Summer Box Office

Levi's words elicited a smile from Alexander. If there was something that could make him very happy recently, the release of X-Men 3 would definitely be one of them.

The first two X-Men movies were successful at the box office, with the first film considered the origin of the superhero series. 

This time, the release of X-Men 3 had attracted a lot of attention from the beginning of the summer, a season filled with blockbuster releases such as the final installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Angelina Jolie and Pitt Starring Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Warner Bros. reinvesting in the Batman series directed by Michael Bay after the superhero craze. All these were hitting the screens this summer.

[E/N: No Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy in this A/U because he is busy with X-Men. So, Warner went to Michael Bay.]

The competition for box office numbers this summer was intense due to these big names. Even before the movies were released, the media had made various predictions. 

In their imagination, Star Wars Episode III was expected to be the box office champion of the year — Star Wars was a symbol of box office success.

As one of the most popular superheroes in the United States, Batman's movies were likely to do well at the box office as long as they didn't go too off course. Spider-Man's box office in the past few years was almost incredible, so Batman wouldn't perform worse than Spider-Man, right?

However, when summer arrived, the results greatly exceeded people's expectations. X-Men 3, directed by Nolan, stood out in this fierce competition.

It wasn't that the other movies were bad. Unlike the first two Star Wars prequels, the third installment received much better reviews. Although, to some old Star Wars fans, it still seemed to have almost ruined a thirty-year classic, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith showed significant improvement. It had some depth, connecting the story seamlessly and constructing a mature science fiction system. In various aspects, it couldn't be considered a failure.

However, in this summer, it encountered X-Men 3.

Nolan had been promoted early by Levi. On the path to success, he had taken some detours. However, after going through these experiences, he sorted out his own route. When shooting the third X-Men movie, his advantages finally came into play.

The film, written by his brother and directed by himself, could be considered a great success. Nolan's excellent ability to construct large-scale scenes, exciting dramatic storytelling, and outstanding structural use were all showcased in the movie.

Moreover, this film was different from other superhero movies. The direct confrontation between Magneto and Professor X in the movie, the clash of ideologies, was portrayed vividly.

Nolan didn't choose the approach of having the good guys triumph over the bad guys once again. 

In the movie, he emphasized the damage Magneto suffered during World War II. His experiences in concentration camps led him, after gaining power, to decide to lead mutants against discrimination. 

On the other hand, Professor X, standing in opposition, could read human minds and was more concerned about the hard-won peace with humans, hoping that mutants could gain love instead of hatred. 

This was their contradiction.

This characterization was quite successful. After Professor X's death, Wolverine and Cyclops, who were originally rivals, inherited Professor X's ideology and joined forces to defeat Magneto, indicating that the next generation of mutant leaders had no conflicts. They collaborated to create the future, and these elements were all portrayed in the plot.

In the past, superhero movies were exciting in terms of visuals, but they were almost nonexistent in terms of ideological depth. 

Batman's style was originally comic book-like, with nearly every character in a full comic book style, naturally lacking in ideological depth. 

Superman was purely a representation of the thoughts of an old American farmer; this image had long been deeply ingrained, and his image of guarding the Earth had not changed. 

Although the first two Spider-Man movies had a decent character like Green Goblin, the main opponents were still good for the sake of good and evil for the sake of evil. 

This lack of ideological depth and insufficient character development in superhero movies has always been a chronic problem. Even more frightening was that this chronic problem was not even touched upon. 

In the eyes of many people, this was normal.

Nolan's film changed all that. 

Magneto, who had suffered persecution in concentration camps and considered problems from the perspective of racial discrimination, and Professor X, who grew up in a privileged environment and considered issues from the perspective of peace and human development, were two men with completely different ways of thinking. 

Although their starting points were different, it wasn't so easy to distinguish between good and evil. 

Although in the movie, Wolverine defeated Magneto, indicating that one should forget hatred and overcome the ideology of racial discrimination, Magneto's impassioned speech and powerful destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge were far more impressive than Professor X's gentle persuasion.

This film subverted the image of villains fighting for their own interests that had existed in previous movies. Magneto was almost crafted into a heroic mutant racial hero who persisted in his struggle for ideology rather than personal gain. The ideological struggle between the two factions was about principles, not interests, giving the movie an epic quality.

