America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz-Chapter 920 - 863 Nolans New Project
Chapter 920: Chapter 863: Nolan’s New Project
Chapter 920: Chapter 863: Nolan’s New Project
After 2000 until 2012, Hollywood relied too much on DVD sales to make money.
Take Martin’s Davis Studio, for example, the regular edition DVD of a popular movie sold for 15 to 20 US dollars, while the Blu-ray version could fetch about 30 US dollars, and the mass production cost was only one percent of that.
Subtracting channel costs, the net profit from one ordinary DVD could exceed 10 US dollars.
With the rise of Netflix, the online streaming market rapidly expanded, ready to replace DVDs as the first major offline revenue source after a movie’s theatrical window.
Davis Studio made a first-year bid of 100 million US dollars,
Negotiations like this would not reach an agreement quickly and could extend until “John Wick: Chapter 3” was taken down from North American theaters.
After vacationing in Hawaii, Martin and his group returned, and Bruce immediately took people to Paris to meet Orlina.
Lily and Elizabeth were not idle either, launching a smear campaign against Martin via the Davis Studio’s publicity and PR team.
On the internet and entertainment media, a lot of negative stories about Martin appeared.
“Hollywood’s Number One Playboy—Martin Davis!”
The article detailed Martin’s romantic endeavors since arriving in Hollywood, starting from Eliza Cuthbert, and during every girlfriend’s tenure, he frequently messed around with other beautiful actresses.
Other stories included residents of Sunset Boulevard North District accusing Martin of disrupting community order, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening berating Martin, Leonardo and Nicholson throwing fireworks into their house, and a small business owner in Atlanta exposing Martin’s previous scams before he became famous.
For Martin today, this damage was almost nil, yet it shattered the idealistic filter online, letting the world know he was not a god but a person full of desires, who also engaged in plenty of contemptible acts.
The campaign to deify him had not yet crowned a deity, but the myth had automatically been debunked.
Nonetheless, fans still supported Martin.
“Envying Martin’s life.”
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
“Undoubtedly a scoundrel as a member of Hollywood’s infamous Trio of Scoundrels.”
“I think Martin is a charming scoundrel.”
“Yes, a charming scoundrel!”
The Cola Cult was a liberal belief system without any constraints, its followers liked and worshipped Martin but didn’t regard him as the Pope of the Vatican.
In a luxurious villa in Malibu Hills,
Kevin Tsujihara put down the newspaper, looked at Jon Berg who was sitting on the couch, and said, “Your deification campaign failed, their sense of smell is very sharp.”
Jon Berg, continuously scrolling through Twitter on his phone, also saw the trending news that was widely shared online.
It included tweets exposing Martin’s dirty laundry.
As a media industry professional, Jon Berg only needed a slight discernment to realize that these were deliberately released.
He frowned and asked, “Could the plan have been leaked?”
“Impossible,” said Kevin Tsujihara. “Only five people including you and me knew about this deification plan, even the media we contacted didn’t understand what was happening. As ‘John Wick: Chapter 3’ box office soared and Martin Davis’s influence skyrocketed, those media editors thought it was pushed by Disney or Davis Studio.”
Jon Berg said, “To elevate someone so highly, to deify him and then break that illusion, to see him fall from such a height… I didn’t expect it to collapse so quickly.”
Kevin Tsujihara analyzed, “It’s probably not a leak in the plan, but rather Martin Davis recognized the risks of such media portrayal.”
Jon Berg felt a headache coming on: “Does this asshole have some kind of persecution complex?”
“Let’s call off this plan,” Tsujihara shook his head. “We initially wanted to peak Martin’s reputation before the release of ‘Joker,’ reap its profits, then let him crash. Now he himself has spilled these beans; pushing further makes no sense.”
Jon Berg asked, “Can’t we use the ‘Joker’ project to get him?”
Regrettably, Tsujihara said, “Don’t forget, I have tough competitors in the board and Time Warner. If someone catches a hold of a business mishandling, it would be a lot of trouble. The rights to ‘Joker’ were already given to Nolan and Martin, with Warner Bros. handling distribution. The current head of Warner Bros. is Daniel, and he’s not on our side.”
Hearing this, Jon Berg grew more resentful of Martin. He used to be the president of Warner Bros. If not for Martin’s deception, would he have fallen so low as to struggle in Hollywood?
He sighed, “Warner Bros. is becoming a company separate from Warner Bros. itself, can’t you take down Daniel?”
“Not for now, the confidence from the main company’s board isn’t enough,” Tsujihara considered. “Right now, all of Warner Bros. and Time Warner’s attention is on the DC Extended Universe. As long as this series succeeds like the Avenger, I could leverage that achievement to ask for more power and take back control of Warner Bros.”
Jon Berg understood the significance of the DC Extended Universe series—its potential for acclaim and high returns far exceeded average movies due to its extensive merchandising opportunities.
Tsujihara added, “Martin has played us before, we can use Warner Bros. to play him eventually.”
Thinking of his own miserable plight, Jon Berg said, “If you need me, just say the word.”
