I’m in Hollywood

Eric was chatting with Emma when Penn Fosterman's cell phone suddenly rang.

After giving Eric an apologetic look, Payne Forstman got up and walked nearby to answer the phone. After a while, Payne Forstman came back again and whispered in Eric's ear: Eric, Mr. Governor just called and asked if he could invite you to his house?

Eric asked Emma to take the reluctant Hawaii to play together, looked at the three little guys on the court, and said lightly: I want to accompany the children, so I won't go.

The governor Penn Fosterman said was apparently Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the younger brother of George W. Bush. The other party was only successfully elected governor of Florida last year, and this invitation is undoubtedly for Bush's presidential campaign.

Although he had tentative contact with the Bush family's agent last time in New York, Eric did not intend to meet directly with the core members of the other family immediately. The Bush family will certainly not expect Eric to make any statement now.

Penn Fosterman is actually just a messenger. He is very clear that he is not qualified to influence Eric's decision. Hearing what the boss said, he nodded and got up again to answer the caller.

Inside the tennis court, the three little guys continued to play for more than an hour. Seeing that it was almost the same time, Eric stopped in time.

Payne Forstman stood by, seeing Eric carefully wiping the sweat off the three little guys, tidied up his clothes, and then seemed to be planning to leave like this, so he couldn't help but take two steps forward.

However, seeing the three little guys looking over curiously together, Penn Fosterman swallowed what he wanted to say again.

Seeing Penn Fosterman's lingering look, Eric turned his head to look at the girl standing with Max Eisenbad not far away, and said with a casual smile, Help me look after her. Bar.

After saying this, Eric walked out of the tennis court with the three little guys and the twins. Several bodyguards who were scattered around also gathered and protected Eric to the two outside the court. suV.

Penn Forstman stood at the gate to watch the two suVs leave, and Max Eisenbad came over with Sharapova.

Looking at the two suVs in the distance, Max Eisenbad asked, What did Mr. Williams say?

Penn Fosterman did not answer, but said to Sharapova next to him: Maria, go back to the dormitory first.

Sharapova, who was not yet thirteen years old but was already close to 1.7 meters tall, nodded obediently.

Politely said goodbye to both of them before turning and walking away. At an intersection not far away, Sharapova stole a glance at the two middle-aged men who were still standing at the entrance of the tennis court while turning. Seeing that the two seemed to be looking at her, she quickly avoided her eyes.

Walking into another path isolated by the green belt, and confirming that Forstman and the two could not see her, Sharapova finally breathed a sigh of relief, but she couldn't help but raised her hand and pressed it on her lips, feeling her lower teeth. The invisible braces, which was almost unaware, reminded me of what happened in the afternoon again.

Although she couldn't speak to Eric Williams for the last time, she suddenly understood a lot of things in connection with her recent experience.

At the age of seven, he was taken by his father to leave Russia to the United States, leaving his hometown just for a seemingly remote wish. In the blink of an eye, more than five years have passed. Although she is not yet thirteen years old, Sharapova has already tasted the warmth and affection that many children may not experience in a lifetime, and she matures much earlier than most girls.

Sharapova still clearly remembers how many eyes she and her father had slapped with, how many people she begged for, and how harsh contracts they signed in order to enter the Img Academy, and finally she barely got the qualification to be a sponsored student.

Img Academy is a private elite sports academy. The tuition fee is higher than most ordinary private schools. If they didn't get the sponsorship qualification at the beginning, the father and daughter who only brought a few hundred dollars across the ocean would pay it all. Can't afford tens of thousands of dollars in tuition every year.

In the past few years, she has basically only had one thing in her life, tennis. Apart from that, she has little exposure to many normal cultural courses, and Img doesn't care about anything other than her tennis grades, she just sees her as a potential investment.

Then, a few months ago, a lot of things suddenly changed.

The girl knew about the Img Group being bought by Eric Williams. She didn't think it had anything to do with her at first, but Img suddenly attached great importance to her. Not only has she been equipped with the best agent, she has been replaced with the best coach, but she has also been meticulous in her life. Now she even has her own dormitory.

Originally, Sharapova thought it was because of her tennis performance that Img would focus on nurturing her. But it wasn't until her last orthodontic treatment that the girl realized something was different.

