"The second thing was to make sure people know we think it's fiction," Yu said. "Whenever Mark is asked about it, he makes sure to say that."
Because the movie only now is being seen by the public, any impact of "Social Network" on Zuckerberg or Facebook might not be known for months. But several crisis PR specialists said they thought Zuckerberg has weathered the heavy media storm relatively well.
"In the sphere of influencers and opinion leaders, they've done a terrific job of getting it out there that the Mark Zuckerberg in the movie is not the real Mark Zuckerberg," said Allan Mayer, a publicity strategist at 42 West who has worked on several fact-based films including Oscar winners "A Beautiful Mind" and "Erin Brockovich." (42 West is handling aspects of the "Social Network" awards campaign, but Mayer is not involved.)
"Quite often, people will put together these legal-style briefs saying what's real and what's wrong," he added. "Facebook didn't do that. They were smart enough to know that that didn't matter. They just said the story in the movie isn't the real story. When you're in one of those battles for perception, all that matters is the net positive."
On the other hand, Fincher and especially Sorkin have made the media rounds expressing empathy for Zuckerberg while arguing that the film presents multiple perspectives based on competing depositions.
"I don't want to be unfair to this young man whom I don't know, who's never done anything to me, who doesn't deserve a punch in the face," Sorkin said in one of several interviews. "I honestly believe that I have not done that."
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