Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 466: One King and Four Queens

“Wow, Link’s punch was so hard, it almost knocked off Clinton’s jaw.”

In the office, Tiffany clenched her fist and bumped her chin. Then she made a sound and her chin crooked, turning into a girl with a crooked mouth.

 “Okay, let’s go and play, I still have to work.”

Evaka saw that Link had won and was not injured, so she pushed away the computer and continued browsing emails.

"All right!"

Tiffany was holding her computer, leaning on the sofa, playing online games, and chirping randomly.

 “Tiffany, do you like acting?”

Ivaca shouted.

"What?"

 Tiffany raised her head and looked over.

“If you like making movies, you can go to an acting school first and become an actor in the future.”

Evaka suggested.

“No! I went to the theater to play a zombie because it was fun. If I went to take acting classes, it would be too painful. I don’t want to ask for trouble.”

 Tiffany shook her head repeatedly.

Ivaca glanced at her, shook her head helplessly, and said nothing more.

After a while, Tiffany received a call, saying that a crew needed new zombies and the pay was 20 US dollars per hour. She asked if she wanted to come. Tiffany immediately jumped up, put down the computer, said hello in a hurry and ran away.

 Ivaka rubbed her forehead and continued to work.

  —

The boxing match ended. Link successfully won the title of challenger for the IBF light heavyweight title and will directly face IBF champion Chad Dawson in his next match.

 Professional record: 24 wins, 24 KOs in 24 fights.

 Originally, the boxing championship challenger competition was a second-level competition and was not as attractive as the boxing championship challenger competition. However, because the participant was Link, this competition also attracted the attention of many boxing fans.

PPV sales in North America were 1.24 million copies, with total revenue of about 93 million U.S. dollars, and revenue from online live broadcasts was about 42 million U.S. dollars. Counting tickets, hotels, casinos, advertising sponsorships and other peripheral income, the total revenue was about 45 million U.S. dollars. The total revenue of this game was as high as 1.8 billion dollars.

Link's personal income in this game is about 56 million US dollars, which is 40% more than the last time he played Beirut Shumenov in Hong Kong Island, and not worse than the game against De La Hoya at the end of last year.

 From the perspective of income, his influence in the boxing world is undoubtedly greater.

In the past, when he was not famous, his boxing matches mainly relied on promotion companies to spend money for publicity and hype, which often cost hundreds or tens of millions of dollars.

 Now he is a world star, a public figure with world-class influence.

Every time his match is scheduled, the mainstream media in the United States will take the initiative to report the relevant news and help with publicity, because his match itself is valuable and big news, and there are audiences who are willing to pay for reporting this kind of news.

This is the benefit of becoming a top boxer. After becoming a top boxer, media all over the world will help promote it for free.

 At that time, Ali and Tyson both received such treatment and were sought after by the world's media before they became boxing legends.

By the 1990s, there were top boxers Roy Jones Jr. and Mayweather. In terms of strength and record, the two were no worse than Ali and Tyson.

 However, due to changes in the international situation, the United States' international influence declined after 2000, and American boxing was no longer popular around the world.

 Foreign media are not interested in this kind of news and boxing stars.

 The two do not enjoy free promotion resources from foreign media, and their global popularity is far inferior to that of Tyson and Ali.

Come to Link, he is a top star, a playboy, has a lot of talking points, and has great influence on a global scale. The media reports on his news are profitable, and they are also happy to cover his boxing matches.

The increase in free media resources has also led to Link’s growing influence in the United States and even around the world, like a snowball.

 Correspondingly, his income from competitions will also become higher and higher.

 In addition, there is another reason.

 Since last year, he has played many matches abroad, and only played one against De La Hoya in the United States.

 There are fewer local competitions and the audience is more interested. This is also a kind of hunger marketing.

If all the previous four games were held in the United States, each game would cost thousands of dollars in tickets, PPV, etc. Even die-hard boxing fans would not be able to support this expense.

 This is one of the reasons why he often competes overseas even if the prize money is not much.

"Link, Nike's marketing department sent a cooperation agreement. First, they invite you to be a spokesperson. The initial price is negotiated. The five-year endorsement fee is 150 million. In addition, they also submitted a cooperation plan to use your name to create a new sports brand. After the new brand is launched, you can get 5% dividends from sales every year.”

In the office, Franco handed over a piece of information.

Link flipped through the contract and looked at it. This kind of cooperation is similar to the Jordan Brand sneaker brand co-founded by Nike and Jordan, and the Yeezy brand founded by Adidas and Kanye West, which uses the celebrity's fame to sell goods.

 The more products a brand sells, the more celebrities earn.

 The 5% sales dividend provided by Nike is not bad, which is similar to the dividend Jordan receives from Jordan Brand every year.

