Eric could sense Rowling's nervousness and apprehension, and instead of taking her to the villa's reception room, Eric went to the lawn in the backyard. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In July in London, the daytime temperature is only about 20 degrees Celsius, and the sky is gray and blue above the tree-lined courtyard, although it is not as sunny as Los Angeles, but it is also less sultry in the middle of summer, and there is no unbearable restlessness in the full life.

A set of tables and chairs for resting on the lawn, Eric sat down with Joanne Rowling, Christina brought a pot of coffee and poured it for the two of them, then turned and returned to the villa.

The information about Joanne Rowling and "Harry Potter" was already on the table in front of him, and feeling Joanne Rowling's emotions, Eric was not in a hurry to talk about business, and said casually: "J.K. Rowling, J should be the initial letter of your name, what about K?"

Joanne Rowling, who had just picked up the coffee cup with Eric's movements, heard his question and immediately put down the cup again, explaining: "K means Catherine, I don't have a middle name, Catherine is my grandmother's name." ”

Eric felt that the poor little woman in front of him must have been overwhelmed by a series of recent events, thought for a while, and said, "You know, Joe, in fact, Hollywood is a place where it is easy to make people psychologically unbalanced. ”

Feeling that her nervous mind was being pierced by Eric, Rowling was a little embarrassed, not knowing what to say, but nodded slightly.

Eric didn't expect any response from the woman, and continued: "In Hollywood, someone bought a script for $250,000, the film cost $15 million to produce, but the global box office got $120 million, the box office income is eight times the production cost, the movie is called "Lethal Weapon"; Phantom Heroes. And, what's even more interesting is that the screenwriters of these two films are the same person. ”

Rowling listened carefully to Eric's words, feeling as if she understood something, but shook her head again and said softly, "Mr. Williams, I don't understand too much. ”

"Call me Eric," Eric said, taking a sip of his coffee, "I just wanted to tell you that in Hollywood, well, or anywhere, if you want to make your life easier, you should live a little more straightforward." Like the screenwriter of the two movies I just mentioned, his name is Shane Black. At the beginning of "Lethal Weapon", with the global box office and subsequent videotapes and other channel income, the producer Warner Bros. earned at least 100 million US dollars, and Shane Black only got a paltry 250,000, and some people may feel that he must be sad and want to cry. Later, when Carlock Films bought his "Phantom Hero" script for $1.75 million and almost lost money to the point of bankruptcy, some people felt that Shane Black, as a screenwriter, should also be uneasy. But that's not the case, Shane Black has always had a good life, he is still a Hollywood gold medal screenwriter, and he continues to work with Warner Bros. on "Lethal Weapon 4". ”

Perhaps Eric's words played a role, and Rowling, who was sitting opposite, sat up slightly straight, but after briefly meeting Eric's gaze for a second, the woman quickly dodged with little confidence.

Eric smiled and said, "As for Harry Potter, actually, I could have offered you a lower price, for example, £100,000, which is the average price for most screenplays or novels. But I didn't, because I was so optimistic about the story that I wanted to make it a well-known Disney fantasy brand, even like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, so I offered a price that I thought was worth it. In the future, the series will not only be limited to novels and movies, but will also include a whole industry chain of music, toys, theme parks, etc., and if successful, the Firefly Group will make billions or even tens of billions of dollars in profits from the brand. ”

Joanne Rowling, who had just picked up the coffee cup, heard Eric's description, and her hand holding the cup couldn't help shaking, and she put the coffee cup down again, looking at Eric in surprise.

Looking at the woman's appearance, Eric chuckled: "Do you think now that if Firefly really made $10 billion from this novel, you can only get 1 million pounds, oh, maybe millions of pounds for the entire series, you will lose a lot?"

Joanne Rowling just felt that Eric's prospect was a little incredible, and hearing him say this, I really couldn't help but feel a little lost in my heart. She instinctively wanted to deny it, but nodded lightly in the face of Eric's bright gaze.

