I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 79
[Chapter 78 First Day Box Office]
Eric nodded, said goodbye to Jeffrey and others, and walked to a nearby coffee shop with Jobs.
“It was a country full of piety. I saw millions of pilgrims, so much so that I was pulled to shave my head, but without any displeasure or resistance, I followed the flow of people and walked all the way to the bank of the Ganges. . However, at the same time, I saw the backwardness and ignorance of that country.”
“Later I felt that perhaps Thomas Edison’s contribution to mankind was far greater than those of philosophers or artists. After returning to California, I would not After pursuing the illusory philosophy of life, I chose the electronics industry as my lifelong goal. A year later, in an abandoned garage, I established Apple with a few friends…” In the
coffee shop, Ai Rui Ke gently stirred the coffee and patiently listened to Jobs’ eloquence. This kind of opportunity was not easy to come across. Although Eric didn’t like Jobs’ character, he admired Jobs’ talent very much.
After more than ten minutes, Eric finally couldn’t help but interject: “Steve, have you ever reflected on yourself?”
The displeasure on the face of Jobs, who was suddenly interrupted, disappeared, and he asked: “Reflection , why should I reflect?”
“For example, why were you kicked out by Apple?”
Jobs corrected with a serious expression: “No, Eric, I wasn’t kicked out by Apple, but I gave up on Apple voluntarily.”
Eric shrugged and said, “Look, this is the flaw in your character, and you are unwilling to compromise, which has also led to a bottleneck in the development of both you and Apple. If you made a decision to Apple’s board of directors a few years ago, If you compromise properly, maybe you can continue to stay at Apple, and with your strength, it will be easy to take back the leadership of Apple again.”
Jobs retorted: “I made the first compromise, those people It will force me to make a second, third, or even more compromise.”
Eric chuckled and shook his head, realizing that it was impossible to convince a teenager who was paranoid.
And he has now taken Pixar, and I don’t know if Jobs will have a chance to return to Apple in the future.
In addition to his own talent and perseverance, luck also accounted for a large part of the reason why Steve Jobs was able to achieve such dazzling achievements in his previous life.
If he had successfully sold Pixar before, there would be no more Pixar glory after the release of “Toy Story”.
And he himself is more likely to be the object of ridicule.
In that case, perhaps the desperate Apple would rather file for bankruptcy than make a desperate attempt to bring Jobs back.
Eric didn’t want to convince Jobs either, and shifted the topic to the topic of the two people’s meeting today: “Talk about Pixar, Steve, since you found me, it means you accepted my offer, right? Jobs
hesitated for a while. The reason why he arranged this meeting was to see if he could persuade Eric to increase the price in a face-to-face situation. Jobs was quite confident in his eloquence.
Unfortunately, after talking so much, the young man in front of him either interrupted himself or appeared unmoved.
In the end, he also understood that if he said the word increase, the other party would just slap his butt and leave as he did on the last phone call.
“Eric, I agree to the $20 million offer, but all payments must be paid in one lump sum.”
“No problem,” Eric put down his coffee cup and snapped his fingers happily.
Jobs looked suspiciously at Eric, who had been calm before, and suddenly showed an excited expression. At
that moment, he even felt that maybe he had made a huge mistake unknowingly.
But now that the decision has been made, Jobs will not go back on it, he is a person who rarely regrets it.
So Jobs immediately asked: “Eric, are you interested in personal computers?”
Eric raised his eyebrows and quickly understood what Jobs meant: “You want me to invest in your NeXT computer company? ”
Yes, the personal computer is an electronic product with great potential for development. Just look at the development data of IBM’s personal computer business in the past few years. It was only last year…”
“Stop, Steven, I’m not interested in those professional data. I just ask, if I take a stake in NeXT, will you accept my advice on how to run the company?”
“This… Eric, you only It takes an investment of five… no, thirty million, plus twenty million from Pixar, and I have enough money to implement one of my previous great ideas. I’m sure that will give you enough profit. ”
In other words, I am only responsible for investment and dividends, and have no power to intervene in the operation and management of computer companies?”
Jobs nodded. After the Apple incident, he would not give up the absolute leadership of his company again: “Ai Rick, you are an excellent director, but I think I know a lot more than you in terms of electronic technology.”
Originally, Eric was still a little moved, but after Jobs made it clear, Eric He could only shake his head and say, “Then, I refuse!”
