America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 194, Section 193: A king should sit on the throne, and trash should be swept into the trash heap.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight's Conan Show! I'm your host, Battiertus, and let's welcome Conan O'Brien!"

Inside the studio, a high-pitched baritone voice rang out from the darkness, the lights instantly came on, the band began to play, and Conan O'Brien, sporting a short blond hairstyle, ran out from backstage.

After twisting left and right and making a few flamboyant moves, Conan jumped heavily to the beat of the drums and then opened his arms to greet the audience.

"I know you're not here to see my new hairstyle, so let's introduce today's main character, the most terrifying, the most horrifying, and the most talkative Megatron!"

Bang bang bang bang

kukukukiki

Amid applause and cheers, Megatron was invited onto the stage. Thanks to the pre-release promotion of "Transformers," Megatron, nicknamed "Buy a Bed," had already amassed a large following.

MGM even created a Facebook account for him, and in just over a month he gained more than a million followers, more than many celebrities.

To promote their movie, the Transformers crew made a special appearance on the popular Conan Show.

Eric and Conan had met at the Emmy Awards ceremony, where Conan was one of the hosts, and Eric had a good impression of him.

Moreover, as someone in the industry, Eric had watched the show before his time travel, and he first learned about this talk show from Da Peng.

At that time, Da Peng had not yet become famous for his TV series "Men's Diary," even though "Men's Diary" was also a copy of "Women's Diary."

At the time, he hosted a show called "Dapeng Debade," which blatantly plagiarized the opening sequence of "The Conan Show," and was directly humiliated.

This incident had a certain impact at the time, making Da Peng a little bit famous for his infamy, and also making Eric watch "The Conan Show" for a while.

"Before the program officially begins, please allow me to say something. I have received news that a soldier who served in Afghanistan lost his Dandan in the war."

"Fortunately, someone donated their own Dandan to the recipient, and that person is currently sitting in the audience."

Conan then showed a man with a wise look in his eyes. Several women sitting next to him were sneaking glances at his crotch. Although they knew it was a joke, they couldn't help but cover their mouths and chuckle when they saw his crotch wrapped in bandages.

"Sir, first of all, I thank you for your sacrifice, but I really don't understand. After all, for a man, such a sacrifice is a bit too much."

"I've heard of leftover old men, but you really don't leave yourself any way out."

The wise man proudly said, "It's nothing. I just cut it off for him when he needed it. Anyway, it will grow back in a while."

"What!" Conan looked at the other person in surprise.

"Why...why would you have such a thought?"

"It told me that," the wise man said, pointing to Megatron.

Conan looked at "Buy a bed" in surprise.

Megatron crossed his arms and shook his head slightly: "Sorry, I was a bit busy yesterday so I didn't hear you clearly."

"Uh, I thought you meant 'cock,' since you can always buy or raise more chickens, but I didn't expect you to mean 'dick.'"

"You really should have explained it clearly, or called an ambulance to help you; maybe they could install an electric one for you."

"You know it's a Cybertronian special edition."

Hahahaha

Amid the audience's laughter, the man's wise gaze fixed on the ceiling, making him appear even more comical.

The camera then panned to a female spectator, who was watching Megatron's lower body with great interest.

"Oh my god! Don't tell me you're interested in the Cybertron special edition, ma'am."

Why not?

Hahahaha...

Conan clapped his hands: "Okay, okay, that's the end of the joke. Let's give a big round of applause to invite the Transformers crew to the stage."

Eric, Gadot, and Chris Evans came out from backstage and sat on the sofa.

This was Eric's first time appearing on a talk show.

Generally speaking, he prefers to stay behind the scenes and try to avoid showing his face.

Fame isn't important to me. If I become famous, I'll be photographed and pointed at when I go out, and I won't be able to have fun with girls.

But in order to promote the movie, he had no choice but to go. After all, people like Dong Wang and Obama have gone on the show, so what is he compared to them?

"Do you know what? You guys are the hottest celebrities in America right now, everyone's talking about you like crazy."

Chris Evans shrugged: "Gadot is, but I'm not. I don't even have as many Facebook followers as Megatron."

"Because all of Earth's technology originated from me, I can go as high as I want. Didn't you see the movie?"

"I saw it, but I didn't notice that detail; my attention was focused on Gadot's legs."

Eric looked at him with feigned surprise: "As the male lead, you don't even watch your own movie properly. It seems like the sequel needs a different actor."

