Chapter 49 51. The ultimate rottenness is art

In Salt Lake City, in front of a movie theater, seven or eight junior high school students were chattering about something. Similar to them, there were also several groups of young people next to them.

"Hello kids, this is ABC Online. Can we interview you?"

The group of teenagers looked over, and one of the little black guys immediately asked, "Is this a live broadcast?"

“No, it’s a recorded broadcast, but I can choose not to cut out your footage.”

"Oh..."

The young people jumped up with excitement instantly. Being on TV was a very cool thing, enough for them to brag about it in front of their friends and family for a while.

"It's already 9 o'clock in the evening, why don't you go home?"

Xiao Heizi pointed to the movie theater at the back: "Of course, we are getting ready to watch a movie."

"Let me guess. It's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, right?"

"No, no, no, we've almost seen Lord of the Rings 2, it's great, but the movie we're going to watch today is even better, it's Sharknado!"

As soon as Xiao Heizi finished speaking, the friends around him jumped up and shouted.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

While they were shouting excitedly, several small groups nearby were also attracted over. They were all teenagers who loved to join in the fun.

And after seeing the black group shouting "Sharknado", these young people also started to sway.

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

"Sharknado!"

Such a weird scene stunned the office workers who came with their families and children. They naturally planned to watch "The Lord of the Rings", but at this moment they suddenly became curious about "Sharknado".

A movie that can make a group of young people restless must have something extraordinary. How about watching it? After dancing for a while, the ABC female reporter signaled them to be quiet.

"Sharknado? What kind of movie is this? Why are you so obsessed with it?"

The little black man grinned, "A disaster movie. My brother told me it was great, and that's what the internet said too."

A little white guy also shouted: "Yes, my brother told me so too. He said it is a classic comparable to "Jaws."

Another little yellow boy rolled his eyes and said, "Although some people on the Internet say this is a terrible movie, many more people say it is an excellent masterpiece. If you don't watch it this time, you will never have the chance to see it in the cinema again."

The last little brown boy pointed to the school badge on his chest and said, "I don't know what movie 'Sharknado' is, but many of my friends have seen it. If I don't watch it, they will ignore me, so I came here!"

Suddenly someone in the crowd shouted, "It's time to enter!"

The young people immediately scattered, and Xiao Heizi ran while shouting: "Mom, big sister, second sister, third sister, little brother, I love you!"

The cameraman was touched: "What a good kid who loves his family. Eh? Why didn't you mention his father?"

This strange scene is not only happening in Salt Lake City, but also in first- and second-tier cities like New York, Atlanta, Seattle, and San Francisco, and many of them have even made the local news.

When reporting these news, "Sharknado" was mentioned to some extent, which was equivalent to free advertising and attracted more attention to the movie.

Those young people who were tricked into the cinema would trick a new group of people into going in, and even many adults went in out of curiosity.

The situation worsened under this situation until the box office results came out in the second week.

There is no doubt that "The Lord of the Rings" is still at the top. Generally speaking, the box office of a movie will be cut in half in the second week, but "The Lord of the Rings" is special. It only dropped by a terrifying 20%, closing at 50 million US dollars in the second week.

None of the Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Minority Report, etc. have this kind of tenacity.

But this is not the most surprising thing, because the second place on the box office list is "Sharknado", which closed at 35.1 million US dollars. Young people have injected new impetus into sharks.

Ranked third is Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can". Even with the support of Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio, it only received 31 million in the first weekend box office, lagging behind "Sharknado".

Peter Jackson was invited to the premiere, and he also brought Eric, who was working on Transformers special effects at Weta Digital, to cheer him on.

It can be said that this was an unexpected meeting, as Eric met the legendary director Steven Spielberg for the first time.

The two chatted about their views on the film industry, the development of DreamWorks, and future collaboration.

When the box office data of "Catch Me If You Can" was slapped in the faces of major companies, movie fans and film critics, many people were stunned.

Film and television companies were the first to take action.

"Sharknado, what is this? Why can it beat Spielberg? Although it has an advantage in the number of days it was released, it's too outrageous. That's Spielberg!"

"AK Films, I've never heard of this company. Go check its background. It's not surprising that they were able to open more than 400 cinemas in the first week, but it's strange when all these cinemas are located in first-tier cities."

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"Sharknado, where did this treasure come from? Go check out AK Films and see if you can buy the copyright."

Soon after, film critics also started to move, buying tickets to see who this person was.

Then more young people were persuaded to join the event, and even many adults bought tickets.

After the film critic left the stage, major newspapers began publishing reviews, all of which were negative, without even a single compliment.

Chicago Sun-Times: "I have never seen such a bad movie. Who put sharks and tornadoes together? I really want to pry open the screenwriter's head, but unfortunately I can't because I can't find the editor's signature. It seems that he also knows what he is writing. Bad review!"

Los Angeles Entertainment News: "When I saw the shark tornado on the poster, I had a hunch, but I didn't expect the movie to be so bad. I ask the director to never touch the camera again. This is the best explanation to the audience. Very bad review!"

Atlanta Entertainment News: "This movie will waste 90 precious minutes of your life. The shark will eat your head and turn you into an idiot who doesn't know how to think. Director Anthony Ferrante, you have tarnished the art of film. Extremely bad review!"

Denver Morning Post: "This is a movie that will be remembered for a lifetime, not because it is good, but because it is so bad, it is simply too bad to be worse. I have an impression of the young actor Ryan Reynolds. What on earth made you take on this movie? It is simply a disaster, a destruction of the human spirit. Super bad review!"

The negative reviews came so heavily that everyone at AK Films was in a panic. After all, online marketing could not withstand the impact of newspapers and television, and once the reputation collapsed, it would no longer be able to deceive people.

"Eric, what should we do? Do we need PR?"

Warren asked anxiously on the phone.

Eric ate ​​the cherries fed by Gadot and said, "Don't worry, Warren. Have you forgotten our original intention? Sharknado was sold because it was bad. When everyone said it was bad, we succeeded."

The person on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment: "Well, you are right, I almost fooled myself, we are a big bad movie."

"Yes, then what are you worried about? Go and relax."

"After hearing what you said, I'm really not worried anymore. Do you want to continue with the additional screening?"

"Of course, we have now expanded to third- and fourth-tier cities, with more than 1,900 cinemas, but that's it. We can't expand any further."

"Why?"

"Warren, if you want to expand further, you can only go to remote areas and small towns. Those places are isolated from information and are less affected by the media and online public opinion. There is no market for Sharknado, and the box office potential of bad movies is ultimately not as good as that of high-quality movies. Let's quit while we're ahead."

After sending Warren away, Eric started the last step, contacting those celebrities he had a good relationship with to do publicity.

You say I'm bad, then I admit that I'm bad, but my badness makes people laugh, my badness is fresh and refined, and my badness is as bad as those classic movies. You would be letting yourself down if you don't go watch one. The ultimate badness is art!

(End of this chapter)