"Look, a lot of things are like that. As I said earlier, if you want to live an easy life, you should live a more straightforward life, but the most important thing is not to blindly overestimate your importance in certain things. ”

When Joanne Rowling heard Eric's implicit words, she quickly shook her head and denied, "Ai, Eric, I didn't. ”

"Now, if Firefly wants to complete this plan, you need to continue to create the next story, so let me talk about my plan first," Eric ignored the woman's denial, and said: "First of all, HarperCollins Publishing will take over the global distribution of the Harry Potter series, in order to give the series enough popularity before the film is produced, the Firefly Group will also use the media resources in its hands to package the novel as much as possible." Perhaps other novels of the same genre can be considered bestsellers if they sell hundreds of thousands of copies, but I hope that the sales scale of the Harry Potter series will be in the tens of millions, or even more. In the process, you'll get what you deserve, and if the novel sells 10 million copies, you'll become a multi-millionaire, and if the entire series reaches 100 million, you'll go one step further to become a billionaire. But then, the profits from the Harry Potter series of movies, toys and park peripherals are what Fireflies deserve. ”

Joanne Rowling wasn't stupid, and she understood what Eric meant. If Firefly hadn't used its own media resources to brand this novel, "Harry Potter" would have been like ordinary bestsellers, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and bringing her hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties. Thinking of this, some of the imbalances in Joanne Rowling's heart just now began to dissipate, but she still asked carefully, "Well, Eric, what if, what if?"

Eric shrugged: "Firefly has a budget of more than $1 billion a year for film and television production, and at least 8% of that is spent on acquiring screenplays or film and television adaptations of novels and comics, so it doesn't matter if it does fail." ”

Joanne Rowling no longer bothered with this issue, 1 million pounds may be a huge amount of money for her, but for the Firefly Group, it is nothing.

Eric watched Rowling relax, smiled and opened the folder in front of him, "So, now, let's talk about the content of the novel." I've read your outline of your novels, and you're planning to write five, but I think seven seems more appropriate, and I've already helped you think of titles for seven novels. The first manuscript you have completed, I hope to split the next tens of thousands of words as the content of the second novel, and the first part will be called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" according to the content. ”

Joanne Rowling opened her mouth when she heard that Eric was about to 'go under the knife' on her novel without asking her opinion at all, and felt that she had to express her insistence as the original author of the novel.

It's just that when she saw Eric raise her eyes and raise the pencil in her hand and point to her side, she motioned for her to sit down, and the trace of resistance that had just risen in the woman's heart suddenly disappeared, and she obediently lifted a chair and sat next to Eric. Although the tone of the man in front of her was always very gentle when talking to her, the aura that the other party cultivated in power and wealth was not at all something that she could resist as a little woman.

In addition to the revisions to the first book, Eric discusses with Rowling in detail some details that need to be revised in the outline of the novel based on the plot of the movie in his memory.

Time passed unconsciously, and by the time the matter was finished, the time had come to evening.

"Well, you've got a month to revise the first story, and the rest of the distribution will be handled by HarperCollins, with the cooperation of the Fireflies. Eric looked at his watch, looked up and said to Rowling next to him: "It's not early, I'll let someone arrange a room for you, it just so happens that Concubine Dai is going to hold a charity reception tonight, you can also go and see it together." ”

As a result of sitting next to Eric for a long time, the aura coming from the man's body made Rowling inevitably feel a little ape-like, young, rich, handsome, and strong...... Almost every trait in this man has a strong attraction to women, not to mention, she has been single for a long time. Although Eric looked unaware, Rowling couldn't deceive herself, she could imagine that she might already have a blush on her face, hearing that Eric was going to keep her at the villa for the night, Rowling finally couldn't hide her panicked, and quickly shook her head and said: "No, no, Eric, I've already booked a ticket to fly back to Edinburgh tonight, Jessica is still at a friend's house, I'm not too relieved." ”

Eric glanced at the woman a few times, saw her body sitting on the chair unconsciously moved back, and couldn't help laughing, "Okay, it seems that I scared you." ”

Although Rowling knew that Eric was joking with her, she quickly shook her head: "No, not really." ”

"Heh, in that case, I'll have someone take you to the airport," Eric didn't keep it, Rowling can only be regarded as a temperamental woman, not his dish at all, packed up the stacks of documents in front of him, handed them to Rowling, Eric got up and walked outside

Rowling followed Eric with the document in her arms, her eyes lowering slightly, and she began to regret that she had just rejected too simply.

