The fourth week of the North American summer season, May 25.
This week saw the release of two films, one of which was A Knight's Tale, produced and distributed by Sony Columbia Pictures.
From the name, it seemed like a film about medieval knights.
In fact, during its pre-release marketing, A Knight's Tale heavily capitalized on the hype surrounding The Lord of the Rings, boasting epic cold-weapon battle scenes on par with The Lord of the Rings, an ancient knightly tale, and an unmissable blockbuster.
However, no one was fooled. This film wasn't directed by any well-known filmmaker.
The director, Brian Helgeland, was previously best known for co-writing L.A. Confidential.
With A Knight's Tale, he took on both directing and screenwriting responsibilities.
Despite riding on the coattails of The Lord of the Rings and undergoing multiple adjustments in production direction due to its influence, the film was of average quality.
As a result, it only managed to gross $16.5 million at the box office this week, ranking fourth in the weekly box office chart.
However, its lead actor, Heath Ledger, did captivate many female moviegoers. His smile was particularly charming and looked great on screen.
For some fans who prioritize looks, watching Heath Ledger's smile alone made a trip to the cinema worthwhile.
One regret regarding Heath Ledger was that if he had played Legolas in The Lord of the Rings, he would already be a global superstar.
This film also had an interesting aspect: despite being a medieval story, the director chose to use almost entirely modern rock music for its soundtrack.
In one jousting tournament scene, the audience in the film was seen chanting along to Queen's classic song We Will Rock You.
The scene was not only grand but also somewhat bizarre and unsettling, which made it quite amusing.
However, A Knight's Tale was not the most talked-about film of the week. This weekend, Pearl Harbor, backed by the International Artists Agency and distributed by Universal Pictures, was finally released.
Previously, to avoid The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Pearl Harbor wisely chose to delay its release.
No one blamed Michael Bay for this decision. Even though he had survived the challenge of Gilbert's The Matrix with his Armageddon and performed well at the box office, this was The Lord of the Rings we were talking about.
The previous installment grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide. No one wanted to clash with its sequel and end up battered.
And indeed, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers proved to be an unstoppable force, maintaining its number-one spot at the North American box office for three consecutive weeks.
By the time Pearl Harbor hit theaters, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had already entered its fourth week in North America.
No matter how popular a film is, it is normal for its hype to start fading by the fourth week.
Thus, Michael Ovitz made no aggressive moves against The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Gilbert's side did not take any counteractions either.
There wasn't much direct competition between the two films—The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had already entered the phase of accumulating box office revenue over time.
As a result, Pearl Harbor debuted with $59.08 million, surpassing the $48.26 million earned by The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers that weekend, making it the number-one film of the week.
Although The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was in its fourth week and Pearl Harbor was in its first, the media showered Michael Bay with praise.
The Washington Post even crowned him "Gilbert's Slayer," highlighting his contribution to countering Gilbert.
However, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times quickly debunked this notion.
If he truly were "Gilbert's Slayer," then Pearl Harbor should have faced The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers head-on rather than cowardly retreating.
Of course, this also proved that Michael Bay was quite rational. Or rather, Michael Ovitz, Martin Bob, and Universal Pictures were all quite rational.
Although Pearl Harbor claimed the weekly box office crown and Michael Bay received considerable praise from some media outlets, the film itself was not so well-received.
The Los Angeles Business Journal reviewed the film as follows:
"The movie is utterly dull, so dull that audience members who enter the theater end up sleeping through three hours of sheer boredom."
Previously, when The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was being targeted by smear campaigns, the most famous insult against it was:
"It was so bad that I fell asleep in the theater for three hours."
Ironically, Pearl Harbor actually made that happen.
The New York Post advised:
"Viewers should choose aisle seats because they will definitely need to go to the restroom at least twice. Perhaps this film should be called Boring, Boring, Boring."
The Wall Street Journal did not hold back either:
"Pearl Harbor is as shallow as a comic book. Its loose narrative turns World War II into a senseless symphony of stupidity."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times not only criticized Michael Bay himself but also slammed Pearl Harbor:
"A dull, outdated love story, with war scenes that lack depth.
Over half an hour of planes bombing ships, explosions, corpses flying through the air, and people scrambling to escape—utterly meaningless.
It's just a horrifying massacre, failing to evoke any emotional impact or entertainment value."
On IMDb, the most upvoted review of Pearl Harbor read:
"Pearl Harbor is a three-hour-long stretch of nothingness, using the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, as mere background for an American love triangle.
Its main selling point is 40 minutes of overdone special effects interwoven with a romance so cliché it could put viewers to sleep.
The direction is incompetent, lacking imagination and originality. You might remember a few lines after leaving the theater, but not out of admiration."
Indeed, the film's love triangle was both outdated and tedious.
