Amy Pascal, who was sitting at the bottom of the conference table, felt that this matter was not as simple as she imagined. Although she and Eric had only been in contact for a few hours, she was still aware of this. The boy has a kind of composure that is unmatched by his peers. A person with this personality will definitely not be overheated and propose such a gambling agreement with an extremely low probability of winning. Then, this gambling agreement is most likely to be carefully thought out by Eric Williams.
Amy Pascal ignored the other people's overwhelming support for the VAM agreement, and thought for a long time before saying: "Mr. Cohen, I think it's better to be cautious. There is no such thing as a free lunch. We can raise the buyout price a little bit, and then discuss with Amy Negotiate with Rick Williams, if it doesn’t work, it’s better to sign a sharing agreement, anyway, based on the box office potential of this movie, we will definitely make a fortune.”
"Amy, I think you are too conservative, not even as good as that kid." Lester Reed, who spoke first, retorted: "Do you know the potential of this movie? If we get the copyright of this movie at all , then in addition to the box office share, we can at least earn tens of millions of dollars in profit in terms of videotape copyright, TV broadcast and other peripheral authorizations, not to mention that we can also shoot sequels. If we choose the share agreement Otherwise, the copyright is still in the hands of the boy, and we have to give the boy a large share in the next operation."
Amy Pascal said: "We can also increase the buyout price. Perhaps, for fifteen million dollars, the boy will definitely agree."
"According to the potential of this kind of low-budget comedies in the past, under normal circumstances, 50 million US dollars is considered a dark horse at the box office, and most of the high-quality ones can only get 20 million US dollars at the box office. Then, more than 80% of them The odds of getting the full copyright of this movie for free, why do we have to pay more than 10 million US dollars. That boy can propose such a crazy betting agreement on less than 20% chance of winning, don’t we Don't you even have the guts to bet against each other?"
"But..." Amy Pascal looked at the greed and fanaticism in the eyes of her colleagues, and her female-specific sixth sense made her feel that this matter was even more inappropriate.
"Well, Amy," Blunt Cohen interrupted Amy Pascal, "while Jeffrey Hanson and that Eric Williams may be your friends, when you must Understand that you are now an employee of Columbia Corporation and must look out for the interests of the company."
Blunt Cohen's words made Amy Pascal stunned. She was indeed friends with Jeffrey Hansen, but as a professional manager, she had always followed professional ethics.
But now, he just expressed his opinion out of caution, and he was suspected of helping outsiders fight for their interests. The strong sense of humiliation made Amy Pascal's right hand holding the pen tremble slightly. In the end, Amy Pascal stood up abruptly and said coldly: "Mr. Cohen, since you have this idea, I think, I am no longer fit to participate in this project, I leave first, goodbye."
After finishing speaking, Amy Pascal pursed her lips and hurriedly organized the documents in front of her, then turned and left the office in silence.
The entire office fell into a brief silence.
"Woman!"
I don’t know who sighed first. Amy Pascal holds a high position as a woman. In a patriarchal society, she will definitely be discriminated against in various ways. I just don’t know, this sigh is full of what kind of emotion.
Blunt Cohen slightly regretted what he said just now. Amy Pascal's work ability and professional ethics are obvious to all, otherwise it would be impossible to sit in this office as a woman. However, although Blunt Cohen lacked courage in managing the company, he was very headstrong. He felt that although his words were a bit abrupt, Amy Pascal's leaving the meeting room like this was also a provocation to his dignity, so It's only natural to place the blame entirely on Amy Pascal.
The office was silent for more than ten seconds before Blunt Cohen said: "Okay, since everyone agrees to this gambling agreement, let's come here today, Lester, and from tomorrow onwards, you will be in charge of "Little Ghost" This project of "Home"."
Under the envious eyes of everyone, Lester Reed excitedly agreed. If he wins the bet, he will definitely be credited for the credit. In the future, promotion and salary increase will be a matter of course.
