Chapter 207 206. Some people just don't open their eyes, that man is back

In the MGM building, two men were sitting in front of Eric.

One had a familiar big beard, and the other was also familiar, but his face was still childish.

"Eric, he is Kevin Feige, the young man I told you about last time. He has his own unique insights into comics and film and television. He is an expert in this field."

After Avi Arad’s introduction, the young Kevin Feige smiled and extended his hand: “Hello Mr. Cooper, I’m Kevin Feige.”

A future great general was about to arrive, and Eric shook his hand happily.

"Hello, Avi has mentioned you many times, saying that you will be the one to help Marvel rise again, and he thinks very highly of you."

At that time, Kevin Feige was only 30 years old. He had not yet held a high position or held much power. He was only a middle-level manager at Beech Toys.

Facing Eric's compliments, although the other party was much younger than him, he did not have the calmness of later generations, but rather a little reserved.

"I just loved reading comics since I was a kid. Avi told me that he wanted me to come to Marvel to help him. I thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There is nothing luckier than doing a job that I love."

"You're right. Doing a career that you love is the happiest thing in the world."

"Haha. I agree too."

We chatted for a while when we first met. Although Kevin Feige was a little reserved, he was very eloquent.

Being able to speak means knowing how to communicate and being able to communicate with both superiors and subordinates. This is very good and can effectively speed up work progress and solve problems.

Avi Arad has a big problem in this regard. He used to be Perlmutter's supervisor, but after the share swap was completed, Perlmutter directly resigned from Marvel and was no longer bothered to take care of this mess in his eyes.

With Kevin Feige's assistance, Avi Arad's shortcomings can be made up.

"Kevin, I have always been a person who trusts people when I employ them, and I will never employ people I doubt. You have a deep understanding of comics, and you have worked on the production of movies, so you know the ins and outs of it."

"So now I formally invite you to join Marvel. From now on, you will be Marvel's vice president. Let us create a better tomorrow together!"

Kevin Feige nodded repeatedly with a little fear; the position of vice president was really unexpected.

When Avi Arad found him, he was promised positions such as production director or creative director, which were middle or senior management positions in the company, but lower in rank than vice president.

I didn’t expect Eric Cooper to be even more generous than Avi Arad.

He couldn't help but scream in his heart: "Fuck, this wave is about to take off!"

"Of course, boss. I will work hard and make sure I do my best to make Marvel a success."

"Well, I believe you. Avi told you my plan. Marvel is going to create a movie universe that connects all the superheroes. It's called MCEU for short."

"Yes, I was completely shocked when I heard this idea. To be honest, I had this idea many years ago."

"That's even better. We are currently preparing for Captain America. Please use Marvel's current resources to quickly make a relationship diagram. I need the structure of the first phase of MCEU."

Kevin Feige understood that this was the first test given to him by the new boss.

But he is confident because he believes that no one knows how to shoot Marvel better than himself.

"Wait a minute, Eric, besides bringing Fitch to meet you, I actually came here for another very important matter." Aviarad suddenly interrupted.

"What's up?"

"Copyright, there has been some progress on the copyright issue you entrusted to me before."

"Got the copyright back?" Eric was a little surprised.

Although superhero movies are not very popular yet, Spider-Man and X-Men series have proved that they can make a lot of money if they are made well. There are actually people willing to return the copyright!

Avi Arad nodded: "20th Century Fox and New Line are willing to sell their characters back to us, Daredevil and Iron Man."

"It's just that the asking price was a bit high. Fox wanted $15 million for Daredevil, and New Line wanted $10 million for Iron Man. When it was sold, it was less than half of that."

"Buy it, buy it back!" Eric made the decision without thinking.

Are you kidding? You can buy back two valuable superheroes for $25 million. This deal is totally worth it.

Eric couldn't help but ask, "Have Fox and New Line lost their minds?"

"Eric, have you forgotten? At the beginning of last year, Fox released Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and Colin Farrell. It cost $80 million, but it turned out to be a piece of shit."

