November 18th, Eric flew to New York the next day, while Home Alone and 17 Again had officially premiered. Home Alone was projected on 1000 screens, while 17 Again had 1279 of them.
It was being screened in 279 more screens than Home Alone since the Fox hadn't signed any gambling agreement and could just put all its efforts in making it a success.
They were released simultaneously along with Universal Pictures' Land Before Time and its 1395 screens, and Disney's Buena Vista International Release animated Oliver u0026 Company with its 952 screens.
Three children-oriented movies were released at the same time, and this made the media feel that Eric's chances to win the bet were getting thin, but the concerned party wasn't worried at all.
These two might overshadow Home Alone a little at the beginning, but they wouldn't be able to compete on the long-time run. His past life's Home Alone had screened for ten consecutive weeks.
After attending the two premieres, when Eric and the crew came back to the hotel, it was already past eleven pm. This era's technology wasn't really advanced, so they could only wait until next week before getting the Home Alone and 17 Again box office data.
Back in his room, Eric took a bath and was planning to go to sleep, when the phone suddenly rang. Calling him so late, it could only be Annie.
"Hey, Eric, were you sleeping ?" The lass asked with a tinge of excitement.
Eric sat on the bed drying his wet hair with a towel, he said: "No, I just showered, Annie did something good happen ?"
"Guess ?"
Eric quipped: "Oh, I know, you must be pregnant, don't worry, I'll take responsibility."
"Bah, you big bad wolf, talking about those dirty things !" Aniston followed: "I just went to see Home Alone, and encountered a very interesting thing, hehe."
Eric smiled: "Tell me ?"
"Well, I came out from the cinema earlier, and there was a five-year-old boy shouting that he wanted to see Kevin again, the parents refused, saying that they had just went to see him, and the result was that the kid lied on the ground and started to cry.
Some people mistakenly thought that his parents were child-traffickers, the poor parents were beaten up, and several police cars came, it was really funny, haha."
Aniston was just viewing it as a funny anecdote, but Eric could see the bigger picture. They chatted for a while before hanging up, and Eric lied on his bed, slightly excited.
(TL: No freaking idea how this was calculated, don't ask me, blame the author.)
Blount Cohen had wanted to tear the agreement apart many times, however, the whole nation now knew about the bet, if he hastily tore up the contract, not only would Columbia have a difficult lawsuit on its hands, they would also become the laughing stock of the country.
As the president, he himself would definitely become the scapegoat.
"No, we must find a way to recoup our losses, we must ..." While Blount Cohen kept muttering, an assistant knocked on his door and said: "Mr. Cohen, everyone is in attendance, the meeting can start."
Blount Cohen rubbed his temples, rose and left for the conference room.
After sitting down at his place, Blount Cohen directly asked the one responsible for the Home Alone project: "Lester, how was the data analysis ?"
Lester Reed had been about to return home alongside the Home Alone crew, but when he received a call from headquarters urging him to come back, he immediately took a flight back to L.A ahead of everyone else.
Once he heard about the numbers for the movie's first week of running, Lester had instantly felt bad.
He sweated as he looked at Blount Cohen, although the final decision to accept the agreement was his boss', but he had been the first to voice his consent at the original meeting. According to Blount Cohen's headstrong character, nine times out of ten he would vent his anger on Lester.
"Mr. Cohen, according to the data department's analysis, and in accordance to the gambling agreement, we can only get about 50 million $ out of the estimated 225 million $ of the North American box office."
Blount Cohen took the analysis file, and looking at the red curve going down that represented Columbia's profits, as well as the green one who was going all the way up representing Eric's, his temples started to jump.
Bang
Another one of Blount Cohen's cup fell on the mahogany floor with a dull thud, everyone else in the room was slightly startled, they subconsciously looked down and became silent.
Under normal circumstances, making 50 million $ at the box office was enough to let those old foxes laugh out loud even in their dreams, after all, even for the six giants, the best yearly box office profit was about 200 million $.
However, when compared to the over 100 million $ that Eric might receive, Blount Cohen couldn't bring himself to be excited in the slightest.
"Well, you were in charge of signing the gambling agreement, so what now ?" Blount Cohen coldly glanced around the room, and his eyes finally fell upon Lester Reed.