Chapter 400: For those who are at the forefront of the trend, jealousy is a good medicine
After these news were reported, media opinions were mixed about Link.
The vast majority of comments praised him, praising his youth and wealth, handsome appearance, and extraordinary talent in movies. It seemed that apart from his emotional infidelity, he had almost no blemishes.
As a result of these reports, Rush Hour gained much more exposure and cinema attendance also increased significantly.
There are also "Batman Forever", "Net", and "The Sixth Sense", which has not yet finished its run, all of which have seen significant increases in box office revenue.
"Humph! Hype again! This guy can't promote a movie without hype."
In his office, Harvey Weinstein sullenly turned off the TV.
After Link became the world's highest-grossing director, almost all media began to praise Link, praising his great talent and ability as a director, injecting new vitality and surprises into world cinema, leading a new era of film trends, and so on.
Harvey was tired of seeing all this stuff.
Although what he said was true, he didn't think Link was that great. The main reason why this guy was successful in the film industry was because he was lucky and seized the opportunities and trends in the development of Hollywood films.
If the US economy had not been in a period of rapid development after the end of the Cold War, and everyone had money and time to watch movies, the Hollywood film market would not have been so prosperous, and Link's films would not have sold so many box office copies.
Directors like Link, who take advantage of the wind to soar, will also fall when the wind disappears.
Harvey is looking forward to this day.
Ding-a-ling!
The phone on the table rang suddenly a few times, scaring the fly that was perched on it into flying up and circling in the air.
Harvey picked up the phone and the caller was Michael Ovitz.
Ovitz asked Miramax and Guess Films whether they had reached any new cooperation after filming "Fight Club".
Since the release of movies such as "Batman Forever", "The Sixth Element" and "The Mask of Zorro", the seven major studios have approached Link or Guess to cooperate.
Especially recently after Link became the 'Billion Dollar Box Office Man' and the 'Highest-grossing Director in the World', other film companies have become more active.
Ovitz not only wanted to work with Link to make a movie, but also urged Harvey to act quickly and reach a new cooperation with Guess Pictures as soon as possible to establish a closer cooperative relationship.
Ovitz is the head of Disney's film division, responsible not only for Disney's films, but also for its subsidiaries including Miramax, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, etc.
After he becomes the head of the film department, if the total box office data of the films released by the company increases, it means that he is a good leader and he can also take the opportunity to gain more benefits on the board of directors.
It's just that Harvey wasn't very proactive, so he had to call and urge him many times.
Harvey said helplessly, "Mike, Daniel DeVito and I talked about cooperation, but we didn't reach an agreement."
"Why? Are their demands too high? It doesn't matter if they are a little high. Many companies are looking for them to cooperate with them now. Guess what, the film industry is qualified to ask for a lot. As long as their demands are not excessive, we can agree to them."
Ovitz asked.
“No, there are no suitable projects.”
Harvey told him that Guess What Pictures had many film projects in preparation, but low-cost films did not accept foreign investment, while high-cost films required larger investments and also carried greater risks.
He plans to wait until "Fight Club" is released and decide whether to continue the cooperation based on the box office performance.
"Harvey, be bold, guess what, if the film industry dares to invest in such a big project, it must be confident of profitability."
Ovitz advised him not to worry. Columbia Pictures and Guess What Pictures had been cooperating since 1993 and had released seven films in succession. Although the box office performance of two films was lower than expected, none of the films had lost money so far.
This shows that Guess What Pictures is good at selecting movies.
Ovitz asked him to continue working with Guess What Pictures without considering the risks.
"Okay, I'll talk to Link again then."
Harvey said, suppressing his displeasure.
"Harvey, I know you envy the good box office performance of Guess What Pictures. I envy it too, but Link is very capable and Guess What Pictures is also very powerful. This is a fact. We need to learn to accept the facts. Only by accepting this can we find ways to gain benefits."
Ovitz said.
"Mike, I understand. I will talk to Link about cooperation later."
Harvey put down the phone with a sullen face and sat in the chair in silence, like a sculpture without any artistic standards. It was not until a fly landed on the tip of the sculpture's nose that Harvey woke up in anger, pointed at the quickly fleeing fly and cursed loudly, his words were very ugly.
Boom boom!
Assistant Simmons came in with documents, "Boss, last week's box office results are out."
Harvey suppressed the anger on his face and asked in a deep voice, "How is our movie box office?"
"not bad!"
Harvey took the folder and opened it to look at it. His face fell at the first glance and he glared at his assistant.
"Can this kind of result be called good?"
"Boss, our movie is not losing money. The summer movie season is very competitive, so a movie that doesn't lose money is considered excellent."
Assistant Simmons said carefully.
Harvey snorted coldly. Although Miramax Films' movies did not lose money, the gap compared to "Rush Hour" was huge.
This week, "Rush Hour" retained its weekly box office championship, earning $37.19 million in 2,810 theaters in North America, a 12% increase in box office revenue, and a cumulative box office of $70.43 million.
This result was beyond Harvey's expectations.
The protagonists of "Rush Hour" are Chen Long and Chris Tucker, both of whom are not very famous in North America. They are second-tier actors and their box office appeal is also average.
According to his prediction, Rush Hour will gross around 60 million in North America.
However, this movie grossed over 70 million in North America in two weeks, and the North American box office was at least 100 million US dollars.
The film cost only $30 million to produce.
"Link is such a lucky guy."
Harvey gritted his teeth in jealousy.
If "Rush Hour" breaks the 100 million mark at the North American box office, plus "The Network," guess what? At least two of the studio's movies will break the 100 million mark at the North American box office this year.
Some time ago, the media joked that Guess the Movie was on the decline. Less than a month later, another movie from Guess the Movie is about to break 100 million yuan at the box office.
Harvey had to admit that Ovitz was right. Guess What Pictures was very good at selecting film projects.
He continued, Miramax Films has three movies in theaters this week.
"Cops," ranked 13th, took in $1.12 million in 1,134 theaters this week, with a cumulative box office of $9.16 million. The film cost $8.5 million to produce, and considering the global box office, it's roughly on track to break even.
The second is "Emma," which has been released for two weeks. This week, it earned $2.6 million in 235 theaters, with a cumulative box office of $5.62 million. The box office performance of a single theater reached $13,000, which is a good result, but the upper limit is not high.
The third is the biographical film "Young and Dangerous", which was released last week and earned $86,000 in 18 theaters, with a single theater box office of less than $5,000, far below expectations.
The combined box office revenue of these three films is not even a fraction of that of Rush Hour.
After smoking a cigarette, Harvey picked up the phone and called Link's assistant Lewinsky, asking Link when he was free. He wanted to talk to Link about cooperation.
Lewinsky responded that her boss no longer managed the production department since the beginning of the year. If she wanted to discuss cooperation, she should contact Daniel DeVito and James Schamus, who would be responsible for the company's production work.
Harvey agreed with a smile and asked Lewinsky if she had participated in religious festivals within her tribe since coming to work in Hollywood, and if they could go together if they had time.
Lewinsky refused, saying she no longer believed in religion after going to college, and then hung up the phone.
"Bitch!"
Harvey bit his back teeth hard. He heard that Lewinsky was also from the same tribe. He wanted to use this method to bring the two sides closer together, and then secretly cause trouble for Link through Lewinsky.
Now Lewinsky has clearly rejected him, making all his previous work in vain.
But he was unwilling to give up. Every woman has weaknesses, and he believed Lewinsky had them too.
(End of this chapter)
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