Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 217: Hunting Link
Since Dumb and Dumber was a guessing game, Pulp Fiction was ostensibly a Miramax project.

Some media outlets called the dispute a fight between Guess What and Miramax.

Some media also reported that Quentin and Link broke up and turned from friends into rivals.

As a result of these controversies, Dumb and Dumber and Pulp Fiction received more exposure and saw a significant increase in attendance.

"Pulp Fiction" earned $1005 million in its fifth week, 23% more than last week, with a cumulative box office of $5140 million.

"Dumb and Dumber" earned $2574 million this week, with a cumulative box office of $6746 million. It is expected to gross more than $1 million in North America, and will also be the first movie to gross over $1994 million in North America in .

By the second week, Guess Pictures and Miramax were ready to continue hyping the two films, but spoilers appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the Los Angeles Times, US Express, and Variety.

Several newspapers cited "Pulp Fiction" and "Dumb and Dumber" as films financed by Guess What?

Last week, Quentin, Jim Carrey and Guess What Pictures accused each other. This was a big drama directed and performed by Guess What Pictures themselves. The purpose was to hype up the topic and increase the exposure of the two movies. Don't be fooled.

After the emergence of the spoiler, continuing the hype would be ineffective, and Miramax and Guess had no choice but to shelve their hype plans.

"Haha, Shirley, I heard that your new movie suffered a loss. I'm sorry to hear that."

In the CAA president's office, Michael Ovitz put down the newspaper, picked up the phone and called Paramount Pictures president Shirley Lansing.

"Michael, if you have anything to say, please speak quickly. I'm very busy at work."

Shirley Lansing looked at the report on the table and felt unhappy.

In April, Paramount Pictures also released a movie called "Star Trek", which is a crime comedy about a man who wants to be famous and deliberately stages robberies to attract media attention.

The film cost $3000 million to produce, but only earned $352 million in four weeks after its release. Due to low attendance and high publicity and promotion costs, the film had to be taken offline just four weeks after its release.

Paramount Pictures lost $3000 million on the project.

The movie's box office losses caused dissatisfaction among the board of directors, and as the president of the film company, she was under a lot of pressure.

"Shirley, can't you see that Link is taking revenge on Paramount? He knows that you have a major project coming out soon, so he deliberately scheduled Pulp Fiction and Dumb and Dumber to be released around the time of Short Turn to rob the box office of this movie. If it weren't for Pulp Fiction and Dumb and Dumber, Short Turn would never have done so badly at the box office."

Michael Ovitz said.

Shirley Lansing tapped her fingers on the desk, not completely agreeing with Michael Ovitz's words, that the box office failure of "Undercover" was mainly due to the fact that the plot was not exciting enough, the jokes were not frequent enough, and the audience did not like to watch it, rather than being robbed by other movies.

However, without "Pulp Fiction" and "Dumb and Dumber", "Star Road" would indeed have earned more box office.

"Michael, why are you saying this? I remember your bet is over."

"Yes, but don't you think Link is annoying? He's like an alien species. After he entered Hollywood, the established order in the circle was broken. The Big Seven is no longer the most profitable film company, big stars have become less important, good movies can't get the box office results they deserve, and bad movies sell well one after another. Now Hollywood has become a mess. Have you ever thought about driving Link and Guess What Pictures away and letting the Big Seven Pictures take control of Hollywood again?"

"I haven't thought about it. I am the chairman of Paramount Pictures. My main task is to make money from movies and make more profits to satisfy shareholders. It is not my task to drive away Link and Guess What Pictures."

"This is not a contradiction. Before 92, the Big Seven studios firmly controlled Hollywood. In 93, Guess What, a film company that had only been established for two years, snatched the market share that originally belonged to the Big Seven studios with a few rubbish movies and entered the top seven.

Although Guess What Pictures ranked sixth in total box office last year, Paramount ranked fourth.

Judging from the current momentum, Guess Pictures' film performance this year will be better than last year, and it will take up more market share that originally belonged to the Big Seven film studios. At the same time, it will surpass Paramount and 20th Century Fox and enter the top four or even top three in the film industry.

