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Chapter 54: The Box Office Continues to Rise
🕑 Added 2024-09-12 17:07:09 +0000 UTCAfter leaving Michael Ovitz's office, Rory, looking troubled, went to find Sandra Bullock
She was his biggest client, and Sandra Bullock trusted him deeply.
"What's wrong, Rory?" Sandra Bullock asked, noticing Rory Toledo's distressed expression.
"Mr. Ovitz wants me to implement the package deal policy in Gilbert's production..." Rory Toledo replied with a helpless look.
"What?" Sandra Bullock involuntarily raised her voice, "Doesn't Mr. Ovitz know that Director Gilbert doesn't like package deals?"
Everyone was well aware of Sheena Boone's situation, as she was a former CAA agent. Officially, she resigned due to a lack of clients, but in reality, it was Michael Ovitz and Martin Bobb who had jointly forced her out.
Although Sheena Boone hadn't explicitly stated the reason, it was widely speculated that it had something to do with a disagreement in their philosophies.
"Shh," Rory Toledo quickly covered Sandra Bullock's mouth and looked around to ensure no one was paying attention to them. He then hurriedly pulled her outside.
Once they were outside, Rory Toledo said, "Mr. Michael Ovitz was very firm. He said that if I fail to accomplish this task, I'll have to leave CAA, and your management contract will likely be handed over to someone else."
"This can't happen! I'll go talk to Mr. Ovitz right now," Sandra Bullock said, ready to storm back in, but Rory Toledo quickly grabbed her arm.
"Sandra, calm down. Don't get too emotional," Rory advised. "I'll give it a shot. If I fail, so be it. I'll leave CAA. But this project is crucial for you. It's a mainstream commercial film. If it becomes a big success, you'll secure a spot among the top actresses."
"Most importantly," he continued, "Director Gilbert has had two consecutive films with North American box office earnings exceeding 50 million and global earnings over 100 million dollars. Starring in his new film, you know what that could mean."
Sandra Bullock calmed down, feeling touched by Rory Toledo's continued consideration for her.
"You don't need to worry. If Mr. Ovitz kicks you out of CAA, I'll definitely leave with you," she assured him.
Rory Toledo smiled wryly, "It's okay. As long as we do well on this film and succeed, Mr. Ovitz won't be able to do anything to us."
Michael Ovitz may have been very forceful with smaller stars and their agents, but when it came to agents managing major stars, his power was limited. Tom Cruise's agent, Pat Kingsley, for example, never paid much attention to Michael Ovitz.
Michael Ovitz had long been displeased with her, but there wasn't much he could do.
This shows that the so-called "king of Hollywood talent agencies" was more of a media exaggeration. When faced with top-tier stars and directors, even Michael Ovitz couldn't be too forceful.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be Rory Toledo sent to convince Gilbert to accept the package deal policy, but Ovitz himself.
Why didn't Ovitz do it? Because he didn't want to risk offending Gilbert or his father, Old Gilbert, so he used an intermediary.
If successful, it would be great; if not, the blame would fall on Rory Toledo.
As November rolled around, "Final Destination" was still in theaters, although the number of cinemas showing it had dwindled to just 300, and daily box office earnings were limited.
Nonetheless, the North American box office for the film had reached $61.423 million, marking a new record for Gilbert's career in North America.
The potential for additional box office revenue in North America was limited, and it was likely to stop here.
However, this automatically triggered Gilbert's profit-sharing agreement based on box office earnings. Starting from $50 million, there was a profit-sharing arrangement, with an additional percentage point added for every extra $10 million.
Thus, Gilbert would receive 6% of the box office profits, which, based on the current box office data, would amount to just over $1.5 million.
After deducting the theater's share, marketing costs, production costs, and other expenses, the profit-sharing amount was pretty decent at $1.5 million.
Additionally, Gilbert had a 10% share in the investment returns, and there would be further revenue from video tapes, TV rights, and international box office shares.
However, those additional revenues would take at least a year or more to materialize, so they would have to wait.
