The students finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean in the morning and stepped out still savoring the viewing experience.
"How did it feel after watching the movie?"
"It was amazing. From now on I'll become a loyal fan of Director Gilbert. The experience of watching it in theaters is unparalleled."
"I don't watch many movies, but I saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy in theaters."
"How did that feel?"
"Need you ask, buddy? It was an extraordinary enjoyment. I swear it felt even better than sleeping with the cheerleader girls from school."
"Hey man, that's a bit violent of a statement."
After watching the movie, the students did not leave the cinema but stayed to observe the crowd, conducting interviews and recording notes.
One student went to browse the merchandise shop and came back wearing a pirate hat on his head.
"Where did you buy that?"
"Right over there…"
So each of the students put on pirate hats. Those with more money even carried dolls and skull necklaces and similar merchandise.
By evening, cinema traffic increased even more, and the students completed the assignment given by their professor, finishing the sample statistics and inspection.
This sociology fieldwork was quite interesting — they even personally watched a movie.
In fact, the North American film market today is already saturated, and annual growth is very limited.
That is why Hollywood giants all value overseas markets. When domestic growth is small, overseas becomes an important profit point.
This does not mean the domestic market will not grow — look, these students have become the new growth point now.
But actually, people like these students are few. For people in ghettos, films are a luxurious entertainment expense.
Unless that population is developed, achieving major growth is extremely difficult.
Over the next several days, these students staked out different theaters, observing a large number of samples, forming analytical conclusions, and writing papers.
On Monday at school, they handed in their work to Professor Powell. The professor was pleased with their results.
"Film is a great art. Compared with literature and painting, it has incomparable advantages. Through observing movie entertainment, we can accurately analyze the current state of society," Professor Powell said.
One student asked curiously, "Professor, does television have this function too?"
"Perhaps," Professor Powell said kindly, "but there's no television large enough for hundreds of people to sit together watching the same program."
He joked humorously, "Besides, I think televisions are placed at home — the owners wouldn't invite you in to watch some boring show."
The students all laughed, realizing this was true. Unless they were familiar friends, they would never invite strangers home.
As the new week began, after its outstanding midnight screenings, Pirates of the Caribbean earned $19.352 million, $28.218 million, and $22.356 million across its first weekend three days.
Adding $8.73 million from midnight screenings, the film reached a superb first–weekend total of $78.656 million.
Return of the King posted $155 million in its first weekend — the highest opening in North American history.
But Return of the King achieved this first–weekend total thanks to the accumulated strength of the trilogy, creating this unprecedented record.
A hot IP adaptation film, a sequel, and the reputation of the first two movies were the reasons behind Return of the King's incredible achievement.
By comparison, Pirates of the Caribbean's $78.656 million seems far behind, but actually it's not inferior at all — the shock is no less than Return of the King.
The reason is simple — Pirates of the Caribbean is an original script film, no adaptation and no previous work.
For an original film, this first–weekend result is practically miraculous. Yet media attention is not high because the director's name is Gilbert.
If Pirates of the Caribbean had only earned twenty or thirty million dollars in its opening weekend, that would be news. This figure is simply Gilbert's normal performance.
Of course, Pirates of the Caribbean unsurprisingly broke the original–film opening record, becoming the highest–grossing original opening in history.
But Gilbert has broken so many records these past years that everyone has become numb — no one is surprised when he breaks another.
More thrilling than the first–weekend gross is the merchandise.
The Lord of the Rings series' merchandise sold like crazy, creating a myth of merchandise sales.
Pirates of the Caribbean is no less impressive — over its first weekend alone, North America generated $22.5 million in merchandise revenue.
More importantly, with the hit film opening, the Pirates of the Caribbean themed areas in Disney theme parks and Warner parks also exploded in popularity, with crowds pouring in over the weekend.
Along came a stream of income: admission tickets, merchandise, food, drinks, and entertainment.
The New York Times remarked accurately: "Rather than a summer blockbuster, Pirates of the Caribbean is more like a two–hour–long commercial."
Indeed, due to Pirates of the Caribbean, theme–park visitor numbers have increased — it is undoubtedly a theme park advertisement.
