Eric was talking to Emma when Penn Fosterman's cell phone suddenly rang.

After giving Eric a sorry look, Payne Fosterman got up and walked to the nearby to answer the phone. After a while, Payne Fosterman came back again and leaned into Eric's ear and whispered: "Eric, Mr. Governor just called and asked if he could invite you to visit his house?"

Eric asked Emma to play ball with Hawaii with a reluctant look on her face. Looking at the three little guys in the field, she said lightly: "I still have to accompany the children, so I can't go there."

The governor Penn Fosterman mentioned is obviously Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the younger brother of Bush Jr.. The other party was successfully elected as governor of Florida last year, and this invitation is undoubtedly for Bush Jr.'s presidential campaign.

Although he had tentative sexual contact with the Bush family's agent in New York last time, Eric did not intend to meet the core members of the other family immediately. The Bush family would definitely not expect Eric to make any statement now.

Payne Fosterman was actually just a messenger. He knew very well that he was not qualified to influence Eric's decision. He nodded when he heard the boss say this, and got up again to reply to the person who had just called.

In the tennis court, the three little guys continued to play for more than an hour. Seeing that the time was about the same, Eric called to stop in time.

Payne Fosterman stood beside him and saw Eric carefully wipe the sweat of the three little guys, tidy up his clothes, and then seemed to plan to leave like this, and couldn't help but take two steps forward.

However, seeing the three little guys looking over curiously together, Payne Fosterman swallowed back what he wanted to say.

Seeing Penn Fosterman's desire to speak, Eric turned his head and looked at the girl standing with Max Essenbad not far away, and smiled casually and reminded: "Help me take care of her."

After saying this, Eric took three little guys and twins to the outside of the tennis court. Several bodyguards who were originally scattered around also gathered and protected Eric and his men to go on two SUVs outside the court.

Payne Fosterman stood at the entrance of the stadium and watched two SUVs leave, and Max Essenbad also brought Sharapova to him.

Looking at the two SUVs that were moving away, Max Essenbud asked, "What does Mr. Williams say?"

Penn Fosterman did not answer, but said to Sharapova next to him: "Maria, go back to the dormitory first."

Sharapova, who was less than thirteen years old but was nearly 1.7 meters tall, nodded obediently, said goodbye to the two of them politely, and then turned around and walked away. When he arrived at an intersection not far away, Sharapova took advantage of the turn and glanced at the two middle-aged men who were still standing at the entrance of the tennis court. Seeing that the two seemed to be looking at him, he hurriedly avoided his eyes.

Walking into another path isolated by the green belt and confirming that Fosterman and the others could not see him, Sharapova finally breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but raise her hand and press it on her lips, feeling the invisible braces on her lower teeth that were almost unaware of, and remembered what happened in the afternoon again.

Although she was unable to say something to Eric Williams, she suddenly understood a lot of things in connection with her recent experience.

When she was seven years old, she was taken away from Russia and left her hometown by her father, just for a seemingly slim desire to stand out. More than five years have passed, and although she is less than thirteen years old, Sharapova has tasted many human feelings that children may not experience in their entire lives, and is much precocious than most girls.

Sharapova still clearly remembers how many times she and her father had ate, how many people she begged for, and how harsh contracts she signed in order to enter the IMG Academy, and finally she barely qualified as a sponsor.

IMG Academy is an elite sports college with private nature, and the tuition fees are higher than most ordinary private schools. If I could not get the qualification to sponsor students, the father and daughter who came across the ocean could not afford tens of thousands of dollars a year.

In the past few years of admission, there is basically only one thing in her life, tennis. In addition, she rarely comes into contact with many normal cultural courses, and IMG doesn't care about everything she has in addition to tennis, and just treats her as a potential investment.

Then, a few months ago, a lot of things suddenly changed.

The girl knew about the fact that IMG Group was bought by Eric Williams. She didn't think it would have anything to do with her, but IMG suddenly took it very seriously. Not only did she equip her with the best agent and the best coach, she even began to be meticulous in life. She now even owns a dormitory that belongs to her.

Originally, Sharapova thought it was because of her tennis scores, and IMG wanted to focus on cultivating her. But it was not until the last time she did orthodontics that the girl realized some differences.

