American fame and fortune.

Chapter 902: The victorious clown and the defeated justice

boom! boom--

The sound of gunfire echoed in the theater, the audience's hearts tightened, and their suppressed emotions gradually became tense.

As the clown fired repeatedly, the heads of those wealthy elites who laughed at him, bullied him, and oppressed him exploded like rotten watermelons, and bright red juice spurted out from the back of their heads, staining the white walls and floors red.

The body twitched on the ground, and the clown ran out of the door and started running wildly.

His face was painted with pale oil paint and a bloody mouth. He was wearing a purple performance suit and running wildly in the wind, as if running towards a free future.

The audience's repressed emotions were released, and the clown on the screen who was killing people and running towards freedom seemed to be themselves.

Many ordinary people live a hard life and hope to see the future, but their biggest worry is also not being able to see the future.

Their future is clear at a glance.

A heavy burden weighs on my shoulders, but I am powerless to change it.

People who are content with the status quo can at least get by with their lives.

Those who want to change are squeezed dry of every last drop of oil by the stubborn upper class as huge as the Andes Mountains.

Too many people have already overdrawn their plans for the next few decades and are stuck in the same quagmire as the Joker, unable to extricate themselves.

The Joker seemed to represent them, killing those oil-squeezing bastards, smashing the original order, and rushing towards an unknown future.

It may really reveal some people's psychology and hidden thoughts.

The clown on the screen was running wildly, and applause suddenly broke out from the back row of the theater where the ordinary audience gathered.

Then the applause filled the entire theater!
This is not the Cannes Film Festival where applause is a business, but an ordinary movie premiere.

Neither Martin, the crew nor the distributor used an accomplice.

Almost all the ordinary audience members applauded the film.

The thunderous applause attracted Zack Snyder to look back. He couldn't help but ask, "Is it that exaggerated?"

Deborah said: "It seemed like the movie had a huge emotional resonance with them."

Gal Gadot was stunned for a moment and said, "It feels like the Joker is more popular than Batman, Superman and my character combined."

Zack Snyder said: "Don't feel bad, there is no such scene in Batman v Superman."

The applause died down and the theater fell silent, except for the increasingly insane clown.

All the energy is focused on the movie again.

The film gradually comes to an end.

On the screen, countless people surrounded the Joker and regarded him as a hero.

The protesting citizens of Gotham carried the Joker and regarded him as their spiritual leader.

The Joker has become a symbol of freedom, and the ultimate freedom is chaos.

He is the symbol of Gotham, the agent of chaos!

Gotham City, a city of talented people, has welcomed a leader who can lead them to a new life.

After the premiere, applause broke out again like a tide.

In the first row, Daniel stood up and hugged Martin, saying, "Although I have watched several previews before, every time I watch it, I can have new insights. This is definitely a masterpiece that perfectly combines commerce and art."

Martin smiled and said, "Thank you."

Elizabeth stood aside, just smiling and clapping, without saying much.

The main creative staff of the crew hugged each other, and everyone was very excited.

The film received rave reviews during the preview screenings, and they witnessed the quality of the finished film with their own eyes, so they had a basic judgment in their minds that the film would not be bad.

Martin invited the crew to come on stage for their curtain call.

The audience applauded again and again.

The premiere screening ends here.

As soon as the show ended, a professional survey team hired by Warner Bros. went out to collect comments and ratings from ordinary audiences.

"A+! Martin's film really captured my heart!"

"I'd still give it an A, because this is only the second film directed by Martin, and he still has room for improvement in the future! Of course, the film is very well made and the acting is also very good. This is DC, this is the Joker!"

"No doubt, A+! Martin not only played the Joker well, but also filmed it well. I thought Martin's Joker in The Dark Knight was the pinnacle, but this one is the best!"

"I used to have a lot of pressure in my heart, which made me feel uncomfortable. Today, I finally let it out. This clown is not a god, but a human being, just one of us, ordinary people like you and me! A+ is not enough to express my love for this movie and this character. If the full score is 1000, I will give it points!"

The words of this bespectacled movie fan resonated with the people around him, and many of them shouted.

"I give it a 2000!"

"No, it should be 1 points!"

The film is about to be released nationwide and enter the North American film market, and now it needs the recognition of ordinary audiences.

There is no doubt that Martin has done a great job in this regard.

At least several hundred viewers who watched the premiere left ratings.

Martin got the feedback immediately.

Louise hurried into the lounge, nodded to Elizabeth, and handed a statistical report to Martin: "The latest statistics are out. A total of 366 viewers rated the film, and the average score of the film is A+!"

Martin took a quick look and said, "It's OK."

