Chapter 442: The Rock is released
After leaving Miami, Link returned to Los Angeles to continue working on his company and movies. He occasionally flew to Seattle to visit Monica and her children, whose belly was growing bigger and bigger, and tried his best to take on the responsibilities of a father.
In May, the 1997 summer movie season arrived.
This summer, Guess the Movies will release 6 movies, including "The Rock," "The Devil's Advocate," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Out of Sight," "Primal Fear," and "Final Destination 3."
There are also "L.A. Confidential" and "12 Monkeys", which were co-produced by Guess Films and Columbia, and "Austin Powers" and "Crazy Alien" which were co-produced by Guess Films and New Line Cinema.
Because the news that Ovitz designed to defraud Guess What Pictures was widely circulated in the circle, "The Rock" attracted a lot of attention before it was released, and everyone was looking forward to something.
"Loss! Loss! Must be a loss!"
Harvey yelled in his office.
"It is said that Michael Ovitz spent two years screening the script for The Rock. I hope his plan will succeed."
Barry Diller laughed.
“I don’t know if it will work, but I hope God is on our side.”
Longmeyer looked up at the sky devoutly.
"Guess what, the film industry has been developing too fast in recent years. It would be great if they could lose a few hundred million and their development would be thwarted."
Ms. Shirley Lansing said.
"Is it going to be released soon? I hope my $2 million wasn't wasted."
Michael Ovitz said, narrowing his eyes.
"Link, will our movie lose money? I've heard a lot of bad rumors recently. Some people say that this movie is a trap set by Michael Ovitz for you, and that the movie will definitely lose money after it is released. Have you heard about it?"
Nicolas Cage said nervously at the film premiere.
"Don't worry, it's going to be a good movie."
Amid everyone's anticipation, "The Rock" was released. The distribution of this film went very smoothly, earning $51.33 million in 2,847 theaters in the first week, and unsurprisingly won the weekly box office championship.
The runner-up was the disaster film "Molten" released by Fox Film, which earned $18.45 million from 2,774 theaters in its first week.
The film is a special effects movie with a production cost of up to 90 million US dollars.
Compared to the cost, the first week box office data was very poor.
The third place is "Austin Powers" released by New Line Cinema, which earned 13.55 million US dollars in its first week. The film cost 17 million US dollars to produce. This data for the first week is quite good.
Fourth place: "Liar Liar", which earned $6.15 million this week and a total North American box office of $172 million.
Fifth place: "Fight Club", with revenue of 3.24 million US dollars and a cumulative box office of 25.07 million US dollars.
"51.33 million?"
"how so?"
"Isn't it said that The Rock is a rubbish script carefully selected by Michael Ovitz? Why did the box office in its first week be so high?"
“Haha, $51.33 million in the first week, this is not a trap, but a gift.”
"It's a waste of time. Ovitz is such an unreliable guy."
"Link, that bastard got a great bargain."
After the weekly box office results came out, many people were shocked and showed expressions of disbelief.
"Damn it! Why are there so many!"
After seeing the first week box office performance of "The Rock", Harvey's face became extremely ugly. He gritted his teeth and cursed in the office for more than ten minutes until he was exhausted.
When choosing investment projects, Link invited him to invest in "The Rock".
However, he heard from Ovitz in advance that there were problems with the film, so he flatly rejected Link's invitation and chose to invest in "Fight Club".
This time, "The Rock" was a huge hit at the box office, while "Fight Club" was growing very slowly.
If he had chosen the former instead of the latter, he would probably be happily accepting congratulations at this time.
pity!
"Link is such a sneaky bastard."
After receiving the box office information, Michael Ovitz's face changed again and again, and he finally spit out a swear word.
"The Rock" cost $75 million to produce and grossed $51.33 million in its first week. It is expected to gross more than $200 million in North America and at least $400 million worldwide. Link and Guess What Films will earn hundreds of millions of dollars from the movie.
In this matter, he was the biggest contributor, and Link and Guess What Films should thank him.
But before the box office results came out, he was forced by Link to donate 2 million US dollars.
Link is such a bad guy.
Ovitz was so angry that he gnashed his teeth.
Ding-a-ling~
Ovitz answered the phone with a gloomy face. It was Michael Eisner calling, blaming him for not keeping such a good film project in the company and instead giving it to Guess Pictures. It was such a pity.
Ovitz looked even uglier.
Eisner's call was not to tease him, but to remind him to remember to congratulate Link and not to take it to heart.
Ovitz agreed with a gloomy face.
When Link received the call from Ovitz, he was attending a celebration party in the hotel. When he heard Ovitz's reluctant congratulations on the phone, he smiled and didn't care.
Ovitz also made some contribution to the fact that Guess Pictures was able to get the lucrative project "The Rock". Link doesn't mind letting him go for the credit.
"Link! There you are."
At the reception, Steve Jobs came over to say hello.
"Steve, congratulations on your return to Apple. You are what the king's return in novels should be like."
Link made a joke.
After Pixar Studios went public last year, he and Jobs have controlled more than half of Apple's shares, but for personal reasons, Jobs is still unwilling to return to Apple.
It was not until April that Apple's situation took a turn for the worse and its market value fell back to around $1.8 billion. Apple's original board members were almost desperate and strongly demanded that Jobs be invited back.
Later, under Link's arrangement, Apple invested $300 million to acquire Jobs' NeXT Computer Company. After the acquisition was successful, Jobs officially announced his return to Apple as chairman and CEO.
After Jobs successfully took over Apple, Apple's performance did not improve immediately, but its stock price did not continue to fall either.
Today, Jobs held a cocktail party in the Apple building to announce the company's development plan for the next period of time. Link also came to listen when he had time.
Since he had little knowledge of computer technology and did not understand marketing, he mainly listened during meetings or conversations and seldom expressed his opinions.
However, when chatting with Jobs alone, he would express more opinions, such as on Apple's mobile phone research.
In the past decade, Apple's computer sales have dropped sharply, with its market share falling from 18% in 1987 to 3%. After losing the computer market, it is very difficult for Apple to overtake IBM, HP, Dell and other companies.
However, with the development of mobile communication technology, the penetration rate of mobile phones is getting higher and higher. In a few decades, perhaps everyone will have one.
He offered suggestions from the perspective of a science fiction writer, suggesting that Apple should conduct research on personal computers and mobile phones together, and design mobile phones or mini computers with more compact appearance, making such machines more convenient to carry and with stronger signal receiving capabilities.
If Apple can do this, it may be able to overtake its competitors and become the global leader in mobile communications.
Jobs was very interested in what he said and said he would invest in research in this area. However, he did not intend to give up the laptop market because he had the ability and confidence to catch up with and surpass companies like Microsoft.
Link smiled. Jobs was a god, so his words were certainly trustworthy.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
