Chapter 028: Countermeasures
Chapter 028: Countermeasures
Sure enough, he’s shifting the blame onto me, Lester Reed lamented inwardly. But under these circumstances, he did not dare refute him. Otherwise, he would definitely be thrown out.
“Mr. Cohen, perhaps we can try... try negotiating with Eric Williams and sign a new profit-sharing agreement.”
“That’s the solution you came up with?” Blount Cohen sneered. “If you were Eric Williams, would you agree to sign a new agreement?”
Lester Reed braced himself and said, “Eric Williams should know that according to the current box office trend, this is very unfair to Columbia, which invested far more than he did, so...”
Before Lester Reed could finish, Blount Cohen slammed the table and roared, “Enough! Fair? Since when have you seen fairness in this world? What I want is a countermeasure, a countermeasure that can win more benefits for Columbia, not wishful thinking.”
Lester Reed silently lowered his head and said nothing more.
Blount Cohen looked at the others, and his gaze finally landed on Amy Pascal, who was sitting at the end of the conference table. Back then, Amy Pascal had been the only person in the conference room who opposed Eric Williams’s gambling agreement. This gave him a faint glimmer of hope.
Blount Cohen softened his tone slightly and said to Amy Pascal, “Amy, do you have any good ideas?”
Although Blount Cohen was speaking harshly in the conference room, Amy Pascal was somewhat distracted. She was utterly disappointed in Blount Cohen. He was conservative, lacked courage, suspicious, and completely unable to remain calm when things happened. He did not have the bearing of someone in a high position at all. She did not know how Coca-Cola had chosen such a mediocre president. Amy Pascal even felt that perhaps she should change jobs.
However, when she heard Blount Cohen ask her, Amy Pascal still gathered her thoughts and said, “Mr. Cohen, regarding that gambling agreement, I have no solution at all. Even if we forcibly pull the film from theaters right now, it would still be impossible to obtain Home Alone’s rights for free. Instead, we would face a lawsuit from Eric Williams for damages reaching hundreds of millions of dollars.”
At this point, Amy Pascal paused, giving everyone a chance to think. Then, without waiting for Blount Cohen to speak again, she continued, “So what we should do now is try our best to win over Eric Williams and earnestly carry out the gambling agreement to show Columbia’s sincerity. Home Alone’s box office exceeding fifty million dollars is already certain, so the overseas rights and other peripheral copyrights will return to Eric Williams. Moreover, Home Alone will definitely have sequels. If we maintain a good cooperative attitude this time, then when the sequel is produced, I believe that with Eric Williams’s shrewdness, he will definitely continue cooperating with us. I think this is the only way to secure more benefits for Columbia.”
After Amy Pascal finished speaking, the other executives in the conference room could not help nodding. Although Blount Cohen somewhat agreed with Amy Pascal’s view, when he remembered that Amy Pascal might be friends with Jeffrey Hansen and Eric Williams, his suspicious nature made him feel that Amy Pascal’s suggestion was somewhat biased toward Eric.
So Blount Cohen could not help speaking again. “Amy, you are an employee of Columbia. You should try your best to think for the company, not always side with outsiders. If you can think of a way to overturn that gambling agreement and secure more benefits for us, I’ll promote you immediately.”
It was as if the scene from several weeks ago had repeated itself. She worked hard, did her utmost to bring quality film projects to the company, and did her utmost to offer strategies for the company. And what was the result? First, she was kicked out of the Home Alone project team. She felt she needed to avoid suspicion, so she had no complaints. Then, because she had been the only person to oppose that mistaken decision, she was asked to speak. She once again offered what she believed was a reasonable suggestion, yet she was questioned again.
This made Amy Pascal feel cold. A strong sense of grievance rushed straight to her head. Her nose grew slightly sour, and a certain liquid welled uncontrollably in her eyes. Women were made of water. In the end, she was only a woman.
