Chapter 182: Limited Lifespan

"Director, here's the newspaper you asked for."

A secretary walked into the office and placed a magazine on Kara-Fess's desk. Kara-Fess nodded, took the magazine, and said, "Thank you."

Seeing there were no other matters, the secretary left the office.

Setting the Premiere magazine aside, Kara-Fess got busy with her work. Although she was eager to know how Murphy's new film was doing, she was more committed to her job.

It wasn't until after 10 in the morning that she finally looked away from her computer screen. She stood up, walked to the window, and gazed into the distance for a while, relaxing. Then she sat back at her desk and picked up the Premiere magazine.

She used to cover social and current events and didn't pay much attention to the entertainment industry. However, since her friend Murphy switched to Hollywood, not only did she start following this news, but she also deeply explored the industry.

The cover of Premiere featured the famous Spider-Man, Peter Parker, with a headline below - "Spider-Man" easily retains the North American box office crown, "007: Die Another Day" starts weakly, "Planet Terror" exceeds expectations in its opening weekend!

Seeing this, Kara-Fess smiled subtly, it seemed like that guy had succeeded again!

She quickly found the weekly box office report in the magazine and started scanning through it.

"The top three new movies failed to challenge Spider-Man's dominance, with the superhero movie from Sony Columbia Pictures pulling in $71.12 million effortlessly against the newcomers, clinching the weekend box office crown again; the film's ten-day cumulative gross reached $221.56 million..."

After briefly reading about the box office champion, Kara-Fess started skimming through until she found news about "Planet Terror."

"The alternative zombie flick "Planet Terror" released by Miramax became this weekend's surprise winner. This low-budget B-movie exceeded expectations at the box office, outperforming another low-cost film, "The Secret of the Sisterhood," with its North American opening weekend gross already surpassing its production budget line."

"Directed by Murphy-Stanton, who had last year's high return on investment horror film "Saw" released, this year's "Planet Terror" fetched $15.7 million close to double its production cost line in its opening weekend, proving his capability in genre films once again. Moreover, the film also outperformed the highly anticipated "007: Die Another Day," making it the best-reviewed new release of the week."

"Over fifty-eight percent of the audience was over twenty-five years old, with male viewers making up nearly seventy-five percent. The CinemaScore audience rating for the film was a 'B+,' indicating good word of mouth; the media reviews were also mostly positive, with eighty-one percent of the 45 media outlets reviewed by Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a positive rating, averaging a score of 7.8. Authoritative media MetaCritic collected scores from 36 media outlets, averaging 72 points, far exceeding the passing line!"

"Additionally, the magazine's special film critic Richard Chris believes: While the film is clichéd, director Murphy-Stanton knows how to create tension in such themes and multi-layeredly presents a suspenseful and suffocating atmosphere, also bringing many cool action scenes..."

After reading this, Kara-Fess put down the magazine, considering that media reviews were pretty good, and wondered if she should watch it too.

However, she shook her head, deciding against it. Large-scale movies were not her cup of tea; she still had nightmares from "Saw."

After tidying up her desk, Kara-Fess picked up the phone and dialed a number.

Hearing a familiar voice on the other end, she said, "It's me, Kara. Murphy, are you still in Los Angeles? Nothing urgent, just haven't seen you in a while, how about dinner tonight? Great, come to Beverly Hills, 7 pm, I'll be waiting for you at Mr. Zhou's restaurant for Chinese food."

The promotional efforts for the crew temporarily centered around Los Angeles. On Monday morning, Erica-Stanberg led Murphy and the main crew members to an interactive event at a cinema in Orange County. As the director wasn't the focus of promotion, Murphy didn't have much work to do, and the event went as smoothly as before, with Robert Downey Jr. stealing the show.

After the afternoon event, Murphy drove back to Los Angeles, arriving at Beverly Hills around 6:30 pm, and soon found Mr. Zhou's restaurant.

Parking his car, he walked into the restaurant and asked the waiter at the door, "Which table is Kara-Fess at?"

"Ms. Fess has already arrived."

The waiter led Murphy to the left, towards a table near the glass window. From afar, Murphy saw Kara-Fess. She was wearing a fitted professional suit, her makeup exquisite as always, looking at a magazine, seemingly unaware of his presence.

