How to Use the Hanging Gardens Off-Camera

This was especially noticeable to the secretary who delivered coffee to Managing Director Takayuki Ikeda's office.

At this moment, he didn't even dare to breathe loudly, as if Hirotaka Matsuoka in the room and the executive director Ikeda Takayuki who came to discuss matters were the terrifying Godzilla on the screen.

After serving the coffee, the secretary quickly left the office, fearing that she would be fired by the two enraged men for stepping into the office with her left foot.

However, the secretary completely misunderstood. Ikeda Takayuki and Hirotaka Matsuoka, sitting on the two sofas, had no interest in him at all; their attention was entirely focused on the statistical reports in their hands.

Especially Hirotaka Matsuoka, whose eyes have been twitching non-stop since just now.

It wasn't joy that made them jump for joy, but disappointment and terror!

The box office performance of "Godzilla" was even worse than he had expected. He originally thought that with Paramount's help in North America, the opening day box office should at least be around $13 million, and that in Japan, with Toho's exclusive screening, it would definitely surpass "Super Eight".

This standard is much lower than the previous lofty aspirations; it feels like lowering the standard from a perfect score of 100 to a mere 60.

However, the reality is that even a passing score of 60 is not enough!

Not only did they fail, but their scores were significantly below the passing grade.

Godzilla grossed $8.42 million on its opening day in North America, while in Japan...

In any case, Toho Cinemas has never had such low daily sales in the past 10 years, simply because the cinemas are only showing Godzilla and not Super Eight.

"This gap... it's all over..."

Hirotaka Matsuoka's words revealed a deep sense of despair.

The production cost of "Godzilla" was as high as $80 million, and the marketing costs were countless.

Under the pressure of high costs, how can Hirotaka Matsuoka explain such a poor opening day box office performance to the board of directors?!

"Let's think about how to wrap this up."

Compared to Hirotaka Matsuoka, who was almost completely disheartened, Ikeda Takayuki was relatively stable.

He felt the project was unreliable from the beginning, so he only got involved in it to a limited extent.

Given his close relationship with Hirotaka Matsuoka, even if he didn't get much involved in the Godzilla project, his days at Toho wouldn't be easy.

"I expect the board will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow; we only have one day to make ourselves look presentable."

Upon hearing what Takayuki Ikeda said, Hirotaka Matsuoka could only manage a wry smile.

He still doesn't understand what the problem with Godzilla is!

Yes, Hirotaka Matsuoka admitted that Godzilla was not as good as Super Eight, but it wasn't that much worse, and the box office was so bad!

Although Shinji Matou the past two years, he hasn't seen his other films earn much less.

On the contrary, many movie fans have gradually developed the habit of going to the cinema because of Shinji Matou's movies.

What left Hirotaka Matsuoka with a lingering sense of unease was the extremely poor audience reception of Godzilla.

Despite the fact that the film received fairly good reviews during its test screenings, even though it didn't appeal to Godzilla fans, it wasn't too disliked by casual viewers either.

As a result, just one day after its official release, Godzilla's audience approval rating plummeted to a mere 63%!

Moreover, as more viewers see the film, its reputation will continue to decline.

This essentially eliminates the possibility of the Best Actress.

Those film critics who dislike Shinji Matou are going crazy praising Godzilla.

Kouichi Ippei praised the film extensively in his column.

[At the end of the movie, seeing Godzilla lying on the bridge, howling in pain, I felt a strong urge to cry.]

[This monster, created by humans, existed solely for the purpose of procreation, yet it was slaughtered to extinction by humans.]

What did those little Godzilla do wrong?! They were just born, struggling to survive, yet they were cruelly killed by humans! And all this evil actually stems from humanity itself!

[Godzilla and its children are the biggest victims of this movie!]

Although this film is a disaster movie that focuses on special effects, the humanistic care it reveals moved me and is the essence of the film!

Compared to some films that don't even touch on the darker side of humanity, only praising the bright side and lacking any depth, * Godzilla * is a truly commercial film! It offers thrilling scenes while also prompting deep thought.

Unfortunately, this article was of no use. Hirotaka Matsuoka heard from his assistant that on IMDb, the largest movie website, Godzilla only has a score of 6.7! And it's still dropping!

For the old-fashioned Hirotaka Matsuoka, he didn't know what online trolls were; he only knew that young people simply didn't like this movie.

This means that Godzilla, a film initially aimed at young people, was a complete failure.

In fact, Hirotaka Matsuoka didn't understand one thing.

Despite the relatively positive reviews from casual viewers during the test screenings, they were also among the most likely to follow the crowd.

Those core fans who dislike Godzilla's design are the most vocal group.

During the test screening, audience questionnaires were collected separately, and the opinions of core fans did not spread.

But once a large-scale screening takes place, these people's opinions will keep echoing in the ears of the casual audience.

"Given so many negative reviews, the Godzilla movie must be a terrible film."

This is the true thought in the minds of most casual viewers.

Online platforms and Type-Moon's online army further amplified the influence of those core fans' opinions, ultimately creating a situation of nationwide condemnation.

This simple and obvious truth was known to almost everyone in the world Shinji traveled to.

However, in this Parallel world of Type-Moon, people who lack even a concept of "online trolls" naturally cannot see through or understand them.

They only know that Godzilla is hated by many people, so it's a bad movie not worth watching.

"Sigh, now we can only hope that Godzilla merchandise sales will be decent..."

Just as Hirotaka Matsuoka was comforting himself, there was a knock on the office door.

The secret technique was revealed as the person carrying the documents entered.