Even so, Gilbert was quite satisfied.
Once the money was in hand, he first made a payment to the Tolkien Rights Foundation. This was just part of it; another payment would be due next year.
After his agent Sheena Boone and accountant Kevin took their shares, Gilbert continued to buy Apple stock, much to the disbelief of his stockbroker David.
Gilbert also instructed David to find out if any internal Apple shareholders were willing to sell their stock. If so, he wouldn't hesitate to buy them up.
If that happened, Gilbert could become a member of Apple's board of directors, practically making money while sitting back.
Moreover, this move had to be quick. Once Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the stock wouldn't be so easy to buy.
While some might see ten years of turmoil ahead for Apple, Gilbert saw it as an opportunity.
Eventually, things would turn around. By buying a large amount of stock now and joining the board, he could support the return of Jobs.
Who knows, Apple might even end its turbulent period earlier and get on the fast track to growth.
This wasn't a short-term investment but a long-term one.
For short-term investments, he could ride the dot-com bubble, invest in other internet companies, and make a quick fortune.
As for market crashes, Gilbert wasn't too knowledgeable—he only had a general idea and didn't have any inside information, so he didn't want to get involved.
As for Microsoft stock, there wasn't much available on the market, so he'd just buy what he could.
But there was no rush. The wave of internet companies was about to arrive, and Gilbert was ready to take a big bite of the cake in this massive surge.
After all, nobody ever thought they had too much money.
Gilbert wasn't an IT expert or a businessperson, but with his knowledge from his previous life, he knew he wouldn't have trouble making money as long as he understood how to invest.
However, the foundation of all his endeavors was still film.
Without films, none of this would be possible.
"Final Destination" also achieved significant success overseas, with the current international box office reaching $63.278 million.
This brought the global box office total for "Final Destination" to $124 million, once again setting a new personal record for Gilbert.
While this might not seem like much a decade later, at this time in Hollywood, the era of global commercial films was just beginning, so the success of "Final Destination" was quite impressive.
Even Tom Cruise, who starred in films that grossed over $100 million worldwide, would boast about it for days, not to mention that Gilbert had now achieved two consecutive films that grossed over $100 million globally.
Because of this, Gilbert's new project was receiving so much industry attention, even catching the eye of Michael Ovitz, who was tempted to push the package deal policy into his production.
Before the casting and auditions began, Gilbert first scouted several potential filming locations, ultimately selecting Interstate 105 and 110 in California.
These highways were still under construction and hadn't yet opened to the public.
Producer Charles Roven had lengthy discussions with local contractors and, after much persistence, finally secured the location for filming.
At the same time, Gilbert decided that all explosion scenes and car chase sequences would be filmed with practical effects, only adding a small amount of special effects.
Because of this, Cain Waxman made several trips to Los Angeles County to obtain the necessary permits for the shoot, resolving any procedural issues.
During the road scouting, Gilbert noticed a section of the highway with a broken bridge. He called over Director of Photography Dure Randolph and Stunt Coordinator Luca Farias to discuss it.
"Dure, Luca, I'm thinking of shooting a scene where a bus drives off the edge of this broken bridge. How do you think that would look?" Gilbert proposed.
Dure thought about it and said, "It would look amazing. From an audience's perspective, it would be thrilling."
"Director, you'll need to lighten the bus; otherwise, it won't make the jump," Luca Farias advised.
"Alright," Gilbert came up with a solution. "We'll prepare two or three buses, stripping them of all unnecessary parts, leaving only the driver's seat and safety equipment.
"Dure, I need you to set up cameras inside the bus to capture this scene from a first-person perspective. We'll also place two cameras on the highway to capture the external shots at the same time."
Gilbert illustrated the angles and shared his ideas with them.
With the rise of action films, car stunts weren't uncommon, but no director or production crew had gone so far as to mount cameras inside the vehicle for real stunts— not even James Cameron had attempted this.
However, Dure Randolph and Luca Farias were thrilled by the idea and immediately gathered their teams to start planning the setup and bus modifications.
