America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 449 Don't Force Me to Shoot

Manhattan, New York.

Ted, wearing a jacket, turned into a cafe, walked to the corner and sat opposite a black boy.

The black boy smiled at him with two rows of white teeth: "Coke God Cult Forever! Long live the leader!"

Ted responded, "Long live Master Martin!"

"I know you. You are the leader of a fan club." After confirming that the code matched, the black boy asked, "You can't get the goods either?"

“There’s no way. There’s a total shortage of stock in the North American market. I have several overseas clients who watched The Dark Knight last weekend and particularly liked the Joker. They wanted to buy a handmade statue of the Joker but couldn’t find one.” For the sake of his work, Ted even gave his own statues to his clients.

The black boy exclaimed: "The Joker is so popular, and the handmade statues are selling so well, it's hard to get the goods."

Ted simply asked directly: "Do you have any goods?"

The black boy looked around, as if he was worried that someone would come and rob him. He carefully lifted his coat, took out a black cloth bag from his armpit, opened it and placed it in front of Ted.

Ted looked at the goods carefully, which included limited edition hand-carved clown figures and Coca-Cola Cult clown statues.

The black boy stared at the people in the cafe vigilantly. Based on the current market situation in North America, these limited edition clown handmade statues and figures are all hard currency that is difficult to buy even with extra money.

Ted picked up a statue and a strange smell made his nose uncomfortable: "Why does it smell strange?"

The black boy was not embarrassed either: "Special period, special transportation method. Who do you think dares to walk on the street with Martin's clown statue? This is New York, it may be robbed at any time!"

He quickly lowered his voice: "Just spray more perfume and it will be solved."

Ted had no choice but to ask, "How much?"

The black boy said, "The action figure is $2200, and the Coke God version sculpture is $5500. No bargaining!"

Ted's eyes widened when he heard this.

The black boy picked up the statue and showed Ted the bottom of the foot. "It's a joint edition of Martin and Lily Carter. Warner Bros. has only released a few thousand of them in total, and there are more than 3 million people in the United States."

Ted thought about the customer's needs and gritted his teeth: "Okay, I want to trade now."

The black boy received the money and said, "I'll give you a piece of advice. Get your stuff ready before you leave."

Ignoring the strong smell, Ted packed the bag in a black cloth, stuffed it under his coat, zipped it up, and then walked out.

The statue is not only a limited edition, but also a flavored edition.

Before he walked out of the street, Ted saw a man in a shabby suit with clown paint on his face coming towards him. He turned and walked into the convenience store.

Thinking of the recent frequent clown robberies, he quickly crossed the street and went to the other side, away from the convenience store entrance.

As soon as the clown opened the convenience store door, he pulled out a revolver and pointed it at the owner and cashier, shouting, "Take out the money, take out all the money, I just want money, I don't want to hurt anyone!"

The boss is not the kind of person who values ​​money over his life, so he opened the cash register and took out money.

Seeing the boss's cooperation, the clown felt a little relieved. He looked around and saw the Coke Cult version of the clown statue behind the counter. He immediately lost interest in the money.

He pointed the gun at the boss with one hand and pointed at the statue with the other: "Give it to me!"

The boss paused, seeming reluctant.

The Joker yelled, "Hurry up, don't make me shoot!"

The boss picked up the limited edition handmade clown statue very reluctantly, handed it to the clown with one hand, and quietly reached under the counter with the other hand.

The clown took the statue and was overjoyed. This thing could be sold for several thousand dollars on the black market, which was much more than the money in the cash register.

He also knew how to inspect the goods. He turned over the clown and looked at the soles of his feet. One foot was engraved with "Martin" and the other foot was engraved with "Lily Carter".

Yes, the real thing!
Just when the clown was distracted while inspecting the goods, the boss took out a pistol from under the counter and shot the clown in the chest, which was the biggest target.

Bang bang bang!
In an instant, the pistol magazine was empty, and the clown fell to the ground with blood all over his body.

The boss changed the magazine, walked out of the counter with the gun, kicked the clown's revolver aside, made sure he was not a threat, called the police, picked up his statue, and wiped the blood off it with a tissue.

He glanced at the clown robber on the ground and said sternly, "You can steal my money, but you can't steal my Martin the Clown statue!"

The Clown Mugger made a strange gurgling sound in his throat, and then fell silent.

The boss didn't dare to keep the statue in the store anymore, and quickly put it in the safe at the back, waiting for the NYPD to come. Since he had surveillance cameras in his store, he wasn't particularly worried.

…………

Brooklyn Studios, New York.

