Chapter 354: MGM International

"Whew," Arthur sighed deeply, feeling relieved and happy after the climax.

"Did you have fun tonight?" In the restroom of the Roosevelt Hotel, Madchen Amick stood up from the floor, wiped her mouth, tidied her somewhat messy dress, and looked at Arthur with a smile.

"Of course, it was a big night for Galaxy," Arthur, leaning against the wall, lit a cigarette to calm himself down.

Forrest Gump has been in theaters for three weeks, and the box office already surpassed 100 million dollars. The leading man, Tom Hanks, solidified his status even further, while Madchen Amick, the leading lady, saw her fame soar exponentially!

"Yeah, Forrest Gump is a hit. I have to follow the crew to Europe for promotional activities!"

Arthur nodded, "Then I'll head out first."

Apart from the top executives of the Big Six film studios, quite a few independent film companies were also in attendance tonight at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Companies like Rysher Entertainment, Savoy Pictures, Trimark Pictures, New Line Cinema, Carolco Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment, and Samuel Goldwyn Company were among the B and C-grade film studios present.

As for MGM's projects this year, the most eye-catching one is Roland Emmerich's sci-fi epic, Stargate.

Unfortunately, it was financed by Carolco and the French Canal+ TV network and will be released by MGM next month!

As for MGM's in-house developed movies, they haven't done as well. Last month's action film Blown Away, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Forest Whitaker and Tommy Lee Jones, only made around 30 million dollars at the box office.

The recently released Getting Even with Dad, starring Macaulay Culkin, sadly had an opening of only 5.6 million dollars, with mediocre reviews. The 14-year-old Culkin had an 8 million dollar paycheck.

Another romantic film starring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis, Speechless, also didn't instill much confidence in Arthur.

After all, last year's romance film My Life, starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman, failed to make any ripple in the market.

After acquiring MGM, Galaxy had many issues to handle. First, the MGM office needed to be moved from Culver City to Glendale.

Next, Arthur carefully reviewed MGM's current projects, and several in-progress projects were shelved by him!

Frank Mancuso was retained by Arthur as the President of Production at MGM to assist Amy Pascal with the existing projects.

Meanwhile, Tom Rothman focused on merging Galaxy and MGM's North American distribution system, and also oversaw the transition of MGM Home Entertainment.

In mid-June, Galaxy's Pulp Fiction was set for release. Arthur kept only two MGM projects in development: Get Shorty and Species.

The rest of the self-produced projects were put on hold, and they began taking over Galaxy Entertainment's projects.

In his Culver City office, Arthur was reading the script for Rob Roy. "A Scottish Robin Hood story? Paramount and 20th Century Fox came up with a Scottish national hero, William Wallace, and now MGM wants one too?"

"Reject it. Braveheart has an investment of over 70 million dollars, and this Rob Roy only has a 25 million dollar budget and claims to be an epic," Arthur ranted to Anna Walker.

Anna Walker felt helpless. Over the past half month, the boss had axed many projects, leaving a lot of filmmakers devastated.

Projects like Rob Roy had been in the pipeline for two to three years and were about to start once funded, which was quite regrettable.

If lucky, producers or directors could find new investors with time. If not, the scripts might just gather dust in a drawer.

"That Species, let's develop it under the Orion brand. From now on, Orion will focus on gory and horror genres.

Also, bring out the United Artists brand to handle artistic films and international movies like Leon: The Professional and the Blue White Red trilogy.

As for MGM, its future direction will mainly be commercial films - sci-fi, action, or large-scale drama films," Arthur stated as he leaned back in his chair.

Lately, he had been extremely busy.

"Understood," Anna Walker nodded and reminded her boss, "Tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Chicago. We need to go to the airport soon."

Christiana Reali had come from Paris to Los Angeles, awaiting to go with Arthur to Chicago for the opening ceremony.

As the number one sports nation, the U.S. paid little attention to the world's number one sport, soccer.

During the 1970s, the U.S. considered developing soccer, forming the North American Soccer League and introducing big names like Pele and Beckenbauer. However, too few fans led the league to struggle; after less than ten years, it disbanded.

That night, Christiana and Arthur arrived in Chicago and checked into the Hyatt Regency along the Chicago River near Lake Michigan.

Now, noticeably more foreign tourists were in Chicago.

The World Cup opening ceremony would be held at Soldier Field near the lake in Chicago's Near South Side, with the first game being Germany vs. Bolivia in Group C.

Last year's World Cup champion was West Germany, and now, with a united Germany, they were even stronger.

"The atmosphere is quite good," said Arthur, wearing sunglasses while enjoying the opening ceremony performances with Christiana.

"Of course, it's the World Cup after all," smiled the beautiful Christiana. The show had a distinctly American style.

"Arthur, The Mask's overseas box office has already surpassed 100 million dollars and is expected to be much higher than its earnings in the U.S.," Christiana mentioned work even at this moment.

"Well, The Mask is about to go offline in North America. Currently, it stands at 110 million dollars, and it'll probably hit 120 million by the time it leaves theaters," Arthur patted her knee. "Don't worry. Enjoy these few days; you know America hasn't many soccer fans!"

Unexpectedly, Christiana shook her head, "I'm heading back after the Brazil vs. Russia match in three days. It's the summer season, prime time for movies to rake in the box office. Galaxy just acquired MGM, and Galaxy France is being reorganized into MGM France."

Arthur rubbed his cheek against Christiana's, "Looks like I need to get a private plane soon - it'll make travel much easier."

*****

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