"Legolas! Legolas! Legolas..."
No matter how passionate a fan is, nothing compares to the fervor of devoted female fans. The crew's convoy was completely surrounded, unable to move even an inch in front of Temple Square. At this moment, getting out of the car or even rolling down the windows was out of the question, as it would make the situation uncontrollable.
Duke turned his head to look behind him. The car Orlando Bloom was riding in was tightly surrounded, with no chance of breaking through the crowd.
Fortunately, the police were on-site maintaining order, preventing the situation from taking a turn for the worse. However, the cars carrying the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring were also blocked one by one.
"There's no way we're getting out of here anytime soon."
Through the windshield, Duke glanced at the road ahead, completely clogged with fans.
The only silver lining was that the car he and Tina Fey were in wasn't attracting as much attention.
Unlike the bodyguard in the passenger seat, who was frowning deeply, Duke remained calm. Since there was nothing else to do, he casually discussed work with Tina Fey.
He had already received the box office data. The record-breaking number of theaters for the opening translated into a record-breaking first-weekend box office. The impressive numbers for The Fellowship of the Ring also validated the power of strong marketing in shaping a film's commercial prospects, proving that all the hype Duke had orchestrated was worthwhile.
For the sake of sustaining the box office momentum, he intended to continue leading the cast and crew in promotional activities.
After a few words about the box office, Duke asked, "Tina, do we have the sales figures for the merchandise from the opening weekend?"
"I just received a rough report from Warner Bros. while you were giving interviews." Tina Fey reached for her briefcase, flipped through it briefly, and pulled out a document. "Do you want to look at it now?"
The road outside was jam-packed with no sign of clearing. Duke turned his gaze back, "Just summarize it for me."
"This is just a preliminary report from Warner Bros.," Tina Fey said, ignoring the crowd outside. "Over the past three days, excluding our licensing revenue from McDonald's and Pepsi, The Fellowship of the Ring merchandise sales in North America totaled about $31 million!"
Duke's eyes lit up immediately. He asked, "Which items sold the most?"
"The pendant of the One Ring brought in about $5.4 million, making it the top-selling product. The second was the Evenstar necklace, with approximately $3.8 million in revenue. Then came Legolas action figures and dolls, which earned around $3.5 million. Following that were Arwen dolls and plushies, which accounted for about $2.6 million..."
At this point, she glanced at Duke. "The troll you played also made it into the top ten in sales."
"Seems like I'm quite popular too." Duke was in a good mood.
The products Tina Fey mentioned were just a small fraction of the vast array of merchandise tied to the film. This epic fantasy had so many possible product tie-ins that even excluding the licensing deals being negotiated by Weta Workshop, there were over 500 directly film-related items.
"There's another situation," Tina Fey continued. "The most popular items are in short supply. Warner Bros. is doing its best to ramp up production and distribution."
Just like predicting box office success, no one can guarantee whether a film's merchandise will sell well. Hollywood studios never commit substantial resources to merchandising unless there's clear profit potential, and predicting which products will be most popular is equally challenging.
Thus, when any movie releases, the production and distribution companies always prepare a limited amount of merchandise.
With Warner Bros.' capabilities, any supply issues should be resolved quickly once they see profit opportunities.
After being stuck for nearly forty minutes, the convoy finally started moving slowly, leaving the sea of fans at Temple Square and returning to the hotel.
But there was no rest for the Fellowship of the Ring cast and crew. After a brief respite, they headed to an NBC studio in Salt Lake City to participate in a nationally broadcast program.
Fortunately, Duke didn't need to attend, but he kept an eye on another matter. That evening, Fox's Family Channel was airing a Lord of the Rings special. According to their prior arrangement, they would reveal more behind-the-scenes details to the public.
After dinner, Duke called Ivanka Trump, who had returned to New York. She seemed especially interested in the movie's progress. Duke gave her a brief update before hanging up. Shortly after, the special on Fox Family Channel began.
The program didn't feature much new content—nothing groundbreaking would air on one of the four major networks. Most of it consisted of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with audiences.
The goal was simple: to show people across North America—and in any region where the program could be viewed—just how great and popular The Fellowship of the Ring was.
"A great film may not have dashing idol-like protagonists, mind-blowing budgets, or overwhelming media campaigns, but it always has a dedicated, innovative, and hardworking crew. The success of The Fellowship of the Ring is the collective victory of an entire team."