You know, ordinary orthodontics can be done with just a few hundred dollars in wearing a pair of steel braces, but IMG chose the top-level invisible braces worth $8,000 for her. Including other expenses, it cost tens of thousands of dollars to do just one orthodontics.

Based on her knowledge of IMG's style of conduct, how could they spend so much extra money for her if there were no other special reasons!

Later, her agent Max Essenbud also vaguely hinted at her. In addition, when she saw Eric Williams today, the girl finally understood the whole story.

As the richest man in the world, even if he doesn't care at all, he can hear too much information about that man on weekdays.

One of them is that he is a playboy, which is almost well-known.

So, at this moment, Sharapova realized that she was attracted by the man.

I don’t know what I feel, but I think about the changes in my life, but I don’t have much resistance. During this period, with the help of IMG, her mother was able to move to the United States and the family finally reunited.

Obviously, if it weren't for that man, IMG would definitely not be willing to do these extravagant things.

but.

Although he played tennis with his child for the afternoon, he didn't say a word to himself.

Thinking of this, Sharapova suddenly felt a little worried again.

Is he not satisfied with himself?

Thinking of this, when she returned to the dormitory, she hurried to the dressing mirror and looked at the girl in the white tennis uniform in the mirror.

Apart from being very tall, it seems that there is really nothing special about it.

Then I couldn't help but worry about gains and losses.

If he is not satisfied with himself, then will he have to return to the kind of life he was a few months ago?

I don't know how long it took for me to knock on the door, breaking her thoughts.

He quickly walked to the door and opened it, and her agent Max Essenbad stood at the door.

Thinking of her guess just now, she felt panic and subconsciously did not dare to look at Max Essenbad's expression. She lowered her head and whispered: "Mr. Essenbad, is there anything wrong?" As she said this, she reacted and quickly turned sideways and said: "Please come in."

Max Essenbad did not enter the door, looked at the girl's appearance and said, "Didn't you say you'd just call me Mike?"

"Well," Sharapova nodded quickly, hesitated, and said, "Mike, Mr. Williams, will he come tomorrow?"

"No, Mr. Williams should leave Bradenton tomorrow," Max Essenbud looked at the girl's appearance and paused. Although he was familiar with the world, he was not very good at guessing the little girl's mind. At this time, he understood her reaction as resistance, and his expression became a little serious, saying, "Mary, I know you are a smart girl, so you should already know how you got your life now."

This is going to be gone.

Thinking about it depressedly, Sharapova whispered softly like a mosquito and flies.

Max Essenbad obviously misunderstood some girls' reactions at this time, and even had a little stern tone in his tone, saying, "Then, you should know that after you get so much, you must also pay the corresponding price. I think, you, and your family, definitely don't want to return to Russia, right?"

Sharapova was about to nod her head like a puppet when she suddenly reacted again, raised her head suddenly, looked at Max Essenbad and shook her head, "Mac, no, I'm not, me," she didn't know how to express it for a while, and then said, "I'm still looking forward to seeing Mr. Williams again."

Max Essenbad was stunned for a moment when he heard the girl say this, but he quickly realized that he had just understood the mistake. His expression eased and carefully examined the girl's condition at this moment. Max Essenbad nodded with satisfaction and said, "Then, let's do it. I'm just here to talk to you, by the way, you can take a day off tomorrow."

Sharapova nodded, and saw Max Essenbad leaving. After thinking about it, she took another step forward and said, "Mac, I, I want to go to Mr. Williams' Gravity with my parents on the weekend. Can you buy three tickets for me?"

Bradenton City is just a small town with a population of about 50,000. Although there is no shortage of cinemas, there is only one 3D screen, which is even more impossible for IMAX screening halls.

During this period, with the popularity of "Georgeism", the 3D screening hall with only more than 100 seats was completely in short supply, which actually shows the current situation of uneven distribution of the 2,000 3D screens. It is said that many people, especially those who want to watch the IMAX version, even have to drive to Orlando, more than 100 kilometers away.

