I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1022: A Ticking Time Bomb]

"Over the years, Hollywood has become increasingly powerful, but in my view, it's also losing its creativity, becoming more rigid and formulaic. Whether it's big-budget blockbusters or low-budget horror and comedy films, they increasingly resemble products coming off an assembly line. Of course, no one can deny that this assembly line approach has been commercially successful. However, Hollywood's high level of industrialization has also marginalized those alternative, rough, and unconventional films, which actually have a substantial market demand. My Lionsgate company focuses on the production and distribution of these types of films."

In the banquet hall of the Sunset Tower Hotel, after a brief exchange of pleasantries, Frank Giustra began to speak passionately about his development plans for Lionsgate.

After a moment of surprise, Eric returned to his usual demeanor, listening with interest as Frank expressed his opinions, occasionally engaging in discussion with him.

As they chatted, Frank sensed that the young man in front of him did not seem overly interested in his film company. Disguising his disappointment, Frank politely excused himself.

...

Once Frank moved away, the girl asked, "Eric, what do you think?"

Eric nodded in agreement, saying, "He's a man of ideas. If he follows through on his vision, that company he has could very well carve out a place for itself in Hollywood."

"I feel the same way. I just had him talk with Amy, John, and the others, and everyone thinks his ideas are quite impressive. So, Eric, how about we buy that film company? This way, MGM would have a subsidiary like New Line or Miramax. You did say we needed to expand MGM's production department."

Eric recalled Lionsgate's history and shook his head without hesitation, "No way."

Historically, Lionsgate had indeed risen as a new player in Hollywood precisely along the lines Frank had described -- alternative, rough, and unconventional. However, Lionsgate's rise had been riddled with controversy.

From the early anti-religious film The Passion of the Christ, to the later banned Irreversible in many countries, and to Fahrenheit 9/11, which created a fierce clash with the Bush administration, Lionsgate's brand of contrarianism was built on offending mainstream values.

If Lionsgate had remained a small, independent company, it could have faced the pressures of distributing these controversial films with a very cavalier attitude.

But if MGM were to acquire them, such pressures would multiply tenfold, affecting the parent company. One could say that Lionsgate, in this context, was a "ticking time bomb" for a major studio.

Of course, after acquisition, under MGM's control, Lionsgate might abandon its overly unconventional film production and distribution approach. But doing so would mean losing its unique characteristics and making it difficult for it to achieve significant growth.

The girl never opposed any decisions made by Eric. Hearing his quick dismissal of her idea without questioning, she simply said, "Oh, I see. Never mind then."

Eric smiled as he watched the girl sip her orange juice like a little kitten, gently adjusting her slipping dress strap, saying, "A small company like Lionsgate might get away with being unconventional, but MGM simply can't afford that. We also can't allow our subsidiaries to do so. However, collaboration is possible. We could channel those commercially viable but unconventional films to a company like that."

He remembered that Fahrenheit 9/11 had been picked up by Lionsgate after the Weinstein brothers had transferred it, despite Disney's higher-ups opposing it.

That one had made a worldwide documentary box office record of two hundred million dollars, with most of the profits still going to Disney, which had managed to avoid the political risks that the film could have inflicted.

His encounter with Lionsgate boss Frank Giustra was merely an inconsequential episode. Later on, he learned from the girl that she had met him through Clinton while obtaining a licensing deal for E! Entertainment's subchannel. Frank was one of Clinton's main campaign donors.

...

After the celebratory party, Eric's mind shifted back to the astronaut helmet modifications for Gravity.

He had originally planned to remove the glass dome and later use CG effects to fill it in.

However, during the modification process, he discovered that the glass dome was embedded in the helmet. If he simply removed it, fitting the CG version back into the helmet would become quite cumbersome. In reality, while he could disassemble components around the glass dome to place it inside, he wouldn't be able to do so in the effects process, as the helmet in the shot couldn't simply be "taken apart," leading to potential blunders and flaws.

To solve this, Eric and Robert Byer removed several sealing components around the glass dome, performing CG modeling on those parts to create a cohesive CG module with the glass dome -- effectively resolving these issues.

This work sounded tedious, but with robust digital technology backing them, disassembling the helmet, installing the sensors, and conducting CG modeling tests took just two days to get done.

...

As workdays began, filming for Gravity resumed without delay. After a brief adjustment period, Jodie Foster and George Clooney quickly adapted to the new equipment.

Eric almost tuned out the world around him during the filming of Gravity. However, during this time, North American media and public interest seemed to surge with news related to Firefly Group.

With the new week, Firefly Investments and America Online held a press conference to announce that several major shareholders from America Online would collectively invest four billion dollars to buy 16.5 million shares from Firefly Investments, representing 10% of America Online's total shares.

Simultaneously, John Mack announced at the conference that Morgan Stanley would underwrite another 24.75 million shares from Firefly Investments, accounting for 15% of America Online's total shares.

Once both plans were complete, Firefly Investments' shareholding in America Online would drop to 7.6%. With increased holdings from previous shareholders like Vantage Group, Goldman Sachs, and others, Firefly Investments would exit America Online's top five shareholders.

