Chapter 229

‘[Disconnected] fails to connect with the audience.’

That was the headline of a lot of newspapers when it was evident that [Disconnected] wasn’t going to be a successful venture. In the first week of its release, the movie was only able to earn 27 million dollars which was not a good number.

The movie was going to be off the theatre in two weeks more like this and won’t even go for more than 40 million dollars which meant that the losses were too much to handle.

Black Line Cinema was just a medium-sized studio, and these many losses were pretty horrendous for them. In the first place, the only reason they went for a 60 million dollar production was because of the backing of SGA.

Now they were in trouble, and the studio had to take their next steps very carefully to recover their losses.

Out of all this, the most enraged person was obviously Franco Li.

“Our losses are massive. Black Line Cinema CEO is asking for a meeting with you, and Jesse Ross is really angered, and from what we know, he might give out a few interviews talking about us badly. The marketing team is already informed, and we are going to control the mess.”

“What about the people in the company?”

“They are talking about it. Seth wanted to meet with you. He’s very depressed, according to his manager and has been drinking since last night.”

Franco Li frowned hearing that. Rubbing his temples, he leaned against his chair and thought about the whole ordeal.

‘The response to Seth’s role isn’t good. His perception among the public would just fall after this massive disaster, and it would take another two years for me to get him to a steady career path again. The losses would be dealt with, but the loss of reputation would be the main dent.’

For an agent of his calibre, a loss like [Disconnected] was not that much of a big deal, but he would take some loss in reputation. SGA management would also ask questions from him as he was the one who handled the packaged deal with Black Line Cinema.

He even pushed the project, thinking that it was going to change his career of Seth.

“I won’t have any meetings with anyone. At least not yet. Black Line Cinema is just going to ask us to handle the losses alongside them.”

Franco said, looking up at his assistant.

“What about Seth?”

“He’s not useful anymore. We invested a lot in him, and he’s just being a burden. We tried our best to make [Disconnected] a big break for him, but it didn’t work out. His previous projects just got lukewarm responses too.”

According to Franco, Seth Douglas was in the zone of an actor who’s fine in movies but didn’t have any charisma to carry a project on his back. He didn’t have the X factor in him that was required for him to become more than a mediocre actor.

Franco had way better candidates than him, and he was tired of promoting it. This flop was the final nail in the coffin.

It seemed like giving sexual favours wasn’t enough in the end.

Hollywood was all about profit, as actors could be replaced at any moment.

“Should I tell that to him?”

His assistant asked, thinking inwardly that another actor was going to be replaced. He had been working with Franco for five years, and he had seen countless actors go in and out.

“No, I will talk to him myself. As for Jesse Ross, he can complain all he wants. The movie is a flop no matter what, and fights between producers and directors aren’t uncommon. Tell the marketing team to do press releases in which they blame Black Line Cinema for it. We can’t leave any scar on SGAs reputation.”

After giving all the instructions, Franco Li stood up and took out a bottle of champagne. It was an antique one that he would only drink with esteemed guests.

Pouring a glass of it for himself, he thought that a lot would take to handle the losses incurred. They would need to minimise them as much as they could.

Drinking the wine, he looked up at his assistant.

“We have a deal going with Zetflix, right?”

“Yeah.” His assistant nodded.

“See if they are interested in the streaming rights for [Disconnected].”

Originally, the plan was to wait for two months before selling the streaming rights. Their value would have increased a lot if the movie had been a hit.

But now, they needed to sell it for a lower amount and as soon as possible.

After all, a lot of flop movies won’t even find a streaming platform and would just fade away.

***

“I checked the theatre near my town, and half the seats were empty. I asked a few people about the movie, and they didn’t like it.”

“My neighbour went to watch it, and he said he hated it. He didn’t want to see another Seth Douglas movie in his life. Said something about now his face is too punchable.”

“I got my parents to watch it. They found it very average too.”

“To be honest, I also didn’t like the movie.”

Everyone chartered around in the lounge area of Aiden’s office with sad depositions. All of them were obviously talking about [Disconnected].

It was their first movie after becoming Aiden’s team, and the start was completely opposite of the album release. It was easy to say that everyone was left disappointed.

Especially Tom, who was waiting for the critics and the audience to hype Aiden as the best part of the movie. He wanted to read articles on how he overshadowed Seth Douglas with his performance.

But nothing like that had happened.

The best scene that Aiden shot didn’t even make it in the movie, and Tom felt like it was the worst thing that the editing team behind [Disconnected] could do.

As they were talking, they suddenly heard footsteps, and Wade and Aiden emerged.

Their faces became uneasy seeing Aiden, who looked calm, but in their eyes, he looked too calm. Celebrities have different ways of handling their failures.

Some would act upset and angry with everyone, while others would go into depression. A lot of them would even take breaks to analyse where they went wrong or get a vacation.

All of them knew that because they had worked with celebrities before.

Compared to them, Aiden was odd.

He looked the same as before, but he also seemed to be in some sort of deep thought. Seeing them looking at him like this, Aiden couldn’t help but ask.

“Why are you looking at me like this? You are acting like you just got my medical report, and I have cancer.”

Wade chuckled at that.

“It’s kind of like that. You could equate it to a flop.”

“Nah, I’m not dying due to a flop. It’s more like a fever.”

Seeing Aiden and Wade engaged in silly conversations, the team relaxed a bit, and Jody opened his mouth.

“We thought you would be very upset by the movie flopping. Why are you two laughing like that?”

“I am upset,” Aiden said, then smiled. “No actor likes seeing their movie flop. It’s weird if I’m laughing due to my movie flopping.”

“Then?”

“It’s just that I kind of expected it after seeing the premiere. Moreover, it’s not like I’m the reason the movie flopped.”

Wade nodded at that and sat down. Normally, actors and directors would be at the forefront for the reason of the movie flopping, but in [Disconnected], Aiden only had around 20 minutes of screen time which wasn’t a lot by any standard, especially because his character was a major.

“A lot of critics aren’t even mentioning Aiden’s name in their articles and reviews. They are treating his role as an extended cameo.”

Wade said, and Aiden further explained.

“Yeah, SGAs strategy backfired heavily on them. They made it look like Seth Douglas is the one carrying the movie. It wasn’t sold as a ‘Jesse Ross’s movie’ or even ‘Black Line Cinema’s production’. It was sold as a ‘Seth Douglas movie’.”

“Yeah, so other actors never got any attention, and a lot of the audience doesn’t even know who is in the movie until they watch it. Even now, after it failed, critics and media reporters are targeting Seth Douglas.”

The flop would also not affect Aiden too much in terms of finding further work as he was playing a supporting actor, and the acting was good. Just the edited scenes made him look forgettable.

A lot of actors would have small roles in flop movies early on in their career, and as he has a good agent, his career would not halt here.

Though Aiden still didn’t like that the movie flopped, it was not something he could avoid in a creative field like Hollywood.

It was all about hits and misses here.

“I’m pretty sure Seth won’t get more movies. At least as the lead.” Sasha commented, and Wade nodded.

“Yeah, that bastard would either go indie or would be satisfied with smaller roles. He needs a big break to make it as the lead again.”

They talked like that as the atmosphere became more relaxed.

His team was happy to see that Aiden was still fine after a flop. It said a lot about his mental fortitude, which was absolutely necessary if he wanted to be a superstar.

As they talked, Aiden remembered something and said.

“By the way, I have something to show you all.”

…

//DreamThree//

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