Chapter 334

On the big screen, Agnas's death scene was going on. Him trying to write up a song before taking drugs and accidentally overdosing. The scene was shot in just one take and although Aiden had not taken real drugs, he had researched a lot of videos, movies and habits of people who do drugs. 

So, the scene looked almost perfect. 

There were even a few gasps in the theatre when the scene began. The body of Agnas twitching while he's unconscious on the floor. For a second, people even felt like there was a smile on his face as he was happy that his tragedy was finally going to end. 

The scene cuts to a montage of scenes of reactions after Agnas's death. Reporters, media and literally every celebrity in America and the world grieved for him. 

Then, the scene cuts with Agnas reciting a quote that he was famous for. 

"One day, I might not be alive but I know my songs will live on. My ideas through them will live on and might influence someone to be like me. After all, we humans are just beings who are always influenced by someone."

Aiden recited the lines as it happened on the screen. Everyone's eyes were glued on the big screen as suddenly, the scene changed to a concert.

Agnas was holding a mic. It was the same stage where he had first started confident. The stage where his agent had perceived that he was going to be a star. 

Standing there, he slowly started strumming his guitar. 

A familiar tune hit Aiden's ears. 

The tune of 'Joker'. 

Slowly, the tempo increased and he could see that people around him looked in some sort of trance state. Just the tune of the song had enamored them. 

Aiden just closed his eyes and listened to the song. 

The piano, the guitar and slow humming followed by high notes that talks about a man's purpose in life and how in the end, it's just about being a joker in a circus that you don't own. 

But still, Agnas took pride in the fact that his music was at least making people smile. He was a 'Joker' but that was just life. 

It was well described by the lyrics in the chorus. Especially the main line of the song. 

"I am a Joker in the circus called life."

When the chorus appeared, Aiden saw a few people tear up in the crowd. They have been sitting here watching the whole journey of Agnas and hearing these lines, they truly resonated with him. 

Even Wade seemed to be listening to the lyrics with full attention. 

When the song ended, a clap sounded out in the theatre, followed by more of them. It didn't stop there as people stood up and clapped hard for the movie they had just watched. 

It had truly touched their hearts. 

When Aiden opened his heart, a smile unknowingly hung on his lips and suddenly, a few notifications appeared in front of him. 

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 7 from Intermediate Grade 6 in acting skill.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 6 from Intermediate Grade 5 in singing skill.]

[Congratulations on your level up!]

Aiden was very surprised by the messages as he felt like it was a bit late. But he would take it anyway. 

He had expected it in a way as he had gotten a lot of experience after [Action Hero] and [Agnas]. It was the same with 'Joker' as it was a legendary song. 

So, getting these notifications right now just made his day better. 

'I hope Agnas will be happy in the afterlife.'

Smiling, he thought. 

***

The next few days were full of nice surprises for Aiden. First of all, at the end of the week, [Agnas] earned a total of 178 million dollars at the box office, breaking even on the production cost. 

A lot of critics and analysts had said the movie would need to maintain momentum to earn more than 150 million dollars and it would be hard to do. But the movie has surpassed expectations. 

The good reviews and the audience reaction was making it both a critical and commercial success. Though, the main reason was also the songs. 

Songs like 'Joker' and 'Therapy' had gone viral in a week with both of them entering the Global Top 50 charts on Melody. Even on MeTube, there were a lot of covers on them. 

Especially 'Joker'. A lot of news websites and magazines have written exclusive articles on it. 

<'Joker' — The song that took decades and how it was worth it in the end.>

<Agnas's swansong was completed by Aiden Silvereye, the lead. The music composer of [Agnas], Joseph Bryce said that it was almost miraculous.>

<Aiden Silvereye taking over the legacy of Agnas by completing his last song.>

These articles were read by a lot of people and eventually helped more and more people reach the theatre to watch the movie. Moreover, even Agnas's original songs started being streamed by a lot of people.

The interest in his songs was minimal before the movie as most of the younger generations have not heard of him. Much less his music but after the movie, a lot of people revisited his songs both on Melody and MeTube. 

One of his most famous songs even reached close to the top of music charts. 

Though, everyone knew that the true test of [Agnas] was going to happen at the end of the week when [Judgment] was going to be released. A lot of people thought it was going to eat up the business of the biographical drama. 

On the first day, it did happen. 

[Judgment] opened up at 43 million dollars, way more than the opening day of [Agnas]. It was expected and [Agnas] was only able to earn 12 million dollars. 

It was still a good number because it's momentum was good but people felt like it would close down a bit under 300 million dollars. It was a 'hit' tag for sure but something that was not enough in Zero International's executives eyes.

But on the second day of [Judgment]'s release, it earned 37 million dollars and on the third, it did 33 million. 

The first three days it earned 113 million dollars which was good but the numbers going down became a big concern. 

It wasn't getting stable and Hollywood analysts attributed it to a lot of bad reviews. Moreover, the movie was at its core a very simple popcorn flick. 

Even with a great premise involving gods, it wasn't really a great movie. There were a lot of moments that felt underutilized. 

Even with that, the audience complained that a lot of good moments were ruined by comedy. Like in one of them, a supporting character is dying but the main character is cracking a joke. 

It became something that the audience didn't seem to connect with and despite being a superhero movie, the negative word of mouth spreaded. 

That was not good for any movie, especially a superhero movie. They might not care for negative reviews but they did care about what the audience thought of it. 

Everyday, the collections of [Judgment] kept lowering and in the end, the first week was 184 million dollars. Not the kind of opening week the movie was expecting. 

With a budget of 250 million dollars and marketing cost, it was suddenly trying hard to breakeven. 

The second and week were going to be harsher on the movie. Contrary to that, [Agnas] still earned 89 million dollars in the second week. 

It earned 267 million dollars in two weeks and the 300 million mark was looking more and more possible now. 

A lot of people were pointing out how [Agnas] had eaten up [Judgment]'s audience. 

One of the film critics tweeted on Sparrow, "[Judgment] might be able to get a hit tag with overseas revenue but in the end, it's a good wake up call to superhero movies that just VFX and action scenes aren't enough to get a great hit. On the other hand, [Agnas] is a good movie that perfectly has moments that both types of audience would enjoy. The latter really won the battle this time."

This tweet was liked by many people and it talked about the situation of Hollywood very well. People were going through an overdose of superhero movies. 

So, [Agnas] profited from it. 

Aiden was very happy by it as it was the end of a good year for him. His last release of the year had worked so well and he was obviously overjoyed by it. 

But one thing that he felt was much better was the text he received from Anna after a few days. He had left his number within the letters and seeing the text, he felt at peace. 

[Thank you for everything. I watched [Agnas]. You are a lot like him. Again, thank you.]

It was a short message but it was enough. 

….

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