America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 469 The Beginning of the End

Burbank, Davis Film Studios.

"We have contacted all the Academy's actors in North America."

Rita, the head of the public relations team, was briefing Martin on the progress of the Oscar campaign: "For the acting awards, only their votes are counted. I'm 100% confident that you'll get an Oscar nomination."

Martin nodded slightly.

Thomas asked directly, "What are the odds of winning?"

Rita doesn't mislead clients; she speaks frankly: "No more than 60 percent. Martin's performance and role are widely recognized, but the inherent flaws of the film's subject matter cannot be ignored."

Martin said, "Don't stop lobbying and propaganda. After the college ballots are mailed out, spend a lot of money to buy space in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and The Hollywood Reporter, and keep publishing advertorials on GG."

"I've already made contact." Rita's team has been in close contact with the media.

Martin added, "We stay in touch."

Rita left the office.

Thomas then said, "Cartier has informed us that the exterior shots for GG will be filmed near the old pier in Santa Monica in a few days."

He opened his bag and took out a text file: "This is the script, it's very simple."

Martin took it and looked it over. There wasn't anything special about it; there were only about a dozen scenes in total, and if all went well, they could be filmed in a day.

It will not exceed two days at most.

Thomas added, "Cartier has already released information about the shoot for publicity purposes, so let's call it a day."

This kind of thing is common in commercial endorsements, and Martin didn't have any objections, saying, "Tell them I'll be there on time."

Thomas said, "I'll reply to them right away."

Martin glanced at the time and called to Bruce, "Let's go to Century City Square. Warner Bros. is having a promotional event for The Dark Knight DVD today."

Before leaving, Martin grabbed a few newspapers and quickly browsed through them after getting in the car. He saw Cartier's announcements in the business and entertainment sections.

The content is similar; both say he's going to shoot the latest Cartier men's watch, GG, at the old pier in Santa Monica.

Martin understood that this was a heads-up to the Los Angeles media reporters, urging them to come and film and report as soon as possible.

Cartier men's watches spend $1000 million annually on endorsements, so naturally they want to make the most of it.

Arriving at Century City Shopping Plaza, Martin meets up with Nolan and continues to advocate for the sale of The Dark Knight's DVDs.

In offline DVD sales, Bell and Martin each receive a 2% share of the gross profit.

North American box office revenue sharing is a one-off deal; once the film is finished, there's no more revenue. DVD revenue sharing, while a small percentage, is a long-term source of income.

As long as DVDs are sold, Martin will be able to generate a steady stream of income.

Even more than a decade later, with the rise of streaming media and the decline of DVDs, many films still managed to sell sixty to seventy million US dollars worth of DVDs in North America.

Of course, it can't compare to now.

Around 2010, Hollywood was in the DVD era, and the DVD sales of popular films such as Spider-Man 3 and The Lord of the Rings 3 could even rival the North American box office.

Warner Bros. released three versions of The Dark Knight DVD: a standard version for $19.9, a Blu-ray high-definition version for $29.9, and a Blu-ray commemorative edition for $64.99.

In addition to a behind-the-scenes DVD, buyers can also choose one of the Joker, Batman, or Batmobile models.

When the sales statistics for the first week were released, the clown model accounted for nearly 70% of the sales.

After The Dark Knight broke a series of North American box office records, it set a new series of North American film market records upon its DVD release.

On its first day of release, the two Blu-ray versions sold over 80 copies. Including the regular DVD set, The Dark Knight broke Pirates of the Caribbean 2's record, with DVD sales reaching $6645 million on its first day of release!

This doesn't even count as a rental!

In its first week of release, The Dark Knight sold $1.55 million in North America alone, setting a new North American record.

This was an era when DVDs created sales miracles.

In the era Martin experienced in his previous life, the Blu-ray discs of Avatar sold more in just four days than The Dark Knight had accumulated sales over a year and a half.

When Avatar was first released on DVD in North America, it sold more than 320 million copies across various versions!

Martin certainly remembered James Cameron's blockbuster, Avatar. Before the production team even publicly recruited actors, he had Thomas contact them, but James Cameron rejected Martin outright.

James Cameron never considered using A-list stars; he wanted to invest all the budget into special effects.

Needless to say, bringing your own investment to the production team was out of the question. Major film production companies were vying for a share of the investment in "Avatar," so how could a celebrity's studio possibly get a piece of the pie?

Without sufficient strength, even if James Cameron has the money, he won't be able to secure investment for his projects.

The following day, Martin canceled another public event for The Dark Knight and went to Paramount Studios, where the Benjamin Butler crew needed to record several scenes and conduct motion capture filming again.