"Whether it's fans, audiences or critics, almost all of them criticized the movie as garbage, and Ben Affleck even postponed his wedding because of it."

"80 million dollars is not a small number, especially for a superhero like Daredevil who doesn't need a lot of special effects."

"They can't even make a good movie like this. Judging from the current box office and reputation, forget about the sequel. Daredevil is destined to be shelved."

"So when I went to negotiate, Fox pretended to hold an internal meeting for a few days, and then readily agreed to sell Daredevil and related extended characters back to us."

"In addition to Daredevil, there are also Elektra, Bullseye, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. In short, we can shoot our own Defenders."

"Where are the Jin soldiers?" Eric asked.

"The Golden Soldier is a common villain that appears in many superhero works, so the copyright is also shared by several companies."

"Well done, Avi!" Eric gave a thumbs up.

Although these superheroes have different levels of popularity, for example, Daredevil is a second-tier hero and cannot compare to the big brothers, but they have also gained a group of loyal fans by relying on their own distinctive personal publications.

Erica was created by the companion Daredevil. Her popularity is much lower than that of the blind lawyer, but she is recognized by fans, otherwise Fox would not have produced a personal movie for her.

But judging from the current situation, Erica's personal movie has definitely been cancelled, no matter how beautiful Jennifer Garner is.

What's more, Eric remembered that the movie was also terrible, with poor reputation and box office, and it was a money-losing product.

As for Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, none of them even make it to the third line, and their popularity is relatively low among superheroes.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be a Defenders debut. Those who are talented are all individual trainees. Who would go the team route?

Of these, only Daredevil is worthy of the big screen, but Fox just made a bad movie of it, so Marvel will definitely not be able to pick it up for a few years.

Eric could only think of one solution, which was to make a TV series like Netflix and then broadcast it on Lionheart.com, which would at least add something interesting to Lionheart.com.

"Now that we have the copyright back, we should not let them sit idle. Let's start by filming a TV series about Daredevil. If the response is good, we can then develop other superheroes."

Avi Arad nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think so too. TV series require a small investment, and with Fox's success, as long as the quality of our production is up to par, the audience will be very satisfied."

"What about New Line? Didn't they announce last year that they were going to invite Tom Cruise to play Tony Stark?"

"I gave up. New Line's president, Gilant, believed that a man wearing hundreds of kilograms of armor flying in the sky was an insult to the audience's intelligence and was totally unscientific."

Eric had a black question mark on his face. A superhero talking about science? What the hell!

"Just because of this reason? Then why did they make Blade?"

Avi Arad shrugged. "I don't understand it at all. Maybe it's because Blade Warrior rides a motorcycle, at least he's down to earth."

"Iron Man is a scientist himself. In the comics, there is even a wisdom gem growing out of his brain. So some old-fashioned people think it is unscientific."

"I think it's probably because the special effects are too expensive, and New Line doesn't want to take the risk. Blade can be filmed with 30 or 40 million dollars, but Iron Man can only be filmed with 30 or 40 million dollars, but not Iron Man," Kevin Feige complained.

And his complaints are probably the main reason why New Line gave up.

"Eric, what are you going to do with Iron Man?" Avi Arad asked.

"Shoot! If Daredevil can make it to the big screen, why can't Iron Man?"

"But aren't we going to film Captain America?"

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"I mean to do it simultaneously, with all three projects starting at the same time."

"Will it be?"

Seeing Kevin Feige hesitate to speak, Eric knew what he was worried about.

"You don't have to worry about the money. MGM will pay the majority, and Marvel will pay a reasonable portion. It's a cooperative project between the two companies."

Kevin Feige couldn't help but sigh, he was indeed rich and powerful, the budget for the three projects was at least 250 million US dollars, and he spent it without blinking an eye, he really had a golden thigh.

"Anything else?" Eric asked.

"There is another thing about the Hulk. The Hulk that Universal hired Ang Lee to shoot was a failure just like Daredevil, so they are also interested in selling the copyright to us."

"Hmm? Why don't you say it together?"

"Because Universal has reservations, they want to only sell the filming rights and keep the distribution rights of the Hulk movie. I don't think you will agree."

