Chapter 27: A Shocking Scene

[Chapter 27: A Shocking Scene]

On November 18th, the day after Eric flew to New York, Home Alone and 17 Again officially premiered. Home Alone opened with 1,000 screens, while 17 Again had 1,279 screens, surpassing Home Alone by more than 250. Fox had no worries about any wager agreements, so they threw everything into the promotion right from the start.

Also opening at the same time were Universal Pictures' animated film The Land Before Time with 1,395 screens, and Disney's Buena Vista International distributing the animated film Oliver & Company with 952 screens.

With three children's films premiering at the same time, the media thought Eric had a lower chance of winning the wager, but Eric wasn't too worried. While the two animated films might cause some box office pressure on Home Alone initially, in the long run, they wouldn't hold a candle to Home Alone. In its previous iteration, Home Alone had pulled in over $10 million for ten consecutive weeks.

After attending two premiere events, Eric and the crew returned to the hotel around eleven at night. At that time, there wasn't the advanced box office reporting system we have today, so they would have to wait until the following week to get the box office numbers for Home Alone and 17 Again.

...

Back in his room, Eric had a shower and was about to go to bed when the phone suddenly rang. The only one who would call at this hour was Aniston.

"Hey, Eric, are you asleep?" Aniston asked, her tone tinged with excitement.

Eric sat up on the bed, towel-drying his damp hair. "Not yet, just got out of the shower. What's got you so excited, Jenny?"

"Guess what?"

Eric joked, "Oh, I know! You're pregnant! Don't worry, I'll take responsibility."

"Ugh, you big perv, is that all you think about?" Aniston spat into the receiver, "I just got out of Home Alone and saw something really amusing."

Eric smiled, "What happened?"

"So, I came out of the theater and saw this five or six-year-old boy yelling to see Kevin. His parents wouldn't let him because they just watched it, and the kid threw himself on the ground crying. People thought the parents were kidnappers and started beating them up. They even called the cops, and multiple squad cars showed up. It was hilarious, haha!"

Aniston merely shared this as a fun anecdote from her movie outing, but Eric saw deeper implications in the story. After chatting with Aniston a bit longer, he hung up and lay back in bed, feeling a bit giddy.

Because things were unfolding exactly as they had back in the day. The reason Home Alone achieved such astonishing box office success back then was due to a wave of rowdy kids who kept watching it over and over, eager to imitate Kevin's every move, ultimately driving its incredible box office performance.

...

As Eric suspected, on the first day of release, Home Alone and the two animated films had similar box office figures, but as positive word-of-mouth spread remarkably fast among children, the next day, Home Alone's daily gross doubled, with a significant increase again on the third day, prompting lines outside some popular theaters.

After all, animated films can be watched anytime, but the clever and mischievous Kevin is a character kids can't encounter every day. Most kids fantasized about growing up quickly to do things they couldn't do now. Home Alone presented a perspective where kids could experience what they imagined but couldn"t dare or achieve in real life.

A wave of imitation swept through North America's children. A San Francisco newspaper even reported on a real-life Home Alone incident, where a nine-year-old boy, after watching Home Alone, locked himself in his room while his family prepared to go on vacation to Hawaii.

Astoundingly, the parents of six children didn't realize this until they reached Hawaii, where they discovered the boy wasn't with them. They had to abort their vacation and fly back to San Francisco, only to find a messy home and a boy waiting for "dumb burglars." Unfortunately, he was met by his frantic parents instead.

...

A week later, the box office results for the first week rolled in. Although the previously apparent signs of success had prepared everyone somewhat, Home Alone's jaw-dropping $27.55 million opening week box office still astonished everyone.

While over $20 million couldn't compare to the hundred-million-dollar opening weekends of films in later years, in that era, this achievement overshadowed all recent high-grossing movies. Even Spielberg's E.T. hadn"t reached such an impressive start. The only franchise surpassing Home Alone was George Lucas's Star Wars, but that series had a budget well over a tens of times that of Home Alone.

Meanwhile, 17 Again also performed well, securing second place with $13.12 million. The competing animated films, The Land Before Time and Oliver & Company only garnered $7.12 million and $3.98 million respectively, far below what both studios had expected. Undoubtedly, Home Alone crushed the box office for the two animations, leaving both Universal and Disney executives lamenting the dominance of Home Alone while envying Columbia's good fortune.

...

Columbia did have a stroke of luck, but upon seeing the first week box office results, Columbia's president Cohen Blount was not in a good mood. He even found himself breaking his teacup several times out of frustration.

According to the first week box office data, Columbia reassessed and determined that Home Alone's North American box office would definitely exceed $200 million, and it might even surpass $300 million. Cohen Blount was filled with regret, wishing he had insisted on acquiring the Home Alone rights instead of signing some ridiculous wager agreement. If he had, Columbia would be raking in hundreds of millions from this movie this year.

Now, due to the wager agreement, if Home Alone hits $300 million, Columbia would pay $120 million in shares to Eric, leaving them with only $45 million, and after subtracting distribution costs, Columbia's profit might barely a fraction of Eric's $120 million share.

Cohen Blount had entertained the idea of tearing up the agreement multiple times, but that wager agreement was now common knowledge across the nation. If he tore it up, Columbia would likely lose the lawsuit, and he would become a laughingstock, with him as president sure to be scapegoated and ousted.

"No, I need to find a way to recover losses, I must..." Cohen Blount mumbled to himself when his assistant knocked and entered, saying, "Mr. Blount, everyone has arrived; we can start the meeting now."

Cohen rubbed his temples, stood up, and headed to the conference room.

Once seated, Cohen directly questioned Lester Reed, responsible for the Home Alone project, "Lester, how's the data analysis coming along?"

Lester Reed was supposed to return with the Home Alone crew on a late-night flight, but an urgent call from headquarters had him returning to Los Angeles half a day earlier. Upon arriving at Columbia headquarters and learning about Home Alone's first-week box office results, Lester felt instinctively uneasy.

Glancing nervously at Cohen's stoic face, it was Cohen Blount who had rashly agreed to the wager agreement in the first place. Given Cohen's stubborn nature, it was likely he would take his frustrations out on Lester.

"Mr. Blount, according to the analysis from our data department, based on the wager agreement, we can expect to receive around $50 million in shares, with the peak share value being approximately $225 million. Here's the data curve."

Cohen took the analysis document, glancing at the red parabolic line representing Columbia's profits and the green line indicating Eric's share, causing his temples to throb again.

Bang--

Another teacup shattered against the redwood floor with a muffled thud, causing everyone in the conference room to flinch and lower their heads in silence.

In general, a $50 million box office share would make many film executives smile in their sleep; even among the six major studios, this decade saw yearly box office profits top out at around one or two hundred million.

However, comparing that with the potentially over a hundred million that Eric might earn, all of Cohen's excitement vanished in an instant.

"So, you were responsible for signing the wager agreement. What now?" Cohen coldly surveyed everyone in the room, his gaze finally landing on Lester Reed.

*****

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