"Whatever, everyone says Ryan Reynolds is the male lead anyway."

Hahahaha

In just a few words, Chris Evans quipped about a lot of things that movie fans have been making fun of lately, which immediately drew laughter.

He continued, "I'm not even as good as Gadot; she can fight much better than me."

Conan looked at Eric: "Director, your eye for talent doesn't seem very good. The male lead is a bit too unruly."

"It's okay, he just wants more action scenes and to look stronger. The next movie will satisfy him soon. Just don't cry out in pain then."

"Of course, the more the better."

Eric chuckled. "Little brat, just wait until next year when they start filming 'Captain America,' and you'll be going shirtless."

"Gadot, your leading ladies are really shining all the time, hahaha. Did you really learn Chinese kung fu?"

Gadot waved her hand: "Not at all. I just follow Eric's instructions and train my physical strength every day to make myself look both beautiful and strong."

Conan pouted and leaned back strategically: "Looks like it. Your biceps are bigger than mine. It looks like one punch from you could knock me down."

Hahahaha

"I noticed the final Las Vegas battle; you were driving around with Bumblebee in tow, performing a high-difficulty car stunt. Did you use a stuntman?"

"No, I went on stage myself. You can ask them if you don't believe me."

"You must have suffered a lot of injuries. Drifting, fishtailing, and sudden braking—that's no easy feat."

"Yes, scrapes, sprains, ankles, arms, backs, injuries are common. Every time I finish filming a scene like this, I have to relax properly."

"Masasha?"

"There's also a spa, but something strange happened once. I went to a spa, a newly opened one."

"The waiter led me inside and said, 'This is the public bath, and this is the changing room. You can take off your clothes and soak here.'"

"I was a little surprised and asked him if I needed to change into underwear?"

"Then he told me no. I thought he would say I could wear a bathrobe or something, but he said I had to be completely naked. I stared at him wide-eyed."

Conan said with interest, "Perhaps he only said that to you. He's a clever young man; he should work for me."

Hahahaha

With the situation looking very promising, Transformers launched an intensive promotional campaign, appearing on shows like "The Conan Show," "The Ellen Show," and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Forget about Oprah Winfrey's talk show; Eric hates this fat, black woman, and her character is awful. Even if she invites him, he forbids the crew from going.

On November 23, the weekly box office figures for "Transformers" were released, and countless people and eyes were watching it until the moment the data was published.

The $1.88 million box office still dazzled everyone.

Even disregarding inflation, the $1.88 million figure has already broken the North American weekly box office record.

Spider-Man was originally in first place, but Peter Parker has been dethroned once again.

The second-place book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," has to be moved down in the rankings.

The third-place film, "The Matrix Reloaded," had only been sitting there for half a year before it had to obediently give up its seat and return the crown of third place.

This figure has significantly exceeded Eric's expectations; he had originally predicted that a weekly box office of 1.7 million would be satisfactory.

Analysts from institutions like BOX predict a box office of $1.55 million in its opening week, a more conservative estimate than Eric's.

Unexpectedly, the Autobots and Decepticons were incredibly powerful, and with the weekend providing ample time for students and office workers to relax.

With the positive word-of-mouth building up, these people immediately rushed into the movie theater.

Friday's box office was the strangest, exceeding Thursday's by over $200 million. The decline in box office revenue on Saturday and Sunday also slowed significantly, remaining at around 15% per day.

The unusual circumstances also caused the box office curve for "Transformers" to strangely surge up again on Friday.

According to the survey, the audience for these films is also significantly different from that of typical blockbusters.

Students and teenagers are still the main audience, but the audience aged 35 and above accounts for nearly 40% of the total, far exceeding the 30% of the average blockbuster.

Having discovered a new business opportunity, the MGM team immediately expanded their promotional methods.

Hiring hired guns and online trolls to create momentum online and in the media.

The main focus of the promotion is to watch Transformers and reminisce about happy childhoods, aiming to attract another group of middle-aged people to the cinema.

As for Transformers' rivals, they were naturally in a state of utter despair, with major film companies suffering heavy losses.

The first to be affected was Miramax's "The Far Side of the World," which was released three days earlier than "Transformers" and had all the advantages of timing, but only grossed $2500 million at the box office.

On the fourth day, the Autobots attacked, and the results were even more dismal, earning only a little over 200 million yuan at the box office.

