Feeling Kelly's slightly cool fingertips, Eric lowered his hand and leaned comfortably back on the sofa.

"Do you have a headache, have you been too tired lately?" Kelly's voice sounded behind her, less shrewd and more gentle as a female assistant.

"The doctor said it was the result of the reversal of day and night some time ago, and it will be fine after a while," Eric leaned back, replied, and asked, "Sony, the box office of "Men in Black 2" should be out of the box office for the first weekend, right?" ”

Kelly replied, "$52.16 million, about $75 million in the first week." ”

Eric snorted, there was not much emotional change in his heart, including "Jumanji's Game 2" to be released next week, these two films, Firefly still occupies sixty percent of the investment share, but, since the last dispute, according to the established strategy, in addition to investment, Firefly has completely let go of these two projects.

The box office of about $75 million in the first week seems to be good, and the total box office in North America may even hit the $200 million mark, but because of Sony's negligent control of costs and the sharp increase in the salary of the starring actors, the production cost of this sequel alone is as high as 140 million, and the total cost is close to $200 million with publicity.

Even if the global box office can reach $600 million, the project can only barely recoup its investment at the box office, although the subsequent DVD, videotape and broadcast rights revenue is still huge, but if you count the time cost of long-term operation, such a project is actually very uneconomical.

After a while, Eric asked again: "What about "Jumanji's Game 2", I heard that the test screening didn't work very well?" ”

"Well," Kelly didn't want Eric to bother with, but since he asked, he said: "At the test screening, many critics said that this sequel was like a farce, not only the plot was chaotic, but also completely lost the comedy style of the first part, however, most of these comments were suppressed by Sony, and now it depends on how the market reacts next week, after all, the special effects of the film are still very exquisite." ”

Eric did not participate in any production of the sequel, "Jumanji's Game 2" is still in a chessboard style, but the production team has completely changed, even the director has been replaced by someone else, and the first part has not gathered much popularity, so it is not surprising that this kind of ending is happening now. Of course, it is not without benefit to remove the entire production team, at least, the production cost of this sequel is maintained at an acceptable $86 million, and even if it does lose money, Firefly will not lose too much.

It is estimated that after this summer file, Firefly cooperated with Sony for several films, and only "Men in Black" has the possibility of continuing to develop a sequel.

In addition to the "Game of the Brave" series, although the original "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" has been talking about a sequel, in fact, everyone knows that it is difficult for Pierce Brosnan, who starred in 007, to return, and Nicole's salary in recent years has surpassed that of Pierce Brosnan, and she is busy with too many film contracts, and the possibility of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" making a sequel is almost zero.

Thinking of "Godzilla" being developed by Sony Pictures, Eric couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth, maybe for a long time in the future, Sony will embark on a long road of "hitting the street".

Seeing that Eric didn't answer, Kelly leaned over slightly, just in time to notice the smile on his face, and asked, "What are you laughing at?" ”

Eric shook his head and patted his side, "Come, sit here." ”

Kelly knew that the little man would not think of anything good, so she still sat down obediently, but still reminded softly: "It's daytime, Peter may come back later." ”

"Then you can call him and ask him not to come," Eric smiled, lay down, pillowed on the woman's plump thighs, sniffed the tempting body fragrance, hugged the woman's waist, and said, "I'll sleep for a while, and don't let people disturb me when the sky falls." ”

Kelly was helpless, reached for the mobile phone on the coffee table, called Peter Rich, whispered a vague command, hung up the phone, looked down and saw that Eric on his lap had closed his eyes comfortably, and his breathing began to become smooth.

When I woke up again, the whole living room was already dark, a pale yellow wall lamp was lit on the wall, and the woman's thigh had become a pillow.

Ereca dropped the blanket from her body, sat up, and habitually raised her wrist, finding that the watch had been taken off at some unknown point and placed on the coffee table.

