Capítulo 227: Chapter 227: Market Share
During the 12-hour flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles in the first-class cabin of a Boeing 747, Michael Ovitz spent his time poring over various documents.
Initially trying to facilitate Sony's purchase of MCA, which was offered at a high price of 8 billion dollars by Lew Wasserman, Sony, valued at just over 14 billion dollars, chose to refuse. Consequently, Ovitz shifted his focus to Columbia Pictures as Coca-Cola was also looking to divest its non-core businesses. Negotiations had officially begun.
The date was January 7th.
Michael Ovitz and his team, who were assisting Sony in acquiring Columbia, had spent two days in Tokyo and were now returning.
The young man, Simon Westeros, had already left for Australia to shoot "Batman." However, Hollywood still seemed to revolve around Daenerys Entertainment. The documents Ovitz reviewed during his flight were also related to Daenerys Entertainment.
In the past year, ending December 31, 1988, the U.S. box office grossed a total of $4.69 billion.
Based on the cutoff date of December 31st and calculating by distributor, the highest-grossing film company in Hollywood that year was Disney, with a total of $531 million, accounting for 11.3% of the market share.
Following Disney were Paramount, Warner Bros., and Universal, each holding approximately 10% of the market share.
Daenerys Entertainment, on its own, distributed "Scream," "Steel Magnolias," "Dead Poets Society," "Rain Man," and "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark," which collectively grossed only $256 million as of December 31, holding a market share of 5.5%.
At first glance, Daenerys Entertainment didn't seem to stand out based on this data.
However, the whole industry understood that this method of calculation was misleading.
If calculated based on the producer, Daenerys Entertainment's seven films for the year - "When Harry Met Sally," "Pulp Fiction," "Basic Instinct," "Scream," "Steel Magnolias," "Dead Poets Society," and "Rain Man" - had already amassed $730 million by December 31.
This figure would immediately elevate Daenerys Entertainment's market share from 5.5% to 15.6%.
A more striking fact was that this 15.6% market share, amounting to $730 million, was generated by only seven movies. In contrast, Disney's $531 million was backed by 15 films, one of which, "When Harry Met Sally," was produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Furthermore, if one estimated the North American total box office for these films, it could frighteningly reach $900 million. This would be nearly 20% of the annual U.S. box office share.
One could imagine that if this trend continued, Daenerys Entertainment might become a dominant force in the industry, similar to MGM during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The rapid rise of an independent film company within just two years, showing such strong potential, would normally impress Ovitz. However, this powerful company was now in opposition to CAA.
Ovitz didn't regret CAA's role in escalating the "Rain Man" situation. He had once told his clients that he would kill for them if necessary. It was this unconditional support for their clients' interests that attracted more top stars to the talent agency.
Since they couldn't be friends, being enemies was the only option.
Daenerys Entertainment's dominance would undoubtedly harm the interests of traditional Hollywood studios. After failing to reconcile with Daenerys Entertainment, Ovitz explored the possibility of a joint effort by the major studios to suppress Daenerys Entertainment.
However, the answer was negative.
Among the majors, Warner Bros. was collaborating with Daenerys Entertainment on "Batman" and "Hook," making them unlikely to oppose Daenerys Entertainment.
Disney held a directing contract with Simon Westeros. Given the box office success of "Run Lola Run" and "Pulp Fiction," Disney wouldn't risk opposing Daenerys Entertainment and potentially lose a highly lucrative project.
As for Fox, their collaboration on "The Butterfly Effect," "Final Destination," and "Basic Instinct," coupled with the Murdoch family's Australian connection to the Westeros girlfriend's Johnstone family, made opposition from Fox highly unlikely.
With three of the majors out, the idea of a collective suppression of Daenerys Entertainment became a fantasy.
The remaining Paramount, Universal, Columbia, and MGM had their reasons. Paramount was doing well and had no interest in conflict. Columbia was busy selling itself. MGM, having been outplayed on "Rain Man," might have the motive, but lacked the means in its current state.
