Made In Hollywood

Chapter 941: The King of Commercial Films

While Star Wars: The Force Awakens was experiencing a meteoric rise at the Chinese box office, its performance in North America began to slow down. Especially after crossing the one-billion-dollar mark—becoming the first film in North American history to surpass one billion dollars—both audience numbers and attendance rates steadily declined.

After six weeks of screening in North American theaters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had accumulated a domestic gross of $1.08427 billion.

Without a doubt, this film had already secured the top spot as the highest-grossing film in North American history.

Thanks to the explosive success of the Chinese market, the film’s overseas box office also surged past $1.5 billion, bringing its global total to nearly $2.6 billion.

"The first $20 billion director in history is officially born—the whole world now bows before Duke Rosenberg!"

Almost simultaneously, The Los Angeles Times ran this headline on its front page. The media across America and indeed the entire world—turned their spotlight toward Duke. Since the birth of cinema, no one had ever achieved such a feat.

James Cameron couldn’t do it. George Lucas couldn’t do it. Steven Spielberg couldn’t do it. Stanley Kubrick certainly couldn’t!

Perhaps in some people’s eyes, Duke’s films had nothing to do with "art," but no one could deny that he was the leading force of global pop culture!

A month after the historic emergence of the first $20 billion director, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned another $300 million from North America and overseas markets combined, pushing its worldwide box office past $2.9 billion.

The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post all released special editions to commemorate this milestone.

"Duke Rosenberg now holds the personal total box office record, the North American single-film box office record, and the global single-film box office record. He stands at the very pinnacle of commercial cinema!"

"Gathering countless records into one, Duke Rosenberg has created brilliance akin to a miracle!"

"Looking across the entire world and throughout film history, there has never been another director as great as Duke Rosenberg!"

"The undisputed King of Global Commercial Films—Duke Rosenberg!"

Nearly every major North American media outlet showered Duke Rosenberg’s name with the most extravagant praise imaginable.

And countless facts from the past proved that Duke truly deserved such acclaim.

As the American press said, calling Duke the King of Commercial Films today would draw little opposition. As for those voices claiming his works lacked artistic value—Duke himself simply didn’t care. He had never aimed to make "art films."

Art had never been the determining factor of success for Hollywood cinema.

Undeniably, box office revenue is not the standard for judging a film’s quality. But in Hollywood, box office numbers represent so much more.

Though Star Wars: The Force Awakens received only a few technical nominations—such as Best Visual Effects—at the latest Academy Awards, and none in major categories like Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, or Best Director, its staggering box office figures had already ensured it would be the most influential film of 2014 and 2015 and unquestionably so.

As the old year passed and the new one began, major media outlets conducted their annual retrospectives on Hollywood and its releases. Among the Top Ten Films of the Year lists published by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and magazines such as Rolling Stone, Empire, Entertainment Weekly, and Time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens unsurprisingly ranked number one across the board.

Media outlets often have their biases, but in Instant Share’s annual "Best Movie" poll, where 18.76 million users voted, a total of 14.38 million chose Star Wars: The Force Awakens—a figure that clearly demonstrated the film’s immense popularity among ordinary audiences.

Compared to the Oscar statuette—which no longer held any real appeal for him—Duke valued these public reactions far more. After all, professional critics, no matter how favorable their reviews, wouldn’t spend an extra dollar on tickets or merchandise, whereas ordinary viewers were the ones truly willing to pay to support his films.

"According to incomplete statistics..."

At Duke’s desk in the Warner Bros. studio, Tina Fey sat across from him, flipping through a report as she spoke. "As of last weekend, Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ North American box office is nearing $1.1 billion, and its overseas gross is approaching $1.9 billion. This coming weekend, it should officially become the first film in cinematic history to surpass $3 billion worldwide."

Duke’s gaze was fixed on the window. The sunlight outside was dazzling—almost scorching. The upcoming Academy Awards ceremony was just days away, and though he had received an invitation, he had absolutely no interest in attending. What occupied his mind instead was how to further expand the potential of the Star Wars franchise and the Marvel series, which was set to conclude its second phase in May.

