It was natural for media outlets friendly to Disney and Warner to speak well of The False.
Meanwhile, the media bought off by Sky Studio, or those opposed to Gilbert, naturally would not say anything good about The False.
Was $23.426 million for the opening day low? Actually, not at all. It was even better than the performance of most adaptation films.
Most likely, because of Gilbert combined with Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Charlize Theron, those names were simply too intimidating, making people think the opening day box office for The False would head toward forty or fifty million.
This gave anti-Gilbert media the perfect chance, and soon all kinds of pessimistic commentary about The False began to emerge.
For those who didn't know or understand the context, it might have seemed as though The False was about to flop.
The Los Angeles Business Daily exposed the lies of these pessimistic outlets, listing a series of statistics and proving that The False's opening day box office numbers were in fact outstanding.
Editor-in-chief Sarah stated: "As a commercial crime film, Gilbert has achieved a perfect balance between commercial appeal and artistry in this work.
The pacing is brisk, with gunfights and action scenes that are gripping.
At the same time, it explores the complex roots of human nature—greed, love, and hate—which embodies its artistic quality.
This film has sparked massive discussion online, with numerous fans analyzing it from all angles. Some even returned to theaters multiple times, searching for evidence to support their own theories.
A popular film that generates such fervent debate can never be called a failure.
What's more, this is just the opening day. Projected over the opening weekend, the box office would be no less than seventy million dollars."
Sarah was absolutely correct, but anti-Gilbert media no longer cared.
After all, they had once labeled Pirates of the Caribbean a failure for Gilbert. So it was no surprise that The False was declared a flop merely because of its opening-day numbers.
Gilbert had never paid attention to media reviews anyway. If he were the type to care about critics, then he never should have come into this world.
There was no shortage of directors and stars who had been ruined by the press.
However, Gilbert still paid close attention to feedback from theater chains, and as he had expected, the results were promising. On a scale of ten, The False averaged around 8.1, marking it as an excellent commercial film.
More importantly, the film stirred up an enormous wave of online discussion—for example, about the identity of the painter.
One of Gilbert's loyal fans, Luz, after watching the film at the midnight premiere, returned to theaters the very next day with his wife to watch it again.
He noticed in the final scene of the film, when the camera lingered on the painting and palette belonging to Charlize Theron's character Mary, there seemed to be signs of color shifting.
Since producing counterfeit currency required color-changing ink, this shot inevitably made one think of such ink.
So Luz, along with his wife, cross-examined the scene together, searched for evidence online, and after reading several fan comments, drew the conclusion:
Mary was the real painter, while Tom Hanks' character, Ido Dash, was merely a scapegoat who took the blame.
Luz's theory received a great deal of support from other fans, though soon opposing opinions emerged.
One fan argued that the apparent color shift was due to the elevated camera angle and changes in lighting, noting that Mary's clothing also showed a gradual color transition.
Moreover, in a close-up shot of the palette, there was no sign of color change whatsoever.
In addition, since Mary had been famous since 1995 and held exhibitions all over the world, the police could easily verify her whereabouts. In other words, Mary had no opportunity to commit crimes across regions.
This explanation left Luz doubtful. Having already watched the film twice, he was unwilling to let his theory collapse so easily, so he decided to return to the theater once more.
A second theory came from Doug and Zoe, a married couple, who speculated that the fake Mary was actually the real painter.
Their reasoning was that in the hotel sequence, Ido Dash's gun was pointed at the fake Mary. Apart from the butler who contacted the seller, the others were all aiming at Ido Dash.
However, this conclusion was quickly overturned by netizens. Some argued that since the fake Mary joined the group later, she had no knowledge of the relationship between Ido Dash and the real Mary.
If she had known, she would never have agreed to undergo surgery to look like Mary, nor would she have used Mary's name.
Thus, only one possibility remained—that Ido Dash himself was the real painter and the mastermind behind the counterfeit ring.
As for Tom Cruise's character, Richard Dyke, he was fabricated, irrelevant to the true story. In reality, Tom Cruise's role was merely that of a small police officer.
Were Ido Dash's flashbacks false, then? Netizens debated this endlessly.
The most upvoted theory was that they were half true, half false.
The process of making counterfeit notes, the crimes committed, and the emotional entanglements between characters were basically real.
But Ido Dash split the true story in two, attributing one half to the fictional Richard Dyke, and the other half to himself within the narrative.
There were many such debates online. Some even suggested that Dustin Hoffman's character was actually the painter. Others claimed that Mary's agent was the real painter.
Speculation was endless. In order to verify their theories, these moviegoers returned to theaters again and again, searching for evidence to back up their claims.
This directly translated into box office performance, with The False rising to $32.657 million on Saturday, retaining the single-day box office crown.
Van Helsing did not fall but instead rose slightly, bringing in $18.673 million for the day.
Had it not been for The False and its prior entanglements, perhaps Van Helsing's performance would have been even better.
