America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 448 Too Bully

Outside the Museum of Modern Art, Martin received a call from Lily. After a few words, he got into the car driven by Bruce: "Go to the east employee entrance."

Bruce drove over in the Escalade, and as soon as the car stopped, Lily ran out of the door and got into the back seat.

Martin glanced at her and naturally switched to an Atlanta accent: "You're not that stupid, you idiot. You didn't foolishly run to the exhibition hall. You retreated in advance and didn't give him the chance to see you."

Lily was a little unconvinced, but she didn't refute. Instead, she reminded him, "Hey, you told me that swearing is not good. I don't swear anymore, but you're still swearing."

Seeing that she had indeed grown up, Martin said, "From now on, I won't call you an idiot. At most, I'll call you a fool."

"I'm not stupid." Lily muttered, "I'm still a little smart. I sold those junks I used for practice for hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Martin turned and looked at her.

Lily thought Martin was trying to take her money, so she quickly said, "The money hasn't reached me yet. The college has to deduct taxes and a large amount of operating expenses. I may not even get a hundred thousand dollars."

Martin didn’t want to rob Lily of her money, so he said, “Stay away from the Affleck brothers in the future.”

Although there was a bodyguard following her secretly, Lily still had better avoid dealing with those bad people.

Lily nodded repeatedly: "I understand."

Martin said to Bruce who was driving, "Let's find a place to eat and send her back after dinner." He then said to Lily, "If you are willing to go to my new house to clean, I have no objection."

This time, Lily rushed to say, "Old Bull, I'll treat you and Martin to a big meal!"

Bruce knew what was going on and just found a mid-range restaurant.

After getting off the car, Lily made a lot of money again. She walked with her heels floating and hummed a few songs from time to time. She couldn't help showing off and asked Martin: "Should I call Elena and tell her about this, so that she knows that I have made a lot of money again?"

Then she had another thought: "No, I'm going to take a red-eye flight to Atlanta tonight so I can tell her in person."

Martin never hesitated to hit her: "You will feel the hardness of Elena's fist."

Lily, who was originally in a good mood, suddenly became depressed and regretted treating everyone tonight.

Martin gave a blow, but also a sweet treat, saying, "Because the Joker is so popular, Warner Bros. will start to promote the full launch of Joker peripherals this weekend, and will publicly announce that they are the painstaking work of you, an outstanding female sculptor."

When Lily heard that there was money to be made, her depression disappeared immediately and she was overjoyed: "I'm going to make money again."

Martin said, "You are a money-grubber now."

Lily said, "I want to make a lot of money and buy a house bigger than your new home in the future!"

Martin was a man who said, “It’s okay, I will continue to invite you to clean the two big houses, and you will be very happy.”

Lily suddenly regretted coming to Los Angeles. It was completely different from what she had imagined.

…………

The black Ford Mustang roared, turned off Santa Monica Boulevard, entered the community and stopped on the side of the road.

Casey Affleck got out of the car and entered the house. As soon as he pushed open the door of the main house, he saw six sculptures placed in a prominent position in the living room. Some of them were made of plaster, some were stone, and some were wood. They were all masterpieces of art that he bought at a high price.

Originally, the idea of ​​placing it in the living room was to invite the creator to my home, make her feel valued, take the opportunity to control her, and then get more.

Now Cassie felt that these carvings were just a naked mockery.

He didn't get angry. He walked out of the main house slowly, went into the tool room, and took out a hammer and an axe.

Holding an axe in one hand and a hammer in the other, Cassie returned to the main house, first went to the plaster sculpture, swung the hammer and smashed it with a bang.

The plaster shattered and white powder flew all over Cassie's head.

But Cassie didn't care and swung the axe at the wood carving again. The wood carving fell to the ground with a bang, and a deep wound appeared on the surface.

He used the axe and hammer at the same time, and the hardwood carving soon turned into several pieces of broken wood.

Cassie was breathing rapidly, but still seemed very calm. She even put down the hammer and axe, went to the refrigerator, took out a can of cold beer, opened it and drank half of it.

Feeling his breathing become smoother, he picked up the tool, aimed at the next marble sculpture, and smashed it down.

It took Cassie a full hour to completely smash the six sculptures she had bought into garbage.

Maybe everyone has different ways of venting when they are depressed. After smashing these junk, Cassie felt inexplicably better.

Out of sight out of mind.

He sat down on the sofa, picked up the remaining half can of beer and drank it slowly, took the remote control next to him, turned on the TV, and Warner TV appeared on the screen. Cassie read a few entertainment news, and the report suddenly turned to the popular "Dark Knight".

