On Saturday morning, Rex Reed left his house early and went to Main Street in Chatham Town, where he bought a newspaper and entered a coffee shop for his morning tea. This was his habit; he didn't have to work at the newspaper's editorial department every day, only needing to go in two days a week.
Perhaps because it was still early, there were very few people in the coffee shop. Besides the staff, only one table had customers. Rex Reed ordered a cup of coffee, sat down in his usual spot, and opened the newspaper to read.
Just as he finished reading the political news section, someone else walked into the coffee shop.
"Hi, Rex!" The newcomer greeted him familiarly. Rex Reed looked up at him and nodded slightly, "Hello, John."
The man named John walked past him, then suddenly stopped and asked curiously, "Rex, are you ready?"
Rex Reed looked at him, confused. "Ready for what?"
John reminded him, "Aren't you reading the newspaper? Didn't you see? The box office for 'The Scorpion King' has already exceeded 30 million dollars."
Since they were quite familiar, John didn't say anything more and swayed towards a seat in the back.
A staff member then came over with the coffee he had ordered, having just overheard their conversation. He put down the coffee, took Rex Reed's tip, and asked cautiously, "Mr. Reed, you're not really going to kiss a donkey's ass, are you?"
Rex Reed shot him a glance, and the staff member quickly walked away.
With two people asking the same question, Rex Reed immediately turned the newspaper to the entertainment section and quickly found the box office statistics report from yesterday. "The Scorpion King" was at the top!
This meant it was yesterday's North American box office champion.
He glanced at the numbers and was slightly stunned: 13.3 million dollars!
Although he was mentally prepared, Rex Reed was still a bit surprised. This box office figure was too high, wasn't it? Universal Pictures' expectation for the entire weekend was only between 15 million and 20 million dollars.
With 13.3 million dollars on Friday alone, even after deducting the more than 3.4 million dollars from Thursday's early screenings, "The Mummy"'s single-day box office still exceeded 10 million dollars. It was very likely to break 30 million dollars over the three-day weekend. For a film with a production cost of only 40 million dollars, this was definitely quite successful.
A mindless popcorn entertainment film, is it really that good? He shook his head, knowing that he, as a film critic, was too far removed from the teenage audience and simply couldn't gauge the psychology of teenagers, who are the main market.
His phone suddenly vibrated. Rex Reed pulled it out, looked at it, and then answered the call. "is something wrong, Carter?"
The person calling was Carter Hodgson, who had contacted him a while ago.
"Just a reminder..." A man's voice came through the phone, "'The Mummy''s North American opening weekend box office has exceeded 30 million dollars."
Rex Reed remained calm and said, "I saw it."
Another voice came through the phone, "Don't forget to come to the TV station tonight. I'll be waiting for you in the studio."
"Don't worry, I'm a very trustworthy person!" Rex Reed remembered something. "Contact the TV station and have them come here to pick up the donkey."
Hearing the other person agree, Rex Reed hung up the phone, finished the coffee in his cup, and left the coffee shop earlier than usual, preparing to head to New York.
He wouldn't break his promise. Not only would this matter continue to boost his visibility, but simply for the latter half of the 300,000 dollars, he couldn't give up now.
As for his reputation, do critics need such a thing?
In Los Angeles, inside the conference room at Universal Studios, Universal Pictures' executives were holding a meeting.
"Although the word-of-mouth isn't great, the early promotional efforts were very effective, and the film's selling points are prominent, its strengths also very clear..."
Sean Daniel, sitting on one side of the conference table, looked somewhat triumphant at this moment. "Today's single-day box office is expected to see a significant increase compared to Friday."
Jett Britton, across from him, said, "The opening weekend's box office success is a foregone conclusion. Should we continue to fuel the promotional efforts?"
"That fire will burn tonight," said an executive in charge of marketing. "If you have time tonight, everyone can tune into NBC Channel Two."
Pleasant laughter immediately filled the conference room.
Philip Claxton, the Director of Production who was chairing the meeting, then said, "I didn't expect such a film to become Universal Pictures' first breakout hit this year."
In fact, everyone's expectations for "The Mummy" were quite limited; otherwise, the investment scale wouldn't have been capped at 40 million dollars.
"The only pity is..." Jett Britton said with some regret, "The film's word-of-mouth isn't very good, otherwise we could have continued to release sequels."
Everyone knew that sequels to popular movies, for Hollywood companies, carried less risk and were often more profitable.
