Monday.
Ten days had passed since Juno came out.
"Boss," Victor said, handing Zane a report, "here are the numbers from last weekend."
Zane whistled. "Tsk, tsk!"
The movie theaters were busy!
Number 1:Star Trek: First Contact made $54 million.
Number 2:Jingle All the Way made $30.5 million.
Number 3: Zane's movie, Juno, made $22 million.
"Ten days in theaters," Zane said proudly, "and we've already made $108 million."
He was very pleased. But he also felt a little regret.
"If Warner Bros. hadn't interfered," he mumbled, "we would have made over $120 million by now."
"Oh, right," Zane said suddenly. "Victor, I want you to watch out for Disney's new movie, 101 Dalmatians. It's coming out soon. I have a feeling it's going to be huge. We need to keep advertising Juno hard."
"Understood, Boss," Victor said, though he looked confused.
101 Dalmatians was just a remake of an old cartoon. Most studios weren't worried about it.
But Zane knew the future. He knew 101 Dalmatians was going to be the 6th biggest movie of the year.
"Victor," Zane said with a warm smile, "don't work too late today. It's Christmas! Go be with your family."
Everyone else at Wald Pictures was already on holiday. Zane left the office and went home... alone.
"Christmas," he sighed. "Darn it."
Zane hated being alone on holidays. His girlfriend, Adriana, had gone home to Brazil. Even his bodyguards were off.
He was usually okay being alone, but on Christmas, he felt lonely. He wished he had a family to celebrate with.
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang.
"Who is it?" Zane wondered, a little excited. "Could it be Adriana coming back to surprise me?"
He opened the door. It wasn't Adriana.
It was his old friend, James Shawn!
"Hi, my dear old buddy!" James shouted, giving Zane a huge bear hug. "Surprised and touched to see me?!"
Zane pushed him away, laughing. "You jerk! Surprised? More like annoyed! Why didn't you come yesterday?"
He was just joking. He was actually really touched.
James smiled and pointed. "Look who else is here."
A little girl was pushing a lady in a wheelchair up the path.
"Hi, Zane! Merry Christmas!"
It was James's little sister, Lily, and his mother, Mrs. Alice.
Zane gave them both gentle hugs.
"Zane," Lily pouted, "it's my brother's fault! We wanted to come yesterday, but he waited too long, and then we got stuck in a snowstorm!"
Lily's sweet words warmed Zane's heart. It was nice to be with people who cared about him.
Mrs. Alice smiled. "Zane, I knitted this sweater for you. Do you like it?"
"Thank you!" Zane said, hugging her again. " This is the best Christmas present I've received this year."
They spent the rest of the day together, full of warmth and friendship.
...
A Few Days Later...
Wald Pictures was back to work.
"Boss!" Victor exclaimed. "You are a genius!"
Zane's prediction was right. 101 Dalmatians exploded! In just 3 days, it made $70 million. Everyone in Hollywood was shocked.
"If we hadn't kept advertising Juno," Victor said, "we would have been crushed!"
Because Zane was prepared, Juno kept making steady money—about $4 million a day. That was amazing, considering how big the competition was.
Other movies weren't so lucky. Michael Jordan's Space Jam crashed, making less than a million dollars in three days.
Zane had saved his movie.
...
At a Coffee Shop...
A man from a headhunting firm was talking to a 35-year-old woman.
"You're saying," the woman asked, confused, "that Mr. Blackwood wants to hire me as the new CEO of his TV network?"
She was very skeptical. She was confident, but right now, she was just a normal producer at Universal Pictures. Being a CEO seemed like a dream.
"Yes," the man said. "Mr. Blackwood will pay any fees to get you out of your contract. And he promises that if you make the network successful, you will get stock options!"
Money, power, and a chance to prove herself? How could she say no?
In the end, she accepted. She became the new CEO of UPN.
Her name was Donna Langley.
In the 1990s, she wasn't famous. But Zane knew that in the future (after 2013), she would become the Chairman of Universal Pictures, one of the biggest studios in the world!
She would make huge hits like Furious 7, Jurassic World, and Minions. She was a future legend.
And Zane had just hired her before anyone else knew how great she was.
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