"It is reported that this weekend, clown statues and figurines based on Martin Davis will be on sale. All the peripheral products are designed and sculpted by the young talented sculptor Lily Carter. Also on sale is a limited edition clown statue sculpted by Lily Carter herself..."

"Although Lily Carter is only 19 years old, she is extremely talented and has won awards in many sculpture competitions. Top artists such as Jack Nicholson, Leonardo Dicaprio, Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston and Meryl Streep all have her works in their collections!"

"Mr. Jones, deputy director of the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art and an expert in art auctions, believes that Lily Carter's works are already worth collecting and will appreciate in value in the future."

The beer can in Cassie's hand fell to the ground with a thud. She looked at the garbage all over the living room, feeling like crying but unable to cry.

He had seen similar art hype before. Maybe Lily Carter's work would appreciate in value in the future?

Now, he has smashed them all into garbage!
Cassie leaned back and lay on the sofa, like a super sensitive literary youth, with two lines of tears flowing from her red eyes.

This Lily Carter is such a bully!
Cassie wiped her eyes and more tears flowed.

The cell phone rang, Cassie quickly wiped away her tears and answered the call.

The person who called was Da Ben: "The exhibition is over, have you finished it?"

"Not yet, give me some more time." It was too embarrassing for Cassie to tell Ben, so she simply asked back, "Is your side going well?"

Ben said: "I went to the Adler School of Acting and gave them two acting classes, but I didn't see Elizabeth Olsen. I asked Judi Dench to help find out. Since that bastard Martin Davis returned to Los Angeles from New York, she has never attended acting classes again."

Cassie immediately grasped the key: "A little girl whose mind is full of love."

Big Ben thought more: "I think we may have attracted the attention of Martin Davis. Cassie, don't mess around. Stay calm for the time being."

Cassie looked at the garbage on the ground, sighed, and said, "I won't go to see Lily Carter again recently. She... is very unusual."

The two brothers didn't say much and hung up the phone quickly.

…………

As more and more people watch The Dark Knight, the film's enduring popularity has become a social phenomenon.

Just like the big ships and Star Wars back then, the topic people discuss after dinner always revolves around the Dark Knight.

And the Joker is the focus of the hot spot.

In the second weekend of The Dark Knight's release, riding on the almost crazy popularity, the Joker series of peripheral products were fully launched in North America.

This weekend, long lines formed in front of many toy stores in North America that have signed sales agreements with Warner. The Joker-related products that had just been put on the shelves were sold out, and the business phone of the crew studio was directly bombarded with calls.

Not to mention the mass-produced Joker peripherals which aren't very expensive, even the hand-carved versions co-signed by Lily Carter and Martin and priced at thousands of dollars have all been sold out.

There is also the practice of selling at a higher price in the market.

Especially the hand-carved ones, you can earn hundreds of dollars if you grab one.

Among them, the hand-carved clown wearing a red T-shirt of the Coca-Cola Cult was originally priced at US$2499, but the price was raised to US$5000 online.

After street painters in North America made a fortune by taking advantage of the popularity of clowns, a new profession emerged - dealers who resell or buy up handmade clown statues.

In addition, after the diary scandal broke out, many fans wanted to purchase and collect Martin's handwritten "Real Joker Diary", but Martin refused them all.

Warner Bros. immediately announced that it would print "The Joker's Diary" to meet the needs of movie fans.

The popularity of Joker peripherals is due to market heat on the one hand, and the hunger marketing adopted by Warner Bros. on the other.

Topics such as shelves being cleared out, shortages in the market and high prices being sought for sale have further boosted the popularity and fame of the Dark Knight.

In particular, those posts online where people are paying thousands of dollars to buy limited edition hand-carved Jokers are constantly published and forwarded by the media, easily attracting more people's attention.

This weekend, a large number of audiences still went to the theaters to continue watching The Dark Knight.

The film's North American box office performance was steady, earning another $8514 million the following weekend, retaining the North American box office crown. The cumulative North American box office reached $3.38 million!
In line with the high box office, the film’s reputation is extremely strong, with the Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating remaining above 95% and an IMDB score of 9.6, squeezing out “The Godfather” and “The Shawshank Redemption” to rank first on the IMDB movie TOP list.

Also this weekend, The Dark Knight hits overseas markets including Europe, Australia, Latin America and East Asia.

Although Batman's influence overseas is far less than that in North America, the popularity of the Joker has spread, and it still earned $1.66 million in its first weekend overseas.

Even the most conservative market estimates put The Dark Knight's global box office at over $10 billion.

(End of this chapter)