Chapter 941 Unexpected First Day Box Office

Eric talked to Matthew Perry about "Teddy Bear" at the party that night, and he didn't have any scruples about the film that ruined his childhood with no morals. Instead, he showed great interest. The two sides hit it off, so, after a symbolic audition, the actor of "Teddy Bear" was determined.

The male protagonist of "Teddy Bear" has been finalized, and projects such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Iron Man", "Speed ​​and Passion", and "Desperate Housewives" that Eric is personally responsible for are basically ready. When I rushed to New York to spend Christmas with women and children, the only project in my hand was the heroine of "Midnight Bell".

While most Western countries are basking in the joy of the approaching Christmas, Southeast Asia is still ravaged by the financial turmoil.

After resisting with all its strength for half a month, South Korea finally gave up its protection of the won. In just two weeks, the exchange rate of the won against the U.S. dollar plummeted. The highest decline reached a terrifying 73%.

Long Island, East Hampton.

Joanna and Virginia are no longer moving between East Hampton and Southampton because the two little guys are almost school age, and a brand new elementary school is currently being built in East Hampton, which will be completed next year. Wen and Hawaii are five years old, and the private school, built at no cost, is almost on track, just enough to admit two little guys. Before that, Joanna and Virginia unanimously decided to have Kevin and Hawaii attend preschool at home.

The time is already December 20, and Eric just flew over from Los Angeles yesterday.

The Chris family also made a special trip to East Hampton for Christmas this year. After breakfast, Chris came over from their East Hampton estate to chat with Eric about Southeast Asia.

There has just been a heavy snowfall on the east coast in the past few days. Although it has ushered in a sunny day, the sun has no temperature at all.

However, Eric and Chris did not hide in the study, but sat at the round table by the swimming pool in the backyard, feeling the weak sunshine in winter, and seeing a big girl and three little guys building a snowman not far away. , that's Eva Pakula with Kevin, Hawaii and Emma.

"Mike Tapler of Apollo Fund didn't know if he cried a lot in private. He chose to short the Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah and other currencies, but this time he bet that the Korean won would not plummet. It is said that he lost 12 100 million US dollars, and most of the previous income was basically filled in. Many funds that were not 100% sure about the direction of the Korean won also regretted it, but they were lucky, at least they did not make a mistake. It plummeted 73%, almost everyone did not Thinking that the Korean won would fall so hard in a short period of time, many people started to deliver when the Korean won to the US dollar was 1500:1. If you hadn't insisted, I actually planned to do so at that time, but fortunately I didn't do it. Now we The funds in the account are close to 800 million, and after the final settlement, excluding various fees, the profit will be at least 450 million US dollars.”

Chris said in an excited tone, and Eric was actually a little surprised. He originally thought that his reborn memory would not be of much help in this financial crisis, but in fact it surpassed himself. expectations.

Take the Korean won as an example, if Chris chooses to deliver at 1500:1 of the Korean won to the US dollar, the depreciation of the Korean won will be about 50%. The US$1.1 billion short position established by Firefly Investments, according to the exchange rate of the Korean won at the time of delivery, can recover about US$550 million of funds. After deducting the principal of US$300 million, the profit is only US$250 million.

But at Eric's insistence, Chris patiently waited until the Korean won fell below 1,700 points before starting the delivery. At this time, the short position of the Korean won originally worth 1.1 billion US dollars had fallen to 300 million US dollars. After the short contract is delivered,

The book income of Firefly Investment is close to 800 million US dollars, and the profit after deducting the principal is more than double that when the Korean won falls by 50%.

During the entire Southeast Asian financial turmoil, Firefly invested 700 million US dollars in principal, which increased to 1.8 billion US dollars in the whole process, which also far exceeded Eric's original expectations. However, a large part of the reason for this is that Firefly invests very little money, and the boat is small and easy to turn around. If it is a large-scale fund such as the Quantum Fund, which is enough to change the pattern of financial turmoil, it is definitely impossible to obtain such a high return.

