America 1919-Chapter 975 - 332, Box Office Myth_3

The Quanter Family wasn’t entirely pleased about this, but in the end, they had no choice but to accept Donnie’s arrangements. After all, their shares in Trident Shipyard left them little alternative but to comply.

In fact, this was done to better align with the current financial practices in the United States.

George Olympia felt a bit helpless now. He understood Donnie’s plan of leveraging the funds from Trident Shipyard’s IPO for acquisitions and expansions. Logically speaking, as the president of Trident Shipyard, he had every reason—and even a legal basis—to be fully informed of these plans.

Yet Donnie clearly had no intention of disclosing them to him.

As a diligent employee, George Olympia could only swallow his dissatisfaction and move on.

After George Olympia left, Jesse Livermore said to Donnie, "Are we going to continue selling off Venus Bank’s shares in Trident Shipyard?"

The $810,000 already raised was a significant amount, but compared to the funds needed for acquiring Kuhn, Loeb & Co. consortium, it was far from sufficient. Even with the upcoming IPOs of United Artists and Apollo Chain, along with additional funds from Morgan, Rockefeller, and Mellon, $810,000 still wouldn’t cut it.

Thus, Donnie planned to sell off more shares of Trident Shipyard in the interim before formally targeting Kuhn, Loeb & Co. consortium.

Such actions would undoubtedly violate regulations in the modern era, as there are lock-up periods during which shareholders are prohibited from selling their shares after a company’s IPO.

But these laws simply didn’t exist at the time!

Donnie nodded and said, "Sell them. Make sure we can pull at least $1 million in cash from Trident Shipyard!"

Jesse Livermore nodded in agreement. "If that’s the case, I have no objections. I’ll ensure that the company’s stock price remains unaffected."

Donnie smiled with satisfaction. "That’s precisely what I wanted to hear!"

Soon after, Jesse Livermore left Donnie’s office to execute his instructions.

Ozzy Barber then stepped in to report on the situation at United Artists.

"The film achieved a record-breaking single-day box office of $1.25 million yesterday. I’ve already coordinated with major media outlets and newspapers—they’ll continue promoting this film for us in the coming days!"

In the pre-Internet era, ordinary citizens had no means of engaging in large-scale discussions; news was confined to small, localized circles of dialogue.

As a result, people had only newspapers and radio broadcasts to access information outside their immediate surroundings.

Take, for example, the film starring Griffith and Jessica Dole. While the movie itself wasn’t top-tier by any stretch, neither did it deserve the overwhelming praise lavished upon it by the media. Many audience members walked into theaters with high expectations but left feeling deeply frustrated.

Put simply, if the film "objectively" deserved a rating of seven, the relentless marketing hype might lead viewers to rate it a mere five instead.

But none of this mattered to Donnie. As long as he could pay to control media reviews, the majority wouldn’t have access to the film’s true merits—or flaws.

Consequently, audiences would still flock to theaters drawn by external marketing campaigns!

In essence, Donnie was now manipulating public behavior by exerting control over public opinion.

"Tell our people to be ready. If there are screenings with low attendance, instruct them to buy out those tickets!"

Of course, Donnie’s strategy didn’t solely rely on controlling the narrative. Another key tactic was creating an illusion of box-office success!

This approach would later become a cliché exploited by film studios, but at the time, it was considered an innovative gimmick.

Donnie intended to use the records of this film’s box office performance to craft a mythos surrounding the film production company and fuel its upcoming IPO narrative!

On the third day after the film’s release, the Atlantic City Post once again published the previous day’s box-office figures.

$1.3 million!

Not only did the report include these impressive numbers, but it also featured interviews with so-called "audience members" at the screening… Predictably, these interviews were entirely fabricated!

In the fictional interviews, viewers raved about how this was the finest film they had ever seen. Some even claimed they had already purchased tickets for a second viewing to relive the experience.

Of course, if such statements came from just one individual, the audience might dismiss the claims. However, the Atlantic City Post cited interviews with four or five people—all showering the movie with effusive praise.

"Hmm, this sounds like an excellent film. Maybe I should check it out!"

It was clear that many viewers were starting to think along these lines.

On the other hand, professional film studios were baffled by the surging ratings. They initially believed the positive comments came from a select few, but the steadily rising ticket sales figures forced them to reconsider!

Could this truly be a masterpiece in disguise?

Two days in, the film had grossed $2.55 million at the box office—a figure that already represented the final revenue for many other films!

The astonishment was far from over, though. On the third day, the film underwent yet another explosion in popularity, achieving a single-day gross of $1.5 million!

Though the fourth day, being a Monday, showed a slight dip in ticket sales, the film still grossed over $1 million that day.

At this point, forecasts were emerging, with some predicting that the film’s total box-office earnings might exceed $7 million...

It was amid such speculation that news of United Artists preparing for its IPO began to spread!