You know, ordinary teeth straightening can be done by wearing a pair of steel braces for a few hundred dollars, but Img chose top-notch invisible braces worth $8,000 for her, including other expenses, just for one correction, it cost Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

With what she knew about Img's behavior, how could they possibly spend so much extra money for her if there was no other special reason!

Later, her agent, Max Eisenbad, also hinted something to her. Coupled with seeing Eric Williams today, the girl finally understands the ins and outs of things.

As the richest man in the world, even if he doesn't care at all, he can hear too much information about that man on weekdays.

For one, it's almost a well-known thing that he's a playboy.

So, at this time, Sharapova realized that she was being spotted by that man.

I don't know how I feel in my heart, thinking about the changes in my life, but I don't have much resistance to it. During this time, with the help of Img, her mother was able to move to the United States, and the family was finally reunited.

Obviously, if it wasn't for that man, Img would definitely not be willing to do these superfluous things.

but.

Although he played tennis with his children all afternoon, he didn't say a word to himself.

Thinking of this, Sharapova suddenly felt inexplicably worried.

Is he not satisfied enough with himself?

Thinking like this, when she returned to the dormitory, she quickly ran to the full-length mirror and looked at the girl in the white tennis suit.

Other than being tall, there seemed, like, nothing special about it.

Then I couldn't help worrying about gains and losses.

If he is not satisfied with himself, then, will he go back to the kind of life he had a few months ago.

I don't know how long it took to be so dazed, the knock on the door broke her thoughts.

She hurried to the door, opened the door, and her agent, Max Eisenbad, was standing at the door.

Thinking of her guess just now, she suddenly panicked, and subconsciously did not dare to look at Max Eisenbard's expression, lowered her head and said in a low voice: Mai, Mr. Eisenbard, what's the matter? , reacted, and quickly turned to the side again, saying: Please come in.

Max Eisenbad did not enter the door, looked at the girl's appearance, and said, Didn't you just say you can call me Mike?

Well, Sharapova nodded quickly, hesitated, and said, Mike, Mr. Williams, he, will he come tomorrow?

No, Mr. Williams should leave Bradenton tomorrow, Max Eisenbard looked at the girl and paused. Although he was familiar with the world, he was not very good at guessing the little girl's mind. , but at this time, she understood her reaction as resistance, her expression became a little more serious, and said: Mary, I know you are a smart girl, so you should already know how you got your life now. of.

This will be gone.

Thinking in dejection, Sharapova hummed in a low voice like a mosquito.

Max Eisenbad obviously misunderstood some of the girls' reactions at this time, even with a stern tone in his tone, saying: Then, you should know that you must pay a corresponding price for getting so much. I think you, and your family, definitely don't want to go back to Russia, do they?

Sharapova was about to nod her head like a puppet, when she suddenly reacted again, raised her head abruptly, looked at Max Eisenbad and shook her head: Mike, no, I'm not, I, she didn't know what to do for a while. After a pause, she said, I'm still looking forward to seeing Mr. Williams again.

Max Eisenbard was stunned when he heard the girl say this, but quickly realized that he had just misunderstood. His expression softened, and after carefully examining the girl's state at this time, Max Eisenbad nodded with satisfaction and said, Then, that's it. I'm just here to chat with you. By the way, you can have a day off tomorrow. .

Sharapova nodded, seeing that Max Eisenbad was about to leave, thought for a while, then stepped forward and said, Mike, I, I want to go to see Mr. Williams' Mr. Williams with Mom and Dad this weekend. Gravity, you, can you buy me three tickets?

Bradenton is only a small city with a population of about 50,000. Although there is no shortage of movie theaters, there is only one 3D screen, and the ImaX theater is even more impossible.

During this period of time, with the popularity of Gravity, the 3D screening hall with only more than 100 seats was completely in short supply, which actually showed the uneven distribution of the 2,000 3D screens. It is said that many people, especially those who want to watch the ImaX version, even drive to Orlando, which is more than 100 kilometers away.

Max Eisenbad stopped and looked at the girl's flickering eyes, but he knew in his heart that the girl said this, not for watching a movie, but more like a statement, so he smiled and nodded. : Okay, I'll have someone deliver the ticket to you tomorrow.

Although it is a vacation, it is impossible to let go of all work after all.

After dinner, returning to a mansion in a gated community west of Bradenton City and leaving the children in the care of the twins, Eric went to the makeshift study.

