Barry was behind his back, narrowing his eyes slightly, looking at Lance carefully, as if considering the meaning of Lance's words, and as if considering the feasibility of Lance's proposal. The expression hidden deep in his eyes was gently surging, making people unpredictable.

"Star Wars is a very interesting comparison." Barry did not affirm positively, but did not directly deny it. The slow words showed his hesitation and expectations. The contradictory emotions surging gently between his eyebrows.

Lance was not surprised by Barry's reaction.

In fact, when Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion in the next 2009, many industry insiders believed that Disney was playing with fire, and this move was likely to completely drag down Disney's animation kingdom. On the one hand, it was because comic superheroes mainly focused on the otaku market, while Disney animation was a representative of family happiness. Market conflicts will lead to a decline in Disney's brand effect; on the other hand, comic adapted movies are always difficult to be elegant.

Even in 2009, the comic adapted movies are still the six-vein sword that is in a different way. Since "Spider-Man" shining in 2002, nearly thirty comic adapted movies have emerged in just seven years, but few of them have achieved success. "Batman Prequel: The Mystery of the Shadow", "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" has become the successful representatives of DC, and the "Spider-Man" series, "X-Men" series, "Fantasy Four" and "Iron Man" are the works of Marvel's box office wins.

However, the box office defeat of "Fantastic Four 2" was a crushing defeat, the desolate situation of "Invincible Hulk", "Punisher", "Soul Chariot", "Daughter", "Hell Detective", "Superman Return", "Watchman" and other works were shocking. The box offices including "X-Men 3" and "Spider-Man 3" were also far lower than expected.

Many of the works lost more than 80 million, or even up to 100 million US dollars.

What's worse is that the publishing industries of the two major comic companies, Marvel and DC, are also declining. In 2009, sales of only six comic books in the United States exceeded 100,000 copies, reaching an unprecedented low.

All of this makes industry believe that comic adapted movies cannot become mainstream. As an important part of the 2D subculture, comics still have a long way to go if they want to become mainstream culture. Haven’t you seen that Superman and Batman have been popular for half a century, but they still cannot call the wind and rain in the movie world.

Therefore, many people are not optimistic about Disney's acquisition of Marvel.

It's just 2005 now, except for two "Spider-Man" and two "X-Men", the comic adaptation movies are still lacking. The reason why Warner Bros. is willing to restart the Superman and Batman projects is inspired, but it does not mean that they want to dare to break the framework and completely change the rules and cognition of the entire industry.

Most of the first people to eat crabs in history ended in death.

Therefore, Lance had long anticipated Barry's reaction. The only thing he was worried about was that Barry didn't think anything at all, and refused directly, leaving him no room for play. Now, Barry's emotions were very conflicted, some were expecting and curious, but also some rejection and hesitation. This was good news for Lance.

"So, you think the value of a comic adapted movie can be comparable to that of Star Wars." Barry's thoughts were surging in his mind, but his words did not pause much. Then he continued to ask, his eyes fell on Lance's face, and he looked carefully, unwilling to miss every detail of Lance's expression.

"Why not" Lance was very calm, and his determined eyes were not shaken at all. "When Star Wars was released, many people thought that this was just a movie that only nerds would like, but who would have thought that it had become an unshakable part of American pop culture?" Lance did not need further introduction at all. Every film practitioner clearly knew the importance of the "Star Wars" series of movies. "Star Wars built a magical and complete universe and space, fully showing the unknown and mystery of science fiction; and the same is true for DC comics, it built a fantastic but real world, showing all our dissatisfaction, expectations, and fantasies about life. Just as everyone hopes to have the Force, everyone also hopes to have superpowers, and Spider-Man's success is because of this."

"But there is a fundamental difference between a movie and a world." Barry's thoughts were still not shaken.

Lance was not in a hurry, but thought about it seriously. He knew that according to the historical trajectory, Warner Bros. not only produced Batman and Superman, but also produced "Constan Listen", "Shirt", "Green Lantern" and "Watchman". This shows that the wealthy Warner Bros. did not mind developing all the DC comics, but the problem is: these are single movies, which is strictly different from the series of movies.

