"Eric, why bother to do such a self-defeating thing? If the digital field continues to maintain an open cooperation strategy, with the influence brought by "Titanic", it will not be a problem to double the annual turnover in the future. And , You know, with the current speed of technological development, it will not take a few years for other special effects companies to catch up with the digital field," Michael Eisner spoke again after a moment of deliberation.
Eric raised his head, with an inexplicable smile on his lips, and said: "Michael, all I want is these few years. What's more, the digital field will never stop and wait for them when others want to catch up."
"But I don't think you need to do this at all," Michael Eisner said again: "You see, counting the box office of "Titanic", the total box office of Firefly this year will reach 2 billion US dollars, more than 30% of the market. Share, this should definitely be the pinnacle of the big Hollywood studios."
"No, Michael, you're just used to the coexistence of the seven major Hollywood companies, so you think this is just the pinnacle of a big Hollywood film company. But let's break this thinking and think about it, why can't it be 50%, 60%, 70% Even more, in other industries, this is not an uncommon thing, so why not Hollywood?"
When Michael Eisner heard Eric's words, he had a slightly shocked expression on his face. He didn't expect Eric's ambition to be so big.
If someone else had said such words, Michael Eisner would have laughed out loud almost immediately, but the one who said these words was the most popular young man in Hollywood in recent years. And he has accomplished too many things that are completely impossible in the eyes of many people.
However, after a short shock, Michael Eisner still shook his head: "Eric, Hollywood is different from other industries. As a creative industry, the human factor is very important in this industry. Although many people say that Hollywood It is the world's film factory, but you will never be able to gather all the outstanding filmmakers under one family and work exclusively in your own "factory". Even if Firefly excludes all the other six big Hollywood, as long as you cannot Meeting the requirements of all filmmakers is just inevitable, and then they are destined to create new film companies to compete with Firefly, just like Chaplin's United Artists long ago, Howard Hughes' RKO, and now Spielberg's Amberlin."
Eric smiled and said, "Michael, I don't know what will happen to Amberlin in the future, but the first two film companies you mentioned happen to no longer exist. In my opinion, with the prevalence of large capital operations in the film industry , It will be more and more difficult for latecomers to enter this industry, so I just need to eat up the old established film companies one by one while maintaining Firefly's sufficient advantages."
Michael Eisner twitched his brows, and asked hesitantly, "You mean, eat it?"
"Yes, just eat it," said Eric, took a bite of the crab cake in front of him, nodded and said: "The food here is really good, maybe I can come here often in the future."
"Oh, then you will definitely not encounter a moment when you don't have a seat," Michael Eisner forced a smile, and he was still thinking about what Eric said just now.
If Firefly wants to wipe out all other Hollywood film companies, it is definitely unrealistic, but if they are merged one after another according to what Eric said, then this possibility cannot be said to be completely non-existent.
But Michael Eisner is also not so pessimistic. He is now fifty-five years old. Perhaps, Firefly can do all this in ten or even twenty years, but at that time, he must have retired. It will have nothing to do with him. Now, he only needs to manage Universal Pictures well. This kind of slightly depressed idea makes Michael Eisner feel a little bit inexplicably, and the two of them no longer mention the movie. It was a random comment on the food in the restaurant and other insignificant topics.
After all, Eric and Michael Eisner have no personal grievances. What's more, Firefly used the opportunity to acquire Disney to drive Michael Eisner out of the Disney Group. Ke's resentment must be greater. Since the other party did not show this, Eric certainly would not be like this.
Skipping the topic of the digital field, the two of them had a relatively relaxed and pleasant meal afterwards. They talked until ten o'clock before they separated.
Watching Michael Eisner's car leave, Eric also got into his own car.
It was already late at night, so Eric didn't rush back to Angle Manor, but ordered the driver to drive to the top of Beverly Hills.
