Chapter 304

After "Inception" and "Captain America," "Iron Man 2" will also hit theaters at the end of June.

When the time comes, "Interstellar" can perfectly take over the baton, forming Xu Can's monopoly over Hollywood!

Paramount, Fox, Disney and other companies would like to compete with Xu Can, but they don't have that many films prepared for this summer window.

The only one that can actually lock horns with Xu Can is an S-tier IP, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

The previous installment, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," raked in $896 million worldwide at the box office,

and this time Warner is pinning great hopes on Harry Potter, hoping to break the $1 billion mark and lock horns with Xu Can's Marvel films.

Recently, thanks to the flop of "Batman v Superman," Warner has suffered heavy losses!

Nearly $300 million in production costs, and all they got back was $290 million at the box office!

Bleeding dry!

This caused Warner stock to drop 10% for several days in a row, evaporating $4 billion in market value!

The word-of-mouth for "Batman v Superman" also took a serious nosedive—IMDb plunged from 5.8 all the way down to 4.5, and the Rotten Tomatoes score dropped to 28%!

This led the Warner executives to directly move to scrap the "Justice League" plan,

and director Joss Whedon, who had even already assembled his crew, immediately disbanded the entire team on the spot.

The DC Universe plan, originally meant to rival Marvel for a slice of the sky, ended before it even began.

Facing this predicament, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons called a press conference to specifically answer questions about the DC film universe plan.

"DC comics are too profound and dark, running counter to the kind of films the masses enjoy, making it very hard to achieve the desired effect."

"Unlike Marvel, DC characters aren't suited to be brought to the big screen."

"It's not that our team isn't good enough—we've already found excellent screenwriters and directors, and top Hollywood actors."

"Unfortunately, due to the special nature of DC comics, the film effect is heavily discounted."

"Therefore, we are suspending the DC film universe plan and focusing on developing more worthwhile IPs, such as Harry Potter."

The media below burst out laughing right away.

"Mr. Parsons, why were Xu Can and Nolan able to create 'The Dark Knight' trilogy?"

"Mr. Parsons, 'Harry Potter' has already been filmed up to the sixth installment, with only the last book left in the original series—how much longer can you keep developing it?"

"Mr. Parsons, do you think Xu Can is better suited to creating live-action comic book films? Have you considered inviting him to co-create?"

Parsons was thoroughly annoyed, and flew into a rage facing the many reporters present.

"Even if Xu Can came, it wouldn't help! He couldn't make a good DC movie either!"

"'The Dark Knight' is just a standalone chapter, not the Justice League!"

"Don't deify that Oriental!"

After venting his anger, Dick Parsons flew into a towering rage and stormed out, leaving a crowd of Warner PR executives red-faced with embarrassment.

Hold on—boss, of all people to question, you dare question that one?

In Hollywood, who doesn't know that Xu Can is a professional face-slapper.

From his Spider-Man audition onward, he has been doubted every step of the way until now.

Those who once doubted him either got their faces slapped so badly they jumped into a river for a skinny-dip,

or turned around and became die-hard fans of Xu Can.

So now that no one doubts Xu Can anymore, isn't this just asking for trouble?

Better to cheer from the sidelines—after all, none of his films have ever lost money.

Sure enough, on the very next day after Dick Parsons's press conference, Hollywood dropped another earth-shattering bombshell!

Xu Can's Xinghe Entertainment has officially launched an acquisition bid against Time Warner!

They plan to acquire DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner!

All characters packaged and taken along in one go!

Not just Hollywood—the entire world was shocked!

Wait, this guy Xu Can, when he says he'll do something, he really does it?

One moment he's being doubted about not being able to make a good DC movie, and the next he's acquiring DC?

…(afdc)…

"Xu, are you really planning to acquire DC?"

"That's right. How about I give you a promotion and a raise then—not just Marvel, but CEO of Xinghe Comics. What do you say?"

"Wait, I-need-a-break, let me take that in for a second."

Kevin Feige was dumbfounded—what kind of situation is this? 【】

He was properly running Marvel, rubbing his fists and gearing up to throw down with DC's film universe,

and the result was that the competitor came straight to the door and got acquired, becoming one of their own.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to be happy or to be happy.

From now on, Marvel and DC are one big happy family—comic-book movies can be played with however they want.

Even making a film of Iron Man vs. Batman isn't out of the question.

Since the birth of the two companies, fans have endlessly debated which side's heroes are stronger.

Now they can finally watch Lei Shen fight Superman directly—how thrilling…

No, no, no—Kevin Feige quickly shook off the stray thoughts and got back to business.

He had almost been led astray by his unserious boss, Xu Can.

"Then what about the funding? Acquiring DC won't be cheap."

"You don't need to worry about that. I just want to know—when the two comic companies merge, can you handle it?"

"No problem. If it really comes to that, I've had enough."

"Fine, that's all I need to hear from you."

After hanging up, Xu Can was indeed seriously calculating the plan to acquire DC.

This wasn't Warner executives' CEO going against him — it was pure counterattack.

This was only a trigger; the real acquisition idea had existed since the last filming of *The Dark Knight*.

If acquiring Marvel was for the tens of billions in box office behind it,

acquiring DC was purely for Xu Can to make up for his regrets.

No matter how much money he earned, to him now it was just a number.

The investment and financial management income he put out, his family couldn't spend it all in several lifetimes — what use was having more?

His parents used to drive a Mercedes; now it had become a Cullinan.

Butler, servants, and caregivers on call 24 hours, the walk-in closet at home was stuffed full of luxury goods — a bag worth hundreds of thousands, his mom carried it to the market to buy vegetables like a one-cent plastic bag.

Even his cousin Xu Yuling's birthday party could invite singers she liked — Da Tong, Xu Song, Sodagreen, Mayday, Qi Zhen, Tian Fuzhen, and others — to perform a private concert just for her,

over thirty classmates stared dumbfounded, enjoying this luxury lineup VIP performance along with Xu Yuling.

So Xu Can's current pursuits, besides filming original movies he didn't have in his previous life, were to make up for the regrets of that life.

DC's *Justice League* universe could actually have been done better,

but unfortunately, in the struggle between Warner executives and Director Zack, everything turned to foam.

The most helpless was Superman Henry Cavill — he became a sacrificial lamb in Warner's infighting,

originally hoping to spread his wings and become DC universe's Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans,

but ended up being screwed to the bottom, years of his youth wasted.

In Xu Can's view, the DC universe could be deeply mined to build something no worse than the MCU film universe.

Besides the Justice League, Darkseid, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, the Anti-Monitor — these villains were all worth digging into.

Not to mention a super-popular villain like the Joker, who could return to the stage at any time.

The Joker Xu Can played only appeared in *The Dark Knight*,

and over a year later, countless fans still sincerely hoped Xu Can would once again appear in a film as the Joker.

There were even crazy fans who created a website specifically to count how long it had been since the Joker appeared.

From this one could see how much the whole world loved the character Xu Can had shaped.

Therefore, Xu Can's acquisition of DC wasn't a whim, but a thoroughly considered plan.

Rather than letting Warner waste such a huge IP, better to hand it to himself.

As for acquisition funds, the box office shares from *Source Code* and *Dying to Survive* had already entered the company's cash flow.

Added together roughly 500 million US dollars, plus remaining box office from previous films, Xu Can could roughly scrape together 700 million US dollars.

He wasn't worried about the company's cash flow breaking,