Chapter 108

Before leaving, Anne Hathaway suddenly asked.

Her bright eyes were like autumn water, looking at Xu Can with a complex gaze.

"I want to go back to Los Santos to rest for a bit, then prepare for the promotional activities for 'Spider-Man 2'."

Xu Can looked at Anne with interest.

"What, can't bear to part with me?"

It was no wonder many screen couples ended up together.

Having gone through so much, Anne Hathaway seemed to have fallen for him.

"La La Land" had been released for a month, and as the media expected, the global box office exceeded $500 million and was heading straight for $600 million.

Hollywood was experiencing a new wave of musicals.

Xu Can's titles of "the most handsome jazz musician in film history" and "the most handsome dancer in film history" were not just empty names.

Movie fans everywhere flocked to theaters to contribute to the box office.

At the same time, famous bloggers and influencers on YouTube and Facebook began to imitate the tap dancing in the film.

Derivative videos poured in like snowflakes.

Among them was even the original male lead, Ryan Gosling!

He also posted his own imitation of Xu Can's tap dance moves on YouTube.

Subsequently, in the description below, Ryan Gosling stated:

"This dance looks very simple, but it's actually not easy to perform in its entirety. It's said that Xu Can had no dance experience before; I really don't know how he did it."

"I really like this movie. Thanks to Xu for bringing us a perfect work. I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with him."

A large number of derivative videos brought significant traffic to "La La Land" again.

The box office actually managed a reverse growth after a month of release; breaking $600 million was a certainty.

Compared to the original's $400 million, it was not surprising that Xu Can's box office was $200 million higher.

However, adding the factor of inflation, the box office Xu Can created could already be called a miracle.

For Sony, it was simply painful yet happy.

On one hand, they could use Xu Can's high popularity and high reputation to stimulate the box office performance of "Spider-Man 2."

On the other hand, they were also heartbroken: why wasn't this movie produced by them?

Xu Can was originally a treasure actor discovered by Sony, but now he had gradually grown into a terrifying force in Hollywood.

Sony even suspected that if Xu Can were given a few more years, he might become another giant.

Now, traditional giants like Disney, Paramount, and Fox were already being suppressed by Xu Can.

Whenever Xu Can's movie was scheduled, they didn't dare to go head-to-head, wishing they could immediately change their release dates.

Originally, there were blockbusters like "Hancock," "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," "Swing Vote," and "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" at the end of July.

As a result, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" announced they were withdrawing and postponing.

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" was pushed to October, and the box office it harvested could still break even.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" simply didn't have a chance to be released and was dragged out until it fizzled out.

The only one that dared to go head-to-head with "Spider-Man 2" was Pixar's animation, "WALL-E," which had been polished for many years.

"WALL-E" director Andrew Stanton said in an interview:

"This animation took a lot of our effort and we invested $180 million. I believe it can still fight 'Spider-Man 2'."

"I can't guarantee the box office, but the quality is definitely much better than superhero movies."

Pixar's backer, Disney CEO Bob Iger, was also strongly supporting "WALL-E."

"Now superhero movies are gradually trending toward saturation. Besides flashy fight scenes, what depth can they have?"

"Our animation contains a lot of thought and is educational. I believe it will definitely not lose to those guys in tights in terms of reputation."

Bob Iger was a relatively traditional "redneck" at heart; both his style of doing things and his words were relatively aggressive.

Xu Can had rubbed Disney's face in the dirt time and time again.

Bob Iger was simply in a state of impotent rage.

"WALL-E" was an excellent work, and he was confident that it could surpass "Spider-Man" in reputation.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have jumped into the fray at this time.

He hoped to use this method to disparage, hoping that society would form a contempt for superhero movies, that public opinion would stand on his side, and that people would boycott Xu Can's movies.

If these words were said 15 years later, they might still have had some effect.

Marvel and DC's overall decline made the market very disgusted with superhero movies.

But now, the parallel world was in the "honeymoon period" of superhero movies!

Before Xu Can even had time to respond, the vast number of movie fans took the lead in opening fire on Bob Iger online.

"Is it possible that we watch movies just to have fun? What kind of thinking?"

"'Spider-Man's' 'with great power comes great responsibility' isn't a brainless movie, right? They also explored some social crime issues."

"I'm just going for Xu Can. Do you think two sentences can make me not watch it?"

"Xu Can's movies are beyond doubt. Where do you get the confidence to compare reputations?"

"A dignified CEO, the perspective is too small."

Faced with such public opinion, Hollywood media was notoriously fond of causing trouble; they were like sharks smelling blood, participating one after another to blow things out of proportion.

Bob Iger was portrayed by the media as "Disney President blasts superhero movies," "Disney declares war on Galaxy Entertainment," "Disney CEO publicly discriminates against characters wearing tights"...

Unsurprisingly, the media found Xu Can again, wanting to see what his reaction was.

Xu Can was really too lazy to deal with these guys; he was already very tired from acting as a time management master in Los Santos recently.

After dealing with Stone, he had to pretend to be energetic to accompany Taylor.

Although he didn't need to drink water with goji berries, Xu Can still had to exercise to maintain his state outside of work.

Media and such—participating in it meant losing, giving traffic to others for no reason.

So Xu Can just replied nonchalantly:

"'WALL-E' is a good animation. I don't think 'Spider-Man' and 'WALL-E' are opponents; both movies can be watched together."

"Hollywood can only develop more prosperously because of the blooming of a hundred flowers of genres."

"I just happened to win the box office championship a few times; it's nothing worth showing off."

"I hope to film works that are more outstanding than before and contribute characters that are more charming than before..."

Once Xu Can's interview was published, the entire Hollywood peer group was moved.

He seemed not to have fought back directly, but in reality, his perspective was far higher than that of some Disney president.

Bob Iger was still haggling over the box office of one or two movies.

Xu Can had already set his sights on the entire Hollywood!

A dignified giant CEO was actually outdone by a Chinese person who had just started out.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see who was higher and who was lower.

What's more, Xu Can had subtly shaded Bob Iger; the several box office championships were almost all won by stepping on Disney.

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" they had high hopes for was never as good as Xu Can's works.

Now, there was no need to compare results; in the eyes of North American netizens, Bob Iger had become a clown in every aspect.

Under such public opinion, "WALL-E" was released first.

As an animation with an investment of $180 million, "WALL-E's" opening weekend box office of $62.5 million was already quite good.

But compared to Xu Can's box office, which was often over $100 million, the faces of Disney executives were a bit ugly.

Fortunately, "WALL-E's" reputation was solid enough, with a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9.1/10 on IMDb!

This reputation belonged to the stable performance of Pixar Studio, which finally made Bob Iger breathe a sigh of relief.

As long as "Spider-Man 2's" reputation was lower than "WALL-E's" later, he would still have something to say.

"I don't believe it. Can a superhero movie's rating exceed 9 points?"

Bob Iger roared angrily.

As a result, his secretary weakly interjected from the side: "Uh, 'The Dark Knight' is currently still 9.4, ranking second on IMDb."

Bob Iger was so angry he almost couldn't catch his breath.

As for Xu Can, he was having a great time.

"WALL-E" was a movie he liked very much in his past life. It was a pity that it wasn't introduced to the mainland market in his past life, so Xu Can had no chance to watch it on the big screen.