Chapter 80: Stopping the Rise

Early morning, in a suite at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Charles got out of bed, walked over to the window, and felt the warm sunshine on his body. He looked back to see Kate Beckinsale still sound asleep, smiled and shook his head, then went to the bathroom to take a shower.

"Charles, you're up?" Kate Beckinsale, wearing a robe, pushed open the bathroom door. Charles was in the shower.

"Yeah. Are you not gonna keep sleeping?"

Kate Beckinsale shook her head. "I have plans to go shopping with Catherine Zeta-Jones today."

Her lazy yet sexy demeanor made Charles feel a bit aroused. He walked over and hugged Kate Beckinsale.

"You guys have a pretty good relationship. So, you still hang out quite often these past two years?"

"Charles, you're all wet," Kate Beckinsale laughed and cried at once, feeling his hands on her chest and also a surge of indignation.

She turned to kiss him, then said, "Aren't you supposed to be taking a shower?"

"Let's shower together!" Charles said as he pulled her into the shower with him.

In the morning, the two of them spent almost an hour taking a shower.

Charles had to go back to the company. The rental and sale of the Saw video tapes and DVDs had been ongoing for two weeks.

The total revenue from the rental and sale of video tapes and DVDs was $42 million, which looked very promising.

However, Carpe Productions didn't have its own home entertainment company yet. They had contracted Netflix to find manufacturers for production, who also handled online rental and sales.

After deducting the costs of production, transportation, and profit-sharing, Carpe Productions kept 40% of the profits. Charles was already preparing to set up his own home entertainment division to manage DVD, television operators, and online streaming services.

Everything had to wait until Carpe Productions' distribution channels were established. Otherwise, losing a cut to Netflix was something Charles was not too happy about.

Netflix's main business was rentals. Sales still relied on Blockbuster and supermarkets like Walmart, which brought in greater profits.

Sitting in his office chair, Charles tossed the report aside. What he was more concerned about now was The Passion of the Christ, which had been in theaters for nearly ten weeks and had reached its box office potential.

"North America 370 million dollars, overseas markets still screening, bringing in around $200 million so far," Dona reported the results.

"Wow! That's impressive," Charles could only say.

The North American box office profits were around 160 million dollars, and Carpe Productions had half of that, at $80 million. Carpe Productions had invested $15 million in production and another $5 million in marketing, netting about $60 million.

Of course, after taxes and other expenses, the net profit would be around $50 million.

But Charles wasn't worried about that. The $80 million was very useful. In about four or five months, The Passion of the Christ would be released on DVD, then move to pay TV platforms, with the bigger income to follow.

As for bank loan interest, company expenses, and crew bonuses, those were small potatoes!

By the time he went to Cannes, Charles would have around a hundred million dollars in cash flow. Earlier, he had spent $5 million of his $35 million to buy a villa in Malibu.

Even though he still owed Morgan Stanley $100 million in loans, there was no reason to worry. This trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Charles wanted to see if there were any good movies.

Additionally, he wanted to start a new project. He looked at Dona Williams and instructed, "Register a Carpe Television Production Company as a subsidiary of Carpe Productions. We're going to try to break into the television industry now!"

"Got it," Dona Williams nodded. With enough funds, expanding the business was normal.

"Warner Bros. has rebooted Batman again!" Charles sighed. Marvel Entertainment was still out there, floating around.

In 1996, they went bankrupt and started selling various Marvel adaptation rights. Spider-Man went to Sony Entertainment for $9 million. The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and related properties all went to 20th Century Fox.

"Boss, do you want to make a superhero movie? But Daredevil and Hulk both flopped. Spider-Man and X-Men are the popular Marvel characters! Lionsgate's The Punisher also failed this year, and another film, Man-Thing, has been pushed to next year!"

Charles felt helpless. He had always wanted to acquire Marvel Comics directly. Dona's reminder was something he couldn't answer.

Artisan Entertainment reached an agreement with Marvel Comics in 2000 for 15 film characters, including The Punisher, Man-Thing, Black Widow, and Captain America.

Lionsgate acquired Artisan and thus took over these character contracts, but they were all for five-year terms. Apart from the already developed The Punisher and Man-Thing, the rest of the characters would automatically revert back to Marvel Comics if not developed by next year.

"Lionsgate is working on Black Widow?"

Dona nodded, "It seems so, but specifics are unknown. They're still in the script stage, I believe!"

Iron Man was currently with New Line Cinema. Bought by Universal in the '90s, then passed to 20th Century Fox, who also gave up on it, landing it finally with New Line Cinema.

New Line also seemed to have no plans to develop it, considering next year was the reversion date.

Charles tapped the table, looking at the calendar. The European Championship held in Portugal, would start in late May. Does he need to go to France?

Bet on Greece, win a few hundred million dollars, wouldn't the bookmakers go bankrupt?

Charles narrowed his eyes. Even if he couldn't acquire Marvel Comics, he couldn't let other companies have an easy time.

"Dona, tell Henry that Carpe Productions wants the adaptation rights for Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America from Marvel. Besides Captain America, who has some popularity, the other two are second-tier characters. It shouldn't be difficult!"

After all, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema didn't seem interested in developing these characters, so Carpe Productions might as well take over.

Marvel Comics would start making movies themselves next year after Warner Bros. rebooted Batman Begins. They had also convinced Merrill Lynch to secure over $500 million in credit for film production.

Without these three characters, how could Marvel hope to rise again?

If he couldn't acquire them, he had to stop their rise. Otherwise, if Marvel produced Iron Man and got acquired by Disney, what fun would there be left for him?

"Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, characters from The Avengers?" Dona asked.

"Exactly. $10 million, try to get as many adaptation rights for Avengers characters as possible," Charles knew that Marvel Comics usually signed five-year agreements for character adaptation rights, and Marvel took 5% of the film profits.

As for the revenue from character merchandise, it remained Marvel Entertainment's, as they mainly sold toys and comics.

*****

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