NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Rejection from Toho
"...Through the movie, we can clearly see Director Shinji Matou's expertise in the field of mystery, and the various development patterns of Gem Magecraft are portrayed vividly in the film."
"Take, for example, the scene where Rin Tohsaka freezes Berserker. Through the magecraft circle, we can observe three different gem attributes and their combinations..."
Shinji put down the newspaper, pinching his temples with his fingers.
When he was making the movie, he had never expected that magus would analyze the magecraft in his film from a traditional magus's perspective. It was like a scientist writing a paper titled "The Role of Palladium in Nuclear Fusion" after watching the movie "Iron Man."
"It feels... truly surreal."
Shinji shook his head in disbelief. Scientists finding scientific research theory in a fantasy movie – could there be anything more absurd in the world?
Yes!
From Shinji's limited knowledge of magecraft, he realized that this paper actually had value. Magus like the Tohsaka family, who studied Gem Magecraft, could genuinely gain knowledge from this article.
Yet, the director and producer of the movie, Shinji himself, were completely unaware of this. That was the most absurd part!
"Who wrote this article... I should know them."
Shinji saw the author's name, "Alice Kuonji," and immediately remembered the face of a certain short-haired girl.
Although the Matou family and the Kuonji family had no significant connection, Shinji, as a fan of the "Fate" series, was well aware of the importance of this character in the story.
"Shinji, do you know the young lady from the Kuonji family?" Zouken asked with a sly smile.
Shrugging his shoulders, Shinji replied, "Well, I've heard Miss Touko mention her. She's good friends with her sister."
"I see."
Upon hearing that his grandson hadn't had any particular encounters with the young lady, Zouken's attention shifted away from the author.
"Although the circulation of this 'magus's Journal' is not high, it wields significant influence in the Japanese magus community," Zouken said, pointing to the newspaper. "Once this article is out, most magus in Japan will want to watch this movie."
"That's not a bad thing."
Hearing his grandfather's words, Shinji couldn't help but fantasize.
Even if there were only a few thousand magus in Japan, their collective attendance could significantly boost the movie's box office, especially considering the limited screenings during the preview stage. Additionally, these viewers would influence their friends and acquaintances to watch the film, creating a ripple effect. After all, even secluded magus had their social circles.
Having experienced the development of movies in his previous life, Shinji understood just how powerful word-of-mouth could be for a good film.
"It seems that those old-fashioned magus obsessed with magecraft all day long aren't completely useless."
Thinking about this, Shinji suddenly found the article in the newspaper much more appealing, and he even developed a slight fondness for the young lady named "Alice Kuonji."
After all, she had unintentionally helped promote FSN for free!
In reality, the word-of-mouth promotion of the movie was far better than Shinji had anticipated.
In a distant city of Tokyo, Shibamatsu Ikehira walked into the university feeling a bit worn out. Yesterday, he not only watched the same movie twice, but he also had to face all sorts of questions from his father, which meant he didn't sleep well at all. His mind was filled with magecraft, Servants, and the Holy Grail.
"I blame that darn movie!"
Shibamatsu complained absentmindedly as he strolled through the campus.
"It's driving me crazy! My head is full of this stuff!"
That's what he said, but should he be given another chance, Shibamatsu would still choose to watch FSN. After all, the movie was so captivating.
Of course, it would have been even better if he didn't have the annoying homework assigned by his father.
"Hey, Ikehira."
Suddenly, a few classmates caught up to him.
One of them jumped up and put an arm around Shibamatsu's shoulder.
"Back from your hometown? How about playing some soccer with us? Sakata's gang saved us a spot."
"I think I'll pass," Shibamatsu said, pointing to his faint dark circles under his eyes. "I need to go back to the dorm and catch up on sleep."
"You didn't sleep well last night?" one of his friends asked curiously. "That's unusual. Aren't you the type to fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow?"
"It's because I went to see a movie, and I even watched it twice... It was so thrilling..."
Because he had to keep magic-related matters confidential, Shibamatsu only explained the part about watching a movie. His friends immediately teased him, "What kind of movie could captivate you so much? Did a hot idol star appear naked in it or something?"
"That would just give me eye strain!"
