hollywood melon man

Chapter 368: The Superhero Movie Trend Brought by Spider-Man
After this week, the popularity of "Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones" has dropped significantly, and its box office on weekdays is almost lower than that of "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King", which has been released for five weeks.

This week, the North American film market welcomed a heavyweight competitor with the release of the superhero movie "Spider-Man" directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

After "X-Men", superhero movies entered a new era, and this year we welcomed the blockbuster "Spider-Man".

In terms of popularity in comics, Spider-Man is no less popular than DC's Batman and Superman, and is also a very popular superhero.

James Cameron had thought about making Spider-Man before filming True Lies, but it was ultimately not realized due to technical reasons.

Ultimately, the rights to Spider-Man were acquired by Sony Columbia Pictures, before Gilbert Jr. took over Marvel.

Now, the movie version of "Spider-Man" is finally about to meet the audience.

This superhero movie, which cost $1.3 million to make, was released the weekend after "Star Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones" and demonstrated its unparalleled power.

"Spider-Man" grossed $1 million in three days during its first weekend, becoming the second movie in North America to gross over $1400 million in its first week.

However, although the response this time was huge, the discussion was far less heated than "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King".

The reason is simple. The second movie that makes over 100 million in its first week can never compare to the first movie.

The strength of "Spider-Man" has successfully continued the hot momentum of the summer season, and is bound to affect other summer blockbusters currently being released, especially "Attack of the Clones".

This week, "Attack of the Clones" only earned $4210.5 million at the box office, a drop of more than % from the previous week, which can be described as a box office Waterloo.

But this is a Star Wars movie after all, so it is still guaranteed to make a profit, just not as much as other Star Wars movies.

In comparison, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", which entered its fifth week of release, was less affected.

After all, it is the fifth week and both the number of cinemas and the screening rate have dropped significantly.

It was a super blockbuster production that year. Although Spider-Man wasn’t as good as Return of the King, it was popular after all, and its publicity and promotion were also guaranteed.

"The Return of the King", which has been released for more than a month, cannot compete with "Spider-Man".

However, the huge sales of "Spider-Man" not only benefited Sony Columbia Pictures, but also Marvel Comics and the newly established Marvel Studios.

After Spider-Man and X-Men became huge hits, New York-based Marvel Comics instantly became the focus of Hollywood attention.

DC is already a subsidiary of Warner Bros., but Marvel Comics doesn't seem to be.

Unfortunately, after Gilbert Jr. took over Marvel, Marvel's financial situation was greatly improved.

Although it still failed to turn a profit, it no longer needed to sell its superhero copyrights to make up for the losses.

With the support of Gilbert Jr., Marvel Studios began its own Marvel Cinematic Universe plan.

Taking advantage of the popularity of Spider-Man, Marvel Pictures CEO Kevin Feige held a press conference in Los Angeles.

"Marvel Studios was established with one purpose, which is to launch its own superhero movie in four to five years."

Kevin Feige seems very confident, and indeed he is. Their boss is one of the best directors and film creators in Hollywood, so they have no reason to lack confidence.

The reporter asked: "Mr. Feige, can I ask what Marvel's specific plan is? Which superhero movie will you launch first?"

In fact, it would be more appropriate for little Gilbert to answer this question, after all, he was the maker of the entire plan, but little Gilbert has already gone on a trip around the world on a yacht with beautiful women.

So this question had to be answered by Kevin Feige: "Our entire plan came from Director Gilbert's suggestion that the first superhero movie would be Iron Man, Tony Stark.

We have a whole host of plans, not just for Iron Man, but for a lot of other things.”

Another reporter followed up by asking: "You just said there are a series of plans. Can you tell us more about them?"

"I'm sorry, because we are still in the preparation stage, we can't reveal more information for the time being."

Kevin Feige was practicing Tai Chi: “Maybe you can ask Director Gilbert Jr.

He has not yet made a final decision on what the specific plan is."

This sentence has two meanings. The first meaning is that there is indeed such a plan, but Marvel Studios needs Gilbert Jr. to make the final decision.

The second meaning is that the entire plan comes from Gilbert Jr. Everyone in the entertainment media knows who Gilbert Jr. is. He is the guarantee that the movie will be a big hit, so please rest assured.

Of course the reporters wanted to ask little Gilbert, but at that time little Gilbert was nowhere to be found enjoying the sun and the beach, and they couldn't find him at all.

This press conference of Marvel Pictures still attracted a lot of attention, especially when "Spider-Man" was a box office hit.

Faced with Marvel Studios' ambitious plans, the reactions of major Hollywood companies varied, but Warner's reaction was the most intense.

In the senior management meeting room of Warner Bros. Pictures, the atmosphere in the meeting room was rather solemn.

