I am Hollywood

[Chapter 831: A Decent Financial Report]

"Speaking of which, George has already settled on an actress for Queen Amidala, and it turns out you know her," Elisabeth said with a teasing smile.

The next morning, Eric drove to Firefly Studios, passing through Century City on his way from Beverly Hills to Playa Vista. Elisabeth hitched a ride with him to work.

The production of the Star Wars prequel had been delayed due to the founding of Amblin Pictures and other factors, but it was finally confirmed to start filming in April. As the distributor, Elisabeth was fully responsible for the project, which had kept her busy lately. Although Fox didn't have a hand in the production side, most of the interior shooting was set to take place at Fox Studios. On the way to Century City, they couldn't help but discuss the topic.

Eric had little interest in the Star Wars franchise, even less so regarding the casting of Natalie Portman as the lead. However, hearing Elisabeth's enthusiasm, he curiously asked, "Who is it?"

Elisabeth leaned in closer to Eric, her smile playful as she said, "Take a guess. Here's a hint: she's a girl around sixteen or seventeen, and you personally discovered her for Hollywood."

It wasn't a surprise; since her breakout role in Leon: The Professional, Natalie Portman had been one of the standout child stars in recent years. Besides her exceptional performance in Leon, she also starred in critically acclaimed films like Heat and Everyone Says I Love You. Not to mention, being Jewish certainly gave her an edge. As a significant icon in American film culture, the role of Queen Amidala in the Star Wars series seemed to be a natural fit for a Jewish girl in Hollywood, whether intended or not.

Despite this realization, Eric feigned ignorance, "Let me think. Um, Kirsten Dunst?"

Elisabeth raised an eyebrow, a hint of mock annoyance in her voice, "Who's Kirsten Dunst? I don't know her!"

"Uh," Eric instinctively rubbed his nose, "the little girl from Interview with the Vampire. Don't look at me like that; I've only seen her a couple of times! I have no idea what she looks like now."

Elisabeth quickly recalled, "Oh right, the girl from Interview with the Vampire. Alright, I won't make you guess anymore. It's Natalie Portman, the girl you met on Long Island a few years ago; everyone seems to be on board with it."

"Yeah, she's a smart little kid," Eric nodded in agreement.

As they chatted casually, the car pulled into Century City and soon entered Fox Studios. Elisabeth adjusted her Hermes silk scarf, turning to Eric, she raised her chin slightly, "Hey, can you see any marks?"

Eric reached out and adjusted the scarf, covering a faint red mark, chuckling, "Even if you don't hide it, who would dare say anything?"

Elisabeth shot him a playful glare, "Fine, if I take off the scarf, you're coming with me to the meeting."

Eric, realizing he didn't have that kind of confidence, quickly changed his mind, "Forget it. It's better if you cover it."

"You bastard," Elisabeth teased, feigning annoyance.

As the car came to a stop, the driver got out and opened the door. Elisabeth leaned in to give Eric a quick kiss, grabbing her handbag. "You don't need to get out; I can handle it from here."

Eric nodded, watching Elisabeth walk into the office building before instructing the driver to proceed.

...

Aside from the airplane dive shot, which was entirely CGI, there weren't many effects needed for Casino Royale. Therefore, post-production was progressing quickly.

Returning from San Francisco, Eric spent February finalizing the special effects for Casino Royale. The movie was entering its final editing phase, a crucial step in determining the quality of a film. For the rest of February, Eric focused solely on editing Casino Royale.

...

Meanwhile, Firefly Electronics officially launched its marketing campaign for the MP3 player Fireflyer after finalizing the last plan. Although it was clear that Fireflyer had broad global market prospects, Bill Olsen and the management team still decided to take a cautious approach, initially focusing on the North American market.

With significant media resources from Firefly's network, the sleek and compact Fireflyer quickly appeared in ads across major television, online, and print platforms in North America. Firefly Electronics greatly collaborated with Yahoo!, offering 10,000 demo units through a promotional event on the Yahoo! portal. By activating their Yahoo! Music Box account, users entered a daily lottery for a chance to win free trials of Fireflyer and could potentially receive Yahoo! Music Store gift vouchers to purchase songs.

Even though giving away 10,000 Fireflyers and a multitude of gift vouchers directly cost Firefly Electronics and Yahoo! about $3 million in marketing expenses, the results were evident. It only required linking personal credit card information through YahooPay and activating accounts without any substantial purchases, leading to an increase of over 700,000 new users for YahooPay within a week. The total user count neared 5 million. Previously, YahooPay's user growth was limited to just over 4 million due to safety concerns regarding online payment tools.

