Chapter Nine Hundred and Forty Seventh Trouble

The streets of Manhattan can give people a very strange sense of time and space. Walking on the street, there may be a dilapidated red brick building with a history of a hundred years next to it, and a seventy- to eighty-story building will appear next to it. Modern building.

Vera Farmiga walked beside Eric and followed his gaze to the scattered lights in the middle of the night, feeling that Eric had not spoken for a while, and asked: "Eric, What are you thinking?"

"Is this Hell's Kitchen?" Eric said casually, taking back his thoughts, but before Vera Farmiga could answer, he turned his head to look at the girl beside him, and said with a smile, "I also said I wanted to take you home. Well, I just forgot to ask, where do you live?"

The two had left the August Theatre and had been walking down West 52nd Street for a while. Just now, Vera Farmiga was still a little uneasy thinking about where Eric Williams was taking her, and after hearing him ask, she quickly replied: "I live on West 55th Street, from the front 10th Avenue and go north."

Eric nodded, put his hands in the pockets of his trench coat, noticed the doubt and hope in Vera Farmiga's eyes beside him, smiled, and said, "Forgot to get down to business, there is a movie, I want you to Come and try."

Feeling Eric's understated tone, Vera Farmiga suddenly lost much emotion and asked, "Eric, is this the movie you directed?"

"No," Eric shook his head and said, "The director is Gore, the guy you just saw."

Vera Farmiga nodded, put her hands in the pockets of her down jacket like Eric, but her footsteps were inevitably brisk, she hesitated, and said, "Then, Eric, why are you here tonight? come over?"

Eric explained: "Although I didn't direct it myself, this is a very important project for Firefly. I plan to let you play the leading role. Of course, I want to come and see your performance."

"Is my performance okay?" Vera Farmiga's eyes lit up, and she asked a little unconfidently.

Eric nodded with a smile: "If not, I will definitely leave early, and someone will contact you about the next thing."

Vera Farmiga hummed, and the two came to the intersection of Tenth Avenue and turned north. Inadvertently saw a black car following the road beside the two of them, Vera Farmiga knew that it was Eric's bodyguard, remembered something, and said: "Eric, come over in person today, I will pick it up. There will be trouble in the coming days.”

Eric asked with a smile, "What's the trouble?"

Vera Farmiga said: "I don't know yet, but the competition on Broadway is fierce."

Eric understood when he heard Vera Farmiga's hint. Vera Farmiga suddenly had a good opportunity. Her colleagues in the theater could not guarantee that she would not give her any small shoes out of jealousy: "So, why don't you resign tomorrow?"

"It can't be like this, I'll at least wait until Andrew finds a replacement actor, and,

"Looking at Eric, Vera Farmiga said: "I still don't know if I can play this role, definitely, definitely still have to audition, right?" "

"Of course, but your acting skills are fine, and your image is fine. If you don't ask for sky-high pay, this role is probably yours."

"Hehe, I have no right to ask for a sky-high salary. I was only paid $2,000 per episode for the TV series I participated in last time."

"It's that "Roar", I saw you in that TV series yesterday. Are you not the heroine, why is the salary so low?"

"This is a group play. I'm only one of the two heroines, and I'm a newcomer, so $2,000 is not low." Vera Farmiga explained and smiled again: "However, listen What you just said, this TV series can bring me good luck, even if I didn't get paid at the beginning, I would still be willing to act."

Chatting so casually, the two of them unknowingly arrived outside a red-brick apartment on West 55th Avenue.

"I live here," Vera Farmiga pointed to the apartment, the thick-soled boots kicked gently on the ground, her eyes flickered, and she said, "Eric, do you want to go up and sit?"

With a smile on his face, Eric said, "Aren't you afraid that I won't leave after sitting for a while?"

Vera Farmiga's face suddenly turned a little rosy, and she dared not look into Eric's eyes, and whispered: "Today, you can only sit for a while."

"As much as I'd like to pretend I didn't understand, but, well, that's a shame."

Vera Farmiga lowered her head shyly and said, "New Year's in a few days. If you are free, you can call me."

"Oh, let's talk about it later," Eric smiled, he will leave Manhattan tomorrow and go back to East Hampton, the New Year will definitely be with the children: "Then, that's it for today, you go up, I should too gone back."

"Then, goodbye," Vera Farmiga nodded, just walked up the steps of the apartment door, turned back, took out a business card from her bag and handed it to Eric, saying, "I almost forgot, there are my cellphone number."

Eric took the business card and put it away, watched Vera Farmiga enter the apartment, and then got into the car and left.

The first week of "Jurassic Park 3" spanned the new year, and the final first week box office was 86.61 million US dollars, which was higher than that of "Night at the Museum 2" in the Thanksgiving schedule, but compared with the first two films, there were still obvious the fall.

Hit by several new films, including "Jurassic Park 3," "Rush Hour 2" dropped 55% in the following week, taking in another $45.22 million.

However, due to the strong first-week box office, the film with a budget of $70 million has already reached $149 million in two weeks. Because of the step-by-step box office sharing contract with the theater, this means that Firefly will be out in two weeks. The full cost of "Rush Hour 2" has been recovered, and the subsequent North American and overseas box office, as well as other channel revenue, will enter the stage of net profit.

In addition, "Monster Power, Inc.", which was released on Firefly's Thanksgiving schedule, entered its sixth week. Although the single-week box office dropped to 8.04 million US dollars, the cumulative box office also successfully exceeded 200 million, becoming the third film in 1997 to exceed 200 million US dollars at the box office. movie of. Although "Rush Hour 2" and "Jurassic Park 3" both have the potential to hit the North American box office of 200 million US dollars, as of December 31, 1997, the box office of both films remained within 200 million US dollars.

