"No prior news, Cameron suddenly appeared at the Iron Man scene, committing suicide as a loyal fan of Iron Man!"
"Cameron rated 8.2, his highest-rated work on Rotten Tomatoes"
"Rotten Tomatoes average rating 8.0, highest-rated superhero movie in history!"
Titles like these continuously appeared on Weibo and other online platforms. Although the methods and promotional headlines were crude, they were undeniably effective. At the very least, they succeeded in drawing in the first batch of audiences to cinemas to watch the movie titled "Iron Man."
There was no need for Huang He to do anything more, as the quality of the "Iron Man" movie itself would attract more audiences to cinemas. This had already been fully proven by history.
In fact, Boss Huang knew better than anyone that a movie's box office could only be influenced by factors like the actors' star power, various pre-release promotions, and rating manipulation for the first 300 million.
However, once it surpassed the 300 million mark, it would solely depend on the movie's own quality.
Of course, this referred to Chinese films in later generations. For American blockbusters, it was around 40 million US dollars that served as the standard dividing line.
As one of the main members of the Avengers, Iron Man, despite having a large comic readership, had never been released in cinemas before. Therefore, it required certain methods to stimulate audiences to enter theaters.
The subsequent tasks were sufficiently handled by Iron Man itself.
The reality proved to be so. Although "Iron Man" only grossed a little over 20 million US dollars in its opening weekend, which was better than most movies, based on past experience, there was virtually no possibility of the North American box office breaking 200 million. It would at most reach a little over 100 million, and if things went poorly, it might not even reach 100 million.
However, soon, every audience member who had watched the movie couldn't help but promote and recommend it to their friends, praising how good it was.
The fact proved that no matter how exaggerated the discussions on the internet were, they couldn't compare to a friend's simple remark, "This movie is really good."
Thus, Iron Man's comeback began.
According to the usual patterns of American movie box office, the opening weekend box office was a crucial data point. Multiplying this figure by about six would represent the upper limit of a movie's total box office.
This was because Americans had a strong habit of watching movies on weekends and tended to follow popular films. Therefore, over 90% of movies peaked on their opening weekend, with the opening weekend box office being their highest weekend gross.
The only way to break this box office ceiling was for the box office in the second week to surpass the opening weekend box office.
Generally speaking, if a movie's second-week box office managed to exceed its opening weekend box office, it was considered an excellent film and could be described as having strong legs, thus having the potential and opportunity to break through the ceiling.
If the third-week box office also surpassed the opening weekend box office, it would be incredible. Not only would the movie be guaranteed to break the previous ceiling, but it would also have a chance to become the year's champion.
The so-called year's champion meant the dominant film of the year.
If the movie was a commercial film, it would be the box office ceiling for commercial films that year.
If the movie was an art film, it would be a shoo-in for the Oscars that year, meaning the film dominant of the year, though such movies were definitely rare.
However, there was still another scenario: if the second-week box office was higher than the opening weekend, and the third-week box office was even higher than the second-week, it would signify the birth of a masterpiece.
The last film to achieve this was "Titanic" in 1997. That movie's highest weekend box office came in its fifth week. Moreover, its box office increased week after week compared to the previous weekend, making "Titanic" the benchmark for all films to this day.
Although "Iron Man" did not achieve the same overwhelming box office performance as "Titanic" back then, it undoubtedly stunned a large number of film critics.
In the second week of "Iron Man"'s release, the first four days were weekdays. According to logic, the movie's box office should have plummeted during these four days, and their combined total might not even match the revenue of a single Friday.
Let alone surpassing the opening weekend box office.
However, on August 8th, a very auspicious Monday, "Iron Man" grossed 11.2 million US dollars that day, surpassing the weekend box office of any of the previous three days, and even exceeding nearly half of the total revenue. This was an astonishing achievement for everyone.
On Tuesday, although it didn't surpass Monday again, it still grossed 10.12 million US dollars. The combined revenue of these two days already exceeded the opening weekend box office.
Upon seeing this, all cinema owners very tacitly began to increase the screening schedule for "Iron Man."
In fact, another significant reason for "Iron Man"'s opening weekend box office of only 20 million was the lack of support from major cinema chains.
In the United States, Hollywood film companies were not only film production companies but also owned a large number of cinema chains, controlling over 70% of cinemas in the United States.
In contrast to another world where Marvel Studios distributed the investment of "Iron Man" to three major Hollywood companies to pursue box office success, allowing the three cinema chains to share in "Iron Man"'s final profits, thus making the cinemas very enthusiastic about promoting "Iron Man" and actively increasing screening schedules and advertising.
Boss Huang in this world was naturally reluctant to share significant profits from a gold mine like "Iron Man" with other companies. Therefore, 21st Century Fox became "Iron Man"'s sole partner, holding a 10% investment in "Iron Man" and receiving a 10% share of the final profits. Consequently, 21st Century Fox actively utilized its cinema chains to promote "Iron Man."
Other film companies, bound by agreements, had to screen "Iron Man." However, to annoy Boss Huang, they not only suppressed the screening schedules to the minimum but also assigned the showings to many non-prime time slots. This resulted in "Iron Man"'s opening weekend box office being very poor, with only a little over 20 million US dollars, and this 20 million was essentially generated by cinemas under 20th Century Fox.
By the second week, since weekdays were not as important, the cinema chains did not pay as much attention and did not deliberately make things difficult for "Iron Man," only scheduling screenings at normal levels.
As a result, a large number of users finally had suitable times to enter cinemas to watch "Iron Man," leading to a slight explosion in "Iron Man"'s box office.
Simply put, under normal circumstances, if the cinema chains had not interfered with the screening schedules, "Iron Man"'s opening weekend box office should have been around 40 million US dollars.
However, the cinema chains interfered, causing the opening weekend box office to be reduced by 20 million, an unrealistic figure. This naturally led to the shocking fact that the box office on the following two weekdays directly surpassed this figure.
But as the saying goes, too much of anything can be bad. The malicious obstruction by these cinema chains led to the explosive performance on two weekdays, which in turn caused these cinema chains to exaggerate "Iron Man"'s profitability.
If an opening weekend box office of 20 million could achieve such a burst on weekdays, then if they provided "Iron Man" with the best screening schedules and best showtimes on weekends, wouldn't they make a fortune?
With this thought, all cinema owners very tacitly began to adjust their original showtime arrangements, increasing "Iron Man"'s screening rate from the original 8.2% directly to 36.7%, an increase of more than fourfold.
Moreover, the showtimes were mostly during prime hours, which is the period from 4 PM to 12 AM. Facing such a situation, other film companies or cinema chains couldn't prevent it.
After all, cinema chains were not a true single company but more like a franchise. Although they claimed to have thousands of cinemas, these cinemas were actually owned by individual businesses. They joined the cinema chains for the convenience of accessing various film resources.
Therefore, these owners fundamentally prioritized their own interests. There was no reason for them to reject profitable movies and only screen unprofitable ones due to a cinema chain's directive.
Would the main company compensate them for the lost box office revenue?
Therefore, these owners decided to ignore the cinema chains' orders and proceed with their own screening plans. In this situation, the cinema chains could do nothing. They couldn't stop them, and they didn't even dare to reprimand them.
After all, if you dared to scold them, they would immediately take their cinemas to other cinema chains. Anyway, the resources provided by major cinema chains were essentially the same. If you obstructed my making money, I would kick you out!
Thus, in the second week of release, "Iron Man" grossed 38.54 million US dollars during the weekdays, and the weekend of the second week was even more terrifying, with a box office of 56.78 million. Therefore, the box office for the entire second week reached 95.32 million, nearly breaking 100 million.