Amy Pascal, who was sitting at the bottom of the conference table, felt that this matter was not as simple as she imagined, although she and Eric had only been in contact for a few hours, but she still noticed that this boy had a kind of composure that was incomparable to his peers, and people with this kind of personality would definitely not have a hot brain and propose such a gambling agreement with a very low probability of winning. The VAM agreement, then, is most likely the deliberate work of Eric Williams.

Amy Pascal ignored the one-sided support for the gambling agreement and thought for a long time before saying, "Mr. Cohen, I think it's better to be cautious, there is no such thing as a free lunch." We can raise the buyout price a little bit and negotiate with Eric Williams, but it's really not okay, or sign a sharing agreement, and we're going to make a lot of money anyway with the box office potential of the film. ”

"Amy, I think you're too conservative, not even that kid. Lester Reed, who spoke first, retorted: "Do you know the potential of this film? If we fully acquire the rights to this film, then in addition to the box office share, we can at least make tens of millions of dollars in the next videotape rights, television broadcasts, and all kinds of peripheral licensing, not to mention that we can make a sequel." If we choose a sharing agreement, the copyright is still in the hands of the boy, and we have to give the boy a large share again in the next operation. ”

Amy Pascal said, "We can also raise the buyout price a bit, maybe, fifteen million dollars, and the boy will definitely say yes." ”

"According to the potential of this kind of low-budget comedy in the past, under normal circumstances, $50 million is already considered a box office dark horse, and most of the excellent quality can only get $20 million at the box office. So, with more than an 80 percent chance of getting the full rights to this movie for free, why should we pay more than 10 million dollars? That boy could come up with such a crazy gambling agreement with less than 20 percent chance of winning, don't we even have the guts to make such a bet?"

"But ......," Amy Pascal looked at the greed and frenzy in her colleague's eyes, and her feminine sixth sense made her feel even more inappropriate.

"Alright, Amy," Bront Cohen interrupted Amy Pascal, "although Jeffrey Hansen and that Eric Williams may be your friends, you must understand that you are now an employee of Columbia and must act in the interests of the company. ”

Bront Cohen's words stunned Amy Pascal, she is indeed friends with Jeffrey Hansen, but as a professional manager, she has always been quite ethical.

And now he just expressed his opinion out of prudence, and he was suspected of eating inside and out, helping outsiders fight for benefits. The strong sense of humiliation made Amy Pascal's right hand holding the pen tremble slightly, and finally, Amy Pascal stood up abruptly and said coldly: "Mr. Cohen, since your opinion has this idea, I think I am no longer suitable to participate in this project, I will leave first, goodbye." ”

After speaking, Amy Pascal pursed her lips and hurriedly sorted out the text in front of her, turned around and left the office in silence.

The entire office fell into a brief silence.

"Woman!"

I don't know who spoke first and sighed, Amy Pascal is in a high position as a woman, and in a patriarchal society, she will definitely be discriminated against in all kinds of ways, but I don't know what kind of feelings are carried in this sigh.

Blunt Cohen slightly regretted what he had just said, Amy Pascal's work ability and professional ethics are obvious to all, otherwise it would not be possible to sit in this office as a woman. However, Bront Cohen, although he lacked courage in managing the company, was very self-serving, and he felt that although he spoke a little abruptly, Amy Pascal's departure from the conference room was also a provocation to his majesty, so it was natural to blame Amy Pascal for all the fault.

The office was silent for more than ten seconds before Blunt Cohen said, "Okay, since everyone agrees to this gambling agreement, then let's stop here today, Lester, from tomorrow, you will be solely responsible for this project." ”

In the envious eyes of everyone, Lester Reid excitedly agreed, if he won the bet, this credit would definitely be counted on him, and it would be logical to be promoted and raised in the future.

"No problem, Mr. Cohen, I'll do my best to get this done. ”

The next day, Eric received a notice from Colombia that he had accepted the VAM agreement, and at the same time, Jeffrey also contacted the firm that Eric needed, and after assessing the value, the two firms agreed to send a team to assist Eric in drafting and supervising the implementation of the VAM agreement.

On October 31, despite his interest, Eric failed to attend the first Halloween parade since his rebirth, and instead stayed in the conference room of the Colombian headquarters with a large group of boring middle-aged men and women to work out the details of the VAM agreement.

On the basis of the conditions proposed by Eric, the specific content of the agreement was gradually refined, in order to ensure that Columbia did its best to do its best for publicity and distribution, the content of the agreement even listed in detail the details of how many promotional advertorials were published in different well-known newspapers, as well as how many screens needed to be increased or decreased in the theater attendance, the number of daily film screenings and the time of the movie theater, and so on. Moreover, once Colombia violates the content of the agreement, different penalties for breach of contract are also imposed according to the process of violating the agreement.

When the last few dozen pages of the contract were drafted, Eric himself was dumbfounded, and couldn't help but admire the professionalism of the accounting and lawyer team that Jeffrey Hansen hired.

On the Colombian side, Lester Reid, who was in charge of the project, thought that it was basically in Colombia's pocket, so he didn't pay too much attention to the contract that was dozens of pages long, but ridiculed Eric for making a fuss, and the two teams hired by the other party were estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions alone, which was a waste.

Lester Reid feels that even if the contract is detailed, the box office potential is there, and the boldest expectations of Columbia's top management for the box office have not exceeded the current No. 1 box office of the year, and this perfect combination of animation and live-action film only has 150 million North American box office.

Columbia's original plan was to release it during Christmas in December, but Eric was adamantly opposed to it. No one knows better than him the tragic situation of the high-grossing film group crocodile strangulation in December, within a month, the top ten films of the year accounted for three, and in the previous life, after the release of Tongguò in November, it took more than two months of long-term screenings to achieve an amazing box office.

In the end, Columbia made a compromise and set the release date for November 18, the same day as Eric, which was also proposed by Eric, and the two films related to him were released at the same time, because the subject matter and audience are different, not only will not squeeze the box office of the other party, but can play a role in promoting each other. For this reason, Colombia has even freed up about 1,000 screens for the feature film that was originally scheduled to be released on November 18.

Colombia's ambivalence can be seen from the screen figures, and under normal circumstances, only movies that are favored at the box office will have more than 1,000 theaters, so this number shows that Colombia is very optimistic about the box office. But at the same time, because of the gambling agreement, Colombia does not want to exceed 50 million, so that it can not only monopolize all the box office shares, but also obtain all the copyrights, including the sequel, so the number of screens did not exceed 1,000.

Eric is not dissatisfied with this, it is normal for Colombian executives to have this mentality, and in the dozens of pages of the gambling agreement, it is clearly stipulated that the box office will increase the corresponding screen when it reaches a certain number, if Colombia refuses to implement it, then wait for the lawsuit, Eric believes that it is only the income of a movie, which is not enough for a giant like Colombia to tear his face and lose his business reputation.

After the VAM agreement was signed, because both parties had no intention of concealing the agreement, but preferred to spread the agreement, the content of the agreement quickly spread throughout Hollywood.

Under the operation of Columbia Pictures' publicity department, the next day, the entertainment headline published an article about the gambling contract.