Chapter 128: Public Enemy of Film Critics
"Because the audiences for the two shows are completely different," Nancy Josephson answered, before offering Duke a brief explanation.
In short, it boiled down to one thing: the audience for The Oprah Winfrey Show was entirely different from the potential audience for Duke's films. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the talk show knew that seventy percent or more of its viewers were housewives over forty, primarily from small towns. But what about Duke's films?
The core audience for his fast-paced, visually driven films fell between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five, and was overwhelmingly male. Even though there were plenty of female fans, they tended to be young women, not housewives.
Who could expect housewives to pay for a movie like that?
Hearing Nancy's explanation, Duke immediately thought of the kind of movies housewives loved most: melodramatic tearjerkers.
Yes, The Oprah Winfrey Show was incredibly famous, but it wasn't a fit for every actor or director. For someone with Duke's style, aside from the general exposure generated by the show's massive fame, appearing on it wouldn't bring much tangible benefit—at least, not right now.
If Duke ever transitioned to making movies aimed at housewives, he would definitely reach out to Oprah.
Duke didn't follow the main promotional team across the country, but staying in Los Angeles kept him just as busy. The Independence Day holiday slipped by in a blur of running around. On the holiday itself, Independence Day slightly reversed the previous day's downward trend and saw a minor box office rebound, taking in 18.56 million dollars in a single day. Regardless of the surrounding resistance, the film was marching steadily toward the 100 million dollar milestone.
The old day ended and a new one began. The sun rose and set. Inside a studio on the outskirts of Chicago, the bright lights never went out—as if they were the only things that could illuminate the gloom in Roger Ebert's heart.