Though the film looked somewhat dull, at least the special effects visuals were decent and rather impressive. It wasn't completely terrible, so its results were not unexpected.
However, David Ellison himself was not very satisfied. He had expected that even if he could not surpass The False, the gap would not be too large.
But the harsh reality was laid out before him.
David Ellison had to admit that he had been somewhat unrealistic before. Martin Bob had been right all along—ensuring project profitability came first.
In the face of the two films competing in the summer market, The Hollywood Reporter delivered a sharp summary:
"David Ellison, about the same age as Gilbert, produced a major blockbuster with an investment exceeding one hundred million dollars, but its performance fell short of expectations.
Hollywood has only one Gilbert, yet even Gilbert started with small projects. His first project's investment was only $3.5 million.
Perhaps David Ellison should give up on the idea of massive productions and instead focus solidly on making films within his capabilities."
This summary effectively pointed David Ellison toward a clearer path, while other anti-Gilbert media were still awkwardly hyping up Van Helsing.
But David Ellison was no fool. Judging from the box office performance, Van Helsing was far inferior to The False.
The funniest part was that The Washington Post, in its opposition to Gilbert, had practically gone mad.
On one hand, it claimed that young David Ellison had a promising future. On the other, it declared that Gilbert, not yet thirty-four years old, was already washed up and finished.
At under thirty-four, many Hollywood directors hadn't even landed their first directing opportunity, yet Gilbert had already been in the industry for nearly fourteen years.
It might sound like a long time, but in truth Gilbert was still not old at all!
This was simply The Washington Post showing the "charm" of journalism: completely ignoring basic facts, and focusing only on endlessly attacking the one they hated.
The truth was, if Gilbert wanted, he could easily use his financial power to control The Washington Post just as he controlled the Los Angeles Business Daily, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other outlets.
But Gilbert did not bother. Though The Washington Post was indeed one of America's top media outlets, it was mainly focused on political news.
Simply put, when it came to Hollywood, The Washington Post was an outsider.
Secondly, there were plenty of outlets attacking Gilbert already, and he rarely paid them any attention. Having such a media voice constantly doubting him also served as a reminder for Gilbert.
It kept him from falling into the trap of pride and arrogance, unable to extricate himself, and sliding step by step into the abyss of failure.
If one day, the entire media landscape were nothing but praises of his achievements, that would actually be more dangerous for Gilbert.
David Ellison, however, was deeply displeased with The Washington Post, especially with the phrase "promising future."
The commentary piece ended by encouraging him with the line, "The future is yours," which David Ellison found extremely mocking.
He could even imagine that someday, when he and Gilbert crossed paths again, Gilbert would wear a false smile and say to him: "The future is yours…"
If David Ellison ever heard those words, he would no doubt be instantly enraged and broken.
It was precisely because of this line that David Ellison blacklisted The Washington Post, deciding it was not a respectable outlet.
Aside from the box office performances of the two films, and the heated discussions generated by The False, there was another matter worth noting.
Even in North America, where copyright laws were relatively robust, piracy still existed.
For example, in the surrounding markets there were still products smuggled in from Mexico. During the release of The Return of the King, even Mexican drug cartels had started producing pirated merchandise for the film.
This showed just how lucrative the profits from merchandise could be—even cartels in such high-profit illegal industries could not resist.
But this time, the captured pirates were not involved in counterfeit merchandise, but in pirated film resources.
The incident began in a Sacramento theater, where a sixteen-year-old boy used a digital camcorder to secretly record The False during a showing.
He thought he would not be discovered, but what he did not know was that the cinema was already equipped with advanced night-vision equipment.
So his clandestine recording was quickly noticed by theater staff, and anti-piracy agencies soon locked onto him. Following the trail, they dismantled an entire local piracy ring.
It turned out this was a family crime operation: the father was the mastermind, responsible for planning and producing the pirated discs; the mother handled contact with buyers;
And the son, taking advantage of his underage status, snuck into theaters to secretly record films.
However, under the new law passed this January, though the boy was a minor, he still faced one year of imprisonment and a $25,000 fine.
As for his parents, they would likely end up in federal prison.
No one sympathized with this criminal family. On the contrary, Hollywood studios vowed to take heavy-handed action as a warning to others. If piracy were allowed to run rampant, their interests would be harmed.
This incident sparked considerable discussion, with media outlets emphasizing that piracy would always be prosecuted.
Of course, piracy did not hinder the strong performance of The False. Having performed well on Friday and Saturday, the film continued its momentum, grossing $25.442 million on Sunday.
This brought The False's opening weekend box office to $81.525 million, an exceptional achievement.
At this point, those who had called its box office poor were left speechless. If a film that made over eighty million dollars in its opening weekend was "poor," what would that say about the rest of the industry?
That supposedly "promising" Van Helsing grossed only $11.249 million on Sunday, a sharp drop.
Its opening weekend totaled $43.426 million, far from qualifying as a true rival to The False.
....
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