Chapter 617: Jennifer Lawrence

Harvey sighed and dropped his copy of The New Yorker.

"David Denbigh is such a sycophant!" he cursed inwardly.

Forget about the first half of the article praising The Dark Knight—the second half was completely focused on praising Martin's screenwriting and the Joker played by Martin. It even disgustingly called the Joker the greatest villain in history. Could they have shown some restraint?

Anyway, Harvey couldn't stand it anymore.

So he picked up another copy of The New York Times.

"Batman: The Dark Knight is like a dark epic movie-watching feast..."

"Fuuuck!"

He threw it away and grabbed another.

The New York Post:"Batman: The Dark Knight has surpassed the simple attributes of commercial or literary films..."

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

He tossed it aside again and grabbed yet another.

New York Art Paper:"The Dark Knight blurs the boundaries between commercial popcorn movies and art films, making the opposition between the two meaningless..."

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

Harvey stopped.

He raised his fat body with his arms and walked to the window, gazing down at the bustling city below.

"Damn it, I can't keep going like this. I want to keep fighting. I want to be at the top of Hollywood. I want those bitches to kneel at my feet and lick my boots. I want to make Martin..." He paused for a moment, realizing it was too difficult to completely remove Martin from his "grand ambition." The cost outweighed the benefit, so he decided to forget it for now. Yes, just temporarily!

---

Los Angeles

Tom Cruise was on the phone.

"How's it going? How much material have you collected?"

"Very good. Continue collecting and wait for my order."

He hung up and watched the host on TV praise The Dark Knight, Nolan, and Martin, sneering.

"In the four days of its opening weekend, The Dark Knight grossed over $131.2 million, but unfortunately, it didn't break the record of $134.8 million set by Spider-Man..."

---

December 27th

There were huge crowds in front of the Lincoln Center Theater in New York for a fan event hosted by The Dark Knight promotion team.

"Martin! Martin! Martin!"

"Nolan! Nolan! Nolan!"

Even though Martin was stealing the spotlight in this timeline, Christopher Nolan still shone with his brilliance. As a director whose fan base in the original timeline had already reached superstar status, Nolan had also garnered a loyal following with his recent films.

Ben Affleck felt a little embarrassed. It seemed that the cheers for Nolan were louder than those for him.

It might have been because of the imminent arrival of Nolan, Martin, and their entourage, but the busy atmosphere in theaters across New York State had reached a new level that morning.

Especially in theaters in bustling areas, manpower shortages were evident early in the day.

"It's crazy. Mad crazy!"

Robert, the owner of a theater chain in New York, expressed this sentiment.

This bald middle-aged man was both happy and in pain.

He was happy because the tickets were selling like hotcakes. In just one hour, the morning screening of The Dark Knight had sold out. This was after he had converted all his theaters to show The Dark Knight. He was making a lot of money.

The pain was in his fingers, though. He'd been typing tickets all morning, and they felt like they were about to break from overuse!

"One ticket for The Dark Knight at 10:45, thank you."

A crisp female voice called out.

Robert turned around to see a young girl with a round face standing at the window, looking at him expectantly.

"Sorry, all morning tickets are sold out, and there are no more tickets for noon... well, the nearest showing is at 2:30 PM. Would you like that?"

Jennifer Lawrence, now sixteen but still with some baby fat, was disappointed. 

She had fallen in love with Martin and decided to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, hoping to get closer to her idol.

She had convinced her parents to take her to New York for an audition two years ago, where she had impressed despite no formal acting training and entered a talent agency.

However, she had been struggling with small roles in various TV series, and many of the other girls in her group had already lost hope and quit.

Jennifer had considered quitting as well, but whenever she felt discouraged, she would hold up a poster of Martin and remind herself, "Keep going, girl, you're one step closer to him!"

With no time to watch Martin's new movie due to auditions, she decided to skip one that morning to attend the fan event instead.

But when she got to the theater, all the morning tickets were sold out!

"Hey, hey, hey, little girl, do you want tickets for the afternoon?"

A voice interrupted her thoughts.

She raised her head and gritted her teeth. "I want it. Give me one for the 2:30 PM show."

Most moviegoers like Jennifer Lawrence were attending with friends or family, but she preferred to watch alone.

"Six photos of The Dark Knight from the latest show, thank you."

"Give me five tickets for The Dark Knight, thank you."

"The Dark Knight, seven photos, thank you."

The ticket seller lowered his head, continuing his work despite the deep winter cold, a layer of oily sweat forming on his forehead.

Robert could no longer feel his fingers, but he gritted his teeth and kept going. After all, it was all money—money, money, money!

---

Near Kansas City

It's unlikely many people know about this small city in the U.S., including those in Meijian.

But here, in this inconspicuous place, is the headquarters of AMC, the world's largest movie theater chain.

This cinema chain, founded in 1920, has held the largest market share in North America for decades.

In a conference room at AMC headquarters, CEO Adam Allen put down the fax in his hand.

He turned to the theater executives and smiled, "Looks like our little bat is going to replicate the magic of the little spider. This fax was sent jointly by Warner and Meyers Pictures, requesting that we increase the number of screenings. What do you think?"

"Agree to it!" shouted a bald middle-aged man. "We have to agree. Other movies screening at the same time are being completely overshadowed by The Dark Knight—including Mission: Impossible 3. Instead of leaving those theaters empty, let's use them all for The Dark Knight!"

Another executive said, "But Mission: Impossible 3 still has potential. Its box office has increased by over five million recently."

The bald man glanced at him sideways and sneered, "That kind of growth? We all know what's happening. Tom Cruise bought the box office!"