Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 207: Box Office Failure (Additional Updates, Please Subscribe)

On Friday, Guess What?, the first movie of the year, "Very Strange Murder," was released in North America.

The film earned $8 in eight theaters during its first week of preview, with the average daily box office per theater being less than $14.3, which was below the minimum guarantee.

This result should have led to the film being withdrawn from the theaters, but Link did not want to undermine director Steven Soderbergh's confidence and asked the distribution department to continue showing "Uncanny Robert Downey Jr." in theaters.

In the four weeks since the movie was released, it has earned $143 in 78.3 theaters in North America, with an average attendance rate of less than 30%. The box office is expected to be around $100 million.

The film cost $120 million to produce and $50 to promote and distribute. It needs to gross more than $200 million at the box office to make a profit.

Simply put, this movie lost money, losing more than one million dollars, and it was also the first loss-making movie from Guess What Pictures.

The news was subsequently reported by many media outlets.

The headline of the Los Angeles Times that day was simply "Guess What Pictures' movie performs poorly at the box office."

The headline of the news in The Hollywood Reporter is 'Link's new film suffers its first box office failure'.

Other media outlets, including USA Today, The News, and Variety Magazine, also highlighted this news.

It was claimed that "The Unexpected Murder Case" created the record for the lowest box office revenue of a film produced by Guess the Movies, and the myth that Link's investment in films made 100% profit was broken.

Some media also suspected that because the company had recently completed its first round of financing, Guess What, like other companies, was under pressure from the board of directors after financing, and internal struggles intensified, leading to the failure of the film's distribution.

From this, the media concluded that Guess What Pictures began to decline and it would be difficult for it to replicate the glory of the past two years in the future.

"Damn it! Why didn't this crappy movie come out earlier?"

Michael Ovitz was surprised and even a little angry when he heard that the movie released by Guess What Pictures lost money. If the movie had been released a few weeks earlier, Link would never have dared to offer $5 million for financing.

Now that the financing is over, it’s too late to say anything.

Leading Capital called Link and asked him why he wanted to expand the distribution of "The Unprecedented Murder Case" when the preview performance was lower than the release standard. If he did not expand the distribution, the company would not lose millions.

Link asked them not to interfere in the company's management, and if they wanted to withdraw their shares, they could do so at any time.

Vanguard Capital has nothing to say.

He is willing to release "Uncanny Robert Downey Jr." at a loss. First, he wants to invest in director Steven Soderbergh. Director Soderbergh has great potential and will perform better than Quentin in commercial films in the future. If he strongly supports his films now, he can make the money back from other films in the future.

The second is to spend a fortune on a good film. Most independent directors are arrogant and conceited. Even if a film fails, they do not think it is a bad film. They will blame the distribution company for insufficient publicity, too low screening rate, too short distribution time, etc.

The preview performance of "Very Strange Murder Case" was poor, but Guess Pictures was optimistic about the film and still insisted on releasing it, which shows that Guess Pictures is a company that does not judge success or failure by data.

This is to attract other filmmakers to join.

This is his intention, which outsiders do not understand.

Director Steven Soderbergh was very embarrassed when he saw him at the party.

"Link, I felt pretty good when I was filming 'Very Strange Murder Cases', but I didn't expect the box office to be so bad."

In the bar, director Steven Soderbergh sighed, shaking his reflective bald head.

"It's normal for a movie to make money or lose money. No one requires your movie to make money. Besides, this is an art film, so a box office of nearly a million is not bad."

Link soothed.

Quentin put his feet on the table and smoked a cigarette. "Steven, don't feel embarrassed about the movie losing money. This project was approved by Link, and he also made the decision to expand the distribution scale. If it loses money, it means he has poor vision. It has nothing to do with you."

Link smiled and said, "Although Quentin is not good at speaking, what he said is not wrong. In principle, I have a greater responsibility."

"No, no, it's my fault. I didn't feel that when I was making the movie, but when the movie was released I watched it in the theater and read other people's reviews. Suddenly I realized that the movie had a lot of problems. I really didn't make this movie well."

Steven Soderbergh touched his bald head, his face full of regret.

