Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 542 Old Friends

"How's business in the store lately?"

After chatting with Taylor, Link video chatted with Fat James who was far away in Miami.

James is still so fat, wearing a large T-shirt, with reddish-brown hair. He is holding a little guy who was just born in his arms. He is his second child. The eldest is a daughter, more than two years old this year, and the second is a son. Less than three months.

James was at a dive shop in Miami Beach at this time.

Every summer is the peak season for diving, and Miami is a tourist resort city. There are many tourists from June to September every year, and the business of the diving shop will be very good. In addition, the 'baker's diving shop' is an Internet celebrity shop, and the business will be doubly good.

Because of this, James stays at the beach to manage the diving shop during the peak season, and returns to the city to manage the cafe with his wife Lillian during the off-season.

The annual income is more than 200,000 to 300,000 US dollars, which is higher than the average white-collar income.

"Not so good. Summer vacation is over soon, and business is getting worse day by day. Link, let me show you something fun."

Fatty James chuckled, took out a thick notebook, and showed him page after page. It was all full of names and contact information.

"What is this? You turned it over too fast."

Link asked.

"Diving reservation register, do you remember that you said before that you will come back to be a diver when you have time? Since 2008, people have come to make reservations every day. Although you don't have time to come back as a diver, there are still people who can make reservations. You Guess how many names are on this register now?"

James chuckled.

"How many?"

"31,831. Ever since you became popular in 2009, sometimes hundreds of fans come in a day to sign autographs, and they even make wishes in the registration book, hoping to go diving with you one day."

"You know, I don't have time to come back and be a diver now?"

Link said.

"I know, and the guests who have made reservations also know that everyone just regards this as a more interesting ritual. Guests will habitually sign on it after they come. Now this register is also the treasure of our store. , maybe one day it will be collected by a museum.”

James smiled.

Link felt that it was very possible, just like after MJ passed away, many of his personal belongings were auctioned, and some were sent to art museums.

His fame and influence are not much worse than MJ. Items like the register that record his growth are very likely to be collected by museums or private collectors.

"Hey Daniel, I'm talking to Link, want to come over and say hi?"

James shouted outside.

"Hey Link, why aren't you fat at all?"

After a while, Daniel from the hot dog shop appeared in the video. Daniel was fatter than when he got married in 2009. He was round and had a beer belly. His body shape was slowly approaching that of James. James joked that he ate too much ice cream and hot dogs. reason.

Daniel also left Miami Beach in 2009 and followed his wife Lina to open a barbecue restaurant in the city. Later, he found that the barbecue restaurant business was not easy to do, and the income was not as good as that of the small shops on the beach.

In order to make money, he and Lina would continue to sell hot dogs, ice cream, and barbecue on the beach every summer.

The situation is similar to that of James, and because of his good relationship with Link, his hot dog shop has also become an Internet celebrity shop.

In addition to James and Daniel, Michael from the surfboard shop also returned to Miami last year after spending two or three years in New York and other cities, working in a recording studio as a sound engineer and part-time talent scout.

After Michael came out, Link also contacted him to see if he could help him, but Michael refused and had to work **** his own.

It's not bad now. James complained that Michael was changing girlfriends every day and was very degenerate. He also said that it was a good thing he didn't go out back then, otherwise he would have become as unruly as Michael.

—

After chatting with James and Daniel for a while, they agreed to go back to Miami Beach for vacation when they had time. Link also chatted with Chris Liu, Jennifer Shu and the children.

Seeing the two cute little guys growing up day by day, but rarely accompanying them, Link felt that he would inevitably be criticized by the children for being an unfit father in the future.

In order to make up for this regret, he decided to retire from the film industry in two or three years, reduce public activities, and spend more time with his family. He would spare at least one month every year to spend time with Xiao Shunan, Liu Jiani, and Sasaki Shinmei A little guy.

There are private planes now, so it’s very convenient to come and go.

Turning off the computer, Link stretched and walked out of the villa.

The sun was good outside, and the botanical garden was covered with green grass. Ivaca, wearing a light blue knee-length skirt, took three little ones for a walk on the lawn, followed by seven or eight kittens and puppies. Link used to laugh at his neighbors, Scott Stuber and his wife, for making a big noise when they went out, but now the situation is the same at home.

