Even after the end credits finished and the lights came on, the screening room was still filled with surprised and enlightened discussions.
I never expected such an ending.
However, everything seemed so natural; a quick recollection would reveal that the film had already given too many hints.
But...
Regardless, it was truly unexpected!
Lisa Collins, smiling, rose with her boyfriend and left the screening room, listening to the murmurs around her.
Because of some involvement with a certain guy, she felt a subtle sense of pride and decided to rewatch the film when she had time, as many details were worth savouring.
The 9 o'clock showing ended, and it was already 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
However, passing the ticket hall on her way out, Lisa noticed some audience members who had just left were heading back to the ticket counter.
At this hour, those people were clearly not rushing to see another film; it was highly likely they were eager to re-experience the many foreshadowing details from the movie they had just watched.
Most films with plot twists often feel somewhat abrupt due to insufficient groundwork. However, 'The Sixth Sense' had no such problem; too many details in the film clearly hinted at the final ending. It's just that those who didn't know the ending found it hard to understand those details, but once the ending was known, everything became clear.
Most importantly, all the groundwork and foreshadowing were seamlessly integrated into the film's story, appearing neither contrived nor separable.
Therefore, this truly was a stroke of genius.
Lisa couldn't help but recall how some media had been predicting the film's failure recently. Now, Daenerys Entertainment had undoubtedly produced another classic. As for the box office, considering the audience members who, even late at night, wanted to rewatch the film immediately, it clearly wouldn't be an issue.
It was still 8 p.m. on the West Coast.
It's not too late.
So she decided to call Jenny as soon as she got back to congratulate her. It would be even better if she could catch him and her together; perhaps she could say a few words.
As Lisa Collins finished her viewing, countless professional and amateur film critics across North America had also largely completed their reviews of 'The Sixth Sense'.
Compared to other films, 'The Sixth Sense' undoubtedly had a natural advantage in this regard. Since it was the only new film opening this week, and it featured the highly anticipated Simon Westeros and Robert De Niro, most newspapers and media outlets couldn't ignore Westeros and De Niro, and actually had no other choice.
If tomorrow's entertainment section was filled with discussions about 'The Sixth Sense', and their own newspaper lacked similar news, readers might wonder if the paper was out of touch with society.
This is not what newspaper operators want to see.
Thus, early Saturday morning, the featured film review news in the entertainment sections of countless North American newspapers was almost entirely related to 'The Sixth Sense'.
This alone was equivalent to a massive, full-scale carpet marketing campaign.
A large part of why many big directors and stars are always more successful is that they naturally attract a large amount of media and public attention. The works of these individuals, even if not of high quality, generally do not fail too badly at the box office due to their widespread attention and fame. If the quality is excellent enough, they are very likely to be blockbusters.
This is essentially what people often refer to as 'box office appeal'.
North America has long developed a very sophisticated film criticism system, where newspaper critics typically do not need to resort to spoilers to attract attention. Daenerys Entertainment's distribution department, under Amy's specific instructions, intensified its public relations efforts in this area. Consequently, in the Saturday reviews of 'The Sixth Sense', almost all critics, while praising the film, carefully guarded its most crucial secret.
Of course, although there were no spoilers, critics no longer needed to be as secretive as Daenerys Entertainment had been during the promotion phase.
Stephen Hunter, a renowned film critic for The Washington Post, wrote with palpable eagerness: "With a little attention, 'The Sixth Sense' will be irresistible. This darkly atmospheric film ultimately leads to an ending you absolutely cannot predict. I really, really want to tell you what happened, but I can't, because you would hate me. I can only say this is a film you absolutely cannot miss this year".
The Los Angeles Times, while not as overtly hinting as Stephen Hunter, still praised it with subtle implications: "Another meticulously crafted script by Simon Westeros, 'The Sixth Sense' undoubtedly has the best ending of any similar film I've seen".
