Five Hundred and Fifty-Seven - Foil

The business car gradually moved away, and a gaze from the second floor followed the car away and slowly turned back. Behind the female reporter were staff members who were busy packing their things, but she stood at the window, her eyes staring at the Hollywood director who was leaving until the car disappeared into the Washington night.

"A young man full of charisma, isn't he, Jennifer?"

A joke came from behind the female reporter. A director stood beside her and looked out the window at the night. At this time, a movie had just ended at the front door of the theater. Countless movie fans were talking about Batman and the Joker, and they disappeared in a bustling manner. In front of the cinema.

"That's right, if I were twenty years younger, I would definitely give him my number." The female reporter named Jennifer shrugged and said straightforwardly: "Maybe I will go back to the hotel with him, not necessarily .”

"Wow, don't be stupid, dear editor-in-chief Jennifer." The colleague standing beside him shook his head helplessly, ruthlessly exposing the woman's fantasy. "This guy is the most famous playboy in America, and there's a line of female celebrities who want to crawl into his bed from Los Angeles to San Francisco, so get ready to work damn overtime tonight."

As he said, Wayne himself could go to the hotel to rest without any psychological burden, but on this ordinary Sunday night in mid-to-late May, media industry practitioners across North America were destined to lose the opportunity to sleep normally. Working overtime has become unavoidable.

As time passes bit by bit, theaters in major cities in North America slowly end today's screening work, sending away the last batch of customers in the theater, and one after another about "Jurassic Park 2" " and "Batman: The Dark Knight" statistics are also sent to the headquarters company from major theaters across North America.

In this era when the Internet has not yet been applied to theater systems, all box office statistics must first be sent by theater managers to their respective headquarters companies, and then compiled by a specialized third-party statistics company, quickly and accurately. Calculating various data and finally sending it to distribution companies, media, etc. This process in this era basically has no possibility of simplification.

When the time passed midnight and gradually approached the early hours of the morning, Burbank, the media capital of Los Angeles, was more crowded than during the day. The streets were now extremely quiet, but several buildings remained brightly lit. There are many Authoritative media, especially authoritative media related to entertainment.

Every newspaper office is waiting anxiously, especially the editor-in-chief and senior management who are usually very busy, but they are sitting quietly in their offices.

Not only Burbank, the media capital of Los Angeles, but also the building where the "Chicago Sun-Times" newspaper office is located in Chicago, Times Square where many media in New York are located, and the "Washington Post" newspaper office where Wayne was interviewed just tonight. , all keep the lights bright, and a large number of staff are working overtime and hard.

An interview manuscript that had just been compiled was held in the hands of editor-in-chief Jennifer. She knocked on the door of the editor-in-chief's office in a hurry. When the door was opened by the secretary, the scene inside surprised her. , almost all the editors-in-chief of the Washington Post were gathered in this small office at this time.

"Washington Post" Editor-in-Chief Edwards-Jackson was sitting behind his desk. When he saw Jennifer coming in, he was not anxious to read the interview transcript that she had spent half the night putting together. He just pointed at the empty space and signaled. She sat down for the meeting first.

"It's just you. Just in time, let's hold an emergency meeting first."

Editor-in-Chief Edwards Jackson knocked on the table with one hand, and the secretary consciously closed the blinds that separated the office from the outside. "If nothing else, we will publish a special issue tomorrow. Jennifer, your interview will also be included in this special issue."

Hearing the words of the editor-in-chief, several editors-in-chief in the office couldn't help but straighten their shoulders. This is Washington, and the newspaper they work for is the Washington Post, which shows its authority! To allow this authoritative newspaper, which has huge influence in North America and even the world, to publish a special issue shows how influential the things to be published are.

"Could it be..."

An editor-in-chief, who was mainly responsible for the layout of the newspaper, pointed to the manuscript Jennifer put on his desk, his tone full of disbelief. "Should we issue an additional entertainment special issue for that movie director or the "Batman" movie that is currently in theaters?"

Edwards-Jackson nodded. "That's right!"

The current editors-in-chief instantly became energetic, including Jennifer, who just interviewed Wayne tonight. The Washington Post does have an entertainment section, but they are an authoritative large media with a distribution network all over the world. The reporting content and style are also mainly about major social news, and entertainment is not the focus of this authoritative media at all.

