I’m in Hollywood

Eric was able to detect the tension and embarrassment of Rowling and did not take her to the reception room of the villa, but to the lawn of the backyard.

In London in July, the temperature in the day is only about 20 degrees Celsius. The sky around the green trees is a gray-blue sky. Although there is no sunny sunshine in Los Angeles, it is also less hot in the summer season, but it is full of vitality. There is no unbearable uneasiness.

There was a set of tables and chairs for rest on the lawn. Eric sat down with Joanne Rowling. Christina took a pot of coffee and poured it on, then turned and returned to the villa.

The information about Joanne Rowling and Harry Potter has been placed on the table in front of me, feeling the emotion of Joanne Rowling, Eric is not in a hurry to talk about business, casually said: "jk Luo Lynn, j should be the first letter of your name, what about k?"

Joanne Rowling, who had just picked up the coffee cup with Eric’s movements, heard his question and immediately put down the cup and explained: “k is Catherine’s meaning, I don’t have a middle name, Catherine is my grandmother. name."

Eric felt that the poor little woman in front of her eyes must have been rushed by a series of recent events. She thought about it and said, "Do you know, Joe, in fact, Hollywood is a very easy psychological imbalance. local."

Feeling that his own thoughts were stunned by Eric, Rowling was a little embarrassed, didn't know what to say, just nodded lightly.

Eric did not expect any response from women. He continued: "In Hollywood, someone bought a script for $250,000, the film production cost $15 million, but the world got a $120 million box office, box office. The income is eight times the cost of production. The movie name is "Deadly Weapons". Some people bought a script for $1.75 million and made it for $85 million. The final box office was defeated, and even the production company almost went bankrupt. The film is "The Mirage Hero." And, more interestingly, the screenwriters of the two films are the same person."

Rowling listened carefully to Eric’s words and felt that she seemed to understand something, but shook her head and whispered: “Mr. Williams, I don’t understand too much.”

"Call me Eric," Eric took a sip of coffee and said, "I just want to tell you, in Hollywood, um, or anywhere, a person wants to make themselves easy, just It should be a bit more lively. Like the screenwriters of the two movies I just mentioned, he is Shane Black. The original "Lead Weapons", with the global box office and follow-up videotapes, earned at least the earners of the Warner Bros. For $100 million, Shane Black only got a negligible 250,000. Maybe someone would think that he must be sad to cry. Then, when Carlos bought his "Phantom Hero" script for $1.75 million. And so almost lost to bankruptcy, some people think that as a screenwriter, Shane Black should also feel uneasy. But this is not the case, Shane Black has always been very good, he is still Hollywood Gold screenwriter, and continues to work with Warner Bros. "Fatal Weapons 4"."

Perhaps Eric’s words played a role, and the opposite of Rowling sat down slightly, but after a brief confrontation with Eric’s gaze for a second, the woman quickly sneaked away. .

Eric smiled and said: "About "Harry Potter", in fact, I could have offered you a lower price, for example, £100,000, which is the average price of most scripts or novels. But I didn't do this because I was optimistic about this story. I hope to make it a well-known fantasy brand of Disney, even like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, so I gave a price that I think is worthwhile. In the future, not only limited to novels and movies, this series will also include a whole industry chain such as music, toys, theme parks, etc. If successful, the Firefly Group will make a profit of one billion or even one billion dollars from this brand. ”

Joanne Rowling, who had just picked up the coffee cup, heard Eric’s description. The hand holding the cup couldn’t help but shake it down. He put the coffee cup down again and looked at Eric in surprise.

Looking at the woman's appearance, Eric chuckled: "Is it now? If the fireflies really make use of this novel to make $10 billion, you can only get 1 million pounds. Oh, maybe the whole series. Millions of pounds, you will lose money?"

Joanne Rowling just felt that Eric’s prospects were somewhat unbelievable. Listening to him, the bottom of my heart did not help but feel some loss. She instinctively wants to deny, but in the face of Eric's bright eyes, she gently taps her head.

"Look, there are many things like this. I just said that if a person wants to be relaxed, they should be alive and well, but the most important thing is not to blindly overestimate yourself in certain things. The importance."

