Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 255 Public Opinion Troubles
After living in Hawaii for a while, Link returned to Los Angeles to deal with some work matters.

First, let’s look at the box office revenue of several movies.

"Dumb and Dumber" has been released for half a year, with a cumulative North American box office of 1.27 million US dollars and a global box office of 2.47 million US dollars.

"Speed" grossed $1.32 million in North America and has now grossed $3.24 million worldwide.

In overseas regions, audiences like "Speed" more than "Dumb and Dumber".

This movie has also become the most popular youth idol movie worldwide this year, and Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock have become the new generation of youth idols.

The current North American box office of "Se2.93en" is $3 million, and it is expected to exceed $6.82 million in North America in two weeks. The global box office is $7 million, and it is expected to exceed $7 million next week, making it the second movie after "The Lion King" this year to exceed $ million at the global box office.

In August, Guess What Pictures has another movie coming out, "Eat Drink Man Woman" directed by Ang Lee. It currently has a North American box office of 472 million U.S. dollars and a global box office of 803 million U.S. dollars. The total box office is expected to be around 1000 million, with a box office to revenue ratio of 3:1, making it a hit movie.

After the summer vacation, Guess What Pictures has four movies released one after another.

The first is "Léon: The Professional" directed by Luc Besson, the second is "Before Sunrise" directed by Richard Linklater, the third is "The Mask" starring Jim Carrey, and the fourth is "Good Will Hunting".

The release dates of the four films have been scheduled one after another, and the company has started the promotion and marketing work for the first two films.

The third job.

After several rounds of negotiations, he and Warner Bros. signed a cooperation agreement at the WMA agency, officially confirming that he would serve as the director and producer of "Batman" and that he would be in charge of the film project.

The news caused a sensation in Hollywood.

It is rumored that Warner Bros. participated in suppressing the films under Link and Guess What Pictures during the summer vacation. Originally, everyone thought that they were in a hostile relationship and would continue to fight.

Unexpectedly, just after the summer vacation ended, they suddenly shook hands and made peace, and even reached a cooperation on the big movie project "Batman" sequel.

The change was so rapid that many people were caught off guard.

At the same time, the cooperation between Warner and Link also revealed some information.

First of all, Link is currently the most popular director in Hollywood and has a strong appeal in the film market, while Warner Bros. Pictures is the company with the strongest distribution capabilities in the film industry. The joint production of "Batman", a very popular film project, by both parties is undoubtedly a win-win choice.

If this project is successful, the two sides will likely establish a closer cooperative relationship, Link's position in Hollywood will inevitably be better than before, and Warner Pictures will have the opportunity to continue to dominate the position of the leader in the film industry.

Secondly, the relationship between Warner Bros. Pictures and Link has improved, and it is expected that they will relax their suppression of Guess What Pictures in the future. The pressure faced by Guess What Pictures will also be reduced, and the subsequent development will probably be smoother.

If it can continue the development speed of the past two years, Guess What Pictures will become one of the most competitive film companies in Hollywood, truly the 'eighth of Hollywood'.

Finally, after Columbia Pictures and MGM, Warner Bros. also chose to cooperate with Link. Three of the seven major film studios established cooperative relationships with Link. This change also greatly affected the landscape of the Hollywood film industry.

What attitude will Universal Pictures, Fox Film, Paramount Pictures, and Disney take towards Guess What? Will they continue to suppress it or follow the example of Warner Bros. Pictures? Will the "Anti-Guess What Alliance" headed by Michael Ovitz continue to exist?

It is currently an unknown.

Entertainment Weekly published an article in response to this matter, saying that the cooperation between Warner Bros. Pictures and Link was the product of failed competition in the summer vacation season.

During the summer vacation, Warner Bros. Pictures and other media companies joined forces to put pressure on Guess What Pictures, forcing Link to increase his bet on film promotion and marketing. If Link's bet fails, the development of Guess What Pictures will be greatly affected.

Fortunately, Link succeeded, and "Speed" and "Seven" achieved excellent results in the global film market.

On the contrary, Warner Bros. Pictures released five movies with a production cost of more than 5 million US dollars during the summer vacation. Only one of them, "Mad Money," grossed over 5000 million US dollars in North America, while most of the other movies ended in failure.

Warner Bros. Pictures' failure in the summer season forced the company's top management to change their attitude and work with Link instead.

This collaboration is essentially the product of Link's victory in the summer box office competition.

At the same time, Entertainment Weekly also reminded film industry practitioners not to think that Warner Bros. Pictures and other film companies have changed their attitude towards Guess What? Pictures and slowed down their suppression of Guess What? Pictures, and that competition within the Hollywood film market will become milder in the future.

On the contrary, competition within the film industry will become more intense in the next three years.

There used to be seven major film studios in Hollywood, and with Guess What Pictures, there are now eight.