But there is a stipulation in the contract that after cooperating with Nike, he is not allowed to endorse other clothing brands.

 This won’t work.

He also has the Dior brand men's clothing endorsement. At the beginning of the year, he also signed a contract to endorse CK underwear and GUESS jeans. The annual endorsement fees for the three brands add up to about 30 to 40 million.

 Collaborating with Nike requires giving up these endorsements, which is not cost-effective.

 The contract given by Nike is not a lifetime endorsement.

 The brand is also in a dominant position in the cooperation and can end the cooperation at any time.

 Just like after Kanye West's accident, Adidas immediately announced that it would stop cooperation and stop producing Yeezy products. Kanye's net worth also dropped from more than one billion to hundreds of millions.

Link thought for a while and told Franco that giving up endorsements of other clothing brands would not work.

If Nike sincerely wants to cooperate, it will either modify the contract or increase the endorsement fees and sales dividends. If it doesn't agree, forget it, he will not lack the endorsement fees.

Franco said he understands and will continue to discuss with Nike.

  —

 After the game, Link also had some rest. He and Ivaca returned to their villa in Miami Gardens for a short vacation.

  Don’t care about boxing matches, movie box office sales, or new album sales every week.

Every day I spend time with Eva Ka in the villa, playing with cats and dogs, sunbathing in the garden, fishing on the deck, going to the shooting range to practice shooting, playing golf at Tomb International, and watching the Heat's Big Three lose to Norvis at home. base.

After playing for a few days, Ivaca had to return to Los Angeles to handle work. Link went to Nashville on the way, spent a day with Alexander and Cynthia, and bought many gifts that Taylor thought were useless, and then returned to Los Angeles. Work. The MTV Video Awards opened in late September. He was invited to attend as an award guest and presented the Best Video Award of the Year to Katy Perry.

Link Music's singer Mars won the Best Male Vocal Video Award for "Just the Way You Are", and Justin Bieber won the Best Music Video Information Award for "Usmile".

Lana Del Rey, Wiz Khalifa, and Little Round Face were all invited to attend the award show, but failed to win. Ariana Grande and Charlie Puth, as newcomers to the music scene who debuted this year, were invited to attend the MTV stage On the show.

 After MTV, Link continued to promote the new album "Loveisgone".

 In its fifth week of release, 183,000 copies were sold in the United States, ranking second on the Billboard album chart.

 The champion is the new rap album "Watch the Throne" jointly released by Jay-Z and Kanye West, which sold 395,000 copies in the first week.

ˆ "Watch the Throne" stole the top spot from "Loveisgone" and attracted a lot of media attention. "Billboard" joked that Jay-Z and Kanye took revenge with their new album.

Although "Watch the Throne" sold well this week, the lead single "Otis" peaked at No. 6 on the singles chart, and the previous few songs were all songs from Link's new album.

On streaming media platforms, the popularity of the songs in the "Watch the Throne" album cannot be compared with that of "Loveisgone".

 The weekly playback volume of "Otis" on iTunes, which has the best performance, is only the same as "Remember Me", which ranks 12th in "Loveisgone".

 After comparison, the media also had to sigh that Link was very powerful.

When he debuted in 2009, he was overwhelmed by Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and others. He was forced to leave the Grammy Awards for the first time in protest. At that time, Kanye didn't even bother to talk about it in public. Picking up Link, he said to prevent Link from getting too hot.

In just over two years, Link has grown to a very high position in the music world.

The title song jointly released by Jay-Z and Kanye West, the two kings in the rap industry, is not even as popular as the top ten songs from Link's new album.

In addition to the high quality of the songs in Link's new album, it is also because he is relatively famous.

The New York Post called Link "MJ's successor" in an opinion article. It also said that MJ passed away in 2009, and Link happened to debut in 2009. MJ invited Link to attend a concert before his death. Link also wrote a 'divine song' for MJ after his death. Link and MJ are both world-class pop culture icons.

This newspaper believes that it is appropriate to call Link the successor of MJ. He is the first person in the European and American pop music circles today.

 Other media have different opinions on this.

The "Chicago Tribune" believes that Link's current influence is indeed very great, and he can also be called the number one person in European and American pop music, but he has not yet reached the level of MJ. Considering that he debuted less than three years ago, in a few years he will be in The global influence may not be worse than MJ.

 This is something worthy of recognition.

The newspaper's retort is that MJ is a pure singer and musician, and his fame is mainly due to his musical influence.

The components of Link’s fame are quite complex, including music, boxing, movies, sports, Internet celebrities, etc. Without any one of them, Link would not be as famous as he is now.

Therefore, it is inappropriate to call Link the ‘MJ successor’. Link is Link, an emerging ‘pop culture icon’ born in the new era.