After a busy day, the work was successfully completed, and Martin found David Fincher.

The two went to the studio's rest area together.

Martin handed David Fincher a portion of the manuscript of "Gone Girl": "This is the novel about love and marriage that I told you about last time. I was going to bring it to you last time, but the author Gillian informed me that another part of it was about to be completed, so I waited for her for a while."

"Let me take a look first, you can do as you please." David Fincher flipped through the manuscript, ignoring Martin, and began to read carefully.

Within minutes, he was immersed in the novel's plot.

The suspenseful and neurotic plot, along with the very dark theme, is exactly what David Fincher wants.

Among Hollywood's top directors, David Fincher's style is undoubtedly the darkest.

Martin ordered a cup of tea and waited patiently.

After a long time, when the female lead appeared in the middle of the scene, David Fincher couldn't help but laugh, just like Martin had when he first saw that scene.

After laughing for a while, David Fincher said, "This novel is so interesting, with dark humor mixed in with the dark suspense."

Martin put down his teacup and said, "You saw the female lead officially appear?"

David Fincher nodded slightly: "Yes, the heroine has appeared. This novel is a masterpiece."

He knew why Martin had brought him along, and said directly, "Can you wait a while? Only after I finish all the post-production work on 'Benjamin' can I focus on properly considering how to adapt it and whether it's suitable for me to direct it."

Martin didn't hesitate at all: "No problem, David, I can wait a year for you."

The novel could take up to a year to be completed and published, so he had plenty of time to wait for David Fincher.

David Fincher was very particular; he returned the manuscript to Martin and said, "I'll call you when I have some free time."

Martin nodded: "Okay."

…………

At the Santa Monica Commercial Plaza, on a makeshift stage set up by the Dark Knight crew, Bale and Nolan are answering questions from fans.

A large crowd of fans gathered around, but Boris, who had shaved his beard, was not conspicuous at all.

He sat on the bench and waited all afternoon, but the person he was looking for did not appear.

Victor came over from the sidewalk, sat down next to him, and said, "Boss, he probably won't be coming."

Boris asked, "What happened?"

Victor whispered, "I just had Big Beard dress up as a clown and asked an entertainment reporter, and Martin Davis canceled the event at the last minute."

Boris stood up and said, "Tell everyone to retreat."

After planning and arranging for so long, even preparing an escape route, the person still didn't show up...

Back in the car, the bearded man was furious. He said, "These Hollywood stars have no professional ethics whatsoever! They're always slacking off, a bunch of glamorous bastards!"

Boris glanced over, and the bearded man quickly shut his mouth.

Victor drove back to the detached house he was renting in Santa Monica.

Not long after, two more cars stopped near the back door of the house, and the bodyguards led five people into the house quietly.

The bags carried by the men contained rifles, which Boris told them to keep safe.

The blond, muscular man said, "Boss, these American guns aren't very handy. It would be best if we could get a few AK series guns."

Boris Johnson said, "This is America, not Russia. Use whatever guns you can get your hands on!"

Victor chimed in, "The AR series is also very easy to use. You can familiarize yourselves with it later."

Since the Burbank High School incident, the Russian underground in Los Angeles has been under heavy crackdown by the LAPD. Boris and Victor's group couldn't find their own people and had to rely on intermediaries to buy guns from the black market, but the black market dealers were only willing to sell them high-priced AR series weapons.

When playing away from home, you have to adapt to many things.

For example, originally a dozen or so people were coming, but six of them were stopped at customs because of their bad records and had to return the way they came.

"We can't wait any longer." The closer they got, the more Boris wanted to settle things with his enemy: "We have to get this over with as soon as possible. I don't want to stay in this damn country for another day."

Victor, who had been flipping through the newspaper, said, "Boss, in two days, Martin Davis will be shooting a photoshoot for Cartier's men's watch, the GG, at the Santa Monica pier!"

"Are you sure?" Boris asked. "It won't be like today again?"

Victor said, "The news released by Cartier has been confirmed by Martin Davis's agent, so it's definitely true."

The bearded man took a map from the side, spread it out on the table, and pointed to the seaside: "The old dock is here."

Boris glanced at it and asked Victor, "Is it possible to evacuate by sea to the safe house?"

Victor said, "I'll go take a look in a bit. Preparing the speedboat and car in advance shouldn't be difficult."

Boris grabbed a glass bottle of Coke, opened it, took a big gulp, and said, "Capture him alive first. We can injure him, but we can't kill him. I'm going to use these glass bottles to smash his head, one by one!"

(End of this chapter)