American Fame and Fortune Chapter 889

Chapter 889 When Martha appeared, everyone was shocked

In July this summer, the most watched film is undoubtedly DC's super-blockbuster "Batman v Superman."

Even today, after two Avengers movies have been released, Superman and Batman still occupy two of the top three most popular superheroes in North America.

On the day of the premiere, a massive number of red briefs and black bat hats completely blocked the Avenue of Stars.

When Martin walked the red carpet of the premiere, there was a sea of people in front of the Dolby Theater, and there were hundreds of reporters in the media area.

A reporter stopped Martin and deliberately asked: "DC does not admit that the "Joker" you shot is a DC movie. What do you think?"

"Joker" needs exposure, and the conflict between the project and DC has already broken out. Even at the premiere of the DC superhero movie, Martin had no intention of saving face for Warner Group: "I don't know what happened at DC. "Hamada always has very strange ideas and says some incomprehensible things."

The film he directed relies on Warner Pictures for distribution and promotion, and Daniel, the head of Warner Pictures, has already betrayed Warner Group.

As we all know, traitors are often the ones who stab the hardest.

Martin naturally placed himself on the side of justice: "Hollywood movies have always been famous for diversity and inclusiveness. We can always find the one we like. Even Marvel superhero movies have different styles. Could it be that DC doesn't allow movies of different styles to appear?”

The surrounding reporters took photos of Martin.

Martin entered the Dolby Theater and met Daniel, and walked with him towards the screening hall.

Daniel said as he walked: "I watched the internal preview, and the director's personal style of this film is too strong."

Martin was not surprised: "Zack Snyder, that's understandable." He pondered a little, and then said: "Zack's picture style is very interesting, and I like it very much."

“The slow-motion abuse is insane.” Daniel shook his head: “The narrative ability is too poor. Do you know how long the edited version Zack submitted to DC was? Four and a half hours!”

He couldn't help but said: "It takes four and a half hours to tell a story. How can Warner Pictures and theaters make a film? How many viewers can be patient and watch it in the theater for four and a half hours."

Martin asked: "So, DC has taken action?"

Daniel said: "It was cut to two and a half hours, and the feature film is less than 140 minutes."

The two of them entered the theater, quickly found their seats, and waited patiently for the movie to start.

It didn't take long before the theater was filled with people. Those who could come to the premiere were basically fans of Batman or Superman.

That is, DC's die-hard supporters.

These people are extremely familiar with comics and DC animation works.

After the screening started, many guests who were not familiar with comics were confused by the scene, but they were extremely excited.

Those familiar images remind fans of The Dark Knight Returns, The Death of Superman, Injustice, Red Son, Crisis on Infinite Earths, etc., and they are an instant climax.

Slow motion, oil painting style, dark black color, destructive aesthetics...

Fans who like Zack Snyder will definitely not be disappointed. These Zack Snyder's iconic visual styles are still displayed to the greatest extent in "Batman v Superman".

Of course, it is really difficult for unfamiliar passers-by to understand the comic strips.

Because it requires a certain foundation of comic reading.

This movie is a great gift for fans, but it is very unfriendly to casual audiences.

Hence, many people, including Martin, looked confused when looking at some plots that had basically no foreshadowing.

Especially when "Martha" came out, the whole audience was shocked.

DC fans are better, but people who don't read comics just find it baffling.

Two people fighting for life and death instantly turned into enemies just because of the word "Martha".

Fans of Director Zachary and DC can find a hundred reasons for this, but it cannot stop "Martha" from becoming a super meme, which is still the kind that seriously drags down the reputation of the movie.

　　The subsequent fight scenes are handled well and still have the style of "Man of Steel". When Superman, Doomsday and Wonder Woman fight, they are all devastating.

Inevitably, Batman, as a mortal, becomes a sour existence in the climax of the scene.

As for the IQ role of Justice League, let alone mention it, it is basically not reflected in the plot of the film.

The villain Luther is even more inexplicable and his behavior is puzzling.

Perhaps for DC fans, these are not problems, after all, he is Lex Luthor, Superman's natural enemy.

In the eyes of many passers-by, after watching this film, they only have one feeling: Batman and Superman started fighting inexplicably, then stopped fighting inexplicably, and then an inexplicable Kryptonian monster appeared, and Batman and Superman started fighting again. They joined forces inexplicably.