"Entertainment Weekly" also recognized Link as the number one person in the European and American music scene today, and named him the "One Super Four" along with Lady Gaga, Adele, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry. He is the "one king and four queens" in the music world.

Hong Kong Island's "Apple Daily" ranked Link and Lady Gaga as the "One Queen and One Queen", and Adele, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Taylor Swift were also called the "Four Song Concubines".

The British "Guardian" commented that Link and Adele are representatives of male and female singers in today's European and American music circles.

Link will not care too much about these evaluations, good or bad. Being too concerned about the praise from the outside world will make him become proud and complacent.

  Paying too much attention to negative reviews will hinder your ability to do things.

 "Loveisgone" was released in the United States for five weeks, with cumulative sales of 3.62 million copies, making it the fastest solo album to exceed 3.5 million sales in the United States.

 Overseas, the cumulative sales volume in the five weeks was 10.617 million copies, becoming Link's fourth diamond record. His first album "The Fighter" has been on the shelves for more than two years, and the total sales volume also exceeded 10 million copies in August.

Link also became the first independent male singer of the new generation to have four consecutive diamond albums.

In order to sell more albums, Link returned to Los Angeles and participated in multiple album promotion events to increase the album's popularity.

Universal Records once again proposed a world tour plan to promote the fourth album.

The appearance fee for each concert has been increased to 1.8 million US dollars, which is 600,000 higher than the first time.

Hundred tours can earn almost 200 million. Taking into account other income and album promotion income, 300 million is not a problem.

Link didn’t agree. It would be too troublesome to start a tour. Next year, he would have a lot of work and wouldn’t have time to travel around. Also, Evaka was pregnant and needed help at home.

 But he didn’t refuse. Earning hundreds of millions of dollars from a tour can also expand his influence, increase the box office appeal of movies, and increase prize money for boxing matches. There are many benefits.

His opinion is to delay and wait until the fifth album is released before considering a second world tour.

 Global also agreed.

 The album promotion work was busy until late September.

At the same time, "Captain America" ​​starring him has also been released in North America and many overseas countries. The North American box office is 252 million US dollars, and the overseas box office is 245 million US dollars. The global box office is only more than 3 million US dollars away from 500 million. It is expected to be among the top in the North American annual box office rankings. ten.

Link received a total salary of 28 million US dollars afterwards, successfully joining the ranks of Hollywood's 20 million-dollar salary.

 The other movie "Snowflakes and the Secret Fan" in which he participated had a box office of US$6.33 million in North America and approximately US$11.5 million overseas after two months of small-scale screening.

 The film invested 8 million yuan and grossed about 18 million at the global box office, barely breaking even.

However, the reputation is average. Many media commented that the film only received more than 10 million box office with Link, a super-popular actor, and the project itself had huge problems.

 In a few days at the end of September, Link also shot a movie, and it was the script "Buried Alive" that he had held in his hands for more than three years.

The movie tells the story of an American truck driver who was attacked in Iraq. When he woke up, he found that he was buried alive in a coffin. He had to use the limited props around him to find ways to escape from the predicament.

 Originally planned to shoot last year, but Link had too many things to do and did not have time, so he had to postpone it until now.

The director of the film is Rodrigo Cortez, the original director. He is also a horror film director. He has participated in the filming of several Lionsgate film projects and is a director with a mature style.

The plot of "Buried Alive" is simple and does not require extra props, scenes, or actors. All filming is only done in a few narrow wooden boxes. The filming workload is not large and the investment is not large.

 The only difficulty is the performance. All plots only have one actor and a few simple props such as a mobile phone, a lighter, a flashlight, a light stick, a knife, a wine bottle and a pen.

 It’s very difficult to take good pictures.

In order to give a better performance, Link lay in a closed wooden box for three days without communicating with outsiders to experience the suffocation, despair, and fear of being buried alive, and to amplify it as much as possible during the performance.

While filming, he also asked the director to adopt a high-pressure mode. As long as the performance was not up to par, he would immediately stop the filming and strive for perfection as much as possible. Don't lower the requirements casually.

 Rodrigo Cortez is also a very serious director, and he was not treated as a big name during filming.

Every time at the beginning of the performance, his performance would be interrupted repeatedly, sometimes a hundred times, sometimes two or three hundred times. It was not until he was numb and exhausted that he announced the official start of filming, and told him that the buried people could not Too energetic.

This movie was shot for six days, and the main scenes were initially shot. Counting Link's salary of 1 million, the production cost was 2 million US dollars.

The original version of "Buried Alive" had an investment of 3 million and a global box office of more than 20 million.

Link is not sure how much box office the new version of "Buried Alive" will get, but the script was finally completed after three years of delay. He has completed a work that has been delayed for a long time, and he feels very good.

 (End of this chapter)