Chapter 405 Women who want to have children, summer box office summary

"Wei Duo'er is so cute. It would be great if I had a daughter like her."

When presenting the Best Actress Award, Monica blinked her long eyelashes and looked at the young actor on the podium, her pretty oval face full of admiration.

"Yes, the little one is so cute."

Sophie Marceau also had a loving smile on her face.

"If you like children, you can have them yourself. You are pretty, so the children you give birth to will surely be cute too."

Juliette Binoche said, crossing her arms.

Monica and Sophie Marceau didn't say anything, but their eyes secretly looked at Link.

"Link isn't it okay? Oh sorry, that's not what I meant!"

Juliette Binoche quickly covered her lips, remembering something. After Link's debut, he had been involved in constant scandals and it was rumored that he had hundreds of girlfriends, but until now there was no rumor of an illegitimate child. She didn't know whether Link didn't want children or had a hidden illness.

If infertility is the problem, telling Link he can't have it might irritate him.

Link looked at Monica, Sophie Marceau and the others and said, "Why are you all looking at me? If you want a child, then have one. I never said I won't."

"Really? You want to have a baby?"

Monica and Sophie Marceau hugged his arms excitedly.

"Why not? It's nice to have a few kids at home."

Link shrugged his shoulders. He had not planned to have children before because he was too busy with work and had no time to take care of them. He also did not want the filming of the movie to be affected by children.

After the shooting, his thoughts changed a little.

He is now worth nearly 10 billion US dollars, and it will be even more in the future.

If he accidentally gets into an accident, his huge family business will have no one to inherit, and in the end the American government will benefit from it, which is not worth it.

Since Monica and Sophie Marceau wanted to have children, he didn't mind fulfilling their wishes and letting them have a bunch of children. Anyway, there were many women and servants in the family, and he didn't need to spend time raising children.

"Very good!"

Monica and Sophie Marceau happily kissed his cheeks.

Julianne Moore, Yu Feihong and Emmanuelle nearby also grabbed the hem of her skirt excitedly after hearing this.

They are all Link's girlfriends. They know they can't marry him, but they don't want to leave him.

If you want to establish a long-term and stable relationship with Link, giving birth to him is undoubtedly the most effective way

In the past few years, Monica and Liu Xiaoli have talked about having children several times, but Link always said that he was still young and there was no rush to have children.

It's not easy for us to force him or get pregnant secretly, so as not to make him hate us.

Now that Link has agreed to have a child, everyone feels safe. This news is a thousand times better than winning the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival.

After kissing Link, Monica and Sophie Marceau happily thanked Juliette Binoche. If she hadn't brought up the idea of ​​having children, she wouldn't have known Link's attitude.

"No, I didn't say anything, you don't have to thank me!"

Juliette Binoche shook her head, puzzled by the performance of Monica and the others. She didn't understand why Monica and Sophie were so excited. They were celebrities, and getting pregnant before marriage was not a matter of honor for female stars, and it would affect their personal careers.

In addition, after having a child, it is easy to be tied down to Link for the rest of your life, and it will not be easy to leave Link and find another man to marry.

Juliet suspected that they might have been drugged by Link and lost their minds, which is why they were happy about having a baby.

She decided to find some time to privately persuade Sophie and Emmanuelle to calm down and not risk everything so easily.

Bang bang bang!

With warm applause, the award ceremony of this film festival came to an end.

After the film festival, Link did not return to Los Angeles immediately.

After he agreed to have a child, Monica and Sophie Marceau pestered him every day, hoping to get pregnant as soon as possible.

Julianne Moore, Yu Feihong and Emmanuelle also have this idea.

Several women pestered him in various ways every day, competing to be the first to get pregnant.

In order to make the process of having a child less boring, he took several girlfriends to travel around Italy, leaving countless traces of love in Sicily, Tuscany, Rome, Milan and other places.

——

After the Venice Film Festival, news that "The English Patient" won the Golden Lion Award, the highest award of the Venice Film Festival, also reached the United States.

American media said that Link won the Golden Lion Award and the Silver Lion Award for Best Director for his new film, becoming the youngest Grand Slam winner of the three major European film festivals in film history.

The record is 24 years old.

"Complete Cinema" magazine commented that "Link is a miracle in the film industry."

In the article, The New York Times summarized the films Link has made since his debut. Although some of his films were of low quality due to low costs, each of his films was very novel and had a huge impact on the world film industry. His films also set more than 60 box office records. The newspaper said that Link would become the greatest director of the late 20th century.

Taking advantage of the rising popularity of "The English Patient" and Link in the media, the publicity and distribution department of Guess What Pictures also began to promote the film, announcing the film's release date, which is expected to be released in November. The first trailer of the film and behind-the-scenes production stories were also released one after another to maintain the film's popularity.

By early September, the summer vacation ended and Hollywood media began to summarize the box office performance of summer movies.

A total of 96 movies were released during this summer's season, 19 more than last year.

Eight movies have grossed over 100 million in North America, five more than last year, and 20 movies have grossed over 50 million in North America, two more than last year.

Judging from these two figures, the box office revenue in North America performed well during this summer. Although the competition was fierce, many movies were box office hits, which also shows that the overall size of the North American film market is increasing and the entire industry is more prosperous than last year.

The media predicted that the total North American box office would increase significantly in 1996, and Hollywood films would enter a period of rapid development.

This year's summer box office champion is "Batman Forever" produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, with a North American box office of 305 million US dollars.

The second place is the science fiction film "Independence Day" produced by 20th Century Fox Film. The current box office is 282 million US dollars, and there is a certain hope of catching up with Batman.