Doug Walter is in a dilemma. DC's superhero movies still need redemption, but their ace director supports Marvel's superheroes.
Gilbert Jr. is Warner Bros.' most important partner and the largest individual shareholder of Warner Bros. He should be biased towards Warner Bros. and DC no matter what. Looking at the solemn meeting room, Solomon, the head of the distribution department, said, "I don't think everyone needs to be so pessimistic. Doug, didn't you say that Gilbert Jr. is interested in Bruce Wayne?

Did he ever tell you when and how he would start Batman's story?

This is what Doug Walter is worried about. Xiao Ben did say something like this, but there was no news after that.

According to recent news, Gilbert Jr. went on a trip around the world and is planning a pirate project when he returns.

Pirates have nothing to do with Bruce Wayne. Little Gilbert can't let Batman be a pirate, right?

This is a normal film business behavior. Warner Bros. can't restrict Gilbert Jr. from cooperating with other film companies just because he is a shareholder and director, right?

And the company that Gilbert Jr. is working with is not some other giant company, but Marvel Studios.

As early as when Warner Bros. acquired a stake in Cantaloupe Studios, Gilbert Jr. was already the boss of Marvel.

What is even more surprising is that Gilbert Jr. holds shares in Marvel in the name of his own Fruit Investment Company, not Melon Studios.

Otherwise, Warner Bros. would have already become a shareholder of Marvel by now.

Could it be that Gilbert Jr. had anticipated this when he acquired Marvel? But what was his purpose in doing so?
Unable to guess what little Gilbert was thinking, this high-level meeting ended abruptly.

Doug Walter returned to his president's office and planned to find an opportunity to communicate with Gilbert Jr. and understand his thoughts.

But then the assistant reported: "President, Ms. Sheena Boone just had someone send a script, directed by Gilbert Jr."

Doug Walter was shocked and immediately said, "Bring it here quickly."

The assistant brought over the script, which read "The Dark Knight Trilogy", which is "The Dark Knight Trilogy", written by Gilbert Jr., David S. Goyer, and Jonathan Nolan.

Looking at the thick script, Doug Walter smiled. It seemed that Gilbert Jr. had not forgotten Bruce Wayne, he was just playing around.

Doug Walter saw the first line of dialogue when he opened the first page of the script. Bruce Wayne asked Lucius Fox: "Does this car have a black model?"

Warner Bros. should not doubt Gilbert Jr. After all, the interests of Warner Bros. are the interests of Gilbert Jr., and he will not ignore the DC superhero movies.

DC and Bruce Wayne both needed redemption. Back in the summer of 1997, the latest Batman movie was directed by Joel Schumacher and starred George Clooney as Batman, the third actor to play Batman in five years at the time.

The villains include Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman and Mr. Freeze played by Schwarzenegger, and the film is full of big-name stars.

However, due to its frivolous costumes and action scenes, the film became the worst one in the Batman series, and both its reputation and box office were a failure.

Seeing this, Warner canceled plans for the fifth Batman movie in 1999 and shelved this IP.

It can be said that Batman was once the signature of Warner Pictures and DC.

But Marvel movies are making huge profits these days, and although they have nothing to do with Marvel Studios, they have even less to do with DC.

That's why Warner is eagerly hoping that Gilbert Jr. can save DC movies, even if it's just saving Bruce Wayne and Superman!

Warner's reaction was so intense only when Marvel Studios made a big move.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the year, Joss Whedon approached Warner Bros. and proposed to film Bruce Wayne's story, but was rejected by Doug Walter.

Doug Walter heard from Little Gilbert that Bruce Wayne had always kept it for Little Gilbert.

Between Joss Whedon and Gilbert Jr., Doug Walter definitely trusts Gilbert Jr. more!
Gilbert Jr. knew that once the news of Kevin Feige's press conference got out, Warner Bros. would be unhappy.

He was not unprepared. As early as last year, Gilbert Jr. found David S. Goyer and asked Jonathan Nolan to participate in the screenwriting.

When writing the script, Gilbert Jr., David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan watched Batman movies from Adam West's 1966 version to the most recent Joel Schumacher version.

After watching all the Batman movies, Gilbert Jr. felt that there was a problem with these versions of Batman movies, that is, they were too comic and out of touch with the real context.

After that, Gilbert Jr. discussed with the two screenwriters and decided to focus on the story of Bruce Wayne, the man wearing the Batman costume.

"I want to make the superhero movie that I would have loved to see when I was twelve," Gilbert Jr. said.

It is worth mentioning that after Gilbert Jr. came up with the idea of ​​the story, David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan completed the script in the garage of Christopher Nolan's home.

Christopher Nolan cares a lot about Batman movies, and often discusses the plot with David and his brother Jonathan, providing a lot of suggestions.

Christopher Nolan would even like to direct a Batman movie himself if he could.

But alas, this is little Gilbert’s project.

(End of this chapter)