Chapter 29: Happiness and Trouble

Sunny with a bright smile went back to his apartment to wait for the calls from the various departments to check the audience reaction, feedback, and final ticket sales. It was midnight when the first call came from Old Gary.

"Sunny, it's a mega hit! I am telling you. It's a huge hit! I just got the numbers, and it is beyond our estimate." Old Gary's happiness could be felt across the telephone line and Sunny was also very satisfied with the result.

"Tell me the numbers, Old man!" Sunny interrupted the excited guy on another end.

"14 million and counting. It will probably be close to 15 million tonight. Besides we sold merchandise over 700,000 tonight!

All our partners are asking for more inventory, and we will have to bring import more from Japs.

Sunny, this is a big miracle at the Box Office! This is possibly the highest opening for an animation movie. Even Disney never got these many theatres or this kind of opening." Old Gary blurted out a huge number that simply made Sunny dumb.

15 million in the second weekend! 15 million from an animation movie!

"OH MY GOD! Fuck... Gary makes sure we don't fuck up in anything now. Ask the suppliers to double the work or run the factories in double shifts, I don't care.

Also, increase the order for comics and other stuff. We might earn a lot more than the box office from these merchandise alone." Sunny spoke enthusiastically.

"Don't worry. We got this. Our team is already on it. We have experienced people for this in the studio." Gary assured Sunny of their work.

Sunny couldn't sleep that night and the next morning he got congratulation calls from many senior executives and even Sofia called to congratulate him. The good news kept coming in the following weeks.

The weekend collection went - 15 million on Friday, 17 million on Saturday and 25 million on Monday. This was against the general trend where the collection generally falls on Sunday. The Saturday and Sunday box-office boom was mainly because of the largely positive comments from a lot of new critics and the kid's enthusiasm across America. The number of parents coming to the Cinema increased exponentially.

This alarmed one particular studio - Warner Bros.

Why? Because their movie - Batman Returns based on DC comic character - Batman was soon going to hit theatres on June 19 and many other studios avoided releasing their movies during this period. Everyone knows the charm of Batman, and everyone wanted to avoid a scene where they had to fight with Batman, but Sunny never cared.

He knew live-action Batman, with an over-sexualized theme and dark tone will not be popular with the families at this stage. It might be a great box office blockbuster, but it will never be able to fight with a movie focused especially on kids.

Warner Bros and other studios also had their own connections, and they also received a copy of the weekend collection from Pokémon.

Everyone was taken in by a big surprise. These cute characters simply ran wild on box-office.

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In the office of Warner Bros., everyone was waiting for the president to appear. Terry Semel came and sat down in the meeting room.

"Tell me, this Pokémon, will it affect our Batman?" He went straight to the topic cutting the unnecessary chit-chat.

"I don't think so, sir. Even though we are also targeting the kids, our main target is the teenager and adult segment. I am confident that the charm and legacy of Batman will not be overshadowed by these Pokémon."

DC head and Lead producer replied but Terry ignored his opinion and focused on the distribution team head.

The man wiped his sweat on his face and spoke very carefully - "Our initial response for Batman is very good and this is a sequel. So, our chances of failure are very low. I am sure that this Batman - Batman Returns, would definitely not make any less than 200 million globally."

Terry Semel scanned everyone in the room and spoke -"Increase the promotion and marketing for us. Get those theatres numbers in advance and make sure we pay good money to those critics. I want a solid opening for this one."

After conveying his thoughts, Terry Semel left the meeting room and the whole Batman team started running at full speed. A trailer was cut to highlight the movie and was inserted behind other upcoming movies to create hype.

Also, posters and media releases started appearing across US public places and newspapers. However, the over the publicity of the movie backfired.

Batman Returns had a big problem - Catwoman. Not just any Catwoman but a skin-tight leather-wearing whip-wielding sexually appealing Catwoman.

Many parents simply formed a negative opinion of the movie without even watching the trailer and the trailer, well, fuelled the negative segments more. It was a complete gangster-type movie with Batman in the lead.

Even though comics fans loved it and were excited, the sentiment was not the same for parents and young kids. Everyone loves Batman but kids can't go to cinema halls without parents and parents don't want to expose them to this 'Sexy Cat'.

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On Jun 19, 1992, Batman Returns was released across US and Canada. There was a grand opening, red carpet and party after the screening and the fans simply filled the theatres to watch the sequel movie of their favourite comic hero - 'Batman' directed by ‎Tim Burton‎.

The fight started on the big screen with two movies, one a dark horse and one a dark night.

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