hollywood melon man

This is Marvel's brightest moment since the comics industry's winter.

From its peak in the early 1990s, to filing for bankruptcy protection in the mid-1990s, and finally being acquired by Gilbert Jr. After more than a decade of development, Marvel's glory is even greater than before thanks to Marvel movies.

Although Marvel has been delisted from the stock market, its valuation has continued to increase because of the strength of its IP development along with its movies in recent years.

Marvel's top management was also somewhat tempted and wanted to push for Marvel to go public again.

But the problem now is that Gilbert Jr. is Marvel's largest shareholder, and no one can push it forward even if he agrees to go public.

In response, Marvel CEO Alawi made a special trip to Los Angeles to discuss the listing with Gilbert Jr. But Gilbert Jr. had other ideas, but he still asked Marvel to make a listing plan.

"Marvel's listing will not affect your control over the company."

This is Allawi's guarantee. The main purpose of the listing is to increase the value of Marvel. At this stage, not to mention that Gilbert Jr. is Marvel's largest shareholder and one of the most important cores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Without Gilbert Jr.'s promotion, there would be no Marvel's current glory.

Gilbert Jr. expressed his understanding of Marvel's top management's expectations, saying: "Going public can indeed bring considerable positive benefits to the company.

The success of every movie and the creation of every IP will affect the company's performance in the stock market.

Go back and make a listing plan, and I will discuss this matter."

Gilbert Jr. did not object, which was the biggest gain for Alavi. After returning, he accepted an interview with financial media and said that Marvel was considering a full listing.

If only Marvel Comics were listed, it would not be worth much, but if Marvel Studios were listed, it would immediately become a hot commodity.

After hearing about this, Robert Iger, who had always coveted Marvel, came to the door immediately.

Gilbert Jr. explained: "Bob, friendship is friendship, but business is business.

Even if I don't want to, there are so many comic artists at Marvel who need to make a living, and I can't stop it."

Robert Iger smiled bitterly: "Little Gilbert, you also know that Disney is digesting the shares of Cantaloupe Studios and Lucasfilm recently, and has no spare energy to initiate the acquisition of Marvel.

I mean, can you please not be so anxious to push Marvel to market? Give me some time."

"It's easy to talk about."

Gilbert Jr. readily agreed: "Bob, Disney and I have a pleasant cooperation, and I also want to see a deeper cooperation between us."

In fact, the current cooperation is already very deep, but Gilbert Jr. and Robert Iger both know that if this continues, Disney will sooner or later become Landrini.

Disney's dispersed shareholders were no longer able to stop Gilbert Jr. from expanding his power on Disney's board of directors.

They knew that Gilbert Jr. would become the big boss of Disney, but there was nothing they could do. If they announced the breakup between Disney and Gilbert Jr. now, the reaction on the stock market the next day would cause Disney to suffer an earthquake.

Disney is different from other major Hollywood film studios, which have a powerful media and entertainment group behind them.

Disney itself is a powerful media group with a market value higher than the media companies behind those giant companies.

Scandals like the News Corporation's phone-hacking scandal are still going on, and News Corporation's market value cannot be compared with Disney's. You can imagine how powerful Disney is.

When did all this start? That’s right, it was when Robert Iger took over Disney and Gilbert Jr. started working with Disney.

It can be said that without Robert Iger, there would be no Disney today. But without Gilbert Jr., there would be no Robert Iger today.

So today, Gilbert Jr. is Disney's most important asset, both to Robert Iger and to Disney.

What’s more crucial is that Gilbert Jr. can drive a lot of related businesses. Pixar, Lucasfilm, etc. were basically initiated by Gilbert Jr. and acquired by Disney.

Gilbert Jr. himself is an IP-making machine, and every movie he shoots is a cash cow.

Considering Gilbert Jr.'s age, Disney would have to be crazy to let him go.

Spielberg once said to Gilbert Jr.: "I should follow your path, Gilbert Jr. At this point, who dares to say that you are not a giant?"

Indeed, DreamWorks' failure stems from the encirclement and suppression by Hollywood giants.

But can other Hollywood giants be ruthless enough to siege Disney today? Disney today is the Qin State during the Warring States Period, and the other companies are the other six states during the Warring States Period.

