Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part I

CHAPTER 182- Various Motives

However, this movie had no relation with high concept film . Steel Magnolias was like a meaningful prose, while high concept film was more similar to an interesting novel . Herbert Rose was no doubt a great essayist with more than twenty years' of experience in directing movies . Even though, such type of movie would not be that popular among the audience .

Although Michael Eisner did not embrace the film, he was determined to get the distribution right for it . Otherwise, he would not come here personally . Since Eric thought highly of the film and he had achieved a remarkable success in his past films, he thought those would be solid reasons for his coming here .

Nard Tarn, the president of Paramount Pictures, who was sitting next to Eric, had the similar opinion of the film as that of Michael Eisner . But he kept tricking Eric into telling him the information about the movie in the hope that Eric would tell him the box office expectation so that Paramount Pictures could provide an accurate quotation for dividends of the movie .

This year, Paramount Pictures witnessed a steep decline in its performance after Barry Diller resigned five years ago . Although Raiders of the Lost Ark had a stunning performance pocketing 400 million US Dollars globally, including 20 million US Dollars in North America, the dividend it got from this movie was even less than that Columbia Pictures got from Home Alone in a VAM agreement, due to the strong presence of Lucasfilm and Steven Spielberg in the film . Therefore, Paramount Pictures paid more attention to these two films, if it were not Frank Mancuso, the CEO of Paramount Pictures, could spare time to attend the event, he would surely attend this event instead of sending Nard Tarn .

Although he didn't think Steel Magnolias would perform well, Eric thought it would have a good performance . None of the films that Eric had partic.i.p.ated in its making got a box office less than 100 million US Dollars .

After watching the film, Nard Tarn quickly estimated that its box office would be between 30 million to 50 million US Dollars in consideration of the schedule and the bankable stars such as Julia, Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, etc . Though Julia had become popular worldwide with Pretty Woman, Nard Tarn didn't expect much overseas box office from this movie . It would be a miracle for its box office to reach 30 million US dollars since it was deeply imprinted with the culture of indigenous Americans .

If it were the same as her estimate, the maximum revenue of the movie would be 10 million US Dollars after deducting the cost of making and distributing, which was nothing compared with that from Eric's other films .

Nard Tarn believed that Eric wouldn't input many resources in promoting the movie just for a profit of 10 million US dollars . No matter how did he beat about the bush and tricked Eric into telling him the estimated box office of the movie, Eric would only give him a plausible answer, letting him judge by himself .

For the sake of prudence, Eric didn't reveal his estimate of the box office . Although he was optimistic about the film, he was not fully certain of the box office, which he reckoned would be around 10 million US dollars since that movie hit more than 80 million US dollars in his previous life . With Julia being the heroine of the film, it would pocket an additional 20 million US dollars .

But he wouldn't reveal his estimate of the box office . Once said, if the box office failed to reach his expectation, his reputation would be damaged . Even if this movie was as successful as its predecessor, it had nothing to do with Eric since Firefly was only an investor and Eric did nothing but made Julia a heroine of the film .

Amy Pascal, sitting one seat away from Eric, liked the movie the most among seven senior executives . As a typical feminist, she preferred movies focusing on women and had supported a series of feminist movies in her previous life, the most well-known of which wereCharlie's Angels . She was such a sentimental woman that she was completely attracted by joys and sorrows of the women in the movie, feeling an impulse to take a vacation immediately and headed to southern town to live a trivial and peaceful life there .

But she also knew that she and Calta Hunter, the representative of Fox Studios, came here only for formality, since Fox Studios had owned distribution right for Eric's two films at the end of the year . Therefore, Firefly, in consideration of the marketing resources, wouldn't grant the distribution right of this film to it . As to Colombia Pictures, it would soon conclude a contract with j.a.panese whose strategy of business operation was hard to be antic.i.p.ated, to avoid the risk, Firefly wouldn't let it distribute the film .

The representative from Warner Bros . was the calmest among those from top seven film companies since his company had a good performance this year . Though it wanted to make more profits, it would only make a suitable quotation for the revenue sharing of the film . If it could get the distribution right of the film, it was lucky, if not, there would not be much regret for it .

Universal Studios was experiencing a turmoil because its two leaders were competing for the power of controlling the company and they were not in a mood to get the distribution right of the film . While MGM was totally ruined by Kirk Kerkorian, a Casino Tyc.o.o.n, who would only pay attention to its performance when he wanted to cash out and sell it for a good price . Even if the senior executives wanted to further develop the company, they could do nothing . The representative of MGM sitting in the front seat were having a good conversation with the vice president of Warner Bros . , seemingly to consider a job-hopping .