At Universal Pictures Group...
"What?!"
Eric Langela, the chairman of the board, frowned as he looked at the paper in his hand. He was a thin old man, and he was clearly not happy.
"Our new movie didn't win the weekend? 'The Sixth Sense' made over $93 million?"
He looked up at the president of Universal Pictures, Raymond.
"Raymond, who is this Wald Pictures? How did they beat our movie, The Jackal?" he asked. "Are they a part of Columbia? Or Disney?"
Raymond Chevalane shook his head. "Neither, sir."
"Oh?" The little old man suddenly looked interested. "It's not one of the Big Six studios? Tell me more."
Eric was very curious. A small, new company had just beaten his own giant studio. As a smart businessman, his mind went straight to one thing: Profit.
He was already thinking: Maybe I can buy this company!
Raymond understood what his boss was thinking.
"Boss," he said, "the company is called Wald Pictures. It was started at the end of 1995. Before that, it was a small company called Hughes Pictures."
"The new owner is a young man named Zane Blackwood. He was only 18 when he bought it. Right after he bought it, he wrote and directed his first movie, Static."
"That movie made almost $14 million in North America."
"And the amazing part?" Raymond added. "It cost less than $1 million to make. It was a tiny movie that made a huge return."
"But the most important part is that Paramount bought the rights to show the movie in other countries. In just a few months, that little movie made hundreds of millions of dollars in Europe."
As he said this, even the little old man, Eric, looked shocked.
Hundreds of millions? That wasn't just a "big return." That was extraordinary!
For a second, Eric almost yelled at Raymond, "Why didn't we buy that movie?!" But he didn't. It was in the past, and yelling about it now would just make him look foolish.
"What happened after that?" Eric asked. He was a little upset that they had missed out on so much money.
Raymond's face looked even more shocked. "After that, boss, Wald Pictures released three more films: Hard Candy, Final Turn, and Juno."
"'Hard Candy' didn't make a lot, but people loved it, and it sold a lot of DVDs."
"'Final Turn' made over $32 million here and almost $40 million in other countries. It also cost only $1 million. Another huge hit."
"But the most powerful one," Raymond said, "was Juno. That movie made over $63 million in its first three days. Its total worldwide box office was over $200 million."
Darn!
The little old man, Eric, was so shocked he jumped up from his seat.
It wasn't just the money. It was the speed.
Wald Pictures was only a year old, and it had already released two movies that made over $100 million around the world. How could anyone not be shocked by that?
...
Raymond then told his boss everything else about Zane's company.
He bought the UPN television network and made the super-popular show "America's Got Talent."
He started an animation studio and made "SpongeBob SquarePants," a cartoon that was taking over America.
He owned a big chain of toy stores.
He had put all these companies together to make a new media group.
His music company had just released Eminem's new album, which sold over 30 million copies.
And... he had his own distribution network that could put his movies in theaters all across America.
All of this shocked the little old man again and again.
"Buy it!" Eric's eyes turned red. He almost roared, "We must buy that company! A company that good needs a strong parent, and Universal Pictures must not miss out!"
Raymond just shook his head and smiled a sad smile. "Boss, we tried. But Zane Blackwood said no."
"He... he refused?" The little old man snorted. "Does he not know how big and strong Universal Pictures is?"
He was angry. You dare to refuse me? Fine. See what happens.
He was already thinking of ways to crush Zane's company. He could use his power to make sure the media said bad things about Zane's movies. He could stop theaters from showing them. He could even make the movie rating board give them bad ratings.
This was just normal business for a giant company.
"Boss," Raymond said, "Wald Pictures has a lot of deals with Paramount."
"Oh?" The little old man stopped.
He knew this was a problem. If Paramount was protecting Wald Pictures, it would be very hard to stop them. The "Big Six" studios all worked together to control the movie ratings. If Paramount was on Zane's side, Universal couldn't just crush him.
"Well... fine!" the old man said. "If we can't crush him, we'll just use a real money offer to buy him!"
He calmed down. "Raymond, you go and talk to him. See how much money it would take. Hehe, a young man under 20... when he hears our big offer, he'll surely say yes."
But Raymond just shook his head again with that sad smile.
"Boss," he said, "don't think he's just a young kid. He really isn't short on money."
Raymond explained, "Besides being the boss of his own company, he also owns 2% of Yahoo, 12% of ICQ, and 8% of Amazon. Just the stocks from those three companies are worth over $600 million."
"Also, he owns a bank, that LinkedIn company, and a bunch of other investments, so..."
"So... Zane Blackwood was not short of money at all."
The little old man, Eric, was stunned. He was quiet for a long time.
Finally, he just sighed and said, "Are all the young people this impressive nowadays?"
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