope, not guessing!" Luke replied, refusing to play along.
"Guess correctly and I'll give you $10 million!" The wealthy man pulled out his wallet.
"What counts as a correct guess? And is there a penalty if I'm wrong?"
Mr. Eisen thought for a moment and replied, "Within $5 million difference is a correct guess. If you're wrong, you have to accompany me to do something tomorrow."
"Oh, so mysterious? You have to bribe me? You aren't plotting to have me take out an enemy, are you?" Luke teased. He knew Mr. Eisen wouldn't do anything illegal, but joking with the usually serious older man had become one of his recent pleasures.
"Are you going to guess or not? I'm just going to tell you the answer if you don't."
"I'll guess $80 million!"
Luke stated his figure and looked confidently at Mr. Eisen.
This wasn't a random guess. In his previous life, Pirates of the Caribbean made $46 million in its first week in North America and a total of $305 million in North America. His target competitor, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, made $72 million in its first week and $377 million total.
Luke figured that with all his efforts, Pirates of the Caribbean's opening week should be higher than LOTR 2; otherwise, what was the point of all that trouble?
Guessing $80 million meant that any number between $75 million and $85 million would count as correct. Luke felt he had cleverly covered the range and was 90% sure he'd win.
"Sorry, you didn't guess correctly." Mr. Eisen shook his head.
The usual calm and gravitas on his face were gone, replaced by the glee of a child who'd just gotten candy. How could he not be happy to see Luke lose for once? Working with Luke these days was a complete change from his previous, stagnant life.
"The first-week box office is $96 million, with a projected North American total of $460 million," Mr. Eisen revealed. He couldn't resist adding, "Surprised? Unexpected? How does it feel to see that money fly away?"
Luke hadn't expected the results to be this good!
This massive start significantly increased the probability of Pirates of the Caribbean defeating The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers globally. In his previous life, Pirates only lost to LOTR 2 by about $70 million in North America. However, the global total lost by a massive $280 million, primarily because it lost nearly $200 million outside of North America. After all, Pirates was the first movie in its series, while LOTR 2 was the second and benefited from the predecessor's incredible reputation.
Now, with this successful first battle, Pirates wasn't just not losing in North America; it was projected to win by $100 million. This meant the film only needed to make $100 million more internationally than its prior-life self to achieve a major reversal and victory.
Luke had put in a lot of work to expand the international market this time.
While his personal popularity was high in his home country, Luke didn't have high expectations, as the domestic market wasn't large enough yet. The Japanese and Korean markets, however, could play a significant role. The Japanese market, being the second-largest globally, was sure to be critically important.
"Even though I didn't guess correctly, I'm even happier with this result. So, what do you need me to do tomorrow?" Luke asked.
"It's nothing serious," Mr. Eisen said. "Tomorrow is my wife's memorial day. I'd like you to come with me to visit her and introduce you to her."
Luke often went to Mr. Eisen's study to discuss work but had never met his family. Only an old butler and a few other household staff lived with Mr. Eisen; he hadn't seen any children or other relatives. Since Mr. Eisen hadn't brought it up before, Luke didn't feel it was appropriate to ask. When Mr. Eisen made the solemn request today, Luke readily agreed.
---
### The International Powerhouse
"The results from the Japanese market are also very good," Mr. Eisen said, handing Luke a summary of the projections. This summary combined current first-week sales with word-of-mouth and screen time to estimate the total box office. While there might be slight discrepancies, the overall numbers were generally accurate.
"You all keep saying Japan is my 'solid vote' territory, so let's see how well it performed this time," Luke said, flipping through the papers. He had felt the deep affection of the Japanese people when he heard some theaters were giving the film a 60% screen rate. Now it was time to check the actual results.
Hero made 14 billion yen, which was about $80 million in Japan.
What about Pirates of the Caribbean?
The projection was 24 billion yen, or about $154 million.
This was a significant increase over Hero, but still within the realm of reason, given the incredibly high screen time Japanese theaters had given Pirates. Luke's recent fame from the football and NBA buzz in Japan also helped secure this impressive result.
Next up was the result from the Korean market: 11 million viewers...
This was even higher than Hero's numbers. It seemed the country did indeed look to the U.S. for trends; whatever exploded in North America also took off in Korea. Luke's immense popularity recently translated into a box office smash there. With a typical ticket price of about $7, the number of viewers translated to nearly $80 million in box office revenue. That meant the fervent Korean audience contributed nearly half of the Japanese revenue, and Luke hadn't even specifically put in much market-development effort there.
Finally, the domestic box office statistics were next.
Hero had made 320 million Yuan domestically, which was about $40 million—a major hit for that time. Luke hadn't expected much from Pirates of the Caribbean domestically, as it didn't have the foundation Hero had.
But when he saw the number, he paused:
The love of his home country's people!
The total box office was projected to be 320 million Yuan, translating to $40 million. This result was truly unexpected! Achieving this number in the domestic market of 2002 was incredibly difficult.
Luke realized he needed to spend more time back home. He had many important plans that needed to be realized in his native country. Japan, his "solid vote" territory, needed to be solidified, and the comic book collaboration with Akira Toriyama needed to move forward. He absolutely had to find time to visit Japan soon. And as a new market where his popularity was already strong, Korea offered a great return on investment, so he needed to schedule a trip there, too.
There just wasn't enough time for everything!