"Choosing the midnight showing of transformers was absolutely one of the best decisions I've made this year. Its brilliance exceeded my imagination."
"I really want to tell you the plot, but I know I'll get beaten up for spoilers, so I can only say it was fantastic, everyone should go see it!"
A Facebook user with the nickname 'Florence Won't Snow' posted an update, accompanied by a photo of a transformers movie ticket.
As a veteran Facebook user, he had been using the software since its launch and loved it immensely.
Especially after Myspace launched, he also created an account, but after experiencing it, he found that the users there were too suggestive and fanatical.
Lewd jokes and softcore pornography were rampant, with young men and women trying to attract attention by exposing themselves.
The updates posted by these people often contained content that seemed cool but was actually disgusting, such as racism, showing off wealth, and promiscuity.
Moreover, when he wanted to enter someone's homepage, the loading time often exceeded ten seconds, and after entering, he was often blinded by the other party's colorful homepage.
If Myspace was the only large social software on the market, it would be fine, as he would have no choice.
But having experienced Facebook's efficiency, convenience, and simplicity, where he could open anyone's homepage in almost less than three seconds, the contrast between the two was too obvious.
Besides, softcore pornography wasn't real pornography; key parts were still covered, and after a few days, he became aesthetically fatigued, so he returned to Facebook.
Through long-term operation, he had accumulated nearly 300,000 followers and was considered a somewhat famous influencer.
However, Facebook had not yet enabled advertising and other monetization features, so currently, it was mainly for spiritual enjoyment, but it still kept many people enthusiastic.
Shortly after 'Florence Won't Snow' posted the update, the number of likes exceeded 1,000, and there were quite a few comments below.
Fish Who Loves to Dive: "I just finished watching transformers this morning, and I strongly agree with your point of view. It really is an extremely excellent and sincere work."
"Originally, my expectation was 70 points. After all, it only had a one-year production period, so passing would have been enough."
"But I really underestimated Eric Cooper. Official records say he is only 23 years old, two years younger than me, but he did a fantastic job!"
"Explosions, collisions, conflicts, beautiful women, luxury cars, war—everything you want is there. I'm willing to give transformers 90 points."
Matrix of Leadership: "Just walked out of the cinema as well, and I must say it really fulfilled my fantasy of transformers."
"Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, blackout."
"Just like the trailer, every Transformer has a vivid and unique design and role."
"The explosive action scenes and war scenes far exceeded the excitement of the trailer. The movie completely deserves five-star praise."
"However, there's a hint of sadness in it, especially when those soldiers sacrificed themselves to launch a fearless attack on the Decepticons. I was moved."
"Maybe I'm just easily moved to tears, but I was truly touched by these scenes."
"Originally, my nickname was 'Curse of the black pearl,' but I just changed it. I admit I've defected, but I have no regrets."
Some praised the high quality of the movie, going for the transformers, while others praised the actors, going for the handsome men and beautiful women.
A user with the nickname 'Daughter of the Sea' posted an update with a poster featuring Chris Evans, Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds, among other main characters.
"As a woman, I'm not a fan of transformers; Barbie dolls accompanied my childhood."
"But there aren't many good movies in cinemas right now. I watched happy death day a while ago, and I've also seen sharknado."
"I had a good impression of Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, so my boyfriend dragged me to see transformers."
"While those big guys clashing was good, what attracted me most was Gal Gadot. She is truly beautiful and heroic."
"Her performance in transformers is completely different from happy death day; the latter made her seem like a bitch and a girl-next-door."
"The former fully showcased her sexiness and combat prowess. Look at her covered in dirt and scars, fighting bravely—you'd say it's simply too cool."
"If I were a man, I would definitely fall in love with her."
"Ryan Reynolds also subverted my imagination. He was a complete idiot in sharknado, but here he transformed into the most tenacious and brave warrior."
"Although his screen time is not as long as Sam's, I always feel that Captain William is the real male lead. Do you share the same feeling as me?"
