Chapter 538 Embarrassment

Thinking of Rachael's words to be proactive, Caroline took a deep breath, patted the stack of newspapers in her hand, and then opened Arie with the spare room card that Ellen had just given her. The door of the gram suite.

It's already 8:30 in the morning. Caroline, as Eric's translator, attended a reception with him last night. Of course, she didn't drink any alcohol, but Eric couldn't resist the enthusiasm of the host. There are a lot of them, so I haven't gotten up yet.

Caroline had breakfast and came back from a walk in a nearby park. She happened to meet Alan preparing today's newspaper and planning to wake Eric. Allen had a very good impression of the girl who greeted him politely. He also knew that Caroline liked Eric, so he took the initiative to offer the girl a chance.

Pushing open the door of the luxury suite, Caroline stuck her head into the room and took a look, only to find that there was no one in the living room, so she walked in. Putting the newspaper in her hand on the coffee table, Caroline walked to the bedroom door and tapped lightly.

"Hold on."

A voice came from the bedroom immediately, which startled the girl. Before she could react, the bedroom door was suddenly opened, and then a man and a woman just stayed there.

Eric just woke up and thought it was Allen outside the door. He just remembered that he forgot to do something yesterday, and planned to ask his assistant to make a call to Los Angeles. He opened the door without thinking.

~ Caroline has never woken a man up, how could she have thought that Eric would come to open the door for her wearing only a pair of boxer pants. The girl was a little petite. After opening the door, her eyes first fell on the muscular lines of Eric's bodybuilding upper body, then slid down, and then turned around with a cry, and covered her hot face with her hands.

Eric, who was also a little dazed, was awakened by the girl's coquettish voice, and saw Caroline's cute appearance turning around and covering her face. He couldn't help laughing, turned around to pick up the clothes and put them on his body, and joked: "Come here early in the morning to take advantage of me, sigh, I'm going to suffer a big loss now, I just don't know if I can make it back."

Caroline stomped lightly. Knowing that Eric was joking, he couldn't help but defend: "I didn't, I just... I just came to deliver newspapers to you."

Eric heard the vibrato in Caroline's voice. Knowing that the girl's face was tender, he didn't dare to continue to tease.

Caroline originally wanted to escape, but she knew that her face must be covered with a red cloth now. If you go out like this, if you are touched, you will definitely be laughed to death, so you resist the urge to run away, but when she hears Eric's words, the girl is not willing to turn around, still carrying Eric on her back: " Eric, go wash up first, and I'll call and order breakfast for you."

"OK.

Thanks," Eric didn't say no. He walked into the bathroom.

More than ten minutes later, Eric walked out of the bedroom again. Caroline's figure had disappeared without a trace. Eric smiled and shook his head, feeling a little emotional in his heart. It is absolutely impossible to see such a simple and shy person in Hollywood. girl's.

Back to Europe again. Eric made a phone call to London according to the original agreement, but Caroline came over the same day. Of course Eric understands what the girl thinks about him, but the more he understands Caroline's innocent and flawless character, the more Eric feels. Perhaps the girl should continue to return to her original life track. The Vanity Fair in Hollywood is definitely not suitable for such a girl who has no scheming. Bringing her in will only cause her harm.

Thinking of these things, Eric thought that Caroline didn't call for breakfast for him, and was about to pick up the phone and ask the restaurant to deliver some breakfast when the hotel waiter rang the doorbell.

The German premiere of "Jurassic Park" has been held a few days ago, but the premiere in Paris will not be until July 14th, and Eric is still visiting the corners of Berlin during the day. At night, you can't avoid all kinds of invitations.

Germany is the most developed country in Europe, and its economic strength was on par with Japan for a time after the war. If it weren't for the influence of the Cold War, Germany's economic strength would never be much worse than that of Japan, the world's second largest economy. However, even so, Germany's national strength in this era is still the strongest in Europe, and its gross domestic product is even worth the sum of Britain and France, which are ranked second and third in Europe.

Economic development also means that they have a lot of money in their hands. Although the Germans do not have the same insecurity as the Japanese to dispose of industries around the world, they are also very keen to invest abroad. And because of the special tax policy stimulus and the rapid development of Hollywood, investing in Hollywood movies is one of the most popular investment methods in Germany.

In order to stimulate the development of movies, the German government stipulates that Germans do not need to pay taxes on the funds invested in movies, and Germany's personal income tax is as high as 51%, that is to say, if you earn 1 million a year, if you do not invest , you need to pay 510,000 personal income tax, but if the money is invested in film production, the 1 million will not need to pay personal income tax, which is equivalent to investing with 510,000 tax. And if the 1 million profit from the movie is doubled and becomes 2 million US dollars, then after paying personal income tax, the remaining money is basically equal to exempting the original personal income tax, and even this money It didn't double, just made a lot of money, which is equivalent to exempting a part of the tax to a certain extent.

With this idea in mind, although the risk of film investment is very high, there are still many German investors who have thrown large sums of money into Hollywood one after another. And this summer, the two films that Carlock Films slammed into "Peerless Bear Peak" and "The Last Action Hero", most of the production funds came from the German film fund.

Strictly speaking, Firefly's "Jurassic Park" aggravated the loss of these two major productions to a certain extent, and Schwarzenegger's "Recent Action Heroes" was basically crushed by "Jurassic Park" In the past, but when Eric arrived in Berlin, he was still eagerly sought after by many German film companies and film funds. After the failures of "The Bear Peak" and "The Last Action Hero", the Germans also learned to be smart. After some, I understand that it is not so safe to simply invite big stars to make blockbusters. Finding the right investment target is the safest, and now that "Jurassic Park" is frantically setting box office records around the world, Firefly Pictures is definitely the most suitable investment target.

