From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

After the release of the North American weekend box office chart for the third week of May, all the media outlets were in a frenzy —

At first glance, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" was indeed powerful, oh yeah!

At second glance, wait, what's going on? How is "Spider-Man" doing so well?

At third glance, God, damn it!

Finally, brain freeze! What, in the hell, are we witnessing!

The shock and impact were far from enough to describe the feelings in the North American market. A tsunami, a storm, was sweeping across the entire North American film industry.

Even though people had already realized that "Spider-Man" was repeatedly breaking records and undoubtedly becoming the biggest hit of this year's summer season, with its performance far exceeding expectations, they shouldn't have been surprised by anything "Spider-Man" did at this point; but facing a monster competitor of the level of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones", the energy displayed by "Spider-Man" still shattered everyone's glasses.

Just a moment ago, the voices praising "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" for withstanding the pressure and writing a good record at the premiere were so excited and thrilled.

The next moment, the impact of "Spider-Man's" third-week box office data swept in with ten times or even a hundred times the force, unreasonably extinguishing all the voices.

The reaction was a rare malfunction.

What does this mean?

Even when facing a crushing opponent like "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones", "Spider-Man" still showed the courage and boldness to confront and fight back.

So, who else can stop "Spider-Man"?

Probably no one.

Thus, a rare scene appeared in North America, once again.

Clearly, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" premiered and was released nationwide this week, but the top traffic in the North American film market had to be shared with "Spider-Man" in terms of news popularity.

This is definitely an incredible scene.

In three weeks since its release, "Spider-Man's" cumulative North American box office has easily reached 350 million US dollars, officially surpassing "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and entering the top ten in North American film history box office, temporarily ranking seventh.

Now, 400 million in North America is no longer a question, and 500 million is also a high probability event. What it's really aiming for should be the second North American 600 million work since "Titanic".

Heck!

A chorus of exclamations.

"Spider-Man", a movie adapted from a geeky comic, a movie focusing on a high school superhero, who could have predicted that it would reach such heights?

Don't even mention others, even Sony Columbia themselves were almost choked to death by saliva. They themselves didn't know how all this happened. How was history created like this?

It wasn't until this moment that Hollywood finally realized what "Ticket Stub Action" meant—

An adventure is very likely to be the turning point that changes history.

Anson and Sam appeared at the premiere of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones", not only successfully using the traffic of the "Star Wars" series to keep "Spider-Man" hot, but also successfully allowing "Spider-Man" to break through the shackles and become a truly popular topic for national discussion.

This also completely changed the landscape of this year's summer season—

What's left is history.

Twentieth Century Fox: … What, what's going on?

"Uh, Hayden…" Carter was also frozen, his brain a mess.

He needed to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, as a senior agent, Carter regained his sanity, "Hayden, there's still time to remedy the situation. You give Anson a call, the two of you go to see both movies together, take photos, post ticket stubs, and we'll push it again to create momentum…"

Although they missed the first opportunity to react, it's still not too late to mend the fence, as long as they can make full use of Hayden and Anson's friendship, "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" can still get some heat.

Carter's brain was running at high speed.

However.

Hayden shook his head, "No."

Carter was stunned, "What did you say?"

Hayden raised his eyes to look at Carter, "You heard me."

Carter gasped, almost unable to believe his ears, "Hayden, do you know what you're doing?"

Hayden didn't speak.

"Hayden, you should know what the opportunity of this movie means. We can't afford to fail. This is 'Star Wars'. If even 'Star Wars' fails, no crew will look at you in the future."

"This movie is too important to you. We finally managed to grab the role, and we must not let it fall short because of a little spider."

Carter had already thought it through—

The main role of an agent is two things: one is to arrange work, and the other is to take the blame. Other things are not that important.

So, as long as the responsibility is pushed away, Hayden and Anson will be able to repair their relationship.

However, Hayden remained silent.

Carter was a little anxious, "Hayden!"

Hayden, "But, all of this was my idea."

Carter, "Yours or mine, does that matter? It doesn't matter at all. The only important thing now is to repair the relationship. We need Anson, we need to seize the opportunity."

Hayden shook his head gently, "Things are not that simple. You don't know how smart Anson is. He can see the truth at a glance. He will see through the lies. He will know why we chose to repair the old relationship at this time…"

Carter, "So what? So what if he sees through it? How much real friendship do you think there is in Hollywood? It's just a show. As long as it's good for 'Spider-Man', he will cooperate with the performance. As you said, he is a smart man."

Hayden gently exhaled, "I don't want to."

Carter's breath got stuck in his throat, and he almost fainted, "Hayden Christensen, you're crazy! Do you know what this means? Do you know what you're saying?"

Hayden seemed particularly calm, "Carter, we missed the opportunity. It's that simple. If we had taken the olive branch three days ago, the situation would have been different, and things could have been salvaged, but now… it's too late."

As he spoke, the words trailed off.

Carter: ???

Too late, too late for what? "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" has just been released, everything is still in time! If it's not in time, it must be in time!

"Hayden?"

"Hayden!"

"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!

But this time, Hayden didn't respond, just turned to look out the window, somewhat lost in thought. No one knew what was going on in his head, only Carter's furious scolding was surging in the space, like an ant on a hot pot, constantly going back and forth to the left and right.

Everyone was surprised that Anson could always come up with whimsical ideas to write miracles, but he knew that it was not surprising at all. All of this was predictable and reasonable. Things just happened so simply.

Heh.

Hayden's mouth twitched slightly, and he actually wanted to laugh.

In the same space, two completely different worlds, Hayden's thoughts slowly diffused like mist.