Chapter 512: Marvel and Pixar

Aerin Lauder flew to Tokyo early the next morning. Duke not only went to the airport in person, but he also sent her off on his own private jet. By the time he returned to the hotel, it was nearly noon. After a simple lunch and declining a few event invitations, he finally had a free afternoon.

Duke had no intention of attending the film festival screenings, nor did he plan to stroll around Shanghai. He had visited the city countless times in the past and felt no novelty or curiosity about it. Perhaps he had just mentally aged; his interest in unnecessary socializing was waning, and he increasingly preferred quiet environments.

Standing higher naturally allowed him to see further. Combined with his innate disposition, his mindset was much steadier than before.

Perhaps it was because he had marched forward under pressure for so many years and grown accustomed to the heavy burden. Sitting idly in the suite's living room watching television, Duke actually spaced out from sheer boredom. It was as if he had returned to the past, back to his days struggling at the bottom of a film crew. It wasn't until Tina Fey walked out of the study that the sound of the wooden door pulled his thoughts back to reality.

Although he had returned to his former homeland, Duke had no intention of seeking anything out. He had never had any attachments in the past, and that past was already behind him. His gaze was forever fixed ahead, and he would never halt his forward momentum.

He would cross every obstacle, seize this life's rare opportunities, and keep moving forward.

No person and no reason could ever make him stop.

"Duke Studio just sent this over."

Tina Fey walked over and sat down next to him. She handed him a fax. "There are a few items that need your signature before they can be officially implemented."

Opening the document, Duke quickly skimmed through it. At the very front were the various North American box office statistics for Taken.

Looking purely at the numbers, the film was more than an order of magnitude behind super-productions like The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Compared to its own production budget, however, the results were still quite satisfactory.

In its North American opening weekend, Taken brought in 51.25 million dollars across 3,624 theaters. Its CinemaScore theatrical audience approval rating reached eighty-eight percent, with an average audience grade of "A+". On the IMDB website, 18,775 users gave it a score of 86. The audience approval Popcorn Index sat at eighty-nine percent, and forty-five media journalists on MetaCritic gave it a score of 84.

Overall, although the film's market reputation fell far short of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Matrix, it was still a high-scoring work among action films.

Aside from North America and China, Taken was released simultaneously in Britain and France. It earned 16.56 million dollars and 14.11 million dollars in its opening weekend, respectively. Its overall performance exceeded the expectations of both Duke and Warner Brothers.

More importantly, Taken's North American box office did not plummet during yesterday's workday. A single-day box office of 10.85 million dollars was enough to keep the film moving forward with steady momentum.

After reading the report, Duke felt largely at ease regarding Taken. Even if a sharp drop occurred later, the film could still easily turn a profit solely from its box office.

Duke then shifted his focus to the next section. Two new films co-produced by Duke Studio and Warner Brothers were nearing the greenlight stage—Zack Snyder's 300 Spartans and Wallace Lee's Underworld.

After the Oscars, Zack Snyder ended his half-year vacation and officially began preparing to shoot his new film, stepping up as the leader of the three hundred red-briefs army. Since Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions had ultimately grossed 715.6 million dollars and 733.56 million dollars respectively, he had already proven his capabilities and won the full approval of Duke and Warner Brothers. His proposed project plan was quickly approved.

Moreover, the actual cost of the film was not particularly high.

The official launch of Zack Snyder's project was already within Duke and Warner's plans. Meanwhile, Wallace Lee's opportunity to direct solo was tied to his own hard work, aside from being the one who recommended Underworld.

Over the past few years, Duke's college classmate had left an excellent impression on him. He had demonstrated a solid level of competence during the post-production of Return of the King and the pre-production and filming of Taken. Although he had his flaws—such as the gossip about him and several actresses spreading around the crew while he served as the casting director—in Hollywood, these were minor issues that could be ignored.

Underworld had already been confirmed for greenlighting; it was only missing the final paperwork.

Since both projects stemmed from his support, Duke naturally wouldn't call a halt to them. He instructed Tina Fey to follow up in a timely manner and maintain communication with Warner Brothers.

At the very back was the business concerning Warner Brothers, which primarily consisted of three aspects: Warner Brothers' negotiations with Pixar Studio, their distribution partnership with Marvel Pictures, and their renewed proposal to fully acquire Duke Studio.

With the North American release of The Incredibles, Pixar Studio had completed its animated feature film contract with Walt Disney. Because Michael Eisner still hadn't stepped down, the negotiations between Pixar and Disney remained locked in a stalemate.

