Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code has sold more than forty million copies worldwide, giving the film adaptation a vast and loyal reader base.
As long as the adaptation was handled reasonably, the movie still had a considerable audience.
However, the film lacked the stunning spectacle of Transformers and had no dazzling special effects—it appeared flat and tasteless, like a glass of plain water.
USA Today commented, "The Da Vinci Code is a faithful adaptation of the novel, but unfortunately, it fails to offer audiences any real surprises."
The New Yorker wrote, "Without codes to decipher, The Da Vinci Code is a useless, dull, monotonous, and foolish adaptation of Dan Brown's mystery novel."
With some free time on his hands, Gilbert interacted with fans on his social media account, answering many questions about films and his upcoming projects.
When discussing new works, he stated frankly on his account:
"I acquired the rights to the Cyberpunk tabletop game a long time ago.
But I want to expand the entire cyberpunk world, using a wealth of original stories to tell a series of legendary experiences.
There are countless fans around the world who are fascinated by cyberpunk culture—I'm one of them. If you study my films closely, you'll find that they often carry symbols and elements of cyberpunk culture."
A fan asked him to comment on the two films currently in theaters. Gilbert replied:
"I've attended both premieres.
Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code is the holy grail of summer blockbusters—a thrilling, tightly plotted film full of tension.
Tom Hanks gives an outstanding performance; I believe he's the best possible choice to portray Professor Langdon.
As for Transformers, Andrew Garfield is great, and Megan Fox is stunningly sexy."
Gilbert deliberately avoided mentioning the robot transformation scenes in Transformers. In his view, the film was largely the same as in his previous life, complete with Michael Bay's usual flaws.
But this era marked a turning point in the visual effects industry. Beginning with Transformers, Hollywood's special effects entered an entirely new stage.
These were effects that audiences had never seen before—no longer did they look fake or out of place. Instead, the line between illusion and reality began to blur.
When Avatar was later released, the combination of advanced special effects and 3D technology would push Hollywood to an even greater height.
In terms of fanbase and audience appeal, The Da Vinci Code couldn't compete with Transformers. And visually, it fell even further behind.
Combined with Sky Dance Studio's massive marketing campaign that built up tremendous hype, it was inevitable that Transformers would crush The Da Vinci Code in its opening weekend.
On May 19, both films opened widely across North America. On its first day, Transformers raked in an astonishing $28.925 million, surpassing The Da Vinci Code's $20.676 million to claim the top spot at the box office.
In third place was The Last of Us, now in its third Weekend of release, earning $6.629 million for the day.
Under the pressure of these two massive blockbusters, all other films trembled at the box office. The fact that The Last of Us managed to maintain decent numbers was already quite an achievement.
On Saturday, theaters across North America saw an even greater moviegoing frenzy. Despite Transformers having its share of flaws, its strengths were equally prominent—enough to attract droves of audiences.
It's worth noting that the film evoked deep nostalgia for many viewers. The 1980s had been the golden era of the Transformers animated series in North America.
That show had even been imported into mainland China, where it also built up a strong fan base.
Although the movie version differed greatly from the animated one, that didn't stop Generation X and early Millennials—now the backbone of society and major consumer group—from revisiting Transformers with a sense of nostalgia, eager to experience the franchise through the lens of modern technology.
On Saturday, Transformers smashed another record, grossing $36.446 million and retaining the top spot at the box office. The Da Vinci Code followed with $27.339 million, and The Last of Us earned $7.73 million.
Sunday saw a slight dip in enthusiasm, but Transformers still took in $28.816 million, bringing its North American opening-weekend total to a staggering $95.187 million.
It almost broke the $100 million mark—a result achieved through a combination of several key factors.
First, Sky Dance Studio had crafted a highly targeted strategy. By invoking childhood nostalgia, they successfully drew in countless longtime Transformers fans.
Second, the studio used unconventional marketing tactics.
Although the leaked version of the film was condemned by competitors, it undeniably attracted a massive number of casual moviegoers who otherwise might not have been interested.
Even before the official release, the film had built up enormous anticipation thanks to its relentless marketing campaign.
On IMDb, there's a "Want to Watch" list where users can tag films that haven't been released yet.
Before Transformers hit theaters, 2.8 million IMDb users had already marked it as a "must-watch"—a clear testament to the audience's excitement for the movie.
If not for the fact that the movie failed to appeal to some female viewers, and suffered from issues such as choppy editing and excessive camera shaking that made people dizzy, it would have easily broken the $100 million mark in its opening weekend.
Even so, the box office results were more than enough to make Sky Dance Studio and the distributor MGM–United Artists beam with joy. Moreover, it's worth remembering that for a film like Transformers, the biggest source of profit has never been the box office, but rather the merchandise.
Although The Da Vinci Code couldn't compare to Transformers, it wasn't a failure either. On Sunday, it earned $19.307 million, bringing its opening-weekend total to $67.322 million.
For a story-driven film, that was actually a solid result.
However, Sony Columbia Pictures was not particularly pleased. They could have dominated the entire release window, but Transformers had to come out at the same time. Although Sony had previously enjoyed a pleasant collaboration with Sky Dance Studio, now they stood on opposite sides.
During the first weekend of release for both films, each side mobilized online "comment armies" to manipulate public opinion, causing chaos all over the internet.
This was especially obvious on IMDb, where both sides' bots flooded the platform—each group downvoting the other's film. When The Da Vinci Code's side couldn't keep up, they disguised themselves as Transformers fans and began leaving low ratings for that film instead.
The Transformers supporters quickly followed suit, pretending to be The Da Vinci Code fans and going around trashing other movies.
The Last of Us was unfortunately caught in the crossfire. Its rating dropped rapidly from 8.6 to 8.4, infuriating Gilbert's fans.
Even top-ranked classics like The Godfather and The Lord of the Rings were affected, prompting their fanbases to join the fray.
Before long, IMDb had erupted into an all-out world war of ratings chaos. The situation became so unmanageable that IMDb was forced to shut down both the comment and rating systems, which merely redirected the online "battlefield" to other platforms.
Despite the fierce online disputes, both newly released films performed exceptionally well, driving up overall box office revenues. On a macro level, this chaos actually benefited the film market as a whole.
The Last of Us earned $7.25 million on Sunday and quietly grossed $23.309 million in its third weekend.
Including its weekday earnings, it brought in $35.108 million for the week, pushing its North American box office total to $176.82 million—a very impressive achievement.
Its overseas box office began to decline slightly. Although it opened in more than a dozen new markets, the added territories contributed only modestly.
This week, The Last of Us grossed $53.58 million overseas, bringing its global total to $429.92 million.
However, the biggest highlight of the international box office this weekend was, without a doubt, Transformers.
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