Eric nodded, said goodbye to Jeffrey and the others, and walked with Jobs to a nearby café.

"It was a country full of piety, and I saw millions of pilgrims, so much so that I was dragged and shaved my head, but without any displeasure or resistance, I walked all the way to the banks of the Ganges. However, at the same time, I saw the backwardness and ignorance of that country. ”

"Later, I thought that perhaps Thomas Edison did more to humanity than any philosopher or artist. When I returned to California, I no longer pursued an illusory philosophy of life, but chose the electronics industry as my lifelong goal. A year later, in an abandoned garage, a few friends and I founded Apple......"

In the café, Eric gently stirred the coffee and patiently listened to Jobs's eloquent conversation, this kind of opportunity is not easy to come across, although Eric did not like Jobs's character, but he admired Jobs's talent very much.

After more than ten minutes, Eric finally couldn't help but interject: "Steve, have you ever reflected on yourself?" ”

The displeasure on Jobs's face, who was suddenly interrupted, flashed away, and he asked rhetorically: "Reflection, why should I reflect?" ”

"Like, why were you kicked out by Apple?"

Jobs corrected with a stern face: "No, Eric, I was not kicked out of the apple, but I gave up the apple on my own initiative. ”

Eric shrugged his shoulders and said, "Look, this is the flaw in your character, your unwillingness to compromise, which also leads to the development of both you and Apple now entering a bottleneck." If you had made a proper compromise with Apple's board of directors a few years ago, perhaps you would have been able to stay at Apple, and it would have been easy for you to regain leadership of Apple with your strength. ”

Jobs retorted, "When I make the first compromise, the gang will force me to make a second, third, or even more compromise." ”

Eric chuckled and shook his head, knowing that it was impossible to convince a young man's paranoia. And now that he has taken Pixar, I don't know if Jobs will have a chance to return to Apple in the future.

The reason why Jobs was able to achieve such dazzling achievements in his previous life was that in addition to his own talent and perseverance, luck also accounted for a large part.

If he had successfully sold Pixar before, there would have been no more Pixar's glory after its release. And he himself is more likely to be the object of ridicule. In that case, perhaps Apple, which is in a desperate situation, would rather file for bankruptcy than make a desperate bet to bring Jobs back.

Eric didn't want to convince Jobs, and shifted the topic to the main topic of the meeting between the two today: "Let's talk about Pixar, Steve, since you found me, it means that you accepted my offer, right?" ”

Jobs hesitated, the reason why he arranged this meeting was to see if he could persuade Eric to increase the price in a face-to-face situation, and Jobs was still quite confident in his eloquence.

It's a pity that after saying so much just now, the young man in front of him either interrupted himself, or looked unmoved. In the end, he also understood that if he said the word price increase, the other party would just slap his ass and leave like he did on the phone last time.

"Eric, I agree to the $20 million offer, but all payments must be made in one lump sum."

"No problem at all," Eric snapped his fingers happily as he put down his coffee cup.

Jobs looked suspiciously at Eric, who had been calm before, and suddenly showed an excited expression, and at that moment, he even felt that maybe he had unknowingly made a huge mistake.

But now that the decision has been made, Jobs will not go back, he is a man who rarely regrets it. So Jobs then asked, "Eric, are you interested in personal computers?" ”

Eric raised an eyebrow, quickly understanding what Jobs meant: "You want me to invest in your computer company?" ”

"Yes, the personal computer is an electronic product with great potential for development, just look at the development of IBM's personal computer business in the past few years, just last year's ......."

"Stop, Steven, I'm not interested in those majors. I'm just asking, if I were a shareholder, would you accept my advice on the management side of the company? ”

"This ...... Eric, you only need to invest five ...... No, thirty million, plus Pixar's twenty million, I have enough money to implement one of my previous good ideas. I'm sure that's going to give you plenty of profit. ”

"In other words, I am only responsible for investment and dividends, and I do not have the power to meddle in the operation and management of computer companies?"

Jobs nodded, after the Apple incident, he would not give up the absolute leadership of his company again: "Eric, you are a good director, but I think I must know a lot more than you when it comes to electronic technology." ”

Originally, Eric was still a little excited, but after Jobs made his words clear, Eric could only shake his head and say, "Then, I refuse!" ”

"Uh, Eric, I have a project plan here, maybe you can take a look at it first, it's actually ......"

