Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 171 Release
During the negotiations between the two parties, FOX Entertainment Channel was the first to report the news.

It is claimed that according to insiders, Link bet with Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman and others on movie box office.

Bet on which movie will do better at the box office: Tom Cruise's new movie "Trap" or Link's new movie "Final Destination".

It is said that the stakes are as high as hundreds of millions of dollars.

After the news was exposed, the entire Hollywood was in an uproar. Several major casinos in the United States also set up similar gambling projects. Many people were discussing which of the two betting parties had a higher chance of winning.

There are about as many people who support Tom Cruise as there are people who support Link.

The reason is that Tom Cruise is famous, the new movie trailer is also good, and the quality of the entire movie looks very good, so the box office performance of this movie will not be too bad.

Those who support Link believe that his first two films had extremely high box office performance, setting the record for the highest return on investment in film history, and that his third film should also perform well at the box office.

Originally, this was a bet between Link and Robert Downey Jr., but in the media it became a bet between Link and Tom Cruise.

The purpose of CAA doing this is that Tom Cruise is famous and has many fans in the United States. After the movie is released, the fans will definitely support him with all their strength and use movie tickets to support Tom Cruise to win. At the same time, those who support Tom Cruise will know that both parties have made a bet and will no longer support Link's movie.

This is a very unfavorable situation for Link.

When Link was chatting with Jerome Preston, Aaron Couch and others at the Bald Eagle Club, several of them also thought that he should not bet against the CAA side.

CAA is a giant in the agency industry. CAA President Michael Ovitz was named "No. 1992 in Hollywood's Most Powerful Person of " by The Hollywood Reporter and has close ties with the top executives of the seven largest media groups in the United States.

After the release of "Final Destination", as long as CAA contacts all media and prohibits the promotion of "Final Destination", the film will lack exposure and the box office will be greatly affected.

Secondly, CAA has many celebrities under its management. After the release of "The Trap", as long as CAA arranges for the celebrities to take the initiative to help promote the movie, it is possible for the movie to earn millions or even tens of millions more at the box office.

Finally, a few people reminded Link to be careful of CAA agency tampering with the box office of "Trap", inflating the film and turning tens of millions of box office into hundreds of millions, or two or three hundred million US dollars.

This kind of thing is not uncommon in the North American film market.

The seven major film companies in Hollywood work closely with theater chains. Some of the shareholders behind the theater chains are also shareholders of the seven major film companies, and they all come from Wall Street.

Under the operation of Wall Street capital, theaters will use various means to improve the box office performance of movies.

For example, the box office revenue of other movies released at the same time can be transferred to "Sugar Trap", or the screening rate of the movie can be increased, the number of screenings can be increased, or movie promotion activities can be held to increase the movie attendance rate.

Although helping a movie to run its box office has its price, as long as CAA wins the competition and gets the $7200 million bet, it can make a fortune.

In the end, the only one who suffered losses was Link.

"Link, I originally thought you just liked beautiful women, but now you've developed a gambling habit too. This is not good."

Jerome Preston shook his head.

"Don't talk nonsense. I just wanted to bet 10 million to teach Robert Downey Jr. a lesson. I didn't expect them to bet tens of millions. Since they want to bet, I can't regret it, so I took it."

"More than 70 million. Are you sure you can win?"

“Yes, I have confidence in my film.”

Link said.

Several people shook their heads and raised their glasses to urge him to be more open-minded. He was still young and relatively wealthy. It would be a small loss for him to learn a lesson and not be fooled in the future.

Link smiled and accepted their kindness. Through communicating with them, Link also understood that it was not easy to win this bet, and the risk of failure was not small.

He consulted with Jon Gordon and others and asked the publicity department to contact the media in advance, sign a film publicity agreement with the media, increase the compensation amount, prevent the media from being manipulated by CAA, and refuse to promote the film after "Final Destination" was released.

To this end, publicity funding can be increased.

Those media outlets also want to make money, so it’s impossible for them to turn down business that comes to their doorstep.

At the same time, Link called Joe Fillem, the head of the distribution department, and asked him to hire some people to keep an eye on the box office in several major box office cities after the release of "The Trap", to see if there were any abnormalities, and try to find evidence if there were any.

After thinking it over, he rescinded the order.

In the gambling agreement signed by both parties, there is a clause that after 15 weeks of box office data is released, if one party wins, the arbitration party will automatically determine that the winning party has won the gambling.

There are no strings attached, and no mention of what to do if box office data is disputed.

The purpose is to prevent one party from cheating after losing the bet.

Link asked Joe Fillemy to expand the number of theaters showing "Final Destination" as much as possible, to a minimum of 2000.

He believes that the number of theaters showing "The Trap" will not be less than 2000.

After arranging all these tasks, on July 7, "The Trap" was released in 16 theaters in North America, 2425 more theaters than the premiere of "Jurassic Park".

The premiere box office was 3274 million US dollars, ending the seven consecutive championships of "Jurassic Park" and becoming the weekly box office champion.

"The Sugar-Coated Trap" tells the story of a new lawyer with a strong sense of justice who, after joining a law firm, discovers that the firm is helping the mafia to launder money. Anyone who is unwilling to go along with the law firm will die mysteriously. When the protagonist is about to launch an investigation, he is hunted down by the mafia.

Faced with threats from the law firm, the mafia-related companies, and the Ministry of Justice, the male protagonist decided to declare war on the mafia-related companies.

This is a typical Hollywood drama.

A handsome and righteous male protagonist, a beautiful wife with positive values, and united and friendly brothers and friends VS. a law firm that is obsessed with money, bloody and dirty capital, incompetent judicial personnel, etc.

After hard work, the protagonists finally led the just and kind side to defeat the ugly, evil and dirty side.

Overall, this movie is pretty good, an old-school Hollywood elite crime thriller.

But the movie also has many problems. For example, too much of the original work was cut out and a lot of content was compressed into a two-and-a-half-hour movie, which resulted in an incomplete narrative. For a suspense thriller, it lacks real suspense and is not thrilling enough.

It can be viewed as a modern workplace and romance movie.

After the release of "The Trap", many media pointed out the problems with the film.

The Austin Chronicle wrote that "the film may be more like a modern morality tale than a thriller. The three screenwriters John Grisham, Robert Downey and David Rabe are still not perfect in terms of narrative. Compared with other films directed by Sidney Pollack, it is a relatively mediocre work."

TV Guide commented that "For some viewers, the film is a thriller, but as a thriller, it is far from exciting enough."

Although Guess What Pictures arranged for some media to report negative news about the film, the effect was not great.

After the release of "The Trap", CAA and the film distributor Paramount Pictures arranged more major media to report positive news about the film.

(End of this chapter)