It's been 10 days since the film was released, and the box office has barely reached $3200 million, with even Sunday's single-day gross dropping by less than a million.

Russell Crowe, Peter Weir, Oscar-winning directors and actors—none of them matter.

Compared to the cost of up to $1.5 million, it's foreseeable that the pants will not be enough to avoid losses.

When the media interviewed Harvey Weinstein, he didn't say a word and left with a dark expression.

It's said that all the planned promotions have been cancelled. With this level of quality, how dare they promote themselves? Are they trying to advertise how bad they are?

Miramax can only pin its hopes on overseas markets now; naval warfare themes might be more successful in regions like Spain, the UK, and Southeast Asia.

If it still fails, then Windtalkers is its destiny.

"The Polar Expedition" was swept into the trash heap, and other movies are in a similarly bad state.

The Matrix Revolutions also faced box office pressure in its third week, taking in only $14 million, bringing its total North American box office to $1.11 million.

Compared to "The Matrix Reloaded" in the summer, it is much inferior.

As many media outlets and movie fans have commented, watching two "Matrix" movies in a year can lead to some aesthetic fatigue.

Warner Bros. is too eager to make money. At the very least, they should do what "The Lord of the Rings" did and release one film a year at most, giving the market some time to recover.

Indeed, some die-hard fans are eagerly awaiting the release of all three films at once.

However, we must also consider the tolerance of the average viewer. When faced with several equally exciting blockbusters, will they choose a film that is somewhat similar to others, or one that offers more novelty? It's hard to say.

Eric thinks Harry Potter did a great job in this regard, maintaining a pace of one film per year or two up to Deathly Hallows.

At a steady pace, the audience's appetite is whetted, allowing the company to make big money.

Despite the dismal performance of "The Matrix Revolutions," it still holds the second spot at the box office for the first week.

The third-ranked "Elf" has already suffered a significant drop; compared to the $3300 million box office last week, it only grossed $1300 million this week.

People seem to have been ignited by Transformers, and suddenly lost interest in this kind of heartwarming and gentle theme.

Meanwhile, Disney's blockbuster "The Haunted House" has already grossed less than $500 million, and it's uncertain whether it will even reach $300 million next week.

As for the remaining small fish and shrimp, let's not even mention them.

Is the market in a bad state?

Of course it was terrible. Apart from Transformers, other movies were almost in tears, and many production teams could only humbly beg for help.

But if the audience doesn't like it, no amount of pleading or playing the victim will help.

But is the market doing well?

That's good too.

Compared to the same period last year, the total box office revenue increased by 11%, showing a clear upward trend, which is a very good sign. However, most of the benefits ended up in the mouths of MGM.

Besides MGM, a portion naturally ended up in the hands of theater chains.

So the theaters that arranged for Transformers to be shown were very happy, as they were able to earn a lot more money than last year, and they wanted to call Eric to thank him.

The theater owners who ignored Transformers could only regret it; it was too late to change anything.

The contracts were all signed in advance, and you can only screen these movies for at least one month.

Even if there is only one audience member per screening of "The Polar Expedition", the cinema must still show it.

Even if there are no viewers, you can't show other movies.

Because major film and television companies have investigators who will pose as audience members and randomly check movie theaters.

If any violations are discovered, the film company has the right to sue, and the cinema can expect to lose money.

Miramax would certainly be very happy if this happened.

Because the money lost can always make up for some of the box office losses.

Even if I've missed the first month, I can still have some soup.

Even if I can't get soup, I can still wash the dishes.

There aren't even any bowls left, at least let me smell the aroma.

As a result, many theater owners who missed out on "Transformers" rushed to request the film, hoping to make a little money to make up for the losses caused by "The Polar Expedition".

With a powerful propaganda campaign underway, the date arrived at November 27th.

After another four days of screenings, "Transformers" once again raked in nearly $6000 million at the box office, bringing its total to nearly $2.5 million in eleven days, continuing to crush all other films.

And today, Miramax's much-anticipated second blockbuster, "Kill Bill," is released in November.

Media outlets predict that Kill Bill will take over from The Polar Expedition and engage in a true battle with Transformers, with the film using a samurai sword to chop off the Autobots' heads, which have already been locked in combat for two weeks.

Moviegoers and major companies are all paying attention, and cinema owners also hope to make the market even more exciting.

But will it really turn out as they expect?

(End of this chapter)