These eight film companies are like eight sharks that will open their mouths wide and swallow more than 90% of the box office in the film market.

Small and medium-sized film companies will not be able to obtain more funds through movies, and survival will become more difficult.

At the same time, the rise of Guess Pictures will also lead to more intense competition within the eight major film companies.

Entertainment Weekly predicts that in the next five years, many small and medium-sized production companies will go bankrupt due to competition, and the less competitive of the eight major film companies will also be at risk of bankruptcy. "Michael, have you seen this report?"

At the Death Star Building, CAA Vice President Lang May shook the Hollywood Reporter in his hand. "It is rumored that after Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures and Fox Pictures are also preparing to cooperate with Link. Even if the remaining Disney and Paramount do not cooperate with Link, I am afraid they will not suppress him anymore."

Michael Ovitz stood in front of the French window smoking, his face covered in smoke, looking gloomy, his voice became hoarse, and he spoke with a thick phlegm sound.

"It doesn't matter. Link is Link, and Guess What Pictures is Guess What Pictures. They saw that Link can make money by making movies, so it's normal for them to find Link to cooperate with them. However, the rise of Guess What Pictures has always threatened the status and interests of the seven major film companies. They can let Link go, but they will never let Guess What Pictures go."

"So the Big Seven will continue to suppress Guess What?"

"Of course. I've talked to the top management of Warner Group. From a macro perspective, it is more in the interests of Time Warner Group to continue to suppress Guess What Pictures and curb its growth. So they said they would continue to suppress Guess What Pictures in the publicity and distribution channels, forcing them to hand over the film distribution rights or invest more money to promote the film. Just like the summer vacation, he was lucky this time and succeeded by chance, but he may not succeed next time. As long as he fails once, the development of Guess What Pictures will suffer a huge setback, and the seven major film companies will also attack it together."

Michael Ovitz waved his arms, his expression also becoming excited. "It's the same with Universal Pictures, Fox Films, and Paramount Pictures. They will consider cooperating with Link to make movies, but they will never sit back and watch Guess What? Pictures grow and develop. They hope that Link will become a money-making tool in their hands, rather than an equally powerful opponent."

“This may be a very long process. Guess Pictures has now completed the merger and integration of Good Machine Pictures and Triangle Entertainment, and its production and distribution capabilities have been greatly improved.

In addition, Guess What Pictures won the summer box office war and earned hundreds of millions of dollars in box office revenue. Its financial reserves and risk resistance have both increased. Given Guess What Pictures' current situation, it would be difficult for it to win even if the seven major studios joined forces to suppress it, not to mention that the seven major studios are unlikely to really join forces. In view of this situation, I suggest that you withdraw from the action against Guess What Pictures, which will benefit both you and CAA."

Longmeyer asked.

Michael Ovitz put down his cigarette and his expression became silent.

Last year, he participated in the bet between Robert Downey Jr. and Link with an entertaining mentality. He originally thought that he had more people and could easily win and teach Link, the Chinese boy, a lesson.

The result was a failure.

He was not reconciled.

This year, he has once again teamed up with the seven major film studios and several independent production companies and has made sufficient preparations. He is bound to give Link and Guess What Pictures an unforgettable lesson during the summer vacation.

Just when it was about to succeed, the Simpson murder case broke out and the box office of "Seven" skyrocketed.

Failure is a success!

Now almost everyone in the circle knows that he lost to Link twice in a row.

He, the number one person on the Hollywood power list, lost to a young man who had been in the industry for less than three years.

He also thought about giving up targeting Link, but he couldn't.

Once he gives up, the stain of losing to Link twice in a row will accompany him for the rest of his life and can never be erased.

In the future, when people talk about the former No. 1 in Hollywood's power list, they will mock him in a joking tone about the fact that he lost to Link twice.

Michael Ovitz was unwilling to leave such a serious failure at the most glorious period of his career. He had to defeat Link and make him a complete loser before he could retire with peace of mind and leave a brilliant mark in Hollywood.

To achieve this goal, he may even put CAA's development on the back burner.

"Michael, Seagram Group has completed its acquisition of Universal Pictures. They invited me to be the CEO, and I accepted."

Langmeyer said.

Michael Ovitz frowned when he heard the news. Langmeyer was his right-hand man at CAA. Without Langmeyer, his control over the board of directors and management would definitely decline.

This is not good news for him.

It just suddenly occurred to me that Langmeyer went to Universal Pictures to serve as CEO.

If Longmeyer is willing to join forces against Link, along with President Sherry Lansing of Paramount Pictures, Murdoch and Barry Diller of Fox, the forces against Guess What Pictures will be even stronger.

This is also good news.

"Lang, I support you going to Universal Pictures and hope you will have better development there."

Michael Ovitz said magnanimously.

"Thank you!"

The two shook hands.

(End of this chapter)