Chapter 501: The Hat

[Chapter 501: The Hat]

The Los Angeles weather made it hard for anyone to feel changes in the climate. By the time Eric arrived in New York, the city had already experienced its second snowfall of the year. The small town of East Hampton on Long Island was blanketed in a thick layer of snow, making it exceptionally quiet due to the sparse population.

Aside from being cold, the environment was just right for two women to settle in. After all, neither Virginia nor Joanna wanted to wake up one day to find out their pregnancy had been splashed across the front page of newspapers.

The two women, clearly feeling cooped up, were thrilled that Eric could join them for Thanksgiving. Even though it was winter, going out just meant wrapping themselves up warmly, which didn't seem out of place. Still, in order to minimize the risk of being spotted, the two went out infrequently. Lucky for them, the temporary mansion they rented was spacious enough to provide plenty of room to move around.

With only four days left until Thanksgiving, Virginia bundled herself up and planned to go shopping for the holiday with her assistant after lunch. Eric initially intended to accompany them but was kept behind by Virginia, who insisted that his presence would attract too much attention. Reluctantly, he gave her a cautionary talk before allowing her to leave.

Even though it was midday, the weather remained gloomy and chilly, with low-hanging clouds suggesting more flurries were on the way. After seeing Virginia off, Eric took a moment to enjoy the fresh air with Joanna in the courtyard before quickly retreating into the warmth of the house.

"Do you want to come with me to the study?" he asked while helping Joanna hang up her coat.

Although he had left Los Angeles, Eric received information from there every afternoon around this time. Due to the time difference, it was still just after nine in the morning in L.A., which was right at the start of the workday.

Joanna nodded with a serene smile. "Sure."

...

He led her into the study, pulled out a chair for her to sit beside the desk, poured her a glass of water, and then returned to his position, retrieving documents that had been automatically sent to the fax machine.

Joanna quietly watched as Eric flipped through the papers, listening to the soft rustle of the pages, her expression betraying a hint of satisfaction. Whenever she caught Eric looking up, she would smile back at him. In her earlier days, Joanna often spent her time cleaning the house, taking joy in ensuring every room was spotless. However, since becoming pregnant, Virginia had frequently "chided" her for being lazy, but only Joanna understood how much she anticipated and valued this child, wanting nothing to go wrong. During this period, her primary form of exercise had been walking, and on sunny days, she would bring out a chair to sit on the porch, quietly reading her book.

Since Eric had arrived, her pastime had become sitting quietly next to him for the whole day, a sense of dependence that even made Virginia feel a twinge of jealousy.

This Monday marked the weekend box office results for two films released by Firefly Films during Thanksgiving, Speed and Disney's animated Aladdin.

Speed grossed $19 million in its opening weekend, with an expected total of $25 to $28 million for the week. Although this fell short of the $38 million taken by the previous week's release, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Eric wasn't overly disappointed.

With a production budget of just over $30 million, Speed's budget was a full ten million less than Bram Stoker's Dracula. Not to mention that when compared to the over $60 million invested in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Speed had received positive word-of-mouth, indicating that its box office decline wouldn't be significant in the following weeks. Before another wave of blockbusters arrived during Christmas, surpassing the $80 million mark was definitely within reach, with the total likely crossing the $100 million line. Although Firefly had often created box office miracles, Hollywood had yet to enter an era where $100 million movies were commonplace. As of 1992, hitting the $100 million mark remained a hallmark of a remarkable success.

Flipping to the Aladdin results, Eric furrowed his brow slightly. Aladdin's opening weekend take was only $9 million. However, he quickly calmed down, having never had particularly high expectations for Aladdin. Disney's hand-drawn animated features often had either very quiet releases or took a long time to build up to amazing box office totals. Last year's Beauty and the Beast was a prime example; it spent nearly six months in theaters, eventually racking up almost $150 million. The quality of Aladdin was undeniable, and Eric was confident it could follow a similarly successful box office trajectory.

However, despite accumulating a high total, Disney often received a relatively small percentage of the profits. Longer theatrical runs usually equated to less revenue for Disney, sometimes seeing total revenue shares dip below 30%, well below the 55% average that major film companies usually collected. This was why many of Disney's hand-drawn animations chose not to go through theaters and instead issued home video releases. Just a few years earlier, Disney's game-changing animated feature, The Little Mermaid, had gone straight to video for its sequel. In the same timeline, The Lion King might have grossed nearly $900 million worldwide, but to minimize distribution costs, the sequel would also go directly to video instead of hitting the theaters.

Gazing at the various Aladdin statistics, Eric's thoughts drifted back to Pixar's 3D animations, especially Toy Story, which had a box office trajectory akin to big Hollywood releases. Given the evolving distribution trends in Hollywood, saturation release strategies would only become more mainstream, and films hoping to build their box office through word-of-mouth would have decreasingly viable space. Though not impossible, he wasn't keen on banking his hopes on such a remote possibility. In this context, shifting Disney's focus to 3D animations and pulling back from hand-drawn production almost seemed inevitable.

Yet, at present, Disney's hand-drawn animation department was still working on The Lion King. If it achieved blockbuster status like it had in the original timeline, Eric would face increased resistance to halt Disney's hand-drawn projects. Of course, since Disney was under his banner, such resistance wouldn't stem from external sources but was more likely to come from within Disney's management.

