The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 357

That same evening, TMZ plastered photos and videos from the engagement ceremony across the front page of its website. Despite it being well past midnight, the site was suddenly inundated with traffic.

By the next day, the entertainment press was in full force, dedicating massive coverage to Matthew and Charlize.

The story had taken more than half a year to plan and execute, but neither Matthew nor Charlize felt the slightest bit of discomfort about it.

Matthew, naturally, saw no need to overthink it. A star in the entertainment industry without fame is essentially a nobody.

Even Charlize, who had been a little resistant at first, was now very open about the arrangement.

This was Hollywood, the entertainment business, where countless breakups and alliances happened every day. If you were looking for pure, unadulterated love, you were better off searching the halls of Beverly Hills High or the Harvard-Westlake School.

Perhaps some newcomers to the industry were genuinely innocent, but those who had climbed to the level of Matthew or Charlize had waded through their share of lies, deception, and grime.

And yet, it was these very relationships that the public, beyond their interest in film and television work, found most fascinating about celebrities.

Anyone hoping to witness a man and woman live and die for each other until their dying day shouldn't look for it in the real lives of Hollywood stars; that kind of story only exists in the movies they star in.

For those who had been in Hollywood from the beginning, one only had to look at Audrey Hepburn—a woman almost synonymous with innocence and nobility—whose personal life was no less dramatic.A decade from now, a publicity stunt like the one between Matthew and Charlize would hardly interest the media or the public. Hollywood would become saturated with such things, and stars would need newer, more socially impactful ways to attract attention and maintain their fame.

But in this era, there was still a market for this kind of hype, and it was directly reflected in the North American box office for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

At the start of the week, the box office for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" had seen an inevitable decline, earning $10.5 million on Monday, $11.1 million on discount Tuesday, and $10.2 million on Wednesday.

But by Thursday, fueled by the wave of media frenzy, the single-day ticket sales for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" soared to $14.2 million.

Over the four workdays, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" grossed another $46 million in North America, pushing its total domestic box office past the $100 million mark.

The film then entered its second weekend, facing a true behemoth in the North American market—the prequel, "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith."

The cultural significance of the "Star Wars" saga was something a person like Matthew couldn't quite grasp, even after several years in Hollywood. He failed to see what was so remarkable about waving a couple of lightsabers around without any sense of real power.

Of course, he understood, more or less, that the popularity of "Star Wars" culture could be attributed to the brilliant marketing and promotion by Lucasfilm.

Matthew had seen unofficial statistics claiming that the five "Star Wars" films to date had a combined box office of over $3 billion, while merchandise sales had exceeded $20 billion.

Whether that figure was accurate, Matthew didn't know, but George Lucas was widely recognized as the richest director in Hollywood, and the bulk of his fortune undoubtedly came from the "Star Wars" franchise.

But even though George Lucas had declared "Revenge of the Sith" to be the final chapter of the "Star Wars" saga, its three-day weekend box office, influenced by the previous films in the series, wasn't as spectacular as one might expect from a finale.

The film's North American opening weekend brought in $108.43 million, which was significantly below industry expectations.

For any other movie, this would have been a massive success, but for the conclusion of the "Star Wars" franchise, it was merely good.

Matthew also took the time to see "Revenge of the Sith" at a theater in Beverly Hills. He had seen the series once before and wasn't particularly interested, but Charlize considered herself a "Star Wars" fan, so he accompanied her.

Since they were committed to promoting films for Dior and Mercedes-Benz, respectively, the two didn't travel after their engagement ceremony and had to remain in Los Angeles for the time being. Both were under contract.

According to Charlize, watching "Revenge of the Sith" together was a special kind of engagement celebration.

After seeing the film, Matthew remained unimpressed by the flimsy action of the Jedi, but he had to admit that "Revenge of the Sith" could definitely be described as epic and majestic, far superior to the other installments in the "Star Wars" prequel series.

Even if Anakin Skywalker's transformation felt a little underdeveloped, it was a minor flaw in an otherwise impressive film.

Setting aside the plot itself, "Revenge of the Sith" was in a completely different league than "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Charlize had said as much to him after the movie, describing a feeling of fatalistic pathos as she watched each character move inexorably toward their long-foretold destiny.

Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader; Padmé Amidala dies, leaving behind Luke and Leia; Obi-Wan goes into hiding; the Republic becomes the Empire...

****

The fact that "Revenge of the Sith" was received less enthusiastically than expected was undoubtedly a boon for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." As it entered its second weekend, buoyed by the widespread news about Matthew and Charlize, the film suffered no significant losses and demonstrated remarkable staying power at the box office.

In its second weekend of release, the three-day gross for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" dropped by only forty-five percent from its opening weekend, pulling in $41.5 million and bringing its total North American box office to a staggering $163.1 million.

Compared to "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," the films that truly suffered from the release of "Revenge of the Sith" were "Danny the Dog" and "Kingdom of Heaven." Both had already opened poorly, and this weekend their three-day earnings plummeted to the $4 million mark.

Meanwhile, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" had been released in nearly 80 countries and territories overseas. Bolstered by its North American success, it received a stunning response abroad, grossing $110 million in its first week.

The film's PG-13 rating and lack of any political or regional sensitivities meant it sailed through international censors and was scheduled to hit theaters in a major Asian market in early June.