Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 496 The Hunger Games is released

 After convincing Meryl, Link no longer cared about this matter, mainly because he didn't have time.

The last time he left Meryl's house, he got a call from Chris Liu that Jennifer Shue was giving birth.

For this reason, he flew to Hong Kong Island and stayed with Jennifer Shu for two days in a private hospital in Repulse Bay. He gave birth to another son, a beautiful mixed-race baby who weighed 8.6 pounds at birth.

In order to reward Jennifer Shu, he transferred two properties in his name to her name, and will give her and her children 500,000 yuan of pocket money every month. In addition, he can do nothing else.

After Jennifer gave birth to the baby, he stayed on Hong Kong Island for three days and then returned to the United States to be with Ivaca and the two children.

At this time, Taylor was busy outside with the new album signing event. If he left the child at home, Taylor would probably not let him take care of the child again in the future.

Taylor's fourth album "BeginAgain" was released in mid-March and sold 1.027 million copies in the United States in its first week.

Although it was more than half a million copies less than the first-week sales of the third album "Last Kiss", its first-week sales exceeded one million, which is still a very good result for Taylor, a singer who suffered a huge setback last year.

In addition, six songs from this album entered the Billboard top 10, and all 12 songs entered the top 100, and won the first place on the singles chart.

The results are very good.

What surprised Link even more was that there were five songs in "BeginAgain" that he had never heard before, and they were also very good.

Due to the good sales in the first week, Taylor let go of the big stone that was weighing on his heart and felt much more relaxed.

By the end of March, "The Hunger Games" was released in 4,137 theaters in North America.

The box office grossed a total of US$70.25 million on the first day, surpassing "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" by US$68.5 million and "The Dark Knight" with US$67.17 million. It ranked second on the list of highest first-day box office records in North America, second only to "The Dark Knight". The Twilight Saga: New Moon's $72.7 million.

The three-day weekend total reached US$164 million, setting the record for the highest first-day box office for a non-sequel in film history, the highest opening weekend for a non-sequel in film history, the highest opening for a non-sequel in film history in March, and the highest-grossing opening for a Lionsgate film in history. box office record.

"The Hunger Games" swept through major theaters in North America with a strong attitude, achieved an amazing first-run box office record, and also amazed the media.

The production cost of this film was US$78 million, with a publicity budget of US$30 million. It could be repaid within three days of its release. The film's reputation is also very good, with a comprehensive media rating of 88 points, and more than half of the media's ratings exceeded 90 points.

There is no doubt that Lionsgate has produced a very good movie.

Link and Lionsgate will also make a lot of money from this movie, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars.

When Link acquired Lionsgate Pictures last year, many people were not optimistic about the deal and believed that Lionsgate Pictures would eventually go bankrupt in his hands. Some media predicted that Lionsgate's bankruptcy would take about three to five years. .

Unfortunately, things did not go as the media predicted. Lionsgate Pictures achieved profitability in the first year after being taken over by Link.

Now that a series of movies like "The Hunger Games" have been produced with extremely impressive box office figures, Lionsgate Pictures is bound to get better and better in the next few years.

Therefore, after "The Hunger Games" became a box office hit, many media lamented that Link got a big deal.

When Lionsgate changed hands in March and April last year, the film had already been approved. Link did nothing to pick up a successful series of films. He was very lucky.

The original shareholders of Lionsgate Pictures seem to have made a loss-making business.

In the first week of the film's release, the North American box office exceeded 200 million, reaching 212 million U.S. dollars, second only to "The Half-Blood Prince" with 236 million U.S. dollars, "Spider-Man 3" with 230.5 million U.S. dollars, and "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End" with 216 million U.S. dollars. One of the fastest movies to hit US$200 million in North America.

"The Hunger Games" also won the weekly box office championship with 212 million, and there were several more competitive movies during the same period.

They are "Men in Black 3" released by Sony Pictures, which was released on the 25th, with a box office of US$83.35 million in its first week.

"Wrath of the Gods" released by Warner Pictures was released on March 30, with a box office of US$43.88 million in its first week.

And "The Boys", which has been in theaters for two weeks, grossed US$27.5 million at the box office this week.

Although these movies performed well at the box office, they were far behind "The Hunger Games".

Also because the box office performance of "The Hunger Games" was so eye-catching, a lot of negative comments inevitably appeared in the media during the second week of the movie's release.

Many reviews do not comment on the quality of the movie, but target the heroine Jennifer Lawrence.

I think Jennifer and Link have an ambiguous relationship and rely heavily on Link in their careers. The heroine of The Hunger Games is an independent and self-reliant woman with a very strong inner heart. In this regard, Jennifer is not as good as the heroine Katniss.

Some film critics ignored the facts and said that Link's purpose in investing in this movie was to flatter lovers. The quality of the movie was average and it was all based on publicity and hype. The audience should not pay for it.

In response to these unfriendly comments, Lionsgate and Palm Bay Entertainment also responded forcefully, sending legal letters to multiple media and film critics, demanding that they publicly apologize while continuing to promote positive news about Jennifer Lawrence.

Thanks to the vigorous promotion of Lionsgate Pictures, "The Hunger Games" had little impact on the box office. In its second week in North America, it took in US$96.3 million, a drop of 56%. For a popular movie, this number is very good, and it also shows that The quality of the movie is very high.

In terms of overseas box office, "The Hunger Games" has grossed a total of US$180 million in 31 countries and regions including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

Within 15 days of its release, the film's global box office revenue exceeded US$500 million, making it the first movie in the world in 2012 to gross more than US$500 million.