Shibamatsu rolled his eyes and then went on to describe FSN in detail. Since it was a movie made by magus and he had found a connection to it, Shibamatsu even felt a sense of belonging to FSN, using all sorts of praise to describe the film.
"Listen to me, this is definitely the best movie I've ever seen in my life. You guys should go check it out."
"Oh? Is it really that good?"
Hearing Shibamatsu, who was usually quite reserved, speak so highly of it piqued the interest of his fellow students.
"That sounds great! How about we go watch it this weekend?"
"Why wait until the weekend? We have no classes in the afternoon; we can go right after that."
"Aren't we playing soccer anymore?"
"We can play soccer anytime; we can't afford to miss this movie!"
...
Similar scenes were playing out across Japan as young magus recommended FSN to those around them after watching the movie. Their mindset was simple: since it's a movie made by fellow magus, they should help with its promotion. Whether the movie was fantastic or terrible, they felt a duty to support it.
Even the old-fashioned magus in the magecraft world, after getting approval from their juniors and reading the article written by Kuonji, ultimately succumbed to their desire for high-level modern magecraft and reluctantly entered the movie theater.
In addition to magus of all kinds, ordinary people who watched the movie were also actively recommending FSN to people they knew. People love to show off; if they've seen a great movie, they want to share it to impress others.
All of these reactions were gradually contributing to the word-of-mouth buzz around FSN among the audience. While there wasn't a significant change in Bandai' promotion, the increasing number of viewers each day was causing the box office numbers to slowly rise.
Even though it was a weekday and there was no explosive growth in box office earnings, the numbers showed a steady upward trend.
The latest box office data was promptly relayed to Shinji Matou by his agent, his second uncle, Kariya.
"This is an excellent box office result!"
On Friday morning, Shinji received a call from his uncle Kariya, who was his agent in Tokyo.
"Our movie has tremendous box office potential. I'll put some pressure on Bandai to invest more resources," Kariya said. He was well aware that at least two-thirds of these earnings came from the magus, but that didn't stop him from using box office data for negotiations.
"It would be best if we could get them to do a nationwide release next week," Shinji instructed Kariya on the other end of the phone. "The Cannes Film Festival is coming up in mid-May, and I've already had Waver register for it. I need the confidence to negotiate with European distributors!"
Kariya chuckled and replied, "Don't worry, Shinji. As long as the weekend box office continues to grow, Bandai won't have any reason to avoid a large-scale release."
"Hey, Uncle, don't make promises you can't keep!"
Shinji couldn't help but tease him.
As Friday arrived, the Japanese film market entered its busiest period of the week. Shinji was sincerely grateful that it was 2003, not the 1990s.
Despite Japan's introduction of the two-day weekend system for businesses in the 1980s, it wasn't until after 1992 that it was widely promoted. What's even more interesting is that the two-day weekend system for primary and secondary schools only began in 2002.
For the film and television industry like FSN, weekends naturally represent the peak of box office earnings.
After fermenting for several days, the extraordinary word-of-mouth surrounding FSN finally had an effect. Starting from Friday evening, the number of attendees in each screening at all 25 preview theaters across Japan nearly doubled or even tripled compared to weekdays. Many young people even came to the theaters in groups, specifically asking to watch FSN.
This situation was quickly relayed to Bandai. Although the final decision had to wait for a meeting, Kazunori Ueno already had the idea of investing more resources into FSN due to the incredible box office potential.
"The single-day box office on Friday reached 8 million yen! We've struck gold!" Kazunori Ueno joyfully examined the data on his desk, which was the best proof of FSN's market potential.
With this evidence in hand, even if Ueno were initially cautious, he decided to go all out. After all, why not make money when you have the chance?
So, even before the weekend was over, the top executives at Bandai had made the decision to expand their marketing efforts and the number of theaters showing FSN.
Bandai not only increased the advertising budget for FSN, allowing its ads to appear in prime spots in leading newspapers and on TV channels, but they also planned to expand the number of theaters showing the film from 25 to 270.
However, before Bandai could implement its ambitious screening plan, there was bad news from the theater chains.
Toho and Shochiku theaters refused to screen FSN!