Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 175 Box Office Fraud
The reason why the box office of "The Trap" increased instead of decreased is that the theaters credited the box office of other movies to this film.

Including "Voyeur", "Pointy Alien", "Indecent Proposal", "The Journey of Kings", and "Jurassic Park".

These movies should have earned more this week, but were transferred to the name of "Trap" in order to increase the box office of that film and help Tom Cruise win the bet with Link.

The San Francisco Chronicle's revelations caused a sensation in the entertainment industry.

There are two reasons. The first is that "The Trap" is very popular, and the negative news about it will also receive great attention. The second is that the report involves the annual blockbuster "Jurassic Park", as well as the popular movie star Tom Cruise and the new billionaire Link.

This also led to many media outlets reprinting the news. Even if the CAA agency successfully publicized the media under the seven major media groups, it would not be able to prevent all media outlets from reporting the news.

In addition to some American media that do not belong to the seven major media groups, many foreign media also reprinted and reported on this matter.

After the news broke, Paramount Pictures spokesman Andrew Cripps responded in an interview that the San Francisco Chronicle's report was seriously untrue and that they would file a lawsuit in court, demanding an apology and compensation from the San Francisco Chronicle.

After Paramount Pictures spoke out, the San Francisco Chronicle posted box office data of several movies in its latest report to confirm that it was true that "Trap" stole box office revenue.

At the same time, The Hollywood Reporter published an article saying that some viewers responded that they were watching other movies, but the cinema gave them tickets for "The Trap."

This kind of case has occurred many times in major cinemas across the country in the past two weeks.

Some reporters also found through investigation that many theaters are selling tickets for "The Trap" at a reduced price, with each ticket costing only $4, less than half of the price when it was first released.

There are also cinemas holding activities where tickets to "Sugar Coated Trap" are given away for watching other movies. Afterwards, the cinema will record the movie ticket sales data under the name of "Sugar Coated Trap", making it so that watching Sugar Coated Trap will give away tickets to other movies.

After the news was reported, it caused heated discussions in the entertainment industry.

After seeing the changes in the box office data of "The Sugar Coated Trap", many insiders could guess that there was something wrong with the box office of this movie.

However, the film's distributor Paramount Pictures firmly refused to admit that "Trap" stole box office revenue and proposed to sue the media that falsely accused Paramount Pictures.

After seeing the news, Paramount Pictures President Sherry Lansing called Michael Ovitz of CAA and said, "Michael, it's time to stop. Many media outlets are following suit and reporting that the box office of 'Trap' is abnormal, saying that we are faking the box office. This has a very bad impact on the company. The board of directors called me to inquire about the situation. I can no longer pretend that nothing happened."

"Shirley, don't worry. Just hold on for another three weeks. It only takes three weeks to get 'The Trap' to $2 million at the box office. I promise I won't bother you with the rest. And if 'The Trap' sells well, it will be a big benefit to Paramount Pictures."

Michael Ovitz said.

Shirley Lansing said, "Michael, given the current situation, it won't be difficult for Sugar Trap to break $2 million in ten weeks. Doesn't $2 million allow you to win Link's new movie?"

"For others, $2 million is fine, but for Link, we can't help it. The box office performance of his first three movies was extremely amazing. The first one was nearly 8 million, the second one was more than million, and the third one was more than million. The fourth one is his first big production. The movie has not yet been released, and no one can guess how much box office it will get in the end. Therefore, "Sugar Coated Trap" needs more box office to ensure that we will not lose the bet."

Michael Ovitz said.

Shirley Lansing said, “Why would you bet against Link’s new movie if you knew it had potential at the box office?”

"This is a little game, a game between men. I want to play with Link, but I don't want to lose." Michael Ovitz said. "A man's game? That has nothing to do with me. Now that Link has the evidence of inflated box office revenue for "The Trap," Paramount can't just pretend nothing happened. You must resolve the news in the media this week, otherwise we will end this cooperation next week and let the box office revenue for "The Trap" return to normal levels."

Shirley Lansing hung up the phone.

Michael Ovitz heard the buzz in the receiver, put down the phone and said to Ron Mayer and Jay Maloney on the other side, "This woman is really difficult to deal with."

Ha ha!

Jay Maloney smiled in agreement.

Longmeyer said, "Link broke the news through the media that the box office of "The Trap" was fake, and Paramount was under pressure. It will be very difficult and costly for us to continue to operate the box office. What are your plans?"

Michael Ovitz said, "Contact the media first and continue to suppress this kind of news, so that they don't make too much noise and reduce the pressure on Paramount."

"It's very difficult to do this. I heard that Link spent millions of dollars to hype this news. If we want to suppress these valuable news, we need to pay multiples of the money. If we lose the bet, we will not only lose the 30 million bet, but also the tens of millions of funds used for public relations and box office fraud. If we win, we will not make a few cents. It's not cost-effective." Langmeyer said.

Michael Ovitz frowned and also felt that this matter was rather tricky.

To continue with public relations and inflate the box office of "The Sugar-Coated Trap", more funds will need to be invested.

If we win, we can barely break even.

If you lose, you lose more.

If he doesn't continue to inject water, he won't be able to win Link for sure, and he will feel uneasy.

This put him in a dilemma.

Jay Maloney looked at the two and said, "Based on the current situation, there is a great chance that Sugar Coat Trap will break through $2 million at the box office, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of the year. However, the test screening of Link's new movie was average, so even if the box office is good, it will not reach $2 million."

Ovitz said, "It's hard to say. When Paranormal Activity was screened, Fred Olin and others thought it was a bad movie and no one would watch it after it was released. However, the movie grossed over $600 million worldwide."

Jay Maloney said, "Maybe we can wait until Link's new movie is released and then find a way to prevent the media from reporting on his movie, or to only report negative news, so that his movie can become a big flop. As long as it is done properly, it will be difficult for his movie to sell well."

Ovitz nodded. He would have done the same thing even without Jay Maloney telling him, but it wasn't enough.

"It's not just us who are betting against Link this time. There are also Richard Gere, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise and others. If they lose, they will also lose a lot of money. If they want to win against Link, they should also pay some PR fees."

Longmeyer nodded.

Ovitz called Richard Gere and others, asking them to raise $1000 million to hype up the box office of "The Trap" and promised to help them win the bet.

(End of this chapter)