Due to the excellent narrative, exciting visuals, and the combination of internal ideological depth, the film caused a sensation. This sensation led to a sharp increase in its box office numbers. 

Although the screenings hadn't ended yet, it had likely surpassed Star Wars Episode III, and there was no doubt about it.

This also led to the birth of many Nolan fans, and some were even clamoring that Nolan must win an Oscar.

In comparison, Batman, directed by Michael Bay, is a little disappointing. Although Michael Bay's films were still absolute in terms of visuals, the media criticized the lack of depth in the movie. 

If it were an ordinary time, this wouldn't be a big deal; after all, which superhero movie cared about depth? But this year, with X-Men achieving great success, this issue became more significant.

Marvel and DC comics could be said to excel in their own ways, but when it came to characters, Batman was definitely a character that was extremely popular with writers. However, his advantage wasn't reflected in the box office. The entire movie was explosions, lowering the overall scope of the film.

This summer, his movie could only be ranked third. 

Although it is worse than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who are now passionate about love to promote movies, it is not as good as the previous two. 

Nolan could be said to have risen to fame with one battle and had completely embarked on the path of a top director with this movie.

"Before this summer, I really didn't think Nolan's movie could be so successful. Originally, I thought a box office of five hundred million would be good, but now it seems that even a billion might not be enough."

Speaking of this, Alexander was also very happy. After all, if the movie did well, he had no reason not to be happy. Although the preparations for The Three-Body Problem 2 indeed cost a lot of money, this money could be recovered from X-Men 3.

The profits from a successful movie were enough to bring him many benefits.

"His movie is already very good. Give him enough trust, and he will definitely be able to shoot something very good."

Levi didn't find Nolan's success strange. In terms of commercial films, even Levi had to learn from him. It was very normal for him to achieve results; a person's talent wouldn't change because of changes in the environment. 

Since, in memory, he could shoot a Batman that emphasized the Joker, then shooting a Professor X that emphasized Magneto in X-Men wasn't strange at all.

Moreover, he successfully turned the struggle between good and evil in superhero movies into a battle of ideologies. Levi didn't find this surprising. 

These things were common in science fiction movies, but they just hadn't been shown in the field of comics. Now, introducing this ideology into this field and achieving success could be said to be his clever move.

He was a very good commercial film director. Although Levi didn't quite agree with those praises calling him the world's number one director, he did agree with his commercial film capabilities.

"Indeed, the directors you found are all quite good. The movie, directed by that Japanese director, has a box office approaching one hundred million. A Japanese-themed horror story achieving this kind of box office is really rare."

This summer, there was also a movie that didn't attract much attention, directed by Takashi Shimizu, called "Tomie." Due to the use of many Japanese actors, this story naturally received less attention after it was filmed. 

However, for horror movie fans, this was still a good movie. The characters and scenes in the movie were enough to satisfy them. The movie still achieved a good box office, which was worth being proud of for a low-budget horror film.

And speaking of this, Alexander also remembered something.

"The actress who played the female ghost in the movie, the one who wanted to stay in the United States, I also arranged for her to go to that martial arts TV series."

In the movie, Erika Sawajiri, who played Tomie, had also established herself in the United States thanks to this movie. After establishing herself, she refused to return to Japan. 

Levi was very clear that this was also because of the situation in the Japanese entertainment industry. 

In memory, Erika Sawajiri went through a lot of twists and turns to leave her company because she wanted to leave. It wasn't easy to fight against the entire entertainment industry, and she was even called crazy by the media, damaging her reputation.

Now that she had obtained an opportunity early on, she naturally wanted to leave.

"Then let her go. I have no objections."

Levi agreed to this directly. Moreover, he even thought that perhaps Erika Sawajiri's image would be good for playing Tomoko?

Of course, it was still too early to consider these things.

"That TV series is produced by yourself as the producer. Why don't you value it?" Seeing Levi readily agreeing, Alexander was somewhat surprised.

"Now, why should I value those things? For me, there is only one thing — making this movie in my hands well."

The other directors were catching up. How could he stay behind? Competing with these people was what Levi wanted the most.

*****

Thanks and kudos for my patreons 

Marcelo Maia

Britanna

Mandy G

Scott DePaepe

Oluwatimileyin Olayemi

Herylle Ian Gloria

You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.