Chapter 48

The two looked at each other and smiled, walked out of the lounge arm-in-arm, and prepared to board the luxury car to the premiere.

Happy at the door kept wiping his sweat, having eaten his fill of dog food.

……

At the Galaxy Theater, media reporters had already taken their places in advance, setting up their cameras.

Fans were even more densely packed around, tightly surrounded by fences.

LAPD officers were scattered everywhere, their nerves tense as they guarded the scene.

"No, this Xu Can only has one movie, why are there so many people today?"

An older officer couldn't understand and complained through the walkie-talkie.

"Old Mike, you don't know how influential Spider-Man is. Especially among the younger generation, Xu Can is simply their god!"

"Yeah, I'm a Spider-Man comic fan, I've watched the live-action movie 7 times!"

"Josh, who told you to take different women to watch the same movie..."

"Alright, focus on guarding, the celebrity motorcade is here."

Accompanied by the fans' crazy shouting, several luxury cars drove over from not far away. The officers had no time to chat and focused on maintaining order.

In fact, there were no big stars in this movie.

The people who got off the luxury cars were Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, and other actors who had been playing supporting roles for years.

So, it was obvious who the excited crowd was here for.

When the last luxury car stopped in front of the red carpet, people began to stir.

When Xu Can, in a silver suit, walked off the luxury car with Emma Stone, the surrounding cheers and screams were instantly deafening.

"Xu! Can we take a photo?"

"Xu Can! I love you!"

"Spider-Man! Gwen! Spider-Man!"

"Look this way! Look at the lens!"

The scene was suddenly chaotic; many young fans rushed toward Xu Can like crazy. Fortunately, there were guardrails in front, and under the desperate efforts of the officers to stop them, the scene didn't get out of control.

After Xu Can stepped forward to high-five the fans, he pulled Stone to the advertising wall to take photos.

"Xu, congratulations on your new film's upcoming release. What are your expectations for this film?"

"The bottom line is 100 million USD. The film is relatively niche, so I estimate the box office won't be too high."

Xu Can was very humble.

According to previous media predictions, *John Wick*, with an investment of only 16 million, would probably have a global box office of at most 80 million USD.

North America would be at most 60 million.

A young actor writing, directing, and starring, in a subject he hadn't touched before, and it was a crime-action film that had been filmed to death in the 90s.

Audiences had long suffered from aesthetic fatigue and couldn't possibly get more box office.

*The New York Times* once commented: "It's good for an actor to have ambition, but Xu Can's decision might be too aggressive."

"*John Wick* is a bold gambler's act."

If he had filmed *Spider-Man 2*, it would definitely have been one-sided, mindless praise. But this was a brand-new attempt, and Hollywood had countless failed precedents.

The 100 million USD that Xu Can thought was conservative was blind optimism in the eyes of the media.

Emma Stone next to him then leaned toward the microphone:

"Believe me, once you've seen it, you'll know that Xu Can's estimate is definitely conservative."

The scene was in an uproar.

"Emma, do you think *Twilight*, which you star in, will defeat Xu Can's *John Wick*?"

Soon a reporter jumped out to stir up trouble.

Stone smiled faintly:

"It will, but it won't."

Huh? What does that mean?

The Riddler?

The media still wanted to continue asking questions, but the two had already walked into the theater arm-in-arm.

Due to Xu Can's influence, the tickets for today's premiere were sold out a week in advance.

Countless fans lined up at the ticket window overnight, and it was hard to grab tickets.

The Leonard squad that watched *Spider-Man* before appeared at the premiere of *John Wick* this time.

They were smart this time, setting up tents directly outside the ticket window and guarding there from the night before tickets went on sale.

Leonard, Howard, Sheldon, and Raj took turns on duty and finally grabbed the precious tickets.

They were even surrounded by local gangs after buying the tickets, who intended to force them to sell their premiere tickets.

Fortunately, Howard was witty and drove the car to the door in advance, allowing the other three to escape the scene in time.

"Look! Xu Can is in, it's starting! So excited!"

"What's there to be excited about?" Sheldon rolled his eyes.

"It's not a comic book adaptation. Action films were already on the decline in the late 90s. Action films in the 21st century have become increasingly assembly-line-like, lacking new ideas..."

Sheldon still wanted to hold forth, but Howard stuffed a mouthful of popcorn into his mouth.

"Shut up, Sheldon! If you talk more, I won't help you with your World of Warcraft raid!"

"Hey, calm down, I won't talk." Sheldon was dismissive, but he was actually curious: what kind of work could Xu Can film by transitioning to a new subject?

After the creators greeted the audience simply, they took their seats.

The media and audience seats behind were bustling; everyone couldn't wait!

Soon, the theater lights dimmed!

A brand-new opening animation appeared on the screen for the first time.

Crayon-drawn, stop-motion animated spaceship taking off!

The spaceship sprayed fire violently, tearing through space!

The next second, the style instantly changed from crayon drawing to 3D animation rendering!

The spaceship appeared in the vast universe like a space jump in *Guardians of the Galaxy*!

And the entire background was a dazzling galaxy!

The spectacular Milky Way used the IMAX giant screen to bring a huge visual impact!

[Produced by Galaxy Pictures]

Leonard at this time clicked his tongue in wonder, just shocked by the opening animation.

Little did he know that years later, when he reviewed *John Wick 1* again, he would understand—

the first appearance of the Galaxy Pictures logo was where the dream began!