Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

"Okay, you get back to work; I'll wait for you to come back so we can eat together."

After hanging up the phone, Link flipped through the news on his tablet and saw a flood of negative reviews for "Bridesmaids" on professional film websites like Entertainment Online. Over ten famous film critics had publicly disparaged the movie.

Some ridiculed the plot as awkward and unfit for normal viewers, others complained about the unlikable protagonist, and some argued that Link was not suited for comedy, which felt jarring.

Originally, "Bridesmaids" had enjoyed a good rating on professional sites, with a B from media aggregates, an A- from Yahoo audience sites, and a 72% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, which was not bad compared to "Thor" released in the same period.

In just one day, the media aggregate score dropped to B-, Yahoo audiences to B, and the Rotten Tomatoes freshness plunged to 63%, with several film rating sites bombarded with negative reviews.

Many fans tend to check reviews before watching a movie now, and bad word of mouth can directly impact box office receipts.

Clearly, someone was intentionally smearing the movie and it wasn't hard to guess who might be behind it.

Link opened Twitter to take a look and found many film critics also posting negative reviews of "Bridesmaids" there.

One tweet from a critic named Oscar Holbrook had garnered over four thousand comments.

This person was a contributor to Entertainment Weekly, known for his sharp critical style, and was unforgiving of bad movies, with 1.02 million followers on his account.

From yesterday afternoon to this morning, he posted three tweets in a row, starting with, 'Such a terrible comedy; not a single funny moment in the whole film, just awkwardness! Awkwardness! Awkwardness! Watching this movie is a waste of life, absolutely not recommended!'

These tweets critiqued everything from the movie's plot and cast to the lead actor's performance, sparing no aspect from ridicule.

He even wrote a specific tweet to criticize him and tagged him in it.

It started by praising his impressive performance in "The Expendables," then the tone changed, critiquing his acting as the film's biggest flaw, stating his performance wasn't funny at all; rather, it was awkward—the largest awkwardness in this already awkward storyline.

He also suggested Link might be in the running for next year's Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor.

Link shook his head, acknowledging he had some issues with his performance, but it wasn't that bad.

Moreover, as the film centered around the lead actress, the director cut his original five-minute role down to just under 100 seconds of screen time for the sake of the plot—how bad could it really be?

He scrolled through the critic's past reviews and discovered that the latter only critiqued the most popular and controversial films each month.

He would latch onto a single flaw in a movie and trash the rest of it as a pile of dogshit; his critiques were also very unprofessional, with emotive language.

He didn't seem like a serious film critic but rather a traffic-chasing internet celebrity.

After some thought, Link posted, 'Interesting! In '08 criticized "Twilight" as a bad film, '09 "The Hangover", '10 "Sherlock Holmes" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", '11 first "Fast Five" then "Bridesmaids". I have a feeling "Bridesmaids" will be a big hit.'

Although he had already sold his Twitter shares and was no longer a shareholder, he remained one of the most followed users on the platform, with a current fan count of 92.15 million, just shy of breaking 100 million.

After he replied to the critic Oscar Holbrook, it rapidly drew masses of attention, his comment quickly surpassing fifty thousand likes, and the comments soared to a thousand.

Many were shocked that an A-list superstar would bother to respond to a film critic's review.

Some netizens explained on Link's behalf that since yesterday, a sudden surge of negative reviews for "Bridesmaids" appeared in the media.

Those reviews, just like this critic's, were baselessly spewing vitriol.

Clearly, the situation was not normal.

It seemed someone was deliberately trashing the movie, and probably Link couldn't stand by, hence he replied to the comment.

Shortly after, many netizens who had seen the movie said they had just watched "Bridesmaids" and found it quite good, much better than other films of the same genre released during the same period.

After a few minutes of discussion, film critic Oscar Holbrook came online and first thanked Link for his reply, claiming that his reviews of "Bridesmaids" were from an impartial, fair, and professional standpoint and weren't reckless comments.

Link thought about it and decided not to respond further, as after his reply, the critic's followers had skyrocketed from 1.02 million to 1.83 million.

This reminded him of 2008 when he was a small-time boxer and gained a lot of attention by trashing celebrities.

Now that he was a top influencer, many were copying his old tactics, seeking attention by trashing him—a karmic return indeed.

When he got back to his villa, he checked the news on his phone again and found that his response to the film critic had become the top trending topic on Twitter.

The headline was 'Link Publicly Refutes Film Critic's Criticism of "Bridesmaids"', hitting 4.87 million in heat, which was 800,000 higher than the news about the "Fast Five" crew attending a racing event in Tokyo, Japan.

In related news, the critic Oscar Holbrook even gave an interview to Entertainment Online.

He said that all his past reviews were his genuine feelings after watching the films, including for "Bridesmaids", and his aim was to warn moviegoers.

The interviewer mentioned the success of "Twilight" in '08, despite his calling it an epic failure, and his criticism of "The Hangover" in '09 for looking like it was directed by someone who was drunk, followed by his negative reviews of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Harry Potter" in '10.

The interviewer asked if he simply criticized whichever films were popular.

Oscar the critic replied that it wasn't the case as "Bridesmaids" wasn't successful; his critique was solely based on a poor viewing experience.

When asked how he felt about being singled out by Link, Oscar said it was an honor and suggested that Link should humbly accept the criticism, diligently hone his acting skills, and aim to produce better work next time.

Besides the interview with the critic, many news websites also circulated this story, increasing the online visibility of "Bridesmaids".

After browsing for a bit, Link closed the laptop and went to the kitchen to make a few dishes.

"Link, you might want to let this go. You're a top star now, and it's not worth getting involved in such trivial matters."

Ivanka entered the kitchen in her high heels, before the last dish was out of the pot.

