I am Hollywood

[Chapter 798]

Peter Rich thought for a moment and said, "Not many other Hollywood studios have made public statements about this, but Universal did announce this morning that they will hold a celebration for the weekend release of The Nutty Professor. Besides, the media has been very active concerning this matter, especially since it's the first time in three years that we lost our hold on the June release window."

Since Jurassic Park in 1993, Firefly had firmly established itself in North America's most popular movie month, June, thanks to its consistent strategy of releasing three summer blockbusters. During this period, few films from other studios managed to take home a week's box-office crown.

Because of Firefly's consecutive hit summer films, Hollywood had even come to see June as Firefly's "territory," with other major studios instinctively moving their top films away from the month.

This year, however, with Titanic and the 3D animation films that Firefly excelled at both absent from the summer lineup, Firefly's primary releases only included two movies. Universal, Paramount, and others began to attempt to "invade" what was traditionally considered Firefly's prime period.

Although Firefly had one film missing, the impressive performance of previous years left a deep psychological impact on the other studios.

It was easy to imagine the joys of other Hollywood executives as Universal's black comedy The Nutty Professor unexpectedly crushed Firefly's The Rock, claiming the weekly box-office championship. While they wouldn't rush to make public declarations, the close ties between Hollywood and the media almost guaranteed that these executives would express their relief through the press, lifting the pressure they had faced in recent years.

Given the media's nature of seizing the moment, Eric could almost visualize how lively entertainment news would be in the local papers in the coming days.

However, Eric didn't particularly care. Just like the earlier conversation between Jeffrey Katzenberg and Frank Wells way over in Los Angeles a few days before. On one hand, Firefly was not a publicly traded company, and Eric had absolute control over it, freeing him from the pressures of capital markets and shareholders. On the other hand, with a solid financial foundation, Firefly's production and distribution system was self-sustaining, eliminating any reliance on external financing.

Thus, this underperformance at the box office wouldn't have any substantial impact on Firefly. At worst, annual revenues from its film business might take a hit, but with the extreme uncertainty in the film market, such performance fluctuations were nearly an unavoidable reality for any major studio. The situation happening to Firefly also wasn't entirely a bad thing; at the very least, it let Hollywood's rivals, who've felt suppressed for years, breathe a bit easier, possibly lessening some of the hostility and wariness towards Firefly.

After talking a bit with Peter Rich, Eric signed off on some necessary documents and sent his assistant away.

...

Stepping out of his study and into the living room downstairs, Miranda immediately stood up to greet Eric as he came downstairs. A Caucasian woman sitting on a nearby armchair also stood up. She wore a women's shirt and a black knee-length skirt, stood about 5'7", had brown hair, and exhibited an ordinary appearance, though her eyes hinted at a faint cleverness.

"Eric, this is Claire Weissman," Miranda introduced, affectionately linking her arm with Eric's.

Eric nodded for her to sit back down, then asked, "You're an intern at ICM, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Williams. I dropped out of USC last year and have just started my first year at ICM."

With nearly fifty percent of American college students dropping out, Eric wasn't surprised by Claire's candor. He guessed from her school backstory she might be one of ICM's upper management's children -- USC was known as a prime school for the wealthy in North America. Claire's assignment as Miranda's assistant surely wasn't a mere coincidence; ICM management likely recognized that aligning with Miranda could provide valuable contacts, a resource every agent dreamed of.

Eric didn't bother delving into the intricacies of the situation. "Miranda doesn't have anything else going on here. Why don't you take her on a tour in Florida, then head back to Los Angeles?"

Claire smiled and nodded, saying, "Of course, Mr. Williams. That's my job."

Miranda's face lit up with joy, but then turned pitiful as she gently shook Eric's arm. "Eric, I-I can't even afford a plane ticket back to Los Angeles right now."

Eric chuckled, pinched her cheek playfully, and took out his wallet, intending to write her a check. Miranda, however, leaned in curiously, peeking into his wallet.

"Wow, this, the black one, I've heard of it. Eric, can I use this black credit card?"

Although the famous Amex Black Card wouldn't be issued until 1999, many top-tier credit cards from banks were black during that time.

Eric wasn't a collector and had only three or four credit cards from major American banks. Seeing Miranda's eager expression, he laughed, put his pen away, took out the Citibank black card, and handed it to her, saying, "Just don't go wild with it. Use it for a bit, then come back to Los Angeles like a good girl."

"I know!," she beamed as she accepted the credit card, pouting her lips to peck it, and noticing her faux pas, quickly wrapped her arms around Eric's neck to kiss his cheek. "Eric, you're such a nice guy."

Eric felt a wave of embarrassment, realizing his unlimited black card had somehow earned him a "nice guy" card -- what a loss.

Gently pushing Miranda off of him, he said, "Go find Peter, have him call my accountant for authorization. And don't shower compliments like that in the future."

...

Once he'd sent off the clingy little sprite, he returned to the production of Casino Royale.

However, in Hollywood, the media chatter surrounding The Rock's underwhelming box office performance didn't gradually fade with time; instead, it ignited a whirlwind of discussion.

After the news broke that The Rock's opening weekend earnings couldn't compete with The Nutty Professor, most of North America's media erupted into a frenzy.

