America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 102. Starting score 9.5, Zombie Conqueror

Atlanta, Georgia State University.

This is a university that has been established for nearly a century. However, as it is a public university, its conditions in all aspects are naturally inferior to those of private universities, and it does not belong to the Ivy League.

In the morning, John dragged his tired body back to his dorm. He had drunk too much at the party last night, and when he came to his senses, he was lying in a trash can.

He shook his roommate, who was still in bed: "Jon, wake up, Jon, it's time for class!"

"Wow, zombie!"

Jon reacted violently, kicking John to the ground and waking him up.

"Wang Defa! What are you doing!"

Fortunately, the kick wasn't very strong. Little John rubbed his stomach and stood up again.

After a moment of stunned silence, Jon finally came to his senses when he looked at the guy in front of him.

"Sorry, it's a stress reaction. I had a nightmare. There were zombies, lots of zombies."

John looked at the other man speechlessly: "Dude, '28 Days Later' is a movie from last year. Aren't you still dreaming?"

Jon got dressed and got out of bed: "No, not John from '28 Days Later,' it's 'The Walking Dead.' Last night in the public area, Tina and I were on a date."

"Then the TV screen switched to HBO. I don't know which son of a bitch changed the channel and then it came on."

"This is a new show, a very authentic zombie drama, you know? A zombie drama!" Jon emphasized, enunciating each word clearly.

"I've never seen such a thrilling TV series before. The apocalyptic atmosphere is even stronger than '28 Days Later,' it's incredibly exciting!"

"Tina and I wanted to do something, but we were both drawn to the TV. You didn't see what happened yesterday; the public area has never been so crowded."

"It felt like half the school was here. Everyone was still calling to notify others. Luckily, Tina and I were sitting on the sofa in front. Those who arrived late had to stand on the table to see clearly."

"What?! That's way too much!"

John didn't believe it. He knew about zombies, but this was the first time he'd ever heard of a zombie TV series.

"Exaggerated? That's because you didn't see what happened last night. You can check the school forum; I think it's already been posted there."

When the two headed to the classroom, John was surprised to find that many of the classmates they encountered along the way were actually talking about zombies.

As soon as she entered the classroom, Beatrice stood up and asked loudly, "Jon, they said you recorded something last night? Do you have any The Walking Dead videotapes? Can I borrow them?"

"And me!"

"And me!"

"I want to watch it too. Everyone says it's fantastic, but unfortunately I missed it last night."

"Me too. By the time I got to the public area, it was already packed with people."

Jon shook his head: "Who said that? I don't have the videotape. I'm looking for it too. I need to rewatch it. Last night was too sudden. This show just popped up all of a sudden, and I missed a lot of details."

"Okay, then I guess I'll have to ask for help on the forum."

Finally, get out of class ended, and it was noon. John found a computer and went to the school forum.

As expected, this place is filled with a large number of new posts, almost all of which are discussing The Walking Dead.

A photo hangs high above, showing a crowded scene in the school's public area. A caption has been photoshopped onto the photo: "Zombies have come to life!"

"It's just a TV series, is it really that good?"

John's curiosity was piqued and gradually grew.

Similar situations are not limited to Georgia State University, but also occur in various schools across the United States, where college students can watch the videos on campus, while many high school students watch them at home after school.

As for elementary school students, their parents would send them away and then watch it themselves.

Of course, there are also parents who are engrossed in watching or don't care much, and they watch it with their children without considering whether it will leave psychological trauma on the children.

Overnight, HBO aired only the first episode, and The Walking Dead became a hit, sparking online discussions and increasing buzz.

At the MGM Grand, Eric arrived at his office and took a sip of the coffee Chen Xing had brewed; the temperature was just right.

Eric turned on his computer, opened Google, and typed in "The Walking Dead." Instantly, a series of links popped up.

Looking at the page numbers, it had already reached over a hundred pages. Although some of them were already there before the broadcast, the speed at which they spread startled Eric.

Keep in mind that this is not 2010, the time when "The Walking Dead" aired. The internet was not yet widespread, and most families used slicked-back hair. Portable laptops were generally unaffordable for the average person.