It was nearly eight o'clock in the evening, and Eric was about to pick up his phone to call Kelly when the door was pushed open, and Kelly walked in with a tray.

"Eric, are you awake?" Putting down the tray, Kelly walked over and reached out and touched his forehead.

Eric grabbed the woman's little hand and kissed it, saying, "Why did you leave me here alone?" ”

"I'll help you prepare dinner," Kelly smiled and withdrew her hand, and added, "The conference room is ready, you can eat something first, everyone is waiting for you." ”

"Then let's go straight over," Eric said as he was about to get up, but was held down by Kelly.

"It's okay, everyone knows you've been tired lately."

After a quick dinner, Eric arrived at a conference room in the heart of the nearby Ocean Club at half-past eight.

Peter Ritchie was already waiting here, and sure enough, there was still no video conferencing equipment, and a conference phone was placed on the long table.

Eric sat down in his chair, and Kelly spread out a few papers in front of him, sat down next to him, and said into the conference phone, "Everyone, Eric is here." ”

"Good evening," Eric said hello.

From the other side, there were greetings from Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and other Firefly executives.

After a few simple greetings, Eric said: "So, let's talk about the current situation first, are there still fans outside the headquarters now?" ”

Katzenberg replied with a wry smile: "Yes, there have been quite a few people lately, there are more than 100 people in Burbank and Preavista, and the number of signatures on the original website is more than 120,000." ”

Not to mention the real-name system on the Internet, even the registration system is not too perfect, Eric of course knows that the water of these 120,000 people is very large, in addition to the deliberate troublemaking of competitors, maybe most of them are repeat clicks. Therefore, he didn't care much about this data, and said: "So, in this situation, let's talk about our thoughts first." ”

"I think, no matter what, it's better to give the public an accurate answer as soon as possible and eliminate this stir in the air," Frank Wells' voice said, "So, I suggest that we shoot according to the original script of the Wachowski brothers, of course, we can only shoot the second part, I believe that with the popularity accumulated in the first part, the profit that this sequel brings us is only a matter of more or less, even if the quality of the film is not satisfactory by then, it is impossible to have the current situation again." ”

"That's a good way to deal with it," Eric nodded, and asked again, "Jeffrey, what do you think?" ”

Katzenberg seemed to have basically agreed, and said to the other side: "Eric, we've all seen the Wachowski brothers' script, and we all know that this is a disaster for the series, but we don't have any other way to deal with it right now, and what Frank said is pretty much the best solution." ”

Eric smiled wryly and said, "So, this set is pretty much a chicken rib for us. ”

"Chicken ribs?" A voice of confusion came from the conference phone.

Realizing that it was impossible for the others to know about this meme, Eric explained it simply in English that the other party could understand: "It's a pity to discard the food if it's tasteless." ”

"Well, it's quite vivid," Frank Wells said, "but it can't be said to be a chicken rib, no matter what, with the film's current popularity, the sequel will definitely be profitable." ”

Eric couldn't help but rub his forehead again, in fact, even without this wind pluck, Eric was not 100% confident in the Wachowski brothers' revised script.

It is difficult to change a director's directing style, even if the brothers write a new script, but when shooting, unless Firefly sends people to keep an eye on the shooting of every shot, it is definitely impossible to avoid the brothers moving towards their own style.

What's more, Firefly's strategy of sending people to watch on the set is simply not realized, because this kind of excessive interference with the director often leads to disastrous consequences for a project. As far as Eric knows, the Wachowski brothers' personalities can definitely be regarded as hot, and during the filming of the first filming, as newcomers, the two brothers could still maintain humility and restraint, but when they have already become famous, it is impossible to make them continue to be honest and obedient.

