America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz-Chapter 973 - 889 Martha Appears Stunning the Entire
Chapter 973: Chapter 889 Martha Appears, Stunning the Entire Audience_2
Chapter 973 -889 Martha Appears, Stunning the Entire Audience_2
But let’s not dwell on other matters.
The applause lasted for a long time as Zack Snyder and Charles Roven took the cast and crew on stage for a curtain call.
Guests began to exit one after another.
Daniel still walked with Martin and asked in a low voice, “What do you think about this movie?”
“The action scenes were fantastic,” Martin replied honestly, “especially the final battle of the trio of heroes, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, against Doomsday. That’s what superhero and the battle of gods amongst men should be like.”
Daniel looked at Martin, “What do you think about the box office?”
Martin reminded him, “Don’t forget, this is the first time Batman and Superman appear together in a live-action movie. The opening weekend box office won’t be a problem.”
Daniel immediately thought of another aspect, “But what about after that, right?”
He shook his head directly, “You need a certain threshold to understand this movie, and it’s not low. The studio can’t expect most viewers to have read DC comics, right? That’s unrealistic! The production cost alone was US$250 million. If the global box office doesn’t exceed one billion US Dollars, DC can’t justify it to the parent company.”
Martin thought carefully and couldn’t recall the exact figure for the box office of “Batman v Superman,” but what struck him most were ‘Martha’ and Wonder Woman.
But he could basically confirm that the global box office didn’t exceed one billion US Dollars.
As they exited through the side door of Dolby Theatre, Daniel received a phone call. After the call, he said to Martin, “Warner Bros. did an internal survey, and the premiere audience gave it an average rating of A.”
Martin nodded, “That means the fans have a high level of acceptance, so there won’t be a problem in the first week’s box office.”
Daniel, who was in charge of the distribution, admitted, “But I have no confidence at all in the word of mouth from casual viewers afterward.”
Martin sighed, “Zack Snyder films such great visuals, but it’s a pity he can’t tell a story well, which is really a love-hate situation.”
Daniel reminded Martin, “If this movie’s reputation collapses afterward and fails to meet Warner’s expectations, and your ‘Joker’ performs well, be cautious about DC’s reaction.”
Upon seeing his car arriving, Martin waved, “I know.”
When Martin left in his car, Daniel also got into his car.
Although he was an internal rival of the Warner Bros. Team, belonging to the distribution side of Warner Bros., Daniel was still very responsible; above him was the corporate board, and above that was Time Warner.
He wanted to progress further and couldn’t afford any lapse in his work performance.
The next morning, various reviews of “Batman v Superman” poured in, presenting stark contrasts.
On IMDB, where most ordinary cinema fans gather, due to the screenings and premieres attended mostly by fans, the freshly lifted ban showed an alarmingly high score of 9.2!
Normally, this would be indicative of a hugely successful commercial movie.
But on Rotten Tomatoes, numerous film critics gave bad reviews, with a freshness of only 32%.
If it were only the film critics who had given bad reviews, it would have been one thing, as full-time film critics are already considered out of touch with the mainstream market.
On MTC’s website, which collected scores from major professional media, the movie scored an average of only 44 points.
Faced with this situation, DC and Warner Bros. immediately initiated a public relations campaign, claiming the film was merely polarizing, but audiences still liked it.
This claim seemed to be validated by box office figures, as the movie grossed a staggering US$70.2 million on its first day in North America.
As more people watched the movie, the audience’s word of mouth began to crumble.
IMDB ratings plummeted to 7.7.
The film’s second-day box office in North America dropped by forty percent.
In the first weekend in North America, the film brought in US$132 million.
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At first glance, this might seem not bad, but with a production budget of US$250 million, DC’s minimum expectation for the first weekend in North America was US$180 million.
However, this was only the beginning of the disaster.
In subsequent screenings, the reputation of “Batman v Superman” rapidly deteriorated.
By the second weekend, the IMDB rating had dropped to 6.2, and the Rotten Tomatoes freshness was left at 28%.
As time passed, the film’s reputation kept falling rather than rising as fans claimed.
