I am Hollywood

Chapter 874: Chapter 875: Strong Opening Weekend

[Chapter 875: Strong Opening Weekend]

Kim Kardashian struggled to sleep all night, preoccupied with Eric's question about her name from the day before.

Instinctively, Kim felt that Eric must be interested in her. At first, she was excited about the prospect of being close to someone so significant; she imagined that if she could associate with a big shot like him, no one would ever ignore her again.

However, as the day unfolded, Eric's attitude toward her remained nonchalant, which left her feeling both anxious and disappointed. After the party ended, she tossed and turned for hours. As the first light of dawn crept through her window, she finally got out of bed, not expecting to see Eric already awake, sitting in the yard reading the newspaper.

When Eric greeted her, Kim quickly replied, "Good morning, Mr. Williams."

She stood there for a moment, waiting. When she noticed Eric had shifted his focus back to the paper, she hesitantly walked over to the opposite side of the long table and sat down. Leaning in, she tried to strike up a conversation, "Mr. Williams, are you reading the Los Angeles Times?"

"Yep." Eric replied casually, taking a sip of milk. He glanced at Kim Kardashian sitting across from him, leaning slightly toward him. Dressed only in a form-fitting white tank top, her chest seemed almost prominently displayed on the table, causing Eric to choke slightly, spraying milk out.

Kim noticed Eric's gaze and felt a bit proud until he coughed. She quickly got up and moved closer, asking, "Mr. Williams, are you okay?"

Eric waved her back, seeing her extend a box of tissues towards him. He took it and pointed to the table. "Stay there, sit opposite me."

Kim hesitated, feeling a bit rejected but still tried to maintain the previous posture. After Eric cleaned up the milk stains on his shirt, Kim found the courage to say, "Mr. Williams, I... I'm serious about this."

Eric unfolded the newspaper and casually remarked, "It looks fake."

"No, it's real," Kim shook her head, surveyed the empty surroundings, and boldly continued, "If you don't believe me, you can touch and see for yourself."

"Forget it. Even if I touch it, I won't give you a certificate." Eric laughed and shook his head. "Are you from New York?"

When Kim heard Eric ask her a question, she quickly responded, "Yeah, how did you know?"

Eric shrugged, "I just figured, the Hiltons must live in New York."

Kim didn't want Eric to think of her as just Paris Hilton's sidekick. She stammered in her explanation, "I... I'm just classmates with her. We came to Los Angeles for the summer together. And, um, I live with my dad. He's a businessman and used to run a record label; now he's in the juice business."

Something felt off to Eric, so he looked up and asked, "Is your dad named Robert Kardashian?"

Kim's eyes lit up, and she quickly nodded, "Yes! Mr. Williams, do you know him?"

That was right. Robert Kardashian, the renowned defense attorney from the Simpson murder trial. However, it felt odd because this was clearly information from Eric's past life. According to his memories, the Simpson case occurred in 1994, and due to deep-rooted racial issues and the backdrop of the recent Los Angeles riots, it had dominated people's attention across America. It was a sensational case in its time.

However, it was now 1997 in this timeline, and Eric hadn't heard anything about the Simpson case, indicating that some events had changed course.

"I think I heard someone mention it," Eric replied vaguely to Kim, but then another thought crossed his mind, "From what you said, your parents must be divorced?"

"Yeah, my stepdad is Bruce Jenner. He used to be an Olympic champion, but now he focuses on television."

"Oh, and what about your mom?"

"Her name is Kris," Kim said, then added, "My mom loves the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show; she often says that one day she wants to be part of a reality show."

Eric didn't expect Kim to bring that up suddenly, reminding him of the idea he had about a reality show focused on Hollywood girls. It was clear that a producer was needed. He and the girls couldn't do everything themselves. Bruce Jenner and Kris Jenner, who in the original timeline had created Keeping Up with the Kardashians, stood out as the perfect candidates. They might lack some production experience, but Hollywood, with its millions of industry professionals, was never short of talented creators. What they lacked was not technical skill, but rather the kind of bold ideas that could become successful and the execution to make those ideas come to life. The Jenner couple had experience in generating buzz.

Organizing his thoughts, Eric smiled and asked, "Is your mom really interested in reality shows?"

Kim looked a bit puzzled but nodded, "Yeah."

"How about this," Eric wandered his gaze around and pulled a piece of paper from the newspaper he had, grabbed a pen, and wrote down a phone number. He handed it to Kim and said, "This is my assistant's office number. Pass this on to your mom. Of course, you mentioned your stepdad is focused on television, so he can get involved as well."

Kim took the piece of paper with the number, momentarily bewildered. Although she was still in high school, her upbringing had given her ample life experience. She instinctively felt that her family's life might change dramatically because of this phone number. Gripping it tightly, she stammered, "Mr. Williams, what... then what?"

"Do you remember the reality show idea I mentioned yesterday about Hollywood girls? Tell them that within a week, I need to see a reality show proposal. If I'm satisfied with it, I can let your stepdad and mom be the producers."

"Ah," Kim found it hard to believe. Being a producer in Hollywood was one of the most powerful positions one could have. Also, TV producers often had even more authority than film producers. Looking again at the number, Kim hesitated and asked, "Mr. Williams, you can't be joking with me, right?"

Eric shook his head and joked, "With those assets you have, I doubt you'd get my humor."

