I am Hollywood

Chapter 933 - 935: The Low Point

Chapter 933: Chapter 935: The Low Point

[Chapter 935: The Low Point]

Monsters, Inc. was supposed to be a Pixar project. Eric had sold off Disney's traditional animation department, and after the reorganization of the new Disney Animation Studio, the director and screenwriter of Monsters, Inc., Pete Docter, was brought into Disney Animation. This project followed along, becoming the first film from Disney Animation after its digital transformation.

Paramount had already taken over the traditional animation studio and released Pocahontas and The Lion King II, both of which, despite the skyrocketing costs due to the significant salary increases for traditional animators, found commercial success overall.

Thus, as Disney's first project after abandoning its traditional animation department, if Monsters, Inc. didn't perform satisfactorily at the box office, Eric's move to sell Disney's traditional animation department would be severely criticized and ridiculed again. There could very well be dissent even within Firefly Group.

However, compared to the anticipation and anxiety felt by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was directly responsible for Disney Animation Studio, Eric felt much more relaxed. He loved the wonderful creativity of this animated film and had followed its production closely for the past two years since the project was established, even adding some interesting story details himself. Therefore, Eric felt confident about Monsters, Inc.'s box office performance. Besides, the major profits from animated films typically didn't come from box office earnings; merchandise was where the real money lied.

Speaking of which, fueled by the successes of Titanic at the end of last year and this summer's Finding Nemo, along with the fact that the merchandise rights for the Lion King franchise were still held by Firefly, Firefly Group's merchandise sales had nearly doubled compared to the previous year. In just the first three quarters, merchandise sales had already reached $2.5 billion.

With another brand new 3D animated film, Monsters, Inc., set to premiere at the end of the year, and considering that both Thanksgiving and Christmas were peak shopping seasons, the company projected that in the final quarter, the sales revenue from merchandise could potentially exceed $1 billion.

This meant that Firefly Group's merchandise sales revenue for 1997 would reach $3.5 billion. This sales figure corresponded to nearly 10% of Firefly Group's total annual revenue, compared to only about 5% in previous years.

Moreover, compared to an average net profit margin of about 11% across all of Firefly Group's businesses, the merchandise net profit margin was as high as 25%. Thus, just from merchandise alone, this year would bring Firefly Group over $800 million in profit.

A brief comparison illustrated how extraordinary Firefly Group's merchandise income was. According to publicly available data, in the first three quarters, Time Warner Group's merchandise revenue totaled a mere $370 million, with profits that were quite pathetic; this was despite Warner Bros. releasing Batman & Robin, which, although a box office bomb, did contribute somewhat to Batman-related merchandise sales.

Even Viacom, which developed its merchandise business through blockbusters and the Blockbuster retail chain, saw decent box office returns from The Lion King II. However, they lacked the merchandise development rights for the Lion King franchise, and their merchandise revenue for the first three quarters did not exceed $600 million, falling short of Firefly Group's merchandise profits.

...

After attending the premiere of Monsters, Inc. and making a brief appearance at the subsequent party, Eric left early.

By the time he returned to Pointed Liberty City Manor, it was already past 10 PM. When he stepped into the villa's hall, he noticed lights on in the client area to the west of the glass wall.

As he walked over, he saw Jennifer Aniston wrapped in a blanket, curled up on the sofa like a kitten, fast asleep. A white Fireflyer player and headphones lay scattered on the floor beside her, along with an open copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

He carefully picked up the Fireflyer and the book, placing them on the coffee table so as not to wake Aniston, and quietly made his way to the kitchen.

After brewing a pot of coffee, he sat down on the sofa next to Aniston, poured himself a cup, and began going through a thick pile of documents on the coffee table in the client area.

Having spent a month in England, although Firefly Group was running smoothly, the vast scale of the group meant that many issues had gradually built up that Eric needed to handle personally. Documents related to company administrative matters were dealt with in his office, while the pile of projects in front of him mostly comprised film project materials.

Compared to the series of heavyweight productions released this year, Firefly's film release plan for the following year had been considerably scaled back. Aside from Michael Bay's The Day After Tomorrow, there wouldn't be any more heavyweight productions hitting theaters next year.

Originally, there could have been a sequel to The Matrix, but Eric had sold the production rights for The Matrix to Amblin Entertainment, founded by Spielberg and others. Paramount had set the release date for The Matrix 2 for the next summer, but there was still no news about The Matrix 3. One had to wonder if Amblin and Paramount would be as eager as Time Warner was in the original timeline to promote The Matrix 3 by the end of next year.

Since Amblin had fully taken over the Wachowskis' plans for back-to-back shooting and there had been no news of script changes, Eric didn't have high hopes for the two sequels. While the popularity garnered from the first film would surely lead to profit for Amblin and Paramount, he had no regrets about his decision.

The $300 million he made from selling the rights for the sequels had been invested into Clover Fund to buy technology stocks, which had now doubled. Over the next couple of years, doubling it again wouldn't be a problem. In comparison, even if The Matrix sequels were to earn the same $1.2 billion global box office gross as they did in the past, plus all revenue from later video releases, their profit for Amblin and Paramount would definitely not exceed $600 million.

...

Bringing his wandering thoughts back, Eric looked at the document in his hand. It was a proposal for a 3D-IMAX format movie, called Everest. Before Firefly acquired IMAX, the film had already been in the works. With the change of ownership of IMAX, the decision on whether to continue production now rested with Firefly.

