Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

It is Friday, December 23.

Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve, Michael Orwitz still has no rest today and arrives at Century City headquarters C before eight o'clock.

Just one box office week passed, and Orwitz entered the office and sat down. The assistant immediately delivered the box office data report for the past week.

Michael Orwitz is a person who is good at using multiple things. While looking at the box office report, he asked his assistant about the distribution and delivery of Christmas gifts from C customers.

Expressing C's meticulous care for customers by giving away various gifts regularly is a great magic weapon for Orwitz to run this talent agency in recent years. Many people don't blame it for being used everywhere, so the effect is amazing. Many filmmakers agree to sign the contract after accidentally receiving some small gifts that are not valuable but have obviously spent time.

C's veteran client Sidney Pollack also publicly joked that Orwitz suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder in gift-giving.

In order to obtain a variety of gifts, C even signed long-term cooperation agreements with some suppliers of food, toys, books, artworks and other products.

Under the influence of Orwitz, C's agents will almost instinctively pay attention to the personal preferences of their customers and even their interest in certain things in the short term, or a book, or a birthday of the client's children, or tickets to a certain NBA game. Then, customers will always receive carefully prepared corresponding gifts at the right time.

Be intentional versus unintentional.

Other talent agency companies follow suit, but because they cannot imitate the essence of gifts given by Orwitz, they often cannot achieve the best results as good as C.

On important festivals like Christmas, giving gifts is even more important to C.

Spending half an hour to discuss the gift with his assistant and send him away, Michael Orwitz looked at the first week box office report of the Christmas season from December 16 to December 22 that was still in front of him.

No suspense.

Another blockbuster masterpiece of DC's Cinema Universe, "Suicide Squad", won an unstoppable box office of US$91.78 million in the first seven days of the first week, easily capturing the top ranks on the single-week box office list.

Suicide Squad is just a derivative of the DC superhero series, far less popular than the old-fashioned superheroes such as Batman and Superman. The related comics were not founded until 1987. Before the film was produced, many comic fans may not know that such a series existed.

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

The first film "The Flash" had a box office of only $72.86 million in the first week, and the total box office of North America was $253 million.

The Flash's popularity in DC comics is almost the same as that of Superman and Batman.

Now, taking advantage of the east wind of the DC movie universe, a spin-off series like "Suicide Squad" has won a box office of $91.87 million in the first week. Even if it does not exceed 100 million in the first week, the box office results are definitely expected by many people. The total box office in North America is expected to hit the $300 million mark.

Before "Suicide Squad" was released, Michael Orwitz had box office expectations of the movie comparable to most people.

However, he was not surprised to see the super high box office of "Suicide Squad" of $91.87 million in the first week.

"The Flash" was released at the end of 1991. At that time, the DC Cinema Universe plan had been released, but the entire project only released two "Batman", and "The Flash" was only the third one. Moreover, because the "The Flash" project was completely controlled by Warner, a young man who created the DC Cinema Universe had little participation in that project. The quality of the film was inevitably inaccurate that the box office was lower than the average level of the series compared to the two "Batman".

"Suicide Squad" is already the eighth major movie in the DC Cinema Universe series.

Before this, superhero movies such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Cyborg have been released and connected, and the popularity of the DC Cinema Universe Project has been fermented. The most important point is that this "Suicide Squad" is exciting enough in both the plot and the special effects, and it is a popular schedule like Christmas, with a $91.87 million in the first week, which is natural.

Toy Story 2, which ranked second on the list, fell 27% this week, earned $21.06 million and had a cumulative box office of $236.23 million.

According to previous practices, after entering the popular Christmas schedule, as the number of viewers increases significantly, many old films often experience box office declines. This time, "Toy Story 2" not only did not fall backwards from the unpopular schedule to the popular Christmas schedule, but continued to fall by 27%, which shows the impact of "Suicide Squad".

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

This is a movie that Michael Orwitz is more concerned about. Because it is a package project recommended by C to Disney, the film does not involve big directors and stars, so the budget is only $22 million. The first week is 16.39 million. Considering that the next two weeks are still in the festival, it means that the total box office of this project in North America is expected to hit the $50 million mark.

Michael Orwitz is a little regretful about this.

If there were no "Toy Story 2" and "Suicide Squad" that were extremely strong, "Santa Claus", which is in line with the festive atmosphere, has a very good reputation among the audience, probably a work of a box office of 100 million yuan.

Of course, this assumption is meaningless.

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

The fourth place on the list fell on "Little Woman", adapted from the famous novel, and the first week of painting was launched on a large scale. With 1,503 screens, this female film with a good reputation won a box office of US$11.39 million, with an average of about US$7,500. Although it did not reach the big sale level of US$10,000, it is rare to be commendable for such a literary drama film that is only for female audiences under the pressure of "Suicide Squad".

Including the previews in the previous two weeks, the cumulative box office of "Little Woman" reached US$12.07 million.

If we can get out of the box office curve like "Steel Magnolia" and the help of the awards season, the local box office of "Little Woman" is expected to be comparable to "Santa Claus", reaching a $50 million level. Considering that the production cost of the film is only 15 million US dollars and the investment in promotion is less than that of commercial films like "Santa Claus", the box office expectation is quite high, but the return on investment of "Little Woman" is much higher than that of "Santa Claus".

"Night Visit to the Vampire" released by Warner Bros. Pictures ranked fifth this week, with a box office drop of 33%, and another $5.53 million, unexpectedly overcame the Jim Carrey comedy "The Disguised" released at the same time. The total local box office of the film reached $92.43 million, one step closer to the 100 million box office club.

"The Disguised Wizard" produced by New World Pictures, a subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment, fell sixth on the list, with a box office drop of 45% this week, earning $4.5 million. However, the film's local total box office successfully exceeded 100 million, reaching $101.79 million, officially entering the ranks of a 100 million box office club.