Kim merely flushed at that comment and said, "But my stepdad and mom are in New York, and my mom takes care of my two younger sisters, Kendall and Kylie, who aren't even three years old yet."

Eric shrugged, "That's not my problem. If I don't see a proposal in a week, it's off the table."

Kim didn't dare negotiate with Eric and nodded obediently, "Okay."

...

Since it was a summer weekend, the girls didn't wake up until close to noon. After the twins woke up, Eric had them drive him back to the estate where the girls lived in Trousdale. He spent the morning handling some work emails and had planned to start outlining the Fast and Furious script in the afternoon. However, once all the girls gathered around him, they dragged him into another day of fun.

...

After three days of the weekend, The Lion King II debuted at the box office with a $38.9 million, while Con Air, the runner-up, only managed to bring in $24.1 million, a difference of over $14 million.

Comparing this to May's release of The Fifth Element, which Sony had mismanaged, resulting in just over $22 million during its opening weekend, the performance of Con Air wasn't too shabby. However, even without mentioning that Firefly Group's Titanic had just crossed the $600 million mark before finally leaving theaters, Con Air's numbers paled in comparison to The Lion King.

Simultaneously, due to several key international markets opening at the same time, their revenue also fell short of expectations. Added to that, Con Air's reviews only managed to scrape by at a passing grade, which led the projections firms and Firefly's distribution department to cut their original $300 million global box office expectations significantly.

Seeing that major blockbuster hits like Godzilla and Batman & Robin were set to release in quick succession, The Hollywood Reporter even lowered Con Air's North American box office prediction to $80 million, while the global projection sat at $180 million. Firefly Group internally adjusted Con Air's global forecast down to $200 million. According to those estimates, it was unlikely that Con Air would bring in profit for Firefly. The company had to bank on the future home video and merchandise sales for revenue.

While anyone with knowledge of the industry knew that The Lion King II and Con Air weren't serious box office competitors, it was undoubtedly a fact that The Lion King II had vastly outperformed Con Air. The earlier promotional efforts had heavily suppressed Paramount Pictures, who now exaggerated The Lion King II's 'hard-fought' victory. After the opening weekend revealed the numbers, they were eager to announce a celebratory party. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

...

Meanwhile, Paramount's consecutive animation hits, Pocahontas and The Lion King II, contrasted sharply with Firefly's failure to release even one animated film the prior year. This led to rising doubts about Eric's decision to sell Disney's animation studio, with a San Francisco newspaper calling it "Hollywood's dumbest business decision."

With these critiques surfacing, the soon-to-be-released Finding Nemo garnered more attention than ever.

The higher-ups at Firefly had already viewed the finished product of Finding Nemo. While they acknowledged its excellence, most lacked confidence that it could surpass The Lion King II. After all, the release date was squished between Godzilla and Batman & Robin. Despite recognizing this, there was no way to adjust the schedule anymore. Everyone could only hope that Godzilla and Batman & Robin wouldn't rake in too high of a box office to allow Finding Nemo more breathing room.

...

Although the core actors had yet to be confirmed, the creative teams for both Spider-Man and Iron Man had been assembled. Cameron and his longtime collaborator Jon Landau were handling Spider-Man, while Eric personally took on the role of producer for Iron Man. Marvel had also officially signed Joss Whedon to direct.

After the weekend, Eric began frequent meetings with Marvel's executives and the main creatives from both teams to discuss the scripts, casting, budgets, and other issues for Iron Man and Spider-Man.

Preliminary estimates suggested that special effects technology development and testing would require another six months.

Moreover, due to the large scale of production, if anything went awry during filming, it could cost the company over a million dollars a day. Thus, the preparatory work had to be meticulously reviewed, prolonging this period to exceed six months -- delays of a few years weren't uncommon either. In the previous timeline, Iron Man had been in development since the 1990s, with its official shoot not happening until 2007. Cameron's Avatar sequel ended up taking more than a decade to complete.

Eric certainly didn't want either project to drag on for that long.

The schedule for Iron Man had tentatively set the shooting to commence in March of the following year, with filming expected to last four months. The special effects production could take up to eight months. If everything went smoothly, the film was set to complete in March 1999, ready for a summer release that year.

As for Spider-Man, Cameron had practically scrapped the previous script and was in the process of crafting a brand-new storyline.

Additionally, Cameron recently had a bold idea: to enhance the realism of Peter Parker swinging between skyscrapers in New York, he wanted the digital team to develop an entire suite of special effects software for that purpose. These innovations would undoubtedly take additional time, so Eric just hoped this project could commence shooting by the end of next year. As long as it made it in time for the summer of 2000, they would be golden.

...

While overseeing these two projects at Marvel, Eric managed to draft an outline for Fast and Furious, which he handed over to the girl to find a screenwriter to flesh it out.

Historically, the series had a rocky development. The first installment was a success, seen as a fluke, followed by subsequent films that didn't perform well until the fourth entry finally entered Hollywood's mainstream big-budget territory.

This time, though Eric wouldn't have to navigate as many obstacles, he also knew it wouldn't happen overnight. The first script still closely followed the narrative of the original first film because, after all, the fourth installment's success could also be attributed to the gradual rise in popularity from its predecessors.

...

Workdays flew by, and on June 6, while The Lion King II and Con Air's opening weekend numbers were coming in, Sony's highly anticipated Godzilla was set to powerfully debut across over 3,300 screens in North America.

*****

/Sayonara816.