America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

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As "Pharaoh and the Gods" premiered, the film's reviews could no longer be embargoed, and various media columns and critics' comments flooded in.

That very night, many film critics published their reviews promptly.

Warner Bros. had put in a lot of effort, and as reviewing is a business, there were not a few critics singing praises for the film.

"A spectacular epic movie, Bale humanizes the historical figure of Moses, and Ridley Scott has created another historical masterpiece."

"The film retells a well-known biblical story in an astonishing way!"

"The creative team led by Ridley Scott and Christian Bale shows admirable courage, having crafted a blockbuster that will truly trend this summer!"

With professional reviews as its scoring criteria, Rotten Tomatoes' initial fresh rating soared to 77%.

MTC also gave it a composite score of 66.

On IMDb, which attracts more general moviegoers, there weren't enough viewers from the premiere to form a rating.

For a summer blockbuster, the word of mouth seems acceptable.

But with the rise of social media, the game of controlling movie ratings has gradually changed.

On social platforms like Twitter, many ordinary viewers who attended the premiere posted relevant tweets.

"The film's story is just like in the Bible, all procedural, not too bad but not too good either, the most exciting parts are in the trailers."

"Clichéd and lengthy, fitting Ridley's consistent standard for epic movies in recent years."

"The plot is dragging and messy, the narrative is confusing and jumpy, thumbs down!"

However, the number of people who saw the premiere was limited after all, and Warner Bros. could still control the reviews overall, directing the marketing by word of mouth.

"Pharaoh and the Gods" had a smooth pre-sale over its opening weekend in North America, surpassing 10 million US dollars effortlessly.

Then, it stopped climbing much.

Still, there weren't many movies that could achieve pre-sales of 20 to 30 million US dollars in those days.

Warner Bros. was systematically conducting publicity, and for a production of this scale, investing half of the production costs in promotion was standard practice, with 100 million US dollars being the norm.

In May's first weekend, "Pharaoh and the Gods" was timely screened in more than 3,800 theaters across North America, opening with a box office of 12.15 million US dollars.

This figure wasn't too good, nor too bad, doing much better than Ridley's previous "Robinson." Enjoy exclusive content from My Virtual Library Empire

But as the number of viewers who saw the movie surged, it became too difficult for Warner Bros. to control the word of mouth.

The audience's word of mouth for "Pharaoh and the Gods" directly collapsed.

IMDb rating unlocked as the number of users reached—6.2 points!

And the cinemascore, which directly reflects audience reception, was only a B-.

This often means a box office disaster is imminent.

Overwhelming negative reviews almost drowned out the previous positive ones.

"Long, ugly, and incoherent plot!"

"Aside from the special effects, it has nothing else, I'd rather read the story in the Bible."

"Do Warner Bros., Ridley Scott, and Christian Bale want to blaspheme God?"

"Some of Ridley's films are heaven-level, others hell-level, unfortunately, this one belongs to the latter."

Social media spreads too fast, and with the plummeting word of mouth, there was also a steep drop in the movie's attendance.

On Saturday, "Pharaoh and the Gods" suffered a significant slump in box office, taking in only 7.55 million US dollars.

The film didn't start high, but it took a downturn.

Market rules dictate that due to work on Monday, Sunday evening attendance rates drop significantly, meaning the box office will inevitably dip again on Sunday.

In the early hours of Monday, Martin fed Elizabeth Olsen until she was full, and due to several days of hard work, he promptly fell asleep.

After taking a shower and brushing her teeth again, Elizabeth returned to the bedroom to find Martin's phone vibrating incessantly on the sofa.

She picked up the phone but didn't answer, instead waking Martin up: "You have a call."

Martin wiped his face and took the call.

The call was from Thomas, bringing the latest box office statistics.

Elizabeth put on a robe, went to the cabinet in the other room, and brought back a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

She too had been following the box office trend of the movie Martin lost, knowing that the results would be out now.

After she returned, seeing that Martin had hung up the phone, Elizabeth asked, "Is the box office count for 'Pharaoh and the Gods' out?"

"First weekend, 23.11 million US dollars," Martin took the champagne and glasses from her, pouring for both of them: "At the most optimistic estimate, the North American box office will settle between 50 and 60 million US dollars."

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Elizabeth clinked her glass against his: "Isn't this the result we hoped to see?"

Martin drank the contents of his glass, set it down, and wrapped his arms around Elizabeth: "I'll be able to sleep well tonight."

Buried in Martin's embrace, Elizabeth said: "I hope those bastards trying to screw us over can't sleep tonight."

......

Monday morning, the president's office at Warner Bros.

Jon Berg's eyes were bloodshot, having not slept well for several nights, almost turning dark blue and black.

Sitting behind the desk, he saw the latest data statistics.

