"David, great news—the overseas box office numbers are out!"
On Monday morning, Michael Ovitz burst into David Ellison's office, beaming with excitement. David, who had been about to make a move on his attractive secretary, was startled out of his mood, immediately freezing up.
He quickly zipped up his pants and, pretending nothing had happened, asked casually, "Really? How much?"
Michael Ovitz pretended not to notice what he had just walked in on. Only after the sexy secretary left did he say, "Last weekend, the film opened simultaneously in 70 markets alongside North America. Altogether, we pulled in $165.5 million in overseas box office."
David Ellison's eyes lit up with delight. "My God, it seems Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are still incredibly popular overseas."
"And you'll never guess the best part," Michael Ovitz said mysteriously.
"What is it?"
Michael Ovitz stopped teasing him and revealed, "The film earned 46.5 million RMB in its opening weekend in mainland China, setting a new record for the highest opening-weekend box office for an English-language film in the country."
Michael Ovitz knew that David Ellison had long been obsessed with breaking the various records set by Gilbert. However, the records Gilbert had created in North America were almost impossible to surpass.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King record of $151 million for opening weekend was simply too outrageous. Still, breaking a few smaller records was an achievement worth celebrating.
Hearing this, David Ellison's mood brightened even more. "Get a few media outlets to hype this up. Say that I've surpassed the record Gilbert set."
"Of course," Michael Ovitz replied knowingly. "I've already arranged for several online outlets to promote the story.
"Also, there's good news from Hasbro. Transformers' first-week merchandise sales reached $85 million in North America, with overseas markets contributing another $60 million."
David Ellison's eyes gleamed. Although the profits had to be shared with Hasbro, merchandise had always been the biggest source of revenue for films like this. With both the box office and the merchandise sales performing so strongly, everything was going perfectly.
David couldn't contain his excitement. "Let's make those numbers public—let everyone share our joy."
His main goal, of course, was to let Gilbert see the success of Transformers, the film he had produced, and to show off a little. Transformers was, without a doubt, the most successful project David Ellison had ever handled since entering Hollywood.
Not long after, Sky Dance Studio announced the film's first-weekend box office and merchandise sales figures on its official accounts.
After the announcement, David Ellison received congratulations from acquaintances and strangers alike. He had never experienced such glory in his entire life.
He and Michael Ovitz then discussed holding a celebration party on the night of the second weekend's end.
David said confidently, "Make sure Gilbert is invited. I want him to witness my success firsthand."
Of course, Gilbert already knew about Transformers' explosive performance—Scarlett had told him the moment she found out. But he wasn't the least bit surprised. He had known all along that the movie would be a hit.
After all, considering how many sequels it eventually spawned, it was obvious that if the first film had failed, there never would've been a franchise.
Although Transformers had changed its leading man—from Shia LaBeouf to Andrew Garfield—Andrew Garfield's performance turned out to be much better.
"Do you regret not taking the rights when you had the chance?" Scarlett asked.
"Maybe a little," Gilbert admitted. "But there's no point in talking about it now. It's not like we didn't try, but Transformers still succeeded.
"What's lost is lost—no need to dwell on it."
Gilbert had never believed that everything should belong solely to him, or that others had no right to compete. Losing Transformers was simply a lesson learned; he'd just be more cautious in the future.
After a blazing first weekend, Transformers continued its strong performance through the weekdays, earning $35.93 million in four working days, easily bringing its North American total to $131.12 million.
The Da Vinci Code fell behind slightly, grossing $22.58 million over the same period, with a North American total of $89.9 million.
The gap was significant, but The Da Vinci Code still didn't face much difficulty in turning a profit through its box office alone. With that success, the "Langdon Universe" could continue expanding—Dan Brown's Angels & Demons could now officially move into production.
And during that same weekend, 20th Century Fox released its new film—
X-Men: The Last Stand.
Perhaps feeling the mounting pressure from Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox decided to launch the third installment of its own superhero franchise, the X-Men series.
This year's lineup of superhero films was almost entirely dominated by Marvel, while DC was still struggling.
Well—maybe not exactly "struggling," but DC's earlier development plans had been extremely chaotic, and the company was still trying to sort things out.
What was certain, however, was that after finishing 300, Zack Snyder would move on to direct a new Superman movie.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan was planning to adapt Watchmen for the big screen once he completed work on District 9.
The District 9 project had a fascinating origin. When Gilbert and Charlize Theron traveled to South Africa, they saw the slums there and were inspired to create this story.
After returning from South Africa, Gilbert completed the screenplay, but it ended up gathering dust in his script library.
That was until Christopher Nolan, while browsing through the collection one day, stumbled upon the script and was immediately captivated by its unique science fiction premise.
He brought the script to Gilbert and asked if he could direct the movie himself.
Gilbert had honestly forgotten he even had the District 9 script, but since he didn't have time to work on it, he figured he might as well let Nolan take it on.
So in March, Christopher Nolan traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, for location research, and he didn't return until shortly before X-Men: The Last Stand premiered.
Upon returning, he immediately brought Jonathan Nolan to Gilbert's home to discuss the project in detail.
"District 9 has a distinct Kafkaesque tone, much like The Metamorphosis," Christopher Nolan said. "It also serves as an allegory for racial discrimination and genocide. I think its core message is incredibly powerful."
Gilbert spoke about his and Charlize Theron's experiences in South Africa. "I saw with my own eyes how the slums were segregated, how people lived with constant power and water outages.
"Sometimes, the authorities even orchestrated planned massacres against innocent civilians. It left a deep impression on me."
Christopher Nolan nodded. "Indeed. During the months I stayed in Johannesburg, I also felt the deep-rooted racial discrimination there."
"So," Gilbert continued, "what if we replaced humans with aliens? Imagine that humans discover extraterrestrial beings who possess advanced technology but lack intelligence or organization—how would humanity respond?"
"They'd start with fear, then contact, followed by prejudice and finally exploitation," Jonathan Nolan concluded. "Humans would seize the aliens' resources and conduct experiments on them."
"Exactly," Gilbert said. "That's the logic on which the entire story is built. I think it's not only a science fiction tale worth exploring but also a deeply human story."
Christopher Nolan responded, "I'll need to make some surgical changes to the script—I hope you're okay with that."
"Of course," Gilbert nodded. "Since I've handed it to you, I won't interfere with your creative direction. But one thing—commercial appeal must always come first."
Christopher Nolan smiled slightly. "Don't worry. I'll strike the right balance."
...
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