Louise said, "You call this okay? It couldn't be better."

Elizabeth took the statistical table from Martin and looked at it carefully.

Daniel came in from outside at this time and said, "The reputation is still strong!"

Martin said directly: "For the final pre-screening promotion, we will still focus on word-of-mouth marketing."

"No problem." Daniel responded: "Warner Bros. is ready."

He had a feeling that this would most likely be the first movie to reach $10 billion at the global box office after he took over Warner Bros.

Martin checked the time and said, "Let's stop here today."

The group left the Chief Stone Theater one after another.

The film's popularity on the Internet continues, with major social media platforms as the center. Positive reviews of "Joker" have appeared in front of a large number of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and INS users.

On Thursday night, "Joker" landed in 3500 theaters in North America ahead of schedule.

Theaters across the United States became gathering places for crazy clowns, and this R-rated film took in $1860 million at the midnight box office.

By Friday daytime, the film had expanded its screening to 4250 theaters.

All the demons and monsters in America have only one image on this day - the clown!
The millions of Joker-style dark purple suits that Warner Bros. had prepared in advance were almost sold out on Friday.

The latest Joker figures and dolls are sold out immediately.

The crew signed a contract with Lily for a handmade commemorative edition, and it is currently hard to get one.

Street painters across North America were basically doing the same job on this day, providing clown makeup services to fans.

On the Internet, clowns have long been deified.

Now, the transformation from God to man has been achieved.

"It's very dark and very depressing, just like our society, there's no light in sight."

"Martin's Joker did what we wanted to do but couldn't do."

"After watching Martin's Joker, you will understand that our society is really sick."

Perhaps one movie fan expressed the true feelings of many people.

“The real world is not as hopeless as in the movies, and violence, killing and anarchism are not the solutions to problems. But after watching Martin’s Joker, you will feel particularly refreshed, as if all the depression that has been pent up for years has been vented out with the movie. Not only will you sympathize with the Joker, you will also identify with him, and even begin to understand the real world from his perspective.”

The excellent reputation brings in super high attendance rate.

Also released in October, last year's "Split", starring Martin, is not even a little brother to "Joker".

On the first day of its release in North America, including the midnight show box office, "Joker" earned 6452 million US dollars!
This set a new North American single-day box office record in October.

The latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter focused on analyzing Martin's new film.

“What is the charm of Joker? It represents a kind of freedom, describes the living conditions of people at the bottom of society, and expresses a wail of pain and disgust from the bottom of one’s heart against the current sick and indifferent power and ruling system.”

The film caters to the psychology of the general public, and its good word-of-mouth reputation encourages people to continue to go to the cinema and buy tickets.

On Saturday, the film earned another 5766 million U.S. dollars in North American theaters!
At this point, both Hollywood and others can see clearly that the film that will compete with "Captain America 3" for the North American and global annual box office championship is here!
The latter's North American box office of $4.08 million and global box office of $11.55 billion does not seem far away.

The opening weekend box office of "Joker" also proved such strength.

After three days of the weekend, the film grossed $4250 million in 1.68 theaters in North America!
This also broke the North American opening record for an R-rated film previously held by "John Wick 3".

Similarly, this is also the highest opening record in the North American film market in October.

…………

"I didn't expect that the one who could really threaten Marvel superhero movies would be Martin."

In a reception room at Disney headquarters, Kevin Feige lifted his baseball cap and said: "DC's movies are vulnerable, except for Martin."

Robert Iger, who was sitting in the main seat, said: "Fortunately it was Martin, not Justice League." Alan Horn looked at Kevin Feige and said: "I advised you to sign Martin with a basic salary of 2000 million US dollars plus a share of the later period, but you didn't listen. If you had Martin, the Avengers would have had a greater influence."

Kevin Feige did not deny the mistakes he made that year: "It was my fault. At that time, I could only save the budget and spend more money on the movie itself..."

Robert Iger waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about what happened back then. DC's Justice League is about to be released. Joss Whedon has worked with us before. You know his abilities. What are the chances that DC will threaten Marvel?"

Kevin Feige said: "It's very small. The real essence of DC movies is precisely darkness, seriousness and depth. Both "The Dark Knight" and "The Joker" have proved this point! Joss Whedon is not good at these. "Justice League" is not a rewrite, but a patchwork based on Zack Snyder's work. It is difficult for Joss to handle it well."

Allen Horn agreed: "Yes, if it were to overturn and start over, the success might be greater, but Warner and DC don't have that much determination."

"Not many people have that much determination." Robert Iger smiled and said, "If we just throw away more than $200 million, the board of directors of Warner Bros. and Time Warner will go crazy."