They knew that this celebratory commotion was somewhat unreasonable, yet the first reported box-office "loss" for Firefly after dominating the June window for three years was nevertheless big news. The general public found it as captivating as news of a major American corporation suddenly going bankrupt. So, whether for sensationalism or to celebrate genuinely, most media outlets expressed a schadenfreude attitude regarding The Rock's box office disappointment.

After a week of such uproar, on June 21, Universal released the highly anticipated film The Mummy 2 in over 3,300 theaters nationwide, alongside Sony's The Cable Guy, which starred Jim Carrey, the first the studio had paid a $20 million salary to.

Riding on the popularity of its predecessor and extensive promotion, The Mummy 2 earned a staggering $84.29 million at the North American box office within just one week, easily claiming the weekly box office crown while also achieving the best opening performance for all films released in 1996 thus far.

Meanwhile, as Firefly had expected, The Rock, despite not having a large adolescent audience, demonstrated solid quality, resulting in only a 23% decline in its second week, raking in $32.17 million to secure the second position in the weekly box office chart.

However, Sony's much-anticipated The Cable Guy fell far below expectations, recording just $29.96 million over its first week from over 2,600 screens. Due to Jim Carrey's high salary, the film's budget had swelled to $60 million, and given the cold reception and lackluster critical reviews, this marked Carrey's first film post-contract that likely wouldn't exceed the $100 million mark at the North American box office.

The Nutty Professor, unsurprisingly, experienced a 39% drop in its box office, landing in fourth place with $27.45 million.

On its fourth week, The Matrix saw a 46% drop, earning $20.18 million to finish fifth that week while surpassing the $200 million milestone at the North American box office, totaling $200.54 million.

Despite The Rock's decent performance in its second week, the film's anticipated total revenue only capped around $130 million.

It was clear that while The Matrix's earnings exceeded $200 million, the media would not spare the opportunity to jab at Firefly, contrasting this year's figures with those from the previous year.

Last summer, Firefly released three major films -- Jurassic Park 2, Independence Day, and Toy Story 2 -- which collectively grossed over $811 million in North America alone. In previous years, Firefly's summer box office had consistently maintained such high levels.

But this year, everything appeared to be in freefall.

Even with The Matrix's box office crossing the $200 million mark and The Rock predicted to bring in decent profits for Firefly, based on anticipated earnings -- $240 million for The Matrix and $130 million for The Rock -- this year's summer total was shaping up to just $370 million. That was a stark drop of 54% compared to last year's $811 million summer performance.

Major films traditionally wield immense influence, so given the underwhelming thrust of these two films, it was easy to foresee that Firefly's total profits in the upcoming year would likely shrink by over 50% compared to the previous year's figures. Coupled with Titanic's approaching losses reminiscent of Waterworld, it was entirely uncertain whether Firefly could achieve the over $2 billion annual operational profit it did last year.

Some media outlets felt even more pessimistic, viewing Firefly's losses in this summer's box office as a sure sign of its decline.

...

Under such circumstances, during the last week of June, Paramount's release of Pocahontas delivered yet another blow to Firefly.

On June 28, Paramount Pictures launched its first 2D animated feature film, Pocahontas, produced by the Disney hand-drawn animation studio that originally had been acquired from Firefly for $2.5 billion.

While the production costs for this 2D animation had nearly doubled compared to its Firefly days, the decision-makers at Paramount Animation were all-out determined to give their old employer a "perfect revenge." The studio's heads invested a substantial amount of effort, and the quality of Pocahontas far surpassed what had been seen during its previous era, netting $5.9 million even just from pre-release screenings.

Although Pocahontas didn't replicate The Lion King's staggering opening of $66 million from years before, it still managed to earn $51 million in its first week, totaling $56.9 million -- well above most industry's expectations. It even toppled The Mummy 2, which had a strong opening; in its second week, The Mummy 2 itself plummeted by 49% to just $41.72 million.

Everyone knew that animated films thrived on long-term box office success; if Pocahontas achieved $51 million in its opening week and maintained a drop below 30% in the weeks following, its total earnings could approach the $200 million mark. Subsequently, the second week's box office decline of just 26% strongly confirmed this.

In this scenario, everyone completely ignored New Line Cinema's Final Destination, which had premiered the same week as Pocahontas. This quirky horror film brought in more than $13 million in its strong first week, and had a mere 24% drop in its subsequent week, and could well accumulate near $60 million in total earnings at its $20 million budget. Given its overseas earnings, Final Destination undoubtedly stood as yet another profitable release for New Line following Se7en.

Of course, most media outlets chose to ignore this fact, shifting the focus back to Pocahontas's box office success and directly pointing fingers at Firefly's historic abandonment of hand-drawn animation.

Only a select few knew the ins and outs of Firefly's original decision to sell its hand-drawn animation studio, and the studio couldn't possibly offer an explanation now.

As things increasingly heated up outside, the group had to prepare its own counter-narratives.

With The Matrix surpassing $200 million at the box office -- a cause for celebration -- Firefly arranged for the Wachowskis to appear on an ABC talk show, aiming to push for even higher box office numbers for the film.

However, this talk show ended up bringing a range of troubles to Firefly.

*****

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