In Salt Lake City, in front of a cinema, seven or eight middle school students were chattering excitedly, and similar to them, there were also several groups of young people standing in clusters.
"Hello, kids, this is ABC Online. Can we interview you?"
The group of teenagers looked over, and a young Black boy immediately asked, "Is it live?"
"No, it's recorded, but I can keep your footage unedited."
"OH..."
The young people instantly jumped up in excitement. Being on TV was a very cool thing, enough to let them brag for a while to their friends and family.
"It's already 9 PM. Why aren't you going home yet?"
The young Black boy pointed to the cinema behind him: "That goes without saying, we're about to watch a movie."
"Let me guess, it's the lord of the rings: the two towers, right?"
"No, no, no, we've almost all seen the lord of the rings 2; it's great, but the movie we're watching today is even better. It's sharknado!"
As soon as the young Black boy finished speaking, his friends around him all jumped up and shouted.
"sharknado!"
"sharknado!"
"sharknado!"
As they shouted excitedly, several other small groups nearby were also drawn over. They were all teenagers, who loved to join in the fun.
And after seeing the young Black boy's group shouting "sharknado," these young people also started to sway along.
"sharknado!"
"sharknado!"
"sharknado!"
Such a strange scene made the office workers with their families and children stare in surprise. They naturally planned to watch the lord of the rings, but at this moment, they suddenly became curious about sharknado.
A movie that could make a group of young people so restless must have something extraordinary about it. Should they go see it?
After jumping for a while, the ABC Female Reporter signaled them to be quiet.
"sharknado? What kind of movie is this? Why are you so fascinated by it?"
The young Black boy grinned: "A disaster blockbuster. My brother told me it's awesome, and everyone online says so too."
A young White boy also shouted: "That's right, my brother told me the same thing. He said it's a classic that rivals jaws."
Another young Asian boy pushed up his glasses: "Although some people online say it's a terrible movie, more people say it's an excellent masterpiece. If we don't watch it now, we won't have another chance to see it in the cinema."
The last young Hispanic boy pointed to the school badge on his chest: "I don't know what kind of movie sharknado is, but many of my friends have seen it. If I don't watch it, they won't talk to me, so I came!"
Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted: "Time to go in!"
The young people immediately scattered. The young Black boy ran while shouting: "Mom, eldest sister, second sister, third sister, little brother, I love you all!"
The cameraman was a little moved: "What a good child who loves his family. Huh? Why didn't he mention his father?"
This strange phenomenon was 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 these even made it to local news.
When these news reports were published, they more or less mentioned sharknado, which was equivalent to free advertising, attracting more attention to the movie.
And those young people who were tricked into the cinema would then trick a new batch in, and even many adults walked in out of curiosity.
The situation intensified under these circumstances until the second week's box office results were released.
Undoubtedly, the lord of the rings still held the top spot. Generally, a movie's box office would be cut in half in its second week, but the lord of the rings was special. It only dropped by a terrifying 20% or so, taking in 50 million US dollars in its second week.
harry potter, spider-man, minority report, etc., none had such resilience.
But this was not the most astonishing thing, because sharknado was prominently ranked second at the box office, taking in 35.1 million US dollars. Young people injected new momentum into the sharks.
Ranked third was Spielberg's catch me if you can. Even with the support of Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, its opening weekend box office only reached 31 million, trailing sharknado by a tail.
At the premiere, Peter Jackson was invited and even brought Eric, who was researching transformers special effects with him at Weta Digital, to cheer him on.
It could be said to be an unexpected meeting. Eric met the legendary director Spielberg for the first time.
The two chatted about their views on the film industry, also discussed the development of DreamWorks, and talked about future collaborations.
And when the box office data for catch me if you can was slapped in the faces of various companies, movie fans, and film critics, many people were dumbfounded.
Film and television companies were the first to react.
"sharknado? What is this? Why could it defeat Spielberg? Although it had an advantage in the number of days it was screened, it's too outrageous. That's Spielberg!"
"AK Films, I've never heard of this company. Go check its background. It's not strange that it could open in more than 400 cinemas in the first week, but when all these cinemas are in first-tier major cities, that's strange."
"sharknado, where did this treasure come from? Go investigate AK Films quickly and see if we can buy the copyright."
Immediately after, film critics also got involved, buying tickets to see what on earth it was.
Then more teenagers were recommended to go, and even many adults couldn't help but buy tickets.
And when the film critics weighed in, major newspapers began to publish reviews, all of them negative, without a single word of praise.
Chicago Sun-Times: "I have never seen such a terrible movie. Who on earth combined sharks and tornadoes? I really want to pry open the screenwriter's head and see, but unfortunately, I can't, because I can't find any editor's name. It seems he knew what he was writing. Bad review!"
Los Angeles Entertainment News: "When I saw the shark tornado on the poster, I already had a premonition, but I still didn't expect this movie to be so bad. I beg director Anthony Ferrante never to touch a camera again. This is the best explanation for the audience. Ten out of ten bad review!"
Atlanta Entertainment News: "This movie will waste 90 precious minutes of your life. Sharks will eat your brain, turning you into a thoughtless idiot. Director Anthony Ferrante, you have defiled the art of cinema. Extremely bad review!"
Denver Morning News: "This is an unforgettable movie, not because it's good, but because it's so bad, simply beyond words. I have an impression of the young actor Ryan Reynolds. What on earth made you take on this movie? It's a disaster, a destruction of the human spirit. Super bad review!"
The bad reviews came so fiercely that everyone at AK Films was flustered. The online marketing strategy ultimately couldn't withstand the impact of newspapers and television. Once word-of-mouth collapsed, they couldn't trick people anymore.
"Eric, what should we do? What should we do? Do we need PR?"
On the phone, Warren asked anxiously.
Eric, eating cherries fed to him by Gadot, advised: "Don't worry, Warren, have you forgotten our original intention? sharknado's selling point is its badness. When everyone says it's bad, we've succeeded."
The other end of the phone was silent for a moment: "Uh, you're right. I almost tricked myself. We were always a terrible movie."
"Right, so what are you still worried about? Go relax."
"Now that you mention it, I'm not worried anymore. Should we continue to add screenings?"
"Of course, it has already expanded to third and fourth-tier cities, over 1900 cinemas, but that's as far as it goes. We can't expand further."
"Why?"
"Warren, if we expand further, we can only go to remote areas and small towns. Those places have limited information and are less affected by media and online public opinion. sharknado has no market there, and the box office potential of bad movies is ultimately not as good as quality films. Quit while we're ahead."
After sending Warren away, Eric began the final step: contacting his celebrity friends for promotion.
You say I'm bad, so I admit I'm bad, but I'm so bad it's funny, so bad it's refreshingly unconventional, so bad that, like those classic movies, you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to see it—so bad it's art!