Chapter 360. The anticipated mark
Movies were always hit by each other and that was true because no matter what, a movie would only get a gap of 2-3 weeks before another good movie appears on the market.
People were going to talk about that now and the movie that was already running would lose its business. Only in rare cases that a movie would top the North American box office for more than a month.
A lot of times good movies would actually lose a lot because another movie had released around it.
For example, a fantasy action franchise had released its sequel recently but a week after the release, an action comedy movie had been released.
The fantasy movie was praised by critics and everyone who watched it enjoyed it. But the business in the end was only 234 million dollars while the action comedy movie earned double of it.
Both the movies were good but the latter undoubtedly ate a lot of the business of the former. This was just one of the rules of the movie industry anywhere in the world.
[The Black Saint] had been expected to suffer from the same fate after the fourth week. It had still earned most of its collection, so it was lucky.
In its fifth week of running, a famous spy action franchise was making its return and the opening of it was estimated to be over a hundred million dollars.
There was already a large number of advance bookings done.
The effect was very clear in the fifth week as the collections for [The Black Saint] fell a lot.
Day 29 – 1 million dollars.
Day 30 – 700k dollars.
Day 31 – 2 million dollars.
Day 32 – 3 million dollars.
Day 34 – 800k dollars.
Day 35 – 500k dollars.
It made around 8 million dollars in the week, taking the collections to 483 million dollars.
Compared to it, the spy action thriller movie crossed 100 million dollars in the first week, making it the new king of the box office.
Like everyone had thought, the movie looked to end around 490 million dollars. But in the next week, the spy thriller suddenly lost most of its momentum.
It didn’t have a 70 percent fall like most movies but a straight 90 percent fall. It was unheard and unseen when it comes to franchises but the clues of cracks were apparently evident in the first week too.
Although the spy action thriller promised to give a great experience, the critics bashed him and after the initial audience had watched it, the movie had no word of mouth to continue.
Some people were praising it, saying how it was a good movie for entertainment but for a lot of people, it wasn’t something they have not seen before and the movie just felt lazy to them, especially with such a high budget.
So thanks to that, [The Black Saint] got an advantage. Most people have already watched the movie but in the sixth week of its running, with the action spy thriller already being bashed, a lot of people went back for a second watching.
Many also just wanted the movie to gross 500 million dollars as the bet was still in their minds. As the movie was great, Aiden’s fans increased and they wanted him to win.
Apparently, his fangroup and followers started giving out free tickets to support the movie. They ran the hashtag #Roadto500million as they campaigned for it.
This led to a spike in numbers again in the sixth week.
Day 36 – 600k dollars
Day 37 – 400k dollars
Day 38 – 3 million dollars
Day 39 – 5 million dollars
Day 40 – 2 million dollars
Day 41 – 1 million dollars
Day 42 – 1 million dollars
The week got 13 million dollars out of the box office, making it stand at 496 million dollars, a number that was out of reach for a lot of people.
Due to Aiden’s fans and a bit of luck, the movie was very close to making Aiden win the bet.
It was inevitable at this point and every single person was aware of it. This led to more eyeballs being set on the box office.
In the seventh week, the number was finally touched.
Day 43 – 700k dollars.
Day 44 – 500k dollars.
Day 45 – 1 million dollars.
Day 46 – 2 million dollars.
Day 47 – 400k dollars.
Day 48 – 250k dollars.
Day 49 – 150k dollars.
The movie got approx 7 million dollars on the seventh week of its running, taking the gross to 503 million dollars.
A number that was never thought of when the movie was first released. It was unprecedented but now, it was a reality.
[The Black Saint] became the highest grossing movie of Aiden till now and with it crossing the 500 million dollar mark, it had also won the bet.
Even though no one had believed him at first, Aiden had proved everyone wrong by winning the bet against Arno.
Everyone celebrated when the news came out that the movie grossed 500 million dollars but Aiden was actually unaware of it.
***
“One more chapter completed.”
Aiden muttered as he looked at the screen in front of him. He had just completed the 360th chapter of his webnovel.
Almost three months after starting it, Aiden was very close to the last arc, planning to end the novel in two more months. The reception of it had grown a lot over the past month, especially after it crossed 100 chapters.
It now stood at the number 2 position in the whole website, getting a lot of visibility and because of that, his readerbase had expanded rapidly.
That had given him more motivation to write it.
‘Let’s take a break. I should cook some ramen.’
He thought and stood up from his chair and at that time, his eyes passed through a stack of scripts that were just sitting on the table, waiting for him to touch them.
Wade had sent them to him. Actually, he was sending him a few scripts every other day and he was barely able to read a few of them. Around 30 more scripts were left to read and these scripts ranged from action to dark comedy.
He was told to decide on a few of them for next year’s lineup of his. But it was proving to be very hard, simply because there were too many options.
One day, he would like something else and the next day, he would feel like trying out something new.
Aiden has been in hot demand lately but as he was only focusing on his web novel and a few other things, he had barely gone out.
He had gotten tired of promotions and the usual celebrity life. He also needed to host some fan events, thanking people for watching [The Black Saint] after the third week where the movie had already been declared a big hit.
That’s why after finishing everything, he had taken a break.
Deciding that he would read them after eating ramen, he went to the kitchen. It was then that his phone vibrated.
pA n,dan0ve1.c0m Someone had sent him a message. He took it out and saw that it was a random person. A journalist who he once interviewed with.
The guy had sent him a link to an article. Probably something that he had written. There was another text that simply said ‘Congratulations’.
He wondered what was going on but thought that he would find his answer in the article. He clicked on it and the headline was enough to tell him the whole picture.
<[The Black Saint] crossed 500 million dollars at the box office. The movie became the first to cross the mark this year and with that, Aiden Silvereye had won the bet he made with director Arno Laurent.>
‘It crossed the mark already…’
Aiden thought as he read the headline then the whole article. He had expected the movie to cross 500 million dollars but not so quickly.
He had thought that it would take one more month and after the release of the movie in other countries that didn’t get a direct release, the movie would cross the mark. But it seems like even he had underestimated [The Black Saint].
As soon as he read the article, his phone started to ring. It was Wade. Before he could click on the answer button, another call came.
This time, it was from Zavier. After that, it was Ava and then, Uncle Sam.
Like that, calls and messages kept pouring in suddenly like a constant stream of rain. Aiden attended each and every call one by one, thanking everyone for the support.
Wade told him how his fans campaigned to get more people in the theatres. It was then that he realised how the movie had been able to get that much money so quickly.
He also got a message from someone he had not expected.
It was a message from Arno.
[Arno Laurent: I underestimated you.]
It was a very simple message but it seemed like he had accepted his defeat.