Chris also publicly stated at the conference that after reducing its stake by 25% in America Online, Firefly Investments would not reduce any further shares in the next year.

While many Wall Street analysts held reservations about Morgan Stanley's underwriting plan, believing that America Online's stock price was too high and carried substantial investment risks, no one doubted whether the powerful Morgan Stanley could absorb this 6 billion dollar stock sale agreement.

Consequently, the press conference led to an immediate boost in America Online's stock price.

With the press conference, the shadow of Firefly Investments' stock reduction that had been hanging over America Online for over a month finally dissipated. America Online's stock surged by 5.6% on Monday, with trading volumes surpassing one billion dollars, pushing its market value past 46 billion dollars, significantly raising the entire Nasdaq index in response to America Online's strong rebound.

On the other hand, many noted that once the reduction of America Online's 25% shareholding plan was successfully completed, this transaction would bring Firefly Investments a cash influx of ten billion dollars!

...

As a pure equity investment firm, even considering the reduction costs and up to 20% capital gains tax later, Firefly Investments' future cash reserves would reach an astonishing level.

It's worth noting that even among the Fortune 500 companies, only a few had close to ten billion dollars in disposable cash reserves.

Take Walmart, known for its healthy cash flow; despite the substantial cash flows within retail, at that time, Walmart's annual revenue had just surpassed 100 billion dollars. Due to its massive procurement costs and payroll expenses for over a million employees, Walmart's cash reserves were actually less than 5 billion dollars.

In contrast, the cash reserves Firefly Investments held were far more valuable than those of other similarly-sized corporations because Firefly Investments had zero debt. With no liabilities and all its subsidiaries performing well without needing to set aside emergency funds, Firefly Investments could allocate that massive fund entirely at its discretion.

...

While many media, from professional financial journals to gossip tabloids, began to provide unsolicited advice on how Firefly Investments should spend this money, on Wednesday in Century City, Los Angeles, MGM also announced that the Charlie's Angels trio signed on for two additional sequels within the company's spy movie universe.

Many recalled the recent disputes over payment between Pierce Brosnan and MGM regarding the Bond series.

No one expected that the Charlie's Angels franchise, which might have stirred another pay controversy, would settle down quietly without causing any of the waves people had anticipated.

Though MGM did not publicly disclose the details of the contract, Hollywood's trade media could easily foresee that, considering Eric Williams' personality, if the Angels requested excessively high payment conditions, MGM could never agree to it.

Thus, most speculated that in this pay negotiation, the trio must have made some concessions.

A few well-informed media personnel even got wind of certain details from the Charlie's Angels 3 celebration party. However, given Eric Williams' involvement, these gossip pieces certainly could not be published outright in the press and had to be circulated as whispers among insiders.

Regardless, the fact that the Charlie's Angels franchise had successfully passed the Hollywood trilogy curse was undeniable.

...

After breaking the two hundred million dollar mark, and under the pressure from The Scorpion King, Charlie's Angels 3 experienced a final weekend drop of only 46% in its third week, bringing in another 28.11 million dollars and culminating in a total of 232 million dollars.

Following The Scorpion King, during the rest of the summer block, aside from the end of July's The X-Files film, no other major productions were released. Hence, with the positive reputation and box office trajectory shown by Charlie's Angels 3, its North American earnings of over 300 million were set to be an easy feat.

With North American box office aiming for 300 million and global earnings poised to reach 1 billion, the three lead actresses had successfully re-signed contracts, and this series had decisively overcome the trilogy curse... This series of favorable developments spurred MGM's stock price like adrenaline.

Throughout the third week of Charlie's Angels 3's release, MGM's stock skyrocketed alongside its box office earnings. In just a few days, MGM's market value reached as high as 25.3 billion dollars, leaving MGM's shareholders understandably ecstatic. Compared to the under 5 billion dollar market value right after the acquisition and integration, they'd seen over 400% returns in just over three years from MGM stock.

...

In this spotlight, many media outlets suddenly noted that, given MGM's market value exceeding 25 billion dollars, Drew Barrymore, holding a 33.56% stake in MGM, had managed to assemble a personal net worth of 8.5 billion dollars at such a young age.

8.5 billion dollars, while it couldn't place her in the top ten of the world's richest, it nonetheless made her the wealthiest woman worldwide.

Amidst the awe and envy, questions inevitably arose.

Even with Firefly Group's significant standing in the North American media industry, numerous articles began to circulate questioning the legitimacy of the girl's vast wealth.

Despite all pursuits for equality, everyone understood that this world still operated within a male-dominated structure. If a man were to achieve such a feat, he'd likely garner more admiration. However, when a woman shines too brightly, she almost invariably faces scrutiny and doubt.

...

Time passed unexpectedly and it was Friday again at Firefly Studios.

As night descended, most of the studio employees had already clocked out.

In the ship's restaurant, Elisabeth and Eric sat across from each other, casually flipping through the menu, but Elisabeth didn't hold back: "8.5 billion, that's about how much we have in our family. Are you not afraid that one day this girl might suddenly turn against you and marry some pretty boy just to spite you?"

Eric ordered two dinners without hesitation and waved away the amused waiter. "Actually, if you want, I could give you that much too."

*****

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