Director in Hollywood

"This is ABC Television. Currently, we are at a children's psychiatric hospital in Vancouver. As you can see, the creators of The Sixth Sense are visiting these patients..."

This is one of the prearranged promotional strategies. Gilbert, along with the main creators, visited these children undergoing treatment.

In addition, the creators prepared gifts for the children, including children's picture books, toys, and similar items, which Hailey handed out to each patient.

This scene, recorded by television and newspaper media, was shown to the American public.

The purpose of these actions was to highlight the social responsibility of the film's creators, generating goodwill from the audience and encouraging them to visit cinemas.

The promotional journey in Canada had two stops. The first was in Vancouver, and the next stop for the team would be Toronto.

It's well known that although Canada and the United States are two separate countries, the North American market usually includes both.

Other North American markets, such as Mexico, are considered part of this area as well.

Therefore, the North American market is vast, with a large population and an economically developed commercial landscape, making it the largest film market in the world.

Conquering the North American film market means conquering the world.

After earning $61.214 million in its opening weekend, The Sixth Sense continued to perform well on weekdays.

By Monday, the film's box office had dropped by about 40% compared to the previous day, but it still earned $10.876 million.

Tuesday was the traditional half-price movie day, and the box office rose again, earning $13.572 million on a single day.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the film earned $9.875 million and $10.236 million, respectively.

On May 30th, in the second weekend of The Sixth Sense, the film faced a strong competitor.

Directed by Chinese director John Woo and starring Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, and Joan Allen, Face/Off was released this week.

The production budget of Face/Off reached $80 million, mainly because Nicolas Cage's salary had increased significantly compared to his pay for The Rock.

This was John Woo's first time directing a Hollywood A-list commercial film, so failure was not an option.

However, Face/Off was not enough to compete with The Sixth Sense. In its opening weekend, it earned $23.387 million, settling for second place at the box office.

Meanwhile, The Sixth Sense earned $36.413 million in its second weekend, and with the weekday earnings, the total box office for the week reached $70.096 million, securing its position as the box office champion for the week.

Combined with the opening weekend earnings, The Sixth Sense's North American box office reached $131 million, temporarily ranking just behind Jurassic Park 2, which had been released for four weeks.

However, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that Jurassic Park 2's position was not secure, as The Sixth Sense had outperformed it in the previous two weeks.

If there were no surprises this year, Gilbert was about to win his second consecutive North American annual box office championship.

But would there be no surprises?

The film performed well overseas as well. By the second weekend in North America, The Sixth Sense began its international release, including in five countries: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The film performed particularly well in Japan, where it earned $15.265 million in its opening weekend.

Japanese fans were shocked when celebrities Noriko Sakai, Shizuka Kudo, and Norika Fujiwara publicly promoted The Sixth Sense.

Fans and followers initially thought the three actresses had been hired to promote the film. However, they soon discovered that the three had volunteered to help with promotion for free.

The reason was simple. This activity was initiated by Noriko Sakai, who considered herself and the other two actresses as Gilbert's mistresses in Japan.

Gilbert had not stopped the three from pursuing their careers, giving them the freedom to make their own choices. In return, they wanted to help him as much as they could.

Noriko Sakai even called Gilbert to seek praise, hoping he would compliment her for her efforts.

"So what kind of reward do you want?" Gilbert asked.

Normally, women who didn't know their place would ask for roles or similar rewards, given Gilbert's status.

But Noriko Sakai wasn't like that. She joked, "How about you hit me twice?"

"???" Gilbert was confused. Did Noriko have a special kink?

But she quickly clarified, "Recently, a guy claiming to be a surfer has been pestering me, and it's so annoying."

Gilbert replied, "Got it. I'll take care of it for you."

"Heehee, thanks! Shizuka, Norika, and I are all looking forward to meeting you in New Zealand," Noriko said.

"I'm looking forward to it too..."

The last time Noriko Sakai came to North America, Gilbert had only seen her as a cuddly companion, with no further actions taken.

But it seemed that the restless Japanese woman had been thinking about him ever since her return.

Since that was the case, Gilbert was not one to be coy, so he accepted her advances.

After finishing the conversation with Noriko Sakai, Gilbert thought for a moment and instructed his assistant Anna, "Tell Mr. Hiroshi to take care of something for me..."

Following Gilbert's orders, Hiroshi Onagia quickly made the necessary arrangements, and soon the surfer was involved in an accident while surfing and became fish food.

