"This story outline seems to be written quite well."
Taking her eyes off the computer screen, Scarlett Johansson turned to look at Duke beside her and asked, "Could this have been leaked by one of your insiders?"
Duke glared at her. "You're overthinking it."
This online version did indeed seem quite convincing, because it was basically adapted directly from the original Star Wars trilogy's storyline, with the deliberate addition of the idea that Rey was a descendant of Obi-Wan, all to support that particular theory.
However, that wasn't to say this fan-made story was useless, so Duke continued reading.
"Rey doesn't want to bear such a heavy burden—she only wishes to save her friend—but Maz tells her that this journey will bring the most severe trials. Maz watches Rey's ship depart, and beside her appears a faint green shadow…"
"Guided by the Force, Rey finds Finn. Waiting for her is Kylo Ren, who has completed his dark side training and seeks to wash away his previous shame. Rey and Ren battle once more. Ren is defeated by Rey and has his right hand severed. At that moment, Supreme Leader Snoke appears, demonstrating the immense power of the dark side, and makes an offer: if Rey submits to him and learns the dark side, he will release Finn."
"Rey accepts Snoke's condition. Finn insists on staying by her side and confesses his feelings to her. Rey tells Finn she has her own mission, and that he will always be her friend in her heart."
"Finn returns to the Resistance headquarters in disappointment. The war between the Resistance and the First Order erupts once again. This is the final opportunity Snoke gives to Hux and the Stormtrooper corps. The Stormtroopers invade the Resistance base, and fierce battles break out both in space and on the planet. Poe's fighter squadron is unable to destroy the enemy's main ship. Finn, returning just in time, infiltrates the enemy fleet with Chewbacca. Finn persuades Captain Phasma and more Stormtroopers to remove their helmets and defect from the First Order. With the help of the defectors, the Resistance defeats the Stormtrooper army, and General Hux is killed by Finn."
"Poe's squadron destroys the Star Destroyer, achieving great merit, but Leia reminds the Resistance that the war is not yet over and senses that her son is suffering. Meanwhile, one of the First Order's generals creates a new army of black-armored clone troopers from his own template and prepares to launch another war against the Resistance."
"Kylo Ren's defeat leads him to question the dark side. The guilt of patricide torments him. Snoke tells Kylo Ren that his failure stems from arrogance—that although he inherited Darth Vader's dark power, Vader himself once lost to Obi-Wan due to pride. Snoke believes Kylo Ren needs more trials and orders him to join the clone army to annihilate the Resistance and the light side."
"Finn asks Poe to take him to Luke, pleading for Luke to rescue Rey. Snoke converses with a weakened spirit—'My Lord, I have found a Force-sensitive with even greater potential. If she falls to the dark side, she may help restore your life!'"
"'Bring her to me at the Sith Temple…'"
After finishing reading this fan's imagined plots for the next two Star Wars films, Duke looked at the comments below. The page views were enormous. Although this was merely fan fiction, it actually benefited the publicity of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to some extent.
Duke then called Tina Fey, instructing her to contact the media and the fan who wrote it, so that this hype-worthy storyline could quickly appear in print media.
The joint post-release promotional campaign launched by Duke, Warner Bros., and Lucasfilm played a crucial role in stabilizing The Force Awakens' box office performance—particularly in preventing Saturday and Sunday revenues from suffering a sharp drop. The film's daily box office never declined by more than forty percent.
For most films, a drop of more than thirty percent in daily box office during opening weekend would make producers and distributors anxious. But this rule didn't apply to a film like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Everyone knew it was impossible for the movie to maintain over $150 million in daily revenue for two consecutive days, let alone achieve the near-impossible miracle of surpassing $100 million per day for three straight days.
Thanks to the nonstop wave of coordinated publicity and topic creation, combined with Duke's influence and the Star Wars brand itself, The Force Awakens successfully elevated its marketing from media-level to full-scale social marketing.
For most moviegoers, their interest in a film comes from attention to stars, plot, and special effects. Few people care who works behind the scenes to refine and deliver these selling points—and that is precisely the role of film marketing.
The actual investment in film marketing is difficult to quantify, but given the immense profits distributed in this massive market, the commercial potential of the marketing sector is self-evident.