Joanne Rowling heard Eric’s implied words and shook her head and denied: “Ai, Eric, I don’t.”

"Hey, the fireflies want to complete this plan, you still need to continue to create the next story, so I will talk about my plan first," Eric ignored the woman's denial, saying: "First, Harper Collins Press To take over the global distribution of the Harry Potter series, in order to make enough popularity of the series before the film production, the Firefly Group will also use the media resources in its hands to package the novel. Perhaps other similar novels are sold. A few hundred thousand copies can be considered a best seller, but I hope that the sales volume of the Harry Potter series is tens of millions or even more. In the process, you will get what you deserve, and the novel sells a thousand. With thousands of copies, you can become a multi-millionaire. If the entire series reaches 100 million, you will become a billionaire. But then, the Harry Potter series of movies, toys and the surrounding areas will be profitable. It is what fireflies deserve."

Joanne Rowling is not stupid, she understands the meaning of Eric's words. If no fireflies use their own media resources to brand the novel, Harry Potter can only sell hundreds of thousands of copies like ordinary bestsellers, bringing her hundreds of thousands of pounds. The royalties, perhaps relying on the sale of film and television copyrights, can earn some more, but definitely not the kind of brilliance Eric described. I figured out that Joanne Rowling had just begun to dissipate some of her imbalances. However, she carefully asked: "That, Eric, if, if it fails?"

Eric shrugged: "Fireflies spend more than $1 billion a year on film and television production, at least 8% of which are spent on acquiring scripts or comic book adaptations, so it doesn't matter if it fails."

Joanne Rowling is no longer entangled in this problem, £1 million, which may be a huge sum for her, but for the Firefly Group, it is nothing.

Eric watched Rowling relax and smiled and opened the folder in front of him. "So, now, let's talk about the content of the novel. I have read your novel outline, you have to write five in your plan, but I think that the seven parts seem to be more suitable. I have already helped you think about the titles of the seven novels. The first manuscript you have completed, I hope to split the tens of thousands of words behind, as the second novel. The content, the first part is based on the content, called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"."

Joanne Rowling heard that Eric had not asked her opinion at all and would open her mouth to her novel, and felt that it was necessary to express her insistence on being the original author of the novel.

Just, seeing Eric looking up, and raising the pencil in his hand, pointing to her side to signal her to sit, the slightest resistance in the woman’s heart suddenly vanished, and she squatted and sat down to the chair. Ke is around. Although the tone of this man's conversation with her is always very gentle, the gas field that the other party has cultivated in power and wealth is not something that a small woman can resist.

In addition to the first volume of revisions, Eric also discussed in detail the details of the novel outlines that need to be modified based on the movie plot in memory.

Time has passed without knowing it. When things are finished, time has come to the evening.

"Then, you have a month to modify the first story, the next release will be handled by Harper Collins, and the fireflies will also cooperate." Eric looked at his watch and looked up. Next to Rowling said: "The time is not early, I will let you arrange a room for you, just tonight, Dai Dai wants to hold a charity reception, you can also go and see."

Because of the long time sitting next to Eric, the breath of the man's body makes it easy for Luo Lin to give birth to a few heartfelt, young, rich, handsome, strong... Every character of this man has a strong influence on women. Attraction, not to mention, she has been single for a long time. Although Eric had nothing to do with it, Rowling couldn't deceive herself. She could imagine that she might have had a flush on her face. Listening to Eric wants to stay with her in the villa for the night, Rowling finally couldn't hide it. The flustered look, quickly shook his head: "No, no, Eric, I have booked a flight back to Edinburgh tonight, Jessica is still at a friend's house, I am not at ease."

Eric looked at the woman's eyes and saw her body sitting in the chair unconsciously moving backwards. She couldn't help but smile: "Well, it seems that I scared you."

Although Rowling knew that Eric was joking with her, she quickly shook her head: "No, really not."

"Oh, if this is the case, I will let you send you to the airport," Eric did not retain. Rowling can only be regarded as a temperamental woman. It is not his dish at all. He packed up a few stacks of documents in front of him and handed it over to him. Rowling, Eric got up and walked outside.

