Chapter 788: Securing Star Wars

The Hollywood awards season was in full swing with all its usual clamor, but the entertainment industry as a whole continued to operate with methodical precision. In early February, Inception finished its theatrical run in Syria, officially leaving cinemas across all global markets. After nearly a year in theaters, the film ultimately grossed $1.12114 billion at the worldwide box office.

Meanwhile, the contents of the film's upcoming limited-edition DVD and Blu-ray set leaked through unofficial channels.

The standard DVD for Inception had hit the North American market late last year. Even with the continuous decline of the home video industry, it had still managed to generate nearly $130 million in sales.

This new limited-edition DVD and Blu-ray set was different, possessing genuine collector's value.

The limited-edition set included multiple souvenirs: a Limited Edition Aluminum Dream Machine Briefcase, a user manual for the Portable Automated Somnacin Intravenous Injector, a set of postcards, a Spinning Top, and a three-disc combo containing a DVD, a Blu-ray, and a digital copy.

Once this set hit the market, it was met with fanatical enthusiasm by Inception fans. In just ten days, it generated over $35 million in sales in North America alone.

For a blockbuster like Inception, there were simply too many profitable tie-in merchandise opportunities to count.

With Inception out of theaters, the heat surrounding Duke's other film had also begun to wane. Gravity had just passed its fifth weekend in North America, and its weekend box office had slid to $12.15 million. While its cumulative North American box office had surpassed $330 million, the film's market potential was clearly running dry.

However, TRON: Legacy, which was only entering its second weekend, saw an even fiercer decline. Plagued by poor audience word of mouth, the film's second-weekend box office plummeted by nearly sixty percent compared to its opening weekend. It pulled in $19 million for the weekend, bringing its ten-day North American total to $87.37 million.

Compared to Robin Hood, it could still be considered a relatively successful large-scale commercial production.

Whether Walt Disney and David Ellison felt the same way, Duke didn't know. His current focus was strictly on the Oscar nomination list.

Since he had remained in San Francisco to participate in the final negotiations for Lucasfilm, Duke hadn't attended the nominees' luncheon held on Wilshire Street, Beverly Hills, leaving Scarlett Johansson to attend in his place. The moment the luncheon concluded, the Los Angeles office forwarded the nomination list directly to Tina Fey.

"The nominations have been announced," Tina Fey whispered as she walked over to Duke during a break in the negotiations and sat in the chair beside him. "We're the biggest winners on the list."

This was what months of hard work had been for. Duke immediately asked, "What did we get?"

"Inception got eight nominations!" Tina Fey read them off one by one, glancing at the email on her phone. "Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Score."

Duke gave a slight nod. These were mostly technical awards, which was entirely in line with the School's usual style. For major prizes like Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, Inception was destined to be an also-ran.

"Gravity, which was the focus of our public relations campaign, got Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Score," Tina Fey continued. "That's a total of ten nominations."

"We have eighteen nominations in total," Tina Fey said, a hint of regret in her voice. "It's just a shame you didn't get a double nomination for Best Director."

Missing out on a double nomination was actually a good thing in some ways. Double nominations made it incredibly easy to split the voters' ballots, and Duke knew this perfectly well.

He shook his head and told Tina Fey, "Now that the nominations are out, tell Nancy and Penny to rein in their activities a little."

According to the School's rules, studios were forbidden from carrying out further PR campaigns once the nominations were announced. But that was obviously impossible to enforce. Setting everything else aside, many members of the School were part of the Hollywood industry themselves. Whether films were actively shooting or in pre-production, it was simply inevitable for studios involved in the Oscar race to come into contact with School members.

As for what the two sides discussed in private, the School had no control over that whatsoever.

Even so, they couldn't go too far. If they were actually caught and made an example of by the School, the losses would outweigh the gains.

The School's executive committee was well aware of this reality. As long as nobody crossed the line, they were willing to turn a blind eye.

This was inherently a game of wealth and fame. If those factors were completely removed, there would be no point in playing the game at all.

Setting the Oscar nominations aside for the time being, Duke poured all his energy into the acquisition negotiations for Lucasfilm.

After more than half a year of protracted negotiations and due diligence, the joint acquisition group formed by Duke and Time Warner emerged as the primary choice for Lucasfilm. Time Warner could provide Lucasfilm with a vast, mature platform, while the massive funds in Duke's hands met the Lucasfilm shareholders' pricing demands.