Seeing the strong sharing desire of Facebook users, Eric immediately assigned Fitz the task of launching an official promotional event.
A promotional post would be sent to all users, and as long as they shared their experience of watching transformers, the backend would track all participating users.
After one week, 500 users would be randomly selected from all participants, and each would receive 10 free tickets.
Users could dispose of these tickets as they wished: watch the movie again, give them to friends and family, or sell them.
Countless facts have proven that when your movie is good enough, people will spontaneously become word-of-mouth promoters.
And when the movie itself has a strong publicity campaign, and its quality lives up to its marketing, people are even more willing to spread the word.
However, if the quality does not match the scale of your promotion, it is very likely to backfire, and the audience will develop a rebellious mentality.
transformers clearly belongs to the former; it can wear the crown and is worthy of its position.
So, in addition to many Facebook users spontaneously promoting it, many users of its competitor Myspace also helped with the promotion, as did portal websites, major forums, blogs, chat rooms, and movie websites.
Outside of the United States, the same scene was playing out in other countries where the movie was simultaneously released.
In Japan, on the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, Yoshikawa walked out of the cinema alone, his expression somewhat complex.
As an office worker in his thirties, ever since the Japanese economic bubble burst and the country entered a lost era, he had no mood to watch movies anymore.
Every day he was overwhelmed by heavy work, having to bow and humble himself at the company, and at home, he faced the displeased faces of his wife and children due to financial difficulties. Dignity seemed to have become a luxury.
In the middle of the night, he often dreamt of his childhood, when he was in elementary and middle school, and the Japanese economy was in its golden age, rumored that selling Tokyo could buy the entire United States.
His father, older brother, and mother would be by his side, and they would all watch his favorite anime, transformers, together. That feeling was called happiness.
Standing blankly at the cinema entrance for a while, Yoshikawa finally walked to a public phone booth and dropped a coin.
"Moshi Moshi. This is the Yoshikawa residence. Who is calling, please?"
"Okaasan, it's me."
"Jiro? What's wrong with your voice? It sounds a bit strange."
"Nothing. Oh, by the way, a new movie just came out recently. How about we all go see it together? I'll bring Yuu and Ryoma, you bring Grandma, and then Brother's family too."
"Watch a movie? But your mother and I are both over 60; we're not interested anymore. What's wrong with you today? Did something happen?"
"Nothing, Okaasan, I just suddenly remembered my childhood, when it was snowing and cold outside, and our family was happily gathered around the kotatsu, and you watched anime with me."
The other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then softly replied: "I understand. Then let's go see it together. It's been a long time since your mother and I went to the cinema."
"Thank you, Okaasan!"
China, Yanjing.
College student Zhang Chu returned home, then opened the computer on his desk and logged into his frequently used Xici Hutong.
About half an hour later, a post titled "transformers, That Was My Childhood" appeared, using simple words to record a childhood dream.
"I can't remember what grade I was in elementary school, maybe fourth grade, maybe fifth grade."
"Every day after school, I would faithfully sit in front of the TV, waiting for Calabash Brothers, Black Cat Detective, and Ikkyu-san to appear."
"But later they all disappeared. Black Cat Detective left with 'Please watch next episode' and vanished without a trace."
"And on Friday afternoon, I sat on my small stool as promised and turned on the TV. This time, a new image appeared that I had never seen before."
"A series of imaginative robots, a set of magnificent transformation actions, made me unable to forget it the first time I saw it. It was transformers."
"From then on, many classmates and friends and I had new topics and hobbies."
"I still remember that during breaks, we would run out of the classroom to play role-playing games, but because I was small, I was always assigned to the Decepticons camp, and they wouldn't let me be Megatron, not even Starscream. Getting Soundwave was already good enough."
"We would roll up books into tubes to act as cannons, then use our mouths to shout 'Power Cannon, Fire!' and then play with great joy."
"One time I went to Fatty Zhou Xiaobing's house. His father must have been an official, so there were a lot of toys at his house. There, I first encountered real transformers toys."
