I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 77 – Coming to the door

      After the Super Bowl night, the most talked about topic is not who won the Super Bowl championship, but the first movie trailer to appear in the Super Bowl TV broadcast.

This session of the Super Bowl the highest ratings went up to 150 million people, accounting for 50% of the total population of North America, and with the word of mouth, after just one day, all Americans know about 《Home Alone》 director Eric William a new movie news.

The major film giants also keenly felt the amazing influence of the Super Bowl trailer Ad, they mobilized a lot of resources, to carry a detailed investigation and analyse the data released after the broadcast of 《Pretty Woman》 trailer, as for the results of this investigation, it is estimated that only in the next Super Bowl ad biding competition can be seen.

In past life, the first Super Bowl movie trailer happened in 1996 for the movie 《Independence Day》, Fox took a huge sum of money to bid for the Super Bowl ad spot, and ultimately this disaster science fiction film won a huge $300 million box office domestically, and $500 million dollar world wide.
From then on, there have always been rivalry between the giants of Hollywood for the spots at the Super Bowl.

Eric believes that the trailer of 《Pretty Woman》 will not be less effective than the 《Independence Day》 trailer. 

Next year, wanting to win a Super Bowl ad slot is not just a question of having money, you'll also need to have a good relationship with the Super Bowl broadcasting media.

Although there are more than 60 ads in the super bowl, but in order to achieve good advertising results, the number of each type of ad has a strict limit, not all the ads can be used to show movie trailers. 

That's why, in the future the Super Bowl ad slots for movies will all be monopolized by the big movie giants, because of the increasing cost of making movies, and because the Super Bowl ads will cost a lot, so small movie companies can't take out that much money.

Over the next few days, some nosy media commentators also began to report and analyze the matter.

The New York Times even wrote that 《Pretty Woman》 trailer is the biggest winner of this session of the Super Bowl.

And as a direct result of Eric's being the director of the new movie, the box office of 《Home Alone》 once again rebounded, this was the movie ninth week in cinemas, originally some statistical agencies estimated that 《Home Alone》 well harvest about $12 millions at the box office this week, But a week later, 《Home Alone》 got more than $18 million, the total box office reached $198 million.

Even according to Eric's current shares, this extra $6 million in the box office would have earned back the $1.5 million spent on the Super Bowl ad.

“That's Fortunate” said Eric after seeing the week box office report.

Jeffrey Sitting on the opposite side laughed and said: “Yes, Fortunately, it's 198 million, if this week broke 200 million, it would have been a waste of a good hype topic.” 

The reason why he said so, because after this week Super Bowl trailer, the attention on 《Pretty Woman》 has reached its peak, but if 《Home Alone》 broke the 200 million mark, the topic can only play the role of icing on the cake.
Not like if it delayed until next week, after the Super Bowl trailer heat slightly weakened. 

Next week 《Home Alone》 well become the first movie in 3 years to break the $200 million mark at the box office.
Add the normal publicity, and 《Pretty Woman》 is guaranteed to get good results at the box office.

“Eric, you really are not going to personally participate in the 《Pretty Woman》 propaganda?” 

Eric shook his head and said: “Al and Julia the two of them plus Fox is enough, I may have other things to do.
Of course, I'll still attend the premiere.”

The other thing Eric said was about Pixar.
The day after the Super Bowl, Eric received a phone call from Steve Jobs after the introduction, Steve in a warm tone said he wanted to have a meeting.
Eric asked whether it was about Pixar's price, and after getting a positive answer, Eric hung up the phone.

Determining the intentions of Steve Jobs, Eric had no hesitation, he applied to the bank for a $50 million loan using 《Home Alone》 as a mortgage.

Although deeply conflicted with the lending practices, but now Eric have to do so.
Even if there is no Pixar thing Eric had to apply for a loan because his remaining money was not enough to pay this year taxes.

Eric did not even think about borrowing from other people, according to the memory's of the original owner of the body, and his knowledge from the past six months, Eric knew that in the United States, even between friends and family, the topic of borrowing money, is a very embarrassing thing.

Compared to Asians borrowing money between friends and relatives is a common thing, Americans are more used to borrowing money from banks, and you know what they say, When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Now that he is going to borrow, he applied for a huge loan of $50 million dollars, to buy Pixar and investment for the next movie.

50 million dollars in this era is indeed a huge sum of money, If Steve Jobs want to borrow this mush money from the bank he will probably be kicked out the door, As for Eric, borrowing $50 million from the bank is easy they even tempted him to borrow more.

All told, It has now been over a week, Steve Jobs is expected to call again, Although Steve Jobs personality quite irritable and conceited, But he's also a resilient man.
According to the information collected by Eric these days, Pixar studios and NeXT a computer software company are on the edge of collapse.

Eric's $20 million offer, although much less than Jobs's investment in Pixar studios, but could solve NeXT crisis.
And Steve Jobs ambition these days is mainly on personal computers.

Eric was not worried that Jobs would give up a good chance of getting rid of Pixar.
Of course, he may also do like in previous life, he may test whether Microsoft intends to buy Pixar, but Eric is sure, Microsoft will probably give a lower price than him.

After more than a week of intense post-production 《Pretty Woman》 officially was finished.

Until well into February, the loaned money has finally entered his bank account, Eric still didn't receive a phone call from Steve Jobs again, he was starting to admire Jobs's patience, But Eric still maintain a cool appearance on the matter, dealing with a genius like Steve Jobs, as long as you show a flaw, the other side can easily catch and take advantage of it.

Before the release of 《Pretty Woman》 by a week, Fox held a Movie premiere for film critics in Los Angeles.

After that, the reviews of the long-awaited movie began to appear in the newspapers.

Maybe because they felt guilty that they let Eric pay for the Super Bowl trailer from his own pocket, Or maybe because Fox itself have more confidence in 《Pretty Woman》, Eric felt that Fox's advertising campaign efforts have reached the level of large productions.
Accordingly, the film critics public relations work in place, the reviews that started appearing in the newspapers were almost all one-sided praise.
Of course, this is also related to the film quality itself.

If 《Pretty Woman》 is a flop, even if the red envelopes are more generous, the critics who rely on there reputation to eat, will not openly praise a bad film.

February 9, at Los Angeles Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 《Pretty Woman》 officially held the premiere.

With 20th Century Fox operation, in addition to 《Pretty Woman》 cast members, more than a dozen large and small stars come to give there support, the short section of the red carpet was shining with stars.

After a brief speech, the movie quickly started playing.

Eric returned to his seat, quietly enjoy his own movie, siting on his left side is a Fox executive Carter Hunt, he didn't know when he was replaced by another 30 year old man, because the lights were dim, Eric did not care.

But after a while, the other party took the initiative to talk to him.

“Hello, Mr.
Williams.
I'm Steve Jobs.”

Eric turned and looked with surprise, Jobs was 33 years old this year, he was still a young man, not bald, he looked handsome.
But Eric knows this handsome appearance, is hiding a really arrogant and short-tempered man.

Now that the other party had come to the door, Eric smiled and held out his hand: “Hello, Mr jobs.”

After saying hello to each other, the two of them once again turned their attention to the screen, no one has the idea of taking the initiative to start the real talk.

It was not until more than an hour later when the film ended, that Steve Jobs once again said: “Mr.
Williams, can we talk?”