America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 891 The Great Marketing of Emojis

In early August, with the completion of the final editing of "Split", the pre-release promotion also began in full swing.

First, the production team held a memorial event on the first anniversary of Billy Milligan's death.

The related promotional articles also provided a detailed introduction to Billy Milligan and his life.

Martin then established a psychiatric charity foundation, announcing that he would donate the after-tax portion of his $2000 million film salary to help patients with dissociative identity disorder.

"When I was preparing for 'Split,' I visited five mental health centers and met with dozens of patients in person."

Facing the cameras of the media, Martin looked serious and said into the microphone, "They look healthy on the outside, but they are troubled by intractable mental problems. Having played a role in 'Split,' I have a personal understanding of this, so I want to help them as much as I can."

This was a veiled attempt to promote the film and the character while ostensibly helping someone. The reporter understood and quickly asked, "Did you experience similar difficulties when you were playing this role?"

Martin spoke as if it were all true: "There are seven different personalities in the film. Each time I played one, I had to go through a huge transformation. The performance alone almost drove me to a mental breakdown. I can't imagine the immense suffering the patients endured..."

The focus of this press conference was not on how to help patients with dissociative identity disorder; the discussion revolved almost entirely around the movie "Split".

Louise also publicly announced on behalf of the film crew that five percent of the film's North American box office revenue would be donated to the mental health charity foundation recently established by Martin.

Movie promotions need to be creative and eye-catching to attract attention.

After the press conference, Martin got into the car Bruce had driven.

Old Bush has completely ended his trip to Europe, and all his gains in Ukraine have been sold off, with the proceeds flowing into a company registered in the Cayman Islands.

This was a grand feast involving many parties. After deducting all expenses and profit sharing, Martin's company registered in the Cayman Islands ultimately received $27 billion.

Martin plans to use most of that money for investments, targeting Tesla and Netflix's next round of funding.

The former's market capitalization has not yet exceeded $500 billion, while the latter's market capitalization is currently hovering around $350 billion.

Although Martin did not know the specific changes in the market value of the two companies, he had some impression that this was far from the peak of the two companies.

Ample funds also ensured Martin's ability to wield his financial power.

Back at Burbank's studio, agent Thomas was already waiting. He wanted to confirm the itinerary with Martin: "Alexandrovich arrived in Washington yesterday and is expected to come to Los Angeles tomorrow afternoon. There will be a meeting with you."

Finally, they were going to meet. Martin said directly, "I'm available anytime tomorrow afternoon. It depends on his arrangements."

This meeting was not a private one, but a public meeting between a Ukrainian cultural delegation and representatives of the Los Angeles film and television industry.

Thomas said, "I'll get back to Washington right away."

The following afternoon, a Ukrainian cultural delegation led by Alexandrovich and Olina arrived in Los Angeles and held a grand exchange event with representatives from Los Angeles' political, business, cultural, and sports sectors.

Martin and Elizabeth Olsen were present at the event.

Elizabeth looked at the short man in the room and said, "I never imagined that the comedian I met two years ago would actually become the president of a country."

She looked at Martin and lowered her voice: "Darling, what you've done is amazing."

Martin remained calm: "Even without me, he would most likely still become president, perhaps a few years later."

Elizabeth trusts Martin's judgment: "When I first met him, I felt he was a very ambitious actor."

Martin warned, "They're coming."

Alexandrovich and Olina came looking for them.

The four men shook hands one by one, and Alexandrovich invited Martin to have a private chat.

The two entered a lounge.

Alexandrovich said with a smile, "Martin, I've always wanted to thank you in person for your great support, and I'm only having this opportunity today."

Martin smiled and said, "You're welcome. You've given me a generous reward."

With Alexandrovich entering politics, the two could no longer get along as before.

After chatting for more than ten minutes, the meeting came to an end.

Alexandrovich extended an invitation: "Welcome to Kyiv again."

Martin shook his hand: "I'll come again when the time and opportunity are right."

With Alexandrovich's election, the second season of "Servant of the People" came to an end.