Moreover, without the seven years of popularity built up by the original manga, the fact that it could still achieve this level of discussion overnight can only mean that this drama is truly excellent.

Another reason is that the incomplete popularization of the Internet has led to the fact that television is still the main form of family entertainment. People still sit in front of the TV after work and dinner, which is still the mainstream habit.

Furthermore, excellent adult films don't experience a boom like they did a few years later. Audiences' tastes haven't been spoiled yet, and "The Walking Dead" offered them a fresh experience.

"We must quickly establish a Facebook presence. Leveraging Facebook's social features will play a crucial role in the dissemination of films and television dramas."

As he pondered this, Eric opened IMDB, and sure enough, the entry for "The Walking Dead" appeared, featuring the scene of Rick riding alone on horseback in Atlanta.

Looking at the number of ratings, there are already 5322 people, with a score of 9.5. Among them, 72% gave it 10 stars and 1.3% gave it 1 star.

This score certainly cannot be used as the final standard for judging the quality of "The Walking Dead", after all, the number of people is too small.

As the number of episodes in a TV series increases, it becomes impossible for every episode to be as tense, exciting, and full of grand scenes as the first episode.

An increase in the number of ratings will also cause the score to continue to decrease; these are all normal phenomena.

Currently, the game with the most ratings is Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, with over 60 ratings.

Second place goes to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, with over 50 viewers.

This demonstrates the global influence of the Star Wars series, especially in Europe and America. However, the two films have been around for over 20 years, so they have a solid foundation.

The third place goes to "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," which also has over 50 ratings, just over 5 fewer than "A New Hope for Star Wars."

The fourth most popular film is "The Matrix," with over 48 ratings.

The fifth spot is again taken by Middle-earth cavalry. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" has only been released for 5 months, yet it has already received ratings from over 430,000 people, which is quite outrageous.

Eric scrolled down with the mouse and browsed the comments.

The reviews were almost unanimously positive, with keywords focusing on words like exciting, realistic, novel, human, survival, and morality.

The few criticisms mainly focused on the horror, especially the image of a half-bodied female zombie crawling on the ground, which frightened many people.

dong dong dong.

My father and Bordeaux walked in; the latter was carrying a stack of newspapers.

Dad's face lit up with a beaming smile, his grin practically reaching his back teeth: "Eric, look at these reviews! Even those picky film critic jerks have given it a thumbs up, hahaha!"

Eric opened the newspaper and, sure enough, many articles in the entertainment section mentioned The Walking Dead.

The Independent Spirit: "I've been following this project ever since I learned that MGM had started it. We've seen sitcoms, urban romance dramas, and crime thrillers, but this is the first time we've seen a zombie TV series."

"While there have been many zombie movies on the big screen, this is a groundbreaking first on the small screen. After watching the first episode, I knew The Walking Dead was a success. Congratulations to MGM and HBO!"

ABC Entertainment Online: "Frank Darabont is one of my favorite directors. I love his 'The Shawshank Redemption,' and when I learned that he had taken on a zombie TV series, I thought that he might be facing his second failure after 'Who Am I?', but it turns out that 'Who Am I?' was just an occasional blunder."

"Frank Darabont and MGM have brought us a stunning post-apocalyptic journey. If the subsequent episodes can maintain this level of quality, I dare say The Walking Dead will sweep this year's Emmy Awards."

Los Angeles Post: "Last night I was notified to watch a new HBO series, The Walking Dead. To be honest, I'm not interested in fantasy creatures like zombies. The opening of this show is very similar to 28 Days Later, both following the formula of coma, hospital, wake-up, and apocalypse. I thought it was just a bad imitation show."

"But when I saw Morgan and his son struggling with the choice of whether or not to kill their zombie wife, and when I saw the survivor camp arguing about whether to risk rescuing Rick, I discovered something different. The struggle of humanity is the essence that a good TV series should have, and in this respect, The Walking Dead does a better job than 28 Days Later."

"When The Walking Dead doesn't focus too much on zombies, it will be liked and accepted by more viewers, so I recommend it."