"No need" Eric interrupted Jobs with a wave of his hand, "Steve, I know you're a very thoughtful person, and I believe in your talent. But I'm not going to put my money into a project that I have absolutely no control over. Just as you stubbornly believe in your own ideas, I am also a stubborn person, and when our philosophies don't align, conflicts like Apple's a few years ago will flare up again. ”

Jobs stopped pulling Wen Jiàn out of his purse. He thought that with his eloquence, it should be easy to convince an eighteen-year-old young man. Unfortunately, Eric didn't listen to him at all, which made the proud Jobs feel a hint of anger.

"Well, that's a pity," Jobs said calmly with his anger, "Eric, do you need to visit Pixar first?" I hope that our deal will be as good as possible. ”

Eric thought for a while and said, "I'm not available tomorrow, it's released tomorrow, I'm going to fly to New York the day after tomorrow, my girlfriend's birthday ......"

In Jobs's thoughts, the release of the movie can also say a big thing, girlfriend's birthday, how can this kind of thing delay the transaction with Pixar: "Eric, perhaps, you can just ask someone to send a gift to your girlfriend, anyway, you seem to have more than one girlfriend." ”

Eric looked at Jobs speechlessly: "Maybe I'll be ...... the day after tomorrow."

Jobs immediately slapped the table lightly and interrupted Eric's words: "Okay, the day after tomorrow, girlfriend's birthday is still very important!" ”

said that he was not available the next day, but in fact, Eric didn't have anything to do in person, but every director would have a release anxiety that plagued him, and Eric was not in the mood to shift his attention to Pixar for the time being.

Fox had already arranged a qiē, because the scale of the premiere was much larger than the critics' test screening, and as a result, the reviews that appeared in the newspapers the next day also began to develop multipolar.

In addition to the newspaper he subscribed to, Eric bought more than a dozen newspapers early in the morning and read all the film reviews about it, and out of the seventeen newspapers in total, nine were praised, five were both praised and criticized, and the remaining three were unceremonious criticism.

Eric calculated according to the formula in his mind, and the positive rating should be 7.5. In the movie review website of the previous life, this score should be considered relatively high.

The word of mouth remained good, and Eric put aside his worries, and after breakfast, Eric drove to Fox's headquarters in Century City. Because it was not the prime time of the movie, Fox easily raised 1,900 screens, which has reached the blockbuster level of this era.

In the previous two films, Eric didn't get box office numbers until a week later. And now, he has reached the level where he can get a single-day box office count from Fox.

Starting in the wee hours of the morning, several executives of Eric, Jeffrey, and Fox waited nervously in the conference room, and even Barry Diller, the president of Fox, made an exception. Even though the conference room was large and the windows were open, the room was filled with a thick smoke of cigars. At the same time, seven or eight staff members were out on the phone and recording the box office count.

After an hour, the box office of the day was finally counted. The statistician handed the number to several executives, and everyone gathered around.

Karta Hunter sat on the outside and was the first to see the number: "Wow, $4.36 million, another one." ”

After Eric saw the number of s on the report, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and put his mind at ease.

There were cheers in the conference room, and everyone's original sleepiness was swept away.

Jeffrey said: "In this way, the box office will be a little higher tomorrow, maybe 5 million, 15 million on the weekend, and next Tuesday is Valentine's Day, there will be an explosion at the box office, and it is likely to get $10 million at the box office on weekdays." ”

Karta retorted with a smile: "Jeffrey, you are a bit conservative in your calculations, the box office on Valentine's Day will definitely exceed the weekend, and I don't think it is a problem at all that the box office exceeds in the first week." ”

Eric saw that these overly excited people were aiming for it, but he knew that it was obviously impossible, perhaps because of the huge publicity effect before, the box office would be high in the first week, but it would not be possible to continue in the next week.

Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but strike: "The key is that the box office will definitely drop significantly next week, and now is not the holiday schedule after all." So don't follow it, but it has grossed more than $20 million for six consecutive weeks. ”

The people here were all professionals, and of course they knew that Eric was telling the truth.

Barry Diller said, "Eric, you can concentrate on the next movie, and if you need any help, Fox will fully support you." ”

Eric pretended not to understand what Fox meant by wanting to meddle in his next movie, and smiled, "If you can, the celebration party will be held by Fox." ”

Barry Diller didn't mind Eric's pretense of confusion either, and smiled: "Haha, Fox is still happy to pay for this money." Next week, the Beverly Hilton. ”