America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 255 Winner Takes All (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

On Friday, as soon as it was time to leave work, Ted tidied up his desk, slung his bag over his shoulder, and ran out.

His colleague, who liked to mooch his Coke, caught up with him: "So eager?"

Ted said, "I worked overtime last night and didn't go to the advance screening. If I don't go see the wanted poster today, I'm going to explode."

His colleague pulled out a bottle of Coke with Martin's image on it and handed it to Ted: "Let's go together."

The elevator was packed with people. Ted glanced at the time and said, "It's only the sixth floor. Let's take the stairs."

The two turned into the emergency exit. After going downstairs, they didn't need to go far. This was the Manhattan business district, and there was a movie theater just a few hundred meters away.

As soon as Ted entered the lobby, he noticed that there were a lot of people today, with a long queue of dozens of people at the ticket counter.

His colleague quickly pulled him to join in.

A few girls arrived at another long line nearby, and one of them, with brown hair, asked, "What are we looking at?"

The blonde girl exclaimed, "Look at the handsome guy!" She pointed to the wanted poster, "Handsome guy and beautiful girl, this is the one!"

The shortest girl chimed in, "Wanted? I remember reading reviews, all positive ones, the internet and newspapers all said this movie was great."

A guy nearby struck up a conversation: "Yes! This movie is amazing, it has a really good reputation."

Although the girls didn't say anything, they decided to buy tickets for the movie.

Moreover, there are promotional activities.

Each video comes with a small bottle of Coca-Cola.

This also influenced the choices of some people.

A large poster hanging in the theater read: "Look at the wanted poster, Martin Davis invites you to a Coca-Cola!"

After buying his ticket, Ted held up the free Coke he received and waved it at the Martin poster.

A colleague said, "May the world have Coca-Cola."

Meanwhile, at an AMC theater near the Northville neighborhood in Atlanta.

Elena, Lily, and Hall went into the screening room together.

They arrived a little late because they had to wait for Hall to finish his homework.

The theater was quite full, so I could only choose a seat towards the back.

Hall opened a can of cola, gulped it down, and then his eyes darted to the cola in his sisters' hands.

Elena tossed him a bottle: "If you don't want to get fat, drink less."

Lily didn't speak, but focused intently on counting heads.

Hearing the young woman mumbling to herself, Hall asked, "What are you doing?"

"You idiot, don't bother me!" Lily was almost interrupted. True to the Carter family tradition, she raised her fist to intimidate Hall and continued counting heads.

After counting more than a dozen heads, just as the film was about to start, dozens of people came crashing in from outside.

These people were wearing matching red T-shirts and were clearly members of the Cola Cult.

Lily's rhythm was disrupted, so she simply stopped counting, pouted, and thought to herself, "I want to be the saintess!"

Hall gloated, "You can't even count them all!"

Lily raised her fist and, just like her sister had done to her, slammed it into Hall's head: "Idiot, shut your stinking mouth!"

Hall's face was full of sorrow, but he had been suppressed since childhood and could do nothing but keep quiet.

Elena then said, "No need to count. Judging from the occupancy rate of this theater, the box office will definitely be good."

"It has to be a huge success!" Lily clasped her hands together. "It absolutely has to be a huge success!"

Elena took Lily's bottle of cola, opened it, and took a sip. She was much more composed than Lily; this movie was sure to be a huge hit.

On Friday, as a large number of viewers entered theaters and the required number of ratings was reached, the IMDb rating for "Wanted" was officially unblocked, with an average user rating of 8.2.

As for how much of it is actually manipulation, even the outsourced online marketing companies can't say for sure.

In terms of audience ratings for CS cinemas, which directly face the front-line market, the overall rating for Wanted is A!

This indicates that the film has a good commercial appeal.

…………

Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks.

The sun had just risen on Saturday when Blake, wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops, went outside, opened his mailbox, took out a pile of newspapers, and headed back inside.

As she walked, she flipped through the newspaper, found the statistics page of The Hollywood Reporter, saw the North American box office figures, and strode quickly along the sidewalk beside the pool toward the villa.

As soon as he entered, before even seeing Martin, Blake excitedly shouted, "The wanted posters are selling like hotcakes! Honey, the wanted posters are selling like hotcakes!"

Martin carried a porcelain plate from the kitchen into the dining room, and the person cooking behind him was none other than Bruce.

Old Bu finished frying the eggs, turned around, and asked, "Has the box office exceeded 20 million on the first day?"

Martin looked at Blake expectantly.

The latter nodded repeatedly, a smile spreading across his face, making him look like a true eighteen-year-old: "$2167 million! Yesterday's box office champion!"

"That's great news!" Martin put down his plate and walked towards the liquor cabinet. "We have to have a drink to celebrate!"

Blake had been wanting a drink for a while: "We have to have a toast to celebrate!"

Martin poured three glasses of champagne, and as Bruce took off his apron and came over, he said, "Guys, cheers to our success!"