As promotion continued, Fireflyer garnered significant attention. By the end of February, a Yahoo! portal survey indicated that first-month shipments of Fireflyer in North America might reach 100,000 units, and this was still a conservative estimate.

...

On the other hand, at the end of February, Yahoo! revealed its first decent annual financial report after five years of existence.

In 1996, global internet users surpassed 80 million. North America accounted for more than half of this figure, reaching 50 million users, doubling from 1995.

With the explosive growth of North America's internet sector, Yahoo!, which held over 70% of the online services market share, generated $194 million in revenue that year, with 90% of it coming from their internet advertising business, thanks to the success of their advertising network.

To quickly expand within North America and overseas markets like the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and even Brazil in Latin America, Yahoo! operated at a staggering cost of $335 million, reporting a loss of over $140 million for the year. However, relative to a mere $25 million in revenue the previous year, a remarkable increase of 776% was astonishing to many.

While the anticipated growth rate for Yahoo! in the coming year was projected to slow down significantly, the company still confidently set a conservative growth estimate of 200%. If this target was met, Yahoo! could potentially achieve a break-even point and even a small profit the following year, highly beneficial for their upcoming IPO.

In preparation for an IPO within two years, Yahoo! wasted no time publishing key data on their portal's homepage after the financial report was released. This decision garnered immense attention in the industry. Anyone could understand what an over 700% annual growth rate meant. The NASDAQ market reacted strongly, with already-listed internet tech stocks surging after Yahoo!'s annual report, and Wall Street was equally excited, raising Yahoo!'s valuation to $9 billion.

...

In Los Angeles, Eric was equally surprised by the report. He had thought Yahoo! would not see explosive revenue growth for at least another year or longer. It seemed that Yahoo!'s timely emergence had changed everything.

Following Yahoo!'s annual report, two major IT companies under Firefly Investments, Cisco and America Online, also released their financial statements. Compared to Yahoo!'s nascent growth, their performances were impressively solid. Even the somewhat weaker America Online reported an annual revenue of $1.8 billion.

...

Returning the focus back to Hollywood, on February 27, Titanic entered its tenth week in theaters, achieving a weekly box office of $25.3 million, with a total gross exceeding $400 million -- $417 million, to be exact.

With Titanic's steady performance maintaining a weekly box office above $20 million, predictions indicated that Titanic would break Star Wars' long-held North American box office record of $460 million in its twelfth week. Further predictions suggested that by the end of March, during the Oscars, Titanic's total earnings could surpass $500 million, making it the first film to reach $500 million at the North American box office.

In overseas markets, Titanic was gradually released in less prominent countries, expanding its international box office to 27 regions. While countries like France, Germany, and Japan waited until closer to the Academy Awards for their debuts, the growing number of overseas releases led to enhanced ticket sales growth.

Among the biggest surprises was the Brazilian market, which had historically underperformed. Despite being the largest market in Latin America, achieving $10 million in Brazil with a Hollywood film had been considered a great success -- Jurassic Park, which had previously set box office records, only garnered around $14.9 million there. Therefore, Firefly did not initially classify Brazil as a critical market. Titanic premiered in Brazil on February 7.

Unexpectedly, Titanic's ticket sales in Brazil exceeded all expectations. Within just two weeks, it surpassed $10 million, a figure far beyond the Brazilian division's forecasts, which had anticipated around $15 million, similar to Jurassic Park.

After surpassing $10 million in just two weeks, even the corporate headquarters no longer overlooked Titanic's box office potential in Brazil. Under Katzenberg's direct intervention, the film's screenings increased by about 50%, and promotional efforts intensified. By its third week of release, Titanic saw its box office in Brazil rise, with a weekly take of $6.9 million, totaling $17 million -- easily breaking the previous year's ticket sales figure of under $15 million.

...

In Playa Vista, Firefly Studios, after more than half a month of intensive work, the initial rough cut of Casino Royale had been completed. MGM executives and the film's creators gathered at the Firefly Studios screening room to watch the movie's preview.

The preview lacked credits and had a runtime of 150 minutes. Eric intended to trim further, aiming for a final cut around 140 minutes -- just right for a popcorn movie. After all, there had only been one film in Hollywood's history, Titanic, that exceeded three hours and still achieved box office miracles.

*****

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