Chapter 175 Date (?)
As [Leap in the Sky] and [30 days of Happiness] were released on the same, there was no way there won’t be any comparisons between the two movies.
Especially because the genres of both the movies were the same. Even the early reviews of both movies have come out good.
One of them had already proven itself in a big film festival and the other was applauded as a bright and lovable film by critics in the preview screenings.
But when both movies were released, reality came out.
On the first day, [30 days of Happiness] was liked by a lot of people, especially among the age group of 16-25. Sadly, the same can’t be said about [Leap in the Sky].
Even though the movie got a lot of interest initially, a lot of people didn’t enjoy it as much as they had thought.
The storyline of it was pretty good with it being the story of a high school student who had aspirations to be a dancer but his father always wanted him to become a doctor as he came from a family of renowned doctors.
The romantic development of the movie was its core with the main character falling for the dancer of a rival team that his team was competing against. It wasn’t something too philosophical or deep.
Just a very simple storyline.
A lot of times that would have been enough for the audience to have a good time but the execution of it was very sloppy.
The comedy didn’t land a lot and the movie tried to go into the territory of misunderstandings to cause funny situations but the audience was already tired of such tropes that lacked innovation.
One of the reasons behind it was also that normally after this, drama would ensue and in this movie, it wasn’t well executed.
The characters sounded funny on paper but the performances weren’t convincing. For example, there was a character of a professor who was a sex addict and there were few gags to showcase it in a fun way but they never landed.
That’s why, the audience reviews were pretty harsh on the movie.
“Harold Wood should really think more about his career. At least work with good directors If you are labelling yourself as the best rom com actor.”
“I watched the movie because critics said it’s good but my god, it was bad. Those comedy movies released on DVD back in the day were way better.”
“Is it only me who thought that Harold Wood looked weird as a high schooler? He has two kids, so I can’t imagine him like that. The female lead looked too unreal too because of the choppy editing. I should not have watched it.”
“Don’t watch [Leap in the Sky] no matter what. It just tries hard to be a great rom com but the problem lies in just that. The movie tries but never becomes that.”
These types of reviews from the people who have watched the movie were pretty common on social media sites. At the same time, a lot of people were also bashing the critics who gave the movie good ratings.
The truth was that Night Hawk studios had only promoted the paid reviews that they have done and a lot of bad ones were concealed because of that.
At the same time, people also noticed other things like how the screens for [30 days of Happiness] were too few and how [Leap in the Sky] had gotten most of the screens.
This problem came out in the public eye when a video of some high school students protesting for more shows was uploaded on the internet.
In the comment section, a lot of people talked about the same problem.
[30 days of Happiness] was received very well by the public, so a lot of people were trying to get a ticket and all of them had problems such as the theatres being full already.
So, there was public outrage against it.
[Girl with glasses: Why are there no screens available for [30 days of Happiness] in my area. It’s very annoying, especially because I really want to watch the movie.]
[Cornhub fan: I’m facing the same problem. Every ticket sold in the area. I asked the theater to get more screens but they said they were bound by contract. It’s very annoying when this happens.]
[Karma’s grandma: I guess I would wait for the movie to come on Zetflix. No point in trying to get a ticket if screenings are so few.]
[Weed smoking Pope: I heard the theatre chains gave more screens to other movies thinking this one won’t do well but the audience response is pretty good, so they must be regretting now. I know the world is harsh but at least in cinema, we should promote better stories than big names.]
[Toxic Sparrow user: Hollywood blocks good movies from earning a lot always. They only care about big franchises and universe movies now.]
[Dreams of publishing a book: I didn’t know this was going on. Thankfully, I was able to book tickets for my parents and me early on. They liked the songs and wanted to go see the movie, so it became a family outing.]
[Cats are our owners: I’m pretty sure they are going to increase the screens in a few days, depending on the public interest and box office. Theatre chains normally do this. It would help if people could tag the theatre chains and tell them to get more screenings.]
[Smoking cigarettes to look cool: We want more screenings!]
Like that, a lot of people were commenting about the issue and some were even tagging the social media handles of theatres in their locality for more screenings.
Eternal life studios also released a statement saying that they would renegotiate a contract with the theatres for more screenings because of too many requests.
As the movie was doing so well at the box office, every single employee was very happy. If this movie had failed, they would have been unemployed, so it was a very concerning matter for them.
But now everything was fine.
On the second day, [30 days of Happiness] earned 5.5 million dollars, an increase in the numbers. On the third, the number went to 6.4 million dollars, making it collectively earn 15.9 million dollars in just three days, already recovering all the budget of it.
This was just the start.
***
“I feel like we are on a secret mission.”
“It does feel like that.”
Aiden said to the smiling Katie. She seemed to be in a good mood due to the movie doing really well. They were currently sitting in Aiden’s car which was parked outside a theatre.
“Okay, now that we are here, let’s hope everything goes well. Eternal life movies have already ticked the paparazzi about us visiting a theater. So, expect a few of them lurking around.”
“Let’s hope they take good photos.”
Katie said, getting out of his car.
‘You really have to do a lot of things for your own movie.’
Aiden took a deep breath thinking that the movie business was pretty interesting. The marketing team of Eternal life movies have asked Aiden and Katie to go to a few theatres together, so paparazzi could click their photos together.
These photos would then appear in tabloids and other news outlets, getting more publicity for the movie.
Apparently, it was a common tactic used in a lot of movies, especially rom coms. Media anyway thinks that any actors working in a rom com would eventually end up dating.
It was true to an extent but they had a habit of making the actors a couple even before anything is confirmed.
The marketing team wanted to use that to promote the movie a bit more.
As Aiden and Katie were both single, they didn’t have any problem with it, so currently, both of them were walking into a theater to watch [30 days of Happiness].
“You know this makes me imagine the time when both of us were struggling. We used to go to watch movies like this.” Aiden said then laughed. “More like I was watching the movie and you were busy imagining yourself in the lead role and saying how you could do it better.”
“Hey, I could have actually done it better.” Katie said, slapping his shoulder a bit. “Anyway, this is surreal too. Our movie is running in the theatre and we are going to watch it.”
“That’s progress from watching other people’s movies.”
Aiden said and both of them walked to the ticket counter. A lot of other people were also there and it looked like a screening of [30 days of Happiness] was just about to end.
“Can you give two tickets to [30 days of Happiness]?”
“Yeah, that would be—”
The female employee who was handling the counter widened her eyes seeing the two people in front of them. For a moment, she felt like her eyes were projecting an illusion.
“Are, are you two really? Oh my god! I loved your movies.” She squeaked in excitement. “I didn’t expect you two to come here like this. Wait, are you on a date?”
They didn’t answer that question and the female employee nodded like she understood everything.
“Can you give me an autograph? We would be very glad if we could sign the posters too.”
She asked and Aiden nodded.
“We could do that after watching the movie. We are just here to see the audience reaction.” Aiden said and the female employee quickly got them the tickets.
It was then that other people there also started recognising both Aiden and Katie. Some of them were already taking their photos.
Their plan had started to work.
….
//DreamNote//
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