Ti flew by, and it was already May 3rd, 1998.
Zane Blackwood was at the headquarters of his big company, the Golden Dawn Entertainnt Group. His chief assistant, Alexander, was giving him a report on how all his smaller companies were doing.
"Sir, let's start with Wald Pictures," Alexander began. "From January to April, we released three movies. One of them was our own, Wrong Turn 2. It has already made $61 million in North Arica and another $49 million in other countries."
Zane nodded. That was great news.
"The other two films," Alexander continued, "were movies we bought from a film festival. We spent $3.5 million to buy and advertise them. But... they only made $4.1 million at the box office. So, we lost about $970,000 on those two."
A loss of almost a million dollars? Zane frowned.
"I rember last year we bought and released nine movies from other studios," Zane said. "It's almost the middle of this year, and you're telling we've only released two?"
Alexander looked a little nervous. "Well, sir..."
"Hmph!" Zane snorted, but he wasn't really mad. He knew exactly what was happening. "I get it. The team is afraid. They're afraid that if they pick a movie that loses money, they'll get a bad score on their report card. And they won't get their big bonus at the end of the year. Am I right?"
Alexander just nodded. He knew his boss was smart.
In Hollywood, just making your own movies was a big gamble. You never knew if people would like them. Companies went bankrupt all the ti.
But distributing movies (getting them into theaters) was usually a safe, steady business.
But... that was only for the "Big Six" giant studios. For a smaller company like Wald Pictures, it was still risky. If they spent a lot of money on ads for a movie that flopped, they could lose everything.
Sotis, a company would get lucky, like Artisan Entertainnt. They bought a tiny, cheap movie called The Blair Witch Project and spent a ton of money on a "deceptive" marketing plan. It worked! They made a giant profit of $248 million!
But most small companies were too scared to try that.
Wald Pictures now had its own way to get movies into theaters, but it was still small. Most filmmakers would rather go with a "Big Six" studio, even if they had to pay them more, because those studios had so much power.
"Alexander," Zane said, his voice firm, "I want you to call Kevin Fitch at Wald Pictures. Tell him and his team that if they're going to be this timid... this scared of taking a risk... then they can forget about their bonuses. And they can just get out now."
"Yes, sir!" Alexander said.
"I hate 'mouse-hearted' people who are too afraid to do their jobs!" Zane said. He wanted his team to be brave and smart.
...
Next, Alexander moved on to the UPN television network.
"Wait... what?" Zane said, surprised. "You're saying Ms. Donna wants to buy Warner's WB television network?"
"Yes, boss," Alexander said. "She wrote in her report that she wants to make UPN even bigger."
Zane nodded, impressed. "Find that report for . I want to read it."
That evening, Zane read Donna's report. It was brilliant. She predicted that in the future, cable TV (like HBO) and broadcast TV (like ABC or NBC) would be in a big fight.
She wrote: "HBO is going to be a leader, making amazing shows. But... the broadcast networks will always be the kings of variety shows (like Arica's Got Talent) and news. This is where the real, steady money is."
Zane sighed, full of respect. "I have to admit, Donna is sharp. It's no wonder she becos the big boss of Universal Pictures in my old life."
Zane understood her plan. She wanted to buy the WB network so UPN could be in both worlds. It could be a cable channel and a broadcast channel.
"If Arica's Got Talent was on a broadcast network," Zane thought, "the profits would be way bigger than what we're making now."
Should he support her plan?
"It will make us more money and make my company bigger," Zane thought with a huge smile. "What reason do I have to say no?"
...
A few days later, on May 11th, Zane and his director, Christopher Nolan, got on a plane. It was two days before the 51st Cannes Film Festival.
"Cannes, here I co!" Zane whispered, a determined, happy glint in his eyes.
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