America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 320 North American Box Office Champion

Before the film festival ended, the Infernal Affairs crew left Toronto and embarked on a promotional tour in major cities across the United States. Wherever the four main creators of the film went, they attracted great attention.

During the trip, they also visited Scorsese's ranch in Massachusetts and took another photo with the old cow.

The video of the trio of scoundrels delivering cattle to the director has gone viral online, attracting the attention of many young people.

Scorsese's gangster films have the weakest impact on teenagers.

Martin has considerable influence within this group.

On Thursday afternoon, a line of people wearing red Coca-Cola Cult T-shirts stretched for hundreds of meters in front of the Bay Theatre in Mallorley Square, Miami.

Martin will be signing autographs and selling tickets here tonight.

All five theaters showing "The Departed" in advance were completely sold out.

Young audience members continued to join the queue as they came to buy tickets, prompting the cinema manager to temporarily allocate two theaters for additional screenings.

In Los Angeles, Rachel and Phoebe, leading a large group of Martin's fans, dressed in red Coca-Cola cult T-shirts, marched across Hollywood Boulevard and arrived in front of the Chiefstone Theater.

A giant poster of the three members of Infernal Affairs hangs above the main entrance of the theater.

"Martin's finally a big star!" Rachel exclaimed.

Phoebe called out from behind, "Line up properly, don't make a mess, we're about to go in."

In just over ten minutes, the area had turned into a sea of ​​red, completely occupied by followers of the Cola Cult and Martin's fan club.

With a small sponsorship from Coca-Cola and the film crew, and having raised additional funds, they booked the entire Chiefstone Cinema to watch an advance screening of "The Departed".

Media reporters were, of course, indispensable.

"I've been a fan of Martin Scorsese ever since he only starred in 'Zombie Dancer'," Rachel said candidly in front of the reporter's camera. As the leader of Martin Scorsese's largest fan club, she is no longer the naive movie fan she once was.

She said with a smile, "I've witnessed Martin's growth along the way. He's finally reached the center stage of Hollywood and is working with a top director like Scorsese. It's so exciting..."

Before he could finish speaking, a figure in a red T-shirt suddenly jumped in and shouted at the camera, "I love Martin!"

Another fan flashed into the frame, raising a can of cola to toast the camera: "The leader is awesome!"

With the time almost up, Rachel didn't say anything more and led her fan group into the theater in an orderly fashion.

The Chief's Stone Cinema was packed to capacity.

Although influenced by the gangster film genre, Martin Scorsese fans and Coca-Cola cult followers, especially the latter, will not rush to buy tickets, you can still find people wearing red T-shirts in every theater showing The Departed across the United States.

Correspondingly, fans of Leonardo DiCaprio and Scorsese will also buy tickets.

The Departed grossed $512 million in 3000 advance screenings on Thursday.

This is extremely rare for a gangster film.

By Friday, the film had expanded to 3290 theaters, opening nationwide in North America.

There was only one other movie released at the same time, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel," which was not even in the same league as the competition.

The four main creators, including Martin, are still on a promotional tour across the United States, signing autographs and selling tickets, and various promotional activities have never stopped.

The production investment of $9000 million for The Departed meant that the film could not follow the distribution model of having a few limited screenings, slowly building word-of-mouth, and then gradually expanding its screening scale.

Its distribution model is completely commercialized.

On its opening day in North America, The Departed grossed $1305 million, marking Scorsese's best single-day box office performance in his 40-year film career.

Of the four great directors of Hollywood in the 1980s, Lucas, Coppola, and Spielberg all achieved phenomenal box office success, while Scorsese consistently underperformed.

In a Houston bar, Scorsese treated Martin, Leonardo, and Nicholson to a drink as a celebration.

"Cheers!" Scorsese raised his beer glass and clinked glasses with the three bastards at the same time.

Nicholson downed his drink in one gulp and said, "You old man, you're almost retired, but I never thought you could still create a new success at the box office."

Scorsese was in a great mood: "The things you three have done are attracting a lot of attention. Warner Bros. originally expected a maximum of $3000 million in the opening weekend, but now it looks like $4000 million is not out of the question."

"Now, the opening weekend box office includes preview screenings." Martin is becoming more and more familiar with the North American film market: "Our film has received strong reviews, so it shouldn't be difficult to reach $4000 million."

Nicholson replied, "These days, the opening weekend box office for movies is getting more and more frightening."

Leonardo DiCaprio chimed in, "If it's a popular adaptation or sequel, with our numbers, we might just make over a hundred million in the opening weekend."

He further analyzed: "Although this film is an adaptation, the original work has basically no influence in North America, so it is not much different from the original film. Since it is an original and not a sequel, this result can be said to be a box office hit."

