Let's take another look at The Return of the King. From early May to early August, the film maintained a healthy trajectory.
Among the top ten of the North American weekly box office rankings, The Return of the King consistently held a spot.
As of now, The Return of the King has officially surpassed $600 million at the North American box office, reaching $609 million. The film has become the second movie in North America to surpass $600 million at the box office, second only to Titanic.
Globally, the film's momentum has gradually slowed, and it has now grossed a cumulative $1.689 billion worldwide, ranking second in film history.
However, Gilbert personally feels that the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic.
Although The Return of the King has achieved a box office surge that is rare in film history and became the fastest movie to surpass the $1 billion and $1.5 billion marks,
one cannot overlook the fact that Titanic had incredible staying power, with an exceptionally long theatrical run.
After all, Titanic could still re-enter the top ten box office rankings more than half a year after its release, and its North American theatrical run lasted over a year.
Since entering the new century, one major trend in the film market is that opening weekend numbers have become increasingly important, while theatrical runs have grown significantly shorter.
In the past, a movie could stay in theaters for over a year, as long as its box office curve was solid. But nowadays, if a movie can remain in theaters for three or four months, that's already considered an extended run.
Take Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones for example. This film was released two weeks after The Return of the King, but by the first weekend of August, it was already pulled from theaters.
Attack of the Clones currently has a North American box office of $310 million. Star Wars culture remains stronger in North America, which is still the franchise's core audience.
Its global box office sits at only $623 million. Although it's still showing in other overseas markets, it's unlikely to surpass $650 million in total.
These days, Hollywood blockbusters generally earn one to three times more overseas than they do in North America like The Return of the King.
But for Attack of the Clones, the overseas and North American box office numbers are nearly equal, and without support from the North American market, this Star Wars film would basically be considered a flop.
Its underwhelming quality meant that after exhausting the enthusiasm of Star Wars fans, the film struggled to attract casual moviegoers who weren't invested in the franchise.
As a result, its box office numbers fell rapidly, and it was pulled from theaters in early August.
Twentieth Century Fox did make a lot of efforts in terms of theatrical distribution, but the North American box office simply didn't justify a continued run, leading to a forced withdrawal.
Honestly, even Gilbert himself was a bit surprised that Attack of the Clones managed to earn $310 million in North America.
Although he didn't attend the premiere, he did watch the film in theaters.
To be honest, even with a solid fan base, he felt the film's North American box office potential was only around $180 to $200 million. He truly didn't expect it to surpass $300 million.
It just goes to show how many Star Wars fans there are in North America enough that, even with lackluster overseas numbers, Attack of the Clones still managed to perform decently overall.
However, box office returns aren't the main source of profit for Attack of the Clones. Merchandise is.
Every time a Star Wars movie hits theaters, it triggers a wave of merchandise sales, and this time was no exception. Although the film's box office was underwhelming, its merchandise sales were strong.
In a way, Star Wars films are more like advertisements for lightsabers, BB-8s, and other merchandise.
Attack of the Clones has already generated over $400 million in global merchandise sales.
Still, Attack of the Clones isn't the top-grossing movie in terms of merchandise this year. That honor goes to The Return of the King.
As a film that has stirred up enormous buzz in the movie market for three consecutive years, The Lord of the Rings trilogy has evolved into a massive super-IP.
Judging by the momentum of the past two years, The Lord of the Rings franchise is now on par with or even stronger than the Star Wars series in North America.
And in overseas markets where Star Wars culture isn't as prevalent, The Lord of the Rings faces virtually no resistance.
Although piracy and other issues have impacted The Lord of the Rings merchandise sales in some regions, the three films combined have still generated $2 billion in merchandise revenue.
To date, The Lord of the Rings trilogy has earned $4.5 billion in box office revenue, making it the highest-grossing trilogy in history.
And when it comes to merchandise, over time it will slowly surpass box office earnings.
So adding merchandise and box office together, even using the most conservative estimates, it will easily generate over $10 billion in revenue an absolute gold mine.
Not to mention the hidden value brought on by the direct rise in performance.
For example, in China, the filming location of The Lord of the Rings, hundreds of thousands of tourists have visited each year in the past two years, most of them inspired by their interest in the films.
Or take how the film's massive success has led to outstanding financial reports for the film studio, boosting investor confidence and driving up the company's stock price.
Other avenues like theme parks and expanded IP development are also part of the long-term earnings.
In meetings with executives from Disney and Warner Bros., Gilbert made it clear that the Lord of the Rings franchise still has significant development potential.
For instance, The Hobbit could also be turned into a trilogy.
Gilbert recommended Peter Jackson to Disney and Warner Bros. to take the lead on the project, though Jackson intends to finish his current King Kong project first before taking on The Hobbit.
To repay Gilbert for the recommendation, Peter Jackson recommended Naomi Watts to Universal Pictures for a role in King Kong, and Universal agreed.
Besides this, once The Return of the King finishes its theatrical run, Gilbert can release a trilogy DVD with extended director's cuts and rake in another round of profits.
Furthermore, once 3D projection technology matures, the films can be converted into 3D versions, just like Titanic 3D, to earn another round of income.
In short, there are countless commercial directions a successful film franchise can take. There's no need to worry about profitability at all.
Speaking of franchise development, we can't ignore the Harry Potter series.
The film has now completed post-production and entered the official marketing phase. The first teaser trailer has already been cut.
In terms of commercial potential, the Harry Potter series is no less than The Lord of the Rings. In a previous lifetime, the young wizard was considered a textbook example of Hollywood commercial film development.
Of course, Warner's later series of questionable decisions, along with some radical statements from Rowling and lead actress Emma Watson, cast a bit of a shadow over the Harry Potter franchise.
Now that Gilbert is a member of Time Warner's board of directors, he will naturally intervene in Warner's upper management to ensure the project develops in the direction he wants.
As for Ms. Rowling, he has a good personal relationship with her, and Gilbert will try to communicate with her as much as possible.
As for Emma Watson, she wasn't like that in the beginning. To some extent, she was influenced by her environment. This can be clarified in her actor contract during the filming of Harry Potter.
Or, it might be up to Gilbert to "educate" her and steer Emma Watson back on course.
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