"Don't be discouraged. Even if the box office performance is not good, there are still income from video sales and TV copyrights. This project will not necessarily lose money." "But guess what, the film company used to make 100% profit from distributing movies, but suddenly it loses money when it comes to me. What's going on?"

Steven Soderbergh feels guilty.

Link smiled. Actually, he didn't want every movie of the company to make money. It was normal to make ten movies a year, with seven or eight making money and two or three losing money.

Quentin said, "Steven, don't worry about it. Link is worth more than 1 billion. A loss of a few hundred thousand is nothing to him."

Link smiled and said, "It's really nothing. Although the box office of "The Uncanny" was not high, the quality was very high and the reputation was better than "Paranormal Activity" and "The Blair Witch Project". Your progress in this movie is obvious to all. I am looking forward to your next movie."

"Link, nothing else to say, thank you!"

Steven was moved and raised his glass to clink with him.

Quentin snorted, "Link, you've been quite popular lately. From entertainment news to legal news and financial news, you've been mentioned in everything. You're a director, but you don't make movies properly every day and you're busy crossing industries everywhere."

"I can understand financial news, but when has legal news ever reported on me?"

"Robert Downey Jr. threatened you with a gun, then ran over Richard Gere with his car. Which of these news stories didn't include you?"

"It's been a few months since this happened. Don't mention it anymore. It's boring."

Link waved his hand.

Quentin didn't want to let him go. "I just don't understand. Two years ago we were living in a low-rent apartment. We couldn't afford food or shelter. We didn't even have a girlfriend. And now you're worth over 1 billion. What happened in the meantime? Why are you the only one who became a billionaire while everyone else is making movies?"

Link smiled and said, "Stock trading, you can also try putting your money in the stock market."

"Investing in stocks is too risky. I don't want to lose all my hard-earned money in the stock market. Link, I advise you not to invest in stocks. Be careful of a financial crisis and the stocks you hold will become worthless," Quentin advised.

Link smiled and said, "I am now a shareholder of several companies. As long as the companies do not go bankrupt, the financial crisis will not have much impact on me."

Director Richard Linklater said, "Quentin, didn't you read the news? Link is a shareholder of Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal said that Microsoft's market value may exceed 100 billion in the future. Link's Microsoft shares will only become more and more valuable."

Quentin curled his lips, "Why do you need so much money? A few hundred thousand dollars is enough to eat, drink and pick up girls. The extra money is useless. No matter how much money Link has, he only has two kidneys and Dick only has one. He can't pick up more girls than us."

Link was helpless, "Quentin, can you stop hating the rich? I wasn't jealous of you when you won the Golden Bear Award some time ago. Why are you nagging so much about me being on the Forbes rich list? If you're not convinced, why don't you get on one too?"

Quentin kept his mouth shut.

Director Richard Linklater also approached Link about something, which was about his new movie "Before Sunrise".

This script is adapted from Richard's real experience. It tells the story of how he met a female college student on a train while traveling. The two talked about literature, music, and life ideals, and gradually became soul mates. It is a very fresh literary film and the first part of Richard's "Love Trilogy".

The casting for this movie has been completed, but the male lead chosen is Ethan Hawke, an artist under the CAA agency. He participated in the casting of "Final Destination" but withdrew midway.

Richard Linklater heard that Link had conflicts with CAA and was worried that Link was not satisfied with the choice of Ethan Hawke, so he found him to explain the situation.

Link said he didn't care. Although he had conflicts with CAA, he would not refuse to cooperate with CAA's actors. Now CAA owns nearly half of the star actors in Hollywood, and it would not be wise not to cooperate with CAA.

After the party, Quentin rushed to pay the bill. Link thought that Quentin's temperament had changed and he would no longer rob him, a nouveau riche.

But after Steven and Richard left, Quentin secretly found him and said that he also wanted to invest in stocks and asked if he could put his money in Flash Gold Capital and find a manager with good vision to help him with investment and financial management.

Link said that stock trading is risky and investment should be cautious.

Quentin said he didn't care.

Link asked him how much money he had.

Quentin said he doesn't have the money for now, but he will have it after Pulp Fiction is released. The movie has a good reputation.

Link directly told him to leave his luxury car and come back to complain when he has money.

(End of this chapter)