56 A Phenomenal Director (1/2)
May 14th, Friday, a new week for movie screening started. High School Musical was officially screened on a large scale. It was on the movie listings of 3,150 cinemas!
This day, numerous students ran out of school when classes were over. They rushed to the closest cinema to buy tickets for the first session this night to watch High School Musical. However, to many students' surprise, the tickets for the first session had been sold out. Where did all of the tickets go? Most of them were sold at midnight. And most of the rest was sold at noon. Just before school was over, some students who had arrived ”a little early” had bought the rest.
”Oh, come on. How is this possible?!” In a cinema in Chicago, a white high school student was looking at the box-office clerk with a pitiable face. ”If I can't get any tickets today, my girlfriend will beat me! Man, she has been looking forward to this movie for months. Is there really no ticket left for the first session?”
Spreading his hands, the middle-aged clerk said, ”Young man, I can relate to you, but there are no tickets left. All sold out.”
Gnashing his teeth, the white high school student said, ”Oh, hell. She said she must watch it today. Give me two tickets for the second session, then!”
The box-office clerk was kind of gloating. Smiling, he said, ”I'm sorry, but there are no tickets left for the second session, either.”
Opening his eyes wide, the high school student screamed, ”What?!”
The students behind him all screamed, ”Oh, hell! I came over as soon as school was over. There are no more tickets left?!”
”Oh, my God. Can't you open one more screening room to show it? My girlfriend also said she wanted to watch it today!”
”A piece of advice for you. Wait a few days and then come to watch it.” The box-office clerk shrugged his shoulders. The students yelled, ”We can't wait anymore!” Smiling, the clerk answered them, ”But there are no tickets left for today. If you want to watch it tomorrow, come back at midnight. Tickets will be surely available then.”
That white high school student said in anger, ”I won't leave then. Tomorrow is a holiday. We don't need to go to school anyways.” He turned around to walk to the chairs in the hall. He said to himself, ”I have to get the tickets. I don't want a breakup…” So, he stayed in the ticket hall. His girlfriend chewed him out on the phone. Then, in the evening, when he saw those who had bought all of those tickets walking into the cinema with their girlfriends, he really hated their guts.
However, in the whole of North America, he was not the only person who stayed in the cinema until midnight. This day, large amounts of students went back home pretty late because of High School Musical, either for watching it or for snatching tickets for the next day. That being said, they all left the cinema smiling. Those who had watched the movie were smiling because they had watched a good movie, while those who had stayed for the tickets also got what they wanted.
High School Musical's box office gross on the 14th did not disappoint the cinemas. Neither did it disappoint Flames Films. On average, each of the 3,150 cinemas had 500 seats. Shown in two sessions every night, High School Musical gained an attendance rate of 100% in the first session of the 14th, which was incredibly high. And the attendance rate of the second session reached 93%, which was also satisfying. With these two sessions, the movie pulled in $19,758,300 at the box office! This figure explained everything. This movie was a super sell. It was a sultry trend.
On the 15th, the attendance rate of the first session was still 100%, while in the second session, it dropped to 75%. The attendance rate kept dropping in the next few days. Especially after the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace on the 19th, there was a drastic drop for the attendance rate. Despite that, it was fair to say that High School Musical had swept over North America this week. It pulled in $68,521,500 in all at the box office, nabbing the first spot of the North American weekly box office from May 14th to 20th. It beat Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in the latter's first week!
Certainly, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the winner of the second place, had only been on for two days, and it pulled in $40,840,200 at the box office in only two days. Such a failure at the North American weekly box office did not seem to count at all. However, many Star Wars fans felt extremely angry. After all, this was one of the Star Wars series! A blockbuster with a production cost of $115,000,000 was beaten by a senseless teen musical. What the hell?!
Some gossipy media certainly would not let this topic go. Entertainment Daily even made it a headline: The Competition between Two USC Directors, Wang Yang Beat His Senior, George Lucas! The title was sensational. They mentioned High School Musical's first spot at the weekly box office and Star Wars: Episode I's second spot in the review. At the end of the review, they commented this way, ”Facing fifty-five-year-old George Lucas, nineteen-year-old Wang Yang shocked the world. Why shouldn't we compliment this magic guy? Go and conquer the world, young man!”