While chatting, the twins came over with a pot of hot coffee, and the two stopped their conversation temporarily. Eric glanced at the twins' fair necks subconsciously, and noticed the word 'e' hanging on the silver necklace, which should be sister Yi Fu.

When Eve left, Chris picked up the coffee she just poured for the two of them and said, "Eric, don't you think there are more women around you?"

"This is the dream of my two lifetimes," Eric also smiled as he picked up the coffee, and pointed to Eva Pakula not far away: "That one doesn't count."

Chris looked at the back of Eve's departure and said, "So, forget the rest."

"Yeah," Eric nodded unabashedly, no matter whether it was a man's possessiveness or bad nature, although he never meant to eat the twins, Eric had no intention of letting him go.

Chris just asked half-jokingly, and didn't continue the topic, saying, "Speaking of which, there is a fund manager's party in Manhattan next weekend. Would you like to come and see it together?"

"You can do this yourself, I don't have a common language with them," Eric shook his head, he really had no interest in this group.

"But Soros will also go," Chris said with encouragement in his tone: "The last time I met him, he also said that he liked your comments on him, and I hope to have a chance to chat with you. ."

Eric wondered: "What comment, I don't remember that I met him?"

"It seems that, a few words of ancient Chinese, he just mentioned one casually at the time, and I didn't ask in detail."

Eric just remembered that after reading Soros' book "Financial Alchemy", he wrote on the title page of the book "Heaven and earth are furnaces, creation is work; yin and yang are carbon, and all things are copper. ', he felt that it was very appropriate to use these two sentences in "Pengniao Fu" to describe Soros's ups and downs in the international financial market.

Eric remembered to give Katzenberg the "Financial Alchemy" with those few sentences in it. He thought that this matter should have been passed on to Soros from Katzenberg. Katzenberg was originally a New Yorker and would come back often. It is said that Soros also made a lot of friends. There is still a great chance for the two of them to meet.

"I almost remember," Eric nodded. He was actually curious about Soros, so he said, "Next weekend, if you have a chance, come and see it."

The two were chatting when Eric's cell phone rang. He looked at the TV ID and couldn't help laughing. Just thinking of Katzenberg, he called.

He raised his phone and gestured to Chris, but Eric didn't dodge either. He leaned on the back of the chair and pressed the connect button.

After a few words of greetings, Eric asked, "Jeffrey, it should be more than six o'clock in the morning in Los Angeles. Is there anything urgent?"

"..."

Katzenberg on the other side of the phone said something, and Eric shook his head and said, "I read some movie reviews in the newspapers this morning, and the word-of-mouth of Rush Hour 2 doesn't seem to be as good as that of Starship Troopers. I didn't see the box office information, you should come out there, right?"

Yesterday was December 19, Friday, which was also the beginning of the Christmas season. New Line Cinema's "Rush Hour 2" and Sony Pictures' "Starship Troopers" were released on a large scale yesterday.

The time zone of Los Angeles is three hours later than that of New York. It is already past nine o'clock in the morning in New York, and it is just past six in the morning in Los Angeles, which is far from work time. Eric also didn't pay much attention to box office information as he did when "Titanic" was released last year. In this case, the Firefly distribution department in Los Angeles would probably send yesterday's single-day box office information to Eric's electronic device after going to work. in the mailbox.

Eric had already read some film reviews of "Rush Hour 2" and "Starship Troopers" when he had breakfast. Overall, "Rush Hour 2" was only barely passable in terms of film critics, while "Starship Troopers" was good. Much more, the comprehensive evaluation exceeds 7 points.

Hearing Katzenberg calling specifically to mention "Rush Hour 2", Eric thought that the film might also fail at the box office. He was already mentally prepared in advance, but, as Katzenberg said again After a few words, Eric immediately straightened up: "$23.1 million on the first day, you can't make a mistake, right?"

"..."

"What was the box office of Starship Troopers on the first day?"

"..."

