I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1102: Women's Reactions]

Whether to fully enter the digital music sales market was a fundamental strategic issue for several major record companies.

Eric didn't expect any agreement to come from their first meeting. After some tentative discussions with Edgar Bronfman and Doug Morris, they scheduled a follow-up meeting and the two men took their leave.

After personally escorting Edgar Bronfman and Doug Morris out of the executive building, Eric returned to his office and picked up the phone to discuss the recent encounter with Edgar Bronfman with Victor McNally, CEO of Firefly Electronics.

In fact, while Eric was in talks with Universal, Bill Olsen, the president of Firefly Electronics, had already flown to Europe with a prototype of their mini music store to persuade the two major record companies, EMI and BMG.

Similar to the past two years, the launch of the new generation of Fireflyer players was scheduled for Easter in April, which was only about a month away.

Under pressure from numerous electronics companies announcing their entry into the digital music player market, and considering how successful the mini music store plan would be for maintaining the market-leading position of the Fireflyer player, both Firefly Electronics and Yahoo focused on forming a close partnership with at least one of the five major record companies to secure music copyright resources to offset the content shortcomings of the mini music store.

Among the five major record companies, Sony Music, owned by Sony and already having its own music player product, was undoubtedly the toughest nut to crack. Eric basically kept his hopes low and saw no point in contacting them. Warner Records, part of Time Warner, was facing internal turmoil following the recent merger announcement between AOL and Time Warner. With the complications that arose from various parties' interests, establishing a partnership with Warner Records within a month seemed nearly impossible.

This left Universal, EMI, and BMG as the available options. Among these three, Universal, having recently acquired Polygram, solidified its position as the world's largest record group and was undoubtedly the best choice. Though Eric had shown no cards during their last discussions, he was more than willing to pay a price to make this partnership happen.

That said, Eric didn't place all his bets on Universal, hence Bill Olsen's trip to Europe.

...

After discussing matters with Victor McNally for nearly half an hour over the phone, Eric hung up and checked his watch. With some time still left in the workday, he opened a document on his desk and absentmindedly reached for a nearby pencil.

As soon as he held the pencil in his right hand, the movements agitated the bite marks on his arm, which had started to scab. Unable to resist, he rolled up his sleeve to take a look at the bandaged wound.

After the incident that afternoon, the kids had been frightened, and coupled with the alarming bite marks on Eric's arm, Virginia had scolded Eric fiercely without much reflection, even Joanna displayed an uncommon level of irritation.

Returning to Los Angeles, the atmosphere became even livelier as women gathered to gawk at Eric's "terrible" bite.

Drew expressed envy, wanting to leave her own mark on Eric's arm.

Aniston was curious about how exactly Eric had managed to attract the attention of a girl named Carmen Kass.

Elisabeth bluntly stated, "Serves you right."

Julia wore a sympathetic expression but her glances hinted that she wouldn't mind if Eric also showed some affection for her.

Nicole carefully examined Eric's wound with genuine sympathy, though she "accidentally" removed a freshly formed scab, then looked innocent while claiming she had a compulsive need to pick at scars.

Famke felt the bite mark was misaligned; it might have looked better if it were centered on the outer side of the arm.

"Okay," Eric thought as he observed such a shameless bunch.

Only Caroline showed genuine concern after seeing the bite mark on Eric's arm and reportedly called Olivia, prompting yet another wave of worried messages from across the pond.

...

Lost in thought, Eric recalled the petite girl with piercing eyes. Paris Fashion Week had just commenced, and she must have started her runway show by now.

With that on his mind, Eric reviewed a few more documents when his secretary knocked on the door to inform him that Kenneth Horne was waiting outside.

A bit puzzled, Eric let him in. Kenneth Horne walked into the office, looking very excited. "Eric, I just got off the phone with several theater managers. Guess what the box office for The Blair Witch Project is?"

"It must be outstanding," Eric replied, putting down his pencil and swapping it for a pen to sign his name on a document. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have rushed over here."

"Not just outstanding; it's absolutely phenomenal," Kenneth said as he pulled up a chair to sit opposite Eric. "The manager from Regal Cinemas told me that all 50 of their screening rooms were nearly sold out the entire day, and tickets for tomorrow are already gone."

Eric nodded. "Then go ahead and increase the screenings; just handle it yourself."

Compared to its former identity, Firefly have changed and, considering it was the off-season for movies, increasing the screening scale could easily be accomplished within a week if necessary.

"Hey Eric, you don't seem excited at all," Kenneth said, feigning disappointment. "You have to realize, a movie with a $32,000 investment, even with post-production expenses, totals only around $60,000. If 200 theaters are full next week, we could create a box office miracle."

"We have already created enough miracles," Eric chuckled as he set down his pen and looked up. "Alright, since you're so excited, I'll give you a chance. You can treat us to dinner tonight, and feel free to invite Jeffrey and others -- if you guys don't have family plans."

Kenneth nodded some, looking slightly "disheartened," and asked, "Isn't it Friday? Don't you have any plans?"

"None."

Eric shifted his wrist slightly, having been inclined to ignore the women's recent avoidance toward him.

