Director in Hollywood

As the second weekend arrived, The Return of the King began its North American promotional tour.

This North American promotion would only last for a week. After that, the crew would split into two groups. One would head to Europe for promotional activities, while the other would go to Australia, Japan, and other regions to do the same.

The most surprising news was that The Return of the King had two scheduled promotional stops in Beijing and Shanghai, China.

Gilbert would not be participating in the North American promotion. He would meet up with the crew in the United Kingdom. The British royal family planned to receive the The Lord of the Rings team, and the Queen herself would award Gilbert a knighthood.

Nowadays, the British knighthood is more of an honorary title, intended to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the nation in fields such as science and the arts.

Gilbert receiving the knighthood was not only due to the great success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which helped promote British literature and culture.

There was also the increasingly influential Harry Potter IP, which was also single-handedly built up by Gilbert.

Prince Charles was a fan of The Lord of the Rings, and Queen Elizabeth despite her age was even more fond of Harry Potter. So the mother and son discussed it and decided to award Gilbert a knighthood.

Afterward, Gilbert would head to China to participate in the event in Beijing.

Previously, when The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were released, the crew didn't come to China for promotional tours, but it was only fitting for The Return of the King to visit this time.

These days, very few Hollywood blockbusters actually come to China for promotional activities almost none, in fact.

However, as time passes, the Chinese market is bound to become more prosperous, and in the future, it will not be uncommon for Hollywood movies to come to China for promotions.

It might even become possible to hold world premieres here.

At Pixar Animation Studios, with Apple's business expanding, Steve Jobs had been spending less time at Pixar, only dropping by occasionally.

Coincidentally, Steve Jobs happened to be at Pixar during these few days.

At the moment, Pixar was holding a meeting. In this vibrant and creative company, even with Steve Jobs present, meetings never felt overly serious.

Creative Director Ed introduced the current situation in a relaxed tone: "At present, Disney is undoubtedly the most sincere party.

They're willing to make some concessions in terms of box office revenue."

Steve Jobs asked, "What about the merchandise side?"

Profits from animated films don't typically come from box office revenue; the real profit lies in merchandise sales.

Ed shook his head. "Disney isn't willing to make concessions there, but I don't think they'll hold out much longer before agreeing to our terms."

Pixar only had one more feature-length animated film left under its distribution deal with Disney. At this point, Pixar undoubtedly had the ability to change the landscape of Hollywood.

Ed asked Jobs, "Steve, I heard Director Gilbert has a good personal relationship with you. Do you think he would side with you?"

Jobs thought about it and shook his head. "No, he's like me he doesn't let personal emotions affect business decisions."

Although other companies were actively courting Pixar, Steve Jobs himself was still more accustomed to working with Disney.

However, when it came to profits, if another company could offer better terms, Jobs wouldn't mind switching partners for Pixar.

At the end of the meeting, aside from discussing Pixar's current projects for the year, the team also talked about matters related to The Return of the King.

Ed said, "There's no doubt Gilbert is an outstanding creator. Steve, maybe you can invite Gilbert to drop by Pixar when he has the time.

I think he would really enjoy the creative atmosphere here."

Steve Jobs agreed. "That's possible. He's a Disney shareholder and a board member. His voice can influence decisions made at the top of Disney."

"Oh right, I heard The Return of the King is doing great at the box office?"

"More than great it's a total explosion. Not only the box office, but merchandise sales are constantly setting new records."

The creators at Pixar were full of admiration for Gilbert. Creators best understand other creators, and everyone had heard of how difficult The Lord of the Rings project was.

But watching Gilbert work, it seemed effortless and enjoyable, as if he completed the entire project with ease. Truly impressive.

With the start of the North American workweek, the film's box office dropped by 47% on Monday, pulling in $22.895 million. A box office dip on weekdays is unavoidable, and this level of drop is considered a healthy figure.

After that, The Return of the King showed a steady downward trend instead of a sudden collapse. The next three weekdays earned $20.152 million, $19.377 million, and $18.854 million respectively.

Over the four weekdays, it earned a total of $81.278 million. Combined with the opening weekend, its seven-day North American box office has already reached $236 million.

But this won't be the end. Betting lines in Las Vegas had long since stopped accepting bets on The Return of the King reaching $500 million domestically or $1.2 billion worldwide.

The media and malicious film executives who had previously predicted a catastrophic drop in box office earnings have now collectively gone silent.

No one is stupid. Everyone now realizes that The Return of the King is unstoppable.

What other Hollywood studios envy most is the tremendous revenue from merchandise sales.

Since the film's release, merchandise stores across North America have seen their shelves wiped clean. Fans are demanding restocks, and their voices have become a rising tide.

Although some level of merchandise success was expected, no one anticipated just how explosive it would be.

Disney and Warner Bros. have already contacted factories in China, where production lines are running 24/7 in three shifts to meet the massive demand.

Because of this huge gap in supply, this enormous demand, and the tremendous profit to be made, many have taken risks and started producing pirated merchandise.

Disney and Warner Bros. have responded with force, cracking down hard on a batch of counterfeit vendors.

It's not that regions with strong awareness of copyright don't have piracy.

The problem now is that there's a severe shortage of official products, creating a massive market gap. When there's buying demand, there will be someone trying to sell so piracy in North America isn't surprising.

And most of these pirate operations are based in Mexico. Taking advantage of low labor costs, many small workshops there specialize in pirated Hollywood merchandise.

But thanks to relatively strict border control, pirated goods rarely enter the North American market. Instead, Latin America has become a hotbed for piracy.

Lately, however, these small operations have spread into Texas, making Mexican pirated goods temporarily an even more dangerous issue than Mexican drugs.

Faced with this situation, all the major Hollywood studios have banded together in a united front to combat piracy.

Even though many studio executives feel jealous about The Return of the King's merchandise sales, any executive with half a brain knows now is not the time for envy.

It's time to unite and take down the piracy threat together.

It's worth mentioning that The Return of the King held a promotional event in Mexico City. Latin America showed its passion more than 100,000 fans surrounded the crew at Plaza de la Constitución.

If the Mexican police hadn't stepped in quickly, the crew might have been trapped there for quite some time.

....

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