Martin's collaboration with Alexandrovich has come to a temporary end.

While the two were meeting, Elizabeth and Olina also had a brief conversation.

Elizabeth has now transformed into a business elite, handling these situations with ease.

After the exchange event, there was a dinner hosted by the California government, and Martin and Elizabeth did not return to the estate until after 10 p.m.

Lily emerged from the studio, saw the Ukrainian gifts Martin had brought back, and remarked, "A government made up of a bunch of comedians and producers, is it reliable?"

Martin thought for a moment and said, "Could it bring a drama to the whole world?"

Elizabeth pointed out, "They're not all comedians; one of them is a former world boxing champion."

Lily nodded: "Understood, this is the one responsible for physical strength."

She then asked Martin, "When are you going to take over the White House?"

Martin casually remarked, "The timing isn't right now. It'll probably be another ten years or so before the world descends into chaos."

"No matter how chaotic the world is, we need to get some rest." Elizabeth urged Martin upstairs, "Get some rest early, you have a media event to attend tomorrow."

Lily came over too, and together with Elizabeth, each holding one of Martin's hands, they pulled him upstairs like oxen plowing a field.

In mid-August, the full trailer for "Split" was officially released, which lasted for two minutes and focused on the male protagonist's personality change.

David Fincher used short shots and rapid editing to cut the same character with different personalities into shots that changed rapidly in just over ten seconds, fully demonstrating the versatility of one person's many faces.

This movie itself is a huge hype, and the protagonist of Twenty-Four Personalities has already attracted the attention of countless movie fans through constant promotion.

Such publicity and hype are most dangerous for the actors' performances. If the characters they portray fail to achieve the desired effect, it will be a devastating blow to the film's future trajectory.

But as soon as the trailer was released, it was met with exclamations of amazement on YouTube and other social media platforms.

"What I saw was clearly one face, clearly Martin's face, but I felt like it was eight completely different people."

"After watching the trailer, all I can say is, Martin Davis's acting is absolutely phenomenal!"

"I'm Martin, and I'm officially announcing this to the world: I'm not bragging, but when I get into acting, even we're afraid of me. Why would I need to use us?"

"Putting everything else aside, Martin's performance alone is worth a movie ticket!"

Driven by Disney Studios and Davis Studios, the animated GIFs of Martin Scorsese's many faces became a hit on social media, garnering over ten million shares in just a few days.

The production team also turned it into a dynamic emoji and posted it on the official social media account of "Split," allowing media and fans to share it freely.

In the new era, social media interaction plays an increasingly important role in communication.

The Shallows has been hailed as the most successful film ever made through social media marketing.

In just one week, Martin's "The Split" meme swept the world, becoming the most used meme in every country where Twitter and Instagram are available.

Even in places where Twitter and Instagram are unavailable, such as the world's second-largest film market, it still became a hot topic.

This spurred the development of Hollywood star memes. After Martin Scorsese's memes became a hit, some people even dug up Quentin Tarantino's talk show after he filmed "Kill Bill" and unearthed his famous "awesome" meme.

However, like Kill Bill, Split is rated R and contains many nude and gory scenes, so it is destined not to be shown in theaters in the second largest film market.

The production team is also pushing forward with regular publicity.

With ample budget support, the advertising campaign was relentlessly bombarded with radio, television, outdoor print ads, and advertorials.

Martin and Anya Taylor-Joy have also frequently appeared in the media, participating in various promotional events.

Rumors about the two also surfaced in gossip media.

Creating scandals between the male and female leads is one of the simplest and most effective ways to promote a movie.

Hollywood has too many stars who become a couple when the movie is finished filming and entering the promotional period, only to break up when the film's market potential is exhausted upon release.

A year later, the sequel is filmed, and the male and female leads rekindle their old flame...

This is similar to how celebrity scandals often surface whenever there are serious events in the political and business spheres—low cost, quick results, and easy to attract attention.

In addition to social media marketing and regular promotion, Disney held an internal screening of "Split," where numerous film experts gave the film almost unanimous praise, believing it to be full of highlights and easy to pique the audience's interest.