Sensational media were not just a few, but more media reported the craze for singing and dancing in the movie industry in a serious manner. ”Magic Yang Did Magic Again, Breaking All Doubts!””A Promising New Super Star!” Such titles were innumerable. No media organization would jump out to strike a discordant note in such a moment. Even tabloids were paying compliments to him, not daring going against the trend. If it were other movies, they would have said something contrary to the mainstream to draw some attention, but they could not do so with High School Musical. If they tried to sling mud at High School Musical, countless young people would be offended, and young people were the best gossip lovers—and were whom those tabloids spoke to.
Los Angeles Times published another review under the title ”The Young's Counterattack, the Musical's Revival!” This time, with the backup of the box office figure, they stopped being reserved. They complimented, ”When that young director, at the age of eighteen, had declared his first camera movie would be a teen musical, everyone was dampening his spirits, predicting it would be a super terrible movie. However, we have seen it now. It was a wonderful counterattack. This young director, nineteen and three months, renewed the definition of 'teen musical'. He introduced the musical genre to the young generation. He even enriched filmmakers' knowledge regarding what a popular musical should involve. The box office figure for High School Musical gave us a sound reason to believe the musical would have a revival in every sense!”
The media were all writing about Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and High School Musical. The Mummy, in its second week, met its Waterloo compared to last week. Despite third place, it only pulled in $18,136,000 at the box office. It was worse for Entrapment, The Matrix in its seventh week, and other movies. The market was all carved up by the two movies in the first and the second place. Idle Hands? No one was paying it any attention anymore. It was already in the dumpster. It only grossed $174,000 at the box office.
However, not all voices were complimentary. There was one group that was especially unhappy with Wang Yang, and that group was called the parents. In the evening news of NBC, a rich, middle-aged white woman said to the camera in anger, ”I hate Wang Yang. Last year, my daughter did not go back home the whole night because of his movie. And now he made my daughter skip classes! Skipping classes! Oh, my God. Is High School Musical supposed to teach students how to skip classes? My daughter will graduate from high school at the end of the month, and she needs to prepare for the final exam. But now she skipped classes to watch High School Musical earlier! My daughter needs credits. Apparently, that movie won't give her any. However, Wang Yang has made lots of money with those tricks, at the cost of my daughter's credits!”
The evening news aimed to discuss one topic induced by High School Musical—what the teenagers exactly needed. An educator accepted NBC's interview. He said, ”In fact, High School Musical has fully disclosed the teenagers' needs. They want to show who they are, free their minds, and pursue the dreams they truly love… in real life, parents' expectations and stressed school life have given them too many pressures. They just need to enjoy their youth more.” He also pointed out that high school seniors were extremely stressed because of the upcoming graduation, and watching High School Musical became their way to relieve the stress.
A report provided strong backing for the educator's opinion. Natalie Portman, the actress who'd starred in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and also a high school senior that was facing graduation, was photographed watching High School Musical in the cinema by a journalist from the tabloid Entertainment Daily. She'd almost refused to attend the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace because she had to prepare for the final exam. Although she showed up in the end, she attended none of the other promotional events for the movie. However, she had the time to watch High School Musical?!
Caught by the journalist outside of the cinema, Natalie looked awkward, but she managed to speak in a calm tone. ”I just felt I needed to know something about this film because all of my classmates are talking about it. I wanted to figure out why they liked it so much.”
Then, the journalist asked her, ”So, you already watched High School Musical. How do you like it?”
It seemed Natalie did not want to drop too many comments. She simply said, ”It is an excellent movie.”
However, the journalist did not give up. He asked another question, ”What do you think about Wang Yang?”
Natalie did not stop walking, but she answered him, ”Wang Yang is a very talented director.”
The journalist asked again, ”So, do you like him… his movies?” Natalie said with a slight nod, ”Yeah, kind of.”