Chapter 394: Chapter 395: War Breaks Out
[Chapter 395: War Breaks Out]
The reception for Point Break was lukewarm, as the film's viewpoints didn't sit well with audiences, leading to lackluster reviews from critics. They only praised the thrilling visual moments like surfing and skydiving. As a result, the movie was unlikely to achieve much during the awards season.
Regardless of the external media commentary, after Christmas, Firefly Films began its planned merger and reorganization work in an orderly manner. With detailed planning, Eric decided to merge Pixar, Digital Domain, and Black Ant Productions under Firefly Films. Since all these assets were privately held companies under Eric's total control, the merging process proceeded smoothly.
After the merger and reorganization, Firefly would adopt the big studio model, expanding beyond film and television production to include specialized departments for distribution, legal affairs, market research, and strategic planning. It would also include relatively autonomous subsidiaries like Pixar, Black Ant Productions, New Line Cinema, Flower Films, and Digital Domain. In addition, Firefly held a 10% stake in the Fox network.
After over four months of planning negotiations with the Playa Vista community, the new year kicked off with construction officially starting at Firefly's studio base in Playa Vista. While it was a private company, and outsiders couldn't obtain detailed information about Firefly, their series of actions hadn't gone unnoticed by many.
...
Entertainment-oriented media remained focused on Eric's personal wealth, while specialized Hollywood magazines like Variety took a more analytical approach to Firefly. Most professional media held a pessimistic view regarding Firefly's consolidation and expansion plans. After all, Eric had just experienced a 'failure' with the releases of Ghost Detective and Point Break at the end of the year. The total box office for these films was likely just over one hundred million dollars. Compared to Firefly's dominance at the box office during the holiday season the previous year, this year's performance was quite disappointing.
Moreover, the evidence cited by the media maintaining a pessimistic stance extended beyond the year-end box office figures. While Point Break's performance failed to meet expectations, they were unaware that the Cameron couple had divorced. The plight of Kathryn Bigelow's 'ex-husband,' Cameron, who was busy working on Terminator 2, also caught the media's attention.
The media quickly discovered that this film, which had been in production for over three months and had just wrapped before the new year, was already over budget at more than $70 million. As a special effects film, the post-production costs would consume even more funds, meaning the budget could reach an unprecedented level, potentially making it the first film in history with a budget exceeding $100 million.
If that was the only concern, there might still have been hope for recovering costs. After all, Cameron's films had a strong track record, and public surveys indicated that fans had high expectations for the Terminator sequel. However, many believed that the film's release timeframe posed a deadly flaw.
In November of last year, a coalition of 34 nations gathered in the Middle East and issued a final ultimatum to Saddam. Given the current situation, war seemed inevitable, possibly breaking out by the end of January. Moreover, few expected this war to end quickly.
Starting in the latter half of last year, faced with the potential impact of war on the film industry, the seven major studios began formulating production cutback plans. Aside from Terminator 2, no other major films were slated for release in the summer blockbuster season. Even Warner Bros., which had earned over $200 million in box office receipts with Batman last year, delayed its sequel to the summer of 1992 to avoid the conflict's fallout. It was easy to envision that if Terminator 2 premiered while the war was still ongoing, its box office would undoubtedly suffer.
Should a film of such potential investment fail, it would be a significant blow to the ambitious Firefly.
Because of this concern, even Cameron hinted to Eric during a meeting that it would be wise to postpone Terminator 2's release, even if just to the end of the year. Eric merely offered verbal reassurances and didn't agree with Cameron's suggestion. No one was more aware of the Gulf War's pace than he was. Therefore, keeping Terminator 2 on the summer schedule was the best choice. Even if the war were to end abruptly, the hasty pull-up of summer movies couldn't compete with the well-prepared and quality Terminator 2.
Not only was Terminator 2 on Eric's mind; he also decided to release Pixar's completed Toy Story during the summer. He believed the box office for this 3D animated film would certainly astonish many. To this end, Eric invited Tom Hanks to voice Woody, just like in the original, and he once again splurged on a commercial during this year's Super Bowl to premier the Toy Story trailer since the special effects work on Terminator 2 had only just begun; they sadly missed the Super Bowl promotional opportunity.
...
The first couple of weeks of the new year passed by unnoticed, and on January 15, the date of the united coalition's ultimatum, the Iraqi military showed no intention of withdrawing from Kuwait. Instead, they ramped up troop deployments along the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border.
Eric hurriedly wrapped up his work and flew to New York. After two months of preparation, Chris had established a large number of short positions in crude oil futures using the $2 billion at his disposal. Both of them anxiously awaited the coming conflict.
Although Eric felt like he was a small butterfly that could influence the war's course, he clearly overestimated his impact.
At 2 a.m. on January 17, the coalition forces launched an assault on Iraqi troops, initiating a high-intensity carpet bombing that lasted for hours. Faced with the undeniable air superiority of the coalition, the Iraqi forces stood no chance and were utterly defeated. By the end of January, the coalition had wiped out the Iraqi troops stationed in Kuwait, resulting in Iraq losing one hundred thousand soldiers, while coalition casualties numbered only in the few hundreds.
As the world was stunned by the new paradigm of warfare, international crude oil prices plummeted.
Anticipating a prolonged conflict, many oil trading companies had accrued substantial investments in crude oil futures before the war. Yet, just two weeks into the conflict, confronted with rapidly falling oil prices, countless companies were forced to liquidate their crude oil futures trading departments. Reports indicated that due to these losses, many companies would not reopen their futures trading departments for the next twenty years, highlighting just how significant the impact was from this massive buying spree.
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