Chapter 460: Prove It to Me

For Duke, wrapping up the final stages of post-production on Return of the King was his top priority, followed by monitoring several ongoing negotiations. The most critical of these, without a doubt, was Harry Potter Studio's copyright negotiation with Joanne Rowling for the remaining books in the series.

Just as Duke had expected, the talks were long, grueling, and fraught with endless wrangling over competing interests.

When it came to Joanne Rowling's profit share, the two sides fought over every last basis point. With companies like Walt Disney stirring up trouble behind the scenes, the talks had dragged on for more than half a year since the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Only after both sides made concessions did they finally reach a new agreement.

Starting with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Joanne Rowling would receive a 9.5 percent share of all related revenue, including box office receipts and merchandise. In addition, Harry Potter Studio would pay a flat $60 million base fee for the adaptation rights to the final four novels.

There was no way around it. In Hollywood, nobody got anything for nothing. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was already a massive hit, and Joanne Rowling and her management team were not fools. There was no chance they would just walk away from the money they deserved.

At the same time, the production signed new contracts with the entire cast. Most of the series regulars saw a bump in pay, particularly the lead child actors. Not only did their new salaries jump into the million-dollar range, but they also received retroactive bonus payouts following the runaway success of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

As long as profit participation stayed off the table, recasting remained a last resort. Whenever possible, the production intended to keep the original cast intact.

Even so, the franchise's production schedule would take a brief hiatus for two main reasons. First, Chris Columbus did not want to return as director, and Duke was looking to make a change anyway. Second, the young actors were hitting puberty—their voices were breaking and they were shooting up in height—so the project would pause for a year.

During that break, the young cast would also have to take acting classes at Duke's insistence. The logic was simple: if the production was paying them top dollar, they needed to deliver performances to match. In the original timeline, those kids had been dreadful in the later films—especially the Gryffindor Golden Triangle. Had audiences not already grown attached to them in their roles, their acting would barely have cleared the bar for bottom-rung Hollywood extras.

In truth, both Duke and Warner Brothers knew full well that compared to Joanne Rowling, those young actors were the real headache waiting to happen. After two more films at most, their agents and parents would inevitably come knocking to renegotiate—and might even demand a cut of the profits.

After years in Hollywood, however, and with Warner Brothers backing him up, Duke already had a countermeasure ready. When the time came, he would simply sign a box-office profit-sharing agreement with the young actors.

Harry Potter Studio was an independently incorporated company, after all. It could easily finance its budgets through loans from Duke Studio and Warner Brothers...

As the weeks went by, the momentum behind The Two Towers steadily cooled, bringing in just $23.5 million across North America for the entire month of August. Even though the soundtrack album and DVD box set had not yet hit shelves, the promotional campaign for Return of the King was already officially underway.

Because the premiere was still a long way off, and the massive success of the first two films had already built sky-high anticipation for the finale, Warner Brothers kept its main marketing push focused on The Two Towers. Now that post-production on Return of the King was finished, its early promotion consisted mostly of Duke dropping the occasional teaser.

"Director Rosenberg, can you share anything about Return of the King?"

Outside the entrance to The Lord of the Rings Studio, a few entertainment reporters had flagged Duke down. Hearing their question, he was unusually accommodating. "I'll be posting the latest posters, clips, and release updates on my Instant Sharing account," he replied. "Feel free to keep an eye on it, and you're welcome to repost anything you find."

"Instant Sharing account?"

One reporter blinked, but a colleague next to him jogged his memory. "It's that social networking site where the first Return of the King poster went up."

Duke offered a brief smile and walked into the studio flanked by two bodyguards. Once inside, he touched base with the publicity department and arranged to post updates on the film to his Instant Sharing account every few days.

Though he devoted very little of his own time to the website, Duke was happy to promote it whenever it took minimal effort. After his previous few posts, the site had ridden the wave of hype around The Lord of the Rings to push past 500,000 registered users in one go.

For a platform still in its infancy, that was already a remarkable number.

"Hi, Duke."

Duke had just stepped into his office when Wallace Lee knocked and walked in, looking as though he had something to discuss.

"Something up, Lee?" Duke asked, taking his seat and gesturing to the chair across the desk.

Wallace Lee sat down. Knowing how Duke liked to work, he got straight to the point. "What do you think of my work lately, Boss?"

Years of grinding in the indie film scene had taught him that opportunities were never handed out for free, and he knew exactly when to pitch himself.

