Wednesday.
9:00 a.m.
At this moment, everyone at Wald Pictures was shrouded in gloom, and the spacious conference room had fallen into dead silence.
Whether it was CEO Victor or Juno's director, Berlin International Film Festival Best Director Linklater, both men wore expressions of fury—though helplessness was even more apparent.
"Damn Time Warner!"
Zucker was the first to break the silence. "This isn't over!"
Zucker hated the Warner group to the bone.
Why?
Because Juno had suppressed Space Jam, which Warner had produced and released. Using its immense influence, Warner had pressured theaters into drastically cutting Juno's screenings.
On Monday, Juno had been showing on more than 2,700 screens. With its excellent word of mouth, intense controversy, and heated discussion, theaters should have been adding even more screens.
But yesterday, Tuesday, it had been showing on barely over 2,200 screens.
Five hundred screens had been cut in one go.
Today was even more outrageous!
The theaters had reduced its screenings again.
Juno was now playing on fewer than 1,500 screens.
The reduction in screenings meant that its daily box office was also continuously declining—or, more accurately, plunging off a cliff!
Monday box office: $9.2 million;
Tuesday box office: $6.1 million;
Given today's number of screens, they would have to thank heaven if it made $4 million.
"Without a large number of screens, no matter how much buzz it has, the box office won't improve much," Director Linklater said with a bitter smile.
Zucker nodded darkly. "Victor, would the theaters be breaching their contracts by cutting our film's screenings? We signed contracts with them before, after all."
Hearing this, Victor shook his head. "Boss, we're a small company. The contracts we signed with the theaters were flexible contracts, and the theater chains held the advantage. So according to the contracts, they