Bab 173: Chapter 173: A Small Matter
[Chapter 173: A Small Matter]
Eric pushed the door open as he walked into the living room. Hearing the noise, Drew instantly jumped up from the couch, her face lighting up with excitement as she rushed into Eric's arms. But after sniffing a couple of times, her cheerful expression soured. As Eric awkwardly tried to dodge her, the little girl huffed a breath onto his left cheek with a look of disdain, wiped it with her sleeve, and then gave him a smooch.
Eric couldn't help but laugh at her antics. He took a couple of steps forward, pulled the girl down from his waist, and tossed her onto the couch before sitting down himself. He then asked, "Alright, you called me back in such a hurry for what reason?" As he spoke, he noticed the conspicuous black folder on the coffee table and picked it up to flip it open, revealing a copyright transfer agreement.
"Wow, your moves are pretty swift! I thought you wouldn't land the copyright until after summer break," he remarked.
Drew, grinning as she leaned against Eric, rested her chin on his shoulder and said, "This is Hollywood, you know? Things get a lot easier when there's money involved."
"How much did it cost?" Eric casually inquired, detaching the contract from the metal clip in the folder.
"Three and a half million," she said, not very confidently, but quickly added, "That's for all the rights, you know? Permanently, even the original music rights are ours now."
Eric nodded. If Drew's words were true, then the price was acceptable. Even if it merely enriched the Firefly Films library, who knows, once it became popular, they might even invest in remaking the movie.
Although his original intention was to have Drew acquire the rights for five years, it was easy to imagine that the company holding the rights would take every opportunity to squeeze out as much as they could from a potential interested party for a thirty-year-old film.
Five years? Not happening; if they were willing to buy it, they'd have to take everything, albeit at a steep price.
Seeing Eric nod, Drew let out a sigh of relief and began to chatter excitedly, "This film was originally produced by an investor named Jerry Wald who started his own company. But he wasn't very lucky; he actually made a few decent films, but a few years later, he died of a heart attack. The copyrights to his films were sold by his widow to another company, but that company went bankrupt after a while. It changed hands a few times before finally ending up with Fox."
"Whoa," Eric exclaimed when he saw 20th Century Fox's name in the documents. He was nearly on his feet.
Drew, caught up in her explanation, jumped a bit at Eric's sudden interruption, her eyes wide as she asked, "What... what's wrong? Is something not right?"
"Are you saying... we bought this film from 20th Century Fox?" Eric asked, holding onto a glimmer of hope, repeating the question.
The girl blinked innocently and nodded, "Yeah?"
Eric forced a smile, "That's bad news; Fox is definitely going to hate us now."
That night, being pestered by the little girl, Eric spontaneously decided to find her a "summer job," without considering the copyright issues. If it had been with Warner, Universal, or Paramount -- companies with whom he had no collaborations -- he could have just let it slide. Movies were a business, after all; if they made money, they should celebrate, and if they got burned, well, that was just part of the game.
However, he never expected that the movie An Affair to Remember would be under 20th Century Fox's ownership. He was still on good terms with Fox and didn't want to ruin that relationship. That's why when Columbia came knocking, he explained things to Barry Diller face-to-face and offered to compensate with a TV series. Yet, reality often had a way of messing with people's plans. It was as if the universe itself was determined to disrupt their good standing with Fox.
If the video of An Affair to Remember was sold like that friend from his past had said and sold 2 million copies, that would mean $60 million in sales, practically equivalent to a blockbuster film's earnings. Though movie companies always claimed that video sales yielded less than 20% profit -- with over 80% going to costs -- a little understanding revealed this to be nonsense; video profits easily exceeded 50%, even outpacing box office percentages. Therefore, based on the video sales, Eric could expect to see at least $30 million from this venture.
Eric could already envision how some people would freak out over such a windfall.
Drew noticed the changing expressions on Eric's face and curiously asked, "How could that be? We paid $3.5 million; Fox made money, so how could they hate us?"
"Sure, we spent over $3 million, but if within a year we make $30 million from this movie, how do you think Fox would feel about that?"
The girl gasped, covering her mouth in shock. When Eric had initially suggested acquiring the film's rights, he said there could be a profit, and Drew thought that even a couple of million would be decent. Hence, when she mentioned the $3.5 million price, she had felt a little nervous, not anticipating that it could truly yield $30 million...
"However... it seems... Eric, Fox doesn't know it's us buying it. I purposely hired an agent to handle the purchase so that they wouldn't directly link it to you. Once he got the rights, he transferred them to me. All this time, Fox has no idea we were the ones who wanted to buy the film's copyright..." Drew's voice lowered as she realized this; she quickly thought that if the film made a huge profit in the future, as long as Fox had half a brain, they would surely connect the dots back to Eric.
Thinking of this, the girl stuck out her tongue, "So, Eric, what do we do now?"
Eric rubbed his temples, contemplating. If created a sales miracle, that was certainly a story for next year. By then, his contract with Fox would already be complete, and he wouldn't have to worry about them hindering the film's release. At most, when it came to profit sharing later, Fox might pull some antics to delay things, but Eric wasn't too concerned.
The detailed clauses from last year's contract meant that if Fox breached it, they wouldn't stand a chance in court. He wasn't like those other filmmakers who, after a massive box office hit, discovered their share agreement was vague and ended up in a years-long dispute.
"Let's just go with it. We can't spit out the meat that's already in our mouths. Besides, it was Fox that willingly sold it, and we did offer such a high price."
"Hehe," the little girl beamed, snuggling closer to Eric in a playful manner, "But Eric, there's still one more small thing..."
*****
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