章 639: Chapter 640: If We Can't Come to an Agreement, We'll Just Drag It Out
[Chapter 640: If We Can't Come to an Agreement, We'll Just Drag It Out]
During its opening week, Men in Black raked in a staggering $76 million at the box office. Concurrently, the film's black-suited agents sparked a nationwide trend of imitation. Even though it premiered in the sweltering summer, nothing could deter fans from donning black attire and sunglasses on the streets. Soon enough, the media began to popularize the term "black sunglasses face."
Simultaneously, the film's alien-themed mockery of real-life figures and events ignited a new wave of extraterrestrial discussions in the media. At the forefront of these discussions was none other than Eric Williams, dubbed the "Pandora alien." After all, Eric had transformed from an ordinary high school student into a media mogul worth tens of billions in just six years. Such a miraculous journey was unprecedented in all of human history.
Countless media outlets began to gleefully explore aspects of Eric's life that aligned with alien "characteristics." Even his somewhat flirtatious nature made headlines, with gossip tabloids speculating that it was evidence of an alien's attempt to infiltrate humanity. Some even called upon the White House to investigate Eric's "alien" identity. Additionally, there were those who suggested that the federal government should impose an "alien immigration tax" on Eric's wealth. Unsurprisingly, none of these requests received any response.
As developments unfolded, even the staid New York Times could not resist chiming in with a piece on its prominent pages, stating, "Eric Williams, with a cleverly mad self-mockery, satisfied the gossip-loving universe."
A renowned film critic at The Washington Post, owned by Warren Buffett, even quipped using a line from the movie, "If I could watch Eric Williams get punched, I'd gladly pay $4."
What became even more amusing was that after Men in Black's merchandise began hitting the shelves, the most popular items weren't those flashy weapon replicas or the myriad of alien figurines. Instead, fans clamored for the light blue antennae worn by Eric during his less than thirty-second cameo. In addition to many fans purchasing them to collect or wear to parties, some parents even bought their kids a pair of these antennae in hopes that their children would turn out as talented as Eric.
However, following the box office triumph of Men in Black, a slew of questions regarding a sequel arose.
Sony Columbia Pictures had boosted its profile over the past two years despite being somewhat plagued by the mismanagement of Peter Guber, remaining in annual deficit. Initially, projects like Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Broken Arrow, which stemmed from Firefly, didn't stir much controversy regarding profit-sharing, but the success of Men in Black clearly overshadowed both the aforementioned films, and the potential profits from a sequel were undoubtedly tantalizingly high.
As a result, the profit-sharing arrangement of 60-40 between Columbia and Firefly caught Sony's attention. Originally, Columbia held the exclusive film rights to the Men in Black comic, but after collaborating with Firefly, it lost a majority of the profits and 60% of the rights. Most importantly, according to their initial agreement, if the sequel's development was delayed for too long, Columbia could potentially lose even the remaining 40% of the rights.
If everything went smoothly with sequel development, there wouldn't be a problem. Since Sony had agreed to the contract, it had no choice but to continue its partnership with Firefly. However, after the blockbuster success of Men in Black, directors, both lead actors, producers, and even the original comic company all jumped in, hoping for a piece of the sequel's profits.
Firefly was certainly unwilling to compromise; if profit distributions didn't align, they could all just drag things out -- lawsuits didn't scare them. After all, Firefly had no shortage of popular movie projects; their release schedule even extended three years out. However, Columbia could not afford to wait. After Sony acquired the company, it soon discovered it hadn't made a single dime in profit and that it wasn't even promoting its own home video format effectively. As the DVD era dawned, if Columbia continued to lose money, the studio would undeniably become increasingly irrelevant.
Meanwhile, Sony gradually noticed something was amiss. However, the Japanese weren't in any hurry to sever ties with Firefly; they merely increased the pressure on Peter Guber, hoping he would fight to secure Columbia's rightful earnings.
Peter Guber sensed that his time in this role was limited. He was well aware of just how deep Columbia was in trouble, and without ending their collaboration with Firefly, staying in this position was impossible.
Nonetheless, with major releases like Jumanji and Mission: Impossible coming in the latter half of the year, Guber, who had benefited greatly over the past few years, still hoped that after the release of those two films, he could cash in one last big bonus under their original agreement before leaving Columbia.
Hence, in just a few days, Peter Guber nearly became a fixture around the upper echelons of Firefly, even approaching Eric, who had recently been hanging around the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show studio.
Observing the bustling crowd around him, particularly the lithe fitting models, Peter Guber stood alongside a workstation and couldn't help but chatter to Eric, "Eric, how about this? We can sign a side agreement that includes the Men in Black director and the two lead actors. They can only receive a bonus if the sequel reaches a certain profit threshold. We can set that threshold pretty high. That way, even if we give the creators a bigger share, we'll still be coming out on top."
Eric continued to gesture to the designer regarding a set of angel costumes, barely glancing at Peter Guber. "Peter, you should know how salaries in Hollywood have skyrocketed. Sony may be more than willing to pay, but we Hollywood natives certainly have to think long-term, don't we?"
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット