America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 49, Section 51: Extreme Rottenness is Art

In Salt Lake City, in front of a movie theater, seven or eight middle school students were chattering away. Similar to them, there were several groups of young people nearby.

"Hello kids, this is ABC Online. May I interview you?"

The group of teenagers looked over, and one of the dark-skinned boys immediately asked, "Is this a live stream?"

"No, it's pre-recorded, but I can leave your scenes uncut."

"OH..."

The young people jumped up excitedly. Being on TV was a really cool thing, something they could brag about to their friends and family for a long time.

"It's already 9 pm, why aren't you home yet?"

Xiao Heizi pointed to the movie theater behind them: "Needless to say, we're just about to watch a movie."

"Let me guess, it's *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers*, right?"

"No, no, no, we've almost all seen *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers*, and it's great. But the movie we're going to see today is even better—*Sharknado*!"

As soon as Xiao Heizi finished speaking, his friends around him jumped up and shouted.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

While they were excitedly shouting, several small groups of teenagers nearby were also attracted over. They loved to join in the fun.

Moreover, after seeing the Little Black Boys shouting "Sharknado," these young people also started swaying along.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

Such a bizarre scene stunned the commuters who had brought their families and children to work. They had originally planned to watch "The Lord of the Rings," but at this moment they suddenly became curious about "Sharknado."

A movie that can get a group of young people excited must have something special about it. Why don't you check it out?

After jumping for a while, the ABC female reporter gestured for them to be quiet.

"Sharknado? What kind of movie is that? Why are you all so fascinated by it?"

Xiao Heizi grinned: "A disaster blockbuster. My brother told me it's awesome, and that's what everyone online is saying too."

A young man exclaimed, "That's right! That's what my brother told me too. He said it's a classic on par with 'Jaws'!"

Another young man pushed up his glasses: "Although some people on the internet say this is a terrible movie, many more say it's an excellent masterpiece. If you don't watch it this time, you'll never have the chance to see it in a movie theater again."

The last little boy pointed to the school badge on his chest: "I don't know what movie 'Sharknado' is, but a lot of my friends have seen it. If I didn't see it, they would ignore me, so I came!"

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "It's time to enter!"

The young people scattered in a flurry, and Little Blackie ran off shouting, "Mommy, Big Sister, Second Sister, Third Sister, Little Brother, I love you all!"

The cameraman was somewhat moved: "What a loving family boy! Wait, why didn't you mention his father?"

This strange phenomenon is not only happening in Salt Lake City, but also in other first- and second-tier cities such as New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco, and many of them have even made local news.

These news reports all mentioned "Sharknado" to some extent, which was like giving the movie a free boost and attracting more attention to it.

Those young people who were tricked into going to the movie theater will then trick a new batch of people into going in, and even many adults will go in out of curiosity.

The situation escalated under these circumstances until the box office results were released in the second week.

Without a doubt, The Lord of the Rings still stands at the top. Generally speaking, a movie's box office will be halved in the second week, but The Lord of the Rings is special. It only dropped by a terrifying 20%, and took in $5000 million in the second week.

None of the films like Harry Potter, Spider-Man, and Minority Report possess this kind of tenacity.

But that's not the most surprising thing, because the second-highest grossing film is SharkZ, which took in $3510 million, with young people giving sharks a new lease on life.

In third place was Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," which, despite the presence of Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, only grossed $3100 million in its opening weekend, trailing "Sharknado" by a hair's breadth.

Peter Jackson was invited to the premiere and even brought Eric, who worked with him at Weta Digital on Transformers special effects, to support him.

It was an unexpected encounter; Eric met the legendary director Steven Spielberg for the first time.

The two chatted about their views on the film industry, the development of DreamWorks, and future collaborations.

When the box office figures for "Catch Me If You Can" were presented to major film companies, moviegoers, and critics, many were stunned.

Film and television companies were the first to take action.

"Sharknado? What is this thing? How did it manage to beat Spielberg? Even though it had more release days, it's still ridiculous. Spielberg is a Spielberg!"

"AK Films, I've never heard of this company before. Go check its background. It's not surprising that it was able to open more than 400 cinemas in the first week, but it's strange that these cinemas are all located in first-tier cities."

"Sharknado, where did this treasure come from? Quickly investigate AK Films and see if you can buy the rights."

Film critics also sprang into action, buying tickets to see who this amazing film was.

Then more teenagers were persuaded to join, and even many adults couldn't help but buy tickets.

After the film critics left the stage, major newspapers began publishing reviews, all of them negative, with not a single positive one.

Chicago Sun-Times: "I've never seen such a bad movie. Who put sharks and tornadoes together? I really want to crack open the screenwriter's head to see, but unfortunately I can't because I can't find the editor's credit. It seems he knew what he was writing. Thumbs down!"

Los Angeles Entertainment News: "When I saw the shark tornado on the poster, I already had a feeling, but I still didn't expect this movie to be this bad. I beg the director to never touch a camera again; that would be the best explanation to the audience. A very poor review!"

Atlanta Entertainment News: "This movie will waste 90 precious minutes of your life. Sharks will eat your brain and turn you into a mindless idiot. Director Anthony Ferrante, you have defiled the art of cinema. Absolutely terrible review!"

Denver Morning Post: "This is a movie you'll never forget, not because it's good, but because it's so bad, absolutely awful. I remember Ryan Reynolds, the young actor; what made you take this role? It's a disaster, a horrific insult to the human spirit. Absolutely terrible!"

The negative reviews came on so hard that everyone at AK Films panicked. Their online marketing tactics couldn't withstand the impact of newspapers and television. Once their reputation collapsed, they couldn't fool anyone anymore.

"Eric, what do we do? What should we do? Do we need to do public relations?"

On the phone, Warren asked anxiously.

Eric, while eating the cherries Gadot fed him, reassured her, "Don't rush, Warren. Have you forgotten our original intention? Sharkturap was made bad as its selling point. When everyone says it's bad, we've succeeded."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone: "Uh, you're right. I almost fooled myself. We were a terrible movie to begin with."

"Yes, then what are you worried about? Go and relax."

"Now that you mention it, I'm not worried anymore. Shall we continue with more screenings?"

"Of course, we have now expanded to third- and fourth-tier cities, with more than 1900 cinemas, but that's where we'll stop. We can't expand any further."

Why?

"Warren, if we expand any further, we can only go to remote areas and small towns. Those places are less informed and less affected by media and online opinions. 'Sharknado' has no market, and the box office potential of a bad movie can never compare to that of a good movie. Let's stop while we're ahead."

After seeing Warren off, Eric began the final step: contacting celebrities he was on good terms with to do publicity.

You say I'm bad, then I admit I'm bad, but I'm bad in a way that makes people laugh, bad in a refreshing and unconventional way, so bad that I'm like those classic movies—you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't see one. Being bad to the extreme is art!

(End of this chapter)