Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 258 The Most Important Man in Spider-Man

The host immediately exclaimed, "Wow! Even more popular at the box office than 'The Pirate King' and 'The Lord of the Rings'! Wu, are you really that confident in 'Spider-Man'?"

Last year's "The Pirate King" and "The Lord of the Rings" were already the top three highest-grossing films of the year.

"Why not? Harry Potter broke 9000 million in its opening weekend thanks to its popularity. Actually, Spider-Man's popularity is no less than Harry Potter's. I have a feeling that it can break the opening weekend box office record just set by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!"

Wu Yuchen's confident remarks about "Spider-Man" were naturally incorporated into his promotional materials.

After the show's recording ended, Wu Yuchen rushed back to the "The Hours" set, not even having time to spend with Anne Hathaway, the female lead of "Spider-Man," as she was busy promoting "Spider-Man."

The Spider-Man crew was actually skeptical of Wu Yuchen's bold statement. They believed it could achieve box office success similar to Pirate King, but were less convinced by his claim of breaking Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's $9000 million opening weekend record.

After all, records like these, which have just been set, are not so easy to break, especially those that are set by a significant margin over the second-place record. They usually stand for several years before being broken. But little did they know, Hollywood was about to enter a new era.

Just as Wu Yuchen returned to the set of "The Hours" for filming, on May 3, "Spider-Man" was released amidst a massive publicity campaign and great anticipation.

The theater was packed with audience members, some holding popcorn, others ranging from adults in their forties and fifties to children as young as a few years old.

A middle-aged man and a stranger sitting next to him chatted casually.

"Hey buddy, are you a Spider-Man fan too?"

"Of course, I've been reading Spider-Man comics since I was in junior high school 30 years ago!"

As he spoke, he pointed to the child sitting next to him: "My son and I are both big fans of Spider-Man!"

Spider-Man has been around for nearly 40 years. Although it is not as famous as Batman and Superman who have dominated the film industry, it has accumulated a large number of fans over the decades.

The man then added, "I remember twenty years ago, Spider-Man released some TV movies. I went to watch them with high expectations, but they were really disappointing!"

"Oh, I've heard of that, it really is garbage!"

"That's right! But I think this time it won't disappoint us. A 1.4 million big production, directed by Wu Yuchen, plus advanced film technology, I hope it can bring to life the Spider-Man of my imagination!"

"The promotional video is fantastic, and I've seen that Wu Yuchen has created a trilogy of stories for it, so it's definitely guaranteed to be good!"

There were countless fans like them in the theater, all watching the movie with anticipation.

Just one day later, the opening day box office results of "Spider-Man" shocked the entire Hollywood, as it grossed $4162 million in just one day!
This isn't the box office performance of the first three days of the opening weekend, but just Friday! Keep in mind that many films don't even reach 40 million in their first three days of the opening weekend!
"My God! Has the world gone mad?!"

This is not just the sentiment of many Hollywood professionals; some media outlets have even openly and bluntly expressed it!
This phenomenal box office success has further fueled public curiosity and desire to watch the movie. Even those who aren't Spider-Man fans want to see how amazing this film is, as people have a herd mentality.

Under these circumstances, on Saturday, the following day, "Spider-Man" broke its single-day box office record again, reaching 4848 million. It wasn't that it couldn't go higher, but rather that it was limited by the number of theaters and prints allowed; that was the only limit!
This situation drove Sony crazy! 3600+ theaters should be more than enough in North America, and they thought the number of film copies was more than sufficient. They never imagined this would happen!

Wu Yuchen laughed into the phone and said, "Hey, Haimer, I reminded you to be well prepared!"

"Fuck! Who would have thought this would happen! I've never encountered anything like this in my entire career, it's insane! Wu, do you think we need to produce another batch of copies now?"

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "No need. It's only today. The number of viewers will decrease tomorrow, and the number of copies will be more than enough."

He knew very well that this was a major characteristic of fan-driven films: exceptionally high box office returns on their opening weekend. Many fan-driven films had 9% of their opening weekend box office revenue supported by fans; once the opening weekend was over, the box office would plummet.

Fortunately, the Spider-Man movie is not included in this category. The quality of the movie itself is guaranteed. At least it is a top-notch popcorn blockbuster that can stand the test of time.

After Wu Yuchen hung up the phone, he noticed that Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly, who were standing next to him, were looking at him with shining eyes and asked with a smile, "What's wrong, sweethearts?"

"Wu! Are you God's illegitimate son? Breaking $9000 million in box office in two days, how did you do it? It's simply unbelievable!" Nicole Kidman exclaimed in amazement while hugging Wu Yuchen.

On the other side, Jennifer Connelly simply stated, "Wu is God!"

The newspapers outside are all reporting on Tobey Maguire, who plays Spider-Man, but what they know is that the initiator of the Spider-Man project is none other than the amazing man standing in front of them right now!

"Hehe, Spider-Man is a superhero known to all Americans. Compared to the many successful Superman and Batman movies, Spider-Man has not had many successful movies. Therefore, it is actually a treasure with huge potential, but no one has developed it yet."

Moreover, after 9/11, terrorists had become ingrained in the minds of all Americans. At such a time, the emergence of a superhero who fought against villains and protected the safety of citizens provided immense comfort and catharsis to the public, giving them a sense of security.

Therefore, its outbreak is perfectly reasonable!

The two women looked at Wu Yuchen with adoration as he spoke eloquently. His analysis was irrelevant to them; they would believe it even if it were nonsense. 90 million yuan in box office revenue in just two days—that achievement alone was enough to send shivers down their spines!
Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman was filled with excitement. Her agreement to accompany Wu Yuchen wasn't just because of "The Hours'" Oscar bid, but also because of Wu Yuchen's string of successes in recent years. Ultimately, for actors, isn't the goal of Oscar contention to translate into commercial value and further their careers?

