….
The theater had emptied out.
The final screenings of the private premium viewings had wrapped.
The last murmurs of laughter and disbelief still echoed faintly.
In the parking lot outside, groups of studio reps, industry insiders, and invited influencers huddled under the amber glow of overhead lights, all doing variations of the same thing - pulling out their phones.
Some were already texting reactions.
Some filming their thoughts.
Others simply nodded with a kind of quiet surprise.
The general vibe? Curious optimism.
The kind that brews when a film hits better than expected - not necessarily because expectations were low, but because it was just that good.
Something people didn't see coming.
Online, early word-of-mouth was quick and unfiltered.
Memes cropped up.
Screenshots from the post-credit photo montage - Keanu with the fire extinguisher, Zach and the boa constrictor - started floating across various social media platforms.
===
'Wait, did they ACTUALLY shoot this?'
'One of the funniest movies I have ever seen. PERIOD.'
'So… uh… Regal actually made a comedy?'
'Not sure if I just watched a movie or survived one.'
'Keanu is unhinged in comedy too. In a good way?'
===
The tone was light, confused, and somewhere between admiration and disbelief.
A few well-known critics gave their initial blurbs.
IndieWire called it: 'Entertaining as much for its puzzle-piece story as for its raunch.'
Variety hedged their bets, saying: 'An offbeat, reckless night-out comedy that succeeds more on nerve than polish. Keanu is magnetic, and the cast somehow makes the mess work.'
There were skeptics, of course. Some questioned the ethics of pushing boundary-humor in the current climate. Others wondered if it had enough story to hold beyond the spectacle.
But few could deny it had... teeth.
The official launch hit theaters nationwide.
The first weekend numbers were strong.
Not PRCU-level(:Power Rangers Cinematic Universe), but for a raunchy, mid-budget comedy with no guaranteed franchise?
It surprised even the executives. Walk-in audiences laughed hard, stumbled out talking about 'the tiger scene', 'the wedding montage', or 'that damn banana moment'.
What was key, though, was how well it held.
Six days in, the film had reported numbers bigger than the other when it actually was the highest opening of Regal's movie.
One clip of Zach Galifianakis doing the fountain belly rub had racked up three million views in two days.
Reactions were a mix of 'comedy is back' and 'who directed this??' - the latter slowly leading curious minds toward Regal.
….
Meanwhile another interesting article was circulating online.
With the title - [The Hangover Sets New Comedy Record With 92.4% RIP Score]
Published by: CineTrack Analytics
Date: March 17, 2011
In just six days since its theatrical release, The Hangover, directed by rising filmmaker Regal and distributed by Red Studios, has not only dominated the box office but now it's - officially the funniest movie ever recorded, according to SyncPulse analytics.
In a massive data sweep across 117 packed theatres and nearly 8,000 audience members, the film scored a record-breaking 92.4% Rolling Impact Percentile (RIP) - the highest laughter engagement score ever logged.
What's RIP?
It's not a gimmick. RIP measures actual audience laughter using directional mics, seat vibration sensors, and timestamped reaction syncing.
This isn't a test screening. It's real-world, real-crowd data - live, emotional, physical reactions captured in real-time.
….
So the current list is as presented - Top 5 RIP Scores of All-Time (Comedies).
The Hangover (2012) – 92.4%
Monkey Suit (1999) – 89.1%
Death Sandwich (2008) – 85.7%
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) – 85.5%
Beta Boys (2002) – 79.2%
….
Monkey Suit held the crown for Twelve years.
…and according to SyncPulse's real-time heatmap breakdown, the most reactive scene occurred at the 27-minute mark - during Alan's awkward line.
"I watched you sleep, you were like an angel."
This specific moment triggered a peak laugh duration of 7.4 seconds, a rare result indicating multiple consecutive audience waves.
Another standout was Stu's tiger scream scene, performed by Paul Rudd, which generated high-volume laughter in 94% of the analyzed rooms.
The film also averaged 4.91 laughs per minute, significantly higher than the average comedy benchmark of 3.6 LPM.
….
In just six days of the opening [The Hangover] had grossed $132.9 million worldwide, officially surpassing [Beta Boys] to become the most commercially successful R-rated comedy in history.
Whether it will hold the top spot through the decade remains to be seen, but for now, the wolfpack reigns supreme.
….
While the internet still argued over whether this [The Hangover] was genius or just madness well-shot, Regal had stepped into a completely different world.
Not just him either even - Simon and Darren - who had been with Regal since the beginning aren't focusing on the numbers it's making as they usually did for the previous films.
Currently, they are occupied with something else - their movements were focused as they finalized logistics with the San Diego Comic-Con organizers.
Everything had to be flawless - the duo had been working toward this moment for months - even going as far as to not involve themselves with [The Hangover] production at all.
Right, they weren't included in the film - of course it was not because of any falling out with Regal.
Far from it. It was a conscious mutual agreement to balance out the workload, and to avoid burning out or overexposing key players.
Simon and Darren took on the early pre-production of [Harry Potter], while Regal handled the [The Hangover] film.
