Eric nodded, said goodbye to Jeffrey and others, and walked to a nearby coffee shop with Jobs.
"It was a pious country. I saw millions of pilgrims, so that I was taken to shave my head, but I didn't feel any displeasure or resistance. Instead, I followed the flow of people and walked to the bank of the Ganges River. However, at the same time, I saw the backwardness and ignorance of that country."
"Later, I felt that perhaps Thomas Edison's contribution to mankind was far greater than those of philosophers or artists. After returning to California, I no longer pursued illusory philosophy of life, but chose the electronics industry as my lifelong struggle. goals. A year later, in an abandoned garage, a few friends and I started Apple...”
In the coffee shop, Eric stirred the coffee gently and listened patiently to Jobs' talk. This kind of opportunity is not easy to come across. Although Eric doesn't like Jobs' personality, he admires Jobs' talent very much. .
After more than ten minutes, Eric finally couldn't help but interjected: "Steve, have you ever reflected on yourself?"
Job suddenly interrupted. The displeasure on Si's face disappeared in a flash, and he asked back: "Reflection, why should I reflect?"
"For example, why were you kicked out by Apple?"
Jobs corrected with a serious face: "No, Eric, I was not kicked out by Apple, but I voluntarily gave up Apple."
Eric shrugged and said: "Look, this is the flaw in your character. You are unwilling to compromise, which has also caused the development of both you and Apple to enter a bottleneck. If you made a decision to Apple's board of directors a few years ago If you make a proper compromise, maybe you can continue to stay at Apple, and with your strength, it will be a breeze to regain the leadership of Apple again."
Jobs retorted: "I make the first compromise, and the gang will force me to make the second, third, and more compromises."
Eric smiled lightly and shook his head, knowing that it was impossible to persuade a paranoid who was a teenager. And now that he has taken Pixar away, I wonder if Jobs will have a chance to return to Apple in the future.
In addition to his own talent and perseverance, the reason why Jobs was able to achieve such dazzling achievements in his previous life was also a large part of luck.
If he had successfully sold Pixar before, there would be no more glory for Pixar after the release of "Toy Story". And he himself is more likely to be the object of ridicule. In that case, perhaps Apple, which is in a desperate situation, would rather file for bankruptcy than put all its eggs in one basket and invite Jobs back.
Eric didn't intend to persuade Jobs, so he changed the topic to the topic of the two people's meeting today: "Talk about Pixar, Steve, since you found me, it means you accepted my offer, right? "
Jobs hesitated for a moment. The reason why he arranged this meeting was to see if he could persuade Eric to increase the price in a face-to-face situation. Jobs was quite confident in his eloquence.
It's a pity that after saying so much just now, the young man in front of him either interrupted him, or showed an appearance of being unmoved in the slightest. In the end, he also understood that if he said the word of a price increase, the other party would just slap his ass and leave just like the last call.
"Eric, I agree to the offer of 20 million US dollars, but all the money must be paid in one lump sum."
"No problem at all," Eric put down his coffee cup and snapped his fingers happily.
Jobs looked suspiciously at Eric, who had been calm and calm before, suddenly showing an excited expression. At that moment, he even felt that he might have made a huge mistake unknowingly.
But now that he has made a decision, Jobs will not go back on his word. He is a person who seldom regrets. So Jobs immediately asked: "Eric, are you interested in personal computers?"
Eric raised his eyebrows and quickly understood what Jobs meant: "You want me to invest in your next computer company?"
"Yes, the personal computer is an electronic product with great development potential. Just look at the development data of IBM's personal computer business in the past few years. Just last year..."
"Stop, Steven, I'm not interested in those professional data. I just want to ask, if I become a shareholder of Next, will you accept my advice on the company's operation?"
"This... Eric, you only need to invest 5... no, 30 million, plus Pixar's 20 million, I have enough funds to implement a good idea I had before. I believe that will definitely give You bring in enough profit."
"That is to say, I am only responsible for investment and dividends, and have no right to intervene in the operation and management of computer companies?"
Jobs nodded. After experiencing the Apple incident, he will not give up the absolute leadership of his company again: "Eric, you are an excellent director, but I think, in terms of electronic technology, I must know better than you. Much more."
Originally, Eric was still a little moved, but after Jobs made it clear, Eric could only shake his head and said, "Then, I refuse!"
"Uh, Eric, I have a project proposal here, maybe you can read it first, actually..."