The six kingdoms could still resist Qin with their combined strength, but they were not united and were defeated one by one by Qin. The Chinese understood this principle two thousand years ago, but the top executives of these film companies still don't understand it.

They were competing with each other, not noticing that Disney was far ahead of them and was even about to surpass them.

By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late. Disney had already grown bigger and was unstoppable. Even if it couldn't form a monopoly, it would at least control half of Hollywood.

Back to the battlefield of the summer season, as May approaches, the smoke of the summer season is gradually spreading.

"The Dark Knight Rises" took the lead in starting the summer season journey. The film started pre-sales ten days in advance, setting a new pre-sale box office record of 1 million US dollars.

Warner Bros. has also done enough marketing work. The Dark Knight Rises will open in 4460 theaters in North America, including 530 IMAX theaters.

According to the data provided by the cinema chain, all scheduled screenings in the IMAX theaters during the first three days of the weekend were sold out. Even the relatively quiet morning screenings were fully booked by enthusiastic moviegoers.

After not working with Gilbert Jr. in the past two years, this is the first time that Warner has experienced the huge attention received before the film was released.

This reminded the Warner Bros. executives of the good things about Gilbert Jr., but there was nothing they could do as they could no longer go back to the way things were.

In order to better spread the popularity of "The Dark Knight Rises" around the world, Warner Pictures has also done an excellent job in overseas distribution.

This time, a total of 98 countries and regions will premiere simultaneously with the North American market.

It can be said that as long as there are people on earth who like to watch movies, there will be "The Dark Knight Rises".

In addition, Warner Bros. also pays special attention to safety, and the distribution department has repeatedly communicated with theaters to emphasize safety issues. However, Warner Bros. cannot interfere with theaters and can only serve as a reminder.

The security work at the premiere requires special attention.

All the people who came and went that day were celebrities, and if anything went wrong, it would be a fatal blow to "The Dark Knight Rises".

Three days before the premiere, many fans had already chosen to set up tents and wait for the red carpet to begin.

The Los Angeles County Police Department also set up a special duty station to patrol the theater's surrounding security 24 hours a day. As long as the money is in place, the Los Angeles County police can still do a good job.

In addition, Warner Bros. has repeatedly emphasized safety issues through the media to remind fans to pay attention to safety.

This is nothing, every time a big movie is about to be released, safety is an important issue. It’s not that we are afraid of these fans fighting or a stampede, but we are afraid that it will affect the reputation of the movie.

Think about it, if even one or two people are slightly hurt, will the rest of the competitors miss this opportunity?

Of course they will not let it go, and will even intensify the hype, thus affecting the fans. As long as it affects a small part, it will be a huge loss for the film.

What Warner didn't know was that the safety issues they repeatedly emphasized, especially the extra attention they paid to them, actually led to one arrest.

The story goes like this, the night before the premiere. Los Angeles County Detective Locke Wilson was on patrol as usual, and when he was about to change shifts, he suddenly spotted a sneaky person. This was nothing, Locke Wilson had been a police officer for so many years, and he saw everyone as sneaky.

But tomorrow is the premiere, and Warner Bros. is offering generous compensation, so Rock Wilson is being cautious and quietly asks his colleagues to go along.

Then they saw the sneaky man carrying several large bags and walking into a high-rise building opposite the theater.

So Locke Wilson and his colleagues immediately followed and caught the sneaky man in a decorated room in the building.

Inside the bag was a sniper rifle and ammunition. In addition, there were several homemade bombs that could not blow up the theater, but could certainly injure or kill people if thrown into a crowd.

Rock Wilson immediately took the man and his weapon back to the police station and then informed Warner Bros.

Warner Pictures CEO Qili Ross was shocked. She had originally dismissed Gilbert's warning. No one was stupid enough to die in public.

But I didn't expect that this kind of thing would actually happen.

Fortunately, there is Detective Locke Wilson, otherwise if this man was allowed to commit a crime tomorrow, she, Qili Ross, would have to resign.

This was a huge blow to Kiri Ross, who was determined to prove that she could bring Warner to the top without Gilbert Jr.