During Eric's days in Berlin, most of the invitations he received were from lobbyists of the German Film Foundation. At the same time, he also began to consider this issue. At present, the average budget cost of each film of major Hollywood studios is still around 30 million US dollars. The budget for publicity and distribution is not too high. With an average annual output of 20 films by major film companies, the production funds required by Firefly’s internal cash flow can be easily digested. At present, Firefly Films rarely introduces external films. Make money.

However, with the advent of the era of big-production movies, the average budget for each movie in the future is likely to easily break through the $100 million mark. Although Eric is still very confident, Firefly at that time can also withstand such a huge financial demand. amount, but it is not cost-effective to do so. With what Eric has learned about Hollywood over the years, he understands. Hollywood's biggest advantage is to use other people's money to make movies and make their own profits. Because film investment is very risky, generally speaking, the money earned by outside investors in Hollywood is not as much as imagined. The funds invested in Hollywood can generate 10% to 15% of profits every year, which can be regarded as very rich. rate of return.

Of course, because other studios don't have Eric's golden finger. There are always losses and gains in movie investing, so you can keep most of the profits to yourself by virtue of Hollywood's ingenious split rules. And pass more losses on to outside investors. But this rule is not so trial for Firefly. Others make movies to gamble, but Eric, who can see through the dice, is not. Take the recent "Jurassic Park" as an example, if a movie with a global box office of 1 billion US dollars, you introduce external investment, and tell the investor when the final settlement is made that the business is not profitable, then the investor will not fall out with the genius Strange.

In the end. Most Hollywood movies now introduce a project operation mechanism jointly produced by many investors in order to reduce investment risks. However, for Firefly, this risk is much smaller in front of Eric, and it is completely within Firefly's sole tolerance. At this time, if we operate according to Hollywood's rules, it is not to share risks, but to share profits.

Until breakfast was over, Eric hadn't figured out any feasible operation plan, and a simple breakfast unknowingly ate more than nine o'clock.

Today is just Monday. The weekend box office of "Jurassic Park" in the new week did not exceed the forecast of Firefly's statistics department, while the three-day performance of "Clash of the Earth" in the first weekend was much better than Eric imagined. I got it. The North American box office of more than 47 million US dollars is expected to exceed 70 million in the first week, directly reaching the cost line, and the total North American box office of Pixar's 3D animated film "A Bug's Life" is also about to exceed 100 million.

When he was about to finish flipping through the newspaper in his hand, the doorbell rang again, Eric opened the door, and this time it was Allen.

"You came just in time. A few days ago, I asked Disney to collect some information about potential computer animation studios. You take the time to ask me today to see how they have prepared them. If they are ready, send me a copy of the information. ."

"I know, is there anything else?" Allen nodded and wrote it down.

Eric shook his head and said suddenly: "Also, don't let Caroline do this kind of thing. Her personality is too shy, and she was a little embarrassed just now."

Alan seemed to know something, and smiled a little teasingly, and said, "I'm so sorry, Eric, I didn't think about it that much."

"By the way, what are you doing here?"

"Miss Wilson asked me to ask you if you can't go out to play today," Allen said with more teasing on his face.

Eric looked at his watch, nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go right over."

"She's waiting for you downstairs," Allen said finally, and turned to leave.

Eric had already set up today's itinerary. He decided to go to Berlin's Museum Island to have a look. He returned to the bedroom and changed a pair of shoes. After a brief tidy up, Eric walked out of the room.

Caroline, who was sitting in the lobby downstairs of the hotel and flipping through a magazine, was looking as usual. However, when Eric appeared, the girl's face couldn't help but turn red, which made Eric feel a little angry. This kind of urge to pinch, to be honest, this thought has been circling in his mind more than once.

"Let's go." Although the thoughts in his heart were evil, Eric didn't show it. After greeting the girl politely, he took her out.

At this time, Berlin was not too prosperous, because the Cold War was divided into East and West Berlin, most of Berlin was controlled by the Soviet Union at that time, and the capital of Germany was also moved to Bonn in the west. However, after the merger of East and West Germany in 1990, everyone unanimously decided to move the capital back to Berlin again. With the strong economic strength accumulated by West Germany, Berlin's infrastructure construction was very rapid.

The public transportation system in Berlin is very developed, or the public transportation system in the whole of Germany is very developed. Neither of them drove a car and walked towards the subway station side by side. Eric also simply brought two bodyguards to follow, and soon took the subway to come. Arrive at the famous Museum Island in Berlin.

The name Museum Island sounds strange. In fact, this is a museum group composed of several museums such as the Berlin Museum and the National Gallery. Eric is not very interested in German culture. To be honest, because In the long-term turmoil in Europe, Germany has really not formed any culture that can be used. In fact, many people can find that whether it is the United Kingdom, France, even Italy, Greece and other countries, most people can talk about it. You can talk about a series of cultures, tourist attractions, etc., but Germany is an exception. When you mention Germany to the people around you, maybe their first reaction: Hitler. This is not some glorious history.

Although Caroline's personality is extremely shy, the girl's knowledge reserve can indeed be described as profound. Many museum docents don't necessarily know the posture, and the girl can often say it lightly. Eric also asked curiously about this. The answer given by the girl did not surprise him. Eric could only be a little emotional and envious. Although he inherited all the memories of his previous life, after his rebirth, Eric did not have the ability to remember it. With the loss of time, some of the past life memories that were originally very clear gradually began to dissipate. (To be continued...)

reading net