Chapter 159: Let Me Think

[Chapter 159: Let Me Think]

"Eric, do you think I'm right?" In the study, Drew curled up in a large armchair, scribbling in her notebook filled with advertisement names as she leaned close to Eric.

Eric took his eyes off the monitor, turned to look at her, and shook his head. "Nope. Why are you writing this? Do you want to enter the raffle too?"

"Is that not allowed? It's ten thousand dollars!" Drew pulled back her notebook, propping her chin on her pen while pondering for a moment, then looked down and made another guess. "What about this time?"

"Uh, still not right," Eric glanced again, then helplessly rummaged through the stack of papers on his desk, finding a few printed sheets and handing them to her. "Here, take these and stop bugging me."

"No way! I want to guess them all by myself," Drew shot back, her little legs dragging against the floor as she pulled her swivel chair a bit further away, as if the papers were too close would tarnish her pride.

Eric shrugged and returned his gaze to the text on the screen, typing away on the keyboard. "But can you not ask me, the insider? That doesn't really count as your skills, does it?"

"Of course it counts! You're part of my skills," Drew said, making a few more corrections. Eric couldn't help but point out a glaring mistake. "Look, television shots don't count as product placement. Just swap it for a Canon camera."

"Wow, how could you do that? I wanted to guess a few more times!" She pouted, angrily poking Eric before reluctantly correcting the mistake she hadn't noticed. She had always thought that shot should count as product placement, and actually, many people had the same thoughts.

Since it was also part of the marketing, many fans naturally considered it as product placement like Drew did. Columbia hadn't made an official statement to clarify, leaving the public to speculate.

After a brief moment of quiet, a small, soft body leaned onto Eric again. The warmth of her small frame and the faint scent of the girl made Eric slightly distracted.

"Drew, stop messing around. If you're not going to sit in the office chair, let me have it. The stool is really uncomfortable." Eric shrugged his shoulders, trying to dislodge her.

Drew, however, clung tightly to Eric's neck like a sticky candy. "Eric, I just thought of a great way to make money."

"Why are you suddenly so interested in making money again?" Eric pulled her down from his back by her arm.

"I got jealous," Drew said, slipping off Eric's back while turning to sit on his lap, unabashedly stating her feelings.

"Um, what's there to be jealous about?" Eric gently wrapped his arm around the girl's waist as a way to comfort her, understanding that she was inspired by his earnings from two movies.

...

But the reality wasn't as glamorous as the media claimed Eric had two hundred million in cash. Though the shares from Home Alone had landed in his account by early July, after repaying his two loans of fifty million each to the bank, Eric was left with only twenty million. That money needed to be shared with the actors as promised in their contracts, and just with Stuart Ronkel alone, he had to give away three million. He couldn't be stingy with the other actors either, so Eric likely wouldn't be left with much.

Columbia wrapped up their payments within a month to woo Eric for the current project. However, there was no such agreement with Fox, meaning everything had to follow the rules. Eric would receive a share of up to 105 million due to the North American 35% and overseas 10% split. Given Eric's current standing, while Fox wouldn't deliberately delay payment, getting it settled within three months would already be good, and even though the movie, Pretty Woman, had been out for almost a month, Eric hadn't seen a single paycheck.

...

Now, watching the girl who seemed a bit down, Eric hadn't expected the usually carefree girl to have such emotions -- it felt rather fresh.

Drew fiddled with her pen, murmuring, "That's over two hundred million... I don't even know if I can make two hundred million in my life."

"Let's not talk about that. Didn't you say you had a great idea to make money? Tell me, and I'll help you strategize."

Drew perked up immediately, gesturing with her fingers, "Alright, Eric. After that show, a lot of viewers called wanting those tapes to be released for sale. I think it's a great opportunity! I heard that some videos sell for tens of millions of copies. If we sell even a hundred thousand, at thirty bucks each, that's three million! After costs, we'd make a huge profit, right?"

Eric didn't rush to burst the girl's bubble but asked, "Well then, I'd like to know whose money it is if we make it?"

"Obviously it's mine! I filmed the tapes with my hard work," Drew said, feeling slightly shy now, she stuck out her tongue playfully. "At worst, I'll just give Columbia some of it. You wouldn't want anything, right?"

"That won't work," Eric replied, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He let go of her, kicked the stool aside, pulled over a comfy leather swivel chair to sit down, then casually guided her back to explain, "You forgot the most important part: the content of the tapes."

"Huh?" The girl blinked, confused.

Eric seriously explained, "The content of the tapes, I won't even mention that you included stars like Cruise and Hanks, plus a lot of extra actors and crew members, none of whom got paid for appearing. If you just want to keep them or show them for promotional purposes on talk shows, that's fine, but if you plan to profit, you'll have to get everyone's consent for the content in the tapes. Otherwise, you'll just be waiting to get sued -- no matter if you could make a billion, it wouldn't cover your legal fees. And getting permission from all those people is more complicated than filming a big-budget movie."

"Wow, that's really complicated. Never mind then," Drew sighed and rested her head against Eric's chest.

Eric gently patted her back, "Alright, don't be down. Making money is mainly a man's job, you just need to dress up beautifully, okay? It's getting late, so head back to sleep. I need some quiet time to finish this script."

"But I want to make money! The summer vacation is so long, it's boring, Eric. How about letting me get a movie role? If I keep hesitating, I'll turn into an idiot," Drew leaned against Eric, her little paw scratching his chest playfully.

"Alright, alright. Let me think, think..." Eric rubbed his temples, glancing at the screenplay on the desk, suddenly recalling something.

*****

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