Rowling held the file in her arms and followed Eric. She was slightly squinting, and she began to regret that she had just refused.

The driver carried Luo Lin away from the villa, and Christina, standing next to Eric, glanced at the door that automatically closed and turned to Eric.

Eric reached out and squatted on the girl's head and said, "What do you think?"

"Oh, no," Christina hugged Eric's arm and said, "It's not too late, Eric, I'll help you pick the dress."

"It’s only six o'clock, what anxious," Eric shook his head and smiled. "Go ahead and eat something. I have to go hungry last night. I have to go to the box office data in North America yesterday. I will go. take a look."

Christina heard the way to go to the kitchen to eat, Eric went back to the study, turned on the computer and began to check the mail.

Yesterday was Friday, the release of "Royal Casino" into the second week, while the first week of the $11.7 billion ultra-high box office also made the whole Hollywood look even, even Eric did not think of the first week of "Royal Casino" The box office will be so bad.

But then, the problem is coming.

The two new films released this week, "Jesus 2" and "Ice Age", have a very close relationship with fireflies. The reason why such a schedule was arranged at the beginning was also considered that the previous North American box office of the 007 series was not too high, and there would not be too strong competition between the parties.

But now, many people, including Eric, have a bit of a tangled mood.

On the one hand, everyone expects that the decline of Royal Casino will be as low as possible. Due to the continued popularity of the film in the media and the audience this week, the possibility of Royal Casino maintaining a lower decline is still very large. . On the other hand, the Royal Casino’s first-quarter box office scores have reached $11.7 billion, even surpassing the previous box office total of “Golden Eyes” and North America’s $10.6 billion. Then, the Royal Casino’s box office drop is too low. The two new films "Jesus 2" and "Ice Age" will be directly impacted.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Eric opened the box office statistics email sent from Los Angeles.

On the single-day box office list on Friday, "Royal Casino" did not unexpectedly top the list with a box office of 18.61 million US dollars, compared with last year's year-on-year decline of only 39%.

The data was sent by Eric's assistant office with professional notes.

In the accompanying analysis, as the topic of "Royal Casino" went up with the box office and word of mouth, the proportion of box office on weekdays increased significantly compared to other films. According to the first week of the Royal Casino, the first week of the box office data, this week's film The overall decline will remain at around 35%. This means that the Royal Box Casino's second-week box office will still be as high as $76 million.

At the beginning of July, it was the outbreak of the box office in North America. The single-week box office in North America reached about 200 million US dollars. But now, although "Royal Casino" is already in the second week of release, but a film still has to share a third of the total box office, no need to look down, Eric can guess other films, especially live-action movies. Box office data is not too good.

In the first week of 11.7 billion, the next week of 76 million, two weeks, "Royal Casino" will have a total box office of more than 1.9 billion. Although live-action movies can't maintain the long-lasting screen life of animated movies, even with an average weekly decline of 40%, Royal Casino's North American final box office is expected to reach between $300 million and $3.5 billion.

The average fare in North America in the 1960s was around $08, and the average fare in 1997 was $46, which is 57 times that of the 1960s.

In this way, in 1964, it was once called "Golden Finger", which was the highest sequel to the box office in the history of 007 after inflation. At that time, the box office of more than 51 million US dollars in North America was converted to 2.9 billion dollars. "Royal Casino" 300 million to 3.5 billion US dollars in North American box office expectations, even if the calculation of inflation factors, will definitely replace the "Golden Finger", becoming the highest sequel to the highest box office in North America in 007 history.

As for overseas, due to the statistical difficulty, the box office data last week was delayed by one day to get the preliminary results.

Although Eric’s upper film was already four years ago, the record of the first Jurassic Park’s global breakthrough of $1 billion was still vivid. Under the influence of interests, all countries’ filmmakers made every effort to promote the Royal Casino. Simultaneous release, the film's final overseas sync ticket position reached 36.

Last week, under the leadership of the same record 21.3 million pounds (US$31.95 million) in the UK, the 36 consecutively opened ticket warehouses across the country also successfully broke through the $100 million mark, reaching $136.1 million. Although the overseas box office market is affected by various factors, the box office data is more difficult to predict, but there is no doubt that "Royal Casino" will be Eric's "Jurassic Park", another one is expected to hit the global box office of 1 billion US dollars. the film.

