Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood-Chapter 359: Breaking a record

Collections of [The Black Saint] were pretty shocking to everyone when they came out. A lot of people were expecting it to do good but even with those expectations, they have never thought of these types of numbers from the movie.

Released on Thursday, the movie's box office collection was a slap on the faces of people who believed that only superhero and big budget movies were capable of doing exponential business.

Day 1 - 34 million dollars.

Day 2 - 37 million dollars.

Day 3 - 46 million dollars.

Day 4 - 53 million dollars.

Day 5 - 33 million dollars.

Day 6 - 31 million dollars.

Day 7 - 29 million dollars

In a week, it earned 263 million dollars worldwide and although the movie fell by a lot after the weekend, it still was way above the expected mark.

263 million dollars was a figure that even Granite films weren't expecting and when they saw those numbers, a lot of them thought that it was fake.

It was only after a while that they were able to accept that the movie had already become a huge hit in a week and recovered every bit of its

cost. It was already making them a lot of profit.

It being a good movie helped the viral marketing campaign and just two days after release, a lot of people started cosplaying as Kai.

It became a Skygram trend, helping the movie do way more business as every college student and young adult felt pressured to watch the movie for them to be able to follow what was going on online.

Though, that wasn't the only reason.

According to data reports, the majority of the audience were well in their 30s and were corporate employees. Kai going through abuse at home and work was something that they connected with and his arc about purpose was universal.

After all, every human is sold some sort of purpose in life.

Industry insiders even wondered if the movie was going to break the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie as even with a 70 percent downfall in the second week, the movie was going to cross 350 million dollars and in the third and fourth week, it was expected to go well beyond 400 before eventually stopping down.

At that point, most people would have already watched the movie.

Some people were now taking Aiden's bet with Arno very seriously and not just a marketing gimmick.

After all, the movie was actually very close to 500 million dollars and it had already made half of it in the first week itself.

Though in the end, people shook off that possibility as the fall in the second and third week was going to take out the movie according to anyone who kept up with box office.

At most, it was going to touch the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie. There was also the threat of other movies releasing in [The Black Saint] third week.

500 million was still a figure that was too big. Even then, people were already lauding it as a great piece of cinema.

Zavier was being hailed as one of the greatest directors from the 2000s. And people were praising his ideas and views a lot regarding the movie.

[The Black Saint] was already hailed as one of the best from this year in Hollywood.

Though, that was also a result of the hype in the first week. It was inevitable that a few critics were going to not like the movie or talk about the effects it might have on society.

One of the critics from Vanity Magazine wrote, "Although [The Black Saint] is a great movie and a box office juggernaut going by its credentials, the movie shows a lot of things that might influence people in the wrong direction. There's already incidents of people shooting others after being inspired by gangsters in movies. We should really look at these types of movies with a squinted eye."

While the critic from Vanity Magazine talked about the bad impact of movies on society, another critic straight up disliked the movie.

The critic from The Box magazine wrote, "[The Black Saint] fails on a lot of its promises and is saved by a great performance from Aiden Silvereye who gave his career best in the role that seemed to be made only for him. But in every other aspect, the movie failed and seemed to try to be something philosophical while failing at it."

The critic only gave 2 stars out of 5 to the movie and fans of the movie didn't like it, calling the critic biased.

This was normal and even when Zavier read the negative reviews, he didn't feel bad as in his heart, he knew that he had given his all to the movie and had connected with the audience.

Like that, the second week for the movie came and it was then that something strange happened.

Day 8 - 21 million dollars

Day 9 - 17 million dollars

Day 10 - 24 million dollars

Day 11 - 25 million dollars

Day 12 - 13 million dollars

Day 13 - 12 million dollars

Day 14 - 11 million dollars

In the second week, the movie grossed 125 million dollars in the box office, taking the joint collection to 388 million dollars.

It was a very strange number and was beyond the expectations of a lot of analysts. The movie had fallen by around 50 percent which was way less than the usual 70 percent.

This shocked a lot of people who were keeping a close eye on the box office.

After all, it meant that the movie needed only 112 million dollars more to touch the 500 million dollar mark. And this was just the box office. The streaming and other deals were going to rake in more money.

But the focus was purely on box office because of the bet.

One of the analysts tweeted after the end of second week, "In the last decade, only a few movies are able to survive the fall in the second week. Most movies rarely do business in the second week but [The Black Saint] is an exception. If not for it being R-rated, I'm pretty sure it would have crossed the 1 billion mark. Teens these days like edgy stuff and this would have spread between them easily if not for the violence in the movie. The movie is already becoming a part of the internet pop culture. Now, the focus is on the third week and whether it would do more than 50 million dollar business."

The third week was the funeral for movies in modern day. Even with popular movies, it won't be lucrative as most people would have watched the movie already. The fourth week was the funeral and after that, new movies would take over, making a month old movie a fourth or fifth choice for the audience.

They would rarely be housefull after that and shows would start to end with a streaming deal coming in the next few months.

Everyone in Hollywood had a keen eye on the box office as the third week for the movie approached. Especially Arno Laurent who had become a bit scared of the potential of the movie.

He had already been proven wrong as [The Black Saint] was a big hit but the bet was what he focused on. He didn't want to be humiliated by losing it.

In the third week, the collections fell again.

Day 15 - 9 million dollars

Day 16 - 7 million dollars

Day 17 - 12 million dollars

Day 18 - 16 million dollars

Day 19 - 8 million dollars

Day 20 - 5 million dollars

Day 21 - 4 million dollars

The third week collection hung up to 61 million dollars, taking the total to 449 million dollars.

Just one million below the 450 million dollar mark. At this point, everyone was sure that the movie would break the record for the highest grossing R-rated movie in the world in the fourth week, getting a world record.

Granite films employees and CEOs were already dancing around by that time and giving out paid vacations to Hawaii.

But the main question was still whether the mark of 500 million would be crossed.

At this point, a lot of people were sure that the movie had lost its steam. A 20-30 million dollar fourth weekend awaited it and after that, a famous spy action franchise was going to make a return and people would watch that.

The movie might crawl up to the mark but there was no guarantee.

Like that, the end of the month arrived.

Day 22 - 3 million dollars

Day 23 - 2 million dollars

Day 24 - 7 million dollars

Day 25 - 9 million dollars

Day 26 - 2 million dollars

Day 27 - 1 million dollars

Day 28 - 2 million dollars

In the fourth week, the movie got 26 million dollars, taking the total to 475 million dollars. At this point, 25 million dollars were still left and although the record of highest grossing R-rated movie was broken, people were sure that it wouldn't cross 500 million dollars.

The lifetime verdict was estimated to be 490 million dollars, just short of the 500 million dollars figure. Arno was able to take a relaxed breath after the fourth week, thinking that he was safe.

But in the fifth week, something that no one expected happened.

//Dream note//

Merry Christmas to all of you.