Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 178 Start counterattack

"Link, with Paramount Pictures doing this, do you still have the confidence to win the bet?"

Tim Robbins asked with a smile in the bar of WMA Agency.

"It's hard to win, but there's nothing I can do. Many media outlets have exposed evidence of box office fraud in "The Trap," but Paramount Pictures has refused to admit it and the Film Association has not come out to criticize this behavior. Now I can only pray that my movie can get more box office revenue after it's released," said Link.

Sam Haskell said, "You shouldn't have bet against them in the first place. You bet against a group of people at CAA and Michael Ovitz, the most powerful person in Hollywood. How could you possibly win?"

Link laughed and said, "I'm too young. I originally thought that the competition was about the movie box office, but now I know that it was about the ability to cheat. According to the initial release of "The Trap", the North American box office was at most 1.5 million, and now it is almost 2 million. Paramount and CAA lost their dignity in order to win the bet."

Tim Robbins said, "Don't be too discouraged. The reason why they are trying their best to raise the box office of "The Trap" is mainly because you are too good and your film has great potential. They dare not underestimate your film, so they do this. The higher they praise this film, it means that they value you more."

“Should I thank them for valuing me?”

Link joked.

Sam Haskell said, "Link, you should be careful too. When "The Trap" was released, they dared to use these means to promote the movie. When your movie is released, they will definitely find ways to prevent your movie from selling well. This time they are dealing with you with the confidence that they will win."

"I see."

"Link, do you get nervous?"

Jennifer Connelly asked, taking his arm.

"There's no point in being nervous. What I can do is to do a good job of promoting the movie and try to get more box office revenue when the movie is released," said Link.

Tim Robbins laughed and said, "Link, you are quite open-minded. That is more than 70 million US dollars, not 7,000."

"I'm still young, money doesn't mean anything."

Link smiled and talked about serious matters.

This time when he came to WMA Agency, he planned to join forces with WMA Agency and use the media to attack CAA Agency for manipulating movie box office and disrupting the film market, so as to put some pressure on CAA.

At the same time, the next time he makes a movie, he will give WMA some resources to deepen the cooperation between the two parties.

WMA agreed to help, but also told him that WMA's help in this regard was limited. If he wanted CAA to stop maliciously raising the box office performance of "The Trap," he would need to think of other ways.

Link also understood that although WMA and CAA were competitors, their competition was mainly concentrated in the field of artist management. Competition in other fields was not very beneficial to them, and there was not much benefit even if they won, so they would not put too much effort into this matter.

Link understood this, but still came to WMA for cooperation. His purpose was to find a partner. As long as WMA was willing to deal with CAA, even a small contribution would be meaningful.

At the same time, he also approached UTA President Marty Bauer to make a deal, and UTA would also use its resources and channels to put pressure on CAA and Paramount Pictures.

As CAA continued to shamelessly inflate the box office of "The Trap," many voices appeared in the media blaming the film distributor Paramount Pictures, and even people from the Film Association and the Theater Association came out to accuse Paramount Pictures.

This also puts great pressure on Paramount Pictures.

A Paramount Pictures spokesperson stated at a press conference that there was no problem with the box office data of "The Trap" and that it was subject to supervision by the Film Association and the media.

Although this response is tough, it also indicates that Paramount Pictures is prepared to make concessions on this matter and accept third-party supervision.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was founded in 1922 as a trade organization for the film industry. Its main functions are to protect American film copyrights, promote the development of film-related industries, regulate film production and distribution, expand overseas markets, and combat piracy and unfair competition.

The main members of the association are the chairmen and presidents of seven major American film and television media giants, namely Warner, Disney, Universal Pictures, Fox, Columbia, Paramount Pictures, and MGM.

The chairman of Paramount Pictures is also a member of the Motion Picture Association, but Paramount Pictures competes with the other six major film studios.

After the Motion Picture Association announced its intervention, even if Paramount Pictures wanted to continue to inflate the box office, it would cost more.

After the Motion Picture Association of America announced its intervention, the box office performance of "Trap" dropped rapidly, from $1013 million in the eighth week to $165 million, a drop of 90%.

The North American box office has accumulated 1.67 million US dollars.

It surpassed "The Blair Witch Project" with $1.58 million, becoming the second highest-grossing film in the first half of this year after "Jurassic Park."

This box office result is very good.

"Ranked second in the annual box office, this is a pretty good result. Why don't you stop investing in the follow-up funds?"

In the bar, Kiefer Sutherland flipped through the newspaper and said.

Robert Downey Jr. looked at Richard Gere and said, "Mr. Michael Ovitz, are you still going to continue to inflate the box office of Sugar Coat? Now that the Motion Picture Association is keeping an eye on Sugar Coat's box office data, it may be difficult to falsify it."

Richard Gere said, "Don't worry, wait for Mr. Ovitz's notice. If he thinks that 1.67 million box office can definitely beat Link, then the follow-up funds don't need to be added to the box office."

Kiefer Sutherland and his companions nodded helplessly, and only then did they hand over the money. Suddenly, a large number of news reports about the fraudulent box office of "The Trap" broke out in the media, and the Film Association immediately announced that it would intervene in the investigation.

Now the money is in Michael Ovitz's hands, and it is up to Ovitz to decide whether to make additional investments.

They can only wait and see what Ovitz decides.

After the box office figures of "The Trap" were released, Michael Ovitz was also considering whether to make additional investments to continue to raise the box office figures of "The Trap".

Now that we are being watched by the media and the film association, it will cost too much to continue to raise the price.

If the price is not raised further and the movie box office is allowed to grow slowly, in the end the North American box office of this movie will be around 1.8 million, and it will be difficult to break 2 million.

Can a box office of 1.8 million yuan surely beat Link?

This is a problem.

Michael Ovitz said, "We were too impulsive when we made the bet. We should have released Link's movie first and Trap later, or released them together. There would have been more room for maneuver during this period. Trap was released first and Link's movie later, which made it very passive for us to deal with."

Langmeyer said, "There's no need to rush. Let's not talk about whether Link's new movie can get 100 million at the box office. Even if it can, when his movie is released, we can find a way to stop it and suppress his box office. In this bet, the advantage is still on our side."

Tom Cruise said, "A great movie like "The Trap" could only get more than 1 million at the box office. Link's new movie can't possibly get more. What we need to be careful about is to prevent Link from cheating on the box office. His previous three movies sold well, so there is a high probability that he cheated."

Michael Ovitz nodded. "That's it. Let's see how things go before deciding whether to step up the promotion of Sugar Coated Trap."

Kiefer Sutherland and others breathed a sigh of relief when they received the news. Borrowing money for gambling put a lot of pressure on them. If they stopped spending money on publicity, the pressure would be less.

(End of this chapter)