Chapter 283 Opportunity and Tiankeng

After making the secret phone call with Wang Zheng, Su Yun simply packed her things and took a bus to the CAA headquarters.

After bidding farewell to Chen and Zhang in Bangkok, she flew directly to New York and began to observe the release of "Legally Blonde" and "The Postman" in the North American film market with Ovitz.

In Hong Kong, her cousin and brother are helping to watch over the situation. If anything important happens, they will telegraph or call her immediately. She can finally get away from the complicated Hong Kong and head to the North American market, which is now more inclined to fight with "real strength".

As expected, Ovitz lived up to her expectations and carried out corresponding marketing and publicity for the two films. Not only did the exotic art film "The Rooftop Post" make back its investment in the North American box office in its first week, but "Legally Blonde" also passed all the hurdles and narrowly won the second place in the first week box office.

It's fate and timing. In recent years, women's rights activities in North America have been very active. "Legally Blonde", a movie that breaks stereotypes and features a strong female lead, has emerged in response to the times and has been highly praised by the new generation of women who are increasingly gaining the right to speak. They have contributed to the box office with the help of their families, friends, and boyfriends... Many people doubt that this movie will top the charts next week.

After all, the two blockbuster movies, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Octopussy, were released in May and June, respectively, and have ruthlessly killed off all the commercial movies that could compete with them in recent months. This just happened to open up a bright avenue for Su Yun's chick flick, making it impossible for any big-budget movies to compete with her for box office revenue during the summer vacation...

"Such an achievement is also closely related to the quality of the film." Facing Su Yun's delighted praise, Ovitz responded to Su Yun without hesitation with a wave of commercial praise, "The Postman has the miraculous and legendary Kowloon Walled City, which is already a point that can attract many people to the cinema."

"Legally Blonde is targeting the young market during the summer vacation, and Jackson's cameo is a gimmick that can make money out of young people's pockets. In addition, it is taking advantage of the current trend to do a lot of public relations to break the stereotype of women. Unless there is something unexpected, it is unlikely to have any problems."

At this point, Ovitz couldn't help but say to Su Yun with satisfaction: "Meg and Tom, these two lucky children, have now become super idols among young people thanks to "Legally Blonde" and "Crazy", especially Tom - the part where he danced in a pink shirt was imitated by many people, and it has become a trend..."

Although "Crazy Ass" is not a movie produced by their own company, Tom is an artist of their own company. If he performs well, Ovitz, a senior executive who is particularly short of young artists, will definitely be sincerely happy about it.

Big names signed from outside, such as Sean Connery, have reversed their reputation as box office poison and returned to the level of first-tier superstars through the efforts of their companies. But no matter how good Connery is, he is still a bit old. If there is no fresh blood in the future, it will be easy for the company to slowly decline like other small and medium-sized companies.

Relying solely on Su Yun and Zhuang Long, two foreign faces, to support the younger generation is not a long-term solution.

Fortunately, he and Su Yun both had vision, and the two seedlings they focused on cultivating both had hope of becoming successful.

"Oh, there's one more thing I need to tell you." Ovitz helped Su Yun sort out the pile of documents, and then took out a document from the bookshelf next to him. "There's a man named Peter Ueberroth who wants to talk to us about the co-marketing business of the Los Angeles Olympics."

"He was the owner of a travel company, and he managed to develop his travel company into the second largest travel company in North America. However, few people outside the industry know him." Ovitz pointed to another job title under Euberros' name. "In 1980, he was recommended to be elected as the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee."

"So he's looking for us to do marketing and promotion for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?" Su Yun glanced at the information.

"There is this business, but his main goal is to find us to cooperate and help attract investment." Ovitz actually didn't want to take this business: looking back at the history of major cities hosting the Olympic Games, all of them suffered huge losses, which made investors and merchants scared. Even patriotic businessmen who have a good impression of the country basically looked difficult when they heard the words "donate to the Olympics".

Without mentioning the distant past, let’s just look at the tragic cases of the past decade: the 1972 Munich Olympics cost 1 billion U.S. dollars, of which the loss was as high as 600 million. Not only did they have to pay off the debts for more than ten years, but also because of the tragedy of a member of the delegation being robbed and murdered during the Games, the cost of hosting the 1976 Montreal Olympics, four years later, soared to 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in order to respond to the security requirements of the International Olympic Committee.

However, the $5.8 billion spent resulted in a loss of $2.4 billion, which almost bankrupted the Montreal City Government. Now I heard that the debt has to be repaid in installments until 2006, 30 years later...

Four years later, the 1980 Moscow Olympics cost almost doubled due to its location and local customs, reaching a staggering $9 billion!

Unfortunately, after the 9 billion dollars of investment was spent, it did not bring much income to the Moscow city government. Instead, the workers suffered heavy losses and property losses, which dragged down the economy for a long time. It was a typical case of losing money for profit.

