I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1009: The Premiere]

Eric remarked, "From what I've noticed recently, after the second round of harvesting in Southeast Asia during the first half of the year, major hedge funds have shifted their targets to the ruble. Once the ruble loses its value, aside from Southeast Asia, this last emerging economy in Russia will also be devastated. Europe's economy is stagnant, and with the dollar entering a rate hike cycle, the booming Nasdaq begs the question of where the trillions being pulled out of Southeast Asian countries will flow next. It seems like there's no suspense. To me, the Nasdaq reaching 2000 points is just the beginning."

As the president of Morgan Stanley, John Mack naturally had profound insights into the world economic landscape and understood why Eric mentioned the ruble.

Despite being optimistic about the future of tech stocks, John Mack countered, "Eric, that's just your viewpoint. Many believe that the Russian economy is recovering and is an attractive investment target. From what I hear, Mr. Soros invested a significant portion of his gains from Southeast Asia into Russian stocks and bonds. The PE ratios of tech stocks in the Nasdaq have skyrocketed to an unbearable level. This situation is crazier than any previous bull market. Buying AOL stocks now carries considerable risks."

Eric had learned about Soros's massive investments in Russia when they met last year, and he had discussed it with Soros at that time. However, Eric didn't intend to persuade John Mack. He simply said, "John, that's my stance. I have no plans to make any concessions regarding the price of AOL shares. You only have a month. A month from now, Firefly Investments will initiate a public reduction in shares. I believe that in the coming month, AOL's stock price will surge again, and perhaps its market cap will even exceed $50 billion. Though AOL's PE ratio is indeed high, its revenue and growth rates are outstanding. For many investors, this company remains a valuable investment target. I'm not worried that no one will buy the stocks that Firefly is selling."

"But, Eric, what you're doing isn't good for anyone. Firefly Investments holds too large a stake; even if you reduce by 1% every month, it would take three years. Only we have enough power to take those stocks off your hands."

The internet bubble could only sustain for another two years at most. Eric never thought he could entirely offload AOL stocks, nor did he intend to sell them off piece by piece on the secondary market. He was ultimately in a contest with other AOL shareholders over who would give in first.

If AOL's stock price began to decline, other shareholders would not easily agree to Eric's demands. But the current situation was that the stock price kept climbing. The higher it rose, the more likely other shareholders would struggle to hold onto their realized gains.

After discussing for half an hour with Eric, who remained resolute, John Mack exited in disappointment.

...

After seeing John Mack off, Eric greeted the twins and went upstairs alone, planning to take a shower first.

Being someone who was naturally family-oriented, in this familiar environment, Eric relaxed quite a bit. He lay in the large bathtub at Shell Villa, losing track of time in the water, even starting to feel a bit drowsy.

Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open, and a girl dressed in a light blue T-shirt and white sweatpants dashed in with a smile. She jumped right into the bathtub without removing her clothes and started kissing Eric all over in a playful frenzy.

Eric indulged her for a while, feeling the girl's kisses followed by a gentle nibbling on his neck. Finally, he reached over to remove a few thin articles of clothing from her, tossing them aside.

After a moment, embracing her soft, slender body, skin against skin, Eric turned his neck slightly and chuckled softly, "Okay, stop nibbling. How am I supposed to face the world with a bunch of marks on my neck?"

Drew seemed to suddenly realize something, leaning her pale neck towards Eric's lips, "Eric, can you bite me?"

Eric dodged, "No biting! What if I turn you into a vampire and my identity gets exposed? I'd be burned at the stake!"

"Hehe," the girl giggled and, feeling Eric's response, didn't mind being in the bathtub. She mounted him, then relaxed into his body, purring like a little kitten, "Eric, I missed you."

Eric wrapped his arms around her waist, "I missed you too."

Since leaving New York half a month ago, Eric hadn't been with a woman. Now, in the arms of the emotionally invested girl, the two of them enjoyed themselves thoroughly for quite some time.

...

After changing clothes, they went downstairs, and it was already eight o'clock in the evening. The twins had already prepared dinner.

Instead of dining in the dining area, they set up a small table by the swimming pool on the terrace, sitting across from each other. They enjoyed the cool summer breeze of Los Angeles while eating and discussing recent events.

"I went to Washington last week to see the President swearing up and down in court that nothing happened between him and that intern. It was hilarious, and a few people near me almost burst out laughing."

During this time, the most buzzing and eagerly discussed current event was undoubtedly "Zipgate." In the fight for midterm election seats in both houses of Congress, Clinton's opponents seized on this event, leading to chaos and uproar.

However, seeing the girl's gleeful expression, Eric put down his wine glass, picked up a knife and fork, and couldn't help but chuckle, "You're such a bore, running to Washington just to watch the President's misfortune."

"I wasn't that idle; I was there about the TV station license. We plan to add a sub-channel to E! Entertainment."

Eric maintained his smile, "Then you really shouldn't have gone to watch the President's misfortune. Be careful he doesn't put us in a tough spot."

"No way! Amy said now is the best time to apply for. The President needs public support right now, and he wouldn't dare to offend us."

With the consolidation of American media groups, Hollywood's influence had been growing stronger. If they could build a good relationship with Hollywood, no politician would go against the tide.

Eric simply nodded and chose not to mention it further. He instead asked, "How did the midnight presales for Charlie's Angels 3 turn out?"