Max Essenbad stopped and looked at the girl's flickering eyes, but he understood in his heart that the girl said this not to watch a movie, but more like a statement. So he smiled and nodded: "Okay, I'll have someone send you the ticket tomorrow."

Although it's a vacation, it's impossible to give up all work.

After dinner, he returned to a mansion in a gated community west of Bradenton and handed the children to the twins for care, and Eric came to the temporary study.

"Sony is willing to reduce the price of projector equipment by 11% on the original basis and enjoy a 40% supply share of RealD system. Barco, Belgium, and another company in Japan, NEC, will equally share the other 60%. However, the equipment of these two companies needs to be transformed to adapt to the RealD system, which will take about two months." Katsenberg reported to Eric in the video call on the work results of the recent days, and continued: "According to the established plan, North America will have 6,000 RealD systems by next summer, and the number overseas will be more, reaching 8,000. After completing this layout, it will be difficult for the 3D projection system to compete with RealD in the market."

Eric leaned against the leather chair behind the desk. After hearing Kasenberg say, he nodded with satisfaction and asked again: "How is the buyout agreement negotiations on the theater chain?"

In order to promote 3D movies, Firefly Group and theaters signed a guaranteed agreement for a single screen of $300,000 per year. This agreement can be said to be very unfair to Firefly Group. You should know that the average annual revenue per screen in North America is only $200,000.

The detailed agreement stipulates that if the annual revenue of a single screen is less than US$300,000, the Firefly Group will make up for it.

But if it exceeds the $300,000 guarantee, 80% of the box office share that exceeds the theater chain will be counted as RealD system equipment costs, owned by Firefly Group, with a term of three years.

However, in addition to the agreement, Firefly Group also agreed that once the 3D movie is promoted successfully, in order to give the early 2,000 screens with the same competitive environment as those of latecomers, theaters can propose a one-time buyout agreement and give up the original guaranteed contract.

According to the cost of about $250,000 in RealD system, Firefly Group can recover the equipment cost by getting about $500,000 per 3D screen every year.

Originally, even within the Firefly Group, they thought this was almost impossible, and the company only hoped that this cooperation would not lose too much.

But now, the facts are far beyond everyone's expectations.

With the box office momentum of "Georgement", just this movie, the box office in North America may exceed $600 million, which is almost no suspense beyond the box office of "Titanic" that just reached $600 million.

Due to the strong performance of IMAX theaters for two consecutive weeks, the box office of 100 IMAX theaters in North America may reach $200 million if Gravity brings. So, there is still $400 million on the 3D screen.

The box office of $400 million, with an average of 2,000 3D screens, which can already bring $200,000 to each screen, but this cycle only lasts two months.

But a year is 12 months, and combined with the ability to produce 3D versions, they are almost potentially super box office bombs. Then, it is obvious that at least in the initial 3D movies and their popularity, the single 3D screen will far exceed the $500,000 expected return fee for Firefly Group.

Therefore, in order to avoid the continuous withdrawal of profits by Firefly Group and to gain more initiative in 3D theaters, major theaters have already proposed to implement the original affiliated buyout agreement.

When Eric mentioned this, Katzenberg also smiled a little proudly and said, "Regr companies have proposed to implement a buyout agreement at our $500,000 equipment price. However, since we had already taken the risk at the beginning, we naturally have to get compensation now. RealD is negotiating with theaters, and the final buyout price should be around $600,000. We now have the initiative in 3D movies, and theaters can only compromise with us."

Eric also smiled on his face. Based on the unit price of $600,000, Firefly Group can recover $1.2 billion for the 2,000 3D screens in North America. This has exceeded half of the initial investment in Firefly Group for 3D and IMAX movie promotions.

The situation in the overseas market is relatively complicated. Firefly's cooperation model is different from that of various ticket countries. However, as long as the cost of more than 1,600 sets of RealD system equipment that have been deployed overseas is enough to recover all the costs of more than 1,600 sets of RealD system equipment that have been deployed overseas, even if it does not reach the high price of 600,000 US dollars in North America, it is enough for Firefly Group to completely recover all the costs of the previous investment.

The remaining 200 IMAX theaters with more profitable profits, as well as some of the real estate under the name of IMAX theaters, are almost like a waste of money.
Chapter completed!