This had been something under wraps for past months, as Regal had deliberately kept that info out of the spotlight not wishing to overrun [The Hangover]'s buzz.
However, since the film was released they have decided to go all out - according to their initial planning they should have more than a couple of weeks to prepare but due to the delay of [The Hangover] - they had only got one week to prepare for the Comic Con event.
And prepare they did -
Simon and Darran were completely focused on it for the past five months - from the filming of [The Hangover].
Competing for and securing a Hall H slot against heavyweight studios, to coordinate with EverLeaf Press, the publishers of the original books - they did all the heavy lifting that can be done without Regal.
Though Regal held the full adaptation rights clearly written in contract, there is no way he is going to sideline EverLeaf for obvious reasons.
Fortunately, Gwendolyn had kept things smooth on that front.
So they had been very strategic whenever it was about to public something about the [Harry Potter] movie.
Now, with just one day left before the reveal, Darren had completed the final confirmation for their presentation time in Hall H - following payment of the required $4,500 submission fee.
The event was officially locked in.
And today's job? Budget reconciliation.
They sat together, poring over invoices and receipts - adding up every dollar invested in what would be the public's first taste of Regal's [Harry Potter] vision.
Unsurprisingly, the lion's share had gone into the teaser.
$85,000 had been spent on a one-minute VFX-only teaser, developed in partnership with Company Unique VFX.
Obviously despite their medium scale Regal though now they are growing into something huge he decided to go with them for the teaser.
But even their established relationship didn't guarantee comfort.
Regal had made it clear: the stakes here were different.
"If this doesn't meet the standard." He told them. "I will find someone else. And also forget about getting to work on the films too."
So to say, Unique FX studio was packed would be undermining - they have gone all out.
At the moment, he was at their office, personally checking the final cut before submission to SDCC management.
Since they haven't begun casting, no practical footage could have been shot, which was something they never planned to begin with.
In fact they haven't even finalised the production company.
Regal hadn't signed any big partners yet. He was still watching, waiting. Let the world speak first - then he would decide who to bring in. Until then, it was all coming out of his own pocket.
The Comic-Con booth? He went big.
Booth #1423 was hard to miss - a towering structure with gothic stone arches, floating house crests rotating overhead, and floor panels made to look like worn castle tiles. It looked more like a movie set than a promo stand. A Hogwarts gateway dropped right into San Diego.
In another corner, fans could grab limited edition teaser posters - stark black with just a faint lightning scar in the center.
…and no title.
Just one haunting line:
"Before the boy, there was the world."
They printed ten thousand of them.
The team had about fifteen people flown in and housed - producers, VFX heads, marketing leads, and Regal himself.
Hotel rooms weren't cheap, especially with Comic-Con swelling the city. They needed shuttles, freight trucks for props, event handlers for a full-scale Hogwarts diorama and the old stone arch from the teaser.
There were also costs behind the curtain - press management, access controls, interview windows all tightly coordinated so no leaks hit the floor before the panel. Regal wanted control which came with a price.
When they added it all up, the number landed just under $150,000.
Simon and Derren didn't flinch.
After what Regal had hinted for the film's full production, somewhere in the range of 180 to 210 million, this was nothing more than the spark to light the fuse.
A whisper, compared to what was coming.
And tomorrow… the doors would open, lighting up the booth.
And the world would get its first real taste.
….
The moment the news broke, that [Harry Potter] was finally being adapted for the screen, and the one doing it wasn't just some studio name or a hired gun, but the author himself, Regal Serephsail, the internet practically tore itself in half.
Forums lit up. Social feeds became rivers of speculation.
At first, it was disbelief.
Was it real? A hoax? Fan-made hype?
But then photos from Comic-Con started surfacing - grainy snapshots of the towering booth with house crests glowing like stained glass, the lightning-bolt posters tucked into fan bags, and the name Regal Serephsail printed clean under the words -
'Created, Written, and Directed by'.
That confirmed it.
…but to many it was also kind of unprecedented.
Never before had an author stepped behind the camera to direct the cinematic birth of their own words.
But strangely, not a single voice of serious doubt followed - even the fans who go after every adaptation director didn't.
Sure, a few skeptics surfaced - industry veterans muttering about inexperience of handling such a huge scaled project, purists wringing hands over adaptation liberties - but their voices were quickly drowned out.
All it took was one number.
[The Hangover].
Regal's third film. A monstrous success, and undoubtedly racing towards becoming his highest grosser yet after [Death Note].
It had decimated expectations and left audiences howling. A wild, chaotic, perfectly controlled explosion of comedy and emotion that proved one thing:
That film became the go-to rebuttal, the ultimate mic drop.
Any concern about Regal handling a franchise as sacred as [Harry Potter] evaporated the moment box office receipts were cited.
….
Then came Day One of Comic-Con.
Crowds packed in early, forming lines hours before the hall even opened. Kids with lightning bolt stickers under their eyes. Adults dragging roller bags full of merch. Some were casual fans. Some had tattoos quoting entire chapters.
And then came the reveal.
….and soon the screen lit up.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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