Hollywood Hunter

Los Angeles, Beverly Hills.

The time is Friday, December 23.

Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve, and Michael Ovitz still has no rest today. He arrives at the CAA headquarters of Century City before eight o'clock.

Just after the box office week, the assistant sent the box office data report for the past week.

Michael Ovitz is a multi-tasking person who looks at the box office report and asks his assistant about the delivery of Christmas gifts to CAA customers.

Expressing CAA's meticulous care for customers through regular gifts of various gifts is a magic weapon for Oviz to run this talent agency company over the years. Liduo is not blamed for universal use everywhere, so the effect is spectacular, and many filmmakers are It was after inadvertently receiving some small gifts from CAA that were not too valuable but obviously spent their thoughts and promised to sign with them.

CAA's veteran client Sidney Pollack also publicly ridiculed Ovitz as a gift giving obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In order to obtain a huge variety of various types of gifts, CAA even signed long-term cooperation agreements with suppliers of food, toys, books, artworks, etc.

Under the influence of Orwitz, CAA's agents will almost instinctively pay attention to their customers' personal preferences and even short-term interest in certain things, or a book, or the customer's child's birthday, or a certain scene. Tickets for NBA games, and customers will always receive carefully prepared corresponding gifts at the right time.

Intentional to unintentional.

Other talent agencies are not lacking in learning, but because they can't imitate the essence of Ovitz's gift, they often fail to achieve the good results of CAA.

For an important holiday like Christmas, gift giving is even more important to CAA.

After spending half an hour discussing the gift with the assistant and sending away each other, Michael Ovitz again looked at the box office report that was still in front of him from December 16 to December 22.

with no doubt.

In the first week of the DC movie universe, another blockbuster "Suicide Squad" unstoppably won the US$91.78 million box office in the first seven days of the week, easily occupying the first place in the single-week box office list.

The suicide squad is just a derivative of the DC superhero series. It is far from the popularity of superheroes like Batman and Superman. The related comics were not published until 1987. Before the film was produced, many fans may not know that there is such a series.

Before the film was released, the industry generally predicted that the "Suicide Squad" box office data should be comparable to "The Flash".

The first week of "The Flash" had a box office of only $72.86 million in the first week, and the total box office in North America was $253 million.The popularity of the Flash in DC comics is not much different from that of Superman and Batman.

Now, taking advantage of the DC movie universe, such a derivative series won $91.87 million at the box office in the first week. Even if it did not achieve the first week of breaking 100 million, the box office performance will definitely exceed the expectations of many people. The total box office in North America in the film is expected to hit $300 million. turn off.

Prior to the release of "Suicide Squad", Michael Ovitz expected the box office of this movie to be comparable to most people.

However, he was not surprised to see the super box office of $91.87 million in the first week of this movie.

"The Flash" was released at the end of 1991, when the DC movie universe plan was released, but the entire project only released two "Batman", "The Flash" is only the third, the popularity has not yet fully fermented.Moreover, because the "Flash" project is fully controlled by Warner, a young man who pioneered the DC movie universe is not very involved in the project, and the quality of the film is inevitable compared with the two "Batman", which was lower than the series average. The standard is also expected.

"Suicide Squad" is already the eighth big movie in the DC movie universe series. Prior to this, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Steel Bone and other films have been released and formed a series, DC movie universe plans Popularity has been fermented.

Affected by "Suicide Squad", the second place in the list of "Toy Story 2", this week's box office fell by 27%, accounted for 21.06 million US dollars, cumulative box office of 236.323 million US dollars.

According to the practice of previous years, after entering the popular Christmas stalls, as the number of movie viewers has increased significantly, many old films tend to fall at the box office.This time, "Toy Story 2" from the unpopular period to the popular Christmas, not only did not fall, but continued to fall 27%, showing the impact of "Suicide Squad".

Disney's holiday comedy "Santa" ranked third, with $16.39 million credited seven days in the first week.

This is a film that Michael Owitz pays more attention to, because it is a packaging project recommended by CAA to Disney. The film does not involve big directors and superstars, so the budget is only 22 million US dollars.In the first week, $16.39 million, considering that the next two weeks are still in the festival, means that the total box office of this project in North America is expected to hit the $50 million mark.

Michael Ovitz has some regrets.

If there is no strong and extreme "Toy Story 2" and "Suicide Squad", "Santa" is likely to be a 100 million box office club work.

Of course, this kind of erection is obviously meaningless.

What's more, the local box office of 50 million US dollars is also enough to bring good profits to Disney.

The fourth place on the list fell on the famous novel adaptation of "Little Women", 1503 screens, the first week of large-scale paintings, this well-regarded female movie won $ 11.39 million at the box office, and the museum averaged about $ 7,500, although It has not reached the 10,000 US dollar sales level, but such a partial literary drama for female audiences has been commendable to achieve such box office results under the weight of "Suicide Squad".

Counting the previous two weeks of screenings, the cumulative box office of "Little Women" reached 12.07 million US dollars.

If we can get out of the trend of "Steel Magnolia Flower" that year, plus the assistance of the award season, the total size of the local box office may be equivalent to "Santa", reaching the level of 50 million US dollars.Considering that the production cost of the film is only 15 million US dollars, and the investment in advertising is less than that of commercial films such as "Santa Claus", the box office expects that the return on investment of "Little Women" is much higher than that of "Santa Claus".

"Night Visiting Vampires" released by Warner Bros. Pictures ranked fifth this week, with a 33% drop at the box office and a further $5.35 million. It unexpectedly overcame the Kim Carrey comedy "Disguise" released in the same period. The total box office therefore reached 92.43 million US dollars, one step closer to the 100 million yuan box office club.

