America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 193, Section 192: The Power of Tap Water Breaks Records Again

"Choosing the midnight showing of Transformers was definitely one of the best decisions I've made this year; it's more exciting than you can imagine."

"I really want to tell you the plot, but I know I'll get beaten up for spoilers, so all I can say is it's fantastic, everyone should watch it!"

A Facebook user nicknamed "It Never Snows in Florence" posted a picture of a Transformers movie ticket.

As a long-time Facebook user, he has been using the app since its launch and loves it very much.

Especially after MySpace was launched, he created an account, but after experiencing it, he found that the users on it were too borderline and obsessed.

The situation regarding dirty jokes and softcore pornography is very serious, with young men and women engaging in sexually suggestive content to attract attention.

These people's posts often contain seemingly cool but actually disgusting content such as race, flaunting wealth, and promiscuity.

Moreover, when he tries to access someone else's homepage, the loading time often exceeds ten seconds, and once inside, he is often blinded by the other person's colorful homepage.

If MySpace were the only major social networking app on the market, that would be fine, since you wouldn't have any other choice.

However, after experiencing Facebook's efficiency, convenience, and simplicity—which allows you to open anyone's homepage in less than three seconds—the contrast between the two becomes too obvious.

Besides, softcore porn isn't real erotica; the key parts are still covered up. After a few days, people get tired of it, so he went back to Facebook.

After a long period of operation, she has accumulated nearly 30 followers and can be considered a well-known internet celebrity.

However, Facebook has not yet enabled revenue-generating features such as Google Play, so it is currently mainly for spiritual enjoyment, but many people still enjoy it.

Shortly after the post "It won't snow in Florence" was published, it received over 1000 likes and numerous comments.

Fish Who Loves Diving: "I just finished watching Transformers this morning, and I completely agree with your point of view. It is truly an excellent and sincere work."

"My original expectation was 70 points, since there was only a one-year production period, so passing would be enough."

"But I really underestimated Eric Cooper. Officially, he's only 23, two years younger than me, but he did a fantastic job!"

"Explosions, collisions, conflicts, beautiful women, luxury cars, war—basically everything you could want is there. I'd give Transformers a 90 out of 100."

Spark Matrix: "Having just left the movie theater, I must say it truly fulfilled my fantasies about Transformers."

"Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Blackout."

"Just like in the trailer, each Transformer has a vivid and unique design and role."

"The action and war scenes are incredibly intense, far exceeding the excitement of the trailer. The film definitely deserves a five-star rating."

"But there was a touch of sadness in it, especially when those soldiers sacrificed themselves to launch a fearless attack on the Decepticons. I was moved."

"Maybe I'm just easily moved to tears, but I was really touched by these scenes."

"My original nickname was The Curse of the Black Pearl, but I just changed it. I admit that I betrayed them, but I don't regret it."

Some praised the film's high quality, saying they went to see it because of Transformers, while others praised the actors, saying they went to see it because of the handsome men and beautiful women.

A user nicknamed "The Little Mermaid" posted an update with a poster featuring Chris Evans, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds, among other main characters.

"As a woman, I am not a Transformers fan; my childhood was filled with Barbie dolls."

"But there aren't many good movies in theaters right now. I watched 'Happy Death Day' a while ago, and I also saw 'Sharknado'."

"I had a good impression of Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, so my boyfriend dragged me to see Transformers."

"While those big guys were great for the matchups, Gal Gadot is the one who attracts me the most. She's truly beautiful and dashing."

"Her performance in Transformers was completely different from that in Happy Death Day, where she was portrayed as a bitch and a girl next door."

"The former fully demonstrated her sexiness and fighting prowess. Look at her covered in mud and wounds, yet fighting bravely. You would say it's just too cool."

"If I were a man, I would definitely fall in love with her."

"Ryan Reynolds has also subverted my expectations. He was a complete idiot in Sharknock, but here he transforms into the most resilient and courageous warrior."

"Although he doesn't have as much screen time as Sam, I always felt that Captain William was the real protagonist. I wonder if any of you feel the same way?"

