Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 316: Box office hit, video tapes sold well, shares were in high demand (4K)

After a week of hot screenings and publicity, the first week box office figures for "Inspector Gadget" were released over the weekend.

Although the film was suppressed by the Big Seven studios when it was released, it did very well at the box office.

It grossed $2652 million in 3780 theaters in its first weekend.

It surpassed Universal Pictures' "Major Payne" and Sony Pictures' "The Last Wagon" to take first place in the weekly box office.

The film cost $3200 million to produce and earned its first-week box office revenue, proving that the film is excellent and has the potential to continue the glory of the first film.

"Yeah! Yeah! I won."

After seeing the box office, Robert excitedly pumped his fist and called Quentin to ask him to admit defeat and treat everyone to a drink.

But Quentin scolded him for not doing his job properly, saying that it was a loser for a director to not concentrate on making movies and think about drinking every day. He told him to quit drinking from today on.

After the box office results of "Inspector Gadget" were released, many media outlets also joined in the fun, promoting the film as a big hit. The Los Angeles Times said that in this round of competition, Guess What is temporarily leading the seven major studios.

"Link is really lucky to have come across a movie like Ace Ventura."

In the Warner Bros. Pictures office, Miguel Goss sighed as he looked at the newspaper.

Richard Fox nodded approvingly.

There are many nonsensical and funny scripts like "Ace Ventura 1/2" in the Big Seven Studios.

It’s just that the characters in these scripts are too exaggerated, the main story lines are too thin, and there is almost no artistic level. It can be said that apart from being funny, they have no other advantages, and the investment risk is relatively high.

This kind of script would never pass the first round of review at the seven major film studios.

But it is this kind of movie that makes Guess What Pictures earn a lot of money, from "Insect 1" to "Dumb and Dumber", "The Mask", and then to "Insect 2", the box office of the first three movies all exceeded million yuan, and there is hope for the fourth one as well.

To earn more than a billion dollars from four movies is like discovering a gold mountain in a desert.

The person who discovered this gold mine was Link.

The Hollywood Reporter analyzed in a new article that without Link, these films would not have been successful.

There are two reasons. First, Link’s understanding of commercial films is different from that of the Big Seven Studios. When he makes a film, he often only focuses on developing one characteristic of the film.

For example, horror movies only focus on the horror effect, and comedy movies only focus on the funny aspects, and don’t pay much attention to other aspects.

This is also the reason why movies like "Paranormal Activity" and "Inspector Gadget" are so popular.

Second, the popularity of "Inspector" movies is inseparable from Jim Carrey's performance, and the fact that an actor like Jim Carrey can play the leading role in the movie is also because Link has the wisdom to recognize talent and dares to invest in Jim Carrey.

So it is Link's boldness, eccentricity and good vision that lead to the huge sales of such films, which no one else can do.

Richard Fox envied Link's good luck, but he also knew that without Link, even if these scripts were given to them, they would not invest in these projects. This is also the limitation of large production companies.

"This guy is so lucky! According to the current box office growth trend, the North American box office of "Ace Ventura 2" will not be less than 1 million. I guess the film company will continue to dominate the North American box office market this year."

In the office of Miramax president, Harvey Weinstein frowned as he looked at the Los Angeles Times spread out on the table in front of him.

The newspaper also predicts that the North American box office for "Ace Ventura 2" will be over 1 million. If this movie is a big hit, it will not only prove that Link has an accurate judgment of the film market, but will also revive the influence and market value of Guess What Pictures in Hollywood, and make the second round of financing of Guess What Pictures, which was originally ignored, attract attention again.

As a result, the work and resources invested by Michael Ovitz and the seven major media groups before March became a futile effort.

"I really don't understand what Michael Ovitz and his group are doing. They have been suppressing Link and Guess What for so long, but they still haven't been able to do anything to them. If I were given so many resources to do it, I guarantee that I would make Link look bad."

Bob Weinstein said with disdain.

Harvey Weinstein smoked a cigar and squinted his eyes. He was silent for a moment, then he picked up the phone and called Michael Ovitz to ask them how they were going to deal with the huge sales of "Ace Ventura 2".

Michael Ovitz assured him that the better the box office performance of the movies released by Guess What Pictures was, the more unhappy the Big Seven would be. Next, they would increase their firepower to suppress "The Imitation Game 2" and would never let Guess What Pictures' movies sell well, nor would they let Guess What Pictures continue to dominate the North American film market.

Harvey nodded and said he looked forward to their next move.

As "Ace Ventura 2" became a hit, Major Studios felt some crisis, and in the second week they borrowed the resources of their parent company to promote Major Studios' films more vigorously in the media, suppressing the reputation of "Ace Ventura 2" and Jim Carrey.