The marketing executive chimed in, "But the male lead, Mathayus, has excellent word-of-mouth! Matthew Horner has received almost unanimous praise from the media and moviegoers. While there are criticisms against him, they are few enough to be negligible!"
Philip Claxton nodded and said, "Let's have someone conduct an initial assessment for a sequel. A series is more in line with our interests."
This point was almost universally agreed upon. With a sufficiently popular male lead, a sequel had the most basic guarantee.
After discussing this aspect, Sean Daniel suddenly suggested, "In our market research, Matthew Horner received praise from over sixty percent of the surveyed audience. I think we can release Mathayus action figures and dolls early. I believe sales will be good, and this can further stimulate the film's promotion."
Philip Claxton thought for a moment and agreed with Sean Daniel's suggestion, saying, "Communicate well with Matthew Horner's team and have him cooperate with our plan."
That afternoon, Matthew received a notification from Universal Pictures. He had no objections to this; firstly, it was part of the work stipulated in his contract, and secondly, his image was used for the action figures and dolls, so he had portrait rights earnings.
There are relevant laws and regulations in this regard. For example, for the Ronald Spears action figures from "The Mummy" released by HB, he received a share. Although the money wasn't much due to limited sales, it has amounted to several thousand dollars by now.
Compared to his salary, this money wasn't a lot, but that was also limited by the character and genre of the TV show. Not many viewers who liked "The SCORPION KING" would likely be keen on action figures.
"The Scorpion King" was different; it was a film specifically for teenagers, and teenagers' consumption habits for their preferences are often blind and impulsive.
After dinner, Matthew didn't do his usual practice. He first opened his computer and saw that many websites' entertainment sections featured news and reports related to "The Scorpion King." He specifically visited Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, and as the number of professional reviews increased and the audience who had seen the film skyrocketed, both Rotten Tomatoes' freshness rating and IMDb's score continued to decline.
"The Scorpion King"'s Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating was only 57%, and its average score was a pitiful 5.3, indicating very poor word-of-mouth on Rotten Tomatoes.
On IMDb, the audience's average rating also dropped to 6.0. No matter how you looked at it, the film's word-of-mouth could no longer be described as mediocre; it was gradually falling into the poor category.
However, Matthew, through his understanding over the past few years, also knew one thing: for Hollywood commercial films, it was not uncommon for films with terrible word-of-mouth on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb to have massive opening weekend box office success. This word-of-mouth mostly affected the film's later performance, not its opening weekend box office.
The scores from these two websites did not have as direct an impact on the box office as it might seem.
As the male lead, Matthew was relatively clear about some of the crew's strategies. The crew and Universal Pictures were striving for a box office explosion in the film's first three, or even first two, weeks.
This type of film was inherently a fast-moving consumer product. After twenty days of screening, the potential of the cinema market would largely be exhausted.
After browsing the web for a while, Matthew checked the time, turned off his computer, and sat in front of the TV. He turned on the TV and immediately switched to NBC Channel Two. After a short wait, a specially added temporary program made its debut.
On the TV screen, the familiar host appeared first. After a brief opening, the renowned film critic Rex Reed was invited up.
"Rex..." the host said, "Yesterday's box office for 'The Scorpion King' exceeded 10 million dollars."
"I saw it!" Rex Reed maintained his sharp and sarcastic style. "But I still have to say, this is a bad movie!"
The host asked curiously, "In your eyes, is 'The Scorpion King' completely worthless?"
Rex Reed shook his head. "No!" He said very solemnly, "I want to apologize to Matthew Horner. His character was brilliant, and he performed exceptionally well."
Anyone who agrees to participate in this kind of hype is certainly not a brainless idiot. He was clearly catering to the mainstream opinion.
"Matthew Horner must be very happy to hear your words," the host brought the topic back. "Do you remember what you said last week, that if the opening weekend box office could exceed 30 million dollars..."
"I'll kiss a donkey's ass!" Rex Reed proactively took over, saying generously, "I can't guarantee anything else, but as a critic, I always keep my word!"
The host asked with feigned surprise, "Rex, are you really going to kiss a donkey's ass?"
"Of course, I can't break my promise, can I?" Rex Reed said proactively, "I've already had someone bring the donkey Matthew Horner gave me..."
Soon, someone led a grey donkey into the studio, and under the gaze of countless viewers, Rex Reed firmly kissed the donkey's behind.