Ch.3112.3 billion dollars

2.3 billion dollars.

Ranked 4th in all-time box office.

This meant it had surpassed the classic masterpiece <Titanic>.

And its revenue was ahead of all movies except for the <Avatar> series and <Endgame>.

Tremble tremble tremble.

“M-my body… I can’t control it.”

As the reality began to sink in, my body started shaking uncontrollably.

“Ohhh… I-I’m starting to shake too.”

“M-me too!”

<Murciélago>, being the film that opened Batman’s first series, naturally had enormous investment poured into it, and all of it was spent.

Particularly, a lot of money went into marketing.

If it hadn’t shown good results, the losses would have been substantial.

But now.

Those sleepless nights spent worrying “What if it fails?” were being rewarded all at once, causing my fingers and toes to curl involuntarily.

“S-so… could it reach 3 billion… dollars?”

Someone blurted out amid the commotion.

“W-what? 3 billion dollars…?”

“Then it would be the highest-grossing film of all time…?!”

“Beating Avatar…?”

3 billion dollars.

About 4.4 trillion won.

4.4 trillion from a single film?

Is that even a realistic figure?

Tap tap tap tap tap.

Inside the heads of the Warner Brothers executives in the meeting room,

calculators dedicated purely to business were busily crunching numbers.

The results came quickly.

“I heard Donghu Kim gave quite a lot of advice on this film production. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“…Then let’s continue that arrangement. No, actually, let’s officially include it in the contract.”

Securing Kim Donghu was non-negotiable.

Not securing him wasn’t even an option.

“From today, many film studios… especially! Disney, those guys will be after our Donghu Kim. They’ll offer him any position without hesitation.”

“That’s right. They’ll try to take our actor!”

Strictly speaking, Kim Donghu’s Hollywood debut was <Tarzan>,

so his first affiliation could be said to be with Disney.

But that wasn’t particularly important to Warner Brothers.

Now Kim Donghu was simply “our actor.”

Of course.

“They’ll be targeting the fact that we haven’t signed a series contract yet!”

“Money is… meaningless at this point. Of course we’ll offer the best terms, but that’s not an extremely important factor for actors of Donghu Kim’s caliber.”

There was some anxiety because the contract hadn’t been signed yet.

“We need to provide many conveniences. Starting with visas, of course… making it possible for his family to visit anytime…”

“More than that, what about opening Hollywood routes for other Veritas actors too?”

“From what I know, Donghu Kim is the actual head of Veritas. He also has shares… so he would like that.”

“No, no! I mean we need to provide more direct conveniences to Donghu Kim himself!”

House? He has one.

Private jet? He has one.

Car? Actually, this didn’t even need to be mentioned.

As soon as the film succeeded,

car companies gifted Kim Donghu all the cars that appeared in <Murciélago>.

They planned to promote them with a hefty “Batmobile” premium.

“Doesn’t he already have everything?”

“…This is really dangerous.”

An actor who has everything.

If such an actor wasn’t famous yet, they could fill in what was lacking.

But now they had reached a stage where there was nothing more to provide.

In other words.

“It’s become really simple now.”

“What?”

“Our fate is determined simply by whether Donghu Kim does it or not.”

It meant the direction of all future series would be determined by a single actor.

“Ah.”

At Director Christo’s words, the executives widened their eyes.

And simultaneously realized how wrong their thinking had been.

“…It’s not about whether we lose him or not.”

“Let’s remove the exclusivity clause. We shouldn’t place any restrictions on his film activities.”

“Let’s remove all restrictions. Just ask him to be careful about spoilers…”

If it earned 2.3 billion dollars,

it would be stupid to assume he’d naturally continue with the next series.

Even that could be overturned in Hollywood.

The cold reality closed the calculator they had been tapping on.

The next series? Title? The conclusion of Batman vs Joker?

Even if they prepared all that.

Of course, it wouldn’t happen, but.

What if Donghu Kim simply said “I don’t want to”?

‘Everything ends, no investment, no sponsorship.’

DC was currently experiencing an unprecedented boom.

Any Batman-related DC comics were selling like hotcakes.

The comic version of <Murciélago> was already sold out even for pre-orders of pre-orders.

They had also announced plans for an animation.

Announcing the creation of a new universe centered around <Murciélago> was just the beginning.