Given Steve Jobs's true nature as a businessman, he certainly wouldn't hang himself on Disney's single tree. Over the past few years, his contact with Duke and Warner Brothers had never ceased. The battle for Pixar Studio's ownership had now reached its final stage. In no more than two years at the most, Jobs would inevitably seek a new distributor.

Distribution seemed simple, but in reality, it required years of accumulation and the support of a massive platform. Why were Hollywood's tier-two companies—including Harvey Weinstein and his brother, New Line Pictures, Pixar Studio, and later on, DreamWorks Animation Studio—all so eager to either throw themselves under the umbrella of major studios or sign seemingly unfair contracts with them?

Distribution channels were arguably an extremely critical reason.

This simply wasn't a problem a single person could solve. Even when Steve Jobs had focused his main energy on Pixar Studio in the past, as fiercely brilliant as he was, he had been at his wits' end regarding distribution channels.

Compared to Walt Disney, Warner Brothers was at a disadvantage in children's promotion, but they held the upper hand in distribution and worldwide marketing channels.

No matter how uniquely gifted Michael Eisner was, he couldn't change the fact that Disney didn't transition into a media conglomerate until the mid-to-late 1990s. The current Walt Disney was not yet the formidable, world's-number-one media company of the future; a definite gap still existed when compared to the Time Warner Group.

However, Pixar Studio was no longer the ugly duckling of the past; it had already transformed into Hollywood's white swan. Holding absolute controlling rights, Steve Jobs undoubtedly held the initiative.

For the alliance of Duke and Warner, a long and arduous negotiation was just beginning. Standing out among several equally powerful competitors would not be an easy task.

Comparatively speaking, the distribution negotiations between Marvel Pictures and Warner Brothers were going much smoother. With Duke acting as the middleman, and the precedent set by the massive success of Spider-Man and X-Men, even competitors would lay down their prejudices and cooperate in the face of sufficient profit.

Besides, cooperation between DC and Marvel had occurred more than once in the past.

Their negotiations had already entered the final stage, lacking only the signing of the formal contract. Furthermore, both Marvel and Warner shared an identical demand: for Duke to direct the opening work of Marvel's master plan—Iron Man!

Superhero movies wouldn't go out of style for the next dozen years, or perhaps even longer. If the franchise proved even more successful than it had in the past, then as a major dual shareholder of both Marvel and Warner, he would undoubtedly be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Although wealth was now just a numbers-stacking game for Duke, like all the billionaires in this world, once he joined this game, he wouldn't have the slightest thought of stopping until he grew completely tired of it.

After thinking for a few minutes, Duke said to Tina Fey, "I agree in principle to direct Iron Man. Notify Nancy and let her negotiate the specific details."

The final item concerned the ownership of Duke Studio. Even today, Duke Studio remained a shell company of rather limited scale. Duke had no intention of expanding it either; the specific management work had always been handled by the team led by Tina Fey.

Purely in terms of employee count and company scale, Duke Studio couldn't even compare to the film studios of Tom Cruise, Drew Barrymore, and Brad Pitt. But unlike those studios, Duke Studio held the full or partial copyrights to quite a few blockbuster films.

Leaving everything else aside, just the copyrights for The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and the Harry Potter series alone were enough to make all of Hollywood salivate with envy.

Several years ago, Warner Brothers had proposed a full acquisition of Duke Studio. But at that time, The Lord of the Rings hadn't been filmed yet, and Harry Potter hadn't yet exploded in popularity. Duke certainly wasn't foolish enough to sell the company. Even though Warner Brothers had proposed completing the transaction through a stock swap, he still chose to refuse.

The situation now was entirely different.

Duke kept a very clear head. He knew it was impossible for Duke Studio to grow massive, nor would the other major Hollywood companies sit by and watch it do so. Moreover, could expanding into a landscape like the current Big Six truly be achieved just by shooting blockbuster films?

He wasn't that foolish or naive.

"Tina, once we return to North America, you will represent me in the negotiations with Warner Brothers." Duke thought for another moment and cautioned, "Remember, we are not short on cash."

Tina Fey nodded. "I know what to do."

After finishing the small pile of documents, Duke left the room and took a stroll along The Bund. He returned to the hotel before evening, dug out his speech manuscript, and made some revisions. This would be his first time giving a speech at a university, so his attitude was quite serious and proper.

After giving this speech, Duke's entire itinerary in China would officially come to an end. It would probably be a very long time before his next visit here—perhaps not until the film market on this side thoroughly exploded.