Regarding the various interpretations of the film posted online by fans, ordinary viewers were simply not interested, and most of them being casual viewers, hardly anyone would go out of their way to read such interpretations.
Moreover, those so-called interpretations were not reliable.
“The Man of Steel,” produced by The Nolans, overseen by Nolan and Emma Thomas, although polarizing, was generally well-received.
Due to a series of blunders by DC and the Warner Bros. Team, Nolan withdrew from the DC Extended Universe after that—even turning down Martin’s invitation to direct “Joker” to focus wholeheartedly on chasing the Oscars.
Without The Nolans, the narrative capabilities of an average Zack Snyder, combined with interference from the Warner Bros. Team, made the results of Batman v Superman predictable.
If not for the veteran producer Charles Roven, the film could have been even worse.
Many media outlets believed that Batman v Superman would be the front-runner for the Golden Raspberry Awards next year.
The most critical issue was the lack of staying power in ticket sales.
In North America, the revenue plunged by seventy percent from its opening weekend to the next, amassing only 39.05 million US dollars.
This set a new record for the biggest second-weekend drop for a DC superhero movie.
Even back in the days of “Batman & Robin” and “Catwoman,” the drops were not this severe.
Meanwhile, the always silent Cinemascore finally released its latest statistical data showing the film’s live audience average grade as “B” with North American box office settling around 260 million US dollars.
With overseas earnings and off-line operations included, Batman v Superman was not likely to incur losses and might even generate a modest profit, but the film’s audience rating collapsed!
“Let me correct that, this movie wasn’t polarizing, it flat-out bombed!”
“For those unfamiliar with the comics, it was too unfriendly, it felt like Zack Snyder made it exclusively for comic fans.”
“Martha was just too much, if I were robbed in the future and said ‘Martha,’ would the offender put down their weapon?”
Despite most people understanding after watching the movie that “Martha” was both characters’ mother, they couldn’t help but viciously mock it.
Because Martha was just too big a target for mockery.
…
At the Disney Studio, inside the Joker studio.
During the lunch break, Martin checked out the latest statistics for Batman v Superman and put down the newspaper.
Across, Silsa Ronan picked up the newspaper and read it carefully, and after a while said, “This film seems to be doing well at the box office, certain to make a commercial profit. Why are there so many criticisms against DC everywhere?”
Martin simply replied, “Because it’s not an independent film, and it carries the burden of launching the entire DC Extended Universe. The subtitle ‘Dawn of Justice’ reflects this point. The film’s reputation crumbling will severely impact the upcoming ‘Justice League,’ and could entirely cost DC any chance of catching up with Marvel in the next decade or more.”
Silsa Ronan asked, “Will our movie be affected?”
Martin said, “You forgot, last month, DC executives publicly disassociated from us, quite emphatically.”
Silsa remembered, “They said ‘Joker’ is not a DC movie.”
Martin, having prepared for this, picked up his phone and called Jessica, and immediately said, “Create some noise in the media and the internet, and pull up some publicity for ‘Joker’.”
The studio had already prepared for this, and Jessica replied, “I’ll start right away.”
Martin glanced at the time and said to Silsa, “Break’s over, let’s continue to the recording studio.”
Silsa, playing a supporting female character, found that in certain parts of the film, her voice sounded different, making it hard to achieve on set, so Martin decided in post-production to let Silsa use a voice changer for her lines and replace some of the live sound.
These tasks were not challenging for Silsa and were completed by that afternoon.
The next morning, new messages about Batman v Superman appeared on the internet.
“DC screwed up ‘Green Lantern’ and now this one too, messing up the Justice League project, and even attacking Martin Davis’s ‘Joker’ for not meeting DC’s standards. What does that tell us? ‘Joker’ wasn’t tampered with by DC and has a high chance of success!”
Further analysts stated, “In recent years, the most successful DC movie has been ‘The Dark Knight,’ and the most successful DC character has been the Joker! It’s absolutely clear, that bunch of pigs in the DC management just doesn’t understand DC movie adaptations! The real connoisseurs of DC are still Nolan and Martin!”
