When it was night in North America, it was bustling daytime in China on the other side of the world.
The president of Disney's China region was inspecting factories in the Pearl River Delta accompanied by leaders from the relevant local departments.
Every summer, these factories were at their busiest. Prior to the summer season, a portion of the merchandise would already be produced here and then shipped to North America.
There, the products would be distributed by North American distributors to each state and major city, and from those distributors further supplied to cinemas and merchandise stores.
This procedure, having run smoothly for years, was now extremely mature, large in scale, and quite efficient.
The president of Disney China, Paul, was a third-generation Chinese American. For him to occupy the position of branch president showed he was capable and certainly no simple character.
Paul could speak Chinese, as his family had always insisted on Chinese education.
But after growing up, Paul looked down on the Chinese language and had no liking for his distant compatriots in China. Without a real Chinese-speaking environment, his fluency naturally deteriorated.
This situation later changed because Disney's most important director, Gilbert, was a Sinophile and could speak fluent Chinese.
To gain promotion and curry favor with Director Gilbert, Paul picked Chinese up again.
Ultimately, during the reshuffling of the presidency in the China region, it was precisely because Paul could speak Chinese that he received Gilbert's support and successfully became president.
This counted as a major leap in his career — for a Chinese person to climb to such a position in Hollywood was rare.
Paul, at this moment, was inspecting the production lines with local officials and factory managers.
Down-to-earth in style, Paul did not show off by speaking English. These days in foreign trade one had to throw around a few "yes", "OK", etc., otherwise it looked awkwardly pretentious.
As soon as Paul spoke fairly good Chinese, the accompanying local leaders were stunned — the translators they brought were suddenly useless.
"Mr. Paul's Chinese is unexpectedly excellent!" a leader praised.
"Work requires it, one naturally must know a little," Paul said, not wanting to admit that it was to please Director Gilbert, though that was indeed the truth.
Although Paul looked thoroughly Chinese, the officials knew he hadn't considered himself Chinese for a long time.
After so many generations abroad, even with some blood left, it had long thinned.
After several days of inspections, Paul maintained a strictly businesslike attitude — which was, in fact, the correct attitude, since one must not slack during work.
The days of surveying exhausted everyone. Paul rigorously inquired into every production step, including whether raw material procurement met standards, and whether workers' operations were proper.
He even personally walked onto the front line to communicate with workers face-to-face and observe firsthand how they produced what was required.
After several days, Paul roughly understood the Pearl River Delta's production model and worker quality.
Previously, he had not entirely understood why headquarters placed the merchandise factories in China, but now he finally realized the rationale: compared to North America, China, though farther, had much lower costs.
Even with tariffs when shipping from China to North America, the overall cost was far below that of producing merchandise locally in North America.
There were rumors that some Washington officials wanted to propose higher import tariffs, but the idea was immediately lobbied against and scrapped.
After all, this development model now in place was exactly what those Washington policymakers and capitalists had designed — shifting low-end industries overseas to Asia or elsewhere, while North America and Europe focused on high-end manufacturing and finance.
Using the dollar's purchasing power to enjoy cheap products from around the world made life very comfortable.
After inspecting the final factory, a local leader suggested, "Mr. Paul, shall we have a meal together?"
Having eaten together these past few days, and uninterested in dining-table culture, Paul declined this time.
"No — Director Tang, I must return to Shanghai to prepare for the Shanghai Film Festival," Paul said.
"Isn't it still over a month away?" Director Tang asked in surprise.
"One must prepare in advance — Director Gilbert is coming," Paul explained.
Director Tang suddenly understood. He had once met Gilbert and had heard that even Minister Tian from the central government paid great attention to him.
"In that case, I won't keep you. Please give my regards to Director Gilbert," Director Tang said with a smile.
"Certainly, certainly," Paul agreed on the surface, though he soon forgot.
After returning to Shanghai, Paul first compiled the inspection results into a report and emailed it to headquarters.
His evaluations would determine headquarters' strategy towards the factories, which was why local bureaucrats treated this inspection so seriously.
