Chapter 263: Even Females Can Be Tamed

The 1997 summer season had reached its end. The biggest winner was undoubtedly Universal Pictures' Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World, but who were the losers?

As in recent years, most summer season films failed to recoup their costs at the box office alone. However, Videotapes and the rising popularity of discs undoubtedly allowed many movies to turn a profit through downstream revenue. Yet for films with truly abysmal box office numbers and audience reception, even that downstream revenue couldn't save them from massive losses.

The most prime example was Warner Brothers' latest Batman blockbuster, Batman and Robin!

"The film's production budget was 125 million dollars, with another 40 million spent on promotion and distribution."

In a Warner Brothers conference room, head of distribution Doug Walter wore a grave expression, completely devoid of the relaxed demeanor he had at Sydney Fox Studios.

"The film has been playing in North America for ten weeks, accumulating 106.13 million dollars at the North American box office. During the same period, it opened in 45 overseas countries and regions, grossing 35.21 million dollars!"

He paused before continuing, "Audience approval ratings for Batman and Robin have plummeted to sixty-one percent, and the North American weekend per-theater average is a mere 153 dollars. Even though we've done a tremendous amount of work, theater chains could forcibly pull the film from screens at any moment."

For the film to still be playing in North America with such per-theater averages, one could only conclude that Warner Brothers had indeed done everything possible to save Batman.

However, the executives flanking the conference table all wore serious expressions. They weren't fantasy-prone youths; they knew the film had reached the end of the line. With per-theater numbers like these, continuing the North American theatrical run wouldn't add much to the final box office tally. Furthermore, because of the film's abysmal word-of-mouth among audiences, downstream sales of discs, Videotapes, and television broadcasting rights all faced enormous difficulties.

Doug Walter fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "According to our estimates, the film's final North American box office won't exceed 110 million dollars, and its global box office won't surpass 250 million. Moreover, audience anticipation for Batman has dropped to rock bottom. If we push forward with a sequel, we may face an even more disastrous failure..."

Although DC had been acquired by Warner Brothers long ago—meaning they didn't need to worry about poor box office returns causing copyright disputes—running such a famous franchise completely into the ground was absolutely not a situation they wanted to see.

The fourth Superman film had been a miserable failure, and the fourth Batman film had been a miserable failure... It seemed DC's heroes couldn't escape this fate on the silver screen.

Everyone's eyes turned to Jeff Robinov. The disastrous failure of Batman and Robin had placed the CEO under immense pressure. Recently, rumors had circulated that the parent group was preparing to transfer him to Time Warner and select a new CEO...

Jeff Robinov was aware of these rumors, and people within Time Warner were indeed pushing for the move. While a transfer to the corporate headquarters looked like a promotion on the surface, it came with little real power. How could an ordinary Time Warner executive compare to the position of Warner Brothers' CEO?

To keep his CEO position, he had to prove himself using Warner Brothers' performance.

Over the past few years, two main pillars had supported Warner Brothers' bottom line: one was the Batman Series, and the other was Duke Rosenberg's films...

Although Duke Rosenberg was much closer to Warner Brothers than before, he wasn't the minor director he had been a few years ago. Any film studio wanting to collaborate with a superstar director had to pay a steep price.

Relying solely on collaborations with Duke Rosenberg wasn't enough to prop up Warner's performance, a fact Jeff Robinov knew very well.

Furthermore, the Batman Series absolutely could not be left to rot. Adopting the same strategy used for the Superman Series was undoubtedly the wisest choice.

"My suggestion is to suspend Batman for the time being."

Surrounded by everyone's gaze, Jeff Robinov finally spoke up. "Shelve the franchise and wait for the right director and the right time."

Executive vice president Robert Solomon agreed, saying, "I agree with Jeff's suggestion. Superheroes have never been the main driving force of the North American film market, and this brief era of superhero movies is over. I believe that for the next ten years, superhero movies won't see any significant improvement."

The others largely agreed with Robert Solomon and Jeff Robinov.

After all, ever since superheroes were created, comic books had been their true domain. To this day, the only superheroes who had genuinely succeeded on the silver screen were Superman and Batman. In recent years, DC Comics' rival, Marvel Comics, had also been adapting its superheroes into films, but they had failed miserably without exception. Coupled with the arrival of a bitter winter for comic book sales, Marvel Comics was already preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.

The discussion regarding Batman quickly reached a consensus, and the topic of the meeting gradually shifted to other matters.

"Right now, Universal Pictures has the Jurassic Park series, Twentieth Century Fox has the Star Wars Series in collaboration with Lucasfilm, MGM has the 007 franchise, and Sony Columbia is beginning to build the Godzilla Series..."

Jeff Robinov knew very well that to secure his position, he had to find a new source of profit.

