Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 774 - 560: Captain America 2 Premieres

Also this week, after several rounds of negotiations and consultations, Lionsgate Films and Warner Bros. Pictures reached an agreement on co-developing the character 'Joker'.

Initially, Lionsgate Films wanted to acquire the adaptation rights to 'Joker', but this proposal was rejected by Warner, who clearly stated that they did not want to sell this potentially valuable character, but rather hoped to collaborate with Lionsgate Films on developing 'Joker'.

After negotiations, Lionsgate Films acquired the five-year adaptation rights to 'Joker' for eight million US Dollars, and promised to reserve a 45% investment share for Warner during the production of the Joker movie. After the movie's release, Lionsgate Films will be responsible for the distribution in the North American Region, while Warner Bros. Pictures will handle distribution in overseas regions.

After acquiring the adaptation rights to Joker, Lionsgate Films began to gather and create relevant scripts. Link personally oversaw the selection of scripts, striving to find one that closely matched the original.

After finishing these tasks, Link joined the 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' crew to shoot his role as Captain America.

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' tells the story of Iron Man trying to protect world peace by developing a robot for global security. However, the robot, Ultron, develops self-awareness during research, and its distorted beliefs lead it to launch a villainous onslaught intending to exterminate humanity.

In this situation, the world's most powerful superheroes - Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye - join forces again to fight the evil robot Ultron and save the world.

The plot of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' still primarily revolves around Iron Man, and Captain America's role is not very significant. Link finished most of Captain America's on-screen shots within two weeks.

The remaining shots are quite fragmented, and there are over 3000 special effects shots, making the shooting schedule very lengthy.

Over the next year, Link will need to frequently visit the 'Avengers 2' crew's studio to complete remaining shots.

——

In early April, 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', produced and released by Disney, premiered globally, and immediately after finishing 'Avengers 2', Link joined the promotional tour for 'Captain America 2', traveling from the United States to Britain, France, Germany, and then to Huaxia, South Korea, Australia, and Japan.

During the promotion, Link and the publicity team visited more than ten cities.

On April 4th, 'Captain America 2' was released globally, and in three days, the North American box office hit 115 million US Dollars.

This result placed it 10th on the North American box office opening rankings, although it was lower than the opening box office of movies like 'The Dark Knight', 'The Hunger Games', and 'Harry Potter', but among Marvel series films, it was only behind the opening box office of 'Avengers 1' and 'Iron Man 3'.

The first week's box office reached 165 million US Dollars, breaking even, with results exceeding expectations.

The first week's overseas box office was 218 million US Dollars.

Compared to the first installment, the overseas box office performance of 'Captain America 2' was much better.

The film was a big hit, and according to Link's contract with Disney, he not only had a base salary but also received a 3% share of the global box office, which is why he was willing to join the promotional tours.

However, considering that he would be very busy in the coming period with filming, boxing matches, and spending vacations with Ivanka and the three kids, he decided to turn down the role of the male lead in 'The Martian', allowing the crew to select another.actor.

'The Martian' is a film project co-operated by Lionsgate Films and Paramount Pictures, currently in preparation, with a budget of 100 million US Dollars, directed and produced by Ridley Scott.

When the project was being set up early in the year, Paramount Pictures wanted him to play the male lead to ensure the film's box office performance.

Link had reluctantly taken on the role, but now with too much work and no time for filming, plus according to the character's setting, the male lead needs to lose twenty to thirty pounds to survive on Mars, looking extremely lean and gaunt - a task he found very challenging.

After considering, he decided to turn it down to spend more time on boxing training.

This year he has four matches temporarily.

The first match is against 'The Bronze Bomber' Deontay Wilder, contending for the WBA Heavyweight Boxing Champion challenger's title.

Should the match go well, he would next challenge the reigning WBA Heavyweight Boxing Champion Alexander Povetkin.

The third match would be against 'The Eastern Beast' Valuev, contending for the WBC Heavyweight Boxing Champion challenger's title.

If successful, he would fight the current WBC Heavyweight Boxing Champion Vitali Klitschko in the second half of the year.

His match against Deontay Wilder would take place at the end of April; after completing the 'Captain America 2' promotions, he would spend most of his time at the boxing gym and fitness center.

——

In the first two weeks since its release, 'Captain America 2' earned 219 million US Dollars at the North American box office and a cumulative overseas box office of 335 million, smoothly breaking 500 million US Dollars globally.

Also this week, several movies distributed by Lionsgate Films also achieved good results. 'The Millers', which has been in theatres for six weeks, accumulated a North American box office of 152 million US Dollars and an overseas box office of 129 million, far exceeding expectations.

Additionally, the sci-fi film 'Ender's Game', produced by Summit Entertainment and released for four weeks, earned 63.97 million US Dollars in the North American box office and 52.20 million in the overseas box office, with a projected global box office of around 140 million US Dollars.