In terms of the style of their newspaper, it is actually on two parallel lines with the entertainment industry that is full of gossip. Even the entertainment-related news published every day is mainly realistic, such as this additional issuance. This is the first time that the Washington Post has published an entertainment special issue since its establishment, which shows how surprised these editors were by this decision.

"It's almost two o'clock in the morning." Editor-in-chief Edwards-Jackson didn't give everyone time to react. He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch, and continued: "After last week's North American theater market statistics are released, we will Focusing on the movie "The Dark Knight," I wrote a box office report, and the additional special issue also focused on Wayne Greenberg."

Editor-in-chief Jennifer was very excited when she heard what the editor-in-chief said. At least she was not lying when she faced Wayne. She is indeed one of Wayne's fans, so she has always been concerned about the box office trend of "The Dark Knight" Paying attention. With the film's movie-watching craze in just over a week, it can be said that all box office records in the North American theater market were instantly broken. And this past weekend, the box office results of this film were released. Finally, it is destined to break more people’s eyeballs.

But even so, Wayne was the first Hollywood director to ask The Washington Post to issue a special issue for a period of time. He is the only one among all North American directors to receive such an honor.

This is just a scene that happened in the "Washington Post" newspaper office, and this scene also happens constantly in other major newspapers in North America, but compared with the "Washington Post" which mainly focuses on serious and realistic news Said that other media outlets that mainly report entertainment gossip are trying various ways to add content about Wayne to the special issue that will be released tomorrow.

The results of "The Dark Knight" are really amazing. They had already used up all the words of praise when the movie's first weekend box office was released.

The sky is gradually turning white, and another working day, Monday, has arrived. Various newspapers related to the North American box office of last weekend have also been delivered to the entire North American public since the morning. The titles of each media may be different, but The main tone is surprisingly consistent.

The first to bear the brunt is the "Washington Post". This authoritative media has specially issued a special issue with the title:

"Death, paying taxes, and Wayne's successful movies are three things that will accompany this generation of young people throughout their lives!

This past weekend, enthusiasm for the North American summer season was still high. In the North American theater market last weekend, there was only one large-scale movie "Jurassic Park 2". The film achieved good results of US$44.9 million on its opening day. The box office fell back on Saturday, with US$31.75 million, and US$23.6 million on Sunday. Although the overall downward trend was shown, the box office in the first weekend of release successfully exceeded 100 million US dollars. , the total North American box office revenue was US$100.25 million!

As "Jurassic Park 2" achieved excellent box office results as soon as it was released, North American theater chain market numbers continued to rise this week. According to data investigated by our reporter, this is the highest number in North America since the North American summer season appeared. The weekend for the theater market was the highest. The reason for the audience's movie-watching frenzy is not "Jurassic Park 2" which opened last weekend.

The North American theater market continues to rise during the summer. The main reason is that "The Dark Knight" is being screened into the next weekend. This latest masterpiece of Oscar-nominated best director Wayne Greenberg ranks first in the next weekend. It has ushered in a strong rebound since then, and it made a massive $47.5 million in the North American cinema market last Friday!

It grossed US$35.27 million on Saturday and US$31.66 million on Sunday. It once again took away US$119 million from the North American theater market in the three days of the following weekend. The total box office of "Batman: The Dark Knight" was US$399 million, strongly retaining the weekend box office championship. , and also temporarily ranked first in the 1997 annual box office list. The North American box office of the film is close to US$400 million. Perhaps before tonight, it may become the first movie in the history of North American movies to have a box office of over US$400 million!

"Jurassic Park 2" by the famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, although the box office exceeded 100 million in its first weekend, the film has been blocked by "The Dark Knight" for three days since its opening. It's firmly under my body, and the film's performance is quite satisfactory, more in line with outside expectations..."

"Is there anything else?" Wayne, who had just woken up early in the morning, smiled and shook his head at the "Washington Post" in his hand, and did not continue reading. The following content was almost all about various comments about him. Praise, these unoriginal compliments, he just skimmed over and put down the newspaper in his hand.

"Uh, this, the Los Angeles Times' special issue on "The Dark Knight."" Nina yawned and handed her boss a new newspaper.

"The much-anticipated movie "Jurassic Park 2" opened on a large scale last weekend, and the box office successfully exceeded 100 million in the first three days of the weekend, but this masterpiece of Steven Spielberg is destined to become Wayne Green Berg and "The Dark Knight" are the foils. This DC epic masterpiece, which has entered its second week of screenings, continued to crush the theater market last weekend, with the total box office reaching a terrifying US$399 million... ..."