Eric enjoyed a cordial relationship with Katzenberg, yet he certainly didn't believe that Katzenberg would be completely compliant with him. If he were only diligent without a strong sense of self-judgment, Katzenberg wouldn't have reached this level in the first place.

"What a headache!" Eric couldn't help but rub his forehead, just as Joanna pointed outside and said, "Eric, look, it's snowing again."

"Yeah," Eric replied, turning to look outside. "Want to go outside for a bit? Once it starts snowing, it rarely stays too cold."

"Sure," Joanna nodded and stood up.

...

After putting on thick winter clothes, the two stepped outside the villa, where a fresh dusting of snow was already accumulating on the clear paths, softly drifting snowflakes twirling in the air like willow seeds.

Joanna stretched out her hand, which was covered in pink fuzzy gloves, to catch a few snowflakes from under the eaves, gently blowing them away as they landed.

Eric, however, glanced toward the sky, wondering when Virginia would return. Joanna asked gently, "Eric, can you make a snowman?"

Seeing the faint glimmer of hope in Joanna's slender eyes, he accepted, "Let's build one."

Joanna replied affirmatively, watching Eric walk toward a nearby shed to grab some tools.

After a while, Eric came out with a shovel and chose a spot on the lawn to start shoveling the untouched snow clumsily.

Joanna asked a servant to bring out a chair she usually occupied and draped a blanket over herself, smiling as she watched Eric from the porch, quietly observing him as he worked.

After more than half an hour, an awkward snowman stood up, and Eric returned from the kitchen with a carrot and two little green oranges to fashion the snowman's eyes and nose.

"And hands, hands," Joanna pointed and murmured.

Eric looked around and, spotting some dry branches from nearby shrubs, fashioned them into arms for the snowman, brushing his hands together. "How does that look?"

Joanna tilted her head to examine it, then childishly gestured, "A hat! It needs a hat!"

"Oh, wait for a moment," Eric responded, heading into the house. A short while later, he emerged with a pink straw hat and placed it atop the snowman's head.

"Ha, that hat was Vicki's," Joanna commented after examining it carefully.

Eric set down his tools, brushed the snow off himself, and walked over. Accepting a steaming cup of water from Joanna's hands, he took a few sips and chuckled, "Who cares? It's just a hat. Does the snowman look good?"

"Yeah," Joanna nodded, then added, "When I was little, Dad used to make snowmen with me in winter, but it's been years."

Hearing the nostalgia in her voice, Eric took her hand and patted it gently. "Once the baby is born, you can go back to Poland for a while, or you could bring them here."

"My parents won't come; they don't speak English," Joanna shook her head.

As the two continued their quiet conversation, Virginia's Chevrolet van pulled into the driveway, the petite woman stepping out, bundled up tightly. She waved at Eric and Joanna while instructing her driver and assistant to unload things from the vehicle. "What are you two doing outside? Aren't you cold?"

"Eric just finished building a snowman," Joanna pointed to the lawn.

Virginia followed the direction of Joanna's finger and instantly reacted as if someone had stepped on her tail: "Ah, my hat! My limited edition Chanel! Eric, you bastard!"

The petite woman shouted, running towards the odd-looking snowman.

Virginia's assistant, seeing her boss's sudden excitement, instinctively followed closely, arms outstretched ready to catch her if needed. Eric, feeling helpless, stood up, fearing that Virginia might fall, and hurried across the thickly accumulated snow on the lawn.

"My hat! The limited edition Chanel!" Virginia yelled as she plucked the pink straw hat off the snowman's head, then angrily kicked the snowman with her boot, sending it tumbling to the ground. In a blink, she had leaped into the air.

Eric caught her carefully and gently set her down beneath the eaves. Looking at Virginia, who still held the hat possessively and shot him an angry stare, he reached out and playfully smacked her butt, saying, "Which is more important, the hat or the baby?"

"The hat..." Virginia blurted out, pausing for a half-second before continuing. "...is just as important as the baby."

Eric sighed in exasperation, turning to instruct Virginia's assistant to bring their purchases inside. He gave Virginia a gentle push and led her into the house, with Joanna softly laughing as she followed behind them.

After shooing Virginia off to change out of her heavy winter clothes, Eric finally found time to help the servants organize the pile of items the women had bought.

It wasn't until evening that Virginia's irritable mood finally passed.

...

Having spent a warm Thanksgiving with the two women, Eric didn't leave. Although the holiday would pass quickly, as the boss, he certainly had the right to arrange his own breaks.

Besides spending more time with the two women, Eric had some other matters to attend to.

After Thanksgiving, the long-developed Internet Explorer browser was finally launched. Since software during this era primarily relied on floppy disks for distribution, despite initially deciding to offer IE for free, the company had already spent so much on its development, they couldn't afford to give away floppy disks for free.

Therefore, the Internet Explorer browser was still sold as a paid software, but at a very low price. While the IE company wouldn't lose money outright, they did not expect to make much profit from its sales.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's portal website interface was completed as well. Thanks to ample time for technological development, when Yahoo launched its site, it came complete with a very user-friendly search function. To promote the site, Eric set all the Internet Explorer homepage settings to lead to Yahoo's main site. However, to avoid accusations of monopolistic practices, he didn't bind Internet Explorer to the Yahoo homepage directly, since, in this era, very few people usually modified their homepage anyway.

*****

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