Made In Hollywood

Night was gradually deepening. The light in the study remained on. Saturday's early morning was about to end. The gray-haired Ridley Scott extinguished his cigarette. Amid the swirling smoke, he looked eastward through the window on his left. The sky was already tinged with pale light, and the sun would soon rise above the horizon. A new day was about to begin.

Withdrawing his gaze, Ridley Scott let out a heavy sigh, his brows tightly furrowed. He picked up the phone, dialed a number, asked a few questions, and then hung up.

Although the final result hadn't come out yet, the British old man was very clear this time, he was likely going to take a huge fall, possibly even worse than Black Hawk Down.

In fact, from the moment he saw the audience leaving after the premiere no, from the moment 20th Century Fox rejected his edited version and re-edited a new version, Ridley Scott had already felt a premonition of failure.

The midnight box office results released yesterday also confirmed this $1.98 million in midnight box office was by no means a success.

A wrong version, at the wrong time slot, going against the wrong opponent how could Kingdom of Heaven possibly have a good outcome?

In recent years, Ridley Scott had been harboring a deep frustration. Across North America, Hollywood, and even the global film industry, the resurgence of epic films was entirely attributed to Duke Rosenberg and his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, completely ignoring him and his Gladiator. Gladiator was even repeatedly dragged out by some media to compare with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, serving as a stepping stone for the other's success.

So, he really wanted to have a direct confrontation with Duke Rosenberg. When 20th Century Fox insisted on not changing Kingdom of Heaven's release date, letting it clash directly with Batman: Begins, he had secretly hoped that with this carefully crafted film, he could properly compete against what he saw as a failed franchise reboot.

Yes, Ridley Scott admitted that it was unfair. He directed a meticulously prepared major production, while Duke Rosenberg produced a film whose reputation and goodwill had already been ruined by Joel Schumacher.

But he knew very well how powerful that young director was. Perhaps only under such circumstances could he have a chance to defeat him.

Yet all of this crumbled before 20th Century Fox. Fox did not place enough importance on this film, which had raised funds through pre-sales. The marketing resources invested were relatively limited. Most importantly, they vetoed his version of the cut...

This left Ridley Scott feeling deeply unreconciled, yet there was nothing he could do. After all, not even James Cameron and Duke Rosenberg combined could resist the entire Hollywood system.

As the sun gradually rose and the first rays of sunlight streamed into the study, the telephone suddenly rang. Ridley Scott picked up the receiver, listened for a moment, and then slowly placed the receiver back onto the base. On his tired face, with heavy eye bags, first appeared a trace of unwillingness, followed by a hint of relief.

The first-day box office was out. All his ambitions had been dashed. There was no need to consider so much anymore. With his fame and experience, getting another chance wouldn't be too difficult.

"I truly am not a director of the same level as Duke Rosenberg."

Ridley Scott slowly stood up. Even if 20th Century Fox had used his edited version—so what? Could it have defeated Duke Rosenberg and Batman: Begins?

Absolutely impossible!

Kingdom of Heaven premiered in North America and, in 3,216 theaters, grossed $5.32 million on its first day.

Batman: Begins premiered in 3,925 theaters in North America and grossed $22.21 million on its first day.

The two films were simply not in the same league.

With the first-day box office results out, 20th Century Fox began to gradually scale back its promotional efforts for Kingdom of Heaven. Since most of the film's production budget came from pre-sales, even if it lost money, 20th Century Fox itself wouldn't suffer much in terms of production costs. And since all the marketing expenses were borne by Fox, knowing the film was bound to fail, there was no way they would continue to maintain heavy investment in promotion.

Because Kingdom of Heaven was not like those sleeper hits that came from behind it failed not just at the box office on its first day, but also had extremely poor audience word-of-mouth.

After the first-day box office was released, it wasn't just the film studio that made changes so did the major commercial theater chains. Led by Regal Entertainment and AMC, theater companies quietly reduced Kingdom of Heaven's screen share by 5% starting Saturday. The screens that were cut were naturally allocated to Batman: Begins.

By Saturday night, in major mainstream commercial cinemas across North America, a new screening of Batman: Begins would begin every fifteen to twenty minutes. The sufficient number of screening halls and high screening rate ensured that audiences could enjoy the film at any time, which served as the basic guarantee for its high box office.

