Super Bowl XXVIII was the championship game of the 1993 National Football League (NFL) season, featuring the AFC champion Buffalo Bills against the NFC champion Dallas Cowboys. The game was held on January 30, 1994, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
In the first half, the Dallas Cowboys firmly held a 17-8 lead, with running back Emmitt Smith performing exceptionally well. If the Dallas Cowboys could maintain their lead over the Buffalo Bills in the second half, they would win their fourth Super Bowl championship, and Emmitt Smith would be named the Most Valuable Player. However, after the first half, the Super Bowl halftime show quickly began.
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After Michael Jackson delivered the most spectacular halftime performance in Super Bowl history last year, this year's Super Bowl became a feast of country music. Country music stars and bands like Clint Black, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, and The Judds graced the stage. Perhaps Michael Jackson's halftime show the previous year, which was even more entertaining than the game itself, had given audiences higher expectations. Thus, this year's Super Bowl halftime show also garnered significant external attention, and viewers were highly anticipating it.
To allocate more time for the Super Bowl halftime show and insert more commercials, the Super Bowl officials extended the halftime break from fifteen minutes to twenty minutes. In fact, Michael Jackson's performance last year had a halftime break of twenty-three minutes, mainly because Michael Jackson's entire performance alone exceeded seventeen minutes. Longer duration meant more advertising slots. As a result, major brands placed advertisements during this Super Bowl.
Unlike previous years, after Speed first aired its trailer during the Super Bowl last year, other Hollywood films followed suit and also began placing advertisements during the Super Bowl.
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Ever since watching Speed, Butcher Lutz developed an interest in Gilbert, this young director. Especially since Gilbert was very active in the media, either hyping up scandals with actresses or engaging in battles with animal protection organizations. Such a unique director appealed to Butcher Lutz. On a rare weekend, he stayed glued to his television, watching this year's Super Bowl game. He wasn't an NFL fan; he typically watched more Major League Baseball. However, he heard that Gilbert's new film, Real Steel, would have an advertisement during the Super Bowl, so he watched this year's Super Bowl.
After marveling at how NFL sports seemed to be for "barbarians," Butcher Lutz's most anticipated segment, the halftime show, began. Before the halftime performance, the television started playing commercials. Major brands showcased their creativity, producing many interesting and inventive advertisements. What was quite interesting was that the Super Bowl broadcaster attempted to group all Hollywood movie advertisements together, creating a "movie commercial block."
After a Microsoft advertisement, the movie commercial block quickly began. First to appear was James Cameron's new film, True Lies. The film's scenes were as explosive as ever, with explosions, car chases, and even a Harrier jet. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appeal was also powerful enough, and there were a few seconds of Jamie Lee Curtis stripping, making male viewers eager to learn more. This film was already on Butcher Lutz's summer viewing list; he planned to invite a few friends to watch it in the cinema.
However, Butcher Lutz noticed that this film had a style similar to Speed. For example, the camera angles following tires, and the lead actor's first-person perspective, were very similar to Speed. James Cameron had previously stated in an interview that he greatly admired the action film style in Speed, which had given him much inspiration. Perhaps these shots were the result of that inspiration!
Following that, trailers for films like Clear and Present Danger, The Client, and Forrest Gump were aired. The film trailers were all captivating, but they weren't the one Butcher Lutz wanted to see. The halftime commercial break was almost over, and Butcher Lutz was anxious, thinking he wouldn't get to see Gilbert's new movie trailer.
But just then, a loud bang came from the television speakers. Butcher Lutz blinked and saw a mechanical arm being flung into the audience by a black bull. Butcher Lutz also recognized the little girl in the audience; she had appeared in Speed, though he didn't know her name.
"Wow!" For some reason, Butcher Lutz just had to say "Wow."
Then, the trailer released more footage, showing details of the robots, their gears and parts clearly visible. The scene shifted, and a short robot was knocked out with one punch, making Butcher Lutz involuntarily jump up and exclaim, "Cool!" Then came a montage of scenes: Bruce Willis playing the male lead, Charlie, and Ryan Gosling playing the young male lead, Max. Naomi Watts, who was a supporting actress in the previous film, was now the female lead, Bailey, and the arrogant rich socialite also made an appearance.
