"Miss Keira Knightley, many fans have commented that your character in pirates of the caribbean is dispensable. What's your take on that?"
"The character Elizabeth Swann feels more like a supporting role than a leading lady. Was this the original setting by the Crew?"
"Keira, there are rumors that you are dissatisfied with your screen TIME in the film. is that true?"
"It's said that due to the imbalance in screen TIME, you've had a conflict with Matthew Horner and are preparing to break up?"
On Sunday morning, Keira Knightley was surrounded by reporters as she emerged from an event at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.
Facing the barrage of questions thrown by the reporters, Keira Knightley had no interest in answering. With a cold face and under the protection of security personnel, she ducked into her car.
"Keira," her Agent James Benesner said, turning back from the passenger seat, "you need exposure right now. You should be a bit friendlier to the reporters."
Keira Knightley pursed her lips. "How can I be friendly when they ask such boring questions?"
Since pirates of the caribbean was released, although her fame had surged, many tedious questions regarding Elizabeth Swann had also surfaced. It was hard for anyone to accept being treated as a supporting actress when they were the female lead.
James Benesner then added, "Don't worry about that. The success of pirates of the caribbean is inevitable. You'll definitely move into the B-list, and that's what matters most."
Keira Knightley remained silent.
"Yesterday's single-day box office for pirates of the caribbean reached a high of $23.8 million!" James Benesner seemed very excited. "Combined with Friday's $22.2 million, in just two days, the North American box office for pirates of the caribbean has hit $46 million. Unless something unexpected happens, the three-day North American opening weekend will definitely exceed $60 million!"
He emphasized, "These are opening weekend figures for a blockbuster hit! Keira, ignore the rest. You've truly become famous, and that's what's most important!"
Keira Knightley looked at James Benesner and said, "These commercial entertainment films have no respect for women at all!"
James Benesner smiled but didn't respond. In today's mainstream Hollywood commercial films, the primary purpose of female characters is to serve as eye candy. If he were the film's producer, he wouldn't have highlighted the character of Elizabeth Swann either. Shǎnwǔ Novel Network.
"I've had enough of commercial films!" Keira Knightley said, as if talking to herself but also specifically telling James Benesner. "First pirates of the caribbean, then king arthur. I've filmed two commercial blockbusters in a row. Next, I should take on more artistic productions."
James Benesner nodded. "That's also the route I've planned for you. Even if Elizabeth Swann's screen TIME doesn't compare to Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, it still proves your commercial appeal. Two big commercial productions in the short term are enough. We'll go to indie films to hone your acting and build critical acclaim; that's very important."
Keira Knightley knew very well that this was a more traditional path.
"I'm currently coordinating with the Crew and Helen Herman," James Benesner continued. "Jerry Bruckheimer's idea is that Walt Disney Pictures will announce the sequel to pirates of the caribbean next week. At that TIME, you'll move into Matthew's home to let the relevant news explode collectively, creating a hot topic event to drive the film's second-weekend box office and maintain a stable trend thereafter. This will also benefit the promotion of your new film, king arthur!"
"I understand," Keira Knightley said, not adding much else.
This had been decided beforehand; the agreement signed by both parties was right there. Moreover, she knew Matthew had prepared a separate Room for her.
The so-called cohabitation was merely for the sake of hype, a nominal cohabitation created for publicity.
The opening week of pirates of the caribbean continued. Although it didn't have a massive box office explosion like Spider-Man last year, it still attracted plenty of viewers.
Sunday's daylight passed quickly, and night followed. In popular theaters located in prime areas, the number of viewers showed no sign of decreasing, with more than half of them there for pirates of the caribbean.
Usually, because people have to work the next day, theater attendance on Sunday nights is significantly lower than on Saturday nights. However, Alexander Djorkaeff found that at his Regal Entertainment Theater, tonight's audience was only slightly smaller than last night's.
Alexander Djorkaeff specifically asked over twenty viewers, and more than eighty percent had come to see pirates of the caribbean.
He was an employee of an external research agency hired by Walt Disney Pictures, primarily there to investigate the specific situation after the release of pirates of the caribbean.
