The Numbers Don't Lie.
June 14, 1997.
The numbers came in at midnight, hot off the fax machine.
Victor, the CEO of Wald Pictures, looked at the report and grinned. He looked at Kevin Fitch, his marketing head.
"Great job," Victor said, his voice trembling with excitement. "We did it."
The stats for The Purge were staggering:
Midnight Previews: $5.01 million.
Opening Day (Friday): $23.7 million.
It was the Number One movie in North America.
To put that in perspective, in 1997, a $23 million opening day was insane. It placed The Purge in the top ten opening days of the year.
"And look at the attendance," Kevin Fitch pointed out, tapping the paper. "We have the highest average attendance per theater. We are going to dominate the weekend."
Victor did the math in his head. The movie cost $12 million to produce. They had made back nearly double their production budget in one single day.
"Kevin," Victor commanded. "Trigger Phase Two. Tell Donna at UPN to flood the TV spots. Call the newspapers."
"And the internet?" Kevin asked.
"Especially the internet," Victor said firmly. "Get our online teams back into the forums. Keep the buzz alive."
In 1997, spending half your marketing budget on "online promotion" was unheard of. Hollywood thought the internet was a fad. But Wald Pictures knew better. They had hired teams to flood message boards and chat rooms, creating a viral wave before the term "viral" even existed.
And it was working.
The Call.
Victor dialed the phone.
"Victor?" Zane's voice came through, sounding sleepy but alert.
"Boss," Victor said. "Opening day. $23.7 million."
There was a silence on the other end. Then—
"Really?!" Zane shouted. "We took the number one spot?"
"We sure did."
Zane laughed. He was ecstatic. In his original timeline, the 2013 version of The Purge made about $89 million total. This 1997 version was on track to shatter that record. It was going to cross the $100 million mark easily.
"Great work, Victor," Zane said. "Keep pushing. I'm going to open a bottle of champagne."
The Mouse Roars.
While corks were popping at Wald Pictures, the mood at Disney Pictures was grim.
The boardroom was silent. The executives stared at the box office charts.
Their blockbuster, Con Air, had dropped to second place. It had only pulled in $6.3 million on Friday.
"Damn Wald Pictures," an executive cursed, slamming his pen down. "To hell with The Purge. How did a low-budget horror movie beat Nicolas Cage?"
"It doesn't matter," another executive snapped. "The weekend is lost for Con Air. We need to focus on tomorrow."
Tomorrow was June 15th. Father's Day.
And Disney was releasing its heavy hitter: Hercules.
(In this timeline, this wasn't just a cartoon. Disney had re-teamed with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a live-action blockbuster, hoping to recreate the magic of the 80s).
The door to the boardroom swung open.
The room went ice cold.
Michael Eisner walked in.
The Chairman of the Disney Group. The Emperor. The man who ruled the Magic Kingdom with an iron fist.
Eisner looked at the box office numbers. He looked at his terrified executives.
"Idiots," Eisner hissed.
"We are Disney. We do not lose to an upstart studio like Wald Pictures."
Eisner leaned over the table, his eyes drilling into them.
"I don't care what you have to do. You must crush The Purge. If Hercules underperforms because of that horror movie... you can all clear out your desks."
"Yes, sir," the executives stammered, sweating bullets.
They knew he wasn't bluffing.
Just look at Michael Ovitz. Ovitz was the king of Hollywood, the founder of CAA. He joined Disney as President in 1995. Less than a year later, Eisner fired him and humiliated him in front of the entire industry.
If Eisner could fire the King of Hollywood, he wouldn't hesitate to fire a room full of Vice Presidents.
The war was on. And the Mouse was out for blood.
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