The planned runtime was only 45 minutes, with a budget of $15 million. Previously, IMAX had mainly assisted museums in producing IMAX documentaries. Although this film was only slated for 45 minutes, if completed, it would be the first to utilize IMAX format.

Eric flipped through the rough script quickly. It wasn't well-polished, but considering it wasn't aimed at storytelling and was primarily meant to promote and showcase 3D-IMAX technology, it was understandable.

After pondering for a moment, Eric picked up a pen from the coffee table and signed off on the document, approving the film's production. The 4200 plan still had two years to go, and this film could indeed serve as a preliminary showcase for the 3D-IMAX visual effects while allowing IMAX's team to continue developing their technology.

...

He set the folder aside and started turning to other scripts. Due to the lengthy production cycle of special effects blockbusters, Firefly would inevitably experience a brief low point in this area. Since next year had only The Day After Tomorrow as a heavyweight production, Eric intended to scout a few mid to low-budget films with good box office potential to fill the gap.

Currently, a project titled Ted had been established. While it too counted as a special effects film, its production would be significantly simpler than Iron Man or The Lord of the Rings, with a release expected by the end of next year.

Additionally, the task of sending a team to Japan to scout horror film scripts had already yielded results. At present, the scripts for Ring and Ju-on (The Grudge) were both in the stack of documents before him. Eric had chosen them while in England via email from a pile of Japanese horror story pitches. He hadn't had the time to read the detailed scripts yet.

Eric remembered that Ring was released in 1998 and initially thought that Firefly could only obtain the rights to remake it. However, unexpectedly, while scouting horror scripts in Japan, Firefly's staff found that this classic horror film, although it already had a finished script, had not begun filming.

The Japanese team wouldn't know Ring would break the box office records for Japanese horror films; since the script had piqued the interest of a Hollywood giant, they had willingly handed it over, allowing Firefly to easily seize the script. The other film, Ju-on, was directly obtained from the original screenwriter and director Takashi Shimizu without any hitches.

...

Reading through the scripts quietly for a while, Eric looked up and was about to take a sip of coffee when he noticed Jennifer Aniston had woken up at some point, her beautiful eyes wide open as she lay there, staring at him.

Eric smiled and clapped his hands. "Come here, give me a hug."

Upon hearing Eric's playful invitation, Aniston pouted in discontent. However, she quickly kicked her blanket aside, gracefully floated over to him.

As Eric watched Aniston leap into his arms, he hastily set the folder aside and hugged her tightly. He kissed her sweet face and laughed, "I told you to come with me to the premiere. Doesn't it feel lonely staying here by yourself?"

Aniston rested her pointed chin on Eric's shoulder, lazily whispering, "I don't want to go. I don't want people to find out that we're back together."

"Ha! You know, doing that is like a cat closing its eyes tightly while lapping up milk, thinking that if it couldn't see anyone, no one could see it either. After the last dramatic scene, you really thought no one would know?" Eric teased while wrapping his arms around her waist.

Aniston playfully nibbled Eric's shoulder in response, but he was wearing a jacket, so it wasn't too pleasant. Soon after, she released her bite and said, "Well, if you're here, even if they do find out, they'll just have to pretend they don't."

"Hmm, that's true," Eric said with a grin, though his hand on Aniston's waist wasn't content to stay put but slid under her fitted sweater.

"You jerk," Aniston twisted her waist, unsure whether to resist or yield. After a while, feeling Eric's actions becoming bolder, she added, "Not here, let's go to the bedroom."

"Alright," Eric lifted her up, saying, "Let's go take a shower first."

...

The next day, Eric woke up to the sound of pounding at the door.

As soon as he opened his eyes, still in a haze, the bedroom door swung open, and Drew burst in with a mischievous grin, jumping onto the bed. "Hey, chubby girl! Good morning!"

Saying this, she didn't hesitate to reach out with her cold hand toward Aniston.

Aniston, who was also somewhat foggy, instantly snapped to attention upon seeing Drew. Like a cat meeting its rival, she quickly grabbed a pillow and blocked Drew's advance, saying defiantly, "You think I can't take you on?"

"Ha! Come and try!"

"Just wait, don't run!"

With that, the two girls were already tangled up in a playful brawl.

Eric, helpless, finished dressing quickly. As he saw that Aniston and Drew seemed to have no intentions of hitting each other in important areas, recognizing that they understood the boundaries, he decided to let them kittens have their fun.

Walking toward the door to use another bathroom, he spotted the twins waiting outside. He instructed them, "Keep an eye on them. If it gets serious, pull them apart, and if Drew asks you for help, pretend you didn't hear it. No intervening in these kinds of things."

Once he saw the twins nod in understanding, Eric left at ease.

...

After hastily washing up and working out for a while, Eric headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone. Just as he was frying eggs, Aniston and Drew finally appeared in the dining room. Although the two were still at each other's throats verbally, they had ceased any physical fights.

"Now that we're done with our workout, let's get ready to eat," Eric said, jerking his chin toward the already prepared bread. "Take that to the dining room. If you want something else to eat, go find it in the fridge."

With a grinning smile, Drew approached and said, "Eric, there's a movie MGM is preparing that needs a female lead, someone sweet, ideally over thirty."

Aniston jumped in, "Hmph, you're just the right fit then; it would be best if you were the kind of character who gets hung up in the trees within the first five minutes like in Scream."

Eric playfully tapped each of their heads and said, "Alright, today's sparring match ends here. If you want to find a sweetie over thirty, go contact Meg Ryan. If you want someone to star in a horror movie, call me. Now, who will go get today's newspaper for me?"

*****

/Sayonara816.