North American box office for the first week: 23.11 million US dollars!

If the word of mouth was good, a turnaround wasn't impossible – after all, "Titanic" made only 28 million US dollars in its opening weekend in North America.

But the public reception crumbled, IMDB dropped to 6.0, and Rotten Tomatoes plummeted from 77% to 43%.

The situation had completely collapsed.

This was the first hundred-million-dollar project overseen by Jon Berg since his appointment, and he'd botched it.

The phone on the office desk rang at that moment.

It was Kevin Tsujihara, who had just taken over as CEO and group chairman, making the call.

Kevin Tsujihara got straight to the point: "What's the deal with 'Gods of Egypt'? Isn't this the project that Martin Davis was keen on, the one you all went to great lengths to keep?"

Jon's first thought was to deflect responsibility: "Indeed, Danny intercepted the project and then pushed it to my side, believing that any project Martin Davis was keen on had very high operational potential..."

"Don't talk about that now," said Kevin Tsujihara. "Failure isn't dreadful, but you must draw lessons from it to avoid similar failures in the future."

Jon said: "It won't happen again."

Kevin Tsujihara asked: "There's no problem with 'Green Lantern', the project you're collaborating with DC Films on, right?"

"The film is progressing smoothly, well-produced, and will create a good start for the DC Superhero Film Universe." Mentioning another project restored Jon's confidence: "Hamada and I are in agreement that this will be a masterpiece surpassing 'Iron Man'!"

Kevin Tsujihara directed: "Submit a report on Gods of Egypt this week."

Jon acknowledged and soon after, the call was ended.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief, knowing with Kevin's backing, the pressure from the corporate side would lessen a bit.

The 'Gods of Egypt' project, from the production team to the cast, was reliable, and the story had a very wide audience. Why did it end up in such a debacle, especially when he had worked with the editors to complete the final cut?

Lost in thought, Jon picked up the phone and dialed Danny's number.

It wasn't long before Danny arrived at his office.

Jon asked: "The projects you've been pushing, are you sure they were handed over by Martin?"

What do you mean 'I've been pushing'? Danny, a seasoned campaigner, immediately understood that Jon Berg was trying to shove the blame elsewhere, retorting: "I took the project from Martin Davis and handed it over to the company. Warner Bros. was responsible for the actual production!"

Jon knew this wasn't the time for internal conflicts and inquired further: "These are genuinely projects Martin Davis was bullish about?"

"Absolutely," Danny was confident about that point: "I've known Martin Davis since he was a minor actor. I understand him well. He initially intended to collaborate with Warner on a few projects, and you know what happened after that."

A possibility dawned on Jon: "Could Martin have deliberately set us up to fail?"

Danny immediately shook his head: "Impossible, who can guarantee one hundred percent success or failure before a movie is produced? Don't forget, Martin also hired Ridley Scott as the director for his new project. What does that tell you? He trusts Ridley Scott's directing abilities and is extremely confident in him."

Considering that the other party had just tried to pass the blame onto him, Danny emphasized: "Perhaps there was an issue with the final edit of the film."

"You…" Jon's dark circles deepened: "We are reflecting on this experience to find shortcomings in our work, not to shift the blame onto each other."

Danny had been pondering for a few days: "We invested sufficient funds, vast resources, and one of the finest production teams into this project, yet still faced failure. I think the crux of the problem is clear."

Jon thought of the same possibility: "Martin Davis?"

"Yes, Martin Davis!" Danny declared: "I've dealt with Martin and his backer, producer Louise Mel, for many years. Even if they took on the project, they couldn't possibly have a better production team than Ridley. Besides what we've just discussed, the key issue also lies with the male lead."

Jon got his meaning: "The character crafted by Christian Bale and his commercial draw isn't as strong as Martin Davis."

Danny spoke: "The facts prove that there's a huge gap. 'The Dark Knight' wasn't an obvious indicator, but 'Terminator 2018' and 'Gods of Egypt' fully demonstrate one thing – Christian Bale does not have the ability to carry a box office."

Jon agreed: "The success of the two New Batman movies wasn't really related to Bale's individual appeal. After all, Batman is one of the two most popular superheroes in North America."

He made a decision: "From now on, for medium and large-scale investments under Warner Bros., we will categorically not use Christian Bale as a male lead. I will submit a proposal to the head office, and other production companies under Warner should ideally also avoid using him."

Danny remarked: "He's botched two major productions in a row; Hollywood isn't likely to use him for a leading role in frontline commercial productions anymore."

The two quickly developed an unspoken agreement to put all the blame for the film's failure on the creative team, including Ridley and Bale, and then they would start spinning stories about Ridley and Bale being difficult on set and messing around during post-production.

From the failure of this project, Jon started to think about another big production.