"Eric, MGM didn't bribe us this time, and HBO just used normal promotional methods. The Walking Dead is conquering the market."

"Have you got the viewing data yet?" Eric asked expectantly.

Dad paused for a moment: "The prime-time viewership was 620 million subscribers watching online simultaneously, which may fall short of everyone's expectations."

Upon hearing this, Eric frowned. 620 million would certainly be a very impressive figure in 2010, but in 2003 it was somewhat inadequate for the budget of "The Walking Dead".

Just as he was pondering where things went wrong, his dad suddenly yelled, "But the 11 PM rerun reached 950 million subscribers, second only to Band of Brothers' 1000 million! We did it!"

Yes!

Eric immediately stood up and threw a left hook at the air. That's the power of a good work. As long as it's not too ahead of its time like "Waterworld," even if it's released ten years earlier, it can still be loved by the audience.

It's important to note that the 950 million refers to HBO's subscribers, not a specific number of people. A subscriber might represent a family, and a family typically has more than one viewer, so the actual number is often two to three times higher.

"Eric, the ratings for the reruns are what truly demonstrate The Walking Dead's potential. Even though it's currently trailing Band of Brothers by half a step, I believe The Walking Dead will definitely surpass Band of Brothers, perhaps as early as next week," Dad said confidently.

"Don't try to comfort my dad. The director of Band of Brothers is Steven Spielberg. Its budget and publicity are more than three times that of The Walking Dead. I would be happy if it surpasses it, and I won't be disappointed if it doesn't."

"You'd better think that way, Zach Thomas. Now I'm confident I can kick his ass!"

As he spoke, Dad kicked the air with his left leg, then laughed heartily and walked out of the office.

After his father left, Bordeaux handed him a report with information about the crew of "Happy Death Day," indicating that the project was ready to begin.

Because the cost was low, only $500 million, Eric handed it over to Volvo for overall management after the approval was granted, and didn't pay much attention to it.

The preparations are almost complete; just come and submit a report.

The quality of a film is most closely related to the director, screenwriter, and lead actor; other factors have an impact but are secondary.

Besides Eric, the screenwriter was Christopher Smith, a newcomer who had only been in the industry for a few years, and was recruited from the union.

However, his career will take a turn for the better in a few years, as he will write and direct a famous movie called "Triangle," which shows that he is capable.

Given Smith's potential, MGM signed him to a three-film screenwriting contract.

The director's name is listed as Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, yes, the famous Russo brothers.

In the future, the Russo brothers will co-direct films such as Community, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

It's fair to say that the Russo brothers account for half of the high-scoring works in the Marvel series.

However, it was 2003, and the Russo brothers were still a long way from their rise to fame. At that time, they were still minor figures who had only directed two or three unsuccessful films.

Eric was very satisfied with this choice, because his brother Anthony Russo was good at playing with time-space illusions, and he believed that having them direct "Happy Death Day" would be a very good choice.

MGM also offered the Russo brothers a five-film directing contract.

Five films could take seven or eight years to make, and most established directors would definitely not sign such a contract. But the Russo brothers are lucky to have any films to make, so what more could they ask for?

The male lead has been confirmed as Benjamin McKenzie, a newcomer who debuted just last year. He will later play James Gordon, the one-on-one king, in "Gotham".

The female lead role was left blank, leaving that position for Eric to decide.

He picked up a pen and wrote Gal Gadot in the blank space.

According to his plan, after Gadot finished filming "Transformers," she would take a break for a while and then MGM would start filming "The Hunger Games," in which she would continue to play the female lead. The two big investments would be enough to make her jump directly from an ordinary person to a top-tier female star.

However, due to the many things that have happened since then, MGM is now under considerable financial pressure, and filming for "The Hunger Games" may not begin until next year.

So Eric had a backup plan: if he could finish filming Transformers before Happy Death Day, he would cast Gal Gadot as the female lead.

If they can't finish filming, Hollywood has no shortage of young girls like that; let Dad use them to curry favor.

Now that Transformers is finished, good projects are naturally reserved for our own people.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this movie will be released before "Transformers," which will help build up its popularity in advance and boost the Autobots' box office.

(End of this chapter)