Blake leaned in and kissed Martin first, then clinked glasses with him: "Congratulations, darling!"

She clinked glasses with Old Bu, and the three of them drank together.

After finishing his drink, Blake became excited. He put down his glass and newspaper, jumped onto Martin, and initiated a kiss.

Bruce protested, "Hey, have some civility and principles. Don't feed people dog food at breakfast."

Martin helped Blake into a chair and said, "Let's eat, and then we'll go out and have some fun."

This weekend, his promotional mission was to take Blake out for all sorts of fun in crowded places in Los Angeles.

Blake's new film has also been officially greenlit and requires a lot of exposure.

After breakfast, the two got into Bruce's Cadillac Escalade and headed straight for Rodeo Drive to go shopping.

Bruce didn't need to make a special call; a group of paparazzi automatically followed behind.

Martin was already used to it and didn't care at all.

Blake seems to be born to live in the spotlight; the more paparazzi there are, the more excited she gets, frequently showing off her female fans and her idol's affection.

At a street corner, after taking photos of Blake feeding Martin ice cream mouth-to-mouth, female paparazzi Jody couldn't help but spit.

"Those two who don't know when to stop are doomed once the honeymoon phase is over!" She felt nauseous from all the criticism she received today: "Which celebrity who uses love and marriage for publicity ever ends up unscathed?"

Another paparazzo nearby couldn't stand it anymore and chimed in, "The sweeter they are now, the more they'll hate each other when they fall out. I wish them well as they turn from lovers into enemies!"

Several paparazzi chimed in, "I wish you all the best too!"

Let's all wish them well!

Across the street, Martin seemed to sense something, turned around, waved enthusiastically and friendly to the paparazzi, then turned and kissed Blake, followed by another passionate embrace.

With his wanted posters selling like hotcakes and him embracing a beautiful young woman, how could he not show it off and earn a living as a paparazzi?

This is a game of fame and fortune where the winner reaps all the rewards!

The paparazzi cursed the adulterous couple under their breath, but their hands faithfully raised their cameras to take pictures of the handsome man and beautiful woman.

Martin's phone rang at that moment, and Sofia answered it.

The female warrior's words were particularly direct: "Did we succeed again?"

Martin stated, "It's impossible for it to be less than $5000 million in the first week in North America!"

Sofia laughed heartily: "A new record has been set! I'm going to celebrate!"

Martin asked, "How do you plan to celebrate?"

Sofia said, "That old man Nicholson is nice. Do me a favor and ask him out. I'll treat him to drinks."

Martin could roughly guess what she was planning to do, but considering human safety, he warned, "The old man is almost seventy years old; he could die!"

He didn't give Sofia a chance to make any further requests: "Something came up here, let's talk another day."

In the hotel, Sofia heard a busy tone on the phone, but she wasn't angry.

She's in a good mood today because the wanted poster she invested in sold very well!

After years of hard work, Sofia has realized very clearly that nothing is more real than money.

Scott swaggered over and asked, "Isn't that old man coming?"

"For Martin's sake, let him off the hook." Sofia stopped thinking about it and dialed a number in Atlanta: "Vincent, it's me. Have you seen the latest box office statistics? Martin's film is a huge hit again. What are your thoughts?"

Vincent didn't even hesitate, replying directly, "Of course we should continue investing. Does he have any new film projects?"

Sofia said, "There should be. I asked him the day before yesterday, and it seems to be a thriller, suspense, and action film, similar to this one."

Vincent added, "It turns out that Martin is trustworthy and worth investing in; you can make the decisions over there."

"Okay, let's continue investing in Martin's new movie project." Sofia hung up the phone, feeling increasingly better and particularly wanting to exercise.

She walked toward the suite's gym, glancing back at Scott: "Come on over."

Scott obediently followed, already used to what was about to happen.

Aside from having to put up with it for a while, Sofia covers all his needs for food, clothing, accommodation, and transportation, and he also gets at least a five-figure allowance every month. Where can someone his age, without any special skills, find this kind of job?

More than a year ago, Scott chose to lie flat, and he was doing it very comfortably, occasionally even buying gifts for his children.

Compared to his wife Emma, ​​who has disappeared again and run off with who knows who, Scott considers himself a fairly competent father.

Soon, a man's cries came from the gym; there was no pain, but rather pleasure.

On Friday, the R rating of "Wanted" did not dampen the enthusiasm of North American audiences. The film topped the North American box office chart with $2167 million, beating Sam Mendes' "Jarhead".

On Saturday, the film's attendance increased slightly, grossing another $2421 million in North America!

The films released at the same time, "Jarhead" and "Chicken Adventure", were completely overshadowed by the wanted poster and could not possibly turn the tables and surpass it.

Although box office revenue for all the movies released on Sunday would decline, "Wanted" continued to lead the pack and ultimately took the top spot at the North American box office in November with $6855 million!

This also marks a new high in Martin and Julie's acting careers.

This is delivered at midnight, please vote with monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)