Before anyone knew it, the date was July 22nd.
Hard Candy had finished its first weekend in theaters. Even though Zane and his team had spent a lot of money on ads, it was only showing on 300 screens. You can't start a big bonfire with just a few little twigs.
The number one movie of the weekend was The Moment of Killing, which made $28.5 million.
Even Independence Day, which had been out for three weeks, was still a monster hit. It came in second place with $27.35 million.
The list went on and on. Courage Under Fire made $25 million. Phenomenon and The Nutty Professor both made over $15 million.
"Darn it," Zane muttered, clenching his teeth as he read the list. "All of these are giant, hit movies. I'm trying to win a card game with a pair of twos, and everyone else has a full house."
The number for his movie, Hard Candy, was $1.3 million.
"Boss, with all these huge movies out, we all knew this was going to happen," Victor said, trying to make him feel better.
Zane nodded and forced a smile. "It's fine, I'm just venting. We'll make the money back."
The director, Zack Snyder, let out a sigh of relief. "As long as the movie doesn't lose money, I'm happy."
"Hahaha!" Zane suddenly laughed, clapping Zack on the shoulder. "Zack, we should be celebrating! Your first movie is a success. The box office might be small, but we'll make a really nice profit once we sell the DVDs and videos."
He was right. For a small, weird movie, making over a million dollars against that kind of competition was actually really good. The movie cost about $1.6 million in total. If it made just $5 million, it would break even. Everything after that was pure profit. It wasn't a giant win, but it was a solid, smart success.
Of his three new movies, Hard Candy was out. wrong turn(the slasher movie) was set for Halloween. And Juno (the teen comedy) was still being filmed, aiming for the big Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
"Boss, I have some genuinely good news," Victor said, his eyes lighting up.
"Oh? Don't keep me waiting," Zane urged. Zack leaned in, curious.
"You remember we got the online toy license for Independence Day," Victor began.
"Of course I remember," Zane chuckled. "Those vampires at 20th Century Fox charged me a million dollars for it. I bet they're regretting that now."
"Exactly!" Victor's smile got huge. "They must be sick about it. In less than twenty days, our sales of Independence Day toys on Amazon.com have already passed $5.5 million!"
Zane couldn't help but slap his knee. "Beautiful! I would love to see the looks on their faces at Fox right now. It's not easy to get the better of me!"
"How much of that is profit?" Zack asked, super impressed.
"That's the best part," Victor said. "We estimate that by the end of this month, just from those toys, the company will have made at least $2 million in pure profit."
Zack whistled. That was a ton of money.
Zane was about to make a fortune. It seemed like good news never comes alone.
Because, at that same time, the global copyright for "America's Got Talent" was officially registered in his name.
He had just dug up another giant gold mine.
"Victor," Zane ordered, "I want you to send a team to the UK, right away. Have them start talks with the BBC to sell them the rights to Got Talent."
"Right away, boss," Victor replied, leaving to make the calls.
Zack looked curious. "Boss, what's this Got Talent copyright? A new movie?"
"Zack, how many times do I have to tell you? Call me Zane," he said with a friendly wave of his hand. "And no, it's not a movie. It's a new TV variety show idea I came up with. I'm going to sell the idea to the BBC."
"Oh, I see," Zack said, and he wisely decided not to ask any more questions.
Zane almost sighed. Ask more questions, Zack! he thought. How am I supposed to impress you with how smart I am if you don't ask for the details?
...
At that exact moment, in an office at 20th Century Fox, two bosses were, in fact, cursing Zane's name.
"Nearly six million dollars in online toy sales in twenty days?!" "That means Wald Pictures is making at least two million in profit this month!" "Darn it! We left so much money on the table!" "We never should have sold it for a flat $1 million! We should have doubled it! Or better yet, we should have just sold the toys ourselves! We'd have made all that money!"
They were so angry, but it was too late. The contract was signed. They had to just sit and watch Zane feast on all the money they thought was theirs.
They seethed with hatred for him.
...
A week later, the team Zane had sent to the UK came back to Los Angeles. Martha, his legal boss, gave him the report.
"So," Zane said, "the BBC is interested in Got Talent, but they're refusing to share any of the profits?"
She nodded. "Their minds are made up. And even if they buy the idea from us, they won't pay a penny over three million pounds."
Three million pounds? Zane thought. That's nothing! They're treating me like a beggar!
"I remember," he muttered to himself, "the British guy who really created this show sold the rights to NBC in America for $70 million!"
Now, Zane had a problem. How was he going to break this impasse and get the BBC to pay him what his idea was really worth?
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