A single movie means maintaining the nature of the work, and success or failure has nothing to do with other works. Warner Bros. is willing to invest in a movie, but is unwilling to make a series of movies. The reason is simple: they still have doubts about comic adaptations, and they don’t want to be in one go. The failure of a work leads to chain failure, especially if they don’t want to affect the ace projects Batman and Superman.

So, Lance sorted out his thoughts and changed his perspective to explain, "This is not an essential difference, but a difference in the perspective of the problem. For example, we want to shoot a Justice League movie, but because the Justice League movies have many roles, they are directly invested in shooting, with chaotic clues, huge frameworks, complex content, and very difficult to control. If you don't pay attention, you will easily fail. So let's take a step back, first shoot the movies of Superman and Batman, then shoot the works of Wonder Woman and the Flash, and then launch the Justice League. After the Justice League wins the box office, the separate works of Green Lantern, Aquaman and Cyborg will be brought to the big screen. Of course, it is mainly based on the audience's reaction. We will shoot the works of which character is popular."

Barry understood Lance's idea, but he was still full of doubts, "What's the difference?"

"The difference lies in two points. First, these characters share the same worldview, and each movie is related to each other and lays the foundation, thus outlining a complete and unified cinematic universe. The characters can interact, and the plot can add easter eggs to each other, help each other, and form a huge system." Lance did not have enough time to read all DC comics. Now all ideas come from the ideas of the Marvel Universe in the previous life, but in 2005, this idea was not only bold, but also advanced, enough to shock everyone's understanding of the movie.

"Secondly, we can form a series of movies. The characters in the Justice League can withdraw and then add new members. After the original members leave, they can return to make guest appearances." Lance did not explain in detail, but he believed that Barry could understand it quickly. This is also one of the characteristics of the film industry: it is irreplaceable without actors.

For example, Spider-Man's actors have been replaced for three generations, and for example, "Avengers" eliminated certain characters and added certain characters to keep the series alive. Everything is mainly based on movies and company interests.

Barry's pupils bloomed slightly. In this brief conversation just now, Lance built a magnificent world for him, far more magnificent than "Star Wars", far more magnificent than "Harry Potter", and far more incredible than "Spider-Man" or "X-Men".

If all this succeeds, it can be built to build a comics kingdom that is even larger than Disney. But all this is just if. As the CEO of Warner Bros., Barry is one of the boldest senior executives in Hollywood. He can see that the hidden benefits behind this project are definitely calculated in units of tens of billions; but Barry knows more clearly how huge the risks are.

According to Reims, the entire DC universe needs at least five movies to complete. This is just the first phase. Each movie invests an average of $150 million, plus publicity and related planning costs. This is a billion dollar project.

When Barry provided Lance with a project worth 300 million, he thought it would shock Lance's world. For Chaos Pictures, which had just started his career, it could definitely be called an out of reach. But unexpectedly, in return, Lance gave him a project worth 1 billion, and his every move surprised Barry.

No top company will act rashly when facing a project that costs one billion yuan, because it will affect the whole body, and the cost will be one billion yuan, but the potential possibility of losses will increase exponentially. Don’t you see how many CEOs are directly laid off because of a work that costs $100 million, let alone ten times the risk.

What's more, whether comic adapted movies are worth long-term investments, the entire Hollywood is currently waiting and watching. Successful cases are certainly gratifying, but failure cases are emerging one after another, and the risks are so great that almost everyone is cautious.

Warner Bros. is willing to restart the Superman and Batman projects. With the comic adaptation just recovering, they are already the pioneers of Hollywood. Compared with the cautious 20th Century Fox and Sony Columbia, Warner Bros. is really a bit big. Whether it is Superman or Batman, if any project fails, it is a consequence that Warner Bros. cannot bear even a giant crocodile like Warner Bros., even if it is a giant.

To put it more closely, if Lance's billion project is wrong in one link or a work, it will be wiped out. Moreover, "billion" is just a rough estimate of the first stage. Not to mention that there is a second stage, the third stage, and the first stage alone may further increase in costs due to changes in various projects. For example, the budget for "Superman Return" is 300 million. This also means that Lance proposed a project lightly, which is likely to consume 2 billion in the first stage.

Even Barry had a ridiculous idea at this time: Could it be that Lance was a lunatic to be continued?

...
Chapter completed!