As they spoke, Eric's personal cell rang. Glancing at the caller ID, he picked up the phone right in front of Kenneth Horne. "Hey, Warren. Long time no see... Of course, how are you... I'm still at Firefly Studios, just planning to gather everyone for dinner. Care to join?... Oh really, just tell me where you're at, and I'll send someone to pick you up."

After chatting for a bit, Eric hung up the phone.

Seeing Eric's casualness with the call, Kenneth asked, "Warren? Warren Buffett?"

Eric nodded. "He's probably here for the Clover Fund."

While Kenneth couldn't directly see the financial data of the Clover Fund, the topic was not a secret among executives like him. Curiously, he asked, "Speaking of which, the stock value of the Clover Fund should be around $30 billion by now, right?"

"It broke the $30 billion mark last week."

"I don't understand much about stocks," Kenneth said, amazed. "But Eric, I hear the Nasdaq index is in shaky territory, and everyone's selling off tech stocks. You should be more cautious."

Though Eric wouldn't easily change his plans, he also welcomed well-intentioned advice, nodding in agreement. "I understand. Now, call Jeffrey and the others. Since Warren's here, let's treat him well."

"I think you just want us around, so Buffett can't advise you to sell your stocks," Kenneth joked, but still took out his phone to make the call.

...

Despite Berkshire Hathaway only holding a 5% stake in Firefly, if liquidated, even after all the fees and taxes, Berkshire Hathaway would still pocket at least $1 billion.

One billion dollars is a sum any enterprise wouldn't overlook.

However, in the event of a Nasdaq crash, the stocks held by the Clover Fund could be trapped long-term. There wouldn't be any feasible way to liquidate cash without selling at a loss.

A conservative and cautious individual at heart, Warren Buffett was clearly not interested in that scenario, which was why he rushed from Omaha to Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, during the dinner gathering that night, regardless of Buffett's attempts at persuasion, Eric was steadfast about not selling his shares in the Clover Fund.

As events unfolded, Eric was unquestionably gambling.

As long as the Nasdaq successfully surpassed 3000 without collapsing, based on the historical uptrend of the index, the amount of cash that could be liquidated from the Clover Fund would likely exceed $40 billion or even $50 billion.

In that case, even after taxes, Firefly could still retain around $30-35 billion in cash.

Such a massive sum, coupled with Firefly's existing reserves, was enough for Eric to capitalize on the impending economic downturn in North America, allowing him to expand his economic empire while minimizing dilution of equity as much as possible.

When persuasion failed, Buffett left Los Angeles the next day in a huff.

...

Meanwhile, although the weekend was not yet over, news about The Blair Witch Project potentially achieving box office miracles began to circulate widely. Numerous media outlets published photos of fans queuing outside theaters showing the film.

Furthermore, several professional critics engaged in spirited discussions about the "Blair Witch phenomenon."

Despite many critics savagely criticizing The Blair Witch Project and unabashedly revealing through various analyses that it was merely a fabricated film rather than a genuine documentary, public interest had reached a point where the truth about the Blair Witch incident no longer mattered.

Everyone was curious about what this film that seemed to be discussed worldwide was truly like.

Thus, when the three-day weekend concluded and the new week's box office data was released, The Blair Witch Project's astonishing box office figures became a focal point for national discussion once again.

$11.2 million.

This was the box office data for The Blair Witch Project over its opening weekend.

Just over ten million dollars might indicate a significant failure for many blockbusters if such earnings were achieved in the first three days.

However, after a slew of data disclosures, everyone could only describe it as a miracle.

The production cost of The Blair Witch Project was only $32,000.

Even when accounting for the quality restoration that Firefly Group undertook to create copies, the total cost remained just $60,000.

$60,000 was only part of the story.

More impressively, the film's screening scale comprised only 200 theaters, meaning during the opening weekend, each screening room achieved an attendance of about $56,000.

If there was no basis for comparison, there's no harm.

Now let's look at the concurrent release of Mel Gibson's crime action blockbuster, Payback.

In its second weekend, Payback earned $14.37 million, surpassing The Blair Witch Project by $3 million, with a total of $41.33 million after ten days.

However, Payback had a screening scale of over 2,700 theaters and its average box office per theater was only just above $5,000, less than one-tenth that of The Blair Witch Project. Furthermore, Payback's production cost soared to $90 million, which was 1,500 times the entire production budget of The Blair Witch Project.

Given the vast disparity in production costs and release scale, to say that Payback only exceeded The Blair Witch Project by a mere $3 million could only be described as a failure.

Of course, there was another question at hand.

Why was Mel Gibson's $90 million big-budget film dumped into the graveyard of a March release?

The answer was simple.

This film was entirely funded and shot by Mel Gibson's production company Icon Productions, with no involvement from any major studios.

While Paramount handled the distribution, they would naturally reserve the best release windows and marketing resources for their own productions. As for films from independent studios, regardless of big stars, big productions, or big investments, as they lacked the studio's involvement, Paramount would not expend much effort. In fact, they would tacitly suppress such films.

To put in perspective, after Columbia abandoned distribution, Adam Sandler's collaboration with an independent film company, Out of the Blue... Entertainment, on Big Daddy eventually landed Warner Bros. as its distributor, but the release window was still set for the end of August during the summer.

While Hollywood films continued to thrive, the consolidation of media groups made it increasingly difficult for independent film companies to claim their share of the pie.

*****

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