It was because of these successive unsuccessful Olympic Games that Los Angeles became the only candidate for the 1980 Summer Olympics, and ultimately won without a fight - because the other candidate cities were frightened by the previous unsuccessful Olympic Games and chose to give up the bid...

"Before this, the funding for the Olympics basically came from government financial grants, which is also the main source of funding." Seeing Su Yun's puzzled look, Ovitz patiently explained to her, "The second is to issue lottery tickets, appeal for charitable donations, and attract commercial sponsorship."

"However, I have not heard of any news about the federal government providing financial support for the Los Angeles Olympics. Moreover, after learning that Los Angeles had once again won the right to host the Olympics, the California government and people jointly expressed opposition to the use of public funds to host the Olympics."

"California currently still prohibits the issuance of lotteries, so the way of raising funds through lottery issuance is not feasible; and charities have made it clear that they will not allow the Olympic Committee to compete with them for donations. So, the only way left for the Los Angeles Olympic Committee to end its efforts over the past two years is to attract commercial sponsorship."

"But now, attracting commercial sponsorship is the most difficult and the one with the least funding source?" After hearing this, Su Yun almost exclaimed in her heart, "I'm so surprised!" She never thought that the Olympic Games, which is so popular in the eyes of major businesses in later generations, was actually something that people avoided in the 1980s.

"Yes, in order to prevent the Los Angeles Olympics from being held due to financial problems, the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee reached an agreement after many discussions to hand over the hosting qualifications of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and recruit the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee from all over the United States."

"That's how Ueberroth, a businessman, became the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Committee." Ovitz was shocked when he saw Su Yun's increasingly eager eyes. "Mary, you want to..."

"Yes." Su Yun nodded honestly.

"I'd rather you buy a few more Back to the Future or Terminator movies than be interested in the Los Angeles Olympics next year." Ovitz looked at Su Yun with a face full of disappointment. "Even if you lose money on the sci-fi movies you buy, you won't fall directly from heaven to hell. But if you interfere in something as huge as the Olympics, you'll fall into an abyss if you're not careful..."

Su Yun herself and the Industrial Light & Magic company she collaborated with can take care of most of the post-production special effects of science fiction films. This is also the fundamental reason why Ovitz gritted his teeth and agreed to buy two science fiction films that looked like failures.

Otherwise, even if the partner holds a high proportion of shares, he will reject the plan if he makes random investments.

He had already done research on those two movies. The investment wasn't very high and they were watchable to a certain extent. If he worked hard on the public relations, he might be able to make some money... As for the Olympics, a huge event that had been losing money for many years, no matter how adventurous he was, he didn't have the courage to step into a pit that looked like there was a 99% chance of him falling badly.

There are also rumors that Euberos didn't want to take the job at first, but he couldn't stand the pestering of his friends from the sports brokerage company, so he reluctantly took on this hot potato.

He even had to pay out of his own pocket to rent an office for the Olympic Committee when he took office - because everyone thought this was another huge investment, and they were worried that the Olympic Committee would not be able to pay the rent, so no one was willing to rent an office to the Olympic Committee!

"So he came to our company because of my previous experience in casting a wide net and investing, which seemed easy to negotiate with?" Su Yun asked again.

"He is not only looking for our company, but also the ancient country behind you." Ovitz sighed, "It is difficult for individuals or a few companies to make up for the huge funding gap behind the preparations for the Olympic Games. However, Euberros heard from some friends that China intends to return to the Olympic family in next year's Los Angeles Olympics..."

"Just like the United States is gradually choosing to show goodwill to China in order to confront the big country in the north."

"As long as our interests and goals are the same, we are best friends."

"The reform and opening up in recent years has made my country earn some money, but I feel that they are not interested in paying for it at the moment..." Su Yun recalled the previous contact with relevant departments regarding the screening of the movie "The Rooftop Postman". The cautious and even pitiful negotiating tone of those staff on the other end of the phone made her feel sad: obviously the funds have always been very tight and difficult, but they still wanted to continue to develop the cultural and entertainment industry and broaden the horizons and knowledge of the people.

"The Rooftop Postman" failed to successfully enter the mainland film market during the summer vacation because Su Yun had been negotiating with Zhao in order to get more preferential conditions, so it was kept delayed and the release date in mainland China was postponed again and again.

"I also suggested that you don't get involved in this. If it weren't for the fact that this is a really big thing that can affect a lot of things, I wouldn't even want to tell you." Ovitz's face looked a little better after hearing Su Yun's words.

Probably because he felt that the tone he spoke to before was too strong, so his tone softened a lot at this time: "You have been tired recently. I heard that Alain Delon and your friend Bourne went to the Holy Tower some time ago. Barbara is on vacation, do you want to meet them before returning to Xiangjiang?"

"Okay, I haven't seen them for a while." Su Yun nodded obediently, but there was an ambiguous light flashing in her eyes.