Compared to an eighty million production cost and a ten million promotion cost, Lionsgate Films is projected to lose over forty million on this project.

This is Lionsgate Films' largest film project loss in the last three years.

This week, Lionsgate Films' sixth movie of the year, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', premiered.

The film is an artistic movie set in Europe from the 1930s to the 1960s. It tells the story of an unnamed writer who comes to a hotel named "Budapest", meets the owner Moustafa, and shares dinner with him. During the meal, Moustafa introduces the writer to the past and present of this weathered grand hotel.

Directed by Wes Anderson, it stars Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Lea Seydoux, and Harvey Keitel.

At the beginning of the year, the film received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as nominations for the Golden Bear Award for Best Film, the Best Foreign Film nomination at the Italian David Awards, and a Best Film nomination at the 24th Gotham Independent Film Awards.

The word of mouth is quite good.

The film had a limited release in 6 theaters across North America on March 21, earning $1.096 million in box office revenues during the two-week period, a relatively good achievement.

In April, it had a wide release and earned $29.33 million in its opening week across 2207 theaters, with a current total of $30.43 million.

By comparison, the overseas box office performance has been even better, released in 23 countries for three weeks, the cumulative box office reached $66.28 million.

The total box office is close to $100 million.

The production cost of the film was $25 million.

According to the present data, it qualifies as a blockbuster movie.

——

"Hey Paul, how are you feeling today?"

In the afternoon, after finishing training, Link went to visit Paul Walker, who was recuperating at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.

After nearly half a month of treatment, Paul Walker was largely out of mortal danger, but to fully recover, he would need at least two to three years of convalescence.

"Not good at all. I just had a skin graft, and my whole body hurts."

Paul lay in bed wrapped up like a big dumpling, with only his face exposed, barely recognizable.

"It sounds really tough."

Link sat down to look at him, "This was really dangerous. The doctor said it's a miracle that you survived."

Paul's eyes twitched. Ever since the car accident, whenever someone brought up the incident, he couldn't help but feel terrified, the healed bones and burnt skin aching faintly.

"Phew, it really is a miracle. When I was lying in the car unable to move, and saw the front of the car catch fire, I thought it was all over—like a real scene out of 'Fast & Furious 4'. At that moment, it almost seemed like I saw God appearing in the sky. Later, some kind-hearted person took me to the hospital, and the doctors saved me, it's incredible." ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Paul Walker shrugged as he usually did, but accidentally pulled at his wound, causing him to grimace in pain.

"Should I call the doctor for you?"

Link asked.

"No, no need. Compared to a few days ago, this pain is nothing. I can bear it."

Paul Walker gritted his teeth and insisted.

Link chuckled softly, praising him for being stronger and braver than before, a gift perhaps given by the hardship.

Paul Walker was not fond of this notion of a 'gift', saying if he could do it over, he would definitely not drive so fast and might have avoided killing his assistant Bill.

Mentioning Bill, Paul Walker sighed with sorrow.

Link shook his head, urging him to grieve less, as the past could not be changed. He advised Paul to drive slower in the future.

After chatting with Paul in the hospital room for half an hour and seeing him look somewhat weary, Link told him to rest well and that he would come to chat with him again next time.

Leaving the hospital, Link rode in a van back home. Since Paul's car accident, he seldom drove himself, mostly commuting in a van or with nannies, always accompanied by at least two bodyguards.

Back in Half Mountain Villa, Ivanka had also just returned not so long ago, still in her work attire and talking on the phone in the living room, dealing with work-related matters.

Little Margarita was in the sunroom with her painting teacher, learning how to paint, with two lessons per month, mainly to cultivate her interest in painting and to train her color recognition. How well she painted was not strongly emphasized by Link and Ivanka.

The little girl sat on a soft stool, her little feet constantly moving, her small hands and cheeks smeared with plant paint, colorful, the drawing in front of her was full of haphazard fingerprints, very abstract.

"Daddy!!"

Seeing him return, Little Margarita immediately beamed with joy, her big eyes sparkling, stretching her dirty palms out for a hug.

"Stop! Don't get paint on me."

Link pointed at the little one.

However, Little Margarita was not at all afraid of him. She rushed over and hugged his legs, rubbing her face and little hands on his trousers until they were a mess.

"Getting naughtier, let's go wash your hands."

Link greeted the teacher and carried the little one to the bathroom to wash her hands. On the way, when the little girl saw her mother on the phone, she stretched out her little hands crying for mom. Link did not want to stop her from showing affection and carried her over to Ivanka.

He thought the little one might smear paint on her mother's face, but she didn't. Instead, she pouted her lips and kissed her mother's face.

Link felt it was unfair, so he slapped her little bottom lightly and carried her to the bathroom to wash her face.