Chapter-8 : Box Office

The Movie was well revived by everyone, not only the book fans but also the media. Most of the media praised the movie, not only that they also praised Steven for directing. But most praise received was Richard for not only writing the script but also acting very well in the film.

Among this Parsing and hyping through out the media the first day box office was out. On the first day of box office is 5 million. the result stunned not only the media but also Richard himself.

Actually in his time, E.T. in its original theatrical run made $619 million worldwide and after two re-releases made worldwide total of $792 million with North America accounting for $435 million. So, the result Actually made Richard excited as he wanted to surpass the previous box office number.

The Box office gave UNIVERSAL necessary boost not only they spend 5 million in publicity increasing the budget to 13 million from its original 10 million but also the very next day increased the theater from 1000 from 1500 theater.

Richard was in deep sleep when Ari woke him up "Ric! Ric! Wake up.

"Oh... let me sleep some more mom." Ric said yawning.

"Its me Ari. Now wake up!!." with excitement in his voice.

"What Ari what are you doing in my room and How did you get the key this room.?" alex asked with confusion.

"Oh! I got a spare key from the hotel with your mother's permission... But forget about it the weekly box office result came." said Ari excitedly.

"How much?" asked Richard eagerly.

"25 million." he said smiling crazy

"How much?" Richard couldn't believe his ears.

"$25 million, Richard 25 million... ha ha ha... it broke the weekly box office record... ha haha..." Ari laughed crazy.

Richard was actually surprised , he expected to get more in first box office but not this much because he knew in previous life the film's first weekend gross is around $11 million. And that morning several people made phone calls to congratulate like Steven Spielberg, Katherine Kennedy and Thomas Crane.

But the film didn't finished giving surprise to everyone. On the next week it rebounded to 30 million. it didn't finish there, by next two weeks it rebounded one times to 31 million then fell by 29 million.

In just one month it grossed $115million making everybody shocked and at the same time surprised. It also became one of the highest grossing films in North America in just a month.

Seeing such a gratifying result the Universal pictures held a party in success of E.T. Ric participated with Hanna. A lot of celebrates were invited along many Hollywood big wigs. he couldn't imagine seeing so many big shots in one place.

"Hello Mr. Lucas . I really loved your Star wars series." greeted Richard seeing George Lucas infront of him.

"Well hello their young Ric. Congratulation for your success, but please call me gorge." Lucas replied.

"Well Thank you George. IF you don't mind me asking "

"No no not at all, go on."

"Do you have any plan recently."

"Why already looking for your future job it seems."

"Are you kidding me George, its hard to be a child actor, specially for us males. Getting a role in a movie is lot harder than getting a home run in a good pitch." complained Ric

"ha ha ha... good one kid, but yes I will start filming next star wars movie."

"Really awesome, invite me on the premiere." said while going infront where Hanna is talking with someone.

"Sure thing kid." replied George.

The party went smoothly. Richard and Hanna moved all round the party meet with various people, some congratulated, some talked about future cooperation but most important think is that he got a promise from Spielberg that he will read his next script and if it is good hen he will be the co-producer.

E.T. was still going at the box office. By the end of October it grossed $105 million only dropping 10% earning $220 million in North America and $185.5 million overseas which was relased by the end of 3rd week for a grand total of $405.5 million making it the second highest grossing film just below the $550.9 million gross of STAR WARS(1980).

By the fourteenth week E.T. grossed $325.4 million in North America and $214.6 million from overseas to the world wide total of $540 million making it the highest grossing film in 80s since StarWars(1977).

But it was finally put down from screen after nineteenth week grossing about 354 million in North America and about 246 million overseas with grand total of 600 million becoming the second film in history to enter 600 million mark with being the first longest running film in history.

Such a stunning answer sheet shocked the world but also brought it to media attention once again, the name Steven Spielberg, R.R Jackson once again came in headlines or news channel. But it also surprised Richard a lot because he didn't expected such a high result from it and he couldn't find out the reasonable explanation for it, so he can only call it luck.

Sometimes luck plays a important factor.