Robert Iger came to see Gilbert, and of course, it wasn't about fishing or chatting casually—he had more important matters to discuss with Gilbert.
"The performance of Edgerunners is impressive. Do you have any ideas for the future plans?" Robert Iger asked.
"Of course," Gilbert replied. "In fact, Edgerunners is just a side story. The reason we released it in the first place was to test the market's acceptance.
"The results show that, although cyberpunk isn't mainstream pop culture, it still has a huge market.
"Later, we'll return to movies to tell the full story, and it won't just focus on a single character's story."
"What about series?" Robert Iger asked. "Will Melon Studios have more series production projects in the future?"
Disney's entertainment business includes not only movies and theme parks, but also animation and series production. However, Disney's series production hasn't been outstanding and ranks mid-tier among Hollywood giants.
As far as he recalled, Disney's series production only gained momentum after acquiring Marvel and Lucasfilm, producing a series of well-received shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Loki, and The Mandalorian.
Gilbert responded, "I don't rule out future plans, but Melon Studios' core business is still movie production.
"I can't exactly have Sofia or Nolan, or even Zack Snyder, directing series, can I?"
Almost no one qualified to direct movies would choose to make series. Apart from people like Woody Allen, whose mind works differently, and Spielberg, who owes favors, Gilbert also had to maintain quality control.
In reality, due to the pandemic in the previous timeline, the movie market shrank significantly for a period. Many Hollywood directors had no choice but to join the series market, and once the movie market recovered, they returned to the big screen.
Robert Iger considered this and smiled: "How's Chris' District 9 coming along?"
"I heard it's filming in South Africa and is nearly completed," Gilbert said. "It should make it for next year's summer schedule, and then we'll decide based on next year's calendar."
Originally, Gilbert had intended to personally direct District 9. To make an excuse, he had even accompanied Charlize Theron to Johannesburg a few times.
However, work became too busy, leaving no time, so he handed it over to Nolan.
Gilbert trusted Nolan's level of skill, and with Jonathan Nolan's involvement, there was no risk of producing a confusing movie like Tenet.
With Warner uncooperative, starting next year, all films produced by Melon Studios will be distributed in North America and overseas by Disney.
This means Disney's ties with Melon Studios are even deeper, and even the board members who opposed Gilbert had to acknowledge his importance to Disney.
Disney executives are clearly more pragmatic, never overly concerned about stock fluctuations. And strong performance reports naturally bolster confidence in the stock market.
Additionally, unlike Warner, Disney has a massive offline presence, including theme parks worldwide. Though the benefits from physical assets are slower than stock performance, they remain Disney's core for survival.
Perhaps for this reason, Robert Iger was willing to risk Wall Street reactions to Disney stock to stand on Gilbert's side.
In terms of series, Gilbert mainly left the development to Watermelon Video.
He was familiar with the upheaval Netflix caused in the previous timeline. Watermelon Video is essentially a Netflix clone, combined with some YouTube functionality.
However, Watermelon Video is currently splitting its business. In the future, it will focus exclusively on the series market, becoming an online platform for series and movies.
The personal video upload and live streaming features, similar to YouTube, will be separated and no longer operated with Watermelon Video.
Once the timing is right, Watermelon Video will develop a series lineup. Gilbert still remembers several popular series from the previous timeline, like House of Cards, Stranger Things, Dark, and others—all of which were excellent.
This way, from online to offline, from movies to series, then to merchandise, theme parks, plus live streaming, short and long videos, and more—
Gilbert will become an unprecedented super entertainment giant, truly without precedent.
Of course, there is federal antitrust law.
But as long as the federal leadership changes, antitrust law becomes ineffective. No one can stand above the law, but if you hold privileges and interpretive authority over the law, its constraints on you are minimal.
On June 22, Edgerunners continued with episodes three and four, achieving record-high ratings. For the fourth episode, combined viewership on HBO and the Disney Channel reached 22.5 million.
In these two episodes, David Martinez equipped Sandevistan and teamed up with Lucy to steal prosthetics. The plot was thrilling and exciting, finally igniting the story and breaking away from the oppressive tone of episode two.
One particularly intense scene featured David lying on a stretcher in an ambulance, where doctors attempted to remove his prosthetics but Lucy rescued him. The tension and action in this moment were electrifying.
Watching the stretcher race through a tunnel with relentless traffic, Lucy and David facing each other while controlling the stretcher at high speed in reverse, all set to intense rock music—this scene was pure adrenaline.
After it aired, audiences talked about it endlessly. Lucy, portrayed by Scarlett, became the most popular character in Edgerunners thanks to this scene.
Following that, the mercenary squad made their appearances: the adorable Rebecca, the dependable Falco, Maine, Pilar, Dorio, Kiwi, and others all had their moments.
The world of Night City slowly unfolded, with Arasaka Corporation and military tech making appearances. Gang factions like the Tiger Claw, the Sixth Street Gang, and the Animals also began to emerge.
At the same time, Night City's history started being revealed to viewers. For example, the 2023 nuclear explosion at the Arasaka Tower was orchestrated by Johnny Silverhand and Morgan Blackhand together.
In that nuclear event, legend says Johnny Silverhand was captured by Arasaka Corporation, while Morgan Blackhand disappeared without a trace.
This laid the groundwork for future storylines. At the end of the episodes, Gilbert even included an Easter egg, hinting at a formidable figure appearing on the streets named V.
It wouldn't be until then that the main protagonist of the main story would appear.
During the peak of Edgerunners's popularity, the summer movie season faced serious challenges.
One unlucky film was Matt Damon's The Bourne Ultimatum. Under the impact of Edgerunners, its opening weekend box office dropped to $58.92 million.
In fact, this was still a decent performance, and Universal Pictures was reasonably satisfied.
However, in the previous timeline, this film had nearly $70 million in its opening weekend. Due to Edgerunners's influence, it lost almost $10 million.
The next film to be affected was National Treasure 2, released on June 29.
The film premiered at the same time as episodes five and six of Edgerunners, when the plot reached high-intensity moments. Coupled with Gilbert's birthday hype, viewership climbed to 25.8 million.
Under this pressure, National Treasure 2 only earned $46.38 million in its opening weekend. Compared to the investment, this opening performance was clearly underwhelming.
For lead actress Cameron Diaz, box office results were less important—she was focusing more on behind-the-scenes producing work.
But for Nicolas Cage, whose career had struggled in recent years, the failure of National Treasure 2 cast a shadow over his future prospects.