Chapter 339: Weekly Box Office Champion

In its second week of release, "Easy A" earned $18.36 million at 2,926 theaters in North America.

The drop from the previous week was less than 15%, surpassing several other films released in the same period.

It became the box office champion of the week.

The cumulative box office in North America was $39.46 million.

The second place was Selena's "Monte Carlo," which earned $10.63 million in its second week, relying on the fame of several leading actors and Disney's strong publicity capabilities. The cumulative box office was more than $25 million, roughly equal to the production cost.

The third place was "Resident Evil 4" starring Milla Jovovich, with a box office of $10 million this week, a 63% drop.

The box office of "The Company Men," "The Town," and other films was below $5 million this week.

"Easy A" earned nearly $40 million at the North American box office in ten days. Compared to its cost of only $10 million, this film could be called a big hit.

Generally, a movie's box office revenue that is more than three times its cost is considered a success, five times is considered a big hit, ten times is considered a blockbuster, and an annual dark horse.

"Variety" predicted that the film's North American box office would be around $70 million, and the global box office would be $120 million, a sure box office dark horse.

According to the habit of the film industry, after a movie becomes a big hit, it is often analyzed by many professional media to study the reasons for the film's success and point out the direction for other films. This can also be called "market trend analysis."

Last week, when analyzing the reasons, the media believed that the key to the film's success was that the crew chose the right female lead.

Emma Stone's wonderful performance added a lot to this film. If it were replaced by other actors, it might become a cliché campus comedy.

The second was that the script and director Will Gluck's skills were good.

The third was that the participation of big star Link and "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow brought a lot of fame to the film.

This week, when analyzing the reasons for the film's box office success, the media elevated Link to the same level as Emma Stone.

They believed that the film's box office drop was not large this week, mainly because Link was famous and had strong appeal, and his fans contributed a lot to the film's box office.

Also, his several hot searches increased the exposure of this film, which was very important during the film's release.

Without Link's participation, the film's box office this week would have dropped by at least 35%.

"Humph!"

"Is your nose uncomfortable?"

"Humph!"

At the dining table, Selena twirled spaghetti with a fork, her round face puffed up, glaring at him.

"Last year, I invited you to play a role in 'Monte Carlo,' but you didn't agree. If you had come, my movie's box office would have been better and become the weekly box office champion. It's your fault that I didn't get the championship."

Link was amused by her words.

"You know I was busy last year, right? And I remember there wasn't a suitable role for me in this movie. Do you want me to play Zero?"

"Can't I?"

"What are you thinking? We are siblings, how can we play a couple?"

Link raised his hand and patted her smooth forehead.

Slap!

Selena glared at him with puffed cheeks, snatched the apple pie from his hand, took a big bite, and smiled smugly with her face raised.

Link shook his head, picked up another apple pie, and asked little Annie next to him where she wanted to go today. He was free and could accompany her for a day.

"Go to Disneyland, I have a VIP card, we can play there all day."

Before Annie could speak, Selena shouted impatiently.

"It's none of your business. You're so old and still want to go to the amusement park."

"Humph, when I was a child, I had to go to school and Disney training camp for training. I didn't go to the amusement park a few times a year. It's a pity. Now that I have time, I want to make up for my childhood regrets."

Selena shouted.

Mrs. Mandy glared at her, "Many of your training camp courses were held at Disneyland, and you went there once a week. Katherine and I also often took you to the amusement park. You have three photo albums of you at the amusement park when you were a child. Do you want me to show them to you?"

Selena was stunned for a moment and scratched her round face with her paw.

"Who remembers things from childhood? Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Annie, lovely little Annie, tell us, where do you want to go today?"

Selena shifted everyone's attention to little Annie again.

Little Annie blinked her big eyes, thought for a moment, and said softly, "Go to Disneyland?"

"Haha, look, Annie thinks the same as me. We are indeed good sisters."