She abruptly stood up. The chair behind her was knocked over by her sudden movement and fell to the floor with a loud clang.
“Mr. Cohen, I resign!”
The cold female voice rang out inside the conference room. After saying this, Amy Pascal did not organize the documents in front of her like last time. She directly turned and left the office.
“This is too much. This is truly too much. Who does she think she is?” Already at his breaking point because of Home Alone, Blount Cohen had no intention of reflecting on his own mistake. He slammed the table again and erupted. Turning to the assistant behind him, he said, “Notify security. Have that bitch get out immediately. Don’t let me see her in Columbia headquarters again.”
“Yes, Mr. Cohen.” The assistant answered softly in a pinched voice and carefully got up to leave the conference room.
After taking a sip of coffee and calming himself slightly, Blount Cohen said coldly, “Alright, continue. All of you, focus. Otherwise, I don’t mind signing a few more dismissal documents today.”
Although many of the executives felt that Amy Pascal’s suggestion just now was the most correct one, anyone capable of sitting in this conference room was a fairly capable professional manager. However, Blount Cohen had already fallen completely into a certain hysterical state. At this moment, no one would risk being fired to support Amy Pascal’s suggestion.
Therefore, the executives could only brace themselves and begin discussing. After several hours of deliberation, they finally came up with one countermeasure.
As soon as the meeting ended, Blount Cohen impatiently said to his assistant, “Contact Mr. Michael Eisner at Disney for me. I’ll invite him to dinner tonight. Tell him there’s an important matter to discuss, about Home Alone.”
“Yes, Mr. Cohen.” The assistant sensed that the hostility around Blount Cohen had actually disappeared after the meeting and felt relieved, no longer quite so fearful.
...
The next morning, as soon as the newspapers revealed Home Alone’s first-week box office of 27.55 million dollars, Eric, who had already received enormous attention, once again became the focus of public opinion. If many of the news reports about Eric before the film’s release had still been manufactured by the two giants for the sake of promoting the movies, then now, the media was acting entirely on its own initiative.
Under these circumstances, Eric, who had only returned to Los Angeles late the previous night, woke up to discover that the front of his house, where paparazzi had already stopped lingering, was now packed with reporters again. Yes, only the word “packed” could describe the number of these people. They formed a huge crowd, holding all kinds of long lenses and cameras.
Because Columbia had intentionally or unintentionally concealed the information, Eric had not immediately received the box office numbers for Home Alone. But the instant he saw those reporters, Eric knew that Home Alone’s box office had exploded.
Although he was grateful to these reporters for “notifying” him in this way, Eric still had no desire to deal with them. After breakfast, he directly slipped into the garage, planning to drive out of the reporters’ encirclement and go to Columbia headquarters to learn more about the situation.
However, clearly, in his previous life, Eric had never encountered such a “glorious” moment before, so he responded in the wrong way. As soon as the car left the house, it was instantly surrounded by a dense crowd of reporters. Several reporters even climbed onto the hood of his car, loudly asking questions while recklessly snapping photos of Eric in the driver’s seat. Reporters from other directions also frantically knocked on the car doors while shouting all kinds of questions.
“Mr. Eric, what do you think of Home Alone’s first-week box office of 27.55 million dollars?”
“Mr. Williams, do you think Home Alone will surpass E.T.?”
“Eric, according to the gambling agreement, you are about to become Hollywood’s youngest billionaire. What will you do after you have this money?”
“Mr. Eric, I’m a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. May I do an exclusive interview with you?”
“Eric...”
“...”
It was as if ten thousand ducks were constantly quacking beside his ears. Although Eric felt excited when he heard the first-week box office number of 27.55 million dollars, he felt even more nervous and uneasy. There were too many reporters surrounding the car, and he did not dare force himself to step on the accelerator. The chubby white reporter in front of the car was obviously eager to try, wearing a sleazy expression that seemed to say, Please hit me. Please interact with me.