Although Wayne himself did not star in these four films, with Wayne writing the scripts and Hemera Pictures responsible for production, the odds of success were still quite high.
After all, Hemera Pictures, to this day, hasn't produced a single movie that lost money.
As long as Wayne and Hemera Pictures maintain their undefeated streak, everyone remains confident in them.
So, except for DreamWorks, which still has some integrity, the Big Seven, along with Lionsgate and Miramax, have all been closely monitoring the production progress of "Hotel for Dogs," "Taken," and "Resident Evil 1 and 2," while busily searching for beautiful actresses.
This may sound unbelievable.
But considering the profits that Harvey and Howard Stringer made from "Mean Girls" and "The Bourne Identity," it's not surprising at all.
The Big Seven may seem massive, but their market value is only in the tens of billions of dollars at this point. A profit in the hundreds of millions is no small sum.
Most importantly, these CEOs are not the owners or shareholders behind the scenes; they're just high-level employees who could be fired if their performance isn't good enough.
Sending a few women could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for the company, earn themselves nearly ten million in bonuses, and stabilize their positions. Only a fool wouldn't do it!
In this regard, Sony and Universal undoubtedly have the richest resources.
After all, although they can't sign actors in Hollywood, they have plenty of actors and singers under their banners in other countries and regions.
Even though Harvey is the smallest player, he hasn't given up. Having long been involved in low-budget indie films, he has plenty of connections in Europe and can also leverage his contacts within the Oscars.
Unfortunately, under Wayne's influence, not only is he himself uninterested in the Oscars, but even his women have no interest in it.
Of course, Wayne doesn't know about these behind-the-scenes moves yet.
Over the next five days, Wayne was busy filming during the day and having in-depth discussions with his team after work, his schedule was packed.
This busy period lasted until five days later, on May 4th, when he and Charlize Theron wrapped up their scenes in "Ocean's Eleven."
Pearl Koizumi, Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki, Akina Nakamori, and Yu Aoi had to leave due to work commitments and fly back to Japan.
Meanwhile, Masami Nagasawa and two others followed Wayne back to Los Angeles.
According to their managers, as long as Wayne wanted, they would be at his disposal from now on.
Since they had signed long-term contracts akin to selling themselves, with penalty fees so high they couldn't afford them even if they sold themselves, they had no choice but to comply.
However, none of the three seemed to mind.
Erika Sawajiri became an actress and model not to be a big star but simply to make money and live a wealthy life. Wayne was handsome, in good shape, rich, and treated her generously; she was more than happy to stay by his side.
Haruka Ayase even turned down the upcoming "Kindaichi Case Files III" to stay.
Of the three, only Masami Nagasawa really enjoyed acting and being a star. Although she had won the "Toho Cinderella" contest and already starred in a movie, the film's poor box office performance left her with no work for an entire year.
Because all three were still relatively young, Wayne decided to take them back to his estate.
Since their managers had said as much, Wayne wouldn't be shy. He hired a teacher from Japan who specialized in training Geishas to teach them etiquette, posture, and artistic skills.
He also hired an acting coach for the three of them.
As for whether Hollywood's acting style would be a bit out of place when they returned to Japan, he didn't care.
It is worth mentioning that perhaps worried that Wayne's increasing number of women would mean less time for her, Charlize Theron decided to move back to Wayne's estate. This way, at least she would see Wayne more often than before.
"Meta, please show them to their rooms."
"Yes, sir. Ladies, please follow me."
After handing them over to Meta, Wayne took Hannah, who had been holding a grudge for five days, and Jessica, whom he hadn't seen in ten days, into the master bedroom.
Two hours later, feeling refreshed, Wayne, freshly showered and wearing a bathrobe, came to a lounge chair by the pool to sunbathe. Meta approached with a thick stack of invitations.
Behind her were Charlize Theron, who had changed into a swimsuit, and the three young women—Masami Nagasawa and the others.
It must be said that compared to Charlize Theron's sexiness, the three young women could only be described as cute.
"Sir, here are the invitations received in the past two days. I've placed the ones from Weinstein and Stringer on top."
"So many again..."
Wayne withdrew his appraising gaze and, while complaining, took the stack of invitations.
"It's understandable that Howard Stringer wants to celebrate 'The Bourne Identity,' but what on earth is Harvey up to? 'Mean Girls' has only been out for ten days, right?"
Though "Mean Girls" had already grossed $114.7 million domestically and $81.41 million overseas, bringing the total to $196 million and exceeding expectations, it still seemed a bit early for a celebration.
But Harvey had indeed made a big profit on this film.
Even after paying Hemera Pictures over $50 million according to the contract, he had made nearly $10 million from the box office.
Adding in the revenue from DVD sales, "Mean Girls" was estimated to bring him at least $50 million.
So, it makes sense he can't wait to celebrate.
Of course, this revenue belongs to Miramax, and Disney takes the lion's share.
Moreover, he's so eager to hold a party because "Taken" has wrapped up filming.
That's right— "Taken," which started filming on March 6th, took two months to complete and wrapped up last night. Because of the time difference, even Wayne hasn't received the news yet, while Harvey already has.
Also, "Hotel for Dogs," which exceeded the planned prep time and officially began filming at the end of March, is nearing completion. According to Harvey's sources, it should wrap up in about three days.
