Chapter 122: The CAA Revelation
Chapter 122: The CAA Revelation
Although Michael Ovitz had built Creative Artists Agency into an industry giant, the company still had not gone public.
Therefore, although this storm had arrived with tremendous momentum, as long as it was handled properly, aside from causing some damage to CAA’s reputation, it would not inflict too much real harm.
Even the batch of second- and third-tier artists poached by other agencies would not truly affect CAA’s foundation.
Although CAA’s roster had not yet reached the scale of more than six thousand artists it would possess over twenty years later, it still had over a thousand clients. The departure of a few dozen people simply was not enough to shake the company.
Soon, all CAA partner agents and signed artists received a personally written letter from Michael Ovitz himself.
The letter clarified the reasons behind Tom Cruise leaving CAA, recounted the company’s brilliant achievements over the years, and emphasized the tremendous changes CAA had brought to actors’ careers. He hoped everyone would not be influenced by public opinion and would continue trusting CAA.
The reason these stars had joined CAA in the first place was because of the enormous benefits the agency could provide.
However, with the panic now spreading inside CAA, and with other agencies offering lower commission percentages, those departures gradually became inevitable.
At the same time, even more stars began wavering.
Michael Ovitz became overwhelmed.
While furiously cursing Cruise, he had no choice but to lower himself and personally persuade major stars who were considering leaving. It was something he had not done in a very long time.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the city, Eric — the original instigator of this entire storm — naturally had no intention of staying uninvolved.
This was a perfect opportunity.
An opportunity to prevent the future ten-year dominance of CAA.
If Kapoor said he was not delighted inside, that would be pure hypocrisy. Even his shiny bald head seemed to gleam a little brighter.
Leaning back in his executive chair, Eric smiled and asked, “What if it’s Tom Hanks?”
“Who?” Kapoor immediately pricked up his ears and leaned slightly forward.
“Tom Hanks,” Eric repeated.
Kapoor revealed a meaningful wicked grin. “Eric, are you serious? If it’s him, then I suppose I can reluctantly burden myself with one more responsibility.”
“Reluctantly? You’re practically laughing yourself to death inside,” Eric teased.
Ignoring the joke, Kapoor hurriedly asked, “Eric, do you really think you can poach Tom Hanks?”
Eric shook his head. “No. But I’m going to try. I already invited Hanks to dinner tonight, and he agreed.”
Kapoor was full of confidence in Eric.
This young man had already brought him far too many surprises.
“Eric, why not try bringing Cruise into UTA as well? He doesn’t have an agency now either.”
“You can stop dreaming about that,” Eric replied. “Cruise’s ambitions are huge right now. He wants to walk the producer path. He’ll probably establish his own film production company very soon.”
Even Eric himself had not expected that because of his appearance, Cruise would embark on the same path from Eric’s previous life seven years earlier.
Most likely, it was because Cruise had been stimulated by Eric’s string of blockbuster successes and massive profits.
Back then, Cruise’s conditions during negotiations with CAA had not actually been outrageous at all.
A five-million-dollar salary plus ten percent of the profits.
To Eric, who in his previous life had grown accustomed to hearing about twenty-million-dollar salaries and ten-to-twenty percent profit participation deals, this was entirely reasonable.
However, the profit-sharing model had only just begun appearing in Hollywood.
CAA had confidently promised Hanks that they would secure profit participation for him, only for that promise to suddenly vanish afterward.
There was no way Hanks would not feel dissatisfied.
Others might not understand, but Eric knew perfectly well what kind of potential Hanks possessed.
Moreover, the next decade would become the explosive peak of Hanks’s acting career.
Not only would he accumulate box office totals worth tens of billions of dollars, he would also become the second actor in more than half a century to win consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
Although Eric verbally claimed he was not confident about poaching Hanks, in truth he felt there was over a ninety percent chance of succeeding.
Compared to CAA—
“The CAA Revelation: How a Talent Empire Was Built.”
Kapoor slowly opened the manuscript and began reading.
The further he read, the more serious his expression became.
Only after finishing the entire document did Kapoor slowly raise his head and stare at Eric as though looking at some kind of monster.
The manuscript was extremely long, over ten pages in total.
It thoroughly described CAA’s operating philosophy, the management structure created by its elite agents, its packaging strategies, its commission system, its client management methods, and the way it integrated resources across the entire entertainment industry chain.
As someone who had personally experienced those systems, Kapoor could understand nearly everything at a glance.
But what he lacked was the ability to systematically organize those ideas into a complete operational theory for running a talent agency.
More importantly, he was deeply curious how Eric knew all of this.
Once CAA’s operating strategies became exposed, if the company ever went public, it would inevitably have to disclose many of its advanced management philosophies to investors.
And those methods, which had allowed CAA to stay ahead of older traditional agencies, could then easily be copied by competitors.
After all, a company’s management style was not something that could be patented.
If other agencies simply imitated CAA’s methods, then the mysterious aura surrounding CAA would quickly disappear.
In reality, even in Eric’s previous life, CAA’s operational strategy had never truly been some great secret.
Eric remembered that around 1996, when CAA had already grown into an untouchable giant, the company’s veil of mystery was finally lifted completely.
Only then did the public suddenly realize why CAA had become such an enormous monster back then.
Even Michael Ovitz himself, the man who had personally built the beast, ultimately failed when he later tried to challenge it.
And all the agents inside CAA were merely individual components within that massive machine.
They could help CAA continue charging forward without stopping.
But if you asked any single component to explain the operating principles of the entire machine, the result would only resemble blind men trying to describe an elephant.
The only person who could fully explain the entire operating theory behind CAA was probably Michael Ovitz himself.
Of course, now there was one more person.
Eric.