NOVEL NEXT Chapter 458: New Album Leak_2
Resulting in overseas gross box office that still falls short of North America, during the same period, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" achieved $380 million in North America's box office but nearly $1 billion overseas, while "Thor" earned $180 million in North America and $260 million overseas.
Nevertheless, the "Captain America" box office figures still exceeded the expectations of Paramount Pictures and several professional media.
Originally, Paramount's marketing department had predicted that this movie's global box office would be around $360 million.
Currently, the total box office has surpassed $300 million in just ten days, with expectations to reach approximately $480 million, a high likelihood of breaking $500 million, which is over $100 million more than originally anticipated.
"Complete Movie" believes the main reason for this difference lies in Link.
In the half-month leading up to the film's release, Link was a name mentioned daily in the US media and was also a highly controversial and topical figure.
This exposure also brought extremely high popularity to "Captain America."
Initially, Paramount Pictures was unsure whether this popularity was good or bad. At first, they dared not mention Link's name in promoting the film and replaced it on movie posters with masked stills of Link as Captain America or with images from the Captain America comics.
The purpose was to prevent Link's negative news from dragging down the movie's box office performance.
Paramount Pictures hadn't even started to replace posters on a large scale yet.
The news that Link had won several championships at the 14th World Swimming Championships soon followed.
The mainstream American media was also forced to adjust their promotional strategies, shifting from criticizing Link to praising him.
After a scare, Paramount Pictures hurriedly joined the mainstream media in promoting both Link and the world championships, causing Link and Captain America's fame to skyrocket instantaneously.
As Link secured his fifth gold medal, nearly all mainstream American media reported on it, highly praising Link as the miraculous Link, the incredible Link, the strongest and fastest man in the world.
"Captain America" was released amid this harmonious atmosphere, with its premiere box office exceeding expectations, the first week's box office exceeding expectations, and the ten-day global box office also exceeding expectations.
This outperformance also demonstrated that the key to "Captain America"'s box office success lay in Link, not Paramount Pictures.
In this climate of public opinion, Link's box office draw was greatly magnified.
Nominated by media such as the "Hollywood Reporter" as the 2011 actor with the strongest box-office appeal from the '80s generation and also the most cost-effective actor, investing one US dollar in him could yield a return of 23 US dollars.
Even "Midnight in Paris," "Bridesmaids," and the moderately successful "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," benefitted from his participation and recent exposure, achieving better than expected box office results.
This also led to a significant increase in Link's film offers, mostly as the leading man in major commercial films, and his fees also reaching over $20 million.
However, he still had "Avengers" and "The Expendables 2" on hand, and with limited time, he had not yet decided which new project to take on.
"Why not take a break before getting busy again? You haven't had a proper rest since the beginning of the year."
In the office, Ivanka came over and gently massaged his shoulders, the air filled with her fragrance.
"You haven't had a rest either. Don't you feel tired?"
Link chuckled lightly, holding a signing pen, flamboyantly signed on deluxe album covers.
"I just sit in the office reviewing documents all day. When I'm tired, I go shopping or to beauty treatments. But you, every day you're either training hard at the training field or flying around the world busy with work and competitions. Aren't you wearing yourself out?"
Ivanka said worriedly.
"Don't worry, I'm in good shape. Tonight, at least one hour, you're not allowed to play dead."
Link touched the jade hand on his shoulder.
"I wouldn't dare."
Ivanka fluttered her lashes coquettishly at him, her plump lips slightly curling up, "After we're done with the movie and album, how about we go on vacation to Hawaii? We can go somewhere else too, you pick the place, I'll be with you."
"That's possible, but after the album, I still have to shoot a film in France, participate in two boxing matches, and the company is releasing three new films, you'll be busy too."
"We won't have many days to play. Let's just find somewhere close for a short break, and at the end of the year, we'll drop everything and have a whole month of fun in Hawaii or wherever."
"Alright, it's settled then."
Ivanka wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, her soft lips kissing his cheek.
As he reached out to carry her, Ivanka lightly laughed, sidestepped his reach with her long legs, agilely avoiding his grasp, and continued working behind the desk.
——
There's a girl but I let her get away
The girl I once loved just passed me by
It's all my fault cause pride got in the way
Pride to blame, it's all my fault
And I'd be lying if I said I was ok
During the second week after "Captain America" was released, promotional work began before the launch of Link's fourth album "Love Is Gone."
The first promotional single "That Girl" was also released globally on August 1.
It sold 3.88 million copies in its first week, easily claiming the top spot on America's "Billboard" singles chart and number one in 21 other countries including Britain, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Japan, and South Korea.
With its high quality and Link's emotional rendition, the song was pleasant to the ear, influential, and had a high sing-along rate; almost as soon as it was released, it began playing in several shopping centers in the Santa Monica area.
Many artists also promoted the song online; Selena even declared it her favorite song of the year and asked Link to write another song of the same type for her.