Over the weekend, Link and Iwaka held a party in the villa, inviting company employees and partners from the film and television industry to come over, mainly to celebrate the successful conclusion of this summer's summer season, but also to prepare for the following autumn and film productions. Prepare for winter vacation.

Lionsgate has released 6 movies this summer, and four of them have exceeded 100 million in North American box office, including "Identity Thief" with 162 million, "Rust and Bone" with 121 million, "Now You See Me" with 132 million, and "Bad Girls" with 159 million. 100 million.

Only the box office results of "Black Mad Woman 3" and "Her" were slightly inferior, but they did not lose money.

The total North American box office of the six films was US$682 million.

This year, a total of 212 movies were released in North America throughout the summer, with approximately 583 million movie tickets sold and a total box office of US$4.76 billion. This result not only increased 11% over last year, but also became the highest box office summer in history.

Among the 212 movies, 20 movies have a box office of over 100 million in North America, with 5 movies from Disney ranking first, 4 movies from Lionsgate and Warner ranking second, 2 movies from Universal, Fox, and Paramount, and 1 movie from Sony.

Among them, Disney ranks first among the "New Seven" with a total box office of US$823 million, represented by its representative works "Iron Man 3" and "Monsters University".

With its four films, "Man of Steel," "Pacific Rim," "The Hangover 3" and "The Great Gatsby," Warner Pictures earned 695 million in North America, ranking second.

Lionsgate Pictures ranked third with 6.82, accounting for 14.5% of the total box office share

Universal Pictures, Fox, Paramount, and Sony ranked 4-7.

Lionsgate Pictures continues to maintain its top three position in the summer season. This result puts a lot of pressure on its peers, and also makes the executives and employees within the company happy. The company's movies are selling well, and they can also get more year-end awards. This kind of thing No one wants to see that.

However, because of the good performance of Lionsgate Films in the past two years, peers have started poaching Lionsgate.

Since April, eight executives above the supervisory level have been poached by fellow film companies, five producers in the production department have also been poached, and more than a dozen ordinary employees have changed jobs.

Six of them were poached by Weinstein Pictures.

But this has little impact on Lionsgate, whose secret to successful movies is in Link's hands, not those of the executives.

With or without them, the movie would have been a hit, and even if these people jumped ship, it would have been beneficial to the company.

The company can take this opportunity to absorb more capable management and producers, implement survival of the fittest internally, and maintain efficient operation of various departments.

"Hi, Link, congratulations. Lionsgate's achievements are amazing. Link, you are now the person I admire the most."

Ryan Kavanaugh from Relativity Pictures came over and said with a complicated expression.

"Thank you! I just found a group of very capable partners."

Link smiled modestly.

"No, no, no matter what others think, I think you are the key to the success of Lionsgate's movies. Before you acquired Lionsgate, although Lionsgate was doing well, it was only a company with a market value of seven or eight A small film company worth $100 million.

After you took charge of Lionsgate, in less than three years, the market value of Lionsgate Pictures quadrupled, and the annual box office performance increased year by year. It was actually able to suppress the six major film studios and rank in the top three. This is very, very remarkable. "

Ryan Kavanaugh marveled.

When Link took over Lionsgate Pictures in 2011, he, like all his peers, believed that Link's acquisition of Lions Gate Pictures was definitely a very unwise move.

In the future, Lionsgate will have only one way to go bankrupt.

But the facts slapped everyone in the face. Under Link's leadership, Lionsgate not only did not go bankrupt, but instead became the "New Seven" in Hollywood.

If Lionsgate had not been established for a short period of time and could not match the "Big Six" in terms of funding and channels, in the past two years, Lionsgate's films would have a great chance of surpassing Disney, Warner, etc. and becoming the industry leader.

For a genius like Link, he was not only envious but also admired.

Compared with Lionsgate Pictures, Relativity Pictures' situation has been getting worse year by year in recent years.

Before August, the company had released five movies, and only two movies had a North American box office of more than 50 million, "Safe Haven" with a box office of 73.14 million US dollars, and the animated film "Free Bird" with 55.75 million US dollars. The production cost of "Free Bird" was 55 million US dollars. .

In the first half of the year, Relativity Pictures not only failed to make any money, but also lost $180 million.

Counting the unpaid debts in the past, the current situation of the company made him black-eyed.

He really didn't understand why Link, an outsider who went to Hollywood to develop his career, could make a lot of money, while he, who had been working in the industry for more than ten years, would lose money.

This is so unfair.

(End of chapter)