Chapter 484 Summer Box Office Summary
While chatting with Joseph Schmidt, Kaufman Black and others, he also heard an interesting story.
The last time the Los Angeles police raided the 18th Street gang in Oakland, they hired Blackwater security guards to collaborate with them.
With the assistance of Blackwater, the operation was a great success and no police officer was killed.
After receiving the news, other district police departments expressed doubts about the incident and did not believe that the Los Angeles police had the ability to do so.
After investigation, they knew that Blackwater played a key role in the operation.
Recently, police from many regions have sent people to Blackwater to discuss cooperation.
Some invited Blackwater to join forces to combat criminal activities in their jurisdictions; some invited Blackwater to send coaches to train police officers, improve the police force's combat capabilities, and learn to use tactical thinking; some police stations wanted to use Blackwater's intelligence analysis department to investigate cases.
Blackwater has already received more than 20 orders so far, and the company’s turnover is expected to increase by tens of millions this year, thus achieving real profitability.
Link is also happy about Blackwater's development.
Originally, Blackwater's rapid development period had to wait until after the 9/11 incident. After 9/11, the United States began a large-scale anti-terrorism campaign, and security companies such as Blackwater played an increasingly important role in these operations.
During the Iraq War, in order to make up for the shortage of troops, the US military began to hire a large number of private security companies to carry out combat missions, and businessmen going to the Middle East to negotiate business also hired a large number of bodyguards to protect their own safety.
The strength of security companies such as Blackwater reached its peak during that period, and the companies made huge profits.
Earning tens of millions of dollars a year now is just a small test.
After finishing the call, Link came to the backyard of the manor and continued to eat, drink and have fun with his girlfriends.
When the weather is good, he will go to the Lanai Airport to practice flying a plane and try to get his pilot's license as soon as possible.
In its second week of release, "Unbreakable" grossed $55.91 million in North America, with a cumulative box office of $156 million, retaining the weekly box office championship.
This week, the 1998 summer movie season ended. There were 65 movies released this summer, eight more than last year, and 11 movies had North American box office revenues of over $100 million, two more than last year.
The first place is "Tomorrow Never Dies" produced by MGM Pictures, with a North American box office of 287 million US dollars, currently overseas box office of 324 million US dollars, and a global box office of 611 million US dollars.
The second place was "Rush Hour 2" released by Guess What Pictures, with a North American box office of 205 million US dollars.
The third place is "There's Something About Mary" produced by Guess What Films, which has a North American box office of 172 million US dollars and a current overseas box office of 92.41 million US dollars. The film cost 23 million US dollars to produce and it is also the film with the highest revenue ratio among the billion-dollar movies. The heroine Cameron Diaz was selected as the "Sexiest Actress of the Year" by "People" magazine.
Fourth place went to "Stay Still" from Guess Films, which grossed $161 million in North America, making it the most unexpected dark horse movie of the summer season.
The fifth place is the science fiction film "Armageddon" released by Disney Pictures. As of now, the North American box office is 156 million US dollars, and the North American box office is expected to be more than 300 million US dollars, which is expected to surpass "007" and become the box office champion of this year.
Sixth place: Fox Film's "Doctor Dolittle", with a North American box office of 133 million US dollars.
Seventh place: Paramount Pictures' science fiction film "Collision Impossible", which grossed $125 million in North America.
Eighth place: "Godzilla" released by Columbia Pictures, $121 million.
Ninth place: "Lethal Weapon 4", an action movie released by Warner Bros. Pictures, with $109 million. Jet Li played a supporting actor in the film and became famous.
No. 10: "As Good as It Gets," a romantic comedy co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Guess What?, with $104 million. Julianne Moore's performance in the film was well received.
Eleventh place is the animated film "Mulan" produced by Disney Pictures, with a North American box office of 102 million US dollars.
After the list was released, Link and Guess What Pictures once again became the focus of Hollywood public opinion.
Because on this list, except for "Doctor Dolittle", "Collision Impact" and "Lethal Weapon 4", the other eight movies are all related to Link and Guess What Pictures.
The first and fifth places are films directed by Link, and they are also the most likely to become the annual box office champions.
Several other films were either produced exclusively by Guess Pictures or co-produced with other companies.
