"Ivanka, sit down and have breakfast."
Cameron Diaz greeted warmly, and Ivanka sat down at the dining table, looking shy and embarrassed like a bashful young wife.
Sitting at the head of the table, Gilbert was eating well; he had already finished his meal and was reading the newspaper.
"It seems Kingdom of Heaven isn't doing well in the media. The midnight box office was only $3.47 million, and the newspapers are full of criticism," Gilbert said.
Ivanka responded, "The film's performance at the premiere was terrible. Audiences have no reason to support a movie that isn't good.
Naturally, Warner wouldn't miss the opportunity to take advantage of this, and other studios have followed suit."
Gilbert said, "The Hollywood Reporter criticized the movie, saying that throughout its two-hour runtime, it's filled with one battle after another.
And these battles are all mixed together—aside from tattered clothes and long, dirty hair, audiences shouldn't expect anything else from this movie."
"That's quite accurate," Cameron Diaz said. "Sophia mentioned that she attended the premiere, and what she saw was exactly that."
"There's more. Here's Roger Ebert's review—it's longer. Let me read it to you."
Gilbert flipped open The Chicago Sun-Times and read aloud: "The greatest strengths and weaknesses of epic films are both on full display in Kingdom of Heaven.
Its strength lies in its magnificent scale, a kind of visual appeal that transcends borders and cultural barriers. But the weakness is that spectacle often clashes with drama.
Dramatic tension comes from the conflict of personalities, while grand visuals tend to obscure those elements—like the contradiction between trees and the forest.
A single tree drives the drama forward, while the forest is imposing and marketable. It's not impossible to see both the trees and the forest, but it's far more difficult.
This review is interesting—it's almost as if he's offering advice to Director Scott."
Ivanka bit into her bread and said, "Roger Ebert was still being polite to Ridley Scott. If he'd wanted to, his sharp tongue could've talked Ridley Scott to death."
"Maybe it's because Gladiator left such a strong impression. Back then, Ebert even said Ridley Scott was one of Hollywood's best directors. He can't just slap himself in the face now, can he?" Cameron Diaz said.
"You're right," Ivanka agreed.
Of course, not all reviews were negative. The New York Times, for instance, wrote:
"Kingdom of Heaven is actually well made. Ridley Scott's mastery in depicting individual heroism remains skillful, and the actors' performances contribute significantly. The script and dialogue are meaningful.
The confrontation between the Crusaders and Muslims in Jerusalem, the three-day, three-night battle scenes are grand, and the love story between the leads is passable.
So why didn't the film receive ideal reviews? Simply put, there have just been too many of this type in recent years. It's as if the studios tried to dump several years' worth of epics all at once.
Epic films are similar to war films. Compared with the grandeur of The Lord of the Rings and the brutal realism of Saving Private Ryan, Kingdom of Heaven fails to break new ground in its visuals, and its emotional impact is much weaker."
The New York Times believed that the disappointing premiere and poor midnight performance had little to do with the film's actual quality, but rather with audience fatigue from seeing too many similar movies in recent years.
The New York Times even used Batman Begins as an example, stating that Gilbert's work was outstanding.
He brought a brand-new creative vision to the Batman franchise, breathing new life into the series.
More importantly, he broke away from the traditional formulas of superhero blockbusters, which was one of the reasons for the film's strong premiere and midnight performance.
At Century City, inside 20th Century Fox headquarters, Ridley Scott had arrived early that morning.
He had just received the midnight box office numbers, and the $3.47 million figure stung his eyes. If it were an average movie, that might have been acceptable—but Kingdom of Heaven had a $130 million budget.
For a film with such massive investment, that midnight box office was absolutely unacceptable.
But what could Ridley Scott do? 20th Century Fox simply wouldn't listen to him.
They rejected his own three-hour-and-fourteen-minute cut and reduced the film to a fragmented two-hour-and-twenty-five-minute version.
This allowed theaters to squeeze in one or two more screenings per day, but the entire story became completely disjointed and lost its coherence.
Ridley Scott then looked at the midnight box office of Batman Begins—$7.73 million. A decent, respectable result.
But one mustn't forget, this was a franchise that had already died once. That midnight performance meant the Batman films had come back to life.
Of course, it could also be attributed to Gilbert's enormous box office appeal.
Whether the series could truly be revived, however, would depend on its opening-day and first-weekend numbers.
Still, from the test screenings to the premiere and now to the midnight release, the word of mouth for Batman Begins was far better than Kingdom of Heaven's. That was clearly a very good sign.
A good sign for Batman Begins naturally meant bad news for Kingdom of Heaven. Ridley Scott had already sensed trouble since yesterday.
Meanwhile, after breakfast, Gilbert asked Ivanka, "Ivanka, are you coming with me to the studio or staying home?"
Ivanka replied, "I'll go with you to the studio."
"Alright," Gilbert agreed.
The three of them took the car to the Melon Studio to handle some work. At the same time, in both Los Angeles and New York, a Batmobile parade was being held simultaneously.
In Los Angeles, a convoy of sixteen Batmobiles and sixteen stunt drivers dressed in full Batman suits attracted massive crowds.
The parade started from the Chinese Theatre, passed through Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, and other famous Los Angeles streets and landmarks.
New York held an identical event—beginning at Times Square, passing Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, Central Park, and Madison Square.
Both parades drew tens of thousands of spectators who followed the convoy in person, while several TV stations covered the event live. NBC even broadcast the entire parade.
Lead actors Christian Bale and Liam Neeson attended the Los Angeles event, while Jennifer Connelly and Gary Oldman appeared at the New York one.
It could be said that this wave of publicity completely captured the attention of moviegoers, effortlessly crushing Kingdom of Heaven in popularity.
The difference was even more apparent online. On the Watermelon social media platform, related posts and shares about Batman Begins exceeded 600,000, while Kingdom of Heaven had just over 110,000.
On Watermelon's video-sharing site, the final trailer of Batman Begins had already surpassed two million views, while Kingdom of Heaven had far fewer.
On Banana Search's newly released trending list, five of the top ten keywords were about Batman Begins, while Kingdom of Heaven had only one.
And that one—ranked tenth—was trending only because audiences were dissatisfied with the movie and were criticizing it.
...
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