The movie ends with the death of Superman, leaving enough foreshadowing for the next "Justice League".

The subtitles went up as Batman told Wonder Woman to look for more companions.

The scene erupted into extremely warm applause.

The Dolby Theater can accommodate 3,500 spectators plus a thousand reporters. Most of the people sitting here tonight are fans of Zack Snyder or DC.

The latter naturally understood all the comic strips in the film, and it was like drinking a glass of iced Coke at noon on a summer day.

The former was once again impressed by Zha Dao's strong personal style.

Putting aside the plot and unfamiliar comic strips, the action scenes and image style may be just what Martin likes. He thinks these two parts are quite good.

But forget about anything else.

The applause lasted for a long time, and Zack Snyder and Charles Rowan took the cast and crew to the stage for the curtain call.

The guests began to leave one after another.

Daniel was still walking with Martin, and he asked in a low voice: "What do you think of this film?"

“The action scenes are great.” Martin said truthfully: “Especially the final battle between the three giants of justice against Doomsday. This is the battle between superheroes and gods on earth.”

Daniel looked at Martin: "What do you think of the box office?"

Martin reminded: "Don't forget, this is the first time that Batman and Superman have actually appeared in the same live-action movie, and the box office in the first week is not a problem."

Daniel immediately thought of the other side: "It's hard to say what happens next, right?"

He shook his head directly: "There is a certain threshold to understand this film, and the threshold is not low. The film studio can't require most of the audience to have read DC comics, right? That's unrealistic! The production cost of this film alone is 250 million US dollars. If The global box office cannot exceed one billion US dollars, and DC cannot explain it to the parent company.”

Martin thought about it carefully and couldn't remember the exact box office figures of "Batman v Superman." He was most impressed by "Martha" in this movie, followed by Wonder Woman.

But it is basically certain that the global box office will not exceed one billion US dollars.

Coming out of the side entrance of the Dolby Theater, Daniel received a phone call. After finishing the call, he said to Martin: "In an internal survey conducted by Warner Pictures, the average premiere audience gave it an A."

Martin nodded: "This shows that fans have high recognition, and there will be no problem with the box office in the first week." Daniel is the person in charge of the distributor: "But I have no confidence in the subsequent word-of-mouth among passers-by."

Martin sighed: "Zack Snyder's pictures are so good, but it's a pity that he can't tell the story well every time. It really makes people love and hate him."

Daniel reminded Martin: "If the follow-up reputation of this movie collapses and it fails to meet Warner's expectations, and your "Joker" does very well, pay attention to DC."

Martin saw his car coming and waved: "I know."

When Martin got in the car and left, Daniel also got in the car.

Although he and Warner Group are rivals within the company, the hair work belongs to Warner Pictures, and Daniel is still very responsible for the group's board of directors, and above that there is Time Warner.

He wants to go further and cannot leave any excuse at work.

The next morning, various reviews of "Batman v Superman" came out, but the different reviews from several aspects formed a sharp contrast.

On IMDB where ordinary movie fans are concentrated, because the audience for previews and premieres are basically fans, the rating of the film that has just been released is shockingly high, with an average user score of 9.2!

Under normal circumstances, this would be a super hit commercial movie.

However, according to the film reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, a large number of film critics gave negative reviews, with a freshness rating of only 32%.

It doesn't matter if the reputation of film critics alone is poor. After all, full-time film critics have long been separated from the market.

In the scores collected by major professional media on the MTC website, the average score of the film is only 44.

Faced with this situation, DC and Warner Pictures immediately launched a public relations campaign, claiming that the film's reputation was only somewhat polarizing, but the audience still liked it.

This statement seems to be confirmed by box office data. On the first day of its release in North America, the film opened a box office of US$70.2 million.

The more people watched it, the audience's reputation began to collapse.

IMDB score dropped sharply to 7.7.

The film's box office in North America on the second day plummeted by 40%.

In its three-day opening weekend in North America, the film earned US$132 million.

　　It seems good at first glance, but the production budget of the film alone is as high as 250 million U.S. dollars, and DC's lowest first-week expectation in North America is 180 million U.S. dollars.

However, these are only the beginning of the disaster.