Inside the office of headquarters C.

Michael Orwitz was in a complicated mood when he looked at the box office data in his hand.

In the top six of the list, Daenerys Entertainment actually accounts for three, not to mention that the heavyweight killer like "Suicide Squad" directly took away 68% of the total box office in a week, and other movies were just a waste of money.

What made Orwitz even more worried was that the main creators of the movies on this list were very few. The packaging project model created by C in the 1980s was the only one "Santa Claus".

Because of the initial conflicts, C and Daenerys Entertainment's cooperation was not very close. However, Orwitz could also feel that, besides Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, those filmmakers who were banned by Simon Westeros, Daenerys Entertainment did not deliberately target C.

However, it is obvious that C's voice in Hollywood has become less and less popular in recent years. All of this is in part caused by the young man who emerged in Hollywood.

Not to mention 3D animated movies, the rise of bombshell movies focusing on special effects, especially the rise of the DC movie universe, has minimized the studio's dependence on stars, and its voice has increased significantly.

Therefore, for those bombshells destined to be the core of the box office, not to mention taking over the entire project as before, the agency now has to put down its figure and even actively reduce its pay to strive for important roles in those projects.

Because you don’t fight for it, the role will be taken away by others, and the popularity will fall on others.

WMA, which was once almost in a slump, has risen again in recent years by relying on a large number of roles provided by Simon Westeros. Now it has steadily suppressed C and regained the throne of Hollywood's most powerful talent agency.

Michael Orwitz is very clear that he is unable to change the current situation, and what he has been considering in recent years is the issue of leaving.

In fact, since C got on track in the late 1980s, Orwitz has gradually shown boredom with the talent agency business, so he went to help Sony acquire Columbia Pictures to build a connection, and also created C's advertising business and sports star agency business, and cooperated with companies such as Coca-Cola, Cleaning, Magic Johnson or outside the circle.

Just a year ago, Michael Orwitz had a negotiation with software king Bill Gates, but because C's plate was too small, the students at the gate looked down on him at all. In a blink of an eye, he invested in the Dream Factory founded by Spielberg and the other three.

Maybe it's really time to leave.

There is not without a reason for this idea.

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

The first target of Vivendi is the executives of Daenerys Entertainment. However, the previous concept of Ningwei's chicken head did not work this time, and several Daenerys Entertainment executives contacted clearly expressed their rejection.

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

Orwitz and Eisner have been good friends for many years, and their families are still neighbors.

If it were a few months ago, Orwitz might have refused to take into account the friendship between friends. Now, Eisner has completely left Disney. After a serious illness, he is a little open to many things. If he chooses to join, the problem will not be big. What's more, with such a rare opportunity, Orwitz felt that if Eisner still couldn't let go and wanted to stop him, the friendship might not be so solid.

I was busy all morning and made an appointment at noon to meet Jean-Marie Merrier, the president of the company in charge of telecommunications and media businesses of Vivendi Group. Orwitz rushed to Morton Restaurant on time.

Speaking of which, Orwitz actually doesn't like this famous steak restaurant in Hollywood.

Some time ago, Eisner's wife suddenly called Orwitz, who was still working, saying that Eisner was angry at home because he wanted to book a location at Morton Restaurant to entertain friends. As a result, Morton Restaurant, which used to be indebted to Hollywood giants like Eisner, said it was straightforwardly that there was no seat this time.

How could there be no place?

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

In fact, whether in Los Angeles or New York, many well-known restaurants are so snobbish, which is probably a way for them to maintain their so-called "style".

He had just had a heart surgery but had not recovered completely. He was angry and hurt his body. After receiving a call from Eisner's wife, Orwitz quickly contacted him. Not only did he help his old friend book a seat, but he also strongly asked the waiter who refused Eisner to call to apologize. Orwitz has a wide connection in Hollywood, not to mention that he has many big names in C. The Morton Restaurant dare not offend him and will do it as he pleases.

The meeting at noon was not pleasant either.

This is not the first time that both parties have contacted each other. Orwitz's request is that he must obtain absolute control of Disney. However, with the lessons of Columbia Pictures, the Vivendi Group simply disagrees with this point. The two sides have been tug-of-war until now. As the lunch ends, Jean-Marie Merrie simply put forward the final conditions that Vivendi can give.

After lunch, Orwitz knew that he had no room for bargaining.

Either accept or refuse.

After absent-mindedly, he continued his work for the afternoon. After get off work, he went home and had dinner, Orwitz took the initiative to come to his old friend's house next door and suggested having a drink.

Eisner can drink some red wine now.

The two who had known each other for many years sat down next to the fireplace that was specially lit in Eisner's mansion. Seeing Eisner's wife take another blanket to cover her husband, Orwitz sighed and couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her future and whether she would be so heroic.

In fact, except for losing his position at Disney, Eisner has no problems in other aspects. He has been the top leader of Disney for ten years. With his original salary agreement and Disney's rapid development in the 1980s, Eisner has accumulated tens of millions of dollars in wealth. Even if he resigned this time, in order to avoid him being troubled, Disney shareholders and the board of directors also gave a very generous compensation contract. This money is enough for Eisner to enjoy his very rich retirement life without worries.

Just, think about the Morton Restaurant incident.

For a slightly ambitious man, losing power is obviously more unacceptable than losing money.

After all, Orwitz wants to join Disney, in order to gain greater power.

C seems to be still glorious, but in fact it does not have much foundation. Apart from the headquarters building in Century City, there is not even much fixed assets, and the income is not as rich as the head of a large studio.

The two of them drank for a while, but Michael Eisner took the initiative to mention Orwitz's concern: "Mike, I heard that Vivendy is in contact with you?"
Chapter completed!