Unlike the Jurassic Park that year, Eric’s box office expectations for the film were only about $600 million before the release of Royal Casino. Now, the film suddenly shows the potential of 1 billion in the world. If there is no excitement in the heart, it must be fake.

However, after sweeping the box office data of the next few films, Eric couldn't help but think that the high-level insiders of their own company would not be too good. Last week, the Royal Casino’s first weekend box office was just released. Eric and Frank Wells, who was far away from Los Angeles, talked about the upcoming Titanic exhibition by phone. The other party intentionally or unintentionally mentioned Royal Casino. The tone is very resentful.

For this week's two new films, before the release, the industry is generally more optimistic about the first popular "Jesus Police 2", the first part of the film under the operation of the new line of film, the global box office is close to 200 million US dollars . As a result, the cost of Jedi 2 has risen from the first $19 million to 60 million.

However, on the first day of Friday, the second place was not "Jesus 2", but the "Ice Age" of Blue Sky Studio.

This animated film has accumulated a good reputation before it was released, and was rated as an ‘animated version of “Three Daddy and One Baby” by the industry. You should know that "Three Dais and One Baby" is the North American box office champion in 1987. "Ice Age" can get this kind of evaluation, and indirectly explain the popularity of this animated film in the preview stage.

The plot of the first part of "Ice Age" really draws on the idea of ​​"Three Dais and One Baby". Moreover, this kind of plot mode has not only won the praise of the critics, but also received the recognition of the audience. On the first day of the show, "Ice Age" won the $13.46 million box office. Although it was not comparable to the box office of "Nemo" on the first day of more than $20 million, the first day's box office data exceeded the one month ago. "Lion King 2 The $12.8 million.

According to estimates, the first week of the "Ice Age" box office will be close to 60 million US dollars, the same will exceed the "Lion King 2" in the same period.

In Eric's view, the quality of "Lion King 2" is actually better than the more adult "Ice Age". The first day of the box office was overtaken by the "Ice Age". In the final analysis, it was the original "Lion King 2" propaganda. It was caused by the combination of fireflies and Fox. Viacom began publicly and began negotiations with BS at the end of June. Obviously, Lei Shidong was determined to make up for Viacom's shortcomings in the TV channel.

After the "Ice Age", the next "Jesus Police 2" first day box office was only 6.52 million US dollars, barely ranked third. The reason why it is reluctant, because the fourth "Haidu total mobilization", although the release has entered the fourth week, but the single-day box office on Friday is still as high as 6.29 million US dollars, the difference between the two box office data is only more than 200,000 US dollars.

The first day of $6.52 million indicates that the first week of the "Jesus 2" will be only about $25 million, and the actual box office figures are even a full $10 million lower than the initial expectations of the new line.

Obviously, most of the $10 million gap is affected by the strong box office of Royal Casino in the following week. The two films belong to the action movie, and the audience has a large degree of overlap. The word-of-mouth and box office of "Royal Casino" are both bursting, and the topic is even rising. "Jesus 2" is a black protagonist movie, two If there is a fight, the audience will choose which one, there is no suspense at all.

If there is no "Royal Casino", even if the box office of "Royal Casino" is not so bad, with the first accumulated reputation and popularity, "The Jedi 2" North American box office is still not big. But now, according to the expectation of the first week of 25 million US dollars, "Jesus 2" North American box office can only go up to 70 million US dollars, due to the short-selling overseas market of black protagonist movies, even if the overseas box office can keep the last one At the level of $60 million in production costs and $20 million in the budget, the company is unlikely to recover costs at the box office. If you want to achieve profitability, you can only expect future videotapes and TV rights.

It's not hard to imagine that even if everyone understands that MGM is now part of the Firefly system, it is still difficult to get the top executives inside the Firefly Group to accept this reality. Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but shook his head. Although there was no idea of ​​the lower movie in the future, in order to appease everyone's emotions, it is still necessary to release the news that the lower movie will definitely return to the fireflies. (To be continued.)