In December, the third week of the release of "Scream", although Thanksgiving has passed, with its popularity among teenagers, the film still received $13.56 million at the box office, and the cumulative box office in three weeks reached $52.11 million.

Relatively speaking, "Jedi Men" released by Firefly itself, although it harvested $42.57 million at the box office in the first week, which is unexpected, but because it has maintained a box office decline of more than 40% for two consecutive weeks, the box office of the film has slipped to $15.6 million in the third week, and there is no big advantage compared with "Scream", with the weak weekly decline curve of about 20% of "Scream", this low-budget thriller may even surpass the box office of "Jedi Men" in the fourth week.

However, although the box office curves are very different, there is no suspense that the North American box office of the two films will break 100 million in the next few weeks, as two films with a production cost of no more than 20 million, and even a total production and distribution cost of about 30 million, the North American box office will exceed 100 million, these two films are undoubtedly the box office dark horses at the end of 1995, and the other films released in the same period have only been within 30 million US dollars at the box office in three weeks. Scream compared to Jedi.

The unexpected success of "Scream" played a very obvious role in promoting MGM's stock issuance plan in December.

At present, several major film companies in North America have basically completed the transformation and integration into media groups, even Columbia and Universal, both have large multinational groups behind them, and their business scope also involves all aspects other than film. MGM, which has struggled in business difficulties and debt quagmire for more than a decade, is still limited to pure film production and distribution, and if it were not for the integration of several series of film copyrights of Flower Pictures and DreamWorks Productions, MGM wants to issue additional shares, and it is estimated that it will not even be able to find an investment bank to undertake the business.

However, with "Breaking Bad", "007", "Mission Impossible", "Night at the Museum", "Resident Evil" and the just-box-office success of the "Scream" series, MGM's stock placement in December went exceptionally smoothly, with a total of 70 million shares being fully subscribed within a week of the official launch.

Normally, a company's stock price tends to show a downward trend in the process of implementing additional stock issuance, but because of the positive stimulus of the box office success of "Scream", MGM's stock price not only did not fall, but rose 6% in a week, reaching a price of $15.8 per share, and after the completion of the additional offering, MGM's total share capital reached 435 million shares, and the market value reached a new high of $6.873 billion. With the huge capital of 1 billion US dollars raised by this additional issuance, MGM has completely got rid of the current situation of shortage of funds, and the huge debt of 1.7 billion US dollars can no longer pose much threat to it, and the company has officially entered a healthy development track.

Burbank, Firefly Group headquarters.

Kelly Haynes knocked on Eric's office door and walked in.

"Eric, this is the casting information for "Lust City" that just came from New York, and they have compressed the candidates to eight. ”

Eric motioned for Kelly to sit down, and lowered his head to open several copies of the cast information in his hand.

After Candace Bushnell disapproved of Elizabeth Hurley's lead role, Eric devolved casting rights to the production arm of the AE television network.

However, during the casting process, Eric casually added several heroines from the original version to the audition list, and at this time, looking at the audition results from New York, Eric was surprised to find that among the two candidates given by the crew for the heroine Carly Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker was still elected, and the other candidate surprised Eric, Mary Louis Parker, a single drug mom in the original time and space.

Just by looking at the names, people who don't know might even think that they are sisters, but Eric knows that the two have nothing to do with each other at all.

Mary Louis Parker's comment on the character rating column of the character table reads: With many years of experience in Broadway stage performance, skillful acting, shrewd and cunning, but also not lacking in style, it is very suitable for the heroine Carly Bradshaw's identity as an urban female writer.

Because of the type of drama and the era, Eric's impression of "Single Drug Mom" is much stronger than that of "Lust City", Mary Louis Parker's role in "Single Drug Mom" is like an undisciplined little sheep struggling to survive surrounded by wolves, insects, tigers and leopards, and Eric's memory is more just a series of cute and innocent little eyes in the other party's dark and pure eyes.

Kelly, who was sitting across from Eric, noticed a strange smile on the corner of his mouth for some reason, and asked curiously, "Eric, what's wrong?"

"Ah, no," Eric shook his head, drawing a cross over Mary Louis Parker's profile.

Although between Sarah Jessica Parker and Mary Louis Parker, it was the latter who made Eric look a little more emotional. But because he has too deep memories of "Single Toxic Mom", Eric is unable to bring Mary Louis Parker into the heroine of "Lustful City", not to mention that the original heroine has appeared in the final list of candidates, and Eric no longer does anything to add to it.

After confirming this, Eric rummaged through several other candidates, but this time he found no more acquaintances.

Giving the information to Kelly, Eric said: "Sarah Jessica Parker is the heroine, and I don't care about the other three heroines, let Annie decide for herself." ”

Kelly wondered, "Eric, don't you need to see the audition tape, you can probably send it tomorrow?"

Eric shook his head: "No, since they have compressed the candidates to eight, these people must be very suitable." ”

"Okay, then I want to get out. ”

Kelly packed up the materials and was about to leave, when Eric stopped her: "By the way, Drew is having a party at Sharp Corner Manor tonight to celebrate the successful stock offering and the box office success of "Scream", do you want to come over?"

Kelly stopped, turned around and shook her head, and said with a smile: "I'm afraid it won't work tonight, I promised Nina to take her to the movies." ”

"Oh, forget it, I won't delay you from being a good mother. ”

"Hehe, if it's okay, I'll go back to the office. ”

Kelly smiled and left Eric's office, but in less than five minutes, she turned back.