"Pretty good," Duke said with an approving nod. "You've done better than I expected."

Duke was well aware of the habits indie filmmakers often brought with them. Perhaps because his old classmate had hit one brick wall too many in the independent circuit, Lee had little of that pretentious arthouse streak. His work during post-production on The Two Towers and Return of the King had genuinely been outstanding.

Knowing what was coming next, Duke raised a hand to cut off whatever Wallace Lee was about to say. After thinking it over for a moment, he said, "But that isn't enough. Lee, I already have the adaptation rights in hand. Over the coming months, you need to prove to me that you have what it takes—that you're worth my investment."

Handing someone tens of millions of dollars just because they had done solid post-production work on two movies would be absurdly reckless.

As with every studio in Hollywood, financing a feature film was never a simple matter or a decision made on a whim. Every investment and every greenlit project required careful deliberation.

"Lee, I need a minute-and-a-half trailer," Duke said, offering him a shot to prove himself. "You'll be in charge of cutting the first trailer for Return of the King. If I like what I see..."

Wallace Lee's eyes lit up at once, but Duke quickly pivoted. "I have a new project lined up for next year. As long as the trailer meets my baseline standards, you and Anna can help me prep the film. That will be your chance to prove yourself up close."

"Is it that new script set to shoot in Paris?" Wallace Lee asked.

Duke nodded. "The one I gave Anna last week. The two of you can go over it together first."

After finishing the outline and character profiles, Duke had handed the project over to the Editorial Department at Duke Studio for the staff writers to flesh out and polish. There was nothing groundbreaking about the plot; from its premise to its pacing, it was built entirely out of tried-and-true Hollywood tropes. Even its emotional core—the bond between a father and his daughter—had nothing remotely novel or original about it.

Just as he always said, mainstream commercial hits and brand-new ideas were usually half the Pacific Ocean apart.

Setting everything else aside, take this project, which had already been titled Taken. If an unknown writer had submitted a script like that to a studio, there was a 99.9 percent chance someone would give it a cursory skim before tossing it into the script vault to gather dust in a corner, with no telling if it would ever see the light of day.

In the hands of a director and producer with a proven track record, however, it would be treated altogether differently.

Although the script for Taken was finished, Duke was in no rush to start production. There was still plenty of work left on Return of the King, and since Taken was a low-budget project with a short shooting schedule, it could easily wait.

Starting in September, Duke's Instant Sharing account rolled out a steady stream of posters, character stills, and other updates for Return of the King. As a major shareholder, he also pulled a few strings with Google: whenever anyone searched for Return of the King or social networking sites, the Instant Sharing website was guaranteed to appear near the top of the results.

At his suggestion, Instant Share Company also streamlined the features on its newly launched website and social app, making them much more user-friendly. It was one of the few ways Duke could directly pitch in to help his girlfriend.

He was no tech expert, after all; for the most part, he could only leverage his own name and the reach of his films to help Ivanka promote the site.

Besides, Duke still held a 45 percent stake in the company himself. If the site really took off, it would be a good thing for him as well.

By late October, buoyed by heavy promotion on multiple fronts, the number of registered users on the Instant Sharing website finally crossed the 1 million mark, with daily visits approaching 300,000. While it still trailed far behind established blogging platforms and software, it was showing impressive momentum for a site of its kind.

Meanwhile, after a long theatrical run, The Two Towers finally crossed the $500 million mark at the North American box office on October 25. It was only the second film in history to top $500 million in North America—and the first of Duke's career to pass that milestone domestically. Worldwide, it also overtook The Fellowship of the Ring, smashing past the $1.2 billion mark to reach a staggering $1,215.77 million!

Unlike when The Fellowship of the Ring crossed $1 billion, however, the media and fans across the country took the news in stride. Everyone had seen this coming two months ago. After such a long wait—and after watching Duke pull off one triumph after another—neither the press nor the public found it surprising anymore.

"If The Two Towers failed to pass $500 million in North America or fell short of The Fellowship of the Ring worldwide—now that would be news!"

That commentary in the Los Angeles Times summed up what almost everyone was thinking.

Even so, it was a milestone well worth celebrating. Since mid-October, staff at Duke Manor had been busy decorating the ballroom for a grand party—partly to toast the success of The Two Towers, but mostly to celebrate Ivanka's twenty-first birthday.