Selena pursed her oily lips and kissed Annie's face. Link pushed her head away in disgust and wiped Annie's soft face with a wet tissue.

"The news said that Taylor released the first promotional single for her third album today. Have you guys listened to it?"

Katherine asked, putting down a plate of black watermelon.

"Ah! I almost forgot."

Selena took a bite of watermelon, ran outside quickly, and came back a few seconds later with an Apple laptop.

"This single is called 'The Story of Us,' Link. It's obviously written about you guys. Wow, it's been uploaded for less than two hours, and it's already been played more than 1.65 million times. It's too exaggerated. Let's listen to it."

Selena clicked on the music player, and Taylor's light, sweet, and warm voice came from the computer speakers.

I used to think one day we'd tell the story of us

How we met and the sparks flew instantly

And people would say they're the lucky ones

I used to know my place was a spot next to you

"Wow, it sounds great!" Selena exclaimed, her face cupped in her hands.

Everyone ignored her, quietly eating fruit and listening to Taylor's new song.

So many things that I wish you knew

So many walls up I can't break through

Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room

And we're not speaking

And I'm dying to know

Is it killing you

Like it's killing me?

Yeah

"Taylor is amazing. This song is so well-written." Selena said after the song ended.

"It is indeed a good song. Taylor is very talented." Mrs. Mandy added.

"Link, as the protagonist of the song, how do you feel?" Katherine asked with a smile.

"Yes, Link, tell us how you feel after listening to this song." Selena leaned on the dining table, cupping her round face and looking at him, her big eyes blinking.

"Taylor is a person who is very emotional in her creations, but very indifferent in real life. She's like an observer rather than a participant. People like her are suitable to be singers, writers, and poets, not someone's girlfriend." Link said while eating fruit.

"What do you mean?" Selena tilted her head and thought for a moment, not understanding the meaning of his words.

"The song is good, but the person is a bit lacking." Link simply summarized.

"That's what you said. I'll tell Taylor later that you said she's boring." Selena clicked on the player and played the song again.

This song seemed to summarize their relationship. Taylor admitted that both of them were wrong in this relationship, but Link's mistakes were more. She also said that she had made a lot of efforts to save this relationship and had a lot of reluctance, but in the end, they still went their separate ways.

She also said that when she was trying to heal the pain of the breakup, the other person was already out having fun, which made her start to reflect on whether this relationship was worth it.

Listening to this song, it felt like Taylor was very serious and persistent about her feelings, but unfortunately, she met the wrong person, and all her infatuation and sincerity were misplaced.

It implicitly accused Link of not being serious about his feelings and failing her love for him.

Link shook his head as he listened. Taylor was a sentimental person in her thoughts. In her heart, feelings were sincere and intense, but when she was really in love, she seemed indifferent and ruthless.

This kind of personality made it difficult for people to understand whether she was affectionate or ruthless.

"Stop listening, shall we go to the amusement park?" Link wiped his fingers and asked little Annie.

Little Annie nodded repeatedly.

Selena's big eyes rolled, and she quietly followed them with her small handbag.

While the three of them were strolling around Los Angeles, Taylor's new song "The Story of Us" quickly became popular in the United States.

The number of plays on music platforms such as Amazon and iTunes increased linearly, and soon broke the first-day playback and download records of several popular songs released before June.

These included Link's "All of Me" and "Sorry," Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now," Ke$ha's "Animal," Justin Bieber's "Baby," Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow," Beyonce and Lady Gaga's collaboration single "Telephone," Eminem's "Not Afraid," and Lady Gaga's version of "Legends Never Die."

It rushed to the third place on the 2010 single first-day download chart with 1.42 million downloads.

The first was Link's "Legends Never Die" with 4.65 million downloads on the first day.

The second was Eminem's second promotional single from his seventh album released in May, "Love the Way You Lie," in collaboration with Rihanna, with 1.51 million downloads on the first day.

Compared to the previous popular songs, the reason for this song's popularity was not its quality and artistic level, but its topicality, which could fully satisfy the fans' curiosity.