The positive feedback from the internal screenings boosted the confidence of the producers and distributors, leading to the scheduling of multiple screenings for film fans, media columnists, and Hollywood colleagues.

This film isn't just about commercial success; Martin Scorsese also wants to make another run at the Oscars for Best Actor.

After several test screenings, the film received a positive response, and Davis Studios and Disney Studios readily lifted the embargo on the film's reviews.

Nowadays in Hollywood, films that are still suppressed by word of mouth during their North American theatrical release are mostly bad movies.

Most of the films received positive reviews during test screenings and were eager to be known by the whole world immediately.

Just like Martin's past life, some movies have been released for two or three days, and TV series have aired for almost ten episodes, but there are still no ratings on a certain website, so you can imagine how poor their quality is.

Why would someone spend money to influence a rating website?

These movies and TV series have a very high chance of becoming terrible.

Rotten Tomatoes, which uses film reviews as its rating system, gave "Split" the fastest score, with a 94% freshness rating.

Most of the positive reviews from these people focused on Martin's male lead.

"The male lead transforms from one personality to another, each one vividly portrayed. I think Martin's acting alone is enough to make the film a box office hit!"

"This psychological thriller fully demonstrates the extent of Martin Scorsese's acting abilities. Among Hollywood actors born after 1980, no one can compare to Martin Scorsese! Once you've seen this movie, you'll definitely agree with me."

"Martin's performance was both terrifying and exhilarating!"

On another website, IMDb, because there were enough users to rate it, the rating for "Split" was also released.

The film received a rating of 9.0.

Similarly, moviegoers who saw the preview screening raved about Martin's character and performance.

David Fincher's direction also received high praise, with many believing he created a masterpiece that rivals "Gone Girl".

On the MTC website, the film received a Metacritic score of 83, indicating that it has been highly praised by the media, audiences, and critics alike.

In the audition feedback from theater managers, which is only visible to the film's producers and distributors, theater managers from all over North America gave Split an "A" rating.

After Warner Bros. lost its title as the top-performing Hollywood company for several consecutive years, Walt Disney has overtaken it and taken the top spot.

With the positive reviews of "Split," Disney managed to secure 3860 theaters in North America with minimal effort.

If theater chains didn't have confidence in an R-rated film, they wouldn't have provided such substantial resource support.

"Luckily, my new film won't be released until next year, so it won't compete with you." Leonardo DiCaprio also saw the test screening of "Split" and sat in Martin's office shaking his head in admiration: "You bastard, you're a complete freak. Nobody will play with you anymore if you keep showing off your acting skills like this."

Martin poured him and Nicholson some black tea and said, "Oscar likes this kind of thing, so of course I had to make specific arrangements. This isn't just random filming; it's based on a true story."

Leonardo turned to Nicholson on the other side: "Is the Billy Milligan thing plausible? Could it be just an excuse he's using to get himself acquitted?"

Nicholson said, "I don't know the real situation, but in Hollywood, Billy Milligan is generally considered reliable. There have been too many Hollywood films that have drawn inspiration from Billy Milligan's story, including many Hollywood classics and Oscar-winning films. To deny Billy Milligan is to deny Hollywood's past."

Leonardo finally understood: "That bastard Martin deliberately chose this subject."

Martin admitted, "With so many people in North America diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, why would I choose Billy Milligan and then so heavily promote it as an adaptation of his work?"

Moreover, in the early stages of scriptwriting, he strongly rejected Jonathan Nolan's idea of ​​adding superpowers.

Giving the male protagonist superpowers might seem more appealing, but this would undermine the claim that the story is based on a true story.

Nicholson said, "Martin, you've considered things much more comprehensively than Leo."

Leonardo DiCaprio, however, declared, "I'll be back next year!"

Martin asked, "When will your film start shooting?"

"Next month, we're going to film in the snow and ice of northern Canada," Leonardo said simply. "I'm going to be exhausted."

(End of this chapter)