Many turning points in the world often originate from unintentional small matters.
After a week of exhausting efforts, although Simon successfully stirred up public opinion into a unclear mess, he knew that the clarification he was about to make on NBC's 'The Tonight Show' would not completely free him from suspicion. It would still take time to dilute the matter.
However, a video that suddenly appeared on ABC completely reversed the entire situation.
Previously, the doubts basically focused on whether Simon possessed professional skills such as photography, editing, and scoring. But after watching that video, anyone with even a little independent thinking ability no longer doubted Simon's personal musical foundation.
It was obvious, how could a guitarist like Simon, who had almost reached the pinnacle of his craft, not be able to complete the score for a mere movie?
Since Simon could complete the score, he could naturally also complete tasks that seemed easier to ordinary people, such as photography and editing. So, was there anything left to doubt about the final production of 'Run Lola Run'?
Of course, the doubts would not subside so easily.
Soon, the media pointed out that in the video broadcast by ABC, Janette Johnston and Kathryn Bigelow were clearly present, and Simon Westeros was using a collector's edition Gibson acoustic guitar, which should be worth around $1000.
These details were enough to prove that the video was likely just recently staged, and not an image of Simon Westeros busking on Venice Beach before he became famous.
The reasoning was obvious.
Where would a penniless young man get an expensive brand-name guitar to busk with?
Following this line of reasoning, Simon Westeros's performance of 'Flight of the Bumblebee' should also have been hastily learned recently, just to deal with the current situation. Of course, the boy might have some talent on the guitar, but it still couldn't prove anything.
However, these doubts were quickly debunked.
Local Los Angeles media directly conducted an investigation on Venice Beach. While the tourists from back then were naturally nowhere to be found, many surrounding vendors and shop owners still had a vivid impression of the small miracle Simon created last year.
Subsequently, the Spanish old man who ran the hotel even appeared on a local Los Angeles TV interview program with his acoustic guitar, recounting the entire incident in detail and firmly vouching for Simon.
On the new Monday, amidst many people's expectations, Simon officially appeared on 'The Tonight Show'.
As the media's focus had already shifted, and Simon presented a series of evidence on NBC's flagship talk show, including handwritten scripts, storyboards, and his personal work notes from the production of 'Run Lola Run', the week-long uproar largely settled down.
Originally, Simon thought it would be good enough if he could successfully extricate himself from this public opinion storm.
But no one expected that perhaps the ABC videotape reignited a large wave of popularity. In addition to the rumoured significant increase in guitar sales at all music stores across North America during this period, the box office for 'Run Lola Run' in the following week saw an unexpected upturn.
Since 'Run Lola Run'0 had already been widely released the previous week, according to the usual box office curve for most films, the film's fifth-week box office should have seen a certain decline. Affected by the controversy, Orion even predicted that the film's decline this week could exceed 30%.
However, the reality was that from March 13th to March 15th, over the three-day weekend, compared to the same period last week, 'Run Lola Run' not only did not decline but actually saw a rebound of about 6%, taking in another $19.65 million.
That wasn't all.
For the complete week from March 13th to March 19th, the overall box office for 'Run Lola Run' further continued its reversal, reaching about a 10% increase on the previous week, and the single-week box office also set a new high of $28.16 million.
Thus, after five weeks of release, the total box office for 'Run Lola Run' reached $85.87 million.
Immediately after that.
It was beyond everyone's expectations, and yet didn't shock people all that much.
Entering its sixth week, 'Run Lola Run' officially broke the $100 million mark in cumulative box office, reaching $102.22 million, with another $16.35 million in box office revenue over the three-day weekend.
Due to limitations in market size and distribution models, throughout the 1980s, at least before 1987, films that could break $100 million at the box office within six weeks were truly few and far between.
According to Orion's original prediction, even in the best-case scenario, 'Run Lola Run' would need an entire full week of its sixth week to reach $100 million, and it was most likely to enter the $100 million club in its seventh week.
But the fact was, 'Run Lola Run' achieved this goal successfully in just five and a half weeks.
Moreover, 'Run Lola Run' reaching $100 million at the box office earlier wasn't the most important thing. Since its release, everyone had recently accepted that achieving this goal at the box office seemed effortless for this film.
However…
Hollywood's original expectation for the total North American box office of 'Run Lola Run' was only between $150 million and $200 million.
But now, after a public opinion storm, the popularity of 'Run Lola Run', which had originally begun to dissipate, reignited, and the box office decline had also clearly slowed down.
The box office curve, which should have fallen in the fifth week, suddenly changed its trajectory, showing an unusual reverse decline, resulting in an overall upward adjustment of the subsequent box office curve.
As a result, after a new round of estimations, many people were surprised to find that after breaking $100 million in five and a half weeks, the final box office potential of 'Run Lola Run' had clearly surpassed the $200 million mark.
As for how much it would ultimately reach, too many people were no longer willing to predict.
However, while some people wanted to avoid reality, many busybody media outlets directly compared the film to movies with similar box office trends from previous years, specifically the 1985 North American box office champion, 'Back to the Future'.
This hit sci-fi film directed by Robert Zemeckis also broke $100 million at the box office in its sixth week of release. However, 'Back to the Future' only reached $109.2 million after a full sixth week, barely breaking the $100 million threshold.
But even so, the final North American box office for 'Back to the Future' had already reached $210 million.
So..
Looking at 'Run Lola Run' again, how much could it possibly earn?!
Considering the film's subsequent box office potential, in some offices deep within Hollywood, some individuals who had made sneaky moves to suppress the film's box office even felt a strong sense of regret.
They originally intended to suppress the box office of 'Run Lola Run', but unexpectedly, they made the film cross an even more miraculous threshold.