Hollywood Director 1992

After its release, "Final Destination" received increasingly positive reviews, with both media and audiences praising the film.

Some praised the film's high quality, calling it the best thriller of the year, even better than the previous "Paranormal Activity." Other media outlets commended Link's improved directing skills compared to his previous two works, noting his directorial technique had matured in this film and that his future in film was limitless.

There were so many positive reviews in the media, more than for his previous films.

Link was quite surprised. He thought the movie was fun, but not particularly outstanding—decent, but not exceptionally so.

Where did all these compliments come from?

He called Jon Gordon, suggesting that the company focus on the movie and the actors when promoting the film, without excessively praising him as the director.

Jon Gordon told him that the complimentary reviews weren't company releases but objective evaluations from film critics who had seen the movie. They were praising him so lavishly because the film was genuinely good.

Link remained skeptical, so he took time to see a showing of "Final Destination" at a movie theater, wondering if the viewing experience was better with a larger crowd.

During the screening, the audience's reactions exceeded his expectations.

Many people screamed at the frightening scenes and praised the male and female leads for being handsome and beautiful, complimenting the cool plot design and calling the movie fantastic.

Sitting in his seat, Link heard people around him constantly praising the film, as if they were hired shills from Guessing Game Films, specifically there to speak favorably about the movie.

"Link, this movie is amazing! You're incredible," Jennifer Connelly exclaimed excitedly.

"Is it really that good? It seemed average to me."

"It's really good, very exciting. You probably just watch too many to feel that way," Jennifer Connelly laughed.

Watching the images on the big screen and listening to the surrounding chatter, Link gradually understood why people liked the movie.

It was the early nineties, and there weren't many classic horror films in the industry yet. People's tastes weren't as refined, and their thresholds for stimulation hadn't been raised too high by movies like "Saw," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "The Walking Dead," "The Conjuring," and "The Ring."

At this time, even slightly innovative horror films were well-received by audiences. A creative and somewhat terrifying movie like "Final Destination" would naturally be very popular.

Moreover, after a 15% quality boost, the film's quality reached over 98%, significantly enhancing the viewing experience. It was perfectly reasonable for audiences to enthusiastically praise the movie after watching it, as the stimulation they received was more intense.

After understanding this, Link confidently entrusted the publicity work to Jon Gordon and others, continuing to film on set.

In its third week of release, "Final Destination" grossed $29.35 million in North America. While this was a significant drop from the previous week, it still firmly held the top spot in the weekly box office charts.

In second place was the fantasy horror-comedy "Addams Family Values," released during Halloween, with a weekly gross of $16.12 million and a cumulative gross of $30.23 million, a clear difference compared to the first film.

In third place was the action blockbuster "Demolition Man," with a weekly gross of $6.04 million, a 52% drop. Its fourth-week cumulative gross was $45.58 million, far below expectations, with an estimated North American gross of around $60 million.

This led the film's star, Sylvester Stallone, to publicly criticize the film's distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, accusing them of recklessly adjusting the film's release schedule, resulting in poor box office performance. He insisted that Warner Bros. was entirely responsible for this.

In fourth place was the romantic suspense film "Flesh and Bone," starring 'America's Sweetheart' Meg Ryan, with a mediocre opening week gross of $4.51 million.

This meant that CAA's plan to use a blockbuster to狙击(snipe/attack) the box office of "Final Destination" had almost completely failed.

However, during the third week of "Final Destination's" release, many negative news stories about Link surfaced in the media, negatively impacting the film's box office to some extent.

Many newspapers published articles claiming that his private life was extremely chaotic, with暧昧(ambiguous/dubious) relationships with dozens of female celebrities.

Besides Monica and others, there were also some new faces, including Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Mädchen Amick, Courteney Cox, etc.—any female celebrity he had met.

The tabloids were all over him.

Some media outlets even reported that Link engaged in '潜规则(couch casting)' when selecting actors, requiring them to sleep with him to participate in his films, with Renée Zellweger, Liv Tyler, and Angelina Jolie among the alleged victims.

Other media outlets used Liv Tyler and Angelina Jolie's ages to create a story, claiming his behavior was criminal and should be investigated by the police.

Initially, Link's side ignored these news reports.

Once many major newspapers began to reprint them, Guessing Game Films and WMA immediately refuted these false reports.

They explained that the casting work for "Final Destination" was entirely handled by the casting director, and Link didn't have time to handle these specific tasks, making it impossible for him to engage in any '潜规则(couch casting)'.

Furthermore, during filming, Link was a colleague with Liv Tyler and Angelina Jolie and had no plans to date them. The false reports in the media were all fabricated.

WMA's legal department stated that they would sue the media outlets spreading the rumors.

Liv Tyler was asked about the rumors in the media during an interview.

Liv Tyler said that besides chatting with Link during filming, she had almost no contact with him at other times.

Because Link was very serious and often criticized people, she felt nervous when she saw him, making it even more impossible for her to date him.

The host then discussed Link's strict behavior on set, asking several of the lead actors if Link was a difficult director to work with.

Except for Angelina Jolie, everyone else said no.

Ryan Phillippe and others said that Link was a very skilled director, and they could learn a lot about acting from him on set, saying that his guidance of actors was even better than that of acting teachers. They had little acting experience before joining the cast, but their performances in "Final Destination" were good, and they received recognition from professionals, all thanks to Link's guidance.

The host then asked Angelina Jolie why she said Link was difficult to work with, and if she wasn't worried about offending him.

Jolie said that Link was difficult to work with because she had asked Link out on several dates during filming, but he rejected her. Link himself was very different from the playboy described in the rumors, which disappointed her greatly. She was good at dealing with men, but not with a man as cold and hard as a stone, so she said Link was a difficult director to work with.

Jolie's words made everyone laugh.

Despite Link's side refuting the negative news, there were still many negative stories about him in the media.

Some of the negative stories came from nowhere. For example, he was accused of discriminating against black people because the evil neighbor in "Paranormal Activity" was a black shadow, and the Grim Reaper in "Final Destination" appeared as a black mist, which was clearly a reference to black people.

Also, in the several films he directed, except for a few black actors in supporting roles in "Final Destination," all the other films used white actors.

This was also evidence of his discrimination against black actors.

And so on.

These negative stories were very脑残(brain-dead/idiotic).

After seeing them, Link didn't explain, focusing on filming and letting the company's publicity department focus on promoting the movie, without paying too much attention to those negative stories.

For someone of his wealth and status, a little negative news was insignificant.