The girl knew why Eric asked and replied, "I estimate it might break $10 million. It's definitely going to surpass The Matrix 2. The Matrix 2 saw a 53% drop this weekend; it poses no threat to Charlie's Angels 3."

Eric had just returned in the afternoon and wasn't aware of the box office numbers from the previous weekend. However, hearing the girl say so eased his mind completely.

This week, only Disney had a family-friendly, low-budget comedy film, The Parent Trap, in theaters, which wouldn't impact The Matrix 2 at all. Yet, that film had still dropped over 50% in revenue, making it easy to imagine that it would face even worse numbers against Charlie's Angels 3.

Ultimately from Firefly Group, Eric didn't take too much delight in this. Even Jeffrey Katzenberg privately asked Eric if he wanted to limit the promotional push for The Matrix 2, but Eric had declined.

...

Wednesday came, and perhaps due to John Mack's rejection by Eric, some AOL shareholders, mindful of the potential impact of Firefly Investments' planned massive reduction, chose to sell off and cash in early.

However, the management led by Steve Case and their supporters also moved to maintain the stock price. After a significant drop at market opening, the price quickly rebounded.

After an entire day of fluctuations, when the market closed, AOL's stock price managed to hold steady at $261.33, with a market cap still over $43 billion.

When Thursday arrived, though AOL's stock continued to fluctuate throughout the day, it ended up rising a strong 1.6% by the close.

During this whole process, while all the media focused on Firefly Investments' reaction, since Chris and the others announced their resignation from AOL's board last week, the senior management of Firefly had not released any public statements regarding AOL.

Even the media under the Firefly group mostly published well-known press releases about AOL.

Nonetheless, there are no secrets that stay hidden forever. Although most participants in last week's video conference aimed to keep Firefly Investments' plan to reduce its stake in AOL by 10% quiet, related information was inevitably leaked, though it lacked official confirmation, and reputable media remained cautious and did not report it publicly.

As for the platform most free to spread information, the three major internet portals -- Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL -- couldn't simply let such news circulate unchecked, so nothing significant came from it either.

After John Mack's failed dealings with Eric, everything fell into a temporary stalemate and observation state.

...

Gradually, Eric was able to set aside the distractions from AOL. Upon returning to Los Angeles, after checking on Joss Whedon's rough cuts for Iron Man, he began preparing for the production of Gravity.

With over a year until its release next year, Gravity would involve a ton of new filming and special effects technology, also needing to balance 3D and IMAX propagation strategies, so calculating it out, a year and a half didn't feel at all spacious.

However, prior to everything else, Eric's immediate focus was attending the premiere of Charlie's Angels 3, which was held in Los Angeles on Thursday.

After last year's Casino Royale officially kicked off MGM's successful spy movie universe, Charlie's Angels 3, as the first major film following Casino Royale, gathered immense anticipation from fans of the three major spy franchises.

Although Charlie's Angels was the most recent and had natural disadvantages as a female action film, after years of meticulous operations, the Charlie's Angels series was just as popular as the other two series.

In fact, because Eric initially designed a very well-rounded backstory for Charlie's Angels and through comics and side stories, had woven various exciting foreshadowing into the narratives of the three protagonists, he unwittingly gathered a loyal fan base that greatly outnumbered the other two series.

Kevin Costner, the leading man from the Mission: Impossible series, was also set to appear in this film.

After Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner's career notably faltered outside the Mission: Impossible franchise, with most of his works failing, including the disastrous box office of Waterworld that almost ruined his acting career. His latest film, The Patriot, in which he replaced Mel Gibson, also saw lackluster results, making him acutely aware of the importance of Mission: Impossible to him.

Last year, Eric's assertive negotiating style during the pay for Pierce Brosnan also made Kevin Costner's approach to discussions around pay and his involvement in the spy movie universe less strong.

In this Charlie's Angels 3 film, Kevin Costner only earned $5 million.

While he insisted he wouldn't have more than five minutes of screen time in this film, that was enough to completely link the three major franchises together.

Additionally, Charlie's Angels 3 had a production budget reaching an unprecedented $160 million, and the promotional scale was even more immense. Just General Motors invested $100 million for a joint advertisement with the Buick brand for Charlie's Angels 3. MGM's own advertising budget was also at $50 million, making the total production and promotion scale approach $300 million, even surpassing Titanic from three years prior.

Buick was undoubtedly the most successful advertising partner for Charlie's Angels 3.

Though they allocated a monumental $100 million into the branding joint advertisement and had paid MGM a record-breaking $30 million for product placements, as a car brand selling over 2 million units globally each year, Buick's return far surpassed their expenditure.

The Buick sports car inspired by Charlie's Angels, targeted at young people and priced around $30,000 to $50,000, sold over 160,000 units throughout the year, alone contributing over $6 billion in revenue to General Motors.

An article published by Businessweek highlighted that recent years had seen incredible economic returns from the Charlie's Angels series for Buick, equivalent to 12 times the profit that the films generated for MGM. The potential for brand value increase was even more limitless.

In recent years, several major car manufacturers from Europe and Asia have tried to grasp this brand integration opportunity, offering bids that matched Buick's, but due to various careful considerations, MGM chose to decline those offers.

The premiere of Charlie's Angels 3 in Los Angeles began at 5 PM on Thursday, yet many fans had already gathered near the Chinese Theater from the day before.

By Thursday afternoon, the streets for hundreds of meters surrounding the theater were packed with an enthusiastic crowd. When Eric and Drew got out of the car at the red carpet entrance, he was taken aback.

*****

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