Saturday is extrely important for movies released over the weekend—it’s often the single highest-grossing day during a film’s theatrical run, especially for non-sequels.
No matter how overwhelming the pre-release publicity may be, audience word-of-mouth takes ti to build. Quite a few box office hits, after a full day of screenings and sharing on Friday, generally see peak attendance on Saturday.
Correspondingly, Saturday is also the busiest day for every comrcial theater chain.
At the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, no employee is allowed to take Saturday off—this is to handle the surge of moviegoers.
As night just began to fall, Philip Jas stood behind the counter and looked up ahead, seeing nothing but a sea of dark heads. The number of people who chose to co to this famous multi-screen cinema to watch movies was truly large.
As the head of the operations departnt, Philip Jas didn’t need to stand at the ticket booth personally, but he didn’t dare relax either. He would co by to check in from ti to ti—after all, sales performance directly impacted his inco and even future promotions.
"Darling, aren’t you really into airplanes?"
Suddenly, a custor’s voice ca from the front of the counter. Philip Jas looked up—it was a couple. The woman, a young lady, asked her husband, "There’s a movie about planes here called Flyboys. We could pick that one."
"No, no, no..." the husband shook his head repeatedly. "Don’t watch that movie. I specifically looked it up online. Most people say it’s a terrible film, and one of my coworkers has seen it too."
"Oh?" The woman asked with interest, "What did he say?"
"He fell asleep after watching for ten minutes." The husband didn’t even glance at the Flyboys poster.
The woman scanned the list of movie titles. Kingdom of Heaven had a handso actor, but no showtis. There was only one screening near midnight. Flyboys was starting in fifteen minutes, but how boring must a film be to make people fall asleep?
Finally, her eyes landed on Batman Begins. Even though she wasn’t particularly into superhero movies, she chose it anyway.
The reason was simple among all the currently showing films, this seed like the only one worth watching.
Even though it was a superhero movie, she knew very well that the na "Duke Rosenberg" in the director’s column was practically a guarantee of quality!
"Two tickets for Batman Begins..."
Hearing the couple’s choice, Philip Jas wasn’t the least bit surprised. Over 60% of the people coming to Nokia Theatre today were here to see Batman Begins. The similarly large-scale and also newly released Flyboys was receiving little attention—its ticket sales were even lower than several niche films.
If yesterday’s underwhelming first-day box office had been considered a fluke, Saturday’s performance confird to Philip Jas that Flyboys was definitely a bad film or at least a flop from the theater’s perspective.
The criteria for theaters to judge a movie are very simple. A film that sells is a good movie. A film that doesn’t sell is a bad one.
Fifteen minutes passed in a flash. Just as Philip Jas returned to his office, a projection technician rushed in.
"Phil..." The man went straight to the point. "The 7:15 showing of Flyboys might have to be canceled."
"What?" Philip Jas frowned.
The man quickly explained, "There isn’t a single audience mber for that showing."
"Again, no audience?" Without hesitation, Philip Jas made a decision. "Cancel the screening and add another showti for Batman Begins half an hour later."
The technician swiftly left. Sitting behind his desk, Philip Jas shook his head slightly. The performance of Flyboys was even worse than expected.
This was the second empty auditorium today at Nokia Theatre and both were Flyboys screenings. This was Saturday, after all, and that particular showti had been a pri slot. To be completely deserted just how terrible must the word-of-mouth be for this aerial combat film?
Philip Jas had carved out ti that morning to watch part of the film. Though he didn’t finish it, he did see several key scenes. To be honest, Flyboys used many elents that should’ve worked like handso leads, romance, heroism, and rescue but the film as a whole felt awkward, as if these elents were forcibly stitched together.
He suddenly thought of Flyboys’ main competitor: Batman Begins. This rebooted Batman epic about fear, rage, and power had indeed impressive creativity. While it also contained Hollywood clichés, Duke Rosenberg managed to blend them all into a single film that delivered a rich experience—from visuals to sound to emotional impact.
In Philip Jas’ view, Flyboys losing to the second-week release Batman Begins was entirely justified.