In front of Elizabeth and Julia's mansion, Eric sent the driver to leave, rang the doorbell, and there was a voice of inquiry on the intercom. Eric responded, and the door was quickly opened.
With loose brown hair, wearing only a very long light yellow close-fitting sweater, with two long legs, Julia appeared in front of Eric lazily, and whispered softly: "Ai Rick, here you come."
"Yeah," Eric stretched out his hand with a smile, and said, "Wouldn't it be cold if you dress like this?"
In Los Angeles in February, it was still a bit chilly at night.
Julia leaned over, put her arms around Eric's waist, kissed him intimately on the cheek, and said, "It's not cold, and it's not outside."
Eric hugged Julia and was about to let go, but the girl had already knocked her chin on his shoulder, her slender breasts were curled up, and she was hanging on him.
"Oh, why do you look like Drew?" Eric smiled, closed the door with his backhand, supported Julia's light body, and joked, "It seems that I have gained a lot of weight."
Julia gnawed at Eric's neck like a mouse, and whispered emotionally: "It's more comfortable to make it fatter, Eric, you can try it now."
"Uh, I'm afraid of the cold, let's go to the house," Eric almost couldn't hold back, and patted Julia. Seeing that the girl didn't intend to come down, he had to hug her and walk towards the villa.
Although it was already past ten o'clock, the lights in the villa were still brightly lit. Eric knew that Elizabeth was actually a night owl, and most professionals in the workplace were probably like this.
The TV was turned on in the living room, and the sound was very low. Elizabeth was curled up on the sofa with a thick folder in her hand, wearing a close-fitting sweater similar to Julia's. Seeing Eric come in with Julia in his arms, she curled her lips : "You guy, do you need to be so impatient?"
Eric didn't explain, he threw Julia on the sofa, sat beside Elizabeth with a smile, and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Some brief introductions to film projects," Elizabeth said, and she was not polite, and handed over a stack: "Hey, help me take a look and pick out one or two."
Eric took it and opened it, and asked with a smile, "Can I take it if I pick it?"
Elizabeth said succinctly, "No."
Julia, who had been thrown on the single sofa by Eric, also came over at this time and sat down next to Eric.
Seeing Elizabeth's serious reading of the materials, Eric didn't make jokes, but casually picked up Julia's slender legs and put them on his knees to play with, and opened a few files in his hand by the way.
Just glanced at the name of the first document, Eric raised his eyebrows slightly, patiently read the project introduction and script outline, and said: "The English Patient, this project is good, it is very suitable for Miramax to take it Make an award-winning film."
Elizabeth turned her head and took a look, seeing Eric rubbing one hand on Julia's thigh, spat, rolled her eyes and said: "This is a project that Harvey has taken a fancy to last year, in order to avoid conflict with "Shakespeare in Love" was pushed to this year to compete for an Oscar, so of course it is very suitable for Miramax."
Eric nodded and said, "Fortunately, it wasn't put in this year, otherwise it would be a pity."
In Eric's opinion, "The English Patient" is definitely better than "Shakespeare in Love", and its artistic connotation is also more profound. It would be a pity if it was defeated by "Titanic" this year.
Of course Elizabeth also knew what Eric meant. Thinking of the recently popular "Titanic" all over the world, she suddenly recalled some details of last year, turned around, stared at Eric, and said: " You must have done it on purpose."
These words were too thoughtless, and Eric showed a puzzled expression.
"That's when you said Fox would invest $50 million in Titanic."
Eric suddenly remembered, of course he did it on purpose, just to fine-tune the old man of Elizabeth's family. The invitation for cooperation and investment was rejected by Murdoch himself.
Now, although the strong box office trend of "Titanic" has no intention of stopping at all, after this week, Firefly has probably been able to recover the original production cost of 215 million U.S. dollars. It is estimated that by the end of February, all production and distribution costs will fall It will be withdrawn, and what "Titanic" will bring to Firefly will be pure profit.
