America achieves both fame and fortune

Chapter 727 Deliberate Showing Off

With the Oscars over, The Martian was completely pulled from North American theaters, and its North American box office finally settled at $3.22 million.

The film's overseas screenings are not yet over.

In Japan, a market particularly barren for Hollywood films, "The Martian" won't be released until March.

The film has grossed $7.76 million worldwide to date.

As we move into March, the box office results for most of the Hollywood films released last year have been finalized.

In the 2011 North American and global box office rankings, both of Martin Scorsese's films, "John Wick: Chapter 2" and "The Martian," ranked in the top ten.

The Martian ranked third on both lists, behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Transformers 3.

John Wick 2, with $2.61 million in North America and $6.23 million worldwide, ranked fourth on both lists.

In addition, the film sold a total of $2.55 million worth of DVDs last year, ranking second in North America, only behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2".

For both films, Martin signed contracts with a base salary of $20 million, plus a tiered revenue share of up to 10% of the North American box office.

When "John Wick 2" was released last summer, Disney Studios had already settled accounts with Davis Studios twice. In addition to his base salary of $2000 million, Martin received $2257 million in box office revenue and $1967 million in DVD and television rights revenue.

Martin Scorsese achieved the remarkable feat of earning over $6000 million from a single film.

Similarly, for "The Martian," Martin Scorsese earned over $5000 million from his salary and box office revenue alone.

However, the distributor, Disney, is currently working with major North American theater chains to collect payments, and this revenue won't reach Martin's account until at least the middle of this year.

In 2011, Martin's earnings as an actor exceeded $1 million for the first time.

In People magazine's latest list of Hollywood celebrities' highest-paid annual earnings, Martin Scorsese tops the list with $1.15 million!

Although most of the income has not yet been received, Martin has basically planned where to spend it, including investing and preparing to buy a yacht.

This was something I had promised Elizabeth Olsen before.

Elizabeth's thoughts changed.

"We are all in the stage of developing our careers, and we only go out to sea a limited number of times each year. The yachts we bought are basically idle and can only be left on the dock to rust."

In the living room, Elizabeth rested her head on Martin's lap. When she looked up, Lily, who was leaning on Martin's shoulder, was dangling down, her large breasts swaying gently. She tapped them with her fingers and said, "After looking at yachts these past two months, I feel that they're not a necessity for us at this stage. It would be more cost-effective to buy a private jet."

Lily grabbed Elizabeth's fingers and pressed them against Martin, saying, "Liz often travels for business, attending art exhibitions and lectures everywhere. Martin, you have to do a lot of announcements every year, so a private jet is more practical."

At this stage, private jets are indeed more useful, and Martin listened to the advice: "You guys pick a suitable one and place an order directly."

Elizabeth asked, "Do you have any special requests?"

Lily chuckled, "Playing poker in the sky would be the best."

Martin was more serious than her: "It has to be able to fly international routes... um, and have private space."

"Okay." Elizabeth understood, but thinking about flying in the sky was also quite exciting.

The three of them then discussed which brand they wanted to buy.

Top-tier brands like Bombardier, Gulfstream, Raytheon, and Falcon are preferred.

As for Lily's haphazard suggestion to modify a Boeing 737, Martin isn't that wealthy.

Speaking of airplanes, Martin also thought of something else: it seemed that Ukraine had some of the world's largest airplanes, but he forgot what they were called.

I wonder if the village chief of Earth Village will be able to get a cool ride after he goes online?

Lily glanced at the time, climbed off Martin, and pulled Elizabeth along: "Come on, come with me to work."

Elizabeth asked, "Do you practice every day?"

"Of course." Lily finished tidying her clothes. "If you don't practice for a day, you'll get rusty. Sculpture is a job that requires long-term dedication. I don't want to be the kind of artist who's just hyped up by commercial interests. At least you need to have real skills."

Elizabeth smiled sweetly, but her words were anything but: "How did you develop such nimble fingers? Even that bastard Martin couldn't last long."

Lily opened her hand, then grabbed it again: "Because I've been secretly observing Martin for seven or eight years now, and I know his characteristics so I can easily find his weaknesses."

Elizabeth understood what she meant and knew that Lily had an older sister. Before coming to Atlanta, one of Lily's biggest hobbies was spying.

Lily leaned closer and asked, "Liz, would you like your fingers to be more dexterous?"

Elizabeth stuck out her tongue and licked her slightly dry lips, letting Lily, who was deliberately showing off, know that she was much better than her in some aspects.

Lily forcibly pulled him away: "Hurry up and come with me to work! We agreed that neither of us can cheat on each other."