"Eric, the new line called over there, saying that the English version of "Red Fan District" in cooperation with Golden Harvest has been completed, you mentioned it at the beginning, do you want to watch it now?"

Eric nodded, looked at his watch, and said to Kelly, "Let them prepare, I'll be over at three o'clock." ”

"Okay. Kelly nodded and exited the office.

After finishing some of his work, it was close to three o'clock, and he got up and walked to the filing cabinet in his office and flipped out a script, then left the office and walked towards the projection room of the office building.

After several years of development, the original new line film company has long been fully integrated into the firefly system. However, under Eric's arrangement, the team of the new line still adheres to the original production strategy, and at the same time has not severed some cooperation with Golden Harvest Film Company on the other side of the ocean.

"Red Fan Zone" is Golden Harvest's film work that once again tries to break into the North American market, mainly Golden Harvest invests in production, and New Line only participates in a small part of the investment and related assistance in the filming process, so it has obtained the North American distribution rights of the film. The film was made last year and has been widely released in Asia, but its North American release is scheduled for next year's Easter schedule.

Although the North American box office of more than 30 million US dollars in the previous life of "Red Fan Zone" was converted into more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars, which made Golden Harvest overjoyed, however, Eric didn't care too much, he only liked the warming effect of "Red Fan Zone" on the male protagonist's North American popularity.

At this point, Eric's other script was the focus of his plan.

This is a script written by a screenwriter named Rose Lamanna, and although Rose Moraler seems to be unknown, this script is famous in the original plane, because it is called "Rush Hour".

At this time, the script of "Rush Hour" was still just an old-fashioned and simple two-protagonist crime action genre, which was very similar to the ongoing "Jedi Men" and previous series such as "Beverly Hills Detective" and "Lethal Weapon", and even the protagonist was not 100% sure that he used Asian, and the plot was also a little far from the original.

However, Eric only likes the general story outline of this script, and as for the detailed plot, he will modify it according to his own wishes in the future.

There is also a small episode worth mentioning, the screenwriter of "Rush Hour" Rose Lamanna also wrote another screenplay, called "Titanic", which also revolves around the story of the big ship. Of course, this script has nothing to do with the project that Cameron is filming, and there were originally film companies interested in this script, but after Firefly released Cameron's version of "Titanic", Ross Lamana's script was completely unpopular.

When he came to the screening room of the headquarters building, in addition to the person in charge of the new line, Eric also saw several Asian faces, but he didn't see the male lead.

"Mr. Williams, let me introduce you to Joni Lee, the producer of "Red Zone", and Chen, the manager of the actor Jack. Seeing Eric coming, the person in charge of the new line introduced a few people to Eric.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Chen, hello, welcome to Los Angeles," Eric shook his hand and said, "Well, let's watch the movie first." ”

The producer, surnamed Lee, said enthusiastically: "Of course, Mr. Williams, I believe you will not be disappointed." ”

The crowd didn't talk too much and walked into the screening room together.

Eric had already seen this movie in his previous life, of course, in the Chinese version, at this time, looking at the specially translated English version, of course, there was no problem in line understanding, and compared with the original in memory, it was very interesting.

After the movie was played, Eric patiently listened to the person in charge of the new line introduce the release plan, just nodded, and did not mean to interfere. Instead, he handed the script of "Rush Hour" in his hand separately to the person in charge of the new line and the actor's agent.

"This is a script that I came across by chance, and I felt that the story, with a little modification, was perfect for Jack. I've written detailed revisions in the script, but I think Jack Cheng must have a lot of personal ideas if it's going to be filmed, so Mr. Chen, you can take it back and discuss it with him, and if you're interested, we can sign it immediately. ”

Although he also got a few pages of the script, the producer of Golden Harvest found that Eric didn't mention what they meant, looked at Jack's agent, and after thinking about it, he still didn't speak immediately.

However, Jack's agent was overjoyed when he heard Eric's words, and said, "Mr. Williams, are you saying that if Jack is willing, we can sign immediately?"

"Of course," Eric smiled and nodded, "If all goes well, I hope the film will be released by the end of next year." ”

Mr. Chen asked again, "So, Mr. Williams, I don't know if this film is produced by New Line or by Firefly Headquarters?"

Eric said: "New Line, however, Mr. Chen, the several labels under Firefly, whether it is New Line, Firefly or Disney, the difference is only the different types of film production, so you don't have to worry about the film being produced by New Line, which will be treated differently." ”

Although he very much wanted to cooperate, Mr. Chen continued to ask, "Mr. Williams, what about Jack's salary?"

"Hehe, you guys talk to the new line," Eric said with a smile. Although Ari also thought about letting the other party sign three low-cost film contracts in one go, but also thought about it carefully, there is still no need to do such a loss, after all, a win-win situation is the best way to cooperate.

It was close to five o'clock when I finished watching the movie, and after a general discussion about "Rush Hour", Eric handed over the follow-up work to the new line team and hurriedly returned to Jianjiao Manor by car.

"Scream" entered the fourth week, once again received $10.65 million at the box office, and the total box office has reached more than 62 million.

Coupled with the smooth implementation of MGM's stock issuance plan, the girl pestered Eric for a while, and was allowed to hold a celebration party for MGM's recent good situation at Jianjiao Manor.

When Eric returned to Sharp Corner Manor, it was past six o'clock, and guests had already begun to arrive in the manor.

(To be continued.) )