Since the film has a scene where Jim Carrey crawls out of the butt of an elephant model, many media outlets accused "Ace Ventura 2" of being a vulgar and bad movie, a comedy without any bottom line, and asked everyone not to go to the cinema to watch it.

He also unreasonably accused Jim Carrey of acting crazy and stupid, having no acting skills, and being a trash actor who did not deserve a $2000 million paycheck.

In response to these negative public opinions, Link instructed the publicity department of Guess What Pictures to resolutely wage a public opinion war with the media under the seven major media groups. If there are not enough people, recruit more people; if there is not enough money, add more money. As long as the publicity is effective, no matter how much money is spent, it will not matter.

The publicity department of Guess What film company spent millions to buy a large amount of media resources to fight back against the negative reports of the seven major media groups, and also sued many media outlets that fabricated fake news and leaked the film's plot.

The two sides quarreled and fought each other in the media with great pleasure.

Although Guess What? has a strong public relations presence, the seven major media groups have more media outlets and a wider range of publicity.

In the second week, the box office of "The Impossible 2" was affected to some extent, earning 3107 million US dollars.

The cumulative total of 6887 million US dollars in two weeks ranked first in the weekly box office.

After the box office results came out, all those who were expecting Guess Pictures to be unlucky couldn't help but sigh.

The box office in two weeks is close to 1995 million, and it is expected to exceed million in North America within two weeks. It will also be the first movie to exceed million in North American box office in .

The Big Seven studios spent a lot of resources to suppress "The Immortal 2", but the movie still sold well.

They have to admit that Guess What Pictures is strong, tough, courageous, adventurous and lucky.

The reason why such a company can become the number one in the industry is due to its strength.

After the huge success of "Ace Ventura 2", Guess Pictures saw a surge in its stock price on Wall Street.

Many investment companies began to reconsider participating in the second round of financing for Guess Pictures.

While Link was filming, he received calls from many acquaintances asking about the second round of financing, including Greg Davis and Paul Hankerson.

The two proposed to continue financing Guess the Movies and raise funds based on a market value of 15 billion.

Link said it was too late, there was no quota for financing, not even for 16 billion.

Greg and Paul were shocked and asked why and who got the investment share.

Link asks them to read the newspaper.

In the third week after the release of "Ace Ventura 2", "The Hollywood Reporter" broke a bombshell: "The Man From Earth", which was considered by many to be a box office flop, appeared in major video stores in North America after it ended its run in theaters.

In more than three months, 116 million videotapes were sold in North America, including video tapes, VCD discs, etc., with total sales reaching US$3712 million.

The film's video tapes also sold well overseas.

86.4 copies were sold in just over a month.

Total sales reached US$2408 million.

To date, video sales of the film have totaled $6120 million.

According to the forecast of the magazine "Complete Movie", the sales of the video tape of this movie will not be less than 35 million US dollars in North America, and will not be less than million overseas. According to the video tape sales profit sharing method, the producer will receive % of the sales.

Guess what? Pictures could make hundreds of millions of dollars from the share of video sales of this movie.

The production cost of this movie was only 1.5 US dollars, and the profit was tens of thousands of times, which is more than the profit of many crazy stocks. It is really enviable.

"We all underestimated Link. Since 92, any movie he put his heart into has almost never failed. This Man From Earth is his script, so it's even less likely that he will fail. We should have thought of this earlier."

In the conference room of the investment department of Pioneer Capital, Greg Davis put down the newspaper and looked at the dozen or so senior partners present.

Behind these partners are many billionaires and foundations.

Their job is to manage clients' finances, make money with their clients' money, and collect a commission from it.

If they help clients make money by investing in stocks and businesses, clients will trust them and give them more money and dividends.

If the investment fails, they will also lose customer support and revenue will decline.

Therefore, they value projects that can generate sustainable profits more than anyone else.

In the past, they were also optimistic about Link and Guess the Movie Pictures, but Link was too stingy and the profits he gave out were too little, which made everyone dissatisfied, so they supported the Big Seven to suppress Guess the Movie, put some pressure on Link, and force him to give up more shares, and preferably hand over control of the company.

After obtaining controlling rights, guess what, they have the right to decide how much profit to distribute each year, how much to invest, and when to go public.

It's just that Link is tougher than they expected.

Faced with the joint suppression of the seven major film studios and capital parties, Link refused to give in and single-handedly withstood the siege of the seven major film studios.

Through one hit movie after another, they gradually made up for their disadvantage.