After questioning, the man was named James Brown and claimed to be a fanatical fan of the Joker.

In his confession, he said that he thought Batman was not worthy of Gotham and that the Joker had not lost, so this trip was for the Joker to kill Batman.

The reasons and motives are understandable, after all, such fanatical fans are not uncommon.

Back then, Jodie Foster's fans were so obsessed with her that they went to assassinate Reagan in order to attract Jodie Foster's attention.

Now that someone is playing for the Joker, it makes sense to give Christian Bale a shot.

However, Gilbert Jr.'s security chief Daniel Roberts believed that the matter was not that simple. Taking advantage of his good relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department, Daniel Roberts went to secretly interrogate James Brown in the middle of the night.

But unfortunately, James Brown insisted that he was a fan of the Joker and came to assassinate Batman, and also claimed that he had a mental illness.

Daniel Roberts gained nothing and couldn't find any flaws, so he had to give up.

The next morning, little Gilbert learned the details from Daniel Roberts. The whole family listened together and were very worried about this matter.

Cameron Diaz patted his chest and looked relieved: "Fortunately, we have strengthened security, otherwise if something happened today, the consequences would be disastrous."

Charlize Theron had a question: "Daniel, is this James Brown really a fan of the Joker? Is he seeking revenge against society?"

"That's what he said, but..."

Daniel Roberts looked at Gilbert Jr. and said, “Boss, I think his words are too perfect and there are no flaws.

It is precisely because I cannot find any flaws that I feel there is something deeper hidden behind it.”

Little Gilbert rubbed his chin: "You mean, there's someone behind you?"

"Any violent incident cannot be simply judged."

Daniel Roberts analyzed: "It is impossible that the killer did not know what day it was, but he chose today to strike.

One is to have a good identity cover, and the other is to conceal one's true purpose.

I don't think they came for Christian Bale. If it were me, I would definitely choose the one with the biggest target."

"That's me."

Little Gilbert sneered and said, "I am treated quite well. I can be compared with those great figures in history."

When normal means cannot solve the problem, resorting to force is the best way. The prevalence of assassination politics is essentially to eliminate the core figures of the hostile group, thereby causing a major blow to the other side.

Naomi Watts rolled her eyes at Gilbert: "What time is it? Are you still in the mood to joke?"

Ivanka suggested: "How about I go and meet him? Go and ask him. I'm worried that something might happen to James Brown."

"That's almost certain."

Gilbert Jr. affirmed, "Ivanka, you can't show up, otherwise it will not end well. Let Craigie go, he has experience in this area."

Little Gilbert also instructed Daniel Roberts: "The recent security work must be done well to ensure everyone's safety."

Daniel Roberts said he understood and he would arrange the security.

Little Gilbert then said to the women, “Pay attention in the near future. Do not approach strangers, and do not take things handed over by strangers.

Your safety is the most important thing, and I don’t want to see anything happen to any of you.”

"Know it!"

The women also understood that this was a serious matter and this was not the time to be willful.

On the way to the premiere, Gilbert Jr. and Naomi Watts were still discussing this matter.

"It seems like they can't help themselves and are ready to take action. As long as they get rid of me, the current situation will be completely changed."

Naomi Watts held Gilbert's hand and said with some worry: "If the situation becomes so tense, what should we do?"

“The best defense is offense.”

Gilbert Jr. said: "I will ask Ivanka to step up her offensive on Wall Street and at the same time push for a close integration of California's political landscape with Silicon Valley capital to drive Wall Street's influence out of California.

If assassination politics is really the way to go, we don’t have to be too afraid.”

After that, Little Gilbert smiled and said: "The most convenient way to solve problems in this world is actually chaos.

I'm sure Wall Street is in a mess right now, and they need to find an external focus to resolve the conflicts.

Chaos is the ladder of progress, and if they don't stop, I don't mind the situation getting more chaotic."

"Will it be dangerous?" Naomi Watts asked worriedly.

"Yes, but don't worry."

Little Gilbert said firmly: "No matter what, I will protect us."

"Ok!"

Naomi Watts leaned against little Gilbert's chest, feeling his heartbeat.

"I believe you." (End of this chapter)