Only this advertisement itself also makes money and not just a little money.
Starting Monday, Gilbert led the crew away from Los Angeles and began a nationwide promotional tour, with their first stop being Disney theme park.
When the trio of Captain Jack, Will Turner, and Elizabeth appeared at Disney, visitors who had come because of the movie instantly went wild, and the park became an ocean of celebration.
"This is Disney theme park. Reporting live from the scene — Pirates of the Caribbean has stirred up a pirate frenzy this summer season and driven more visitors to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Just now, the movie's creators made a surprise appearance on the main stage…"
The television footage broadcasted the lively atmosphere in real time, and movie fans who watched the news immediately felt a sudden urge to visit Disney.
After finishing their interaction with fans, the creators were in the backstage area resting while listening to Anna's report.
"Seventy-eight million six hundred fifty-six thousand dollars in weekend one," Johnny Depp said excitedly. "That result is incredible — our film is definitely going to be the champion of the summer."
"Hey Johnny, calm down!"
"I can't calm down, you know? This is the highest opening weekend I've ever had as a lead actor." Johnny Depp paced back and forth in the lounge, clearly unable to contain his excitement.
Orlando Bloom rolled his eyes beside him — he could not feel much. After all, the opening weekend numbers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which he starred, were better than Pirates of the Caribbean.
Especially Return of the King, which had an astonishing $155 million opening weekend.
Having experienced such glory, Orlando Bloom was calm now.
Still, he could understand Johnny Depp's feelings — when The Fellowship of the Ring's opening numbers came out, he himself had reacted even more dramatically.
Gilbert smiled as he watched Johnny Depp pace, then asked Keira Knightley, "How do you feel?"
"It feels like I'm dreaming. These days on the publicity tour, looking at fans in the audience holding my signs and shouting my name — I'm truly happy in this moment," Keira Knightley said.
Her vanity was completely satisfied. Over the past few days she collected every report about Pirates of the Caribbean. Especially those involving her — Keira Knightley cut them all out and saved them.
So this is what fame feels like? It's absolutely wonderful.
It definitely was wonderful — without question, Johnny Depp used this film to ascend into Hollywood's A-list ranks.
He no longer had to envy his good friend Keanu Reeves — now he himself was a Hollywood leading star.
Orlando Bloom felt indifferent. He already became a global idol thanks to Legolas — wherever he went, he had fans.
Keira Knightley, on the other hand, felt it even more profoundly than Johnny Depp — going from a nobody to world famous overnight, she felt her name had spread all across North America and would soon spread worldwide.
As the workweek began, Pirates of the Caribbean's box office inevitably started to drop.
However, the drop followed a healthy curve — Monday grossed $13.452 million, down around forty percent from Sunday.
Tuesday, being the traditional half-price ticket day, saw theater traffic rise again — that day brought in $15.279 million.
Also on Tuesday, Pirates of the Caribbean officially crossed the $100 million mark domestically, reaching $107 million.
Crossing $100 million in five days is not an exaggerated feat.
But considering many media outlets had previously insisted that Gilbert was on a decline, this box office result served as a powerful rebuttal.
Faced with these numbers, not a single media outlet could claim Gilbert had suffered a "Waterloo."
In fact, the media immediately switched sides and started praising Gilbert again, attaching countless titles to his name — "Emperor of Film," "Caesar of Cinema," "Tyrant of Movies," and more than one could count.
Gilbert was used to it. The media is like that — grass on a wall, bending whichever way the wind blows.
Caring too much about their opinions is actually the beginning of a real decline.
Wednesday and Thursday, Pirates of the Caribbean held a steady trend, earning $10.472 million and $8.956 million respectively.
By the end of Thursday, after seven days in release, the domestic total had reached $127 million.
For an original film, this result was certainly pleasantly surprising. Internal estimates at Disney and Warner believed a $350 million domestic total was entirely possible.
However, this coming weekend, Pirates of the Caribbean would face a heavyweight challenger.
Twentieth Century Fox's superhero film X-Men 2 would land in the North American market this weekend.
....
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