Chapter 91

The two exchanged a smile, linked arms, and walked out of the lounge, ready to take a luxury car to the premiere.

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

……

At the Galaxy Theatre, reporters from various media outlets had already taken their positions in advance, setting up their long and short lenses.

Fans were packed densely around the area, held back tightly by barricades.

LAPD officers were scattered everywhere, nerves taut as they kept watch on the scene.

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

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

"Old Mike, you have no idea how big Spider-Man's influence is. Especially among young people, Xu Can is basically their god!"

"Yeah, I'm a Spider-Man fanboy myself. I've watched the live-action movie seven times!"

"Josh, who told you to bring a different woman to the same movie…"

"Alright, focus on security. The celebrity motorcade is coming."

Accompanied by the fans' frenzied shouts, several luxury cars drove over from not far away. The officers had no time for small talk and focused entirely on keeping order.

In fact, this movie didn't have any big-name A-list stars.

The people stepping out of the luxury cars were all character actors who'd played supporting roles for years—Willem Dafoe, Michael Enquist, Alfie Allen, and the like.

So it was obvious who the excited crowd had come for.

When the last luxury car stopped before the red carpet, the crowd had already begun to stir.

When Xu Can, in a silver suit, stepped out of the luxury car arm-in-arm with Emma Stone, the surrounding cheers and screams instantly became deafening.

"Xu! Can we get a photo?"

"Xu Can! I love you!"

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

"Look this way! Look at the camera!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos. Many young fans rushed toward Xu Can like madmen. Luckily there were barricades up front, and with the officers straining to hold them back, the situation didn't spiral out of control.

Xu Can stepped forward and gave the fans a few quick high-fives, then pulled Stone Sister over to the advertising wall for a photo.

"Xu, congratulations on your new film about to be released. Any expectations for this movie?"

"The baseline is a hundred million dollars, I guess. The film is pretty niche, so the box office won't be too high."

Xu Can was being very modest.

According to earlier media projections, John Wick, with an investment of only 16 million dollars, would likely gross at most 80 million dollars worldwide.

In North America, it might top out at 60 million.

A young actor writing, directing, and starring in his own film, tackling a genre he'd never ventured into—and a crime action film at that, one that had been done to death in the nineties.

Audiences were long since fatigued by it; there was no way it could earn more at the box office.

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

"John Wick is a bold gambler's move."

If he'd filmed Spider-Man 2, he'd certainly have gotten one-sided, uncritical praise. But this was an entirely new attempt, and Hollywood had countless cautionary tales of failure.

Xu Can's seemingly modest hundred-million-dollar estimate was, in the media's eyes, blind optimism.

Beside him, Emma Stone leaned in toward the microphone:

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

The scene erupted in an uproar.

"May I ask, Emma, do you think your starring vehicle Twilight will beat Xu Can's John Wick?"

A reporter quickly jumped in to stir things up.

Stone Sister gave a faint smile:

"It will, but it won't."

Huh? What does that mean?

Riddler?

The media wanted to keep asking questions, but the two had already linked arms and walked into the theater.

Thanks to Xu Can's influence, today's premiere screening sold out a week before tickets even went on sale.

Countless fans had once again queued overnight at the ticket window, only managing to snag tickets after great difficulty.

The Leonard squad, who'd previously watched Spider-Man, now showed up again at the John Wick premiere.

This time they were smarter—they pitched tents right outside the ticket window and started camping there the night before tickets went on sale.

Leonard, Howard, Xie Erdun, and Raj took turns keeping watch and finally managed to grab precious tickets.

They'd even been surrounded by a local gang after buying the tickets, who intended to force them to hand over their premiere tickets.

Luckily Howard was quick-witted—he'd driven the car to the entrance beforehand, letting the other three escape the scene in time.

"Look! Xu Can's coming in, it's about to start! So excited!"

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

"It's not a comic-book movie. Action films were already on the decline in the late nineties, and action films in the 21st century have become more and more assembly-line, lacking originality…"

Xie Erdun was still holding forth when Howard stuffed a mouthful of popcorn into his mouth.

"Shut up, Sheldon! One more word and I won't help you run dungeons in World of Warcraft!"

"Hey, calm down, I won't say a word then." Xie Erdun feigned disdain but was actually curious about what kind of work Xu Can could produce with his genre switch.

After the main cast briefly greeted the audience and took their seats,

The media and audience sections behind were packed wall-to-wall with people—everyone was already bursting with anticipation!

Very quickly, the theater lights dimmed!

For the first time, a brand-new opening animation appeared on the silver screen.

A crayon-drawn, stop-motion animated spaceship lifted off!

The ship blasted fierce flames for thrust, tearing through space!

The next second, the art style instantly shifted from crayon drawing to 3D animated rendering!

The ship, like the hyperspace jump in *Guardians of the Galaxy*, appeared in the vast cosmos!

And the entire background was a dazzling river of stars!

The magnificent galaxy, rendered on an IMAX giant screen, delivered an enormous visual impact!

【Produced by Star River Pictures】

At this moment, Leonard clicked his tongue in admiration, simply stunned by the opening animation.

Little did he know that many years later, when he looked back at *John Wick 1* again, he would finally understand—

The Star River Pictures logo appearing for the first time—this was where the dream began!