Hemera Pictures is known for its fast post-production work, and with word getting out, more people will want to invite Wayne, so Harvey naturally wants to get ahead.
Wayne, holding the invitation, thought for a moment and quickly figured out Harvey's intentions, chuckling as he shook his head.
After glancing at the invitation from Howard Stringer, confirming the date was May 8th, he set both invitations aside and continued to look through the others.
Fortunately, these invitations, aside from the charity auction held jointly by the Beverly Hills Police and Fire Departments, were all ones that could be declined. These included events like Madonna's daughter winning first place in a primary school violin competition, the Olsen twins' new photo book selling well, and Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing's celebration party for the completion of "Enemy at the Gates."
That's right—even the party hosted by Paramount's CEO can be skipped.
It's not that Wayne is getting too confident; it's just that after he took the "Iron Man" and "Transformers" series away from Paramount, their only significant asset left was Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible" series.
Next, besides MGM, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Paramount will become the weakest and least influential of the Big Seven.
Even though it has Viacom, a media giant, backing it, the decline is still inevitable.
Of course, if an invitation came from Viacom's owner, Sumner Redstone, Wayne definitely wouldn't refuse.
While his assets are now nearly half of Sumner Redstone's, his influence is still far behind that of Redstone, who controls Viacom, America's third-largest media conglomerate.
"If you don't want to attend, you can have Miss Mia and Miss Serra go in your place," Meta suggested, noticing Wayne tossing the invitation into the reject pile.
As a competent housekeeper, she clearly didn't want Wayne to offend someone of this caliber.
"Sure, let Mia and Serra go in my place," Wayne agreed readily, not insisting on his way.
However, Meta's suggestion sparked an idea in his mind.
"Why not let Mia attend that charity auction dinner on my behalf as well?"
"..."
Medha remained silent, just looking at him with a speechless expression.
Finally, Wayne gave up first, raising both hands. "Alright, alright, I was just joking. Medha, don't take it so seriously~."
Before he even finished speaking, Wayne had already pulled Masami Nagasawa and Erika into his arms, one on each side.
"But seriously, these police and fire departments are really greedy. We clearly donated $2 million to each of them back in January, and now they're doing another so-called charity auction," Wayne couldn't help but complain.
When in Rome, as they say. Now that he was in America and had become wealthy, it was necessary to donate some money to the local police and fire departments.
After all, American police officers and firefighters provide paid services.
In this era, although $2 million isn't the most, it certainly isn't a small amount.
And now, just a few months later, they're organizing another charity auction. Well, there's a reason why Beverly Hills has such a good security environment.
Of course, he also knew that the cost of such charity auctions wasn't actually that high, and those invited to participate were truly the top-tier people in Beverly Hills. It was a good opportunity to cross social classes and expand his network.
However, he wasn't particularly interested in these things. After all, what he needed most at this point was to avoid being noticed by the real big shots and continue developing quietly.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to decline such an invitation unless he could reach the level of Tony Stark in the movies.
But if he reached that level, he wouldn't have to fear the Big Seven and the powers behind them.
Glancing at the time, Wayne dialed Li Ying's number and had her report on the recent progress of Wayne Group's business.
"Alright, boss. First, regarding the acquisition of Google, we've met your requirements and reached a 25.4% stake, costing a total of $61.37 million. However, the stock price hasn't shown much movement at the moment."
"As for Pixar Animation, we have currently invested $182 million, holding a 14.46% stake. Even without counting the other two portions you personally hold, we're already the second-largest shareholder in Pixar Animation. Due to our series of operations and Pixar Animation's strong performance, its stock price has increased by 11.2 percentage points since our purchase."
"In real estate, we have bought all 22 standalone villas on Roxbury Drive, spending a total of $80.74 million due to the continuous rise in housing prices."
"Meanwhile, the film base you invested in Orange County and the five-acre luxury estate you're planning to build in Newport Beach both started construction on the 23rd and 27th of last month, respectively."
"The construction of Wayne Tower has been delayed due to permit approvals and is expected to start on the 17th of this month."
"Regarding copyright acquisitions, the 11 properties you listed, such as Transformers and A Song of Ice and Fire, have all been purchased for a total of $75.5 million."
"Among them, the remake rights of Ring were bought for $5 million and have now been resold to Hemera Films for $18 million."
"In addition, Marissa has gone to Japan and, with Sony's help, has met with the presidents and all shareholders of Kyoto Animation, Production I.G, and Sunrise. I'll update you as soon as there are further developments."
Wayne had to admit, Li Ying and Marissa Mayer were indeed the elite he carefully selected. They certainly lived up to his expectations.
It had been less than two months since he assigned these tasks, and there was already such progress.
Even the more complicated acquisitions of Pixar Animation stocks and the 11 high-quality copyrights had met the goals he initially set. This efficiency was truly remarkable.
"Well done!" Wayne sincerely praised.
Then, Wayne, exhibiting the fine tradition of a capitalist, assigned her new tasks: "Next, I plan to acquire ASML from the Netherlands, NVIDIA, and Netflix. For ASML and NVIDIA, I only need a 30% to 35% stake. As for Netflix, I plan to first acquire a 20% stake and then gradually complete the full acquisition over the next two years."
(End of this chapter)