Chapter 104

There is a chance to challenge the top spot of 37 million HKD set by "Night at the Museum".

The annual box office champion is uncertain; after this, there are heavy hitters like Ang Lee's "The Promise", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Transformers", and "Pirates of the Caribbean 3".

Of the 4 million HKD box office on the first day, a large portion was contributed by mainland tourists.

It must be known that around the Spring Festival, "Spider-Man" completely ignited a superhero craze across the Chinese mainland, exploding the film market.

New Year films by directors like Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Yimou were utterly crushed by Xu Can, leaving them speechless.

Before the Lantern Festival even passed after the New Year, Spider-Man masks and pirated Spider-Man figures were already everywhere at school gate kiosks and in national small commodity markets.

After the Spider-Man Tieba was established, it broke through 3 million members in just a short month!

Xu Can's personal Tieba also broke through 1 million!

Unfortunately, he had no way to mix in the mainland entertainment industry; his film works could not be stopped, and news about Xu Can was basically suppressed by the media.

This led to an era before mobile internet where the power of discourse still remained in the hands of media people.

News was filled with celebrity gossip, such as Xia Yu and Quan Yuan breaking up, Fan Bingbing and Wang Xuebing breaking up...

Xu Can lacked exposure and was gradually forgotten by everyone.

Until "John Wick" was released next door, reigniting the passion of Chinese film fans.

Many capable film fans flew directly to Hong Kong Island, traveling for the sake of a single movie.

It was very convenient for Deep Sea City film fans; they could take the subway to Luohu Station and cross the border into Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, most people could only watch helplessly, waiting for pirated resources to appear on the internet.

The major subtitle groups had already made preparations...

Meanwhile, far away in Los Santos, Xu Can was in a secret meeting with Kevin Feige.

"Huh? You really won't act?"

"Kevin, be serious, do I look like Tony Stark to you?"

"But... we really need your box office draw; you are an investor yourself, don't go against money."

Kevin Feige pleaded earnestly.

Since their first meeting, they often talked together about the future planning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Xu Can's few offhand remarks could make Kevin Feige shout "genius"!

So under his introduction, Xu Can became Marvel's new Chief Consultant and COO, responsible for the major direction planning of Marvel films and participating in their production.

Kevin Feige voluntarily helped Xu Can execute his plans and handle specific matters.

This was equivalent to Marvel handing over its steering wheel completely to Xu Can.

This shows the company's trust in him.

This is also understandable; after all, he is Spider-Man, the third highest-grossing in film history, having won 1.1 billion USD is no bluff.

The two held multiple meetings with the company and finally determined that the next film to be produced would be "Iron Man".

This was one of the few characters in Marvel's existing roster that could be brought to the screen; Xu Can's proposal received unanimous board approval.

What followed surprised Kevin Feige; on one hand, Xu Can intended to invest in "Iron Man" and demanded a significant investment ratio!

Marvel would provide the initial funding, and subsequently Xu Can would add investment, up to a maximum of 70 million USD!

He actually intended to take out most of the box office revenue from "John Wick"?

Bet again?

He is truly an unadulterated madman!

That aside, Kevin Feige originally planned for Xu Can to play Tony Stark.

With his draw, the box office could increase by at least 20%, but Xu Can refused without a second thought.

"Think about it, look further ahead."

Xu Can explained patiently:

"According to my previous planning, won't the Avengers Alliance be formed in the future? Spider-Man is me, so Iron Man has to be someone else... otherwise do you want to replace Spider-Man?"

Peter Parker was already deeply bound to Xu Can; film fans now could not possibly accept anyone else playing Spider-Man.

At that time, they would indeed face an awkward situation.

"Remember, our future is a whole that is independent yet interconnected; we must have long-term planning."

Kevin Feige was indeed a great contributor to building the MCU, but in '07 he could not see the future clearly and could only plot for immediate gains.

Xu Can did not want Marvel to become like it was after 2018.

Look at "Eternals", "Secret Invasion", "Captain Marvel 2", "Black Panther 2"; what kind of junk are they?

After Avengers 4, only "WandaVision", "Guardians of the Galaxy 3", and "Loki" were barely passable.

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is Sony; what does that have to do with your Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Not considering the overall decline of Hollywood films, Marvel's decisions after the fourth phase indeed declined severely and were chaotic.

Since Xu Can was given a second chance, he wanted to attempt greater ambitions.

There are still many major events and many stories in the comics worth bringing to the big screen!

Such as the fusion of X-Men and the Avengers, such as Sentry, Galactus, the Beyonder, the Living Tribunal...

With careful planning, the MCU could still extend its life, harvesting world film fans for decades.

And after taking control of the discourse himself, he could also reverse the stereotype of Chinese people, reject Woke, and reject all kinds of disgusting operations.

Since North America likes to engage in cultural invasion, he is equivalent to infiltrating the enemy's interior, attempting to reverse ideology from the source.

The current journey of ten thousand li has only taken a small step; Xu Can still needs to take one step at a time.

First start by filming "Iron Man" well, then slowly take power, even acquiring the entire Marvel.

"I'll name an actor; you can't go wrong finding him."

Since Xu Can playing Iron Man is out of the question, finding a suitable actor is imperative.

"Iron Man" must succeed; failure is not an option.

Marvel has even given up on their $500 million loan. The company's working capital is on the brink of collapse — its fate is staked entirely on "Iron Man"!

"Who is it?" Kevin Feige asked, his voice trembling.

"Tang Ni. Robert Tang Ni."

"Huh?"

Kevin Feige's brain crashed again.

That disgraced drug-addled dog? Is Xu Can serious?

……

At Beverly Shanzhuang, 37-year-old Robert Tang Ni was lounging leisurely by the pool in his backyard, sunbathing.

His phone hadn't rung in a week; his agent didn't seem to have any intention of looking him up.

The last time he filmed anything was last year's movie "Zodiac," where he could only be considered the second male lead, slightly overshadowed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

This kind of situation, he'd grown accustomed to in recent years.

Ever since he was arrested for drugs and imprisoned, after serving his sentence his future seemed cloaked in shadow.

Tang Ni used to be a handsome young actor, with hopes of becoming a pillar of Hollywood in his thirties.

Now he seemed abandoned by great directors and big productions — only bit parts came his way, or some new director who couldn't afford a big star would think of him.

Looking around, his star path in Hollywood seemed to grow narrower and narrower.

So much so that he kept falling under the lure of drugs, trapped in a vicious cycle, released from prison for the third time.

The phone rang, waking the half-asleep Tang Ni.

He picked up — it was his agent's voice.

"Luo Bote, someone wants you for the male lead."

"Turn it down. You're already a qualified agent — you need to learn to reject these trash opportunities yourself."

"Aren't you going to look at the script?"

"The result will be the same anyway. I'm too lazy to go through the motions."

Tang Ni lay back down and lazily turned on speakerphone.

In his view, any movie that could come to him for the male lead was basically shoddy and thrown together.

What truly excellent director would cast a drug bug arrested three times?

"It's Marvel. They want you to play Tony Stark. Apparently Xu Can personally requested you."

"Wait, What?"

Tang Ni grabbed the phone and sat bolt upright.