Chapter 122 CAA Revelation

Because of Michael Ovitz's insistence on CAA's private partnership strategy, although CAA has now developed into an industry giant, it has not gone public. Therefore, although this storm is raging, as long as it is handled properly, it will not only cause CAA's future In addition to the impact of the business for a period of time, it will not cause much substantial damage to CAA, and even the second and third-tier artists poached by other brokerage companies will not have any impact on CAA. Although CAA's current number of artists has not reached More than 20 years later, there are more than 6,000 people, but there are also thousands of people. It is completely trivial for CAA to walk on dozens of them.

But under this kind of turmoil, it is different when big-name stars, especially those of Tom Cruise's level, leave suddenly. Tom Cruise has a great influence in the Hollywood actor group, and his departure will definitely It will give the other superstars the wrong signal.

Michael Ovitz's response is not unpleasant. On the day Cruise left, all CAA's partner managers and contracted artists received a letter written by Michael Ovitz himself, clarifying Cruise's departure from CAA. After the reason, he sincerely counted the brilliant achievements of CAA over the years and the great changes brought to the actors. I hope that everyone will not be influenced by public opinion, and the future of CAA will be even more brilliant.

But this letter did not stop the situation from getting worse. Within three days after Tom Cruise left, several A-level superstars withdrew from CAA for various reasons.

The reason why these stars joined CAA in the first place was because of a series of bundling measures by Michael Ovitz, which greatly increased their income, but with the general increase in the income of Hollywood stars, even in other agencies, they can get The pay was just as high, and coupled with the panic caused by Cruise's sudden departure from CAA, and the fact that someone offered a lower cut, the departure of these people became logical. At the same time, more stars began to shake.

Michael Ovitz was overwhelmed for a while, and while scolding Cruise, he had to start to put down his posture and personally persuade those big-name actors who wanted to leave. He hadn't done such a thing for a long time.

In another corner of the city, Eric, the earliest initiator of this turmoil, certainly would not stay out of it. This is a good opportunity, an opportunity to prevent CAA from dominating Hollywood in the next ten years.

"Eric, I suddenly have something to do with me. I can declare in advance that I already have four of Al and the others. This is the limit of my ability. You don't want to give me any more."

Kapoor appeared in Eric's office in Firefly with a fiery face and a red face. Because of the bad luck that CAA has encountered these days, it would be hypocritical for Kapoor to say that he is not happy, and a bald head seems to be shining a few times. point.

Eric leaned on the back of the executive chair and smiled, "What if it was Tom Hanks?"

"Who?" Kapoor pricked up his ears and leaned forward slightly.

"Tom Hanks," Eric repeated.

Kapoor showed a meaningful smirk: "Eric, you are sure, if it is him, then I must be reluctant and add another burden to myself."

"Still reluctantly, are you laughing in your heart?" Eric teased.

Kapoor didn't care about Eric's ridicule, and asked: "Eric, are you really sure that you will dig Tom Hanks over?"

Eric shook his head: "No, but I'm going to try, I've made an appointment with Hanks for dinner tonight, and he agreed.

"

Kapoor is full of confidence in Eric, this young man has brought him too many surprises: "Eric, otherwise, try to bring Cruise closer to UTA, he doesn't have an agent now. company."

"Don't think about this. Mr. Cruise is very ambitious now and wants to go the way of a producer. It is estimated that he will set up his own film production company soon."

Eric also did not expect that because of his appearance, Cruise would embark on the path of his previous life seven years ahead of schedule. It is estimated that he was stimulated by the huge profits of several consecutive movies that he had sold.

After leaving CAA, Cruise immediately contacted his agent Paula Wagner to Firefly and started a new salary negotiation.

The conditions offered are not as outrageous as CAA's original, $5 million salary plus 10% profit sharing, this price is for Eric, who is used to listening to the 20 million US dollars salary in his previous life, 10% to 20% profit sharing. Very reasonable. However, the profit sharing model has just emerged after all. The conditions set out by CAA are completely nonsense in this era. Cruise said this condition as soon as he opened his mouth, indicating that there is still a lot of room for negotiation. Eric made up his mind and wanted to To push Cruise's share up to 5%.

And he felt that the success rate of this matter was very high, because he got the latest news that Tom Hanks promised to give up the profit sharing model and only take a simple salary.

