Sitting next to Jeffrey Hanson, Eric felt that there was no room for bargaining, he still said: "I'm sorry, Mr.
Cohen, I don't intend to sell Home Alone, but we can still talk about a sharing agreement, right ?"Blount Cohen frowned as he unhappily said: "Eric, if we're going to share, I can only give you 18%."
"Mr. Cohen, didn't you just say you'd give us 20% ?" Jeffrey retorted.
Blount Cohen lightly said: "That was just under average circ.u.mstances, if we are to release Home Alone, then the cost of the release will certainly be much higher than the cost of production, so 18% is very reasonable."
Jeffrey was about to argue, but Eric stopped him from acting on impulse and said: "Well, Mr. Cohen, I have another idea, how about signing a contract based on a bet ?"
Although gambling agreements were widespread in the industry, Blount Cohen laugh loudly in his heart, what made this brat think that he was qualified to gamble with Columbia ? However, he feigned interest and gestured to Eric to keep going, he'd like to hear what this kid had on his mind.
Eric acted as if he hadn't seen Blount's face full of ridicule, he smiled and said: "Columbia will use 5 million dollars, at the least, to promote the movie. If Home Alone makes less than 50 million $ at the box office, I will give up the entirety of the rights to you for free."
After these words, if Blount Cohen said he wasn't moved, he would be lying.
The company had already estimated that Home Alone would make about 50 million at the box office, so if he signed an agreement on gambling, as long as the time was right, even controlling the box office so that it didn't grow over 50 million was a very simple matter.
Blount Cohen felt Eric was stupid, but he also admired the young man for his courage.
Jeffrey Hanson abruptly got up, and shouted in disbelief: "Eric are you crazy ?!"
Eric patted Jeffrey on the shoulder and motioned him to sit down, before saying: "If the box office is between 50 million to 100 million $, I want twenty percent of the share.
If the box office is over 100 million dollars, then for every additional 10 million dollars, I want my share ratio to be increased by 1%."
Eric finished, and calmly started to drink his coffee, no longer saying anything. Jeffrey Hanson was fidgeting, he kept sweeping his gaze between the two people, he was a bit worried Blount Cohen would agree to Eric's ridiculous agreement, if he did, they would lose the 10 million $ buyout fee.
10 million dollars, ah, how many people had ever seen so much money ?
Eric didn't mind and laughed: "Jeffrey, have a little bit of faith in me alright, if I'm right, then you as the executive producer will receive a generous dividend that will help you redeem your Fireflies studios. Right now I need your help, so how about doing me a favor ?"
Although Jeffrey dreamed of getting back the film company co-founded with his wife, he didn't take Eric's words seriously, but seeing that he wouldn't be able to change the guy's mind, he asked: "Well, Eric, what do you need me to do ?"
"Help me contact a law and accounting firm, not surprisingly, Columbia will certainly agree to the agreement I proposed, and I'll need someone to help me supervise and audit the implementation of the agreement, and if there's a dispute I'll also need someone to defend my case."
Jeffrey said: "These are no problem, but Eric, do you still have money ? Those guys cost a lot you know."
"Of course," Eric opened his glove compartment, took out a copy of Jura.s.sic Park, and said: "I still have the Jura.s.sic Park movie copyrights that are at least worth a million dollars as collateral, if the gambling fails, then just take the novel to those firms, I don't believe they'll reject it."
"Eric, you're seriously... insane !"
"The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art, that he will work at it come h.e.l.l or high water."
Jeffrey threw his hands up: " I see, not only are you crazy, you're arrogance could even put Aristotle to shame."
"Aristotle was busy, I stole this one from Stendhal."
"..."
Jeffrey finally agreed to help contact the firm as soon as possible, at the same time, in one of Columbia Pictures conference rooms, several executives were in the middle of a discussion.
"Alright, you know everything, so let's hear your opinions." Blount Cohen described Eric's conditions of the bet again while he looked at the several executives, waiting for them to express their views.
After hearing Blount Cohen's statement a second time, the executives found it unbelievable; was that boy just foolishly stupid ?
Finally, an executive called Lester Reed took the lead and said: "Mr. Cohen, this is a good opportunity, according to our estimates, the highest potential box-office of the film is also 50 million $.
Following the signing of the agreement, and with a little bit of tweaking, we could easily control the box office so that it wouldn't go over the 50 million mark, and we wouldn't even have to use 10 million dollars to buy him out."
When Lester Reed finished, the others also echoed up.