The driver drove Rowling out of the villa, and Christina, who was standing next to Eric, looked at the door that closed with her eyes smart, and then turned to Eric.

Eric reached out and rubbed it on the girl's head, "What are you thinking?"

"Oh, no," Christina said, hugging Eric's arm, "It's not early, Eric, I'll help you pick out the dress." ”

"It's only six o'clock, what's the hurry," Eric shook his head and smiled: "Let's go make something to eat first, I'm sure I'm going to be hungry all night when I have an empty stomach, the box office data from North America yesterday should have been sent, I'll take a look." ”

Christina obediently went to the kitchen to prepare food, while Eric returned to his study, turned on his computer and began to check his email.

Yesterday was Friday, and the release of "Casino Royale" entered its second week, and at the same time, the super high box office of $117 million in the first week also made the whole Hollywood look sideways, and even Eric himself did not expect the first week box office of "Casino Royale" to be so rebellious.

But then, the problem arises.

The two new films released this week, "Jedi Men 2" and "Ice Age", both have a very close relationship with Firefly. The reason why such a schedule was arranged at the beginning was also due to the fact that the North American box office of the 007 series was not too high in the past, and there would not be too strong competition between the parties.

But now, many people, including Eric, are in a bit of a tangle.

On the one hand, everyone expects that the next week of "Casino Royale" can be as low as possible, and due to the film's continuous fermentation among the media and audiences this week, it is very likely that "Casino Royale" will maintain a low decline. But on the other hand, the box office performance of "Casino Royale" has been as high as $117 million in the first week, even exceeding the total box office of $106 million in North America of the previous "Goldeneye", so the box office decline of "Casino Royale" is too low, and the two new films "Jedi Men 2" and "Ice Age" will be directly impacted.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Eric opened the box office statistics email from Los Angeles.

In yesterday's Friday single-day box office chart, "Casino Royale" unsurprisingly topped the box office with $18.61 million, a year-on-year decline of only 39% compared to last week.

The data was sent from Eric's assistant's office with professional annotations.

In the accompanying analysis, because the topic of "Casino Royale" has risen with the box office and word-of-mouth, the proportion of weekday box office has also increased significantly compared to other films, according to the box office data of "Casino Royale" on the first day of the second week, the overall decline of the film this week will remain at about 35%. This means that the box office of "Casino Royale" in the second week will still be as high as $76 million.

The beginning of July is the explosion period of the North American box office, which has reached about 200 million US dollars in a single week. But now, although "Casino Royale" is in its second week of release, a film still has to take a third of the total box office, and without looking down, Eric can guess that the box office data of other films, especially live-action films, will not be too good.

With 117 million in the first week and 76 million in the next week, the total box office of "Casino Royale" will exceed $190 million in two weeks. While live-action blockbusters can't maintain the on-screen viability of animated films, even at an average weekly decline of 40 percent, Casino Royale is expected to end up grossing between $300 million and $350 million in North America.

The average ticket price in North America in the 60s was around $0.8, and in 1997 the average ticket price was $4.6, which is 5.7 times that of the 60s.

In this way, "Goldfinger", which was once known as the highest-grossing sequel in the history of 007 after inflation in 1964, had a box office of more than $51 million in North America at that time, which is now converted to $290 million. "Casino Royale's" North American box office expectation of $300 million to $350 million, even if inflation is factored in, will definitely replace "Goldfinger" as the highest-grossing sequel in North America in 007 history.

As for overseas, due to the difficulty of statistics, last week's box office data was delayed by one day to get the preliminary results.

Although Eric's last film was four years ago, the record of "Jurassic Park" breaking $1 billion for the first time in the world is still vivid, driven by interests, studios from all over the world have done their best to promote the simultaneous release of "Casino Royale", and the film's final overseas simultaneous box office has reached 36.

Last week, led by the same record-breaking £21.3 million ($31.95 million) in the UK, the cumulative box office of 36 simultaneous overseas theaters also successfully exceeded the $100 million mark, reaching $136.1 million. Although the overseas box office market is affected by various factors, and the box office data is relatively difficult to predict, there is no doubt that "Casino Royale" will be another film by Eric after "Jurassic Park" that is expected to hit the global box office of $1 billion.