Although Cruise is now a little more famous than Hanks, the difference is not too much. Once Hanks' remuneration conditions are exposed, Cruise estimates that he does not have much confidence in his heart to ask for a high profit share. It is a problem of the limitations of the times. Although Cruise tasted the sweetness of profit sharing in "Rain Man", in this era when actors generally do not have profit sharing, his last attempt was more like a special case, which was mentioned before. The reason why Cruise can get the profit share of "Rain Man" is because the production cost of "Rain Man" is insufficient, and Cruise has to lower his salary. That share is more like compensating Cruise. The loss in remuneration is just that the box office of "Rain Man" is too good, so the compensation is a bit more.

And it was after hearing that Hanks gave up the profit sharing plan that Eric thought of poaching Hanks. He felt that it would be easiest to dig Hanks at this time. CAA had just vowed to give him a profit share, but suddenly it disappeared again. It was impossible for Hanks to have no idea in his mind. Others may not understand, but Eric knows the potential of Hanks, and the next ten years will be the period of Hanks's acting career. After more than half a century, he became the second person to win the Oscar for Best Actor.

Although he said he was not sure about poaching Hanks, in fact, Eric felt that he had more than 90% chance of winning Hanks. Compared with CAA, his chips were more attractive.

"Okay, don't mention Cruise, Kapoor, actually I called you because of another thing." Eric said, took out a manuscript that he spent several nights writing, and handed it to him. To Kapoor: "Help me see how I summed it up?"

Kapoor took a look at the title, "CAA Apocalypse: How the Brokerage Giants Formed."

Opening the manuscript, Kapoor slowly read it, and his expression became more solemn as he went back. It was not until he finished reading the manuscript that Kapoor slowly raised his head and stared at Eric with a look of monsters.

This manuscript is very long, with more than ten pages. It describes in detail that after the CAA five-member team jumped from WMA, they started out through TV dramas, attracted stars in a curve-chasing way, and gradually developed a bundled sales system. The process of forming a brand-new and unique business philosophy within a few years.

Kapoor was shocked because what Eric mentioned in the manuscript, as the gold broker of CAA at the time, he could understand at a glance, and he had experienced most of the operation techniques. But he has no ability to plan these things systematically and form a relatively complete management theory of brokerage companies.

Moreover, he was also curious how Eric knew this.

In addition to Michael Ovitz's personal business philosophy, the reason why CAA insists on not being listed is another important reason, which is to prevent the leakage of CAA's business strategy. Once the company is listed, it has to disclose a large amount of CAA to investors. information, then, CAA's advanced business philosophy ahead of other established companies will be easily learned by opponents.

The way a company operates is not something that can be patented. If other brokerage companies follow suit, then the advantages of CAA will no longer exist.

Uncontrollably swallowing his throat, Kapoor carefully raised the manuscript in his hand and asked, "Eric, did you write these?"

"Well, I just want to help me see if there is anything wrong in it. By the way, Kapoor, you won't object to me sending this article out?"

Kapoor quickly shook his head and smiled bitterly: "If I had the ability to sum up these things, I would have sent them out long ago, why wait until now. Eric, I am getting more and more unable to understand you, what you said above I understand all the theories, but if I am asked to end it, I have absolutely no way to start."

Eric just smiled and didn't explain, although in this era, CAA's business strategy is full of mystery in the eyes of other companies. An incomplete information can be obtained.

But for Eric, who came from the era of information explosion in later generations, CAA's business strategy is not such a mysterious thing. I remember in my previous life, about 1996, CAA, which had grown into an unshakable behemoth, caused a A reporter noticed that it took the reporter more than a year to collect a lot of information to completely uncover the mystery of CAA, and the public also suddenly realized why Michael Ovitz, the helm of CAA, was named The most powerful man in Hollywood.

But at that time, CAA had fully grown into a huge monster, and even if Michael Ovitz himself, who built it, wanted to challenge this beast, he would only end in failure.

And CAA's brokers are all parts of the huge machine of CAA. They can help keep the CAA going, but if you ask a single part to tell how this massive machine works, it's just a blind man feeling the elephant. The only person who can fully explain this set of business theories is probably Michael Ovitz himself. Of course, now there is one more Eric.