In Hollywood's current reality, small and medium-budget films usually enter the marketing stage only after production, whereas annual blockbuster films often bring in professional marketing and distribution teams as early as the planning phase to develop comprehensive strategies. For these teams, the core task of publicity and promotion is to collaborate with the production and distribution sides to extract the film's key selling points at each stage and convey them to the audience.
Unlike ordinary brand marketing, a film itself contains abundant narrative resources that can feed back into branding and create discussion topics.
Of course, when a single film lacks enough original content, marketers can analyze and align it with current social hot topics to generate relevance.
In practical terms, traditional media, live events, and new media or internet promotions are unavoidable components of any film marketing campaign. The effectiveness of message reach and market conversion rate during execution are key measures of a marketing team's creativity and execution capabilities.
Undoubtedly, both Duke's own team and Warner Bros.' publicity department excelled in these areas.
As a result, with the film's quality fully guaranteed and bolstered by Duke's and the Star Wars brand's immense appeal, it was only natural that The Force Awakens would explode at the box office during its opening weekend.
On Monday morning, in a seaside villa on Long Island, New York, Natalie Portman had just finished helping her son with breakfast. After handing him to the nanny to take to the garden, she picked up that day's edition of The New York Times.
Unlike usual, the newspaper's front page headline wasn't about politics or social affairs but rather about Hollywood and the film industry.
"Duke Rosenberg Breaks North American Opening Record Once Again—Star Wars: The Force Awakens Becomes the First Film Ever to Surpass $300 Million in Its Opening Weekend!"
Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Natalie Portman saw the headline, and her thoughts drifted back to the past. How many times had Duke Rosenberg broken the North American opening record now? Independence Day, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight, The Avengers…
So many that she couldn't even count anymore.
Thinking of this, Natalie couldn't help but laugh softly. After all these years, she still remembered everything about Duke Rosenberg clearly—many things she still couldn't forget. Perhaps that was what people called fate.
She knew what kind of person Duke Rosenberg was, and she couldn't help but feel that the girl named Daisy Ridley was truly fortunate—just because her temperament resembled her own, she had earned the favor of the goddess of fate.
"The goddess of fate, huh?"
Natalie Portman couldn't help but shake her head. Since when did she start equating Duke Rosenberg with the goddess of fate?
But deep down, she knew very well that for Hollywood actors, wasn't Duke Rosenberg the very god who could change their destiny?
Putting those thoughts aside, Natalie Portman turned her attention back to the New York Times in front of her.
"The North American film market during the penultimate weekend of 2014 was completely ignited by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This powerful Force finally broke the nearly month-long slump in the North American box office, giving the Christmas season a spectacular opening. Released by Warner Bros. and directed by Duke Rosenberg, the sci-fi sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens stormed into theaters with an astonishing $344.51 million opening weekend, effortlessly shattering the all-time North American opening weekend record and surpassing the record set by The Avengers by nearly $100 million!"
"With a production budget of $200 million, the film was helmed by one of Hollywood's top-tier directors, Duke Rosenberg. The original trilogy's classic trio—Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher—fully returned, while Daisy Ridley, Daniel Wu, Lee Pace, and Oscar Isaac took on the new generation of roles. The screenplay was personally written by Duke Rosenberg himself."
"The film held its premiere screening at 7 p.m. Thursday night in Los Angeles, where the midnight screenings grossed an explosive $72 million, breaking the four-year-old record previously held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, and nearly doubling that figure. By Friday, the film expanded to 4,534 theaters across North America—the largest December release in history—raking in $165 million on its opening day, setting a brand-new single-day box office record and surpassing the two-year-old mark set by The Avengers."
"Although the film consumed tremendous momentum on its first day, its subsequent performance showed no signs of typical fan-movie fatigue. It went on to collect $140 million on Saturday and another $75.51 million on Sunday, bringing Star Wars: The Force Awakens to a final opening weekend total of $344.51 million."
"Based on the film's reputation and historical trends for this release window, it's almost certain that its North American box office will soar past the $700 million mark—and it's not impossible that it may even challenge Avatar for the title of the highest-grossing film in North American history."
"The opening weekend audience was predominantly male, accounting for 58 percent, while 49 percent were under 25, proving that the Star Wars series has not suffered a cultural gap among younger audiences. The film's per-theater average reached $75,000—setting a new record for the highest per-theater average among wide releases."
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