But what attracted Butcher Lutz the most wasn't these human actors; it was the robots. The feeling of fist hitting steel in the boxing ring, the intense collisions, made Butcher Lutz think this movie was quite good. Even in the short few dozen seconds of the trailer, Butcher Lutz felt he had completely fallen in love with this film; robot fighting was just too cool. He definitely had to go to the cinema to watch this movie, once... no, twice.
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Butcher Lutz wasn't the only one who thought the trailer was good. Lewis, a fellow film fan, excitedly shook Salati Merton's shoulder: "Salati, did you see that? It's so cool."
"I saw it, I saw it. Stop shaking, I'm dizzy," Salati Merton batted away Lewis's hand.
They were watching the Super Bowl game in a bar and weren't particularly interested in the game itself. However, when Gilbert's new movie trailer appeared, they all raised their glasses. After the trailer finished playing, any new information about the film would likely have to wait for other trailers or the summer release.
When the halftime show began, Lewis wasn't interested in country music and instead chatted with his companions. "Lewis, this academic year is ending, and we're all graduating. What do you plan to do?" someone asked.
Lewis thought for a moment: "I might become a photographer. I've always wanted to go to Africa and photograph lions."
"Haha, well then, I wish you luck with your dreams. Salati, what about you?"
"I might continue my studies," Salati said, "but I'm planning to form a film fan organization. What do you think? Interested in joining?"
Lewis's interest was piqued: "Count me in..." His companions were all very interested and enthusiastically joined Salati Merton's yet-to-be-formed film fan organization. And just like that, Gilbert's fan organization was established in this small bar.
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The Super Bowl's promotional effect was still good, but compared to last year, it was a significant step down. This was mainly because last year featured Michael Jackson, while this year featured country music singers Gilbert didn't even recognize. Moreover, last year only one Hollywood film advertised during the Super Bowl; this year, there were many more. In the terms of last life's "traffic circles," the "traffic" and "buzz" that originally belonged to one film were now divided among other films.
After the Super Bowl, the film entered its normal promotional and distribution rhythm. By early February, Gilbert had basically completed all post-production for Real Steel. Visual effects, score, sound design, and other aspects were all well-developed. Before attending the Academy Awards, Gilbert edited another 1-minute, 30-second trailer, which was placed in major commercial plazas and played repeatedly on large cinema screens. For television platforms, a separately edited 30-second trailer was used. Television advertisements weren't meant to be too long, and two-minute movie commercials were rare in that era. They were mostly 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes, emphasizing brevity and effectiveness. The commonly seen two- or three-minute trailers later only gradually appeared after the development of internet video.
However, in this era, the technical difficulty of playing a high-definition video over the internet was not low. So, currently, the internet primarily contained text and image data, which wasn't as satisfying as watching trailers on TV. Nevertheless, this didn't prevent Real Steel from releasing some stills and introductory materials online. Because the two internet companies Gilbert invested in were still in their nascent stages, Real Steel ultimately put its behind-the-scenes material on IMDb.
Originally, IMDb was where volunteers uploaded various information. After the Real Steel entry was created, it was the first time an official film company proactively updated its film's information, which the IMDb operations team had not anticipated. The surge in traffic caused by Real Steel's action directly overwhelmed the IMDb website. IMDb had to find ways to rent more servers and also planned to begin commercial operations. The internet movie database, originally founded out of passion, inevitably moved towards commercialization. This was actually quite normal, as passion alone couldn't support a website's high operating costs. A few days after its establishment, IMDb secured $500,000 in venture capital. This money was invested in IMDb by Gilbert through his shell investment company. Gilbert believed that investing in IMDb was also investing in the future. In the future, internet promotion would definitely be more effective than television and offline advertising; this had already been proven in his previous life.
While busy with the final touches on the film and promotional work, Gilbert also kept an eye on how his two startup companies were doing. After several months of development, Elihu Lyon and his university classmates had completed the development of the Banana website's portal and search engine.