MGM's "Night at the Museum 2" was released for five weeks, and the box office in a single week also fell into the $10 million range, with a cumulative box office of $159 million. According to the current decline, it is unlikely that it will hit $200 million.

Just after the new year, with the release of the latest week's box office data, the media also began to count the box office data for 1997, and then a box office data that made Hollywood in an uproar also appeared in front of everyone.

Throughout 1997, even with the December 31 deadline, the only films under the Firefly Group that squeezed into the top ten of the year's box office list were "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc." and "Rush Hour 2." Three, and that's not counting "Jurassic Park 3," which is expected to be around $200 million at the North American box office.

MGM's "Casino Royale" and "Night at the Museum 2" also cracked the top ten, Fox's 3D animated film "Ice Age" and Julia's romantic comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding" Also on the list.

Therefore, as of December 31, only the three major film companies of the Firefly system accounted for as many as seven films on the top ten data list of the North American box office in 1997.

The only non-Firefly movies on the list are "Air Force One" by Universal Pictures, "The Lion King 2" by Paramount Pictures, and "Godzilla" by Sony Pictures.

"Batman and Robin", which Time Warner had high hopes for, under the covert operation of Warner Brothers, barely exceeded 100 million US dollars at the North American box office. After "Scream 2". However, Batman and Robin cost five times as much to make as Scream 2. Two movies with similar box office data, one suffered a terrible loss, and the other made a lot of money.

In recent years, it has been a critical moment for Hollywood's global rise. Faced with the strength of the Firefly system, several other major Hollywood film companies have also begun to increase the pace of expansion. In the face of the current Firefly, some unconventional means of competition have no effect. What other major film companies can do is to imitate the development model of the Firefly system as much as possible.

In 1997, four animated films appeared in the top 10 of the box office charts, and were stimulated by huge profits. For a time, Time Warner, Universal and Sony all increased their investment in the animation department, which they did not pay too much attention to. And once again, he started brandishing his hoe and poaching people from several animation studios of the Firefly system. In the end, even MGM couldn't hold back. After Amy Pascal and Eric discussed several times, MGM also began to form its own 3D animation film department.

In terms of live-action films, with the support of several other major film companies, special effects companies in Hollywood have also sprung up. The box office failure of special effects blockbusters such as "The Fifth Element", "Godzilla" and "Starship Troopers" in 1997 did not hinder the development of the special effects industry in the slightest.

After all, in addition to the sudden emergence of animated films, in this year's box office rankings, films such as "Night at the Museum 2" and "Jurassic Park 3" also shine.

Moreover, even if North America cannot draw a significant distance from popular non-special effects films such as "Rush Hour 2" and "My Best Friend's Wedding", in terms of global box office, the overseas box office of special effects blockbusters usually far exceeds that of North America. Locally, videotapes and peripheral products of special effects blockbusters are also more popular than ordinary non-effects films.

For these reasons, in the recent period, the hot film money that poured into North America from Europe and Southeast Asia has also abandoned the previous strategy of making big stars and began to be keen to invest in special effects blockbusters.

Eric remembers the original time and space. With a series of annexations of Pixar Animation, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm, Disney's film business has become more and more powerful, often occupying half of Hollywood on the annual list. , and even earned a nickname of 'Tumor Di' because it was too commercialized. The market value of the entire Disney Group was once close to 200 billion US dollars, far exceeding the old rivals such as Time Warner and Viacom, whose market value was only tens of billions of dollars.

However, judging from the current situation, it was only in the late 1990s, and Firefly had already completed the layout that Disney would have completed more than ten years later.

In a recent article about Firefly Group in Business Week, the valuation of Firefly Group has reached 100 billion US dollars, and this valuation data is also generally recognized by Wall Street.

In comparison, whether it is Time Warner, whose stock price has soared along with the wave of new technology, or Viacom, which has just annexed the cbs group, its market value remains within $50 billion, less than half of that of the Firefly Group.

With the disclosure of Firefly Group's valuation data by Business Week, many media could not help but turn their attention to Eric's net worth forecast again.

Eric's shareholding in Firefly Group remains at 73.7%, that is to say, Eric's only shares in Firefly Group are worth $73.7 billion, an increase of $10 billion compared to last year.

Moreover, as the wave of new technology continues to ferment, the market value of many high-tech companies under Firefly Investments, another important industry of Eric, has also risen sharply.

Eric has no time to care about all kinds of information in the media. After the New Year, he quickly returned to Los Angeles.

Although the media's valuation of Firefly Group has reached a new high, however, since Eric has invested more than US$3 billion in the Nasdaq market around this year, the company's profit situation has dropped significantly this year, which inevitably caused Firefly Group concerns of some other shareholders.

Last year, Eric's investment in technology stocks has greatly reduced the annual profit of Firefly Group. This year, although Firefly Group's business is stronger, because Eric has increased investment in technology stocks, Firefly Group's entire Annual expected profits may even be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

After all, not everyone is optimistic about the continued rise of the Nasdaq market, and there have been many funds on Wall Street that are shorting the Nasdaq index.

The total capital invested by Eric in the Nasdaq market in two years has reached 5 billion US dollars. Although the stocks purchased by this capital have basically obtained very rich returns, this is only a very unstable book wealth after all. , once the Nasdaq crashed, perhaps in just a few days, the shares held by the Clover Fund could become worthless.

Burbank, the headquarters of Firefly, just a few days after Eric returned to Los Angeles, Warren Buffett, as a representative of other shareholders, came to discuss with Eric the large number of technology stocks held by the Clover Fund.