A certain online forum.
Hera Watches Movies: 'Just finished watching—my heart's still racing. I have to say, it's… a completely nonsensical film!'
'A group of high-schoolers fly to France for vacation; the plane explodes. A boy who foresaw the disaster herds a few classmates off the aircraft early, and sure enough, the jet blows. Only the boy and the classmates who followed him survive.'
'And then the rest of the story is a steaming pile of—'
Todd: slips on water leaking from the toilet, falls into the tub, catches his neck on a clothesline wire, and strangles to death in the bathroom.
Terry: run over by a bus.
Mrs. Lewton: stabbed in the chest; the Room she dies in blows up.
Billy: a train flings a shard of Carter's car; Billy's head is lopped off.
Carter: saves Alex, so Death skips Alex—then a billboard crushes Carter.
All five survivors die!
Even the two left standing are reported dead before the credits roll.
'What is this movie trying to say?'
'That we can never escape the God of Death?'
'Cool kills, endless guessing, that nail-biting Death concept—wow, it's all so freaking awesome!!!'
'I take it back!'
'This isn't a senseless movie—it's a brilliant, terrific horror/thriller!'
'I'm in!'
Known online as 'Hera Watches Movies,' Ms. Hera has won hordes of fans for her razor-sharp reviews.
Her latest feature drew a flood of comments.
Classic bait-and-switch?
Trash first, praise later?
'God, Hera's a total liar~'
'Right? I thought she was slamming it—turns out she's shilling!'
'It's not shilling; it really is that good.'
'It's all a gimmick!'
Plenty of readers saw through it: the piece opens by bashing the film, but it's actually selling it.
Sure enough, the rising critic 'Hera Watches Movies' is on Page Pictures' payroll.
So Warner Company is smearing us online?
No problem!
We smear ourselves!
Flood the feed with self-roasts and praise alike—get the buzz loud enough and even the bad press looks like playful hype.
Warner's trolls are furious—
'What are they doing?'
'Our smear campaign is just giving them free publicity!'
At home, Barry Meyer, president of Warner Bros. Pictures, felt the sting.
'Boss, it's not that we're slacking—the Kyle team's too slick. They stockpiled self-mockery and glowing pieces to counter our hits,' the publicity chief said on the phone.
'What? How is that possible?' Barry Meyer exclaimed.
Kyle's squad had a playbook ready?
Of course!
America's internet was already robust by the late '90s, but still a far cry from the 2010s.
Though Kyle's last life was nothing special, he lived through every net-culture wave—smears, self-smears, puff pieces; he could write them in his sleep.
It wasn't that Warner was weak; the era itself was different.
'Boss, one more thing,' the publicity head added.
'Spit it out,' Barry Meyer growled.
'Our troll army is tiny beside Page's—estimates put theirs past ten thousand,' the chief said.
'Ten thousand?'
Even Barry Meyer flinched.
A 10,000-head troll brigade!!!
In the '90s, that number could roil the entire internet.
'How did they manage it?' Barry asked, stunned.
Kyle the transmigrator knew the pros and cons of paid posters, so he bankrolled them early.
Page Pictures fielded Hollywood's first, largest, earliest-formed troll corps.
Ten thousand?
Ha!
In truth, Page employed only a few hundred; the 'ten thousand' were 'fifty-centers'—students from every campus.
One post, one like, one reply—each priced and tallied by dedicated staff.
So a few hundred core trolls commanded a student army of over ten thousand—and it kept growing.
Forewarned beats forearmed; Warner never stood a chance.
At least in online publicity, lightly invested Warner couldn't match Page Pictures.
'This only works while Warner undervalues the web; once they wise up, we'll never outmuscle them again,' Kyle later sighed.
Thus Page Pictures won the internet round.
Yet in legacy media, Warner Group's might left Kyle in the dust.
Every Warner paper and magazine pounced; even Kyle's deep pockets only barely held the line.
'Don't panic~'
'We can't beat them on old media—so what?'
'Remember, it's Halloween season!'
'Tonight's Halloween Eve—the streets are one big party; who's buying newspapers?'
'And beyond hype, a film's fate rests on its quality!'
'Warner's movie can't touch ours!'
'So we might still win!'
'We've topped the daily box office for days—let Warner do the worrying~'
Veteran Bill McNickle stayed at Page Pictures after hours, personally holding the fort.
A seasoned hand is worth his weight in gold.
With Mr.Bill's pep talks, Page managed to go toe-to-toe with the Warner empire—
—even if only for a short, glorious stretch.
The next day
Box-office numbers landed.
North America's daily chart:
Page Pictures' new release took $13.59 million, again edging out Warner's $12.05 million for first place.
Three-day cumulative gross: $32 million—the highest of the Halloween season.