October 14, 1995, two days had passed since the release of the movie "napoleon dynamite."
Kazir had previously promised Reese he would watch this movie with her.
During this time, Kazir and Reese Witherspoon got along very well, but neither of them had explicitly proposed to officially date.
Reese was wholeheartedly focused on breaking into the entertainment industry, while Kazir avoided matters of the heart. Whether intentional or not, they had reached a subtle understanding.
These two days, Kazir was incredibly busy, constantly on the go.
He had just finished dealing with contract-related matters with his brother and then immediately rushed to finalize the new company's affairs with a lawyer.
Just the day before, he had also attended the celebration for "Se7en." As for Reese, she was diligently taking acting classes while working part-time in the catering industry. She only received an 8,000-dollar paycheck for her role in "napoleon dynamite," but she never complained.
"You said you'd give me a bonus once the movie was released."
Reese leaned close to Kazir and lightly kissed him on the cheek.
Kazir smiled and replied, "Reese, I promised everyone on the crew that if this movie became a hit, everyone would get a bonus."
Saying that, he opened the car door, gesturing for Reese to get in.
After all, who would complain about having too much money, especially Kazir, who in his previous life was so poor at one point that he almost couldn't afford to eat.
Reese asked curiously, "What counts as a hit? Box office over 50 million?"
Kazir calmly replied, "Over 100 million in North America."
Reese's eyes widened, her face full of disbelief: "Are you crazy? This is the first movie where I'm the lead, and you're saying it can make 100 million in North America? Are you too confident, or too arrogant?"
Kazir shrugged and said, "I don't know."
Reese then asked, "What about 'Se7en'? New Line Cinema certainly wouldn't be stingy, how much bonus did they give you?"
"One hundred thousand."
Reese looked at Kazir's somewhat rundown car and asked in confusion, "Then why are you still driving this old car?"
Kazir smiled helplessly, "I'm still debating what car to buy!"
Reese sincerely said, "Well, I hope 'napoleon dynamite' becomes a hit." She genuinely wished for more people to see this movie and remember her face.
Kazir comforted her, "Don't worry, you'll be famous."
Reese smiled and said, "You always say that, as if you can predict the future."
Although she said that, she didn't dislike Kazir saying it.
Kazir's certainty gave her immense confidence. She was still young and knew in her heart that the dream of being an actress might ultimately just be a dream.
"Let's go, let's watch our movie!"
The two walked into the cinema and bought two tickets for "napoleon dynamite."
The screening room was sparsely filled with people, all of whom had come specifically to see this movie.
In the two days since its release, word-of-mouth for the movie was slowly building, and by Saturday, the 12 cinemas had collectively grossed 70,000 at the box office.
That's right, in its opening week, the movie only had a limited release in 12 cinemas.
Kazir and Reese found their seats, clutching their popcorn tightly, their hearts full of anticipation.
"Dude, I'm telling you, this movie is hilarious," two people whispered behind them.
"Then how come I haven't heard anything about it?"
"Trust me, you'll definitely laugh after watching it. I can't quite explain it, it's just so awkward and strange... Besides, I've already watched 'Braveheart' twice, what kind of ending was that, yelling 'Freedom' for five minutes!"
"That's an exaggeration, it's based on a true story."
"Alright, alright, let's watch the movie."
It turned out that Billy and Wallace were college students, and they watched a movie every week.
Yesterday, Billy accidentally saw this newly released movie at the cinema. Although he knew nothing about it, he still bought a ticket and went in to watch it.
When the end credits rolled, he couldn't stop laughing, and today he specifically dragged his friend to watch it a second time.
As the movie began, the protagonist Napoleon appeared. This kid was introverted and socially anxious, sitting on the school bus, ready to go to school.
"This is the protagonist? He looks too silly!"
"Shh, watch."
Within a few seconds, the audience was amused by the interaction between Napoleon and Kip. These two together were particularly interesting.
Napoleon had three family members: one was Kip, who might be his brother, in his thirties, constantly chatting with netizens on the computer, a weirdo just like Napoleon; another was his energetic grandmother, who loved riding motorcycles in the desert and accidentally fell; and there was his Uncle Rico, who lived in an RV. For most of the movie, Napoleon was bickering with his uncle.
"Haha, this family is amazing!"
Later, Napoleon met Deb and Pedro. Pedro borrowed Napoleon's bicycle, and Napoleon accidentally hit his groin...
"What the... *pffft*..."
The scene where Napoleon and Deb first met was also particularly funny, especially when Deb showed him model photos.
Reese watched the screen and couldn't help but laugh out loud. While filming, she only felt that everyone was seriously invested in the shooting, but she didn't expect the resulting effect to be so comical.
At school, Napoleon always struggled to fit in, but fortunately, drawing kept him company... though his drawings weren't very good.
"Pfft..., with that drawing, he can still get a girl to go to the dance?"
Later, he and Pedro ran for student body president together, encountering the extremely popular Summer, facing many ups and downs along the way. In the end, the two actually won thanks to Napoleon's infectious dance.
The moves were simple, yet the audience laughed heartily, Napoleon's dance was inexplicably captivating.
In the end, Pedro was elected president, Napoleon took the opportunity to show off his dance moves, Kip went to Detroit with his online girlfriend LaFawnduh, and Napoleon and Deb also grew closer.
When the movie finished, the entire hall erupted in enthusiastic applause.
"Oh! That was great! This movie is really good!" The screening room was only about forty percent full, but everyone had a great time.
Billy and Wallace walked out, laughing happily.
"Excuse me, gentlemen, could I trouble you for a few minutes? Could you rate 'napoleon dynamite,' from A+ to F?"
Someone stopped them at the cinema entrance. This was Raymond, a surveyer specializing in film ratings from CinemaScore, who had come specifically to gather audience feedback on the newly released movie "napoleon dynamite."
"A!"
"A+! Go watch it now, you'll regret it if you don't!" The two had enjoyed the movie thoroughly and rated it without hesitation.
"Thank you," Raymond said politely.
"Out of six hundred questionnaires, forty-seven rated it a B, and the rest were either A or A+, averaging out to an A."
"With this word-of-mouth, it will definitely be shown in more cinemas next week – of course, it still depends on the box office."
Raymond knew that as long as it made money, cinemas wouldn't care how big a name the movie had.
"napoleon dynamite" only grossed $6,000 on its opening day.
On friday, October 13th, its second day of release, the box office rose to 2; on Saturday, the third day, it reached 54,000. On Sunday, October 15th, the box office was 47,000; by October 17th, the total box office for five days was only 166,000.
These days, Kazir suffered the most, he couldn't sleep at all.
He thought the movie was pretty good, but Fox Searchlight Pictures might not think so.
It wasn't until the phone rang and he heard that the number of cinemas would increase to 34 that he finally smiled.
The comeback of "napoleon dynamite" began here.
On the sixth day of its release, 34 cinemas simultaneously began showing it, and more and more people came to watch the movie.
On October 23rd, the weekly box office reached 1.5 million.
Fox Searchlight Pictures quickly contacted the theater chains to increase the number of screening cinemas to 160.
Another week passed, and on October 30th, the box office soared to 13.54 million, and the theater chains added more showings again.
On November 6th, the single-week box office reached a high of 26 million, the number of screening cinemas increased to 760, and the total box office reached 40.47 million.
Relying on overwhelming word-of-mouth, the theater chains directly increased the number of screening cinemas to 1,945!
On November 13th, exactly one month after its release, "napoleon dynamite" box office soared to 78 million! 78.24 million US dollars!
No one expected such a dark horse to emerge in early November!
An unknown director, whose movie grossed 78 million in just one month after its release!