Now that Guess What Pictures has had two big hits in a row and is gradually gaining an advantage in the competition, they have to choose between the Big Seven Pictures and Guess What Pictures. Which side should they support?
"I propose to participate in the second round of financing of Guess What? Films as soon as possible. If Link wants 16 billion, we will give him 16 billion. If it's any later, I'm worried that we will miss this good opportunity."

Greg Davis said.

The partners were silent for a moment and then began to express their opinions.

Some support it, some oppose it.

Supporters believe that Guess the Movie is developing rapidly, has great potential, and its market value will be higher in the future, so investing in Guess the Movie is very cost-effective.

Opponents said that they could continue to invest, but they had to find a way to obtain controlling stake in Guess What Pictures to prevent being blackmailed by Link.

Just like at the beginning of the year, the seven major film studios suppressed Guess What?, just because the company did not support him, he announced like a rogue that he would not distribute dividends, and used the money that originally belonged to the shareholders to do image public relations for himself, public relations for the Oscars, promote other movies, and pay high salaries to his girlfriends.

This practice is extremely excessive.

From a risk avoidance perspective, the controlling stake in Guess What Pictures must be in Wall Street, not in Link's hands personally.

The opinions of the opposition were recognized by many people. Link was indeed good at making money and had good ability to manage the company, but he was very uncontrollable.

Continue to invest in Guess What Pictures. Next time the seven major film studios unite to suppress him and the company does not help, Link will resort to the same old tricks again.

The company will then be in a dilemma.

"Link said he would give up the controlling stake in the third round of financing."

Greg Davis said.

"Then we will participate in the third round of financing. We cannot be kidnapped by Link no matter what."

Partner Anthony said.

"However, the timing of the third round of financing has not been determined. We will miss out on the dividends of Guess What Pictures' rapid development in the next few years. At the same time, part of our shares will be melted away in the second round of financing, and our voice in the board of directors will be greatly reduced."

Greg Davis spread his hands.

His words once again sparked a heated discussion among the partners.

Supporters and opponents refused to give in to each other.

Greg Davis asked everyone to vote democratically.

In the end, the vote was 9 to 6, with the majority supporting continued investment in Guess the Movies.

After the news of the huge success of "The Man from Earth", not only Vanguard Capital, but also investment companies such as Morgan Investment, Goldman Sachs Investment, Blackstone Capital, and Deutsche Bank have actively contacted Guess Pictures, hoping to participate in the second round of financing.

There were even media reports that because the shares of Guess the Movie were so popular, an investment company was willing to invest 3 million to purchase 10% of the shares of Guess the Movie, pushing its market value to 30 billion US dollars, which is higher than the market value of Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures.

After the news came out, Hollywood once again ushered in a wave of envy, jealousy and hatred for Guess What Pictures.

Guess what? The movie industry continues to see growth.

A Wall Street investment consulting firm also raised the valuation of Guess the Movies again to between US$10 billion and US$15 billion.

Since Guess What Pictures can continue to make profits, the investment consulting company believes that although investing in this company is risky, the returns are also high, so the maximum valuation limit is raised to US$15 billion.

However, Link was not happy with the valuation.

When conducting the second round of financing, the company offered a price of 18 billion to 20 billion yuan, financing 30%. It is expected to introduce 10 shareholders, and each new shareholder will receive a share of approximately 3%. Shareholders who contribute more can get more shares and obtain seats on the board of directors.

At the same time, new shareholders will not participate in the company's dividends within two years.

He is clearly raising the price by doing this.

Just guess the movie shares are so good.

Last year, Vanguard Capital and Morgan Investments invested 50 to 60 million yuan in financing Guess the Movie. Only one year later, their investment quadrupled.

There is no better money-maker in the entertainment industry.

Many Wall Street investors cursed Link for being cruel, but at the same time they rushed to invest in Guess the Picture Company with checks in hand.

However, Link was busy filming a movie and had no time to take care of the financing issue, so he handed the matter over to Jack Brennan, chief investment officer of FlashGold Capital, and Michael Leeson and Joe Fillemer.

The financing team is composed of several people who are responsible for specific matters. Link only needs to keep an eye on the back and control the general direction.

"cut!"

On the set of Batman Forever, Link took a look at the finished footage, checked it once and found nothing wrong, and waved as everyone was watching.

"This one passed!"

"yeah!"

The cast and crew on the set jumped up and shouted excitedly.

Ryan Phillippe and others were holding champagne and spraying it everywhere, and the aroma of the wine filled the crew.

After more than seventy days of intense filming, "Batman Forever" was completed in early April, and Link returned to Los Angeles with the crew to produce the special effects part of the film.

(End of this chapter)