Martin said, "Hopefully, the final North American box office will be twice the cost."

Directors of Scorsese's caliber must have profit-sharing clauses in their contracts, and he couldn't help but say, "If that's the case, I can have a seventh child without worry."

Nicholson knew his old friend well: "In vitro fertilization technology is very advanced now."

Scorsese remarked with a touch of melancholy: "The more decisive and carefree you are when you're young, the harder you have to work when you're old."

Leonardo replied casually, "So, I've never thought about marriage."

Martin completely agreed: "After all, so many beautiful women like us, we have to be responsible for them and can't let them bear the stigma of destroying marriages."

Scorsese and Nicholson were both shocked by the man's shameless behavior.

Leonardo asked, "What have you been through to become like this?"

"Same as you," Martin said casually. "Just walked through the deep canyons a bit too much."

The four main creators moved from Texas to Louisiana, and The Departed earned another $1489 million in North America on Saturday.

Scorsese's personal record for highest single-day box office gross was broken after only one day.

"The Departed" topped the North American box office for two consecutive days, while "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" barely made an appearance.

As expected, "The Departed" topped the North American box office charts with $4282 million after Sunday's release.

The film "Germany," which ranked second, was completely crushed despite its huge IP influence, and didn't even reach $2000 million.

Correspondingly, Scorsese achieved the best opening weekend box office of his directing career.

In terms of critical reception, "The Departed" has been a phenomenal and extremely successful film in North America.

With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%, an average Metacritic score of 87, and an IMDb rating of 8.6, the box office performance is guaranteed to be stable.

Most importantly, in cinemascore, The Departed received an average score of A from audiences, and its expected box office gross in North America is around $1.8 million.

Numerous North American media outlets have praised the film, considering it, along with films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas, to be one of Martin Scorsese's signature works.

This big-budget, heavily promoted film is already destined for success.

Both the production company and the distributor saw hope that they could recoup their costs through box office revenue alone, so they accelerated the process of releasing the film overseas, finalizing its release in multiple markets in Asia, Europe, and Latin America this week.

This week, the four main creators were still busy traveling all over the United States for promotional appearances.

The film was a huge hit and received rave reviews, making them the most direct beneficiaries.

Even Nicholson, a semi-retired old man, can still significantly increase his retirement pension.

Want to be a proper bastard? How can you cause trouble if you don't have money?

People who are busy making a living every day don't have the time or energy to cause trouble.

Martin received a call from Thomas while he was in Chicago.

"I have great news for you. Alibaba held a special meeting for you on Monday to promote your awards." Thomas's voice was filled with delight. "The company has assigned two other people to form a public relations team with me and Natasha. All the team's expenses and costs will be covered by the company."

Martin asked, "How's the PR going with the Los Angeles critics?"

Thomas replied, "Los Angeles film critics, led by Kenneth Turan and Todd McCarthy, praised your performance in The Departed and each wrote articles about it in their columns."

He didn't forget to take credit: "Of course, our targeted public relations efforts also worked."

Martin reminded him, "Don't forget about contacting them for the interview."

"I've already booked Entertainment Weekly with your neighbor Gillian Flynn," Thomas said quickly. "The interviews with The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair are also in progress, no major problems."

During awards season, maximizing exposure is arguably the foundation for winning awards.

Thomas also reminded Martin, "Try to get your well-known friends involved as well."

Martin said, "I've contacted them. Let's wait a bit longer; it's not too late for them to speak out in December."

The two parties quickly hung up the phone, and Martin continued with his roadshow.

Extensive advertising and a strong reputation allowed The Departed to maintain an extremely stable box office performance, with its North American box office dropping by only 40% in its second weekend, reaching $8678 million.

The film also achieved consecutive box office number one rankings in North America.

The number of Americans buying 100 million in North America is just around the corner.

Similarly, films that are box office hits in North America tend to perform well overseas as well; The Departed earned $3278 million in its opening weekend overseas.

However, the film's box office revenue mainly came from Latin America and Europe. In East and Southeast Asia, where it was released at the same time, the film suffered a major setback in both box office and critical reception.

This is also the place where "Infernal Affairs" had the greatest impact.

With this high-quality film that better suits local aesthetics preceding it, "The Departed" naturally becomes a poorly written, vulgar, and offensive sequel.

Negative reviews were endless. Just like "Infernal Affairs" had no market in North America, "The Departed" also had very little box office revenue in East Asia.

Even in South Korea, known as the backyard of Hollywood movies, the box office in its first week was less than $100 million.

The situation in the other markets was even worse.

(End of this chapter)