Allen Horn said: "DC is not a threat to Marvel. I have discussed this with Martin, and he said that the more successful "Joker" is, the more embarrassed "Justice League" will be when it is released next month."

Robert Iger himself is not involved in the film's front-line production, so he doesn't particularly understand it.

Kevin Feige easily thought of it: "The theme and plot of "Joker" are dark, heavy and serious to the extreme. In the next one, a bunch of funny DC heroes suddenly pop up, haha..."

Robert Iger also laughed and said, "Martin's new film has great reputation and box office."

The popularity of "Joker" was also noticed by the executives of Warner Bros. and DC Films.

For the sake of "Justice League" which will be released next month, Warner Bros. used the company's normal procedures to put pressure on "Joker" to insert advertisements for "Justice League".

Some media reporters also interviewed Martin, who was promoting "Joker", about this matter.

Facing the camera, Martin said directly: "Sorry, I don't want to talk about topics that have nothing to do with the Joker."

The reporter was not convinced and asked, "But the Joker is from DC, right?"

Martin spread his hands, very helpless: "DC executives have said more than once that "Joker" does not belong to DC movies. My film was fired by DC."

After leaving the announcement site, Martin got into the car, followed by Thomas who sat in the passenger seat.

“Justice League is riding on our popularity,” he said.

"It's not that easy to take advantage of our popularity." Martin had a plan in advance, and said to Thomas: "Let someone start the movement and create some momentum in the media and on the Internet."

Thomas responded: "It's ready."

Martin looked at Bruce: "Is there any latest news over there?"

Bruce knew he was asking Ivan: "Have you ever taken a photo of the two of them being intimate?"

Martin nodded. "Very good. Normally, this won't affect Kevin Tsujihara. But if Justice League fails, I'll give Daniel a knife."

During this period, there have been constant discussions about "Joker" and "Justice League".

A film that Warner Bros. and DC executives were not optimistic about, and even did not acknowledge as a DC movie, but it created high box office and explosively high reputation.

The Hollywood industry, the media, and movie fans are all praising the Warner Bros. group's amazing move.

Vanity Fair also published an analysis article on this: "Since the new management of Warner Bros. took office in 2010, in just over six years, they have messed up more than a dozen large projects with investments of hundreds of millions of dollars. Warner's film business has been in a slump. The truly commercially profitable works during this period are either left over from the predecessors or are projects like Joker that were marginalized by Warner management in the early stages."

"Therefore, there is a saying in the Hollywood industry that the Warner Bros. team is the most powerful ability of this management team, which is to use genius creativity and thinking to avoid every success factor of the film project, causing huge losses for Warner Bros...."

The higher the box office of "Joker", the more it shows that the Warner Bros. team has a unique vision.

Although the number of fans who have watched the movie has increased and its reputation has inevitably declined, the film's box office performance has been stable and there has been no major decline.

In the second weekend in North America, "Joker" earned another 8657 million US dollars, still topping the North American box office rankings.

Combined with the revenue from the previous four working days, the film’s North American box office totaled $3.27 million.

This number far exceeds that of "Captain America 3" which was released ten days ago.

In the same week, "Joker" opened simultaneously in 78 overseas markets, grossing $1.805 million in its first week, and the global box office easily exceeded the $5 million mark.

The competition for the North American and global box office crown in 2016 has gradually lost its suspense.

In sharp contrast is "Justice League".

This superhero masterpiece, which brings together countless expectations of Warner and DC, released an official trailer edited by Joss Whedon himself in late October. The six giants of the Justice League gathered in a live-action movie for the first time.

The idea of ​​the Warner team is to use the attention brought to DC characters by "Joker" to attract as much eyeballs as possible and attract the attention of movie fans.

But contrary to expectations, the trailer was met with a barrage of criticism as soon as it was released.

Even though the outside world had expected the change in director from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon, it still broke the psychological bottom line of DC fans.

Wherever the trailer could be seen, it was filled with negative reviews from DC fans.

"Oh my god, this is a DC superhero movie? It's full of gags and cheap jokes. Just looking at the trailer, it's a piece of shit produced on an assembly line. I hope the feature film will be better."

"Sure enough, the most worried thing happened. Zack Snyder was kicked out of the crew, and the film director became Joss Whedon. The style has completely changed. The trailer has already foreshadowed the result. This is a Justice League without soul!"

"Just watching the trailer made me so embarrassed. I couldn't believe that something this bad was actually the trailer for Justice League."

The fans next door were mocking.

"If you change the heroes' costumes, people will believe it's an Avengers movie."

"DC has not found the right path at all. They can only follow the path taken by the Avengers. I dare to predict that they will not even get the leftovers of the Avengers on this path."

