Director in Hollywood

When the opening weekend box office results of the North American summer season were freshly released, everyone knew that The Return of the King had once again become the biggest winner of the summer.

That night, the editorial office of the Los Angeles Times was brightly lit, with all the editors busy laying out the next day's edition of the newspaper.

Even though the Internet had developed for a long time, major newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times all had their own official websites.

But nowadays, more people still preferred reading printed newspapers. Perhaps one day in the future, print might be eliminated, but that time was not now.

Editor-in-chief Claude walked into the newsroom and asked, "What's the front-page headline for tomorrow?"

An editor replied, "It's something from Washington."

"Scrap it. We're not interested in Washington," the editor-in-chief made a swift decision. "We're putting The Return of the King on the front page the front page headline."

The editor immediately understood. This meant that the news about The Return of the King wouldn't just be the lead story in the entertainment section, but would occupy the front page of the full broadsheet.

The chief editor solemnly said, "The film is a huge success. Its opening weekend box office in North America has already surpassed $150 million. This is a new record an unbelievable achievement.

This kind of spectacle, I've never seen before. We must be a part of it. We have to witness history."

"Understood!" the editor got to work right away.

The next morning, both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times featured headlines about The Return of the King's record-breaking box office results on their front pages.

Two of the three most circulated newspapers in North America gave it prominent coverage.

Only the Washington Post maintained its usual bias against Gilbert. Not only did it refuse to give the front page headline, it didn't even feature the film as the entertainment section's lead story.

Not only that, the Washington Post continued its harsh criticism.

Previously, Sarah, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Business Journal, said The Return of the King would surpass Titanic's box office. The Washington Post scoffed at the idea.

"The Return of the King can't even surpass the box office of The Two Towers. Excessive marketing drove too many viewers into theaters early, leading to weakened momentum afterward…"

Scarlett read the paper aloud to Gilbert, her small hand clenched into a fist, clearly disdainful. "Is this newspaper crazy? What do they mean by weakened momentum?

I saw lots of people still going to the movies during weekdays. How is that weak?"

Gilbert raised an eyebrow and said, "Actually, I think the Washington Post isn't entirely wrong. It's true that the opening weekend burned through too much of the audience's enthusiasm."

Scarlett asked, "Then do you think The Return of the King can surpass Titanic's box office?"

"I'm not sure," Gilbert admitted with some doubt.

He had originally believed The Return of the King wouldn't surpass Titanic's box office. Though Titanic's weekly numbers seemed low, they were consistently strong.

And just like the Washington Post pointed out, The Return of the King had pulled in too many moviegoers during its opening weekend.

Setting such a high opening record had also drained much of the audience's enthusiasm.

Typically, North American moviegoers have plenty of options during the summer season. Watching two or three movies a summer already indicates a middle-class lifestyle.

For working-class folks, going to the movies even once during the summer is already a luxury.

Still, the sky-high opening numbers gave Gilbert a glimmer of hope. Maybe just maybe The Return of the King would pull off a miracle.

But the undeniable reality was that as modern life became faster-paced, a clear trend emerged in the film market: theatrical runs were getting shorter.

In the 1990s, a major hit could stay in theaters for over twenty weeks, and even thirty weeks wasn't rare. Titanic, for example, stayed in theaters for more than sixty weeks.

But nowadays, with opening weekends accounting for a third to even half or two-thirds of a film's total box office, theatrical runs have shortened accordingly.

Of course, a short run doesn't mean there's no chance. After all, ticket prices had risen again earlier this year the second price hike since the 1990s.

Back in the early 2000s, due to the popularity of doomsday predictions, many people indulged themselves recklessly, which led to a hike in ticket prices.

This year's price increase was driven by the impact of last September's 9/11 incident, prompting another round of increases.

Some sharp-eyed individuals might notice a pattern whenever something terrible happens, the film industry often benefits.

Maybe people just want to enjoy life while they can, and go see more movies before another disaster strikes?

In any case, this strange phenomenon helped The Return of the King achieve its record-breaking box office.

Of course, if the movie itself wasn't good, high ticket prices wouldn't have helped at all.

After the first weekend, on Monday, ABC invited the Lord of the Rings crew to appear on a show.

Gilbert didn't attend. Now that The Return of the King was already riding high, he, the director, chose not to participate in the promotion of the third film.

On the program, the main cast Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, and Orlando Bloom shared many fun stories from filming The Lord of the Rings.