The popularity of this song also made the media revisit the old news and reinterpret the inside story of the two people's breakup. Through the last "Ellen Show," Link attributed the reason for their breakup to work and personality.

But in this song, Taylor believed that the reason was that Link was not serious about his feelings, was fickle, and failed her love.

The two people gave different explanations for the breakup, which also caused some heated discussions on the internet and in the media.

Many media outlets repeated the old tune and continued to hype the news that Link was a scumbag, but compared to mid-June, there were far fewer media outlets following the trend and hyping this kind of news.

After experiencing the news of Link's withdrawal from the music industry and the casting turmoil of Captain America, people were no longer interested in the topic of whether Link was a playboy.

Seeing the media's reaction, Link also breathed a sigh of relief.

Many songs in Taylor's third album were written when she locked herself in the piano room during their breakup. Many songs denounced him as a scumbag. The songs were full of sadness and resentment. There was also a song called "The Devil in Love," which alluded to Eva Carter, Emma Watson, and others, making people's scalps tingle.

It was conceivable that after these songs were released, he would definitely be scolded by Taylor's fans and the media.

Coupled with the recent hype about him being a playboy, the public opinion situation was not good.

Combining the two negative public opinions would have a very bad impact on his reputation.

In order to protect himself, after discussing with Eva Carter, Scooter, and others, he decided to participate in the "Ellen Show" interview and publicly discuss the reasons for their breakup, detonating public opinion in advance and releasing some of the fans' anger.

From the current situation, his approach last time was correct.

"Originally, 'Devil' would be the first promotional single. Considering your good attitude in admitting your mistake, I replaced it with 'The Story of Us' as the first promotional single. However, the album will still be released, and those songs that scold you will also be released publicly. You have to be prepared to be scolded by fans."

Taylor sent a message.

"How many songs scold me?"

"Hmm, sixteen!"

"How many songs are there in your album?"

"14 in the standard edition, 22 in the deluxe and international editions."

"So, the whole album is full of songs scolding me?"

"...It's a bit excessive, but those songs are all good. It would be a pity not to release them for fans to listen to."

"That's really an irrefutable reason."

Link shook his head. When he decided to date Taylor, he was prepared to be written into songs and scolded, but a whole album full of songs scolding him was beyond his expectation.

"Don't feel wronged, it's all your fault. If you hadn't cheated, I wouldn't have been able to write these songs."

Taylor added.

"Really? I'm so important to you that I can help you write so many good songs. Do you want to reconsider and come back to be my girlfriend, one of them? I cheat, you write songs, I keep cheating, you keep writing songs, like a perpetual motion machine, doesn't that sound great?"

"Get lost!!! I've decided, I'll continue to scold you in my next album, this is all your fault, scumbag!"

"Okay, just kidding."

Link sent the message, but the chat interface showed that they were not friends. Obviously, he was blocked by her again.

Putting away his phone, he saw Selena and little Annie sticking to the glass window of the aquarium watching the fish, and he took a few pictures of them with his camera.

While watching the fish at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in Los Angeles, they also met Angelina Jolie, a star mom with a group of children.

This woman was only thirty-five years old this year, but she already had six children, three biological and three adopted. The youngest twins, Knox and Vivienne, were also more than three years old. When their family came to the aquarium, there were more than ten people in the group, including bodyguards, nannies, assistants, etc., and two photographers followed them to take pictures.

"I also want to have many children in the future. It's lively with many people."

Selena looked at Angelina Jolie's children with envy.

"What are you thinking? You're just a child yourself."

Link rubbed her hair and continued walking with Annie.

Selena covered her head and glared at him angrily. After he walked a few steps, she suddenly rushed up and hung on his back, trying to mess up his hairstyle, but unfortunately, he had short hair again.

Not far away, Angelina Jolie noticed the movement on their side and glanced over, showing a surprised look.

(End of chapter).