With the big threat taken care of, Ronin felt a huge weight lift off his chest.
The Winston premiere night should have been perfect, but that short bastard had ruined the vibe. Still, Walton got exactly what he deserved. No one would be jumping him with random attacks anymore.
He really needed to think about moving. Right now, he had no idea who else knew where he lived. So far he could name Lucy, Thomas, Walton, the Falcon Special Forces… and oh yeah, Tony. The guy had planted a tracker in the Soldier: 76 suit, so he definitely knew the address.
He wasn't sure if Walton had any partners left. Maybe he should've left one of them alive for questioning, but things had been too chaotic at the time—no room for overthinking.
"Why am I even worrying about this? Nobody who can actually kill me has been born yet."
Ronin decided he was overthinking things. Once he activated Winston's transformation form, he'd be able to sleep easy.
Yesterday's Winston opening day had pulled in $800 million at the global box office!
For comparison, Soldier: 76 had opened to $600 million. It looked like Winston was on track to smash another new record. As for the domestic U.S. numbers? No question—it was steamrolling everything in its path.
What else was even playing at the same time?
The Strongest Soldier, God Leg Hero, Scorpion Man—a bunch of knockoff superhero flicks all trying to ride the Soldier: 76 wave. Every single one of them had turned out embarrassingly bad.
Ronin checked the numbers. Besides Winston setting a new high, none of the other films had even broken $300 million on opening day.
He had to hand it to those studios—they had some serious guts releasing right alongside Winston, with only a five-day gap.
When audiences bought tickets, they naturally picked the movie that looked worth their money. As long as someone had decent taste, they'd almost always choose Winston. Of course, there were always the hardcore movie buffs who wanted to watch everything that was out, but in the end they'd still end up becoming fans of Overwatch Films.
Ronin had total confidence in the quality of his movies. Top-tier script, top-tier equipment, top-tier effects, top-tier cast… everything was the absolute best. Sure, the budget was high—Winston alone had cost $500 million to shoot, not counting marketing. Most studios couldn't even imagine spending that much, and whether they'd make it back was always a gamble.
Ronin never worried about that. Once the movie was made, the only question was how much it would earn. Losing money simply wasn't on the table.
Douban was flooded with glowing reviews, though there were still the usual paid trolls mindlessly trashing it.
"Winston's effects look like trash. Movies from five years ago had better CGI."
"Winston is pure hype. The actual movie quality is nowhere near as good, especially the acting—it's so stiff and amateurish."
"Winston is the dumbest movie I've ever seen. Genetically modified gorillas that can talk? Give me a break. If it's that easy, go ahead and modify me so I get gorilla strength."
...
Were these paid trolls even trying? They couldn't hit a single real weakness. The best special effects in the world, and they're calling them trash? Globally acclaimed actors, and they're saying the acting sucks? Sci-fi movies are literally about imagining the future, and they're complaining about that too?
Of course, no matter how loud the trolls got, the real fans drowned them out. Countless moviegoers jumped in to clap back, and the trolls fought every step of the way. But the second the $800 million opening day number dropped, the trolls went completely silent.
Hard numbers from the most reliable sources proved Winston was a great movie—at least commercially. Picking nits at that point was pointless.
As Ronin scrolled, one very familiar username popped up: DouQiHuaMa!
Oh! It was that same Doudi-level user who had hyped Winston to the skies after seeing nothing but the trailer.
This time the Doudi posted: "So where did all you haters go? Face slapped yet?"
He had predicted Winston would surpass Soldier: 76 and tackle deeper themes. And sure enough, the movie really did explore the conflict between human civilization and technological evolution—a pretty thoughtful topic.
No one argued back in the comments anymore. It was all praise: "Anyone who can reach Doudi level really knows their stuff—respect!" "Clearly the OP has an amazing eye for films. He could tell what the full movie was about just from the trailer. So… any movie recommendations, boss?"
The Doudi was clearly loving the validation and happily chatted away with his fans.
DouQiHuaMa—terrifying as always!
Besides that, tons of regular fans posted honest reviews sharing how they really felt after watching. The loudest complaint was the same one Pepper had mentioned—they all wished Dr. Harold Winston hadn't died, saying the ending would have felt more complete.
Honestly, they were all thinking like regular audience members. Viewers naturally want a happy, tidy ending: the couple gets married, the best friend stays by the hero's side, the bad guys all die while the good guys live…
That kind of ending is nice, but it doesn't leave a deep impression.
Filmmakers, on the other hand, aren't telling fairy tales—they're reflecting reality.
Fairy tales are usually beautiful. Reality is often cruel. Movies are like mirrors that show real life, so endings can't always be perfectly happy. If they were, there'd be no point.
People experience joy and sorrow, parting and reunion. The moon waxes and wanes.
From ancient times until now, nothing has ever been absolutely perfect. That's exactly why people keep striving to turn the imperfect parts into something better.
Seeing all these heartfelt reactions made Ronin genuinely happy. As a filmmaker, knowing people appreciated his work was the best encouragement he could ask for.
He gave himself a little pep talk. He needed to move Iron Man into production as soon as possible. Time waited for no one. Before all the big disasters started hitting, he had to level himself up as much as possible—and that meant activating more Overwatch hero transformation forms.
Every new hero he unlocked was one more layer of insurance.
All he could do was speed things up without hurting the movie's quality.
Making Iron Man was mostly about building a real friendship with Tony. At most he'd make some money off it—he wouldn't get any hero transformation from it. There was no way filming Iron Man would unlock Iron Man's form. Tony would probably have an existential crisis if that happened.
Still, getting to know Tony seemed pretty necessary right now. Ronin glanced at the damaged Soldier: 76 armor case. Fixing that thing would definitely need Tony's help.
He stretched, picked up the Iron Man script from the table, gave it one last read-through to make sure everything was solid, then slipped it into his briefcase. After that, he called Thomas.
A few minutes later, a car horn sounded outside.
"That was fast?"
Ronin paused, then went to open the door.
A black sedan was parked out front. A sharply dressed man in a suit stepped out and gave him a small, polite smile.
The guy wasn't Black, so it definitely wasn't Thomas.
Ronin's brain caught up instantly. Phil Coulson? S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Holy crap—they'd locked onto him this quickly?
That didn't make sense! He didn't have any superpowers, he hadn't blown his cover, and he was just a laid-back CEO. If they were going after anyone, it should be Thomas. What the hell was this?
There was zero logic to it!
(New week, please send recommendation tickets—I really want to hit the charts…)