As the TIME approached 8:30 PM, Alexander Djorkaeff arrived on TIME near the exit of a screening Room where a showing of pirates of the caribbean was about to end.
The exit doors of the theater suddenly opened, and viewers began to file out. Alexander Djorkaeff quickly scanned the emerging crowd. His professional intuition, honed by long-term frontline market research, told him that most of these viewers were likely under twenty-five, while many of the older viewers were accompanied by children.
"The core audience for pirates of the caribbean is teenagers and families!" It wasn't hard for Alexander Djorkaeff to reach this conclusion.
These thoughts flashed by; he would record them later. For now, the most urgent task was to conduct the interviews.
As the viewers drew closer, many seemed to be discussing the plot. Alexander Djorkaeff stopped the boy at the front and said politely, "Hello, I'd like to ask a few questions about the film pirates of the caribbean. Could I take a moment of your TIME?"
While speaking, he had already presented a small gift to the boy. The boy nodded and accepted the gift.
This wasn't the first TIME he'd encountered such a situation; many newly released movies had staff on-site performing data statistics.
Alexander Djorkaeff placed a small voice recorder in front of the boy and asked the first question: "What did you think of the movie?"
The boy was full of praise, seemingly not yet fully detached from the emotions of the screening: "Great! Excellent! Very exciting!"
Alexander Djorkaeff then asked the second question: "Will you talk about this movie with the people around you?"
"Yes! Of course!" the boy said with certainty. "Yes, I'll tell my family, my friends, and my classmates about this movie. It's the best movie I've seen this summer vacation."
Alexander Djorkaeff continued, "Which character did you like the most?"
The boy hesitated slightly. "Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were both great. Which one should I choose?"
Alexander Djorkaeff was patient and did not rush him.
The boy thought for a few seconds about Johnny Depp's performance and then about Matthew Horner's equally brilliant portrayal. He said, "If I have to choose one, I'll go with Will Turner."
"Why is that?" Alexander Djorkaeff asked.
This TIME the boy did not hesitate and answered directly, "Captain Jack Sparrow is also great, but I know he can only exist in the imagination. Will Turner is different; he's the kind of person we could actually become."
"Thank you!" Alexander Djorkaeff withdrew the small recorder.
Next, he found a second viewer, a girl this TIME, and asked the same questions.
In addition to these face-to-face, interview-style questions, Alexander Djorkaeff's colleagues were also distributing dozens of questionnaires in the lobby. While these questionnaires weren't as intuitive as one-on-one questions, they still reflected the audience's perceptions.
The questions on the survey were similar to Alexander Djorkaeff's. Besides asking about the film itself, they mainly targeted which character and which actor were the most popular.
It wasn't just this one theater. Throughout the three days of the opening weekend, in over a thousand theaters across North America screening pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl, staff from the research consultancy hired by Walt Disney Pictures were conducting similar surveys to obtain first-hand, intuitive data.
This feedback from the actual consumers of the film was far more reflective of the market's reception and future box office trends than media reports or the rhetoric of critics.
Hollywood film companies place extreme importance on this type of data collection.
As a result, many survey consultancies specializing in film industry business have emerged. They maintain good relationships with theaters, and their researchers are experienced in how to pique an audience's interest in completing a questionnaire.
Close to 11:00 PM, Alexander Djorkaeff and his colleagues left the theater and returned to their car to quickly organize the recorded interviews and questionnaires. Before midnight, they had to transmit the data to their consultancy. After summarizing all the data, the company would create an intuitive report to be delivered to the relevant person in charge at Walt Disney Pictures before the start of work the next day.
Then, based on the data obtained from across North America, Walt Disney Pictures would estimate the film's future box office trends and make appropriate adjustments to the post-release marketing plan.
Such data, directly reflecting the market, serves as a genuine guide for film companies.
The night in Los Angeles grew deeper, but in this international metropolis, many people remained awake. Some would party until dawn, some would work through the night, some suffered the agony of insomnia, and others could not sleep because the data critical to their interests had not yet been released.
Sean Daniel was one of those staying up all night. Sitting in his home study, he refreshed his email every so often to see if the opening weekend box office and other statistics for pirates of the caribbean had arrived.
Even though this wasn't a film he had produced, it would directly affect his subsequent plans.