Seeing how much Facebook users wanted to share, Eric immediately assigned Fitz the task of promoting an official event.

The event was directly pushed to all users. As long as they posted a picture of themselves watching Transformers, the backend would capture all users' information.

One week later, 500 people will be randomly selected from all participants, and each person will receive 10 tickets for free.

Users can dispose of these tickets as they see them, give them to friends and family, or sell them.

Countless facts have proven that when your movie is good enough, people will spontaneously become its advocates.

When a film itself has a strong promotional campaign, and its quality lives up to its marketing, people are even more willing to spread the word.

However, if the quality doesn't live up to the scale of your promotion, it could backfire and cause a negative reaction from the audience.

Transformers clearly belongs to the former category; it can wear the crown and is worthy of its position.

So in addition to many Facebook users promoting it spontaneously, many users of its competitor MySpace are also helping to promote it, as well as portal websites, major forums, blogs, chat rooms, movie websites, etc.

Outside of the United States, the same scene unfolded in other countries where the film was released simultaneously.

On a street in Shibuya, Tokyo, Yoshikawa walked out of a movie theater alone, his expression somewhat complicated.

As a 30-something office worker, he has lost interest in watching movies ever since the collapse of Japan's economic bubble and the beginning of its economic stagnation.

Every day, I'm overwhelmed by the heavy workload. At the company, I have to be obsequious and subservient. When I get home, I have to face the disapproving looks from my wife and children because of our financial difficulties. Dignity seems to have become a luxury.

In the dead of night, he often dreams of his childhood, when he was in elementary and middle school, when the Japanese economy was in its golden age and it was said that selling Tokyo would be enough to buy the United States.

My father, brother, and mother would be by my side, and we would all watch my favorite cartoon, Transformers, together. That feeling is called happiness.

After standing blankly at the movie theater entrance for a while, Yoshikawa finally walked to the public phone booth and dropped in a coin.

"Moshi moshi. This is the Yoshikawa family. May I ask who you are?"

"Ogasan, it's me."

"Erlang? What's wrong with your voice? It sounds strange."

"It's nothing. By the way, a new movie just came out recently. Why don't we go see it together? I'll bring Yu and Ryoma, and you can bring Mom, plus your brother's family."

"Go to the movies? But your mother and I are both over 60 years old and have lost interest. What's wrong with you today? Did something happen?"

"I didn't mean to say anything, but I suddenly remembered a scene from my childhood, when it was snowing and the wind was blowing cold outside, and my family and I were happily gathered around the stove while you watched cartoons with me."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then a soft reply came: "I understand. Let's go see it together then. It's been a long time since your mother and I have been to the movies."

"Thank you, Uncle!"

China, Yanjing (Beijing).

When college student Zhang Chu got home, he turned on the computer on his desk and logged into Xici Hutong, a website he often used.

More than half an hour later, a post titled "Transformers, That Was My Childhood" appeared, recording a childhood dream in simple words.

I can't remember which grade I was in elementary school, maybe fourth grade, maybe fifth grade.

"Every day after school, I would sit in front of the TV on time, waiting for Calabash Brothers, Black Cat Detective, and Ikkyu-san to appear."

"But then they all disappeared. Black Cat Sheriff left behind. Please see the next episode."

"And on Friday afternoon, as promised, I sat on a small stool and turned on the TV. This time, a completely new image appeared that I had never seen before."

"The imaginative robots and the dazzling transformation sequences made me never forget Transformers from the first time I saw them."

"From then on, I had new topics and hobbies with many classmates and friends."

"I still remember that during breaks we would run outside the classroom to play role-playing games, but because I was small, I was always assigned to the Decepticons. They wouldn't even let me be Megatron, and I wouldn't even get to be Starscream. I was lucky if I could get Soundwave."

"We would roll up books into tubes to use as cannon barrels, and then shout 'Power cannon, fire!' while making noise. We had a lot of fun."

"Once I went to the home of Zhou Xiaobing, a chubby boy. His father was probably an official, so there were a lot of toys at home. It was at his house that I first came into contact with real Transformers toys."