"No." Eric waved his hand and interrupted Jobs: "Steve, I know you are a very thoughtful person, and I also believe in your talent. But I will not invest my money in someone I completely Projects that you can’t control. Just as you are stubborn to believe in your own ideas, I’m a stubborn person, and when our ideas don’t align, conflicts like Apple did a few years ago will flare up again.”
Jobs stopped pulling documents from his purse. He originally thought that it would be easy to persuade an eighteen-year-old young man with his eloquence. Unfortunately, Eric didn't listen to his explanation at all, which made the proud Jobs feel a little angry.
"Well, it's a pity," Jobs said calmly, suppressing his anger. "Eric, do you need to visit Pixar first? I hope our deal can be concluded as soon as possible."
Eric thought for a while and said, "I'm not free tomorrow. "Pretty Woman" will be released tomorrow. I'm going to New York the day after tomorrow. It's my girlfriend's birthday..."
In Jobs's mind, the release of the movie can be a big event, the girlfriend's birthday, how can such an event delay the deal with Pixar: "Eric, maybe, you can just ask someone to give your girlfriend a gift." Well, anyway, you seem to have more than one girlfriend."
Eric looked at Jobs speechlessly: "Maybe I will also..."
Jobs immediately patted the table lightly and interrupted Eric: "Well, just the day after tomorrow, girlfriend's birthday is still very important!"
He said that he was not free the next day, but in fact Eric didn’t have anything to do personally, but every director would have release anxiety that bothered him, and Eric was not in the mood to turn his attention to Pixar for the time being. .
Fox has already arranged everything, because the scale of the premiere is much larger than the test screening of the film critics, so the "Pretty Woman" film reviews that appeared in the newspapers the next day also began to develop towards multi-polarity.
In addition to the newspapers he subscribed to, Eric bought more than ten newspapers at random early in the morning, and read all the film reviews about "Fengyue". Among the seventeen newspapers in total, nine were praised. Those who criticized again accounted for five, and the remaining three were unceremonious criticism.
Eric calculated according to the formula in his mind, and the favorable rating should be 7.5. Among the movie review websites in the previous life, this score should be considered relatively high.
Word of mouth remained good, so Eric let go of his worries. After breakfast, Eric drove to Fox's headquarters in Century City. Because it was not a golden time for the film, Fox easily raised 1,900 screens for "Pretty Woman", which has reached the level of blockbusters in this era.
For the previous two films, Eric did not get the box office data until a week later. And now, he has reached the level where he can get single-day box office data from within Fox.
Beginning in the early morning, Eric, Jeffrey, and several Fox executives waited nervously in the conference room together, and even Fox President Barry Diller made an exception to stay. Even though the conference room was large and the windows were open, the room was filled with thick cigar smoke. At the same time, seven or eight staff members are outside quickly answering calls and recording box office data.
After an hour, the box office of the day was finally counted. The statistician handed the data to the hands of several senior executives, and everyone surrounded them together.
Carta Hunt sat on the outermost side and was the first to see the data: "Wow, $4.36 million, another "Home Alone"."
After Eric saw the 4.36millions data on the report, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt relieved.
Cheers resounded in the meeting room, and everyone's original drowsiness was swept away.
Jeffrey said: "Based on this, the box office will be higher tomorrow, possibly reaching 5 million, and 15 million box office can be collected in three days on weekends. Next Tuesday is Valentine's Day, and the box office will explode. Weekdays will also be very high." Maybe $10 million at the box office."
Karta retorted with a smile: "Jeffrey, you are a little conservative in your calculations. The box office on Valentine's Day will definitely exceed that of the weekend. I think it is not a problem for the box office to surpass "Home Alone" in the first week."
Eric saw that these overly excited people set their goals on "Home Alone", but he knew that this was obviously impossible. Perhaps because of the huge publicity before, the first week's box office would be very high, but the following It's impossible to last a week.
Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but hit: "The key is that next week's box office will definitely drop a lot. After all, it's not a holiday period. So don't compare with "Home Alone". "Home Alone" lasted for six consecutive weeks. Grossed over $20 million."
All the professionals present knew that Eric was telling the truth.
Barry Diller said: "Eric, you can concentrate on preparing for the next movie. If you need any help, Fox will fully support you."
Eric pretended not to understand Fox's intention to intervene in his next movie, and said with a smile, "If possible, let Fox organize the celebration party."
Barry Diller didn't mind Eric's confusion, and said with a smile, "Haha, Fox is more than happy to pay for this money. It will be next week at the Beverly Hilton Hotel."