Money is always the element that most powerfully jolts ordinary people's senses.
Compared with the highly specialized and personal nature of film reviews, the average person usually judges a movie's quality by its box-office numbers, and is far more easily drawn to those numbers.
The small weekend miracle of 'Run Lola Run. $26,600 per screen from 207 screens, was instantly seized upon by newspapers skilled at reading their readers' minds, pushing the story out of the entertainment pages and into the higher-profile current affairs sections.
Owing to local living and reading habits, evening papers in Los Angeles have always limped along.
Fading fast, Hearst Group's evening title the Los Angeles Herald went for broke that afternoon, splashing the 'Run Lola Run' gross across page one and dragging in a heavyweight for comparison.
"$26,600 Per Theatre: 'Run Lola Run' Crushes Stallone's Latest!"
"Last Friday, first-time director Simon Westeros' 'Run Lola Run' opened small on the West Coast and in New York. Even before release, the 18-year-old wunderkind had already ignited heated press debate".
"'Run Lola Run' did not disappoint: critics raved. When the four-day Presidents' Day numbers landed, the film took $5.51 million, beating Sylvester Stallone's new picture Over the Top and ranking fourth for the seventh weekend of 1987".
"Yet the head-to-head figures are even more startling".
"'Run Lola Run' cost $650,000; while 'Over the Top', a Warner Bros.–Canon release, cost $25 million, thirty-eight times more. Lola played 207 screens; Over the Top opened on 1,758, 8.5 times the screen count."
"Despite that gulf, 'Run Lola Run' handily out-grossed 'Over the Top', its per-screen average an eye-watering $26,600, the highest of any film in release".
"With sterling word-of-mouth and hot-button buzz, Orion Pictures will now push Lola into the Midwest, the South and Canada; the run has only just begun, and this micro-budget indie could well become 1987's first $100 million picture".
"Meanwhile, as 'Over the Top' collapses both critically and commercially, Hollywood may once again have to rethink its ever-soaring production costs".
The Herald piece became the talk of West Coast media that afternoon and for days after.
As the press piled on, Stallone, whose own rise had once been the ultimate underdog tale, was recast as the cautionary embodiment of 'the new wave that slaughters the old'.
It was peak pre-Oscar party season; paparazzi and reporters scented blood. Unable to locate the other protagonist, Simon Westeros, they swarmed Stallone instead.
Stallone's status was hardly toppled by one misfire. He fielded the questions with practiced grace.
But everyone has a temper if pushed far enough. After days of pursuit, outside a Beverly Hills party the following Thursday, a pap's barbed query made Stallone's face darken; he turned away. The photographer blocked him, still spitting questions.
Finally Stallone lifted a hand to push him aside.
And, channelling Rocky, with that gentle shove the pap crashed to the ground, 'unconscious'.
Everyone saw it was an obvious scam, but who cares about facts when sales are at stake?
Next morning headlines screamed: "Stallone in Fury, Floors Paparazzo!" The original spark clear, the Lola fire now roared as if doused with gasoline.
Week two of 'Run Lola Run' began.
Despite accelerated bookings, screen count crept up only to 265, all other extra auditoriums already under contract.
Orion's deal with those circuits gave the studio 43%; Simon took 15%, Orion 28%.
With Lola white-hot, Orion wanted a better split and was renegotiating. Yet the original contract was fixed; any future hike would not reach Simon.
Still, Simon was content, had he gone with The Big Seven he might have seen only less than 10%.
Besides, he still held every North American right outside theatrical. A smash run would make those rights far more lucrative.
Amid the frenzy, week-two numbers arrived: $6.97 million, again topping 'Over the Top' and narrowing the gap with third-place 'Mannequin'.
Pundits now raced to forecast Lola's final gross.
Given its heat and the era's slow-burn, holdover model, analysts expected a six-month theatrical life.
Six months, about twenty-six weeks.
From 207 screens Lola had already taken $6.97 million; extrapolating curves of past breakouts, papers predicted a stunning $150–200 million North American total.