New World Films' "Disguised Geek" fell to sixth place on the list, with a 45% drop at the box office this week and an income of $4.5 million.However, the local box office of the film has successfully achieved a breakthrough of 100 million yuan, reaching 100.179 million US dollars, and officially entered the ranks of 100 million yuan box office clubs.

In the office of CAA headquarters.

Michael Owitz looked at the box office data in his hand and was in a mixed mood.

In the top six on the list, Daenerys Entertainment actually accounted for three, not to mention the heavyweight killer like "Suicide Squad", which directly took 68% of the total box office for a week. Other movies are just barely fishing. The presence of some soup.

What worries Owitz even more is that a small percentage of the film creators on this list are affiliated with CAA.As for the packaging project started in the 1980s, there is only one left.

Because of some discrepancies at the beginning, the cooperation between CAA and Daenerys Entertainment is not really close, but Ovitz can also feel that except for Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise who encountered Simon. The filmmaker blocked by Westeros, Daenerys Entertainment did not deliberately target CAA.

However, it is obvious that CAA's voice in Hollywood has been getting lower and lower in recent years.

All of this was caused by the young man who was born in Hollywood.Not to mention the rise of blockbuster movies focused on special effects in 3D animation movies, especially the rise of the DC movie universe, so that the studio's dependence on stars has been minimized, and the right to speak has greatly increased.

Therefore, for the bombshells destined to become the core of the box office, let alone take the entire project as before, the brokerage company now even has to put down its body and even lower the pay to take the initiative to win the role of those projects.

Because you don’t fight for it, the character is taken away by others, and the popularity falls on others.

The WMA, which used to be almost in vain, has risen again in recent years with the large number of roles provided by Simon Westeros. It has now stabilized the CAA and regained the throne of the most powerful talent agency in Hollywood.

Michael Owitz is very clear that he has been unable to change the current situation. What he has been thinking about in recent years is the problem of leaving.

In fact, from the end of the 1980s, CAA was on the right track, Ovitz gradually showed a bored emotion in the talent agency business, so he ran to help Sony acquire Columbia Film Matchmaking, and also created CAA's advertising business and sports star. The agency business has reached cooperation with companies such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Magic Johnson and other stars outside the circle.

Just a year ago, Michael Ovitz also had a negotiation with software king Bill Gates. As a result, because the CAA’s plate was too small, the door classmates couldn’t even look down on it, and immediately invested in the dream created by Spielberg. factory.

Maybe it's really time to leave.

This idea is not without reason.

The French Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney has been completed, and it has been looking for a person in charge during this time.

Vivendi's first fancy target was the executives of Daenerys Entertainment. However, the previous Ningzhiji concept did not work this time, and several Daenerys entertainment executives contacted expressed their rejection.

After a round, Ovitz, who was almost invited by Eisner to join Disney as president, once again became the company's top candidate.

Ovits and Eisner have been good friends for many years, and the two are still neighbors.

If it was a few months ago, in order to take care of friends, Ovitz may refuse. Now, Eisner has completely left Disney. After a serious illness, he also looked away at many things and chose to join himself. The problem will be. Not big.What's more, at such a rare opportunity, Ovitz feels that if Eisner can't let go to stop himself, this friendship may not be so solid.

After a busy morning, it was better to meet Jean-Marie Merrier, the president of Vivendi Group's telecommunications and media business at noon, and Owitz rushed to the Morton restaurant on time.

Speaking of which, Ovitz doesn't really like this steak restaurant.

Some time ago, Eisner’s wife suddenly called Ovitz, who was still working, and said Eisner was angry at home because he wanted to reserve a place in the Morton restaurant to entertain his friends. These Hollywood gangsters have a request for Morton restaurant, but this time they bluntly said that there is no place.

The reason is simple. Eisner is no longer the chairman and CEO of Disney.

In fact, whether it is Los Angeles or New York, many well-known restaurants are so snobbish.

This is probably a way of maintaining their so-called'style'.

Just after the heart surgery has not fully recovered, angry and injured, received a call from Eisner's wife, Ovitz quickly contacted, booked a position, and strongly requested that the waiter who refused Eisner must call I apologized in the past before the matter was settled.

The meeting at noon was not pleasant.

This is not the first contact between the two parties. Owitz’s request is that he must obtain absolute control of Disney. However, with the lessons learned from Columbia Pictures, Vivendi Group does not agree with this at all.Towards the end of lunch, Jean-Marie Merrier simply put forward the final conditions that Vivendi can give.

At the end of lunch, Owitz knew that he had no room for bargaining.

Either accept or reject.

Absently continuing his work for the whole afternoon, returning home from work and having dinner, Owitz took the initiative to the old friend's house next door and proposed a drink.

Eisner can drink a little wine now.

The two people who have known each other for many years sat down next to the purposely lit fireplace in Eisner’s mansion and watched Eisner’s wife take another blanket to cover her husband. Owitz was a little sighed, inevitably thinking about his future. Is it too late for such a hero?

In fact, apart from losing Disney's position, Eisner has no problem in other aspects. As a Disney company leader for ten years, Eisner has accumulated tens of millions of dollars in net worth. Even after this departure, Disney shareholders and the board of directors To avoid his trouble, he also gave a very generous compensation contract, which was enough for Eisner to enjoy his very rich retirement life without worry.

Just, think about the Morton restaurant incident.

For a slightly ambitious man, power is more important than money.

For a moment, the two of them had a drink, Eisner said: "I heard that you are in contact with Vivendi?"

Feeling the old friend's calm tone, Owitz nodded.