The Hollywood Reporter commented that this list should be called Guess What Pictures Summer Box Office Rankings, and Guess What - MGM Pictures has in fact dominated Hollywood.
"Complete Movie" magazine commented that Guess What Pictures is profoundly influencing the development of the film industry in an unprecedented manner, and its influence on Hollywood is more profound and more lasting than that of other film companies such as MGM, Paramount, and Disney.
The Los Angeles Times' comment was simple, saying that the Big Six studios continued to lose ground under the attack of Guess What - MGM and were powerless to fight back.
There are also tabloids using the recent "red carpet assassination" to create topics.
He claimed that "if you want to know why someone would hire a killer to kill Link, just look at this list and you will understand." "Under the collaboration of Guess What - MGM, the Big Six studios and other companies are in a slump and have already lost 50% of the movie market. They will lose more in the future, and the way to alleviate this situation is to "find a way to kill Link."
Because the report threatened Link's personal safety, it was banned from publication on the day it was published, and the newspaper also faced a huge fine.
“Haha. Hahaha!”
In the club, Harvey looked at the faces of Barry Diller and Ron Meyer across from him and couldn't help laughing out loud.
"why are you laughing?"
Longmeyer asked uncomfortably.
"In the beginning, I urged you to take action against Link and Guess What Pictures every day, but you didn't take it seriously. You even said you would wait until Guess What Pictures encountered setbacks before taking advantage of the situation. What's the situation now? You don't have the ability to deal with Guess What Pictures anymore."
Harvey grinned.
In the past few years, in order to deal with Guess What Pictures and save Miramax's decline, he has been lobbying the top executives of the seven major film studios, but no one listened to him.
Now the seven have become six. Except for Columbia and Disney, the situation of the other four is not much better than Miramax. The movies released cannot make profits and the corporate debts have increased significantly.
Company executives such as Langmeyer are facing the crisis of unemployment and are worried all day long.
Harvey felt suddenly happy when he saw that they were also becoming depressed.
"Harvey, I heard Miramax is going to go bankrupt. Are you going to continue to hold on or go bankrupt?"
Barry Diller asked.
Harvey's mouth twitched. "Miramax will not go bankrupt. We will find a way to persevere. Don't forget that we have Disney behind us."
"Disney's situation isn't good either, so they may not protect you."
Langmeyer picked up his phone and took a look. "Michael said he was busy with work and didn't have time to attend the party. He's not coming."
“As expected.”
Harvey shrugged.
Ding Dong!
Harvey's phone also rang twice. It was a message from Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein said that he seemed to be followed by someone and it would be inconvenient for them to meet in the near future, and asked him to be careful.
Harvey shivered and almost dropped his phone. He sent a message asking if it was someone sent by Link?
Epstein said it's not certain for now, as long as he takes care of himself.
Harvey's face changed and he was in no mood to continue drinking with Langmeyer and Barry Diller, so he found an excuse to leave early.
Longmeyer and Barry Diller looked at the empty booths and sighed. Ever since Link's rise, their lives have become increasingly difficult, and now they can't even get enough space for a table when they get together for a drink.
——
After leaving the club, Xavi kept thinking about Epstein's information.
Epstein said that he was being followed by someone, who might be Link's men. That means Link knew that they had hired someone to assassinate him, and he sent people to investigate them. Once evidence is found, they will be put in jail.
Thinking of this, Harvey was terrified, sweat started pouring out of his body, and his shirt soon became wet again.
After the car started, Harvey leaned on the window and looked back vigilantly to see if there were any cars following. When he saw a Chevrolet sedan driving out of the parking lot, his face turned even worse and his heart pounded like a drum.
He gasped and took out his cell phone to send a message to Epstein, suspecting that he was also being followed and asked Epstein what to do.
Epstein asked him to stay calm, do what he should do as usual, and not act abnormally, as those people could not follow him every day.
Harvey took a few deep breaths and pretended to remain calm while sitting still. After a moment he looked back out the rear window and saw that the black Chevrolet had disappeared.
But he did not take it lightly, suspecting that the car was still not far behind him, or that they had changed cars.
Harvey spent a week in fear and lost a lot of weight.
(End of this chapter)
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