"They have Nolan and Martin but they have to create conflicts with them and expel them from DC. The Warner Bros. are indeed a group of super talents!"

Even though the pre-release response was not good, at this point, Warner and DC had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to promote the marketing of "Justice League" and release it before Thanksgiving as planned.

As long as the movie is released, regardless of its success or failure, part of the investment can always be recovered.

Of course, Warner and DC did a lot of work and invested heavily in publicity and promotion. They also used the power of one of the six major companies to suppress all the voices of dissatisfaction with Joss Whedon in the crew to avoid negative news that would bring more impact to the film.

The reshoot crew, which was originally like a powder keg, was able to maintain a temporary calm. If the film is successful, everyone will benefit from it and everything will disappear.

However, the pre-sale of "Justice League" which started in early November has made Warner and DC worried.

North American moviegoers seemed to have lost interest in the film, or were taking a wait-and-see attitude, with pre-sale box office in North America taking in less than $150 million in the first week.

This created a chain reaction, and pre-sales continued to decline.

Some professional entertainment media pointed out that after several previews, "Justice League" still has not lifted its reputation.

In contrast, for "Joker", major websites and media opened the rating system early during the preview.

The North American film market has already reached a consensus.

A film that announces its ratings in advance is not necessarily a good film, but if the ratings are not announced until the last day before its release, the film is definitely not very good.

Until the premiere of "Justice League", the ratings, including Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, were still not released.

Warner Bros. held a grand premiere for the film, and even invited all the other stars who had appeared in DC superhero movies, including Martin, to attend, and also tried hard to be reliable to "Joker".

In order to make a last-ditch effort, Hamada automatically forgot what he had said before. In an interview with the media, he said: "Joker is a great movie and an integral part of the DC superhero force. It is also with the contrast of other DC superheroes such as Batman that the Joker has extraordinary charm."

The media that interviewed him was from Warner Bros. The reporter was very polite and asked according to the draft prepared in advance: "Will there be any interaction between this Joker and Justice League in the future?"

Hamada smiled and said: "DC is considering linking the Joker with the Justice League. We plan to invite Martin to work on the plan together..."

Martin walked quickly along the red carpet without entering the media area. He entered the Dolby Theater with Bruce and went up to the second floor together.

Louise and Daniel stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor, looking at Hamada and Joss Whedon in the media area.

Daniel smiled and said, "Congratulations on our film's global box office exceeding one billion dollars."

After five weeks of release in North America, "Joker" earned $4.62 million and a total global box office of $10.15 billion.

It's only a matter of time before it surpasses Captain America 3.

Facing his allies, Martin said something very nice: "The strong support of Warner Bros. Pictures is crucial."

He then asked, "What does Warner Bros. actually expect from Justice League?"

"The pre-sales were not ideal, so we simply didn't announce it later." Daniel lowered his voice and said, "Hamada and Kevin Tsujihara are still hoping that the film can make around $1 million in North America in its first weekend. In my opinion, even $7000 million will be difficult."

He said the truth: "Without the fame that Superman and Batman have accumulated over the years, this movie would have been lucky to have $4000 million in its opening weekend."

Martin understood and said, "Are you ready over there?"

"Of course, it will be hard for the Warner Bros. and Time Warner boards to tolerate this," Daniel said. "All it takes is a suitable reason and excuse."

Martin said: "Once the first week box office is released, someone will give you a copy."

Daniel nodded slightly: "It is in the interests of both of us, so I won't say thank you."

Martin simply said, "If you hit a snake, either don't hit it at all, or if you do, kill it and don't give it a chance to turn over and bite you."

Daniel said: "It's a life-and-death struggle within the group."

The three chatted for a while and then went downstairs to the theater lobby before the premiere.

This "Justice League" has no surprises and gives people a particularly serious sense of fragmentation. With a lot of Avengers-style jokes and a large amount of reshoots interspersed, the film's rhythm is obviously problematic.

However, the problem of imbalance in combat power could not be solved, and Superman came out and finished the job with one punch.

After the film was released, it received a lot of negative reviews. The fans that had been cultivated did not buy into it, passers-by said it was boring and incomprehensible, and the few viewers who had seen it regretted it and complained on various online platforms about the dollars they had wasted.

During the North American premiere weekend, the DC Justice League movie universe, which took nearly seven years from planning to final release, basically came to an end.

Because the box office on its opening weekend was only 6638 million US dollars.

Several market institutions predict that the North American box office of "Justice League" will be less than $2 million, and the global box office will be at most $5 million.

The film's production cost alone was as high as $3.5 million.

(End of this chapter)