Accompanied by behind-the-scenes footage of various departments, the program narrated a series of statistics to further pique the audience's interest.
"Numbers speak for themselves. Let's take a look at some figures."
"During production, the film consumed a total of 2.45 million feet of film, used 1,600 pairs of Hobbit feet, involved over 750 specially trained horses, created more than 2,900 handcrafted suits of armor, made over 30,000 hand-crafted everyday props, produced 4,800 swords, axes, shields, and other weapons, designed 15,000 costumes, employed 26,600 extras, engaged over 2,400 behind-the-scenes staff, utilized 380 CGI artists, featured 125 speaking roles, relied on 82 tailors and leather workers, shot at over 400 locations in New Zealand, and had 10,000 rugby fans record the voices of orcs. The first installment alone used a record-breaking 1,600 special effects shots!"
This covered all three films. Even so, it was the largest-scale production in cinematic history!
The complexity of filming such a project was unimaginable.
Without a long-established, cohesive team and Duke's wholehearted dedication, it would have been impossible to complete a monumental trilogy like The Lord of the Rings.
Success is never accidental. To achieve this, Duke and his team spent nearly five years of their lives.
So when The Fellowship of the Ring crossed $100 million at the North American box office over the Memorial Day weekend, it came as no surprise.
Even Michael Bay found it perfectly reasonable.
Standing in the office of Artist Management Company, he looked down at Los Angeles through the glass window. His long face remained unusually calm, as if the numbers Michael Ovitz had just recited meant nothing to him.
$24.26 million—this was The Fellowship of the Ring's box office earnings on Memorial Day.
$3.12 million—this was the North American box office for his Pearl Harbor on the same day.
Although factors like release dates and theater counts played a role, the gap between these two numbers was so large that it rendered external factors negligible.
"The situation isn't that bad," Martin Bob's voice came from the couch. "Pearl Harbor has already grossed $120 million in North America. It should surpass its $140 million break-even point. As for overseas markets, predictions from several authoritative institutions suggest it will gross around $300 million internationally. Even if the total $200 million investment isn't fully recovered through box office earnings, it will significantly ease the financial pressure. The movie can achieve profitability through merchandising."
Michael Ovitz sat silently, his face darkened.
The reality was clear. Pearl Harbor was merely another Godzilla—profitable for Touchstone Pictures but far from meeting expectations. It provided little help to Ovitz's ambitious goal of creating another CAA.
Perhaps the only benefit was signing the long-faced director standing at the window.
In today's Hollywood, where commerce increasingly dominates, only large-scale blockbusters capable of generating massive profits could help Artist Management rise above fierce competition.
While Michael Bay's grasp of commercial elements was impressive, it paled compared to Duke Rosenberg's. The difference in their films' reception and box office performance was equally stark.
Watching Michael Bay's silhouette, Ovitz recalled a comment someone once made: "The junior explosion maniac will never surpass the true explosion master!"
Ovitz closed his eyes briefly. In reality, recruiting Duke Rosenberg would instantly pull Artist Management out of its slump, elevating it alongside agencies like ICM, CAA, and William Morris.
The problem was, he could recruit the junior explosion maniac, but what could he offer Duke Rosenberg? Even if he succeeded, what use would a Duke Rosenberg unwilling to adopt a one-stop packaged service be to Artist Management?
And what would it take to convince him?
Beautiful actresses? Not to mention the aspiring second- and third-tier starlets, even Hollywood's top actresses probably wouldn't turn him down.
Money? Everyone knew Duke Rosenberg had a net worth in the billions, possibly exceeding that of the entire Artist Management Company.
Power? He was already one of the most influential figures in Hollywood. Would he bow to a hardliner like Ovitz?
Michael Ovitz felt a headache coming on. Duke Rosenberg seemed like an unsolvable puzzle.
"Martin..." he turned to his deputy. "For our new projects, don't release them during the same period as his films. If his movie is slated for the summer, push ours to Christmas. If he aims for Christmas, delay ours to the following summer."
Martin Bob nodded mechanically.
Until the right opportunity presented itself, Ovitz had no plans to clash directly with the summer blockbuster maniac.
Michael Bay turned around. "That's all for today. I'm heading out."
He didn't go home. After leaving Artist Management Company, he went straight to the nearest cinema to watch The Fellowship of the Ring again. He wasn't as good as Duke Rosenberg now, but he was determined to keep striving. One day, he would surpass him!