Chapter 30: Box Office Duel!

In the office of Rover Pictures- Ricky Bryan, Kenneth Kleinberg and John Kerry were sitting together with Sunny.

"So, Kenny (Kenneth), what's the audience feedback on Batman?" Sunny asked.

They love it and praise it. It has the right atmosphere and perfect story. The only issue was some parents were not happy with the image of Selina Kyle – Cat Woman in the movie. Some critics have grasped this point and deliberately highlighted it. Also, the violence in the movie is not accepted by the family audience." Kenneth replied with a smile.

"Hmm… Ricky, tell me what you think we should do now?" Sunny asked this popular guy in the studio.

"There are many things we can do but it's best to do nothing. Our audience is different from Batman and our positioning is completely different from each other. Instead of raising negative voices and giving them more publicity, we should focus more on our own promotion. Besides, our studio has no power to offend Warner's and survive," Ricky summarised his points and the meeting room became silent.

Everyone knew the truth. Rover pictures and Warner Bros. are not on the same level. Forget the same level, Rover pictures are many levels down than Warner.

"I don't think we need to do anything Sunny. Why don't we let others do our job," John spoke.

"Just help the critics inform the audience about cat woman and violence in the movie. I think they can do the rest of the work," he said with a sly smile.

Sunny's face showed a strange smile. Yes, he understood the idea.

"Ahem! I think if a group of people outside theatres are distributing large posters of sexy Catwoman and giving it for free to young kids, critics and media won't leave Batman alone, right?" Sunny asked and John simply nodded.

"Okay, John. You are on this. Remember, we can't offend Warner, and this is not us.  Got it!" Sunny said and John smiled and left the room silently.

"Okay, now for our promotion. We have done everything we can in the initial stage, but we don't have enough talking points after the release. So, in the next coming months, find some points to make sure Pokémon get some coverage in the press.

We are making TV Series, launching new card games, and talking about a possible Video Game adaptation. It will be the biggest or costliest deal in the history of gaming. Got it?" Sunny asked the two guys and they both agreed with this kind of approach.

Warner executives got the feedback from critics within an hour, and they hated these clowns.

"If the Catwoman is not sexy, who will come to watch our movie? That's a great highlight. And look at her popularity. Boys love this kinky stuff." A senior executive threw that trash papers away and called the lobby guys and critic's agents and CAA and WMA head to make sure, no one else jump out to speak anything negative about Batman.

However, they simply misjudged the influence of the latex-wearing-whip-expert Catwoman.

On the fourth day of the movie, there were a couple of protests across cinemas and theatres from parents' associations because of the Catwoman's role and critics' harsh reviews of her role in a PG-13 movie.

Pokemon enjoyed the diverted crowd and its mouth of the word was expanding rapidly. Even though it was mediocre compared to Batman's opening but it had no negative reviews, no negative news and kids love pets.

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Batman and Pokemon started their box office duel and the results started becoming clear in the second week of Batman.

Batman in two weeks (Jun 18 - July 3) won more than 105 Million box office and Pokemon in these four weeks (June 5 - July 3) won more than 98 Million in this period.

Both movies simply occupied number 1 and number 2 positions at the domestic box office but then Pokemon was released globally and the situation reversed.

Pokemon was released in theatres in Japan and it exploded there. In more than 1000 theatres (Single Screen), the movie was showcased almost five times a day and yet the Pokemon fever refused to die down.

Pokemon became more than just a movie there and after US and Canada, it became the biggest market for Rover Animation Pictures. The huge ticket sale and huge peripheral sale in Japan almost caught Sunny off-guard.

It was only thanks to his personal secretary - Alicia Witts, the first employee he hired, that he knew about these things and made proper arrangements. Alicia was kind enough to give Sunny this information with a sweet kiss and Sunny was bold enough to receive one.

On July 4, 1992, Americans celebrated Independence day and then there was a long holiday. The domestic box office and global office of Pokemon exploded and it overtook Batman by 40 million by conquering 143 million in US and Canada while Batman was 102 million in the same period.

For the Pokemon global release, Kenneth and Ricky had to tour and meet various distributors and made many deals.

In the UK, the film opened with a good opening of 7 million, Spain 4 million, Germany and France 3 million each while Italy 7 million. In Japan, the film had already been released and till now made more than 33 million dollars.

Yes, 33 million dollars in Japan with only ticket sales. Pokemon was a huge hit in Japan and almost became the biggest movie of this year.

Pokemon not only brought huge money for Rover Pictures but it allowed them to open a market and find distribution partners in more than 10 countries which was simply a dream before. However, these 10 countries were new markets and the film's rights were directly sold for an average of 1 million.

This was not a loss-making deal but a deal to open channels. In future, these channels and partners will release Rover Pictures movies and its movies will not be bound by the domestic market.

Batman Returns had no global release and Sunny had no idea why Warner Bros. didn't even try to market this movie but considering the theme of the movie 'Batman', he kind of understood their point.

Batman has a huge legacy, huge following and the attraction of a sequel but this is not a good point for global release. Who cares about Batman in European countries in 1992? Who cares about Batman in Berlin in this era? Simply, no one.

Pokemon not only became the global box champion in July and August but also became the biggest blockbuster and the film still was still going strong in domestic theatres. After almost 2 months, there were still many parents who will bring their kids or teens who found Pikachu cute to theatres.

Batman also showed strong momentum but now they faced more domestic competition at the box office and more and more movies were being released. By the end of September, it was only making 1.6 million in theatres while Pokemon was still earning more than 4 million.

Rover Pictures and Pokemon became famous in the US after one movie and the continuous news about TV series, Game adaptations and sequels also created a lot of noise in the industry.

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