Many employees were already working behind the scenes.

Not only that.

In cosplay, Batman was everywhere.

‘Jean Wayne’,

young, rich, handsome, and physically fit.

This perfect hero had firmly established himself as a new hero in people’s hearts.

What this meant was

that children loved him.

It meant potential customers were emerging, and they could also target their parents’ wallets.

“Obviously, starting with cereal advertisements…”

“We can include hamburger toys, and actual toys too.”

“Actually, handguns are selling well in the firearms market right now. Especially ones with longer barrels…”

“Tonfa demand is also increasing. We’re being flooded with collaboration inquiries from self-defense companies.”

“From character t-shirts to… Lego… figures… we can expand into virtually every industry.”

“There are phones too, and even games are going crazy.”

“Games?”

“Yes, like appearance mods for Cyberpunk Johnny as Jean Wayne Batman… or customizing V…”

“Or GTA Jean Wayne… with so many character customization options, everyone wants to be Jean Wayne.”

This wasn’t because <Murciélago>’s story and direction were historically great.

It was because a single actor perfectly brought it all together.

But what if that actor simply says he doesn’t want to do it?

“Everything we just mentioned disappears depending on Donghu Kim’s decision.”

“It becomes just a one-off film… and we’ll get tons of criticism.”

You’re letting go of Kim Donghu? Giving up on Jean Wayne?

How dare you?

Don’t ever think about reviving.

You idiots who crush any hope of recovery.

They already knew what people would say.

Moreover, losing Kim Donghu meant losing more than just Batman.

They would lose the Joker too.

The Joker-related business was also enormous.

So what should they do?

What measures should they take?

How could they appeal to Kim Donghu?

Warner Brothers reset the direction of their meeting.

And the answer emerged simply.

“Let’s use public opinion.”

“Public opinion?”

“Yes, first we show positive public opinion… say we really want to work together… and then use our strongest card.”

“Strongest card? What’s that?”

“Visit Korea.”

“You mean go to Korea?”

“Yes, go there… enjoy their culture… appeal to them, saying Warner Brothers loves Korea… wants Batman…”

“Wait, are you seriously suggesting this? You really want to do this?”

“Yes.”

“That’s insane nonsense, let’s do it right away. Prepare to go to Korea.”

Why don’t Native American rain dances fail?

Because they keep doing them until they succeed.

“We’re going with the prayer meta.”

1. Just go to Korea.

That was their conclusion.

++++++

January 2024.

Even though <Murciélago> was no longer in theaters,

Jean Wayne’s story was still on everyone’s lips.

“…So you’re saying we should completely take a backseat to boxing.”

UFC president Dayzon White,

also known as President Baek, was reading an unpleasant proposal.

“It’s not taking a backseat. We’re just saying since this match involves two organizations, the stakes are high.”

“…So you’re saying to postpone the UFC match?”

“Yes, that’s right. Otherwise, we’ll just withdraw from this match.”

The boxing organizations WBA and WBC.

And UFC.

A situation where the heavyweight champions from these three organizations were trying to unify into one.

But the problem was that boxing and MMA were completely different disciplines.

So they couldn’t settle it with just one match.

The proposal was to have two matches:

One boxing match.

One MMA match to determine the format.

The gap between them would be about 6 months.

So if they held a match in June 2024,

the next match would be at the end of the year.

Naturally, most attention would be on the first match.

Everyone wanted to go first.

But here, the boxing organizations were numerous,

while UFC was alone, so they were naturally at a disadvantage in determining the match order.

Of course, they included a clause stating it could change according to the fighter’s wishes,

but with boxing being more profitable, no fighter would refuse.

So finally.

“…Then we’ll do it that way.”

“You’ve made a good decision. Really.”

Boxing and MMA agreed to hold matches in sequence.

June 2024.

News about the boxing match between Kim Donghu and Zain Lance spread rapidly.

In 2024, heating up again with Kim Donghu news,

at this moment, the person in question was currently:

“…I didn’t know you had a habit of scratching backs like this.”

“Oh, o-oppa was… being too rough so that’s why! I-I asked you to be g-gentle!”

“Says the one who seduced me by doing the splits.”

“…I-I heard this feels good.”

He was having that kind of time with Catwoman.