"He also taught me to mold Optimus Prime with clay, but since I had no money to buy clay, I could only mix mud myself when I got home and mold yellowish figurines."
"Later, after the anime finished airing, we had no way to watch new episodes. We just heard that Optimus Prime and Megatron died together. At that time, knowing this news, everyone was very angry, feeling like their faith had collapsed."
"Later, as I grew up, transformers gradually faded from my sight."
"It wasn't until recently, when news about transformers in China suddenly came alive, that I realized a live-action movie was about to be released."
"At that moment, childhood memories seemed to come alive too, so I took my 9-year-old nephew to the cinema."
"But my nephew was too young and couldn't understand much of the plot. He asked me, 'Who is this robot? And who is that one?'"
"I said, 'Don't worry about those. Do you like it?'"
"My nephew nodded and said he liked it very much. He had never seen such imaginative robots and magnificent transformation actions before; it was completely different from Pokémon, DuckTales, and Jackie Chan Adventures."
"I said, 'As long as you like it. They are transformers, they were my childhood, and I believe they will become yours too.'"
The post quickly received responses; Zhang Chu's childhood was also the childhood of countless others.
Discussions also appeared on forums such as Sina's Yinghang Tianxia, Mop, and Tianya.
Even the two film enthusiast forums, "Post-Window Film Viewing" and "Film Night Voyage," which always prided themselves on being serious, focusing on art films and academic value, saw a large number of discussions.
However, the members of these two forums were mostly teachers and students from institutions such as Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Beijing Broadcasting Institute, so discussing commercial aspects was secondary; they were more interested in studying the gap in technical aspects of Chinese cinema.
United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia.
In just one day, transformers won worldwide acclaim for its stunning special effects, cool transformations, spectacular war scenes, and praise for human courage.
Eric carefully read these reviews. The feeling of having his hard work affirmed by everyone was truly wonderful.
Of course, not everyone was satisfied; there were also some negative reviews.
For example, The Independent newspaper published its film review the very next day. Their efficiency was truly high, but their intentions were also truly malicious, somewhat holding the idea of driving away as many viewers as possible to spite MGM.
Its published title was "An Outdated Work That Disappoints Anime Fans."
"Yesterday I went to the cinema to watch the highly anticipated transformers. I can only say that the plot is old and stale, still a treasure hunt model, with good versus evil battles just a rehash."
"If the plot being stale was the only issue, but the most crucial point is that the movie did not restore the transformers from the anime."
"Their appearance, weapons, and personalities, except for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, all other transformers felt like filler tools."
"Mechanical giants capable of destroying planets could surprisingly be stopped by human armies and harmed by human weapons. This situation is truly not like transformers at all."
"So, I advise anime fans who want to see a faithful adaptation to give up. Here, you will find no respect for the original work."
"Everything is just a stacking of boring special effects, merely the young director's self-fantasy."
The Independent's review fully embodied the saying: if they want to criticize you, no matter how well you do, they will rack their brains to find an angle to do so.
Would anyone believe such a thing?
Certainly, some would.
But would many people believe it?
Facts would speak for themselves.
On November 18th, transformers raked in $39.7 million at the box office, dropping by less than 12%.
Then, on November 19th, word-of-mouth continued to ferment, especially among general audiences, soaring.
transformers continued to rake in $30.3 million at the box office, a 23.6% drop compared to the previous day.
For a movie's most important first three-day box office, transformers ultimately took in $119 million.
It once again broke the record of $114 million held by spider-man, leading by over $5 million.
It's important to know that spider-man was released on a weekend, when students and office workers were off.
transformers, however, was released from Monday to Wednesday, when many people wanted to see it but couldn't find the time. This difference is like the difference between a summer blockbuster and a regular release, with a huge disparity.
Sam Raimi, the director of spider-man, also offered congratulations in an interview and announced that next year's spider-man 2 would reclaim the top spot.
But the public was not optimistic about this, because, by rule, the vast majority of sequels are not as good as the first installment.
Bang!
A celebratory cannon fired, and Eric waved his hand.