The crew of Martin Scorsese's new project "Shutter Island" has officially been formed. In addition to Leonardo, the second male lead Mark Ruffalo also joined the crew in advance to experience life and prepare for the role. Outside the studio, Ruffalo received a call from a friend: "I was in the same crew with Martin, but he was still in Atlanta at the time. He was just an extra and didn't have the habit of giving gifts to the crew, so I don't have a hand-carved clown statue in my hand."

The friend said, "Please find a way to get one for me. I have three children at home, and they all want a clown. I have money but no way to buy one. I've heard people mention that many of Lily Carter's handmade clown statues on the black market are from Hollywood crew members who have worked with Martin."

Hearing this, Ruffalo thought of his partner on this project and said, "I'll give it a try."

The popularity of clowns was so high, and the children in the family loved them very much. The man could only say, "Mark, please."

Ruffalo hung up the phone, entered the studio, and found Leonardo, who was alone in a daze: "Hi, Leo."

Leonardo nodded at him: "Depending on the scene?"

"No." Ruffalo smiled embarrassedly: "I need your help with something."

He said directly: "I have a few friends who want Martin's Joker statue, the Joker from The Dark Knight, but they can't buy it on the market. Even if they have money, they can't find a suitable channel..."

Leonardo laughed: "Martin, that bastard, got rich! His little sister got rich too!"

Ruffalo asked curiously, "Do you know Lily Carter?"

"I know her." Leonardo had collected a lot of artworks, so he had some appreciation ability: "She has a talent for carving... no, I should say she has an excellent talent for handwork."

He was quite generous: "How many do you want?"

Ruffalo knew that Joker statues were extremely popular, and from what Leonardo said, it seemed like he had a lot of them? But he knew what he was doing and didn't ask for more: "Do you have four?"

Three are for friends, and one is for myself: "I pay..."

"Don't mention money to me. I have a lot of these little things of Martin's." Leonardo put some of them in his house in New York: "Here, I'll bring them to you this afternoon."

Ruffalo quickly said: "Thank you so much, Leo, you helped me solve a big problem."

"You're welcome." Leonardo thought to himself that the items in his collection might be able to be exchanged for a lot of money, but there was no need for that, so he decided to keep them.

After Ruffalo left happily, Leonardo found Martin Scorsese.

He was shocked to find that the old man was holding a piece of cotton cloth and wiping the clown statue that the bastard Martin had given him.

Leonardo asked, "Do you like clowns too?"

"The character that Martin created is really good, it's a classic." Scorsese pointed to the statue and said, "I didn't look at it carefully before, but now I realize that the carving is really good."

Leonardo was helpless: "You are influenced by the media."

"Don't you think Martin Garnolan has taken publicity and marketing to the extreme?" Scorsese said meaningfully.

Leonardo had worked with him for many years, so he understood clearly that he was being disliked.

He said: "There aren't many people like Martin in Hollywood! He's thicker-skinned than me and Jack put together."

Scorsese thought about his own marriage and was full of motivation. He urged him, "Leo, you have to work hard on this!"

"Isn't it just to stir up trouble? I'm no worse than Martin." Leonardo decided to stand up for once: "I came to you just to ask for leave and go back to Los Angeles. Warner Bros. is going to hold a celebration party for The Dark Knight. Martin has achieved such good commercial results this time, it would be unreasonable for me not to go."

The point is not here. He continued, "Recently, I have been frequently exposed to information related to patients in mental hospitals, and I have to experience life on the spot. If I don't go back to relax, in a few months, Martin and Jack will really come to visit me at the Presbyterian Hospital."

"Sure, you can go back and relax for a while." Scorsese suddenly changed the subject: "When you see Martin, ask me for a statue of the Joker that Lily Carter has recently carved."

Leonardo was surprised: "How come I didn't realize that you are also a fan of celebrities?"

Scorsese coughed and said, "Everyone has their youth. Although I am old, my heart is still young."

Leonardo agreed immediately.

In the afternoon, he brought a Joker statue and gave it to Ruffalo. That night, he took a private flight back to Los Angeles to give Martin and Jack a surprise at the celebration party for The Dark Knight.

When The Dark Knight's North American box office exceeded $3 million and the global box office exceeded $5 million, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., as the producer and distributor, announced that they would hold a grand celebration party for the film and invited many celebrities to attend.

In addition to the box office, the film also earned astonishing revenue from peripheral products, with the total revenue from various peripheral products exceeding 7000 million US dollars.

In particular, various products related to clowns have become the leaders in peripheral sales.

Compared to the box office, this part of the revenue and profit is frighteningly high.

He can earn 20% gross profit from all peripheral products that use Martin's image rights. The income from this item alone may reach tens of millions of dollars by the end of the year.

Of course, this more adult-oriented movie cannot be compared with Disney's top children's works. Elsa's skirt once sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.

(End of this chapter)