“Uh, Eric, I have a project plan here, maybe you can read it first, actually…”
“No,” Eric interrupted Jobs with a wave of his hand Words: “Steve, I know you’re a great thinker and I believe in your talent. But I’m not going to put my money into a project that I have absolutely no control over. As you stubbornly believe in yourself I’m a stubborn person too, and when our philosophies don’t match, the conflicts like Apple’s a few years ago will flare up again.”
Jobs stopped pulling documents out of his purse.
He thought that it should be easy to persuade an eighteen-year-old young man with his eloquence.
Unfortunately, Eric did not listen to his explanation at all, which made the proud Jobs feel a trace of anger.
“Okay, that’s a pity,” Jobs said calmly, holding back his anger: “Eric, do you need to visit Pixar first? I hope our deal can be concluded as soon as possible.”
Eric thought for a while and said: “I don’t have time tomorrow, “Pretty Woman” will be released tomorrow, I’m going to fly to New York the day after tomorrow, my girlfriend’s birthday…”
In Jobs’ mind, the release of the movie could also be a major event, his girlfriend’s birthday, how could this kind of thing delay the deal with Pixar: “Eric, maybe, you can just ask someone to give your girlfriend a gift. Well,
you seem to have more than one girlfriend anyway.”
Eric looked at Jobs speechlessly: “Maybe I will…”
Jobs immediately patted the table lightly, interrupting Eric’s words: “Okay, just The day after tomorrow, the girlfriend’s birthday is still very important!”
He said that he was not free the next day, but in fact Eric had nothing to do himself, but every director would have a screening anxiety that troubled him, Eric I’m not in the mood to turn my attention to Pixar for the time being.
Fox has already arranged everything, because the scale of the premiere is much larger than the film critic’s test, so the “Pretty Woman” film review that appeared in the newspapers the next day also began to develop into a multi-polarization.
In addition to the newspapers he subscribed to, Eric bought more than ten newspapers at random early in the morning, and read all the film reviews about “Fengyue”. Among the seventeen newspapers in total, nine were praised, and both were praised. There are five criticisms, and the remaining three are unceremonious criticisms.
Eric calculated according to the formula in his mind, and the praise rating should be 7.5.
In previous life movie review sites, this score should be considered relatively high.
The word of mouth remained good, so Eric put down his worries, and after breakfast, Eric drove to Fox’s headquarters in Century City.
Because it is not the prime time of the movie, Fox easily raised 1,900 screens for “Pretty Woman”, which has reached the blockbuster level of this era.
For the previous two films, Eric didn’t get box office data until a week later.
And now, he has reached a level where he can get one-day box office data from within Fox.
In the early morning, Eric, Jeffrey, and several Fox executives waited nervously in the conference room together, and even Fox President Barry Diller made an exception to stay.
Even though the conference room was large and the windows were open, there was still a thick layer of cigar smoke wafting through the room.
At the same time, seven or eight staff members were making quick calls outside and recording box office data.
In an hour, the box office of the day was finally counted.
The statistician handed the data to several executives, and everyone gathered around them.
Karta Hunter sat outside and saw the data first: “Wow, $4.36 million, it’s another “Home Alone”.”
Eric finally relaxed after seeing the data of 4.36 million in the report. Take a breath and relax.
There were cheers in the conference room, and everyone’s original drowsiness was swept away.
Jeffrey said: “In this way, the box office will be higher tomorrow, it may reach 5 million, and it can collect 15 million box office in three days on weekends. Next Tuesday is Valentine’s Day, and the box office will explode. Maybe $10 million at the box office.”
Karta retorted with a smile: “Jeffrey, you’re a bit conservative in your calculations, Valentine’s Day box office will definitely exceed the weekend, I think the first week box office is more than “Little Ghost” “Home” is not a problem at all.”
Eric saw that these over-excited people were targeting “Home Alone”, but he knew that this was obviously impossible, perhaps because of the previous huge publicity effect, the first week The box office will be high, but it’s unlikely to continue next week.
Thinking of this, Eric couldn’t help but said: “The key is that the box office drop next week will definitely be bigger, after all, it’s not a holiday schedule. So don’t compare it with “Home Alone”, “Home Alone” lasts six consecutive weeks It
grossed over $20 million at the box office.”
All of the professionals present knew, of course, that Eric was telling the truth.
Barry Diller said: “Eric, concentrate on preparing for the next movie. If you need any help, Fox will fully support you.”
Eric pretended not to understand Fox’s intention to intervene in his next movie. He smiled and said, “If possible, leave the celebration dinner to Fox.”
Barry Diller didn’t mind Eric’s feigned confusion, and said with a smile, “Haha, Fox is still happy to pay for this money. For next week, the Beverly Hilton.”
[End of this Chapter]
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