Eric sneered, "That's a good idea. Want to copy the Titanic? Will I need it to be released?"

"Avi, reply to Universal and ask them to either sell it to us together or forget about it. The Hulk is a top hero, so the price can be a little higher."

"Also, when I get back, I'll look through the hero library and find a few heroes with potential. I plan to make them into a TV series."

The year 2003 has ended and the year 2004 has begun.

The war on Christmas continues, with new films joining the fray every week, though most become cannon fodder.

Because even though Hollywood is the world's largest film market, it cannot accommodate dozens of films being released at the same time, even during the hottest period of the year.

There are only so many cinemas and the screening schedules are there. If you have more, they will have less. A third party may only get 1% of the screenings.

Currently, "The Lord of the Rings 3" is still at the top of the list, far ahead of others.

The second place goes to the extremely lively "Sharknado 2". On Christmas, audiences like to have fun with friends or laugh with their families.

2,500 cinemas directly took in $53 million at the box office, with each cinema taking more than $20,000, surpassing the equally ridiculous "Scary Movies 3".

The media interviewed the Wayans brothers and asked them why "Sharknado 2" surpassed the "Scary Movie" series, which was also created by them. Their answer was that the former was more brainless, and the only one that could beat "Sharknado 2" was probably "Sharknado 3" next year.

Ryan Reynolds now holds two major commercial IPs, "Transformers" and "Sharknado", and has become the hottest first-line male star.

Various film contracts have come in one after another. In the past, the films chose the actors, but now the actors choose the films.

Ranked third on the box office list is "Blue Is the Warmest Color", which has the best timing, location and people. It was released in more than 400 theaters this week and took in $27 million at the box office in a week.

In three weeks, the North American box office has reached 83 million US dollars. The excellent reputation has prompted the film to enter some open countries such as Europe, Asia, and South America, and it has earned 24 million US dollars in box office in one week, and the global box office has exceeded 100 million US dollars.

The Olsen sisters were extremely happy. This was the best result they had ever achieved. In the future, they could also say that they were actresses with a salary of over 100 million yuan.

In contrast, "Monster" performed much worse, with more than 800 theaters earning only $7.33 million at the box office in one week.

When Patty Jenkins and Theron saw this data, they could only smile bitterly.

The plot is so dark that everyone knew it would be bad, but they didn't expect it to be this bad. It became the worst performing movie since Eric took over MGM.

"Sorry honey," Theron said, sounding distressed as she laid on Eric's back.

Eric patted her butt and said comfortingly, "Don't be sorry, baby. I didn't expect to make money from this movie. It was originally intended for you to win awards."

"You're so nice to me, Eric."

"Haha. The cost of "Monster" is not high. Even with the publicity and promotion, it is about 30 million US dollars."

"Even if the box office loses money, we can slowly make it back through copyright later on."

"To put it another way, even if you lose tens of millions, what does it matter? As long as you are happy."

It is said that in the eyes of women, men are most generous when they spend money. This statement makes sense because Eric has experienced it firsthand from Theron.

That night he unlocked several positions he had always wanted and enjoyed himself very much.

"Transformers" grossed 23 million U.S. dollars worldwide and officially entered the 900 million club with a score of 913 million.

However, the North American box office was only 7.3 million US dollars, ranking 11th on the list.

Ahead of them are Tim Burton's classic "Big Fish", "Mona Lisa Smile" starring three beauties, Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles, and "Cold Mountain" starring Jude Law and Meg Ryan.

According to the original time and space, "Cold Mountain" should be starred by Jude Law and Nicole, but now Nicole is filming "La Vie en Rose", and the butterfly effect has already been instigated.

Next up is "Girl with a Pearl Earring" starring Scarlett Johansson. This year, Hollywood seems to like using world famous paintings as names.

At this point, "Transformers" is already reaching its end, and will be taken off the screen in just one week.

But the departure of the Autobots symbolizes the resurgence of the prairie lions.

Nasdaq, the bell is ringing soon! (End of this chapter)