Other influential newspaper platforms such as The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Chicago Sun-Times, and San Francisco Chronicle all featured extensive reviews of 'The Sixth Sense', with each offering more or less a hint about the film's unexpected ending.
Beyond comments on the film's ending, and while avoiding spoilers, many reviews also focused on analysing the story's theme of redemption in 'The Sixth Sense'. The performances of De Niro and the actor playing Cole also received unanimous praise.
The actor playing Cole was a newcomer chosen from many child stars, and comments on acting tended to favour veteran star Robert De Niro.
Compared to Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, much like in many of his previous films, invested significant effort into the role of Dr. Crowe. He not only researched extensive materials on child psychology but also spent a month personally experiencing the profession at a psychological clinic.
As a result, De Niro's entire range of words and actions in the film were indistinguishable from those of a professional psychologist.
A New York Post critic unreservedly praised De Niro for once again successfully creating a screen character in a completely new field, following 'Dead Poets Society'. The critic also suggested in the article that De Niro should ideally forgo starring in the upcoming 'Goodfellas' to avoid falling back into the stereotype of gangster roles.
Combining various media data, 'The Sixth Sense' achieved the best rating since the summer blockbusters began, scoring 8.5 points.
Before this, only Spielberg's 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' had achieved a good score of 8 points this summer.
Other films: 'The Bodyguard' was almost universally panned by the media, 'Ghostbusters II' also failed to pass, and Paramount's 'Star Trek V' had even worse reviews than 'The Bodyguard'. Of the three new films last week, the well-received 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' only scored 7.5 points with critics, 'The Karate Kid Part III' was directly labelled as a cash grab, and 'Great Balls of Fire!' barely passed but had the most dismal box office.
Countless cases have proven that there isn't a direct correlation between a film's box office and its critical reception, as many other factors are involved, such as release schedule, screen count, media buzz, and so on. However, 'The Sixth Sense' not only received the highest ratings in the media since the summer season began, but its influence among audiences also spread very rapidly.
As the media subtly hinted at the film's brilliant plot, 'The Sixth Sense' also experienced a rare word-of-mouth effect among the public. Many viewers, after watching the film, mysteriously recommended this unexpectedly-ending movie to their friends and family.
Coupled with Daenerys Entertainment's previous relentless all-ages promotional campaign, and the film's exclusive prime week in the summer blockbuster season, all these favourable factors combined led to 'The Sixth Sense' effortlessly claiming the weekend box office champion with only 1,673 screens in its first three days, accumulating a staggering $23.15 million.
It's worth noting that 'The Bodyguard' only grossed $23.63 million in its first seven days.
In the popular North American summer season, due to the increase in weekday attendance, a film's weekend box office typically accounts for 60% to 70% of its entire week's gross.
Based on such box office proportions, whether it was box office tracking agencies, public media, or internally at Daenerys Entertainment, it was generally believed that 'The Sixth Sense' would gross between $33 million and $38 million in its opening week, which would already be the third-highest opening week data for the summer season, trailing only 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' and 'Ghostbusters II'.
With just such an opening week box office, according to Daenerys Entertainment's tiered revenue-sharing agreement with theatres, 'The Sixth Sense' would be able to recoup all of its production and marketing costs in a mere seven days.
However, everyone ultimately underestimated the actual box office potential of this film, which benefited from perfect timing, location, and human factors.
Due to the continuous fermentation of the film's reputation and buzz, compared to the anticipated $33 million to $38 million, the first seven-day box office figure for 'The Sixth Sense' ultimately reached an astonishing $41.35 million, far exceeding everyone's expectations.
Compared to all other summer films that failed to escape the 60% to 70% box office ratio between weekend and full-week grosses, 'The Sixth Sense's opening weekend three-day box office only accounted for 56% of its full seven-day gross. Driven by continuously spreading word-of-mouth, a large number of viewers continued to flock to cinemas after the weekend, and the film's weekday box office share significantly exceeded the average.