Producer Kane Wexman said, "I can say without a doubt that the Lord of the Rings project was the most difficult, most exhausting collaboration I've ever had with Gilbert.

We put in a tremendous amount of effort to complete this epic masterpiece."

The show also aired an interview with Steven Spielberg, who is widely recognized as the mentor who brought Gilbert into Hollywood and personally acknowledged as such by Gilbert.

Spielberg gave a very objective assessment: "Looking at Hollywood, every film series begins with a first film before there's ever a second.

But Gilbert shot an entire trilogy in one go, leaving himself no room to retreat.

Gilbert told me about this project a long time ago. At the time, I advised him to think carefully about the future and not rush into such a difficult project on sheer passion alone.

But Gilbert was extremely determined. He said he was a die-hard fan of The Lord of the Rings, and if he didn't bring this masterpiece to the big screen, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Many people say the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the pinnacle of Hollywood film production and attribute its success to advancements in filmmaking technology.

That's true. Only the technology available in this era could have made The Lord of the Rings possible.

But I want to say that the true determining factor in a film's success is people not just technology.

I believe that if The Lord of the Rings had been handed to anyone else, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful…"

Spielberg rarely gives interviews, and the fact that he publicly praised The Lord of the Rings and Gilbert didn't come as a surprise.

This summer, DreamWorks' releases weren't in direct competition with The Return of the King.

Without commercial interests in play, Spielberg is undoubtedly a great senior and mentor at least to Gilbert, he certainly is.

Finally, the program listed a huge batch of statistics: "Look at the incredible work the Lord of the Rings team has done Gilbert alone spent over two years preparing the script.

The pre-production phase took two years, and filming lasted over a year."

"We can use some figures to illustrate the amazing work behind this great film series:

6: The number of years Gilbert and his team spent working on The Lord of the Rings.

28: The number of major characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

68: The number of scale models built by Orange Studio for the trilogy.

100: In the early stages of filming, the art department had to present over 100 storyboard sketches to Gilbert for review each day.

300: The number of layers required for the most complex special effects shot in The Lord of the Rings. One layer equals one composited element the more layers, the more complex the compositing.

350: The number of people from Orange Studio who worked on The Lord of the Rings.

1500: The number of VFX shots in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

5000: The number of extras and horses used to film the Battle of Minas Tirith and the Black Gate.

48,000: The total number of props created by Orange Studio and the props department."

If these numbers weren't laid out together, people might have assumed the Lord of the Rings trilogy was easy to shoot but that's not the case. Listing them all like this helps the public truly understand the effort Gilbert put into this film.

Of course, it was arguably a bit easier for Gilbert after all, he had references. Peter Jackson was the one truly crossing the river by feeling for stones, with no guarantees.

But even so, a project of this scale couldn't be pulled off by anyone other than a top-tier Hollywood director. 

Directors from the independent film scene often look down on mainstream filmmakers, and especially many indie directors have criticized Gilbert.

But give them The Lord of the Rings to direct, and the trilogy would absolutely flop.

Of course, indie filmmakers would never blame the film itself. They'd just say the audience was trash, lacking the taste to appreciate their "great" works.

In truth, audiences really can't appreciate works made by lunatics.

And no movie studio would invest $350 million for an indie director to shoot three deranged films.

Although box office statistics from several regions were coming in slowly, by the second Tuesday at the latest, first weekend numbers from all markets were in.

North America was a given, but in the UK, the film grossed $52.409 million in its opening weekend the highest box office record in UK history.

The entire UK is crazy about The Lord of the Rings trilogy even the British royal family are fans. So getting that kind of number was unexpected, yet entirely reasonable.

In France, The Return of the King also pulled in $32.235 million, despite ongoing resistance from the French film industry. Honest French moviegoers made their voices heard with ticket sales.

In Germany, The Return of the King grossed $38.75 million its opening weekend, making it the second-largest market in Europe after the UK.

Italy brought in $15.572 million, and although the economy isn't doing great, the Italian public still adored the movie.

Reportedly, some Italian youth even lived on church-distributed bread for two weeks just to afford multiple trips to the cinema for The Return of the King.

The film also performed well in other markets, bringing in a total of $42.23 million combined.

And so, following its box office shockwave in North America, The Return of the King achieved the first global weekend box office championship of the summer with a staggering $336 million opening weekend.

But this is far from the end. As the second weekend arrives and the film continues to roll out across more markets, the momentum is unstoppable.

...

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