Then again, who would say Duke Rosenberg didn’t deserve to win?
After ten years in the theater industry, Philip Jas had long gotten used to it—used to Duke Rosenberg’s movies releasing, used to Duke Rosenberg’s movies winning, used to Duke Rosenberg’s movies topping the box office...
Putting aside these thoughts, he picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Boss, it’s Phil. About tomorrow’s screenings, I have a suggestion. Just keep one auditorium for Flyboys. Based on my observation and analysis today, even one is probably too many..."
If it weren’t for the screening contract, Philip Jas wouldn’t even want to allocate a single screen to that guaranteed box office flop.
In a few weeks, the film would likely be forcibly pulled, wouldn’t it?
With that in mind, Philip Jas ended his workday. He also received the general data for ticket sales, and as expected, Flyboys showed a clear downward trend, while Batman:Begins continued its montum with a rebound.
The sun set and rose again, and a new day began.
Peter, the West Coast’s largest offline distributor of movie rchandise, walked into the Santa Monica Comrcial Plaza with his girlfriend. He glanced at the cinema briefly, then headed into his chain store.
"Hey, George."
"Hello, boss."
George Zhou first shook Peter’s hand, then turned to the person beside him and said with a smile, "Hello, Miss Seyfried. Your performance in Taken was excellent."
Amanda Seyfried knew this was soone her boyfriend trusted and responded politely, "Thank you."
There were quite a few custors in the store. Many people seed to recognize Amanda Seyfried, and their eyes kept darting toward her. George Zhou quickly led the two of them into the manager’s office.
Once seated, Peter asked, "How are sales going?"
"Extrely well." George Zhou bead, "Whenever a Duke film hits theaters, it’s always a peak period for our store’s sales. Since the release of Batman:Begins, our daily sales have exceeded $150,000—and that doesn’t even include the five Batmobiles we’ve sold."
"That many?" Amanda Seyfried was a little surprised.
$150,000 might not sound like much, but she knew very well that Peter’s stores were spread across major cities throughout the Midwest. Even if those locations didn’t match the Santa Monica store in volu, their combined total would surely be a terrifying number.
What’s more, movie rchandise was mostly low-cost, high-profit goods.
"Not bad," Peter replied calmly. "Still falls short compared to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Matrix rchandise."
Amanda Seyfried offered a smooth complint, "Even so, you’re still making a lot of money."
"?" He pointed to himself, then shook his head and said, "What we make is pocket change. The ones making real money are Warner Bros. and Duke Rosenberg. Unless sothing unexpected happens, Duke Rosenberg is about to receive another massive payday."
Amanda Seyfried was well aware of just how terrifying that director’s ability to rake in cash was. His movie fees definitely ranked first in Hollywood!
Seeing Peter and George Zhou start to talk shop, Amanda Seyfried simply stayed quiet and gazed out through the one-way glass at the display shelves and rchandise outside. When their discussion wound down, she couldn’t help but ask another question.
"Why don’t I see any Flyboys-related products?"
Peter’s company mainly focused on Duke’s films but didn’t exclude other movies from their rchandise catalog.
"They were on display the day before yesterday and yesterday."
It was George Zhou who answered, keeping it concise. "But over two days, we only sold a few Jas Franco figurines and plushies. Daily sales didn’t even hit $100. Once this morning’s Saturday box office figures for Flyboys ca out, I had all the related products pulled off the shelves and replaced with items from other Duke films."
"The other stores," Peter added, "I had them pull the displays too."
According to the data, Flyboys’ rchandise sales weren’t just incomparable to Batman:Begins even with the new movie effect, they didn’t co close to the rchandise sales of Duke’s decade-old films.
What was the point in keeping that movie’s rchandise on display?
Amanda Seyfried asked another question she cared about, "How much did Flyboys make on Saturday to get you to pull the rch so decisively?"
"$2.62 million!" Pete Kerr shook his head. "The film’s Saturday box office actually dropped significantly compared to Friday. The opening weekend’s total is probably going to be low enough to make the investors cough blood."
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