Chapter 81: You Call This Asking for Too Much?

A week later, Wayne had had his fill of fun for the time being. Reluctantly, she boarded a plane back to Los Angeles, ready to start the military training her personal coach, arranged by Mike, had set up for her, in preparation for her upcoming auditions. As expected, Wayne received a bit of teasing from Hannah upon his return.

"Oh my God, is that Chinese woman really that charming? You actually spent an entire week with her!"

Wayne just smiled and didn't explain.

To be honest, in terms of looks and body, Zhang Ziyi was nowhere near as good as the three women Wayne had. But how could he resist? In his previous life, she had been an unreachable superstar, and now she had practically thrown herself at him. Still, after spending a week together, the filter through which he had seen Zhang had almost completely shattered. His only regret was that Europe was just too cold this time of year; otherwise, he could have pulled a move like that wealthy Jewish tycoon and taken her to the beach for some fun in the sun.

"By the way, Sera just faxed over a few documents you asked her to look into." As she spoke, Hannah handed over a stack of 30 to 40 pages.

"No rush. Let's take care of business first."

After an intense few hours, Hannah and the other two women collapsed on the bed, exhausted but satisfied, while Wayne, refreshed, picked up the documents Sera had sent and started going through them.

"Just as I thought, Pirates of the Caribbean has already started development," Wayne muttered, frowning slightly.

The stack contained five different projects he was interested in, with the first being the iconic "Pirates of the Caribbean." The five-movie series had grossed an astounding $4.5 billion worldwide. There was no need to explain how impressive that was.

Based on his knowledge from his previous life, Disney had originally been skeptical about the outdated pirate genre. It was only two years later, thanks to the legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, that the series came to life. 

Movies like "Bad Boys," "Top Gun," "The Rock," and "Enemy of the State" were all his box-office hits. Only someone with that kind of influence could convince Disney to greenlight the project.

Still, Wayne hadn't expected Bruckheimer to have started pitching *Pirates of the Caribbean* as early as the end of 2000.

But it made sense.

The official production budget for *Pirates of the Caribbean 1* was publicly stated to be $140 million, with the real cost likely not less than $80 million. Given the high risk, even a wealthy company like Disney wouldn't fund it entirely on their own; they'd want to share the investment and the risk. That's just how Hollywood worked.

What if the movie turned out to be a massive hit? Don't forget there are always marketing costs to inflate! Report higher distribution expenses, and that extra money goes right into their pockets.

This method wouldn't significantly impact profits but would greatly reduce the risk, which is why Hollywood production companies love shared investments.

But this wasn't ideal for someone like Wayne.

Initially, he had planned to buy the adaptation rights to *Pirates of the Caribbean* before it was officially greenlit. 

Don't think Disney wouldn't sell the rights. At that time, Disney wasn't nearly as massive as it would become in a decade. With the right price, they'd sell.

But now that Jerry Bruckheimer had started pushing the project, Wayne could only invest in the first film. Once the first movie became a hit, Disney would hold onto the rest of the series, keeping all the profits for themselves.

Of course, this would still be a good investment for most people. Putting in $10-20 million and doubling the return in two years was better than many top-tier investments. 

But for Wayne, two years was too long.

With his foresight from a previous life, he could invest in real estate or buy tech company stocks and get just as good a return, if not better.

And if all else failed, he could always buy Marvel.

He tossed the *Pirates of the Caribbean* file aside and picked up the next one, which contained Marvel's proposal. This included the asking price for the film rights to characters like Captain America, Thor, and Doctor Strange, as well as a business plan for buying Marvel.

Despite how popular Thor, Captain America, and Doctor Strange would become in the future, right now, they were third-tier heroes.

Marvel's most popular hero was undoubtedly Spider-Man, but Sony-Columbia had already snatched up the rights.

The second-tier heroes weren't the Avengers, but the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Hulk.

That's right, all mutants.

The X-Men had been bought by Fox, the Fantastic Four by Germany's Constantin Films, and the Hulk by Universal.

During Marvel's financial crisis in 1996, even Iron Man—a character between second and third tier—had been sold to Fox, though Marvel had since bought him back.

As for Thor, Doctor Strange, and the other third-tier characters, they were the leftovers no one wanted.

Before July of this year, the asking price for these 30+ characters would have been no more than $2 million. However, the box-office success of *X-Men* in July had changed things slightly, causing Marvel to "ask for the moon" and raise the price to $10 million.

That's right, 30 characters for just $10 million. Superheroes were that cheap back then.

Additionally, Marvel's current owner, Avi Arad, had taken over the company from former boss Ron Perelman and was eager to grow it. But there was a harsh reality: Marvel didn't have money or rights.

The rise of the internet was also beginning to hurt traditional comic books, and Marvel had struggled to get any momentum.

This was the perfect time to buy Marvel before Spider-Man exploded in popularity and gave Avi Arad and Marvel a new surge of confidence. The chances of success were high, and the cost was relatively low—just $40 million.

At this point, Marvel's only valuable assets were those third-tier superheroes and a handful of comic book artists.

Remember, Disney paid a staggering $4.24 billion to buy Marvel in 2009!

If Wayne could spend $40 million to buy Marvel now and produce *Iron Man 1*, in just a few years, he could flip the company for 100 times the profit!

But the problem was... he didn't have $40 million right now!

(Chapter End)