Eric patiently listened to Katzenberg report some numbers, nodded from time to time, and chatted a few more words, and then hung up the phone, but his expression was a bit complicated.

Chris was sitting next to him and had heard a rough idea, but he still asked curiously, "What $23.1 million?"

"Rush Hour 2, you should have seen the first one, right?"

"Well, very interesting movie," Chris nodded, but after hearing and seeing for so long, Chris still knew Hollywood very well, and was surprised as soon as he finished speaking: "You mean, the box office of this movie on the first day is 2310 Ten thousand U.S. dollars?"

In Chris's impression, "Rush Hour" can only be regarded as a low-cost action comedy. The box office of the first movie seems to be good, but the sequel's first-day box office hit 23.1 million was unexpected. You know, according to the box office data on the first day, "Rush Hour 2" also has a guaranteed box office of 60 million US dollars in the first three days of the first weekend, and the box office in the first week is likely to exceed 80 million.

In Hollywood, the box office that can exceed 80 million US dollars in the first week is basically a super production in the hands of the seven major film companies, because these films have more publicity and marketing resources. The blockbuster movie of Firefly's Christmas schedule should be "Jurassic Park 3". Although "Rush Hour 2" is also very optimistic, it will definitely not reach the level of attention of "Jurassic Park 3". By the time "Rush Hour 2" will be so good at the box office, Firefly will definitely not put this film in "Jurassic Park 3" because it will definitely create internal competition.

Eric looked at Chris' surprised expression, nodded, and said, "No one expected that New Line's best estimate for the first weekend of "Rush Hour 2" was $30 million, that is to say, a single-day box office It should be around $10 million. But the actual number is more than double what was expected. It's Sony Pictures' Starship Troopers, which is somewhat in line with our expectations for Rush Hour 2, which I originally thought would suppress Rush Hour 2, but it actually made $8.3 million on its first day, less than half that of Rush Hour 2."

Chris said: "In this way, next week's "Jurassic Park 3" should be affected a little bit, right?"

"It will definitely have an impact," Eric nodded with a wry smile: "To be honest, I wasn't sure if Jurassic Park 3 would make $80 million at the box office in its first week, after all, this is the third film. , it could be worse now. Originally, "Rush Hour 2" was expected to be around $50 million in its first week, so that the second week will slip to less than $30 million at the box office, which will not be a big deal for "Jurassic Park" 3". But now, if "Rush Hour 2" exceeds $80 million in the first week, the next week's box office drop is calculated by 40%, and it still has $50 million, which is almost a quarter of the total North American box office in a single week. One."

After listening to Eric, Chris said, "It's always a good thing no matter what."

"Yeah, anyway, as the boss, I definitely hope that the box office of Firefly's movies will be as high as possible."

Eric can only say the same, but he made up his mind again to expand the new movie schedule, at least to prevent the movies in the Firefly system from affecting each other.

However, this kind of thing is simple to say, but when it is actually implemented, the trade-offs are more complicated. Which films should be put on a slightly less popular schedule, and which films should be adjusted to the best schedule to maximize the box office potential, these are not easy things to decide.

After all, most of the time, Eric can only know the approximate box office prospects of some films. Moreover, as the development trajectory of Hollywood becomes more and more deviated from the original track, some of the help brought by Eric's past life memories will gradually be weakened. .

Chris could also feel the depression in Eric's expression.

He actually also knows that if Firefly is to choose between "Rush Hour 2" and "Jurassic Park 3", Firefly must be more inclined to "Jurassic Park 3", because as a special effects blockbuster, "Jurassic Park" 3"'s overseas box office prospects far exceed those in North America. Even if the domestic box office performance in North America is slightly weaker, the global box office volume can still easily crush most Hollywood blockbusters.

"Rush Hour 2" is different. The major box office of this series is limited to North America. Compared with North America, the overseas box office performance can only be regarded as average. Moreover, the "Rush Hour" series in the peripheral derivatives benefits, It is even more incomparable with the "Jurassic Park" series.