"I think everyone here understands the revenue a successful film franchise can bring," he said. "Warner Brothers needs a new franchise project; we need a new Batman!"

He waved to the space behind him, and an assistant immediately approached the conference table, distributing books into the hands of the various executives present.

Robert Solomon flipped through his copy. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Jeff, is this the new project you're talking about? How come I've never heard of it?"

Several independent directors also looked at Jeff Robinov with questioning eyes.

"Gentlemen, this is an all-ages magic novel." Jeff Robinov didn't make them wait, stating directly, "A few months ago, Duke recommended this book to me. For the past two months, our marketing department has been conducting targeted research on it."

Hearing Duke's name, several previously dismissive directors immediately lowered their heads with solemn expressions and began flipping through the books in their hands.

If they didn't even pay attention to a work recommended by such a successful director, they wouldn't be sitting in their current positions. He was a shareholder of Warner Brothers, and since last year, he had continuously increased his stake; he was now one of the largest individual shareholders in Warner Brothers.

Warner Brothers shared far too many mutual interests with him.

"As of now, we have conducted a massive amount of research and statistical analysis on this book in both Britain and the US."

Jamie Jensen from the market research department took over the conversation. He had his assistants hand out statistical reports before saying, "The novel's sales are not good. Since hitting the market this year, it has sold fewer than 30,000 copies."

Fewer than 30,000 copies?

Although quite a few people frowned, they were all veterans of the media industry. They understood that books and films actually shared many similar operational principles—for instance, they both required hype and promotion.

Jamie Jensen continued, "It was written by an ordinary middle-aged British woman. Neither she nor her publisher has much fame or backing, and the work has essentially received no promotional recommendations. All of this has severely limited the book's sales."

"However, we conducted extensive follow-up visits with the demographic of children who purchased the book." Looking at the statistical report, he said with full confidence, "Over the course of two months, the market research department gathered feedback from nearly 10,000 buyers through various methods, including phone calls, letters, and door-to-door visits."

"Among them, ninety-five percent of readers over the age of ten thought it was an incredible book that opened their eyes, and their parents claimed it was the best children's reading material. According to the author's feedback, the second book has already been completed. This is going to be an entire series..."

Listening to the statistics read out by Jamie Jensen, the expressions of the Warner Brothers management grew increasingly serious. Duke Rosenberg might misjudge something, but statistics wouldn't lie.

"I have a question." Robert Solomon withdrew his gaze from the book and looked up. "Have we secured the adaptation rights to this series?"

This was the focal point for the many Warner Brothers executives.

Jeff Robinov answered, "The adaptation rights are temporarily in the hands of Duke Studio. However, Duke is willing to share the copyright with Warner and join hands to build this franchise."

He looked at his subordinates in the conference room. "No one can guarantee the success of a franchise. Just as we partnered with other companies on Batman to share the risk, if the parent group decides to push this franchise heavily, we will join forces with Duke Studio. This will allow us to leverage Duke's influence to boost the work's profile and adaptation, while also minimizing early-stage risks as much as possible..."

The meeting gradually neared its end. The fate of the Harry Potter Series hadn't been completely decided. Warner Brothers not only had to conduct relevant market research but also initiate preliminary negotiations with Duke's side, and both parties had to reach a preliminary consensus on the ratio of future investments and returns.

No capital would merely invest without caring about the returns!

"Doug..." Jeff Robinov said. "Keep in touch with Duke's side and reach out to Nancy Josephson as soon as possible. If the parent group greenlights this project, I will personally go to Australia to talk to Duke."

The Warner Brothers meeting had just adjourned when Duke, far away in Sydney, received a call from Jeff Robinov. Although the other party didn't explicitly say anything over the phone, his underlying attitude was quite clear. The Harry Potter Series he remembered had also come from someone else's recommendation, and that producer whose name he couldn't remember had a company that similarly shared profits with Warner Brothers...

The only difference now was that he wanted to grab as large a slice of this giant cake as possible. That would depend on the outcome of their negotiations.

Duke knew very well that the failure of the Batman Series had caused Warner Brothers to temporarily lose its most relied-upon pillar of performance. As a director whose collaboration with Warner Brothers was deepening, his weight would inevitably increase, thereby adding to his leverage in future negotiations.

In this regard, Duke had always maintained a very clear head. With the strength of Duke Studio alone, it was simply impossible to unleash the full potential of the little wizard. Independent production and promotion would definitely result in significantly lower returns compared to what it once achieved; creating even a tenth of that hundred-billion-dollar industry chain would be nothing short of a miracle.

If the negotiations went smoothly, from the perspective of final actual returns, independent production wouldn't be nearly as cost-effective as cooperating with Warner Brothers.