Batman: Begins had solid audience word-of-mouth as support, and the competitors released at the same time were essentially no threat. Naturally, its single-day box office on Saturday climbed higher, reaching $24.26 million.

On the same day, however, Kingdom of Heaven showed a downward trend in box office, only earning $4.67 million.

With the competition between the two films clearly decided and the gap being substantial many of the attacks surrounding Batman:Begins instantly diminished, especially the fraud scandal involving Anne Hathaway.

Before and after the film's release, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney's media arms had kept latching onto Anne Hathaway's issues with her Italian ex-boyfriend. But now that there was no benefit to be gained, 20th Century Fox naturally withdrew from the offensive, which also lifted much of the public pressure from Anne Hathaway's shoulders.

Though her role as Rachel didn't take up much screen time, her performance was rather decent. Among the audience who had watched Batman:Begins, she left a deep impression. As a former Disney teen idol, she also received a lot of praise from the media. Her path to transformation had clearly begun successfully.

"Duke, I really don't know how to thank you."

In the office of Duke Studio, Anne Hathaway looked gratefully at Duke sitting behind the desk. "Without you, I wouldn't have made it through this."

Her eyes locked straight onto Duke's, full of an expression that suggested she was ready to do anything he asked.

But Duke, having been through so much, was no longer who he used to be. He just slowly shook his head and said calmly, "Don't do anything stupid before the second film is finished."

Anne Hathaway was slightly stunned. She hadn't expected Duke known for being a playboy to say such a thing. She had thought about completely severing ties with that Italian man and finding a more powerful partner. The director in front of her was obviously the ideal choice he had enough wealth to support her lavish lifestyle and could offer immense support in her career...

Duke couldn't care less what Anne Hathaway was thinking. He glanced at Tina Fey beside him. The female assistant immediately walked over and whispered a few words. Anne Hathaway, visibly reluctant, left his office.

How could Duke not understand the meaning behind Anne Hathaway's words? But the reason he and Warner Bros. helped her, even pulling her out of the hands of the FBI, was purely for the market potential of Batman:Begins It had nothing to do with personal feelings.

Their relationship was purely business. Everything was driven by commercial interests.

However, this actress really did work hard. Her performance in the film was far better than that of the former Mrs. Cruise. Duke had already decided to keep Anne Hathaway for the second installment, The Dark Knight, though the condition was that she doesn't stir up any more scandals like the fraud incident. If she did, she would definitely be replaced.

In Duke's eyes, even in a superhero sequel, no actor is truly indispensable.

Although Batman:Begins had shown strong performance for two consecutive days, Duke and Warner Bros. didn't ease up. All promotional efforts continued as planned.

On Sunday night, NBC invited George Lucas onto a program. Besides promoting his own Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, this mega-director also highly praised Batman: Begins.

Of course, all this had been coordinated in advance. Duke had also supported the promotion of the Star Wars prequels quite a few times.

"George, it's well known that Duke was introduced to Hollywood by you. What's your opinion of his new film, Batman:Begins?"

Faced with the host's question, George Lucas answered as follows.

"Before this Batman, there were already four Batman films. In the beginning, Tim Burton created a fantastical Gotham City, and Batman fought evil in that city. But as the series progressed, it fell into clichés, relying too heavily on big-name stars and massive special effects, while ignoring the story itself. Eventually, the Batman franchise hit a dead end and couldn't come back. Its failure in both box office and reputation was inevitable. The whole series gave off a feeling of more and more characters being stuffed in while the quality kept declining."

"After many years of silence, Duke decided to take over Batman. Honestly, it was a huge challenge because he was inheriting a mess, like a skyscraper left unfinished high up but out of touch with the times. There are only two ways to deal with an unfinished building: The first is patching it up on the original foundation. This doesn't harm the structure and saves a lot of money, but the risk is you don't know how solid the foundation really is whether it can still support the building. The second is straightforward: Tear it down and rebuild. That way, the whole structure, from foundation to design, can follow a brand-new logic. But the cost is too high, and there will be resistance from all directions."

"Clearly, Duke chose the second method when he took over Batman. He wanted to completely overturn the existing image of Batman. The pressure he faced was obvious but he succeeded. Batman has been reborn..."