After years of waiting, Star Wars fans finally ushered in a new Star Wars series. However, after the premiere of "The Ghost", "The Threat of Ghosts", have been criticized by people, and even some extreme Star Wars fans criticized George Lucas for destroying the beautiful image of this series in their minds.

No matter how violent the complaints and criticisms are, this is the Star Wars series. Although George Lucas is indeed not good at telling stories, he is one of the best technical directors. The special effects of "The Threat of Ghosts" are definitely at the top level in this era.

After attending the Star Wars premiere, Duke deliberately participated in a senior meeting of Marvel. He did not say much. After introducing himself to Marvel's agent, he just advised Marvel to temporarily stop the random authorization of its comic characters.

With Duke's investment, Jingqi's financial problems have improved to a large extent. If it weren't for the difficulty of operating some time ago, the entire company might have gone bankrupt at any time, and Jingqi would not have sold its heroes at a low price.

This weekend, Duke stayed in New York. As the weekend passed three days and the new weekly box office list was released, "The Ghost Threat" did not set an unprecedented first weekend record of over $100 million, just as the media expected, but it won the weekly box office championship with a record of more than $65 million.

Due to the impact of Star Wars, other films released during the same period fell one after another, and Duke's "High-up" was no exception. With the sharp drop in North American theaters to 20, it earned $5.98 million in three days on weekends, and the North American box office was 79.13 million.

With the release of more summer blockbusters, the market space of "Hundred Thousand Hurry" will be further compressed. According to Duke's estimate, the profitability of the film is definitely not a problem. It is very difficult for North American box office to cross the $100 million mark.

Just after the weekend, Duke received a strange call and someone asked him to go to a cafe on Long Island to have a good chat.

This is a very old cafe with not many customers. After Duke went in, he found a girl wearing a baseball cap sitting in the corner looking through the newspaper. He walked over slowly.

"A cup of latte, thank you."

He ordered a cup of coffee casually. Duke sat on a hardwood chair and looked across from him.

Natalie Portman was wearing a simple student denim outfit, with a Yankees hat on her head and a tough face. She obviously had no makeup on her, and she could clearly see the faint freckles and small moles on her cheeks.

"Thanks."

After receiving the coffee from the waiter, Duke handed over the tip and asked, "Is there anything to ask me?"

"Nothing." Natalie's words seemed plain, "I just wanted to read something for you."

"Read something?" Duke frowned strangely.

On the night of the premiere, he just used his past understanding and current observation and speculation to deliberately tear open the disguise on the other person's face and see what was hidden behind him.

And in addition to busy work, such games are also a good adjustment, isn’t it?

Natalie did not answer Duke's words, but her eyes fell to the newspaper. A crisp voice sounded softly, "After last weekend, the box office of "100,000 Hurry" in North America was 79.13 million US dollars, which would break through the 80 million US dollars mark at any time. The production cost of the film was only 10 million US dollars, and no matter how you look at this video, it can be considered a success."

The girl deliberately coughed, as if reminding Duke to listen carefully. "But the fact is exactly the opposite, the reason why this film can be sold well. Duke Rosenberg played a key role with his successful personal appeal in the past. According to a survey by an authoritative organization, nearly half of the fans entered the theater because of the director!"

"The quality of "100,000 Hurricane" is definitely not as good as the box office performance. It is an extremely mediocre work. The film's big sale just confirms that Duke Rosenberg is consuming his credibility. This is often the beginning of a downward trend for the director. Will the audience pay for his "100,000 Hurricane"? But will the audience still pay for his next bad work..."

After reading this, Natalie Portman suddenly stopped, a hint of pride flashed in his eyes, and looked up at Duke, "This is a column article by the famous film critic Roger Albert."

"Oh..." Duke did not say.

Natalie didn't want to let him go, "Do you think?"

Duke did not answer her words, but asked calmly, "Dear, what do you want to see? Disappointment? Depressed? Give up on yourself?"

"No, I've never thought so before. I know these words will not do anything to your cheeky face!" She closed the newspaper and stared at Duke and said, "I just want to fight back! I want to tell you that I'm not that easy to bully!"

She stood up, threw the newspaper to Duke, picked up her bag, placed a dollar on the coffee table, and walked out of the cafe without looking back.

Duke couldn't help but be stunned, then shook his head and smiled, as if he had really made this Jewish girl angry.