As for Universal, Ovitz knew the "Scream" rating incident was largely propelled by Lew Wasserman. But for some reason, Universal didn't make any further moves.
In short, a collective effort by Hollywood's major studios to suppress the rise of Daenerys Entertainment was impossible. Smaller studios like Orion had even less capital to oppose Daenerys Entertainment.
Ovitz understood that it all boiled down to a lack of mutual interests driving them. Or rather, Daenerys Entertainment's large share of Hollywood's box office wasn't yet threatening enough to other studios' survival.
Under these circumstances, the traditional powers in Hollywood could only instinctively retaliate in certain areas.
For example, the upcoming awards season.
The Oscars represented significant interests. To secure awards, traditional powers would certainly try to suppress Daenerys Entertainment.
Furthermore, the only other option was to directly snatch successful projects from Daenerys Entertainment.
Thinking of this, Ovitz once again focused on the scripts of "The Rocketeer" and "Firebirds" from his pile of documents.
In recent days, Ovitz had read both scripts several times and inquired in detail about Paramount's acquisition of them.
Paramount President Sidney Ganis had bribed Simon Westeros's secretary to intercept these scripts. Such practices weren't uncommon in Hollywood and couldn't be deemed particularly dishonorable.
However, Ovitz felt there was more to it than met the eye.
Simon Westeros's reaction was too calm. Daenerys Entertainment simply fired the secretary and didn't attempt to reclaim the projects. Compared to their actions in the "Rain Man" situation, this was abnormal.
Ovitz considered many possibilities.
Perhaps Simon Westeros was confident these projects wouldn't succeed in others' hands?
Or was it a trap set by Westeros?
Neither seemed quite plausible.
Ovitz always believed that if a film company was serious and invested enough resources in a project, the film was unlikely to fail completely.
Moreover, due to the many stages from script to final film, it was unlikely for Hollywood to have scripts doomed to fail. Most failures were due to creators botching scripts during production.
After some time, as the plane prepared to land, Ovitz was pulled from his thoughts by the in-flight announcement.
Perhaps he was being overly suspicious.
Daenerys Entertainment was currently developing comic adaptations like "Batman" and "Angel's Mission." CAA's Warren Beatty was also negotiating a comic adaptation, "Dick Tracy," with Disney.
Hence, looking at "The Rocketeer" in his hands, comic adaptations might indeed be a trend in the coming years.
As for "Firebirds," attempting to replicate the success of "Top Gun," which Tom Cruise starred in at Ovitz's urging, seemed promising if done seriously.
Moreover, Jonathan Friedman, representing Matt Dillon, was trying to secure the lead role in "Firebirds." Friedman's close ties with Simon Westeros ruled out the possibility of the script being a trap.
As the plane landed, Ovitz gathered his documents, fastened his seatbelt, and decided to push CAA's artists to take the lead in these two projects. Cruise likely wouldn't want to repeat a "Top Gun"-like role, making him suitable for "The Rocketeer."
Pondering this, Ovitz disembarked.
Upon settling into the car sent by his company, Ovitz's assistant informed him of a recent development.
One of CAA's leading TV actresses, Christy Alley, had unexpectedly announced her switch to WMA. Alley had considerable fame in television, and it's usually hard for an agency to retain a star of her caliber once they decide to switch.
CAA let her go without much fuss.
However, earlier today, Daenerys Entertainment suddenly announced that Christy Alley had joined the cast of "Hook," replacing Meg Ryan as the lead female character, Molly Ubricka.
Hearing this, the usually composed Ovitz couldn't help but swear loudly in the car.
He wasn't bothered by a simple switch of agencies.
But Daenerys Entertainment's move could send a very unfavorable message to Hollywood about CAA: To join a Daenerys Entertainment film, leave CAA first.
It was foreseeable that if this perception spread and Daenerys Entertainment's box office success continued, CAA would face a talent drain disaster.
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