Having finished his work, Paul stretched and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the blazing construction, feeling emotional.
Shanghai's development was impressive — new skyscrapers seemed to rise every day. This speed astonished Paul.
He wondered what expression Director Gilbert would show when he arrived and saw how much Shanghai had changed. Presumably he would be just as shocked!
Back in Los Angeles, Gilbert had just gotten up early when his assistant Anna arrived.
"Breakfast together?"
"No, I already ate." Anna had come mainly to report: "The midnight preview numbers are out — $8.73 million, with an average occupancy rate of 30 percent.
Audience satisfaction according to first-tier cinema surveys scored at 85 percent, with an average grade of A or above."
Gilbert wasn't surprised. "Not bad. Considering it's not adapted from anything and not a sequel, having such a midnight preview haul is excellent."
"And here are the merchandise sales — $2.3 million sold in a single night."
Anna handed over a file. "This is President Paul's report from Disney's China division—he just completed his inspection of the factories."
Gilbert flipped through it carefully and was pleased. "Paul did well. I should tell Bob to give Paul a bonus."
With the midnight screening over, Pirates of the Caribbean was officially about to premiere. By then, reports about the premiere, even from traditional media, had all been released.
Overall, Pirates of the Caribbean maintained a relatively positive reputation.
Among surveyed and interviewed moviegoers, this fantasy pirate movie was also widely praised.
On Friday's opening day, Pirates of the Caribbean officially launched in 3,800 theaters across the United States, beginning its large-scale theatrical journey.
At 10 a.m., in a luxury cinema in Boston, a group of Harvard University students arrived for a sociology fieldwork class. Their purpose was to watch the movie and, along the way, study the social phenomenon.
What kind of social phenomenon? Exactly the one generated by the film.
This course was created by Professor Powell after he had seen Flipped and then developed a new syllabus upon returning to school.
"Seriously, it's just a movie — what's the big deal? I'd rather go watch a ball game," one student complained.
"Hey, man, ball game tickets are hard to get; movie tickets are easy," another student replied.
"Yes," one student looked at the group leader and asked, "Why are we coming in the morning? Shouldn't we be coming at night to analyze social phenomena? There would be more people then."
The student leader shook his head. "You guys don't normally follow movies — you have no idea how popular Director Gilbert's films are."
"How popular?" they did not understand.
A movie is just a movie — how popular can it be? That wasn't surprising: since some love watching movies, others don't. People who don't might only go to a cinema every few years, or never at all.
They had heard of Gilbert and knew he was famous, but had no concept of his popularity.
In the summer season, Gilbert was synonymous with movies — which was exactly why Professor Powell brought them to see his film.
The group leader didn't explain further. "You'll know when you walk into the cinema."
The students were still puzzled, but when they entered, everyone was stunned — so many people? Was this really a morning screening?
"Surprised?" the leader smiled. "This is his movie. Learn from this. The professor sent us here for a reason."
The students, convinced, hurriedly started the first part of their sociology survey: watching the movie.
"Good thing I was smart and booked by phone in advance — otherwise there wouldn't be tickets this morning," the leader said as he handed out the tickets, feeling lucky.
"Dude, are Gilbert's movies really that magical?" the ball-game-loving student asked skeptically.
Others looked at him strangely. "Have you never watched a movie before?"
"I have — I rent discs and watch at home. Watching on a DVD player is the same as in a theater and far cheaper."
"No, no, no. It's not the same at all — you'll see."
Indeed, it wasn't. After entering the cinema, this student's jaw hung open the whole time.
His first time watching a movie in a cinema left him utterly amazed.
The details on the big screen and the atmosphere of viewing were incomparable to watching on a DVD player — simply overwhelming.
In fact, people not accustomed to going to the cinema are often stunned the first time they watch a commercial visual blockbuster.
If their first film were a drama or an indie film, the impact wouldn't be as striking.
Look at this group of students — watching the skeletal Black Pearl crew under the moonlight, they didn't even blink, afraid of missing a single spectacular moment.
In truth, they had already become the best subjects for sociological observation.
....
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