"He also taught me how to sculpt Optimus Prime with clay, but since I didn't have money to buy clay, I could only mix the clay myself when I got home and sculpt a series of yellowish-brown figurines."

"After the animated series ended, we had no way to watch new episodes. We only heard that Optimus Prime and Megatron died together. When we heard this news, everyone was very angry and felt that our faith had collapsed."

"As I grew up, Transformers gradually faded from my sight."

"Until recently, news about Transformers in China suddenly came alive, and I realized that a live-action movie was about to be released."

"At that moment, my childhood memories seemed to come alive, so I took my 9-year-old nephew to the movie theater."

"But my little nephew is too young to understand many of the plot points, so he asked me, 'Who is this robot? And who is that?'"

"I told you to ignore all of this, do you like that?"

"My little nephew nodded and said he liked it very much. He had never seen such imaginative robots and gorgeous transformation movements before. It was completely different from Pokémon, Duck Detective, and Jackie Chan Adventures."

"I said if you like it, that's fine. They are Transformers, they are my childhood, and I believe they will become your childhood too."

The post quickly garnered responses, with many noting that Zhang Chu's childhood resonated with countless others.

Related discussions have also appeared on Sina's Yingxing Tianxia, ​​Mop, Tianya and other forums.

Even the two film enthusiast forums, "Rear Window" and "Night Ship of Film," which have always prided themselves on being serious, focused on art films and academic value, saw a lot of discussion.

However, the participants in these two forums are mostly teachers and students from institutions such as Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Beijing Broadcasting Institute, so the discussion of business is secondary; the focus is more on studying the technological gap in Chinese films.

United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, and Australia.

In just one day, Transformers won worldwide acclaim for its dazzling special effects, cool transformations, breathtaking battle scenes, and celebration of human courage.

Eric read the comments carefully, and the feeling of having his work recognized was truly wonderful.

Of course, not everyone is satisfied, and there are some negative reviews.

For example, The Independent published a film review the very next day, which was really efficient, but it was also really malicious, with the idea of ​​driving away a group of viewers and going against MGM.

The title of the article was "An outdated work that disappoints anime fans".

"I went to the cinema yesterday to watch the highly anticipated Transformers. All I can say is that the plot is old-fashioned and clichéd. It's still the same old treasure hunt formula, a battle between good and evil with a new skin."

"If it were just a clichéd plot, that would be one thing, but the most crucial point is that the movie didn't capture the essence of the Transformers from the animated series."

"Their appearance, weapons, and personalities—aside from Optimus Prime and Bumblebee—make the other Transformers seem like filler characters."

"A mechanical giant capable of destroying planets can actually be stopped by human armies and even harmed by human weapons. This is really too un-Transformers-like."

"So I advise those anime fans who want to see a faithful recreation to give up. You won't find any respect for the original work here."

"It was all just a pile of boring special effects, the young director's own fantasy."

The Independent's assessment perfectly illustrates the saying: if someone wants to smear you, they'll find a way to attack you no matter how well you do.

Would anyone believe something like this?

There definitely will be.

But how many people actually believe it?

Facts speak for themselves.

On November 18, Transformers raked in $39.7 million at the box office, a drop of less than 12%.

On November 19th, word-of-mouth continued to spread, especially among passersby.

Transformers continued to rake in $3030 million at the box office, a 23.6% drop from the previous day.

For the most crucial three days of a film's opening weekend, Transformers ultimately grossed $1.19 million.

It broke the record of $1.14 million held by Spider-Man again, leading by more than $500 million.

Keep in mind that Spider-Man was released on a weekend, a three-day weekend when students and office workers had time off.

Transformers is released from Monday to Wednesday, and many people want to see it but can't find a time to watch it. This difference is similar to the difference between summer movie season and regular movie season.

In an interview, Spider-Man director Sam Raimi also offered his congratulations and declared that Spider-Man 2 next year would make up for it.

However, the public is not optimistic about this, because according to the general trend, most sequels are not as good as the first one.

boom!

A cannon salute was fired, and Eric waved his hand.

Let's go full throttle and intensify our promotional efforts to keep our momentum going!

(End of this chapter)