After thinking about it for a while, Eric raised his head and asked, "Now, how much is the box office of the film in all aspects?" ”

The other side did not answer for a while, and Kelly, who was sitting next to Eric, said: "223.5 million US dollars in North America, 136 million US dollars overseas, and France, Japan, and Italy have not been released in several major box office countries, and when the film lands in these countries, it is expected that the overseas box office will be between 350 million and 400 million US dollars, and the total global box office should be about 600 million." ”

With the issuance of trade agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) under the leadership of the United States in recent years, the film markets of most overseas countries have been further opened, and the corresponding overseas box office share has also begun to increase, and the overseas box office share of Hollywood movies has generally increased to about 35%.

According to the average share ratio of the United States and overseas, Firefly can roughly recover $250 million at the total box office of $600 million, and according to the proportion of the movie box office in about one-third of the total revenue of a movie, the long-term operating profit of the surrounding area in the future is about twice this figure, excluding all costs, Firefly can make at least about $500 million on this project.

Of course, the box office revenue, Firefly can almost all recover within a year, but the subsequent DVD and videotape distribution, peripheral copyright operation and other income, but it takes more than three years of long-term operation, which is also the reason why the current Hollywood second- and third-tier film companies can still only keep an eye on box office revenue. For second- and third-tier film companies, if a film developed cannot quickly return funds at the box office, then a series of problems such as broken capital chain and stagnation of the company's development will come one after another.

The two sequels to "The Matrix" in Eric's memory have a cumulative global box office of nearly $1.2 billion, and Time Warner can roughly recover $500 million in box office shares.

However, the production cost of the two sequels reached 300 million, and the publicity cost also needed to be at least about 100 million US dollars, which means that although the global box office of 1.2 billion US dollars is enviable, in fact, Time Warner can only make a meagre profit of 100 million US dollars at the box office of the two sequels. Moreover, because the word-of-mouth and quality of the two sequels have seriously declined, the income of DVDs and other products in the later period will not be too good.

Although Eric does not know the specific data, it is certain that the combined profits of the two sequels are not necessarily more than the first one with a strong reputation and great influence.

After thinking about it for a while, Eric said, "What do you think about us selling the rights to the sequel to The Matrix?" ”

"No way!"

"How can this be?"

"Eric, you're crazy."

There was a flurry of objections from the other side, and Kelly and Peter both looked at Eric with surprised faces.

Although they are facing a lot of trouble now, all the high-level leaders of Firefly have never had such a thought.

There are many examples of Hollywood studios exchanging or selling rights to each other for a variety of reasons, but most of them are projects that are in the development stage and have an uncertain future. "The Matrix" is different, so that the first part of the series can bring the company no less than $500 million in net profits, and it is crazy for everyone to sell such a project.

After everyone's mood stabilized a little, Katzenberg on the other side said again: "Eric, we must not sell "The Matrix", not to talk about anything else, you must know some news during this time, we have let out enough projects." ”

Eric patiently said, "I think everyone may have been overly sensitive lately. This summer, our film box office share is indeed not ideal, but this situation is definitely only temporary, every film company will experience a trough, not to mention, our 'trough', even more than the heyday of some film companies. If you think about it, so far this year, we have three films that have grossed more than 100 million yuan this year, "The Seven Deadly Sins", "The Matrix" and "Death Island", as well as "Red Fan Zone" and the recently released "Death is Coming", which are also very good at the box office, so overall, we are still in a better situation than most studios. ”

Frank Wells's gentle voice came from the conference phone, and he exhorted, "Eric, but we always have to think about the future, how can we sell a landmark project like The Matrix." ”

"In the future," Eric patiently took stock, "in the future, we will also have no shortage of projects, although we have experienced a hiatus this year, but next year our Disney Animation and Pixar Animation can launch two 3D animated films in a row, "Monster Power Company" and "Finding Nemo", and after next year, the two animation companies can allow the company to maintain an average of one animated film per year." In addition to this, we have projects such as "Jurassic Park 3" and "The Day After Tomorrow", which are also enough to maintain the company's strong position in live-action films. What's more, the company will definitely be able to continue to develop other high-quality copyrights in the future. (To be continued.) )