He also took out a piece of paper money, placed it on the table, followed Natalie and walked out of the cafe together.

The street outside was empty and quiet, and there were no pedestrians around. Duke took a quick step and walked side by side with Natalie.

"I'll call the police." Natalie didn't even look at him.

"It's okay." Duke pointed to Bentley parked on the road ahead, "Nate, I think you've made one mistake. My car is in front."

Natalie's face began to turn dark, "Are you so rude when facing the opposite sex?"

"No, no, Nat." Duke shook his head as he walked, "I have always been very polite to people, but when facing you, I always have an impulse..."

"Impulse?" Natalie stopped and turned to look at Duke, with a sarcastic voice in her voice, "The urge to go to bed with me?"

"You misunderstood."

Duke didn't stop, passed by her and said lightly, "I just wanted to see what is hidden under your smart, calm, and indifferent appearance."

Walking to the side of the car, Duke opened the door, turned around and said, "I want to see if Natalie Portman is really different from other actresses."

"Are you satisfied now?"

Duke didn't answer her words at all and pointed to the passenger seat, "You probably didn't drive, right? Get in the car, I'll take you back."

Natalie walked over, stood by the car and looked at Duke for a while, then glared at him fiercely, turned to the other side of the car, opened the door and sat in the passenger seat.

"Go home?" Duke started the car, "or to go to school?"

"Turn left at the second intersection ahead and walk a mile forward." Natalie pulled her baseball cap down, covering half of her face, "I'm getting out there."

Following the road guided by Natalie, Duke saw the place where she was about to get off the bus. It was not a school at all, and it looked like a bar no matter how you looked.

Natalie opened the car door, got out of the car, turned around and looked at Duke, "Go, I'll treat you to a drink."

After looking at the bar signs and looking at Natalie, Duke frowned slightly. If you remember correctly, Natalie Portman is only 18 years old next month...

Although the legal provisions in this regard are often nonsense, it is definitely a troublesome if someone cares about it.

The clever girl seemed to guess Duke’s thoughts and suddenly raised her eyebrows, “If I’m drunk, you can take me home.”

Hearing these slight temptation words, Duke immediately woke up, standing in front of him, but a girl with extremely complicated thoughts and less than eighteen years old, here is New York again...

"One other day, I may be coming to New York next month."

By the next month, she would be eighteen years old, and Duke smiled brightly, "I'll find a place to drink together, and we will never stop if we don't get drunk."

"Okay." Natalie said with her hands folded and raised her eyebrows, "You know my phone number."

After saying that, she turned her head and walked towards the bar on the roadside. Her brown eyes kept flashing, obviously she was turning her brain quickly. When she walked to the front of the bar, she looked back and saw that the black Bentley had disappeared from the distance.

Natalie had no intention of entering the bar at all, so she changed direction and walked towards the school along the sidewalk.

"You're lucky." She muttered.

In the next few days, Duke maintained a necessary contact with New Zealand and temporarily stayed in New York to deal with investment and stock affairs. At the same time, he also reminded his mother that if he had large amounts of related stocks in his hand, he should try to exchange them for other types of investment products as much as possible.

In addition, Duke also met with senior executives of Victoria's Secret twice, reaching an agreement on the appearance of the angel model in "The Lord of the Rings" and how to operate it in high profile. Unfortunately, the angels of Victoria's Secret went to Miami for a trip, and he did not have the chance to meet the few Brazilian models he had just joined.

At the same time, the box office of "Hundred Thousand Hurricane" has been declining in North America. After "Star Wars Prequel: The Ghost Threat", it experienced the impact of "Mummy" and "Ace Spy 2" for two consecutive weekends. Even if Duke's name hung in the film director column, "Hundred Thousand Hurricane" cannot compete with these real commercial masterpieces.

The works of well-known directors are indeed easier to attract audiences, but they cannot change the huge gap in investment and genre.

If it can be changed, major Hollywood companies will no longer have to make big investments. They will just bring together the front-line directors and actors and just shoot whatever they want.

By late May, "Hundred Thousand Hurry" had been with several commercial masterpieces for three consecutive weeks, and the number of North American theaters dropped to 421, with a total box office of 88.13 million US dollars. The box office of a single museum on the same day was less than 100 US dollars, and it was inevitably forced to be removed from the major theaters.

In the end, Duke's experimental film received $88.13 million from the North American box office market.
Chapter completed!