In subsequent screenings, the reputation of "Batman v Superman" quickly collapsed.

By the second weekend, the score on IMDB dropped to 6.2 points, and the Rotten Tomatoes freshness score was only 28%.

Over time, the reputation of the film has continued to decline, instead of rising as fans claimed.

As for the various analysis of the film posted by fans on the Internet, ordinary viewers are not interested at all. Most of the passerby viewers will go to see the so-called analysis just to watch a recreational movie.

Besides, the so-called analysis is not reliable.

The producers of "Man of Steel" are Nolan and his wife, with Nolan and Emma Thomas taking care of it. Although this Superman movie has polarizing reviews, it is generally good.

Due to a series of troubles caused by DC and Warner Group, Nolan later withdrew from the Justice League movie universe. Even Martin declined the invitation to direct "Joker", and instead focused on preparing for the Olympics.

With the loss of the Nolans, Zack Snyder, who has average narrative ability, and the interference of Warner Group, the result of "Batman v Superman" can be imagined.

Without Charles Rowan, a senior producer, the film would only be worse.

Many media believe that "Batman v Superman" will be the top favorite for next year's Golden Raspberry Awards.

The most critical thing is the lack of box office stamina.

North America's second weekend dropped 70% from the first weekend, with revenue of only 39.05 million US dollars.

This set a new record for a DC superhero movie's second-weekend drop.

The decline of "Batman and Robin" and "Catwoman" did not reach this level.

On the other hand, Cinemascore, which has remained silent, also released the latest statistics. The film received a comprehensive score of "B" from live audiences, and the North American box office hit around US$260 million.

Taking into account overseas gains and offline operations, "Batman v Superman" should not suffer losses and may even generate a certain amount of profit. However, the film's audience reputation has collapsed!

“Correction, this movie is called Fighting, not polarizing word-of-mouth!”

“It's too unfriendly to people who haven't read the comics. It feels like Zack Snyder shot it specifically for comic fans.”

“Martha is too messy. If I am robbed by someone in the future, will Martha put down her weapon automatically?”

　　Although most people understood that "Martha" was the mother of the two after watching the film, they still couldn't help but make wild comments.

Because Martha has too many shortcomings.

Disney Studios, inside the "Joker" studio.

During the lunch break, Martin looked at the latest statistics of "Batman v Superman" and put down the newspaper.

Opposite me, Saoirse Ronan went to the newspaper and read it carefully. After a while, she said: "This film looks good at the box office, and there will definitely be commercial profits. Why are there so many people criticizing DC?"

Martin simply said: "Because it is not an independent movie and bears the heavy responsibility of developing the entire DC movie universe. The subtitle "Dawn of Justice" reflects this. The collapse of the film's reputation will have a serious impact on the preparation of "Justice League" , and even caused DC to completely lose the opportunity to catch up with Marvel in more than ten years.”

Saoirse Ronan asked: “Will our films be affected?”

Martin said: "You have forgotten that a month ago, DC executives publicly cut off from us, and it was very high-profile."

Saoirse thought about it: "They said "Joker" is not a DC movie."

Martin was well prepared for this. He picked up his mobile phone and dialed Jessica's number. He said directly: "Create some momentum in the media and the Internet, and then promote "Joker"."

The studio has already made a plan, and Jessica replied: "I'll start taking action now."

Martin looked at the time and said to Saoirse: "The break is over, let's continue to the recording studio for dubbing."

The supporting actress played by Saoirse had different voices in some parts of the film. It was difficult to record the scene on the spot. Martin simply asked Saoirse to use a changed voice to speak the lines in post-production, replacing part of the original live sound.

These tasks were not difficult for Saoirse, and they were completed that afternoon.

The next morning, some new news about "Batman v Superman" appeared on the Internet.

"DC messed up "Green Lantern" and then messed up this one. Not to mention messing up the Justice League plan, they are still attacking Martin Davis' "Joker" for not meeting DC requirements. What does this mean? " "Joker" has not been interfered by DC and has a high chance of success!"

Some analysts said: "In recent years, the most successful DC movie is "The Dark Knight", and the most successful DC character is the Joker! It is very obvious that the pigs in DC management do not understand DC movie adaptations at all! Nolan and Martin are the ones who really understand DC!”

(End of this chapter)

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