Gilbert didn't know the details; he assumed Hiroshi Onagia had merely warned the man to stay away from Noriko Sakai.

Even if he had known, Gilbert wouldn't have cared.

He thought, "He's just a Japanese guy. If he gets eaten by fish, so be it. The fish might even be picky and not want to eat him!"

The two men who had been pursuing Noriko Sakai disappeared without explanation, which of course led to speculation. Some people speculated that Noriko Sakai was a powerful figure's mistress, with no one allowed to touch her.

Others guessed that she was involved with a wealthy heir, and the disappearance was arranged by him.

However, the people in the upper echelons of Japan knew the truth—it was Hiroshi Onagia's doing.

Strangely enough, no one blamed Hiroshi Komaki. In fact, after learning that he was acting on behalf of Gilbert, many people envied him!

Rumors also spread that Hiroshi Onagia had sent his wife and daughter to give service to Gilbert when he was last time in Japan. Many people in the know couldn't help but curse him for being shameless.

Meanwhile, many people looked at their own wives and daughters, wondering whether they could catch Gilbert's eye. Even if he wasn't interested, there were plenty of powerful figures in Hollywood and North America who might be.

Gilbert had never anticipated this. In his heart, he was simply following his instincts—he just loved beautiful women. Yet, this had led to the wave of women being sent to North America by the political and business elites in Japan.

This action had made neighboring Korea nervous. As fellow sycophants, why was Japan so enthusiastic? Did they think there were no beautiful women in Korea?

Thus, Korea began planning to send their entertainment industry's beauties to North American elites in exchange for resources.

However, they were disappointed to find that, aside from a few individuals, many North American elites weren't interested in Asian women.

They quickly lost interest upon noticing that the women lacked long legs, large chests, and rounded hips like their Western counterparts.

In the end, it seemed that only Gilbert understood the beauty of Asian women.

But since Gilbert could only handle so many, the "send women" operation was soon halted.

Interestingly, no one could understand why the upper echelons of these two countries were so eager to fawn over a Hollywood director like Gilbert.

After all, he was just a director, at most a wealthy filmmaker. He had no real influence in Washington.

Still, it was simple to understand. Once the pressure from the northern country disappeared, people in North America became emboldened and unruly.

Many people from that China across the Pacific were eager to come over, willing to pay a heavy price to do so.

It didn't help that two smaller countries were hanging on their master's every word, hoping to seize any opportunity they could.

The Sixth Sense did not schedule a promotional tour for Asia. Otherwise, Gilbert could have arranged for Noriko Sakai and the others to experience some pleasure in advance.

In addition to the great performance in Japan, the film also performed well in the four European countries where it was released.

The French Ministry of Culture had long encouraged moviegoers to support French films and resist Hollywood. But the honest French moviegoers gave their answer with ticket sales.

The film earned $11.236 million in its opening weekend in France and $8.765 million in Germany.

In Italy, Gilbert's home country, he received the greatest support, with the film earning $7.256 million there—quite a good result.

In London, after filming The Mask of Zorro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who had been ignored in Hollywood, returned to the West End theater.

Facing the sarcastic remarks of former colleagues, Catherine chose to silently endure them.

Her Hollywood comeback had failed. The Mask of Zorro's release date was uncertain, and while Spielberg had taken notice of her, he had only helped her once, which she was extremely grateful for.

Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz, whom Catherine resented, had landed a lead role in a commercial blockbuster and was currently filming in Morocco.

Catherine had once visited her on set and felt a burning jealousy rise within her.

"Why her? Isn't it just because she slept with Gilbert?" Catherine thought. "Why does she get to stay in Hollywood, while I'm stuck here in a place I never want to return to?"

Catherine was feeling unbalanced, especially when she found out that Gilbert had originally contacted her, but Rachel Weisz had intercepted the business card and meeting opportunity without informing her. This made her even angrier.

But Catherine knew this was normal. Even without Rachel, anyone who received the card would not have passed it to her.

Determined not to miss the next opportunity, Catherine reached out to her agent.

"Hello, Reina, it's Catherine. Do you know which program The Sixth Sense's team will be on? I want to appear as a mysterious guest. Please help me secure a spot."

"Okay, thank you, Reina."

After speaking with her agent, Catherine firmly decided that she wouldn't miss this chance.

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