By the time Duke raised the acquisition offer to $4 billion, he and Walt Disney were the only two interested buyers left in all of Hollywood.

The assets held by Lucasfilm were certainly enticing, but they also included money-losing divisions like Lucas Animation, Lucas Online, and Lucas Games. For an acquisition involving such colossal sums of capital, any investor had to consider the return on investment. The sky-high price of $4 billion had already exceeded the bottom lines of companies like Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Columbia, and Paramount Pictures.

In the eyes of those studios, Lucasfilm simply wasn't worth that much money. If they sank such massive funds into it, whether they could ever recoup the cost would remain a huge question mark.

Looking at the entirety of Hollywood, including his final competitor Walt Disney, Duke was the only one who firmly believed that the power and potential of the Star Wars franchise were limitless. It was bound to erupt with boundless brilliance in the future. As long as there were no major operational blunders, the merchandise sales for Star Wars alone would offset this massive acquisition cost in no time.

Therefore, facing his last rival, Duke raised the price once again to $4.1 billion. Already suffering from internal instability, Walt Disney finally retreated. Lucasfilm essentially became a prize in Duke's pocket.

During this trip to San Francisco, the two sides had already reached an agreement on the acquisition price; they were mostly discussing the finer details.

This included Duke's future plans for Lucasfilm's primary operations.

Ever since the Star Wars Prequel Series concluded, Lucasfilm as a whole had only produced a single film: Indiana Jones 4. Coupled with the fact that George Lucas was in a state of semi-retirement, their performance naturally couldn't be called outstanding. This directly impacted the incomes of the executives and the many employees at Lucasfilm.

If their incomes couldn't be guaranteed, talking to the employees about faith or feeding them feel-good platitudes was completely hollow and utterly useless.

Duke understood this perfectly. After a closed-door meeting with George Lucas, he directly wrote the reboot of the Star Wars franchise into their negotiation agreement, promising that, if necessary, he would personally serve as the director for the rebooted film.

Given his past track record, along with his prestige and box office draw in the film market, this was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Lucasfilm's management. Once they reached an agreement on this point, negotiating the remaining details became much smoother.

In mid-February, Duke, Time Warner, and Lucasfilm jointly convened a press conference in San Francisco to officially announce that Lucasfilm was changing hands. The transaction amount involved reached a staggering $4.1 billion!

In the new Lucasfilm, Duke held an absolute controlling stake. Time Warner held a symbolic share and would serve as the distributor for the new Star Wars series. Katherine Kennedy, who shared a similar vision with George Lucas, accepted Duke's offer and became Lucasfilm's new CEO.

With the transaction complete, Duke knew very well that he now held a massive treasure trove in his hands—the Star Wars franchise!

He also personally enjoyed nearly a one-third cut of the combined revenue from all aspects of the Harry Potter series. Added to the Star Wars franchise he now possessed, the two most commercially valuable film franchises in history could both be considered prizes in his pocket.

Consequently, the plans for a new Star Wars would be put on the agenda as soon as Lucasfilm was back on track.

Duke already had some ideas regarding this. The new Star Wars didn't necessarily need to be wildly creative or technologically revolutionary.

In Duke's mind, the most important thing for the new Star Wars was that it didn't suffer from flaws as glaring as Anakin Skywalker's transition.

In terms of visual effects, the new Star Wars didn't need to push too hard; as long as the effects sequences were above the standard of a Hollywood blockbuster, it would be enough. Groundbreaking technological revolutions were James Cameron's job. That wasn't a risk the newest installment of this franchise needed to take. Even if they redesigned droids like R2D2, their main function would primarily be to "act cute."

In some ways, Duke simply wanted to repackage the new Star Wars with modern Hollywood technology, forging it into a retro film with a solid story!

Duke and George Lucas had discussed this. Lucas was not satisfied with the lack of creativity and imagination in the new Star Wars that Duke was proposing. In his view, "innovation" should be the Force behind Star Wars.

However, George Lucas had always admired Duke's grasp of the market, so he didn't insist on his own opinion.

Launching the new Star Wars was something for the coming years. Having completed the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Duke still had to make the necessary adjustments to the company. It wasn't until he had spent a full half-month in San Francisco that he finally returned to Los Angeles. The 83rd Oscar Awards Ceremony was about to begin!