Chapter 437 Career Crisis
After the box office rankings were announced, people in the film industry looked at the list and tried to guess the box office data of the film industry. They were all envious and jealous, but also deeply worried.
Including the year before last and last year, Guess the Movies has been ranked first in the annual total box office revenue list for three consecutive years.
The results are very stable.
So far there are no signs of decline.
Among the seven major film studios, Warner Bros. Pictures had the best box office performance, but its total box office revenue in North America last year was only 733 million U.S. dollars, which was more than 500 million U.S. dollars less than Guess What Pictures.
The remaining few are even further away from Guess the Movie. Compared with the box office data in 1995, the total box office share of the seven major film studios showed a clear downward trend.
Judging from this situation, Guess What Pictures has become the overlord of the North American film industry, and the Big Seven studios have begun to fight for survival to avoid becoming the first to be eliminated among the Big Eight studios.
"Haha, luckily we established a cooperative relationship with Guess What Pictures in advance, otherwise we would be under a lot of pressure in the next few years."
In the office of Walt Disney Studios President, Michael Ovitz said with a smile while smoking a cigarette.
Michael Eisner said, "There are indeed many benefits to cooperating with Guess What Pictures. If it weren't for the movies produced by Guess What Pictures, Columbia Pictures' performance last year would have been worse than Universal and MGM. We should indeed strengthen our cooperation with Guess What Pictures. But Mike, I heard a rumor that you have a plan for Guess What Pictures. Is this true?"
"Uh~ cough cough cough~"
Ovitz choked on a mouthful of smoke and couldn't help but cough violently. While coughing, a thousand thoughts ran through his mind.
How did Eisner know about the poison pill plan?
Was this leaked?
Even his own name was leaked?
Since Eisner has also heard about it, will Link hear about it? What does he think after hearing it?
Guess if there will be any changes in the cooperation between the film industry and Disney?
If something unexpected happens and Disney and Guess What Pictures fall out, wouldn't I become the sinner?
Ovitz wiped the sweat from his forehead, hesitated for a moment, and then revealed the "poison pill plan".
After hearing this, Eisner frowned even more tightly, "Are you sure the script of The Rock is bad?"
"It's very average, the content is empty, the plot is very boring, and there is almost no chance of it being a box office hit," Ovitz said affirmatively.
Eisner shook his head. "Link is a world-class director and screenwriter. His vision is better than any of ours. So far, none of the scripts he selected has lost money, not to mention that he is directing this movie himself, so the probability of losing money is even smaller. Maybe in your eyes, this script is bound to lose money, but in his hands it may become a box office dark horse. Link has done this before."
"this"
Ovitz's face changed drastically. Could it be that his plan for the past two years was wrong? "No, he has also made mistakes in several movies, such as "The Uncanny", "Before Sunrise", "Grey's Anatomy", etc. These movies all lost money."
"These are art films with good reputations, so it doesn't matter even if they lose money."
Seeing that Ovitz was about to refute, Eisner waved his hand and said, "Don't argue. What I mean is that since this news can be passed to me, it must be passed to Link. It's just that he hasn't reacted yet, which shows that he and Guess What Pictures are very confident in this movie and are not worried about losses.
If this movie does not make a loss after its release, Link may not bother you. If it makes a loss, the box office revenue of Guess Pictures will decrease, and Big Seven Pictures may benefit from it, but our cooperation with Guess Pictures will definitely be affected.
Therefore, before "The Rock" is released, I suggest that you apologize to Link first, persuade him not to release this movie, and promise to bear part of the losses. Link is a proud man. He believes in his vision and will definitely insist on releasing this movie.
At this point, Link will be the biggest responsible party. Even if the movie loses money after its release, it has nothing to do with you and cannot be blamed on you. It will not affect the cooperation between our two companies. How about this suggestion?"
Ovitz sighed secretly with a gloomy face.
This sigh was not because he was sad about confessing to Link, but because when facing Eisner and Link, he often felt inferior and powerless.
In the past, when he was in the agency business, he thought he was the best in the world, number one on the Hollywood power list, and he could call the shots in the entertainment industry and was omnipotent.
But after entering the larger circle of the film industry, he had to admit that his vision was too narrow in the past and he often looked at the world from a narrow perspective, which led to so many arrogant ideas.