Unlike "Jurassic Park" that year, Eric had always expected the box office of the film to be only about $600 million before the release of "Casino Royale". Now, the film suddenly shows the potential of 1 billion in the world, and if there is no excitement in my heart, it must be fake.

It's just that, after glancing at the box office data of the next few films, Eric couldn't help but think that the executives within his company would definitely not be in a good mood. Last week, the box office of "Casino Royale" had just been released, and when Eric and Frank Wells, who were far away in Los Angeles, discussed the upcoming Titanic Exhibition Hall on the phone, the other party mentioned "Casino Royale" intentionally or unintentionally, and his tone was very resentful.

For the two new films this week, before the release, the industry is generally more optimistic about "Jedi Men 2", which has the first popular foundation, and the first part of the film is under the operation of New Line Pictures, and the global box office is close to 200 million US dollars. As a result, the cost of "Jedi Men 2" has skyrocketed from $19 million in the first part to 60 million.

It's just that on the first day of Friday, the second place was not "Jedi Men 2", but "Ice Age" by Blue Sky Studios.

This animated film has accumulated a good reputation before its release, and has been rated by the industry as the 'animated version of "Three Dads and One Baby". You must know that "Three Dads and One Baby" was the North American box office champion in 1987, and "Ice Age" was able to get this kind of evaluation, which also indirectly shows the popularity of this animated film in the trial screening stage.

The plot of the first part of "Ice Age" does also borrow a lot from the idea of "Three Dads and One Baby". Moreover, this plot mode has not only won praise from critics, but also recognized by the audience. On the first day of release, "Ice Age" earned $13.46 million at the box office, which cannot be compared with the box office of "Finding Nemo" of more than $20 million on the first day, but the first-day box office data exceeded the $12.8 million of "The Lion King 2" a month ago.

According to expectations, the box office of "Ice Age" in the first week will be close to $60 million, which will also exceed the same period of "The Lion King 2".

In Eric's view, the quality of "The Lion King 2" is actually better than the more humanized "Ice Age", and the box office on the first day was overtaken by "Ice Age", in the final analysis, it was because the promotion of "The Lion King 2" was jointly constrained by Firefly and Fox. Viacom began public acquisition talks with CBS at the end of June, and it is clear that Lei Shidong is determined to make up for Viacom's shortcomings in the TV channel.

After "Ice Age", the box office of "Jedi Men 2" on the first day was only $6.52 million, barely ranking third. The reason why it is said to be reluctant, because the fourth-ranked "Haidu Story", although it has entered its fourth week of release, the single-day box office on Friday is still as high as 6.29 million US dollars, and the difference between the box office data of the two is only more than 200,000 US dollars.

The $6.52 million on the first day indicates that the box office of "Jedi Men 2" will only be about $25 million in the first week, and the actual box office figure is even a full $10 million lower than the original expectation of the new line.

Obviously, most of this $10 million gap was affected by the still strong box office of "Casino Royale" the next week. The two films are both action movies, and the audience has a great degree of overlap, "Casino Royale's reputation and box office are both explosive, and the topic is climbing in a straight line, but "Jedi Men 2" is a black protagonist movie, the two are competing, which one the audience will choose, there is not much suspense at all.

If there is no "Casino Royale", even if the box office of "Casino Royale" is not so unrebellious, with the word-of-mouth and popularity accumulated in the first part, it is still not a big problem for the North American box office of "Jedi Men 2" to break 100 million. But now, according to the expectation of $25 million in the first week, the North American box office of "Jedi Men 2" can only go around $70 million, due to the shortcomings of the overseas market of the black protagonist movie, even if the overseas box office can maintain the level of the previous film, compared to the production cost of $60 million and the publicity budget of $20 million, the possibility of the company recovering its costs at the box office is not too great. If you want to make a profit, you can only look forward to the future revenue of videotape and TV rights.

It is not difficult to imagine that even if everyone understands that MGM is now almost a member of the Firefly system, it is still difficult to get the top management of the Firefly Group to accept this reality. Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but shake his head again, although he didn't have the idea of the next movie in his heart for the time being, but in order to appease everyone's emotions, he would definitely release the news that his next movie would definitely return to Firefly recently. (To be continued.) )