"No problem, Mr. Cohen, I will try my best to finish this matter."
The next day, Eric received a notice from Columbia accepting the VAM agreement. At the same time, Jeffrey also contacted the firm Eric needed. After the two firms assessed the value of "Jurassic Park", He agreed to send a team to assist Eric in drafting and supervising the implementation of the VAM agreement.
On October 31st, although he was very interested, Eric still failed to participate in the first Halloween parade since rebirth. Instead, he stayed in the conference room of the Columbia headquarters with a lot of boring middle-aged men and women, planning to bet against each other. specific content of the agreement.
On the basis of the conditions proposed by Eric, the specific content of the agreement is gradually refined. In order to ensure that Columbia Company will do its best to promote and distribute "Home Alone", the content of the agreement includes details such as how many soft articles to publish in different well-known newspapers They are all listed in detail, as well as the number of screening screens that need to be increased or decreased according to the attendance rate of the theater, the daily film scheduling and film scheduling time of the cinema, and so on. Moreover, once Colombia violates the content of the agreement, different penalties for breach of contract will be made according to the degree of violation of the agreement.
The last few dozen pages of the contract were drafted, and Eric himself was dumbfounded after reading it. He couldn't help admiring the professionalism of the accounting and lawyer team hired by Jeffrey Hansen.
For Columbia, Lester Reed, who was in charge of the "Home Alone" project, believed that "Home Alone" was basically in Columbia's pocket, so he didn't pay too much attention to this tens of pages of contract. Some laughed at Eric's fuss. The two teams invited by the other party are estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission alone, which is a waste.
Lester Reid felt that no matter how detailed the contract was, the box office potential of "Home Alone" was still there. The boldest expectations of Columbia's top management for the box office of "Home Alone" did not exceed "Who is the No. 1 box office of the year?" Framed Roger Rabbit, a movie that perfectly combines animation and live action, only has a box office of 150 million in North America.
Columbia's original plan was to release "Home Alone" during the Christmas period in December, and Eric firmly opposed it. No one knows better than him the tragic situation of the crocodile strangulation of high-grossing movies in December. Within a month, three of the top ten movies at the annual box office accounted for three, and "Home Alone" was released in November in its previous life. It took more than two months of long-term screenings to achieve an astonishing box office.
In the end, Columbia made a compromise and confirmed that the release date will be November 18, the same day as "Return to Seventeen". This was also proposed by Eric. Audiences are different, not only will not squeeze each other's box office, but can play a role in promoting each other. For this reason, Columbia even postponed the feature film "New Horse" originally planned to be released on November 18 to December, freeing up about 1,000 screens for "Home Alone".
From the screen numbers, we can see Columbia’s ambivalence. Under normal circumstances, only movies that are promising at the box office will be released in more than 1,000 theaters, so this figure shows that Columbia is very optimistic about the box office of “Home Alone”. But at the same time, because of the gambling agreement, Columbia does not hope that "Home Alone" will exceed 50 million, so that not only can it monopolize all the box office revenue of "Home Alone", but also get all "Home Alone" including the sequel. Copyright, so the number of screens did not exceed 1,000.
Eric is not dissatisfied with this. It is normal for Columbia executives to have such a mentality. Moreover, in the dozens of pages of gambling agreement, it is clearly stipulated that the box office will increase to a certain number of corresponding screens. If Columbia If you refuse to implement it, then wait for a lawsuit. Eric believes that the income from just one movie is not enough to make a giant like Columbia tear up his face and lose his commercial reputation.
After the VAM agreement was signed, both parties had no intention of concealing the agreement, but hoped that the bet would spread, so the content of the agreement quickly spread throughout Hollywood.
Under the operation of Columbia Pictures' publicity department, the headline of the entertainment section of the "Los Angeles Times" published an article about the bet the next day.
Teenage Genius vs. Gambling Giant Columbia: Crazy or Stupid? "
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