The film industry is different from the agency industry. There are more interests involved, the situations are more complicated, the competition is more intense, and it is more difficult to do well.
He originally thought that after becoming co-president of Disney Studios, he could easily handle this position and even have the opportunity to replace Eisner and become the real head of Disney.
But from this incident, it seems that I am a little worse than Eisner. Eisner is a deep-minded guy. After hearing about the poison pill plan, he immediately thought of a remedial measure, which was to send him out and let Link humiliate him to avoid a head-on conflict between the two companies.
And he had no choice but to agree.
If he didn't do this, when "The Rock" was released and suffered box office losses, Link would definitely become hostile to him after knowing the truth, and he might even give up cooperating with Disney.
If Disney wants to continue cooperating with Guess What Pictures, it may sacrifice the pawn to save the chariot and resolve Link's hostility by firing him.
Based on his understanding of Eisner, even if it was someone from the same tribe, Eisner would ruthlessly choose this method.
Ovitz smiled bitterly. He racked his brains to come up with a plan, and he thought he would be able to trick Link badly. However, before the plan could be successfully implemented, he had to accept the bitter fruit of failure.
The water in the film industry is indeed deep.
"Okay, I will call Link to explain the situation, apologize to him, and try not to affect the cooperation between the two companies."
Michael Ovitz said.
Eisner nodded slightly, took a puff of cigarette and said, "Don't use this method to deal with Link in the future. People of his level, small tricks are useless. Even if his movie loses hundreds of millions of dollars, it will not affect his status in the circle and his status as a billionaire. If you want to deal with him..."
Eisner sighed, "Forget it. We are not at the same level as him, and we look at problems differently. No matter how clever our methods are, they will probably become childish and ridiculous tricks in his hands. So don't think about how to defeat him first, but think about how to strengthen cooperation between the two sides."
"I see!"
Ovitz gritted his teeth and nodded like an elementary school student.
After returning to the office, Ovitz sat on the sofa with a gloomy face. After a few minutes of depression, he kicked over the coffee table in front of him. The crystal vase with a few white carnations on the coffee table fell to the floor and turned into pieces.
After a while, he stood at his desk and called Link, but the call went through twice.
Ovitz pounded the table again in anger.
More than half an hour later, Lewinsky called and asked him what was the matter. She also told him that Link was filming a movie and had no time to answer the phone, and that she could convey important matters.
Ovitz smiled and said it was okay, asked Lewinsky about the weather in London, advised her to take care of her body and skin, mentioned that they were from the same ethnic group, and asked her if she had ever been to Israel.
But before he could say a few more words, Lewinsky said she was busy and had no time to chat. She asked him if he had anything else to say, and when he didn't, she hung up.
Ovitz said with a dark face that he had done something wrong and wanted to apologize to Link. He hoped that she could tell Link and asked Link to call him back when he had time.
Lewinsky said 'OK' and hung up.
"Bitch!!"
Ovitz listened to the beeping sound in the microphone, cursed loudly, and slammed the phone hard on the desk.
He was very angry. In the past, he was the king of Hollywood. No one in the entertainment industry dared to disrespect him, not even the president's secretary.
And now a mere assistant, a stinky woman who relied on her body to gain a foothold beside Link, had the audacity to hang up on him. This was extremely insulting.
If it weren't for Link's sake, he would definitely find a way to kill this bitch.
Ding-a-ling~
The phone on the table suddenly rang.
Ovitz's face changed, he pulled the corners of his mouth, forced a little smile and answered the phone, but the voice coming from the receiver was rather rough, it was Barry Diller's voice. Ovitz immediately drooped his face and asked him lazily what was the matter.
Barry Diller said he had something to discuss with him about joining forces to deal with Guess What Pictures. Longmeyer, Harvey and others were also there.
Ovitz refused without even listening.
He felt that what Eisner said was right, that Link was not on the same level as them, and that the solutions they had racked their brains to come up with might not amount to anything to Link.
Instead of this, it is better to wait and see. Disney is not his anyway, and Link is also a Disney shareholder. Even if Disney goes bankrupt, it has nothing to do with him as the co-CEO. There is no need for him to take risks for such a thing.
(End of this chapter)
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