Furthermore, 'The Sixth Sense' also became the first film in the summer season to break the $20,000 per-screen average in its opening week. With a total of 1,673 screens, the average per-screen revenue was $24,716.
In comparison, 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' only had a per-screen average of $19,773 in its first full week. 'Ghostbusters II', which opened on more screens, grossed $44.91 million in its first week, but its per-screen average was even lower at $18,635.
Moreover, the opening screen counts for both 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' and 'Ghostbusters II' had already fully tapped into their box office potential. In recent weeks, neither film had expanded its release scale.
Looking at 'The Sixth Sense', this film only opened on 1,673 screens, a significant difference compared to 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade's 2,327 screens and 'Ghostbusters II's 2,410 screens. With a first-week per-screen average of nearly $25,000 and a phenomenal viewing trend already established, Daenerys Entertainment had no reason not to increase its screen count.
Based on box office data from recent weeks, industry predictions for 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade's total North American box office were approximately $200 million.
Many people originally thought this film had a chance to break Daenerys Entertainment's 'monopoly' and claim the annual box office championship, following 'Run Lola Run' in 1987 and 'Rain Man' in 1988. Now, few people would bring up such a claim. Everyone was simply watching with envy and curiosity to see how far 'The Sixth Sense's box office potential would go.
On July 7th, 'The Sixth Sense' entered its second week of release.
Due to the tight screen resources during the summer season, after urgent consultations with theatre chains, Daenerys Entertainment only managed to secure an additional 256 screens for 'The Sixth Sense' in the new week, bringing the total screen count to 1,929.
Meanwhile, three new films opened this week: Warner Bros.' 'Lethal Weapon 2', 20th Century Fox's 'Weekend at Bernie's, and Columbia Pictures' 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape'.
The first 'Lethal Weapon' unexpectedly succeeded in the niche March slot two years ago. Although its box office didn't break $100 million, it became Warner's highest-grossing film that year. However, because the first instalment's success was unexpected, Warner wasn't 100% confident in the sequel and only gave it 1,803 opening screens.
20th Century Fox's 'Weekend at Bernie's was a comedy, a film Simon had never heard of (weird), and it only opened on 1,134 screens.
Finally, for 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape', Columbia Pictures clearly understood that the audience for this low-budget independent film wouldn't be too broad. Although the film was likely favoured by Westeros, Columbia didn't let confidence swell excessively and only scheduled 517 opening screens for its first week.
However, for an art-house film, such a release scale was already quite impressive.
With three new films hitting theatres, Daenerys Entertainment didn't dare to be complacent, launching a new wave of marketing for 'The Sixth Sense'. They also coordinated with the 'Goodfellas' crew to postpone Robert De Niro's filming schedule so he could continue participating in 'The Sixth Sense's promotion, while the film's other main creators tirelessly campaigned across North America.
Perhaps hoping for a dark horse to intercept 'The Sixth Sense's strong momentum, North American media significantly increased their attention on the three new films.
After their Friday opening, media reviews were quickly released.
'Lethal Weapon 2' successfully continued the excellent reputation of the first film, achieving an overall score of 8.3, surpassing 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' from May, and only 0.2 points lower than 'The Sixth Sense'.
Perhaps it was the film's exploration of the decadent slacker class that resonated emotionally, or perhaps its inherent art-house appeal that easily pleased critics, but 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' received unanimous praise from the media, with an overall score as high as 9.6 points.
In contrast, 20th Century Fox's 'Weekend at Bernie's' seemed to go unnoticed, with few ratings and only 5.3 points, appearing somewhat self-defeating. However, as a buddy comedy with slapstick and some crime elements, 'Weekend at Bernie's also had its dedicated audience.
With three new films opening, plus a host of older films from May and June that still had staying power, the seven days from July 7th to July 13th could be described as the most competitive week of the summer season.