Sony is willing to reduce the price of projector equipment by 11% on the original basis, and enjoy a 40% supply share of the RealD system. Barco in Belgium and another company in Japan, nec, will share the other 60% equally. However, this The equipment of the two companies needs to undergo technical transformation to adapt to the RealD system, which will take about two months. Katzenberg reported to Eric the results of the work in recent days during the video call, and continued: According to the It is planned that by the summer of next year, North America will have 6,000 sets of RealD systems, and the number overseas will be more, reaching 8,000 sets. After completing this layout, it will be difficult for 3D projection systems that can compete with RealD to appear in the market.”

Eric leaned on the leather chair behind the desk, listened to Katzenberg, nodded in satisfaction, and asked, How is the buyout agreement negotiation over at the theater?

For the promotion of 3D movies, Firefly Group and the theater chain signed a bottom-line agreement with a single-screen box office of $300,000 per year. This agreement can be said to be very unfair to Firefly Group. You must know that the current average annual revenue of each screen in North America is only 200,000 US dollars.

The detailed agreement stipulates that if the annual revenue of a single screen is less than 300,000 US dollars, Firefly Group will make up for it.

But if it exceeds, then, in addition to the $300,000 minimum guarantee, 80% of the box office share belonging to the theater chain will be counted as the cost of RealD system equipment, which will be owned by Firefly Group for a period of three years.

However, in addition to the agreement, Firefly Group also agreed that once the 3D movie is successfully promoted, in order to make the initial 2,000 screens have the same competitive environment as the latecomers, the theater chain can propose a one-time buyout agreement and give up the original guarantee contract. .

According to the realD system cost of about 250,000 US dollars, each 3D screen will get about 500,000 US dollars at the box office every year, and Firefly Group can recover the equipment cost.

Originally, even within the Firefly Group, they felt that this was almost impossible. The company only hoped that this cooperation would not lose too much.

But now, the reality is far beyond everyone's expectations.

With the box office momentum of Gravity, just this movie, the North American box office may exceed 600 million US dollars, and there is little suspense over the box office of Titanic which just reached 600 million US dollars.

Due to the strong performance of ImaX theaters for two consecutive weeks, the 100 ImaX theaters in North America may bring Gravity to the box office of 200 million US dollars, so, counted on the 3D screen, there are 400 million US dollars.

400 million US dollars at the box office, an average of 2,000 3D screens, which can already bring 200,000 US dollars in box office per screen, and this cycle is only two months.

But a year is 12 months, plus the ability to make a 3D version of the film is almost a potential super-box-office bomb. It's clear, then, that at least for the first few years of 3D movies and their popularity, the single 3D screen will be far more than Firefly's projected $500,000 payback.

Therefore, in order to avoid the continuous extraction of profits by Firefly Group, and in order to gain more control over the initiative of 3D theaters, the major theater chains have already put forward the requirements for the implementation of the original subsidiary buyout agreement.

Hearing Eric mentioning this matter, Katzenberg also showed a smug smile and said: The RegRs proposed to execute the buyout agreement based on our equipment price of $500,000. However, since we have already undertaken the Now that we have taken the risk, we must be compensated. RealD is negotiating with the theater chain, and the final buyout price should be around $600,000. We now have the initiative in 3D movies, and the theater chain can only compromise with us.

Eric also had a smile on his face. According to the unit price of 600,000 US dollars, only the 2,000 3D screens in North America, Firefly Group can recover 1.2 billion US dollars. This is more than half of Firefly Group's initial investment in the promotion of 3D and ImaX movies.

The situation in the overseas market is more complicated. The cooperation model between Firefly and various ticket warehouse countries is different, but as long as the cost of more than 1,600 sets of RealD system equipment that has been rolled out overseas can be fully recovered, even if it cannot reach the high price of 600,000 US dollars in North America, But it is enough for the Firefly Group to fully recover the full cost of the initial investment.

The remaining 200 more lucrative ImaX theaters, as well as some of the properties under the ImaX theater name, are almost nothing.

It can be said that just this one, the resources and energy that Firefly Group has invested in the promotion of 3D and ImaX in recent years have been worth the money. The company has not only entered the basic projection equipment market, but also fully mastered the promotion of 3D and ImaX movies. initiative, the potential benefits of this will be even greater.