The third place is the thriller "Net" produced by Guess What Pictures, with a North American box office of 185 million US dollars.

The fourth place is "Mission Impossible" produced by Paramount Pictures, with a cumulative box office of 180 million US dollars.

Fifth place: MGM's "The Birdcage", with a current box office of $126 million.

No. 7: "Rush Hour" from Guess Pictures, with a current box office of 104 million U.S. dollars.

"The Mask of Zorro" ranked eighth with a cumulative box office of 101 million US dollars.

"The Fifth Element" ranks 12th with a current box office of 95.47 million U.S. dollars. Compared with the cost of 85 million U.S. dollars, this box office result is relatively average, but the overseas box office performance is good, reaching a cumulative total of 134 million U.S. dollars. Overall, it is a profitable movie.

The Hollywood Reporter also selected this summer's dark horse movies, the most profitable movies, the movies with the biggest losses, etc. "The Internet" and "Rush Hour" ranked in the top three on multiple lists.

After these lists were announced, they caused heated discussions in the film industry.

Among the top ten movies of the summer season, two were from Guess What Pictures, a result that once again made the top executives of the seven major film studios unhappy.

They have been expecting the decline of Guess What Pictures since 1994 and thought they would see it this year. However, the Guess What Pictures' movies performed too tenaciously at the box office and their expectations were dashed once again.

"Lang, you said you would wait until Guess What went downhill before you made your move. When will Guess What went downhill?"

Fox Film President Barry Diller called and asked.

"Don't worry. Guess What? movies only ranked third and seventh in the summer, which is worse than last year. They have no chance of winning first place in this year's total box office rankings. Maybe next year will be even worse. This is a downward trend. What we need to do is to wait patiently."

Longmeyer consoled.

Barry Diller responded, "I'm not as optimistic as you are. Although there are only two Guess Pictures movies in the top ten of the summer season, "The Mask of Zorro" ranked eighth and "The Fifth Element" ranked 12th are also movies produced by Guess Pictures. They will receive no less than 30% of the box office share. Counting this part, Guess Pictures' total box office revenue is still the first.

And don’t forget the Golden Lion-winning The English Patient, which is Link’s film with a very good reputation and good box office performance. Combined with other films, maybe Guess Pictures’ box office performance this year will be better than last year, and we have no countermeasures at all. The company’s revenue situation will get worse and worse. In a few years, the company may not even have the funds to make movies.”

Barry Diller sighed repeatedly.

"Independence Day", released by Fox Films during this summer's movie season, sold nearly $300 million, with a revenue ratio of more than 4 times, ranking second on the summer movie dark horse list.

As the president, he also contributed to the big sales of his films and was eligible for rewards, but unfortunately, other films released by the company performed mediocrely at the box office.

For example, "Chain Reaction", co-starring Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman, cost $40 million to produce, but only grossed $36 million in North America. "Live and Let Die" cost $46 million, but currently only grossed $55 million in North America.

One movie was a big hit, but the other movies were lagging behind, resulting in Fox Film's overall profit not being much.

This is also what he is worried about.

Now the film market continues to rise, and several other film companies are making money. If Fox Film makes the least money, it means that he is an incompetent manager.

These data directly threaten his position at Fox Film Corporation.

He couldn't help but worry.

"Barry, these things have already happened. We can't avoid them. We can only work harder next year and strive to have better box office next year than this year."

In fact, Langmeyer didn't know how to persuade him.

Last summer, Universal Pictures achieved good box office results with the two movies "Apollo 13" and "Gremlins", but this summer, Universal Pictures performed poorly.

A total of 8 films were released, but only one of them had a box office of over 100 million, "The Nutty Professor", and only two films had a box office of over 50 million, "Heart of Dragon".

The box office performance of other films was mediocre, ranking seventh among the eight major film studios, only slightly better than MGM.

He has more pressure on him than Barry Diller.

While chatting with Barry Diller, he also thought of a problem. Originally, Universal Pictures was in the upper-middle level among the seven major film studios, not as good as the top ones but better than the bottom ones.

Now Link helps Warner Bros. make movies, and Guess What Pictures is cooperating with Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures, which has also led to improved performance of these three film companies.

Correspondingly, Universal Pictures' box office revenue decreased, its market share also decreased, and its ranking among the eight major film studios also declined.

This made him suspect that Link did it on purpose. Link wanted to use this method to destroy the unity of the seven major film studios, bring down the alliance of the seven major film studios, and then profit from it.

Longmeyer told Barry Diller about this speculation, and Barry Diller also said it was possible, but now the seven major film studios all know the benefits of cooperating with Link and Guess What Pictures, and are competing to cooperate with them.

Even if they wanted to dissuade him, they probably wouldn't succeed.

Langmeyer suddenly felt that Harvey's original proposal was correct.

When dealing with Link and Guess Pictures, we should cut the Gordian knot and eliminate the hidden dangers with extreme means.

If he follows his idea and waits until Guess Pictures goes downhill before taking action, it may be too late by then.

After the call, Longmeyer called Harvey to test his opinion on whether there was a chance to do another shooting, this time with more precision.

Unfortunately, Harvey was rather perfunctory this time, going around in circles without getting to the point.

Langmeyer had no choice but to find a time to talk in person.

——

Link, Monica, Sophie and others traveled in Italy for more than ten days, ending this sweet trip.

As for whether Monica and the others are pregnant, we will have to wait a month or two to find out the results.

After leaving Italy, he did not return to the United States, but flew directly to Hong Kong Island, China with Yu Feihong, where he met Chen Chong, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen and others, as well as several young actresses brought by Chen Chong.

(End of this chapter)