Dressed in a white suit with pencil pants that complemented her icy demeanor and rose-colored lipstick, she was clearly just home as she had yet to set down her small square shoulder bag.

"I know, how did your work meeting go, and how are you planning to deal with all this negative press?"

Link took off his apron and handed the kitchen over to the maid as he asked.

"We're going to stick to the usual methods. If someone spends money to criticize 'Bridesmaids,' we'll spend money to get even more people to praise the movie. With polarized opinions and even controversy, the exposure for 'Bridesmaids' in the media will greatly increase. If done right, it can even boost box office sales, but it means we have to put in an extra two or three million in marketing costs."

Ivanka explained.

Link nodded, thinking an additional two or three million in marketing costs wasn't much.

The only thing that irritated him was knowing that the Weinstein brothers were very likely behind it, and yet there was no way to retaliate.

In fact, he could also hire people to write bad reviews for 'The Expendables,' but both Sean Penn and Frances McDormand, the lead actors of the movie, were outstanding performers and not affiliated with Harvey's party. Accusing the Weinstein Company's movie would inadvertently harm them.

This was a dilemma.

Moreover, using such methods to attack a competitor was rather petty, something not suitable for public confrontation, and he was above that.

"Let's have dinner, and stop talking about work after hours," he said.

Link took her handbag and said.

"What delicious things did you make today?"

"Kung Pao Chicken, Twice-cooked Pork, and Vegetable Soup. Do you like it?"

"Yes, I used to think it was convenient and tasty to have a chef cook at home, but after tasting your cooking, I realized that the most delicious food is what's cooked at home."

Ivanka said with a smile, her hand in his.

Link smiled gently. Since Ivanka had moved in, she had made some adjustments to her living habits, slowly gravitating towards him—a positive sign.

In the second week since 'Bridesmaids' release, its screening rate increased by 3.5%, and it grossed 19.58 million US dollars in North America, less than a 10% decrease from the previous week.

The performance seemed good, but according to the data gathered by the distribution department, had it not been for those negative reviews, this week's box office could have been higher, potentially around 25 million.

A difference of over five million.

Thinking about this number, Link felt the urge to drag Harvey into the boxing ring and KO him with heavy punches a hundred times.

This week's box office champion was 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4,' which premiered in 4,155 theaters across North America with an opening weekend gross of 90.1 million US dollars, setting a record for the highest first-weekend box office in North America of the year.

The runner-up was 'Thor,' in its second week of release, which made 48.5 million US dollars, pushing its total past 100 million.

'Fast Five' dropped to fourth place with 16.05 million US dollars, with a North American cumulative box office nearing 160 million and a global gross close to 400 million US dollars.

And 'The Expendables,' with a earning of 3.8 million US dollars, fell to ninth place, only 200,000 US dollars ahead of Lionsgate Films' 'Madea's Big Happy Family.'

After two weeks, 'Bridesmaids' had a cumulative North American box office of nearly 40 million.

Meanwhile, the overseas box office data also came back to the distribution department. The film premiered simultaneously in 35 countries and regions across Europe, America, Asia, and Oceania, garnering 56.33 million US dollars in ten days, with worldwide box office nearing 100 million.

A comedy movie breaking 100 million in box office within ten days indeed indicated the film's quality was quite good.

Following the release of the overseas box office earnings, 'Bridesmaids' distributors Warner and Lionsgate took the opportunity to refute many negative reviews in the papers using the overseas box office figures.

In the third week of 'Bridesmaids'' release, media projections initially estimated the box office would fall to around 10 million.

This is because according to movie box office rise and fall patterns, apart from phenomenon-level movies like 'Titanic,' the fall from the first week to the second for other films typically ranges between 20% and 50%. A drop exceeding 50% is considered significant, while anything below 20% indicates a higher quality movie that may merit an increased screening rate.

This pattern is similar to album releases, with greater drop-offs as time goes on.

But this week, 'Bridesmaids' still managed an impressive 16.81 million US dollars, with a drop of less than 15%.

Afterwards, many media outlets attributed this box office success to Link—he had released a video that week.

The video was a recording of James' wedding scene. Link, along with his band and the main cast of 'Bridesmaids,' appeared unexpectedly at the wedding party and performed a new song, "Sugar."

This was a sweet wedding song.

After the video was posted on YouTube, it surpassed a million views in six hours and garnered 5.5 million views in one day.

The live recording of the song was also released on Spotify concurrently, achieving 10.2 million streams in 28 hours, becoming the fastest song in North America to break 10 million plays, setting a new Spotify record for song streams in the region.

After three weeks, 'Bridesmaids' had a cumulative North American box office of 56.76 million US dollars and a global box office of 148 million US dollars, with projections suggesting it could surpass 200 million globally. The film was also successfully classified among the summer's top-grossing movies.

Upon seeing these figures, Harvey was so angered that he cursed vehemently in his office, not only at Link, but also at Bob for being incompetent.

Bob was also at his wits' end. Initially, he had arranged for many media outlets to publish negative reviews of 'Bridesmaids,' but Lionsgate and Warner, the distributors, had fought back hard, investing millions to salvage the film's reputation.

To continue pressing down on 'Bridesmaids' would cost real money.

Bob was too stingy to spend the cash and stopped after just one round of media attacks.

He had thought that with that wave of negative publicity, they could keep 'Bridesmaids'' North American box office under 50 million.

Nobody expected Link to use the release of a new song to promote the film, which rapidly pushed its North American box office past 50 million to 56 million.

Bob had to admire Link's luck and promotional tactics.

He even considered advising Harvey to reconcile with Link, since there was no significant feud between them, and continuing to fight would lead to greater financial losses.

But seeing Harvey's dark expression, he wisely swallowed the words he had been about to say and began contemplating other strategies to deal with Link and Ivanka.