Disney was in discussions, and Warner Bros. was also in discussions.
Coincidentally, Warner Bros. also had a Solomon, though this Solomon was the head of Warner's distribution department.
He suggested to CEO Doug Walter: "After The Batman Begins, DC has been idle too long. Doug, you need to urge Gilbert to start work on the second installment."
"Of course," Doug Walter said. "I just called Gilbert this morning. He said that after finishing his current series projects, he will begin preparing The Dark Knight."
At this, Doug Walter sighed a bit: "You have to admire Gilbert's foresight. I heard he already had controlling stakes in Marvel back in 1998.
But it wasn't until now that Marvel Studios' first major film burst onto the scene.
Now, people fully realize that the era of superhero films is about to arrive."
An executive suggested: "Doug, why don't we try to wrest the distribution rights from Disney? Warner can offer much better terms.
And at the right time, why not we acquire Marvel…"
It had to be said, this suggestion was extremely good, and Doug Walter was clearly tempted.
"That depends on Gilbert," Doug Walter said. "After Iron Man's huge success, our company is not the only one watching Marvel."
Of course, Doug Walter would be willing to acquire Marvel, but it would face enormous resistance. The biggest obstacle would be other Hollywood giants, and next, antitrust laws.
The federal government could, under lobbying pressure, use antitrust regulations to forcefully separate any Marvel-DC combination.
But people make their own luck, and Doug Walter felt he still had to try, whether successful or not.
Doug Walter's reasoning was sound; not only Disney and Warner had interests, but Universal, Paramount, Sony Columbia, and MGM United also had strong interest in Marvel.
MGM United's head, Prince Abdul, even personally called Gilbert to inquire if Marvel might collaborate with MGM United, but Gilbert politely declined.
Frankly, if Gilbert were to do another stake exchange with another Hollywood company, he would become too conspicuous, too prominent.
Besides, Marvel had not yet reached its maximum value; Gilbert had every reason to wait for the right price.
As the workweek arrived, Iron Man's box office inevitably began to decline, reporting $16.67 million on Monday.
For this type of popcorn film, the decline was relatively moderate, mainly due to Iron Man's strong audience word-of-mouth.
Tuesday brought $15.93 million, Wednesday $13.35 million, Thursday $12.81 million.
After seven days in North America, the cumulative box office reached $173.71 million.
By the second weekend, Paramount released The Mad Priest, but this film was not very competitive, only earning $28.05 million in its first weekend.
Thus, Iron Man achieved an undisputed two-weekend consecutive crown, earning $60.57 million over the three-day weekend. Ten days into release, the North American box office reached $234.28 million.
This performance was exceptionally strong. Las Vegas had stopped accepting bets for Iron Man's North American box office to exceed $300 million and instead set the line at $350 million.
The film's international box office was also impressive, easily retaining the top spot.
Thanks to dozens of newly added markets that week, international earnings reached $146.9 million, pushing Iron Man's global box office to $504.78 million.
Major newspapers like The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker began predicting that Iron Man's box office could reach $900 million or even surpass $1 billion.
The explosive success of Iron Man was profoundly shocking. Warner pressed Gilbert to hurry production on the second Batman film, and Marvel Studios became Hollywood's hottest property.
Due to this massive success, Marvel Studios held two celebration banquets in Los Angeles and New York to honor the blockbuster performance.
Meanwhile, Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige announced new plans. Films such as the new Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man 2 all entered development stages.
Iron Man's success gave Marvel Studios immense confidence, and these new projects immediately attracted numerous Hollywood actors.
Seeing Robert Downey Jr. rise to global fame as Tony Stark and Scarlett Johansson become the new generation's sex symbol, actors were filled with envy and jealousy, wishing they could replace the two of them.
Even if they couldn't replace them, at least taking over Kate Beckinsale's position would suffice!
For a while, Kevin Feige noticed an increase in agents visiting him, and many lesser-known actors were constantly lingering around Marvel Studios, trying to attract attention.
However, when it came to having the most say over all of Marvel Studios' projects, there was no doubt that Gilbert held the ultimate authority.
At this moment, Gilbert was working with visual effects engineers, studying how to construct a cyberpunk city.
Gilbert was neither a celluloid purist nor a Christopher Nolan-style live-action fanatic, but he also did not fully favor green-screen shooting to depict the entire cyberpunk city.
For example, he found Marvel's later practice of shooting even a simple coffee shop scene entirely on green-screen utterly inadvisable.
It was undeniable that green-screen technology was advancing, but on the big screen, it still had a critical flaw: it looked too fake.
Observing all films using green-screen technology, one would notice a strange greenish glow that could not be fully eliminated through post-production techniques.
Therefore, films employing green-screen must have extremely lavish visual effects, often creating light pollution, so that audiences could overlook the inherent artificiality.
Coincidentally, cyberpunk cities naturally featured massive amounts of light pollution.
Yet Gilbert still preferred not to rely solely on green-screen technology for the series. He wanted a degree of tangible, real-world elements throughout the production, which could then be preserved for future reuse.
Gilbert held numerous meetings with the art department, finalizing designs for prosthetics and gear, such as mantis blades, molecular ray devices, and jumping legs.
Prop and visual effects engineers then worked to construct physical models based on these designs. They were not fully functional, but they offered a strong sense of realism and could potentially serve as merchandise.
Additionally, series producer Charles Roven approached car and motorcycle manufacturers to help design futuristic vehicles, providing dozens of design sketches for cars and motorcycles.
Ford accepted the challenge, with their automotive engineers beginning the difficult task of designing and constructing vehicles that Gilbert insisted must be drivable and made of real materials.
The futuristic motorcycle designs were handled by Harley-Davidson. Engineers, excited by the various imaginative sketches, eagerly began development.
Furthermore, after inspecting an abandoned Air Force base in Nevada, Gilbert expressed satisfaction, and the crew moved in to build the urban landscapes needed for filming from the ground up.
The series would combine live-action, special effects, and green-screen techniques. For this, the crew even traveled to Japan to hire a special effects team to work alongside them.
Of course, all of this pre-production work was painstaking. But creating a world from nothing was an extremely exciting process.
Casting for the actors also began.
Although it was a series, Gilbert's personal direction attracted an overwhelming number of actors submitting resumes, hoping to be chosen by him.
Many sensed that Gilbert seemed more interested in his cyberpunk world than in the Marvel Universe.
....
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