Conrad Hotel, New York.
"Director, the final data for the first week's box office is out." A blonde female assistant wearing black stockings and high heels came to Director Sommers with documents in her arms.
The female assistant did not sit on the sofa but sat in his lap, then smiled and opened the document for him to see.
This movement was so skillful and natural that her previous slight resistance had long since disappeared.
She was a female assistant hired by Director Sommers only last month. When the director made unreasonable demands at the beginning, she strongly resisted.
But after Director Sommers threatened to fire her immediately and tempted her with a large sum of money, she finally chose to give in.
Would she resent her beauty for attracting men's attention?
How could she? If she weren't beautiful, she wouldn't have been able to get such a high-paying job with her abilities.
This was a golden-collar job with a monthly salary of up to $30,000.
Would she resent Director Sommers's coercion and inducement?
Not at all. On the contrary, she was grateful for the opportunity to make such a deal. Wouldn't her life be better if she didn't make this deal?
A woman's youth is short, and meeting a suitable buyer at such an age was a great blessing.
The female assistant's heart was filled with gratitude, and her delicate body became softer.
Director Sommers hugged the warm body in his lap, felt his head slightly heat up, and wanted to have a big fight right away.
But now was not the right time, and as a veteran, he still had some self-control.
"One hundred and twenty million US dollars, twenty million more than we expected. Our movie was a huge hit at the box office, Director; you are so amazing! No matter where you are, you are so amazing that I am intoxicated by you," the female assistant said with a charming look.
Director Sommers was not ecstatic when he saw the results. Instead, his face turned ugly.
Because the results did not meet his expectations, and even though major theaters generally gave it a high screening rate of 40%, he only earned $120 million?
He knew $30 million of this was the amount he used to buy the tickets himself.
That meant the actual box office was only $90 million.
Despite spending so much money on publicity and promotion, even buying tickets himself, the box office was still $10 million less than expected.
Such results cast a shadow over Director Sommers's heart.
"Is the cinema's screening rate stable recently?" asked Director Sommers.
The screening rate was related to the confidence of various theaters in "The Mummy Returns" and would also determine the box office trend of this movie after the first week. Would it remain strong or plummet?
"This is a small problem. Our screening schedule will be reduced by 8% next week," the female assistant answered carefully.
"Why would our film schedule be reduced?"
An 8% drop in screening rate was by no means a small problem, and Director Sommers immediately became alert.
"Because the reputation and attendance of 'Shrek' were so good, major theaters took some of our screenings for it," explained the female assistant.
"Damn it! What kind of cartoon is this? Its attendance is even better than our masterpiece?" Director Sommers shouted in anger.
The female assistant trembled with fear in his lap but didn't dare to walk away, so she could only remain silent.
"Increase the efforts to purchase tickets yourself; otherwise, our screening rate will drop," Director Sommers said after calming down.
"But our budget can't handle it, and this money is not included in the publicity and promotion expenses," the female assistant reminded.
"I will pay this money myself first, and then I will take it from the box office revenue after I make it back in the future." Director Sommers had to make a painful decision.
He had no way out at this moment. He didn't want to leave Hollywood in disgrace, so he had to go ahead even if it meant spending all his savings.
"The problem of attendance can be solved by purchasing tickets yourself, but the poor reputation also needs to be remedied as soon as possible," the female assistant raised another difficult question.
"Let's do some word-of-mouth management and prepare special articles for commentators from major newspapers and media outlets," said Director Sommers.
"Some things have been done before, and the results were not good."
"What? How could the effect be bad?" Director Sommers asked in confusion.
"Because young people don't read those now; the effect is not ideal."
"What are young people looking at?"
"They share and review it online, on a website called IMDb," the female assistant further explained. "On IMDb, our movie has a score of 6.2, while 'Shrek' has a score of 7.7."
"What's so good about this damn crappy anime! Give that website some PR and raise our ratings."
"They rejected our PR and used even more space to mock our movie," the female assistant replied cautiously.
"Fuck IMDb!"
Director Sommers certainly didn't know that Mr. Eisen had already invested in IMDb and gained influence. How could Lin Yuan give him the opportunity to publicize the film's reputation?
Not only would they not give him any chance, they would even take the opportunity to step on him a few more times.
Damn it, nothing went smoothly, Director Sommers cursed in his heart.
He hugged the delicate body in his lap and had a vague feeling in his heart: the good days before him seemed to be gone forever.
No! I will never allow this to happen!
That yellow monkey gang were the scum who should get out of Hollywood. Hollywood should be our Anglo-Saxon territory. Should all kinds of garbage be allowed to have a share of the pie?
"Director, there is a new movie coming out tomorrow. Will it pose a big threat to us?" the female assistant in his lap asked another question.
"You mean 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'? It's a fairy tale for children. It shouldn't pose much of a threat to us."
"But the production cost of this movie is not low; it's a top-tier blockbuster that cost $130 million."
"They spent all their money on film production, and their expenses on publicity and promotion are less than half of ours, so they can't squeeze our space in film scheduling," Director Sommers said confidently.
If Lin Yuan were there and heard him say this, he would definitely laugh out loud.
Who are you saying is not a threat?
In the next few years, the "Harry Potter" film series and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were the only two true god-like existences, jointly taking the first and second places at the box office in the following years.
Maybe there would be some wins and losses between these two, but any other movie would be crushed by them, without a doubt.
Perhaps due to the butterfly effect brought about by Lin Yuan's rebirth, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which was originally scheduled to be released in November, was brought forward to early June.
In the previous meeting chaired by President Smith, when Lin Yuan saw the release date of this movie, he immediately determined that "The Mummy Returns" was finished, and Director Sommers had already lost!
This was what Lin Yuan called the right time.
"The Mummy Returns" was indeed a good movie, but facing the pressure from two big Pragmatic Play, "Shrek" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," it would inevitably be squeezed out of the screening schedule and would eventually end in failure.
Director Sommers had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation. In his eyes, the opponent was just a children's film for children to watch, and the quality was not as good as his own masterpiece.
But he never thought about how much the big-name actors in "The Mummy Returns" took home?
How much did the young actors in the first "Harry Potter" film take home?
Although the apparent difference in production costs was only $30 million, the actual cost of film production was several orders of magnitude different.
This inevitably led to "Harry Potter" being in an absolutely overwhelming position in terms of quality.
The great devil "Harry Potter" was about to arrive, and Director Sommers would soon feel the biting chill.