In contrast, Titanic also told an old-fashioned love story, but James Cameron's storytelling skills far surpassed those of Michael Bay.
Some moviegoers even suggested that if the film had been directed by James Cameron or Gilbert, it might not have been as terrible.
But as things stood, aside from the initial box office boost due to Michael Bay's and Ben Affleck's star power, the film was an absolute critical failure.
This was reflected in its box office performance—while Friday's numbers were the highest, each subsequent day saw a steady decline.
Fortunately for Pearl Harbor, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was already in its fourth week, and even Shrek was in its third.
Otherwise, Pearl Harbor wouldn't have had a chance at topping any box office chart—it simply wasn't capable.
At this point, the public realized that the title "Gilbert's Slayer" was entirely undeserved.
After all, this label had been forced onto Michael Bay by The Washington Post, which had long been an anti-Gilbert advocate.
Due to the film's poor quality and negative reception, Pearl Harbor saw a steep drop in ticket sales in its second week.
Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers continued its strong box office performance, thanks in part to Pearl Harbor's disappointing showing.
An interesting note: Pearl Harbor's leading actress, Kate Beckinsale, had previously turned down an offer from Gilbert.
Gilbert originally wanted her to play Éowyn, but she ultimately chose the female lead in Pearl Harbor instead.
As a result, the role of Éowyn went to Elizabeth Banks.
Without the benefit of hindsight, Kate Beckinsale's decision was actually understandable. Most people would have made the same choice.
After all, one was a leading role, while the other was a supporting role in an ensemble cast. No matter how you look at it, playing the lead seemed like the better deal.
Moreover, Pearl Harbor was a commercial blockbuster, and in terms of production scale, it was not inferior to The Lord of the Rings series at all. So her choice was quite reasonable.
What she didn't anticipate was that Michael Bay, supposedly the "Gilbert Slayer," ended up botching Pearl Harbor, turning her into a media laughingstock and a cautionary tale.
But honestly, she wasn't to blame. Actors have no control over the final product of a film, and sometimes even directors don't.
If anyone is to blame, it's simply that Kate Beckinsale didn't trust Gilbert enough. Otherwise, even a supporting role in his film would have been enough to launch her into stardom.
But now, that opportunity had gone to Elizabeth Banks instead.
The Los Angeles Times commented that Kate Beckinsale's performance in Pearl Harbor bore a strong resemblance to Nicole Kidman.
However, even Nicole Kidman herself had to cling to Gilbert's coattails, playing Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings, to finally shake off her reputation as a box office poison.
And Galadriel's screen time in the second film wasn't even as much as Éowyn's!
This just proves that opportunities are fleeting, and actors must be careful with every career choice. Judging by the current results, Gilbert is far more reliable than Michael Bay.
After all, while "Explosion Bay" can only play with explosions, "Explosion Gilbert" has already reached an entirely different level.
At present, the film's IMDb rating has stabilized at 9.1, ranking just behind The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather.
Gilbert's fans lamented that if not for the large-scale smear campaign, the film might have secured the number one spot on IMDb's all-time rankings.
In fact, as soon as the online attacks began, Gilbert immediately took action, leveraging his position as an IMDb shareholder to have the platform control the wave of negative reviews.
However, the smear campaign wasn't limited to just IMDb—it was a coordinated attack across multiple platforms, so it still had some impact.
After four weeks in North America, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had already grossed $350 million domestically—an impressive achievement.
Meanwhile, the film's overseas box office continued its momentum. With an expanding release scale, it grossed $213 million overseas this week, making it the undisputed global box office champion for the week.
As a result, by the end of its fourth week in North America, the film's worldwide box office had reached an astounding $748 million.
The global media was in awe of the box office miracle created by The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The Lord of the Rings franchise was dominating the world with no real competition, cementing its status as the king of the summer box office.
Many film scholars began studying the success of the Lord of the Rings series, analyzing director Gilbert and heaping praise on the film.
The cast of The Lord of the Rings probably never imagined that signing on for the film would ultimately lead to such unprecedented success. It was truly unexpected.
However, in reality, after the first film's success, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was treated much like a traditional blockbuster sequel, even though it wasn't a typical standalone sequel.
Additionally, May was a relatively weak month for new film releases.
Even the highly anticipated Pearl Harbor suffered a steep decline in its fourth week, failing to surpass The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Another major factor in the film's success was that this year marked Gilbert's tenth anniversary in the industry.
Over the past decade, Gilbert had built an impeccable reputation for himself.
Even beyond his loyal fan base, even casual moviegoers—those who didn't frequently visit theaters—would instinctively assume a film directed by Gilbert was a must-watch.
That's the kind of reputation built over ten years. Even though not every one of his films was universally loved, they always catered to the tastes of the majority of audiences.
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