If it was a fuse, then the interview published by Richard Gere was the spark that ignited it.

On the day the interview was published, a CAA spokesperson refuted Richard Gere's remarks in the media as utter disregard for the facts, and vowed that if the other party made these irresponsible remarks again, the CAA would resort to legal means to seek justice for itself.

Although many people can see that Richard Gere's remarks are made in anger and putting himself in the perspective of a 'victim', there are many loopholes in his remarks that anyone with some industry knowledge can easily puncture. But that doesn't stop the media from digging deep into some of the facts in his remarks.

The power of gossip is powerful, so the next day, articles began to appear in the media that dug deep into the grievances between Michael Ovitz and Kapoor Sid.

Although CAA has grown into a towering tree, it is not without any black history, coupled with its strategy of forcibly bundling, it will definitely lead to the failure of some films, and these failures will naturally be pulled out by the media.

"From sympathy to hatred, the past that the two ace agents have to say"

"The Black Hand That Makes the Cost of the Film and Television Industry Skyrocket, Comparison of Hollywood Film Costs in Ten Years"

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As more and more articles were smearing CAA, a wave of demonizing CAA began unconsciously.

CAA's development and growth over the years has not only squeezed the living space of other Hollywood agencies, but also a set of bundling strategies invented by Michael Ovitz has also made many Hollywood film companies miserable. CAA has not only greatly increased the remuneration of celebrities, but also because of the bundling strategy, the film company has to pay a lot of costs beyond the budget.

The six Hollywood film giants are slightly better, usually in the confrontation with CAA, they can still get most of the right to speak, and a large number of second- and third-tier Hollywood film companies, as well as those independent filmmakers, are completely powerless in the face of CAA's bundling strategy, they don't have the fame and confidence that Eric has to sell every movie, so they can only obediently accept CAA's bundling conditions.

A large number of brokerage companies, a huge group of film companies, countless independent filmmakers, and finally a TV media that has a lot of complaints about CAA's bundling of TV drama projects, even if any of these forces exert their strength, using the power in their hands to discredit CAA, it is enough for CAA to drink a pot, not to mention that this time almost all forces instinctively exert force in the absence of communication at all.

Of course, it's not that no one has made statements in favor of CAA, some of CAA's actors have said a few good things for CAA in interviews, after all, CAA has raised the production cost of film companies, and the biggest beneficiary is indeed these actors. But these voices basically did not make any waves, mainly because of the manipulation of those forces, which deliberately downplayed the support of CAA stars.

Although the CAA also has a strong media and public relations force, in this trend, the power in its hands basically does not play a role, and it is completely a state of passive scolding.

Immediately afterwards, the top management of Luen Mei, who was anxious because of the box office fiasco, suddenly jumped out, and according to Richard Gere's interview, blamed CAA for the failure of the film, and even threatened to claim losses from CAA. The CAA on the cusp is just right, and then there is another verbal battle.

At the same time, in the midst of this trend, several other Hollywood agencies have tacitly waved their hoes, and in just one week, CAA has more than 20 second- and third-tier actors in a row.

The reason is that Tom Cruise suddenly announced his departure from CAA!

Who is Tom Cruise?

Hollywood's most popular idol star, since his debut, has almost never missed many films, most of the movies he starred in have earned huge profits for the film company at a small cost, 86, at a cost of more than 10 million US dollars, won the global box office of 350 million US dollars. In the list of the most powerful people in Hollywood, Tom Cruise as an actor is very high among a group of film company executives, big directors, and gold medal winners.

The departure of this superstar has unsurprisingly caused a wave in the industry. And Tom Cruise's departure actually has a lot to do with this turmoil.

Because of this demonization of CAA, after the media expressed sympathy for Richard Gere, some people turned their attention to the negotiation of the two leading actors of Eric's new film. Soon, with the deep digging of the media and the cooperation of well-intentioned people, the remuneration conditions of the two proposed by CAA were exposed.

"With a salary of $6 million and a 20% profit share, this kind of robbery-like offer can only be imagined by a 'big company' like CAA, which is obviously a hint that CAA wants to make Eric Williams retreat again. It seems that after all this experience, Mr. Michael Ovitz still has the ridiculous idea of 'banning' Eric Williams. In order to get through this unrealistic offer, Eric Williams is working with two superstars, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. It is not unreasonable for Mr. Richard Gere to say not long ago that the CAA has begun to manipulate actors as pawns. ”

In fact, during this time, the CAA has been constantly backing down on the salary negotiations with Cruise and Hanks. Before the release, the share ratio required by CAA had been reduced to 12%, and when the media exposed CAA's initial offer, the profit share ratio demanded by the other party was reduced to 10%.

Although after the initial conditions were exposed, CAA immediately made a clarification, saying that the current price of the two superstars is not so high, but the media has seized on this matter and repeatedly made a fuss, and some analysts have also expressed their opinions in the newspaper, saying that if CAA's sharing model becomes popular, it will cause the production cost of the film company to further increase at the same time, the profit margin will be greatly reduced, and it will be more difficult to achieve profitability. In this situation, it will definitely affect the enthusiasm of Hollywood studios to produce zuò films, and deal a fatal blow to the film industry in the United States, which is rapidly recovering.

Some media outlets have even begun to call on the federal government to investigate the CAA's disruption of the film market. Under the influence of some forces, a member of the California State Assembly made specious remarks in an interview with the media that might investigate the CAA's salary offer and the suspected monopolistic behavior, although the congressman quickly denied his claim, but still caused great pressure on the CAA.

What the industry giants in the United States are most afraid of, the number one is not the tax office, but the antitrust investigation. Putting aside the cases of other industries for the time being, Hollywood is just Hollywood, because the 'Paramount Act' of that year has caused the Hollywood film industry to be silent for many years.

Michael Ovitz, who has already put aside the negotiations between Sony and Colombia and returned to the CAA to preside over the overall situation, personally conducted an interview with Cruise and Hanks in order to stabilize the situation, hoping that the two can give up the previous profit-sharing plan this time and only get a pure salary to help the CAA survive this crisis.

Hanks is still very talkative, because he has not taken a profit share before, not even a high salary of five million, and Hanks, who has a box office of more than 100 million, only got a salary of 2 million US dollars, and he also values this cooperation with Eric, so he agreed.

Tom Cruise said he wanted to think about it, and the next day, Liang Tang took his agent, Ms. Paula Wagner, to announce his departure from CAA, and then reopened salary negotiations with Firefly in his personal capacity.

Cruise has always been a very ambitious person, and this public opinion turmoil did make Cruise feel that he was being manipulated like a pawn by CAA. This feeling is extremely difficult for an energetic, controllable and capable superstar to accept.

In addition, because of his success, he saw another way, that is, to cooperate with those film companies in his personal capacity and in the form of profit sharing, which could bring him more benefits, and at the same time, Cruise also hoped to get more control over the film production.

If you want to get these things without being constrained by the agency, getting rid of CAA and going it alone is the first step for Cruise. But Cruise's detachment from the CAA at this juncture is tantamount to a stab in the opponent's back.