"Mr. Guang'an, this is a rough estimate of the surrounding sales figures that we just received."

Hirotaka Matsuoka immediately stood up. "Give it to me right now!"

Upon receiving the document, Hirotaka Matsuoka's eyes immediately fell on the line of data.

Hirotaka Matsuoka was also glancing in that direction, eager to know the specific sales figures for the surrounding area.

Takayuki Ikeda looked up at his boss, and then he witnessed a face-changing magic trick that was as spectacular as Sichuan opera.

Hirotaka Matsuoka's face first turned white, then red, and then deathly pale again...

"Ikeda..."

Hirotaka Matsuoka handed the document directly to him, saying, "Take a look for yourself."

Takayuki Ikeda immediately noticed the data above—yesterday alone, sales of Godzilla merchandise in North America reached $500,000, while in Japan it only reached 20 million yen.

Although this is only a rough calculation and doesn't include many licensed merchandise items, Takayuki Ikeda believes that even if all of these were included, Godzilla would still be a flop.

Takayuki Ikeda suddenly remembered something: yesterday, Bandai announced the sales figures for their newly released UR version of the Ultraman Ace transformation ring collector's edition, which sold 3,000 sets in Japan alone.

Based on the price of 10,000 yen per set, the Ace ring alone caused Godzilla merchandise sales to plummet in Japan.

What does it mean to "kill someone by destroying their spirit"?

This is what you call killing someone by destroying their spirit!

Before Ikeda Takayuki could say anything to Hirotaka Matsuoka, the secretary suddenly hung up the phone in a panic.

"Director Ikeda, Director Hiroyasu. The Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has arrived. They want to discuss your salaries."

"... Damn it! (Japanese)"

Hirotaka Matsuoka only had time to utter one curse before collapsing straight onto the office carpet.

Chapter 256 On the Off-Screen Uses of the Hanging Gardens

Fuyuki City, the set of Fate/Apocrypha.

Several crew members gathered together, flipping through newspapers and discussing recent events at Toho.

If we're talking about who's happiest when Godzilla suffers misfortune, these people might not be the "most" happy, but they're definitely among the happiest.

"Hey, did you guys hear? After the opening weekend data for Godzilla came out, several senior executives at Toho had their offices renovated."

A crew member, who was sitting with his legs crossed, revealed this to his colleagues.

Another staff member grinned and said, "Tch, what kind of Martian news is this? I heard that several senior executives suffered heart attacks and were hospitalized during a Dongbao board meeting."

"Heh, they're all faking illness." The third employee peeked around and then lowered his voice, saying, "I heard those executives were caught embezzling funds from the Godzilla movie crew, so they had to fake heart attacks to get away with it."

"It wasn't embezzling the production crew's funds, it was underreporting wages."

A calm voice suddenly broke into their conversation.

Several employees turned around and found the film crew's Director Shinji Matou, standing behind them.

"Director--!!"

"Let's get to work right away!"

"They're gone, they're gone."

Upon seeing their leader appear, the employees disregarded the fact that it was still their break time and quickly got up and headed towards the film set.

Hehe~

Watching everyone's departing figures, Shinji grinned and let out a cold laugh.

"Hey, Shinji."

Chloe, who was standing next to Shinji, asked curiously, "What's this about underreporting wages?"

Shinji shrugged. "It's nothing, just Japan -style capitalism."

There are many bizarre things in the Japan workplace, one of which is the "hidden salary cap" for senior executives.

It's unclear whether it's due to societal resentment towards the wealthy, but despite the lack of legislation or other explicit regulations, the salaries of senior executives in Japan companies are limited and typically do not exceed 100 million yen.

If this line is crossed, it will be met with widespread condemnation from Japan society, which will consider it a "waste".

Except for a few companies or individuals, most corporate executives, once condemned by the public for this incident, basically have no choice but to resign.

Therefore, in the Japan workplace, there is a saying that salaries are capped at 99.9 million yen.

Of course, do you think that because society has capped salaries, Japan capitalists will stop making money?

No way!

Most corporate executives obtain substantial benefits through means that are not nominally part of their salary, such as stock dividends and financial bonuses.

Some executives who do not receive equity will conceal part of their salary from the public, so that their salary on paper is only 99.9 million yen.

The latter is clearly illegal, because underreporting wages means paying less tax, and if someone reports it, you will be arrested immediately.

Many people have failed because of this, but most of them were foreign professional managers.

Unfortunately, as outsiders, they can't get company shares, but they certainly won't be satisfied with an annual salary of 99.9 million yen.

Therefore... concealing their wages is basically their only option.

But this incident involving Toho is quite bizarre, because it was Toho employees who sued their own senior executives, and all of the defendants were Japan.

"Generally speaking, Japan wouldn't be unaware of the dire consequences of underreporting their wages," Shinji explained to Chloe, stroking his chin as he guessed, "I think this is probably some kind of office politics."

"Oh, oh~"

Chloe rolled her eyes, and the corners of her mouth formed a ω shape.

"Little Er Er, it seems your salary will never reach 100 million yen~ How about you come and join your sister's side? I'll make movies to support you~"

Smack

Shinji flicked Chloe on the forehead.

"Miss Lizzie, my salary has never been much; I live off bonuses."

Chloe crossed her arms and said to Shinji with displeasure, "What's so great about a man who can't even save a single yen?"

I won't stoop to your level.

Shinji returned Chloe's gesture with an ungraceful gesture, then grabbed Joan of Arc was passing by.

"Miss Saintess, filming is resuming today. You've had such a long break, are you alright? Please don't let your Acting Skills drop drastically."