Of course, it wasn't all bad news. On the search rankings of Banana's rival, Google, Kingdom of Heaven managed to grab the second spot on the trending list.
That second-place topic, however, was related to Orlando Bloom—specifically, to his looks. The trending keyword said that fans were captivated by Orlando Bloom's handsome face after watching the movie.
At first glance, Google's trending topics seemed to have taken on the same character as the trending lists once seen on Weibo and Baidu back in the previous world.
And in fact, it was exactly the same thing. Google Search, in an effort to boost profits, had just rolled out a new paid trending feature.
Of course, these paid trends were an open secret—an unspoken rule that most people simply didn't acknowledge.
As for why Google was able to come up with such an idea, it was actually because of Banana.
In the original timeline, without Banana, the largest search engine in the United States would have been Google.
But things were different now. Banana had taken the lion's share of the market, leaving Google to merely sip the leftovers with the other smaller search engines.
That was something Google couldn't accept. So, while they copied Banana's features, they also created a paid trending algorithm. With their still-considerable web traffic, they managed to attract a number of clients.
At least, many Hollywood celebrities—big and small—who needed publicity quickly recognized the value of "buying their way" onto the rankings and paid Google plenty of money.
After this feature appeared, Banana was about to copy it for itself. With Banana's sheer scale, Google's paid trend market would have been crushed instantly.
But this move was stopped by Gilbert. In his words, "We must be a conscientious internet company. Our rankings should reflect real data."
The deeper reason, however, was to preserve the site's reputation for honesty—at least, to make users believe that the information on Banana was authentic.
As for why he wanted users to believe it was authentic, Gilbert hadn't yet figured out the exact purpose. But he was certain it would prove useful someday.
Back to the films—the gap between the two movies in terms of audience reception was staggering.
According to theater survey data, Batman Begins had an audience approval rating of 85%, with an average grade of A–.
Meanwhile, Kingdom of Heaven had an approval rating of only 53%, with an average grade of C—far inferior to Batman Begins.
The difference between the two films was clear in every aspect, and so the outcome of their opening-day box office was unsurprising.
Batman Begins, opening in 3,600 theaters, grossed $23.548 million on its first day—a solid debut and, unsurprisingly, the box-office champion of the day.
Kingdom of Heaven, released in 3,860 theaters, earned only $8.67 million—so low it was almost unbelievable.
Yet the cold, hard numbers lay right on the desks of the executives at 20th Century Fox, and even the most optimistic among them had to admit that the gulf between the two films was enormous.
Though it was already early Saturday morning, the conference room at Century City's 20th Century Fox headquarters was still thick with smoke and heavy silence.
Ridley Scott sat at the far end of the table, quietly observing the reactions of the Fox executives. Seeing that most of them didn't look particularly dispirited, a cold sneer formed in his heart.
He knew exactly why they weren't too upset—because Kingdom of Heaven's main production funding came from several Wall Street film funds, while Fox's own investment was actually the smallest.
That was why Fox hadn't put much effort into the film's marketing, handling it perfunctorily at best.
Yet when it came to production, they had meddled constantly, interfering with his creative control—resulting in a disjointed mess that doomed the movie to fail.
What angered Ridley Scott the most was that he had lost in such a humiliating fashion—to a younger man, to Gilbert.
Now, whenever people mentioned epic films, the names that came up were Gilbert and his The Lord of the Rings, while Gladiator—once the pride of Ridley Scott—was all but forgotten. He felt it was deeply unfair.
Compared to Ridley Scott's wounded pride, the Fox executives' thinking was far more straightforward. The head of distribution, Scott, turned to CEO Rodman and suggested, "Given the weak opening performance, I recommend reducing the resources allocated to Kingdom of Heaven."
Rodman didn't make a hasty decision and instead asked, "What's the response from the theaters?"
Scott replied, "The theater chains said that starting tomorrow, they'll follow the contract and begin cutting the number of screens."
Rodman nodded. Once the showings started getting reduced, there was no point trying to save the film anymore.
Fortunately, 20th Century Fox had already secured a hefty sum from the Wall Street film funds, so they were practically breaking even with minimal losses. There was no need to struggle further.
But Ridley Scott disagreed. He spoke up, "We can still talk to the theaters, at least to ensure the screening numbers don't drop!"
"How?" Scott's tone was unpleasant, as if Ridley Scott were some rookie director he could scold at will. "Didn't you see the theater audience survey results?
With such terrible word of mouth, how do you expect to gain the theaters' support?"
"This…" Ridley Scott instantly realized that the other Scott had just dumped all the blame on him.
He felt a surge of frustration and suddenly had no desire to continue speaking.
If he had ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he would probably have muttered the same words as Cao Cao: "Fools and knaves are not worth plotting with!"
And just like that, in a few short exchanges, the fate of Kingdom of Heaven was sealed.
Inside the Melon Studio, everyone was delighted upon hearing the first-day box office report. Ivanka looked at Gilbert with admiring eyes and said, "We won, and it was so easy."
"Of course," Gilbert replied,"From the premiere to the midnight shows, and then through a whole day of positive word of mouth, our victory was inevitable."
Cameron Diaz couldn't help but sigh. "Yeah, I didn't expect us to win this easily. I thought it would be a fierce battle."
Over at Warner Bros., the studio began a full-scale public relations campaign with the theaters after Batman Begins' outstanding performance, determined to increase the number of screenings.
Of course, the theater chains weren't foolish. Led by Emperor Theaters and AMG Theaters, most began reducing showings of Kingdom of Heaven.
The slots freed up by these cuts were, naturally, reallocated to Batman Begins.
During the busiest Saturday of the weekend, Batman Begins gained one to two additional showings per theater. This translated to a Saturday box office of $27.334 million.
Meanwhile, Kingdom of Heaven, its rival in the same release window, saw its numbers drop—earning only $5.27 million that day. It was clear the film had no hope left.
If that was the result during the most lucrative Saturday slot, then there was no need to even mention Sunday.
Kingdom of Heaven's screenings continued to be slashed, losing another 20% of its showings.
Of course, not all of those showings went to Batman Begins; other films benefited too, gaining a fair share of the freed-up slots.
Such was the cruelty of the movie market—once a film failed, it was abandoned instantly. Even a movie by Gilbert would face the same fate if it couldn't perform.
...
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