The media predicts that the global box office of the film will be between 700 million and 800 million, which will be better than the first part of the "Twilight" series.

In other words, this movie is expected to become another global best-selling novel adaptation after "Harry Potter" and "Twilight".

According to this prediction, Lionsgate Pictures is expected to earn more than 2 billion US dollars from this series.

This time everyone started to envy Link.

His move to trade Twitter shares for Lionsgate last year seemed impulsive and a bad deal.

However, Twitter shares only have a high market value, poor operating conditions, very little annual profit, and last year’s share dividend was also very small, less than 300 million U.S. dollars, like a golden chicken that cannot lay eggs.

Lionsgate Pictures paid more than 100 million in dividends last year, 80% of which belonged to Link. This year the dividends will be even more, even more than Twitter, which has a market capitalization of 10 billion, like a chicken that can lay golden eggs. With these golden eggs, Link can use them to invest in other projects and make more money than Twitter shares.

For this reason, the Wall Street Journal published a special article praising Link as an "amazingly shrewd and visionary entrepreneur."

At the same time, the newspaper also commented on Link's current entertainment industry, saying that Lionsgate Pictures + Palm Beach Pictures + Netflix will grow into a giant in the film and television industry in the future, and Link Music Company + SBprojects Entertainment + Spotify platform will also have many Big hopes to become a giant in the music industry, alongside the five major record companies.

The "Wall Street Journal" once again lamented that Link was amazing. He had completed his layout in the entertainment industry inadvertently. "In the future, Link will definitely become a leader who affects the direction of the world's entertainment industry."

"My dear, are you so powerful?"

Ivaca flipped through the newspaper and looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

Link was squatting on the carpet playing with Alexander and Cynthia.

Alexander is relatively quiet. If you give him a pile of blocks, he can sit on the ground and play quietly for two or three hours.

Cynthia, on the other hand, is more lively. After playing with toys for a while, she crawls towards him, steps on his legs, and wants to crawl onto his neck. Her hands and feet are very flexible.

"The news says you will be the overlord of the entertainment industry."

Ivaca read the review of him by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper was full of praise for his layout in Hollywood and the music industry, saying that he has become a little giant walking on two legs and has the opportunity to evolve into Warner, Universal, and Sony. , entertainment giants such as Disney.

"My dear, are these the plans you made after thinking about it?"

Ivaca asked about the acquisition of shares in Spotify and Netflix. If there were only Link Music and Lionsgate Pictures, Link's entertainment industry could only be considered average. With these two entertainment technology companies with good prospects, his name The industry has undergone qualitative changes and has great potential.

Link smiled softly, "Absolutely. I am optimistic about the Internet industry. Internet platform + music, Internet + film and television are the development trends of these two industries in the future. So after entering the music and film circles, I began to look for connections with these two industries. Spotify and Netflix are two of the more closely integrated Internet companies. From now on, this combination is not bad. "

"Yes, very nice, honey, you're amazing."

Ivaca looked at him with a smile, her eyes full of love and admiration.

Although she is also an excellent entrepreneur, her expertise lies in management and operation and lacks pioneering. If she were asked to plan the development of the two companies, she would not invest heavily in Spotify and Netflix and would be more conservative in her approach. .

In comparison, Link is bolder in this regard and has a more long-term vision in his decision-making.

"Hey, Cynthia, you crawled up my neck just to bite my ears?"

Link held the elf in his arms and wiped the little guy's ears that were covered in saliva. Just now, the little guy climbed on his shoulders and nibbled on his ears. The little guy had only grown six deciduous teeth, and it didn't hurt to bite them. .

"Is Cynthia hungry?"

Ivaca asked.

"No, she is just naughty."

Link picked up the pink little cutie and kissed her pink face. The little guy blinked his big bright eyes, giggled, and stretched out his little jade-seed fingers to scratch his face.

Jingle Bell!

The mother of the two little guys called on time and asked what Alexander and Cynthia were doing.

Link talks about having his ear bitten by Cynthia.

Taylor said he deserved it.

Link held the two little guys and walked to the computer to video chat with Taylor.

Alexander and Cynthia watched Taylor calling mommy on the computer. Taylor's eyes were full of the two little guys, and a smile appeared on his face unconsciously.

Link asked her how the album was selling.

Taylor proudly said that it was very good. He signed more than 5,000 records in London today.

Link asked her to take it easy and not get too tired.

Taylor rolled her eyes at him and told him to leave it alone, then took out a bunch of toys to tease the two little guys online, asking them which one they liked?

Alexander and Cynthia grabbed the screen and kept babbling.

Link asked Taylor when he would leave London. Tomorrow the crew of "The Hunger Games" would go to the UK for a roadshow.

Taylor said he had been notified and didn't need to worry.

Link said nothing more.

The theme song "Safe & Sound" and the interlude "Eyes Open" from "The Hunger Games" were composed and sung by Taylor, so she occasionally participates in movie promotions when promoting her new album.

Link accompanied the two children and chatted with Taylor via video for half an hour. Then Taylor had to go to work, and he and the two children continued to play in the living room.

In the afternoon, Selena brought little Annie over to have a meal. The two older ones pushed the two younger ones around the house, followed by several kittens and puppies. There was almost no commotion in the villa.

Originally, Link could barely cope with raising two little ones by himself. With the little round face that has not grown up and the naughty little Annie, he couldn't handle it at all, so he could only leave the older ones to the nannies. Watch, don't do anything dangerous.

(End of chapter)