Now no box office forecasting agency can predict how much the global box office of "Titanic" will go, but they are clear that the profit brought to Firefly by "Titanic" will definitely far exceed the original 2.65 billion dollars in total investment. Even, some media predict that if "Titanic" can become the highest-grossing movie in North America and even in the world, with the strong influence brought by the championship effect, "Titanic" will be the best at the box office, video tapes, DVDs and even various peripherals. The release of the product will bring Firefly no less than US$1 billion in profit, which is almost more than the sum of the annual profits of most studios.
However, seeing Elizabeth staring at him like a cat at this time, Eric would never admit it anyway.
But Elizabeth realized this from Eric's brief hesitation, and suddenly rushed over like an angry kitten, kicked Julia away, straddled Eric, grabbed his collar and said: "You bastard, you really did it on purpose."
With an unconcealable smile on the corners of Eric's mouth, he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, making up his mind to beat him to death without admitting it, and said, "Liz, calm down, I'm not a fairy, how could I know the truth of "Titanic?" What will happen to the box office of No. 2, didn't you see that I almost got anxiety attacks because of it a while ago?"
Hearing Eric's justification, Julia, who was shoved aside awkwardly, looked at Elizabeth's angry look as if she was about to tear Eric in half. She was inexplicably a little excited, but she couldn't help but chime in: "Yes, Yes."
"Shut up," Elizabeth glared at Julia, then stared at Eric again: "You did it on purpose, it's all right now, aren't you very proud?"
"I swear to God..."
"Bah, you don't believe in religion at all," Elizabeth said, but her little hands unbuttoned the collar of Eric's shirt.
Eric was about to continue to quibble, but when he saw Elizabeth leaning over, he immediately became alert, and hurriedly said, "Don't bite... ah."
Before he could reach out his hand to stop him, there was a sharp pain in his shoulder.
Julia curled up softly by the side, watching Elizabeth biting Eric's shoulder with her small white teeth, she was very envious, her whole little heart felt trembling, she couldn't help reaching out and touching it, then retracted her hand, seeing A trace of blood appeared on the fingertips, and he immediately felt distressed, and pushed Elizabeth: "Liz, stop, it's bleeding."
Elizabeth, who was angry at first, heard Julia's words, left and let go of Eric. Seeing that the tooth marks on his shoulder were indeed oozing blood, she reached out and pressed her hand in a panic, and said, "Eric, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Not intentional."
Eric gasped, turned his head and looked, there were two rows of obvious teeth marks on his shoulders, but a few of them were broken, not serious. Seeing Elizabeth's apologetic expression on his face, he felt so sad. There was no anger, and he nodded solemnly: "Well, I know you didn't mean it."
Thinking of the topic they were arguing just now, Elizabeth twitched the corners of her mouth when she heard Eric's words, but she didn't say anything. She took the tissue paper handed over by Julia to help Eric get blood stains, and said, "use Don't you need to wipe it with medicine?"
Eric laughed: "It is said that saliva has a disinfecting effect."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, stepped aside, and said to Julia, "You come."
Julia posted it immediately, and Eric quickly stopped him: "Okay, I'm just joking, sit down, don't mess around. Put your tongue away too, it's so ugly."
Julia chuckled, seeing that she was sitting on Eric's body in Elizabeth's position just now, she refused to leave, leaned over and kissed Eric's face a few times, raised her body, and stretched out her hand He took off the long close-fitting sweater on his body, and there was nothing covering him except for a pair of pure white underpants.
Seeing Julia's actions, Elizabeth was very dissatisfied: "Hey, I just changed the sofa cover yesterday. Can you go to the bedroom?"
Responding to Elizabeth was a big hand forcefully embracing her, and Eric's voice sounded: "Take off your sweater too, let me see."
The light in the living room also seemed to be dimmed, and amidst the soft rustling sound, a woman murmured half-truthfully: "You, you are messing around, bastard, ah." (To be continued.)