Wu Yuchen, standing before us, is not only an Oscar contender, but has also achieved consecutive commercial successes in recent years. Crucially, not only is he a skilled director, but he also produces and launches projects with astonishing results. How could Nicole Kidman not be happy?
She knew that Wu Yuchen still had a lot of scripts in his collection. As long as he was willing to help her, even if she didn't win the Oscar for Best Actress, as long as the commercial film was successful, she could still remain a top Hollywood actress!
Therefore, the most important thing now is to maintain her close relationship with Wu Yuchen. She now fully understands Jennifer Connelly's thoughts; choice is far more important than effort!
Thinking of this, Nicole Kidman once again took the initiative to cling to Wu Yuchen, bursting out with an even more intense passion than before!

On Sunday, Spider-Man earned another 4023 million at the box office, bringing its total box office to a staggering 1.3 million over its opening weekend!
Sony was ecstatic about this result. Their initial expectation was to achieve half of that, or 6500 million units, which would have been satisfactory. They never expected such a huge surprise!
In his spare time these past two days, Wu Yuchen has been communicating with the Spider-Man team. In his previous life, Spider-Man's opening weekend box office also reached a record, becoming the first film to do so, but it wasn't actually this high, around 1.14 million. Now, however, it has increased by about 1600 million in opening weekend box office.

After receiving the survey report from Sony, Wu Yuchen roughly understood the reason. Among the reasons why viewers chose to watch "Spider-Man", the fact that they went to the cinema because of his name, Wu Yuchen, was surprisingly among the top five factors.

In other words, Wu Yuchen's star power added an extra 1600 million to "Spider-Man's" opening weekend box office. That's quite a lot; it's an extra 1600 million on top of the 1.14 million. There probably aren't many Hollywood directors with that kind of star power these days.

"Spider-Man sets an amazing opening weekend box office record!"

"The first film to gross over $100 million in its opening weekend in North America has been born!"

"Spider-Man sparks a viewing frenzy! Can it break Titanic's box office record?"

"Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man, is the most popular man!"

"Wu Yuchen's bold prediction has come true! Spider-Man breaks box office records!"

"Wu Yuchen has developed a trilogy plan for Spider-Man!"

The influence of "Spider-Man" is enormous. In the past few days, anything related to it has been dug up and extensively reported by the media, and readers have been enjoying reading about it.

At this time, Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and the father of Marvel, also stepped forward to give an interview. With the success of Spider-Man, he seemed to have experienced a second spring in his career. He answered each question generously:
"Yes, I'm so happy! I actually knew this day would come. Peter Parker is so beloved, and he deserves it!"

"Yes, Tobey Maguire's performance was superb, I give him a perfect 10!"

"Spider-Man has finally found the man most important to him. No, I'm not talking about Tobey Maguire, but Wu Yuchen!"
In fact, without Wu, Marvel and Spider-Man would be in a very bad situation right now. He changed our destiny; he devised the Spider-Man trilogy plan and personally initiated the project, which led to everything we see today!
Peter Parker and I are truly grateful to him!

Stan Lee's words were a mix of sincerity and flattery towards Wu Yu-chen. After all, Wu Yu-chen is now a major figure at Marvel. He also hoped Wu Yu-chen could develop more successful Marvel movies, knowing that each successful superhero film brings him, the creator, a considerable amount of money!
Stan Lee's statement naturally reached many movie fans, which in turn prompted a large group of Spider-Man fans to spontaneously express their gratitude to Wu Yuchen.

"Thank you, Director Wu Yuchen! Heaven knows how many years I've waited for 'Spider-Man'!"

"Thank you, Director Wu Yuchen! This Spider-Man film perfectly fulfilled my past fantasies about Spider-Man!"

"Thank you, Director Wu! Now I just want to urge Director Wu to start making 'Spider-Man 2' as soon as possible!"

"That's right, I can't wait to see Spider-Man 2! Thank you, Wu! Praise Wu!"

"Oh, Spider-Man is good, but to be honest, I'd love to see a sequel to Pirate King sooner. Director Wu, why don't you film Pirate King first!"

"Hey bro, this is the Spider-Man forum, not the Pirate King forum!"

"So what? I like both movies. I'm just expressing my opinion."

"Then please publish it elsewhere, thank you!"

"I agree with that guy, I'm even more looking forward to *Pirate King*! Compared to *Spider-Man*, which I've already seen in comics, the mysterious and unknown world of *Pirate King* is much more appealing, plus the interesting Captain Jack Sparrow!"

"Yeah, right! Spider-Man is ten or a hundred times better than Pirate King!"

"Hehehe, Wu personally directed and filmed 'The Pirate King,' while he handed 'Spider-Man' over to someone else. Compared to 'The Pirate King,' his own son, 'Spider-Man' can only be considered Wu's adopted son. It's obvious which one is more important!"

And just like that, an online war of words suddenly broke out between "The Pirate King" and "Spider-Man," with fans from both sides getting involved in the debate, which eventually made it into the newspapers.

Wu Yuchen himself didn't pay attention, but a reporter even came to the "The Hours" crew specifically to interview him because of this.

Wu Yuchen smiled and brushed it off: "Of course, I like both. But it's best if everyone doesn't rush me. I hope to complete them while ensuring quality."

Anyway, he won't give out the specific filming plan. The Pirate King team is still negotiating with Depp. The success of Spider-Man has also made Depp realize who the Pirate King team really can't do without.

As for Spider-Man, it has only just been released. Once Sony is done with this, I believe they will contact him to discuss sequel plans.

(End of this chapter)