Indeed, given his wealth and stature, Duke could easily choose early retirement and live out his days in comfort.

But anyone who knew him even slightly understood—that was absolutely not Duke’s style.

In Duke’s view, life was like rowing against the current—if you don’t move forward, you drift backward.

Besides, he was only in his forties—far from retirement age.

Retracting his gaze, Duke slowly swiveled his chair and looked back at Tina Fey. "And the merchandise?" he asked. "Any latest figures?"

"The merchandise sales are also starting to slow down..."

Tina’s words didn’t surprise Duke. It was already late March; The Force Awakens’ North American daily box office had dropped below one million dollars. Though merchandise sales hadn’t declined as sharply as ticket sales since early March, after peaking from November onward, they had inevitably begun tapering off.

Of course, even if Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ merchandise stopped selling altogether starting today, the total sales so far had already reached an astonishing number.

"Up until last weekend..." Tina Fey’s voice never stopped, "the merchandise and licensing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens have earned approximately 2.3 billion USD in North America alone, and the combined overseas merchandise and licensing income is also close to 2 billion USD."

Although part of these merchandise and licensing revenues also included products from the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequel trilogy, the pulling power of The Force Awakens was beyond question.

Duke’s mood was clearly good; he lightly tapped his fingers on the table. "How are the negotiations with the actors going?"

"Overall, fairly smooth," Tina Fey thought for a moment before saying, "Charles has already settled Daniel Wu’s salary, and we’ve basically reached a consensus with Daisy Ridley as well..."

Compared with the former Walt Disney schedule, Duke’s newly licensed Star Wars trilogy would be released at the pace of one film every three years. Although The Force Awakens was still far from leaving theaters, preparation for the next installment had already been placed on Lucasfilm’s agenda. The first issue to resolve was the salary negotiations of the new trio—Daisy Ridley, Daniel Wu, and Oscar Isaac.

In the Force Awakens cast, Harrison Ford’s pay alone had been dozens of times that of the three new actors combined. After Duke had decisively killed off his character, such a situation would no longer occur. Moreover, having gone through The Force Awakens, Daisy Ridley, Daniel Wu, and Oscar Isaac were no longer unknown newcomers. Especially Daisy Ridley and Daniel Wu—describing them as "superstars" was by no means an exaggeration.

Compared to their previous salaries of less than half a million USD, both Daisy Ridley and Daniel Wu’s new contracts had increased their pay sixfold, which was unavoidable. After all, filmmaking was, in the end, a business collaboration.

"And..." Tina Fey said again at this time, "Harrison Ford seems to have some complaints about you and Lucasfilm."

Duke waved his hand indifferently. "Don’t bother with him."

In The Force Awakens, Duke had killed off Han Solo largely due to salary issues, which had already left Harrison Ford somewhat displeased with him. Moreover, Lucasfilm’s cooperation with Ford extended beyond the Star Wars series—it also included the Indiana Jones franchise.

After the Star Wars reboot achieved massive success, the Indiana Jones series was naturally put back on Lucasfilm’s schedule. The core figure of that series was undoubtedly Dr. Indiana Jones himself, and Harrison Ford was practically the living embodiment of that character.

By the same logic, Harrison Ford would, of course, seize the opportunity to ask for an astronomical salary, which was his right. However, the Indiana Jones series becoming younger was an inevitable trend that aligned with the demands of the market.

Therefore, Duke and Lucasfilm had no intention of reusing Harrison Ford and that wasn’t a big deal. The new Indiana Jones films could completely focus on telling the adventures of a young Dr. Indiana Jones.

Duke personally finalized the actor to play the new Indiana Jones—Chris Pratt.

As for what Harrison Ford thought or said, neither Duke nor Lucasfilm cared in the slightest.

One after another, the latest directives passed through Tina Fey’s hands and were delivered to various sectors of Duke Industries. Especially in the film division—series such as Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones—would continue their respective money-making journeys.

Finally, as Tina Fey stood up to leave, she suddenly remembered something. She opened her handbag and placed a beautifully packaged Tiffany gift box on the desk. "Almost forgot—this was just delivered from Tiffany’s."

Duke picked it up and looked at it. "The ring is ready?"

...

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