"Have you been waiting long?"

Murphy approached, pulling out a chair to sit opposite her. Kara-Fess put down the magazine, "About ten minutes."

She handed the menu to Murphy, "Order something, it's on me."

"Have you ordered yours?" Seeing her nod, Murphy opened the menu and joked, "I'm going to pick the most expensive dishes then."

"No problem." Kara-Fess shrugged, "Next time it's your treat, we'll go for gold-flaked caviar."

After selecting a few dishes casually, Murphy called over a waiter, placed the order, and turned back to ask, "Gold-flaked caviar? What's that?"

"Fish roe with gold leaf." Kara-Fess was obviously joking, "Anyway, it's very expensive."

She raised an eyebrow, "But that shouldn't be a problem for a millionaire like you, right?"

Murphy spread his hands, "As long as you want, nothing's a problem."

He winked, "How about this, I'll make you a cake grilled with dollars."

Kara-Fess rolled her eyes at him, and Murphy laughed. Despite the jokes, even with a significant amount on his balance sheet now, he wouldn't do such a thing.

It was now June 2002. As early as February, Fox Searchlight had paid the North American box office share for "Saw" according to the agreement, along with a lump sum for overseas rights. Stanton Studio's account indeed had about ten million dollars.

However, this money wouldn't stay in Stanton Studio's account for long. The sequel to "Saw" had been greenlit. As the owner of most of the film's rights, Murphy planned to invest more in the sequel, confident in the series.

Like most B-movies, "Saw" didn't have a stunning box office run but maintained good sales in the VHS and DVD markets, a stable source of long-term income.

And at his recommendation, a young Chinese-American named James Wan became the director of the sequel.

With more confidence in the sequel, Murphy's plans moved forward.

"According to what you said," they talked over dinner, moving the conversation to the film industry, "Do 'Saw' and 'Planet Terror' have a future in the DVD rental and sales market?"

"I believe so." Murphy found eating Chinese food with a fork and knife awkward but didn't complain, "While 'Planet Terror's' North American box office can't compare to 'Saw's, in the next five to eight years, its value in the ancillary market will definitely exceed what it earned in the North American box office."

As the conversation progressed, Murphy suddenly asked, "Have you ever considered moving into the film industry?"

Kara-Fess shook her head, "Not at the moment."

Murphy just casually asked, then irresponsibly suggested, "I think you'd do well in the film department of 20th Century Fox. With your current skills and experience, becoming an executive would be easy. Then you could invest in my new film. It doesn't have to be much, just a hundred million dollars per film."

"That would get me fired quickly, right?"

Seemingly not liking the food, Kara-Fess only ate a little and then set aside her fork and knife, "Investing hundreds of millions in a B-movie, Hollywood would go crazy."

"Who said all my films would be B-movies?" Murphy's eyes widened.

Kara-Fess shrugged, "Isn't that the case?"

Murphy scratched his head, thinking about his plans, and sighed.

He was about to say something when Kara-Fess's phone rang. She answered, quickly grabbed her handbag, and stood up hurriedly, "There's breaking news at the station, I have to go."

The dinner was only halfway through but had to end. Murphy put down his fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, "Need a ride?"

"I drove here." Kara-Fess pulled out her car keys.

Murphy waved her off, "Hurry back then."

Kara-Fess didn't linger, "Remember to pay the bill, I'll treat you next time."

She left in a hurry, indicating the urgency of her work. Murphy paid the bill and left Mr. Zhou's restaurant, heading back to his Cadillac, ready to return to Santa Monica.

The next day, he had to wake up early to catch a plane for an out-of-town promotion with the crew. Since Kara-Fess had left, he didn't want to stay any longer and decided to head back to his home in Santa Monica early.

Thinking of Kara-Fess, Murphy admired her; she was a true career woman, always putting her job first.

Perhaps that's why, despite her young age, Kara-Fess had become an executive at Fox Television.

The next day, Murphy met up with the rest of the crew at Los Angeles International Airport, embarking on a North American promotional tour.

However, this journey was short-lived, as the lifespan of a B-movie in theaters is never long.

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