Once it is surpassed by Guess Pictures, Paramount Pictures' profitability will surely decline again. How will you explain this to Chairman Redstone and the group of shareholders?"

Michael Ovitz sneered.

Shirley Lansing couldn't argue with his words.

Among the more than 1 films released in the first quarter of this year, only two films have the chance to break $ million at the North American box office: Pulp Fiction and Dumb and Dumber. Both films were produced by Guess Pictures.

Among Hollywood film studios in the first quarter, Guess What had the best box office revenue and made the most money.

The annual profit of the film industry is limited, more than 90 billion US dollars, and % originally belonged to the seven major film studios. After the rise of Guess What Pictures, this ratio has dropped significantly.

Now for every dollar that Guess What makes a movie, Big Seven makes a dollar less. Guess What is robbing Big Seven.

Shirley Lansing also hated Guess What Pictures and wanted to see the company go bankrupt to reduce the work pressure on its executives, but Link himself was a very capable director with a net worth of over 1 billion dollars, and it was impossible for her or her company to do it alone.

"What do you want to do?"

"Let's work together to drive Link away and divide up Guess What Movies."

"Let's join forces?"

Shirley Lansing shook her head.

Although Michael Ovitz is the president, founder, and major shareholder of CAA, with a net worth of $400 million to $500 million, he has extensive connections in the entertainment industry.

But the opponent Link is also a powerful character.

In order to suppress such an opponent, three or more of the seven major film studios would have to join forces to suppress the box office of Guess What Pictures and drive Link out of Hollywood.

It would have been hard to succeed if we just teamed up with Michael Ovitz.

"It's not just our two companies. I've talked to the presidents of seven major film companies and several independent film companies. Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Carlock Pictures, and Castle Rock Pictures are willing to join forces to deal with Guess What?

MGM, Disney, and Columbia Pictures have agreed to remain neutral, and with our combined efforts, Link and Guess What will happen is doomed to fail.”

Michael Ovitz said confidently.

Shirley Lansing thought for a moment, "Vanguard and Morgan Stanley are not going to watch us short Guess What?"

Hearing Shirley Lansing say 'we', Michael Ovitz laughed and said, "Don't worry, Navigator and Morgan will not interfere with our competition. They are not only shareholders of Guess Pictures, but also shareholders of several other companies. Even if Guess Pictures goes bankrupt, it will not affect them much.

But to be honest, Link was really stupid. If he had sold most of his shares to Vanguard and Morgan in the first round of financing, with the protection of the two investment companies, no company in Hollywood would have targeted him. It's a pity that he was too greedy. "

Shirley Lansing did not comment, "Michael, there is one thing I don't understand. We, the Big 7 Studios, are targeting Link because he took away the box office revenue that originally belonged to us. Why are you targeting him? I heard that Guess What Pictures is not opposed to cooperating with artists under CAA."

Michael Ovitz snorted, "I naturally have my reasons."

There are many reasons for him. Last year, he lost more than 20 million yuan in gambling, including principal and interest. Taking into account his connections and lost wages, his losses amounted to tens of millions.

In addition to losing money, CAA agency also lost people.

After the bet ended, Richard Gere, Robert Downey Jr., Dustin Hoffman and others got into trouble one after another.

These people were originally CAA's cash cows, but were ruined by Link, which also led to a decline in CAA's reputation and influence, with WMA and UTA poaching several important clients.

These events also seriously affected CAA's revenue last year. Last year, CAA's commission was 2.4 million US dollars, a decrease of 92% from 8, and the first decline in the past five years.

According to the company's financial statements, the decline in profits is closely related to Michael Ovitz's participation in the bet.

This incident also made the board of directors very dissatisfied with him. At the board meeting at the beginning of the year, Michael Ovitz was questioned by board members, which made him lose face.

If he, as the president, did not hold enough shares, he might be replaced by the board of directors.

And all of this was caused by Link.

This is a personal enmity.

In addition, he also received promises from several film companies that they would pay him a large commission after he brought down Guess What Pictures.

That's the point.

When Shirley Lansing heard about the companies joining forces, she also agreed to join the "alliance" to annihilate Link and Guess What Pictures, and strive to bring down the company and restore Hollywood to its original order.

(End of this chapter)