The two went to the studio, and Martin, who also had things to do, soon went out and met with lawyer Hamlin in Burbank.

The latter is handling Martin's lawsuit against Warner Bros.

A month has passed since the lawyer's letter was sent, and Warner Bros. still shows no sign of intending to pay the 2011 revenue share owed to dozens of people, including Martin and Nolan.

A few days ago, Warner Bros.' lawyers held their first out-of-court negotiation with several other lawyers. Warner Bros. proposed a plan to postpone the payment until July, at which time Warner Bros. would pay the original amount plus interest at the bank rate.

As expected, the talks between the two sides broke down.

Martin's demands were simple, just like everyone else's: "In addition to interest, there should be penalties and late fees, and everything should be done according to the contract."

Hamlin said, "I understand, leave it to me."

He didn't stay long and quickly took his leave.

Martin then went to the studio where Disney's new project, "Prince of Thieves," had been established, and Graham and Louise were preparing the film there.

Louise was in the studio when she met Martin and said, "The director you recommended, Denis Villeneuve, is alright. After Graham and I interviewed him, he said he would shoot a short clip of a few minutes based on the script to prove that he is suitable to direct this project."

Martin asked, "How long will it take?"

"A week at most," Louise said simply. "Of all the directors I've interviewed, I personally feel he's the most suitable. He's studied the script carefully, and considering your base salary of $2000 million, he can finish the film for $5000 to $6000 million."

Martin nodded: "We have a sufficient budget, funding is not a problem."

The film is a co-production between Davis Studios, Pacific Pictures, and GK Pictures, with additional investment from Wu Maoting and South Korea on Martin's side.

Louise said, "If the footage Villeneuve produces passes our evaluation, Graham will discuss the contract directly with his agent, and the project can be fully launched in ten days."

She paused slightly: "My main focus is still on 'La La Land,' where we also need to select a director. Disney has extensive experience in making musicals and has recommended several directors. I will meet with them one by one next week."

Martin sighed: "It's such a hassle to prepare a musical."

"Mainly because musicals are a very small subgenre," Louise pushed up her black-rimmed glasses. "There aren't many professionals left in this field."

She reminded Martin, "Once the choreography is in place, you need to start professional training, and you also need to start practicing the piano."

Martin had privately studied piano with Sebastian for a while, but had only just escaped the one-finger style: "Sebastian will also be my piano teacher."

Both dance and piano are quite troublesome.

But Martin is professional enough that he won't use a stunt double and will play himself.

His acting career is basically confirmed, and he will appear in "Interstellar", "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum", "La La Land", and "Prince of Thieves".

The filming schedule is easy to adjust. Apart from Nolan's Interstellar, the other three films are all produced and financed by Davis Studios, so the crew can easily accommodate Martin's schedule during filming.

The two then talked about Warner Bros. Pictures.

Louise, who has worked with Warner Bros. for many years, is exceptionally well-informed within the company: "Last year's new films did not perform well at the box office or in theaters, so Warner Bros.' cash flow was indeed much slower. But this wasn't a problem with the older films. Warner Bros. is withholding your share of the profits because Jon Berger misappropriated those funds."

Martin speculated, "Jon Berger probably didn't use that money to make a new film, did he?"

Louise said, "The additional funding was given to 'Jack the Giant Slayer.' Didn't he create a brand new post-production editing model? Every version of the edit, the expert screening group assembled, all require a lot of funding. The original budget was not enough, so we had to add more."

Martin asked, "If this big-budget production fails, will Jon Berg be primarily responsible?"

“Yes,” Louise said. “If we fail, even if Jon Berg is Kevin Tsujihara’s brother-in-law, he won’t escape accountability. Kevin Tsujihara can suppress the dissent from the Warner Bros. board of directors, but there’s also Time Warner.”

Martin nodded and asked, "I remember 'Jack the Giant Slayer' was released at the beginning of this summer's movie season?"

Louise thought for a moment: "In mid-May, the week before and the week after, there don't seem to be any big-budget productions opening."

Martin made no attempt to hide his feelings, saying directly, "I wish him failure."

The La La Land production team hired a piano teacher specifically for Martin Scorsese, and once the choreography is finalized, he will be required to come to the set regularly to practice dancing.

Riding the wave of Oscar buzz, Disney officially launched the DVD release of "The Martian." With Ridley Scott busy filming "Prometheus" and absent, Martin Scorsese devoted himself to promoting the DVD.

After all, DVD sales figures not only affect Davis Studios' revenue, but are also closely related to his post-production revenue share.

(End of this chapter)