Barry Meyer could sense a headache ing from a mile away. Sometimes he was baffled by the sheer stupidity that some members of Warner’s board of directors showed. Every on a while, a studio would stumble upon a goldmine of a film that ged their profitability immensely. It was disheartening to know that some people were too stupid to realize that.
“You have to tell them that the amount aying them is too much,” Sherry Peters, one of the most vocal members of the board, said firmly. “We ’t afford to pay them this much.”
“What other choice do we have?” Barry said for the umpteenth time. “Why would anyone agree to take a lower sary, especially when they already have a favorable tract?”
“There must be something,” said Anthony Wasserman, Sherry’s most vocal supporter.
“I’m open to ygestions, Anthony,” Barry resisted the urge to flip him the bird.
“It’s your job!” Anthony shouted, stunning everyone else to silence. “You would be nothing but an overpaid clerk if you ’t eve a 13-year-old child to lower his fees for his film. Everyone in the industry is ughing at us for paying su exorbitant sary to Troy. Why did you even agree to give him a pertage of the box office when you khat the film would be a hit?”
When it seemed like Anthony had calmed down a little, Barry said calmly, “You agreed to it. All of you agreed to it at the moment.” He turned around to look each of the 12 present board members in the eye before saying, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you agree to pay a 20% sary to Tom Cruise for [Magnolia]? And that was in addition to the 20m he was already charging. What happehere? The film flopped badly and we lost even the 20m that we paid him upfront. I was against his hiring from the start, but guess who vetoed me.” Here Barry turned sharply towards Anthony, who was looking anywhere but at him.
Sensing that the childish man would not say anything else anytime soon, Barry tinued, “That said, I agree that this ot go on. So here’s what I propose. Troy earned 2% of the film revenue for the first film, which came out to be 22.6m. Let’s not get into home video sales for now. , he earned a 5% cut for the seovie, which came out to be 50m. With the way his tract is phrased, for the third film, we’ll have to pay him at least a 7.5% cut, and a 10% cut from the fourth film onwards. Assuming that the third film earns a simir amount of money as the sed, he would earn 75m. And a hundred million from then on for each film that makes a billion. What I propose is amending his trad him 50m each for every Potter movie we make.”
The board took in all the information that he had already provided them in folders pced in front of them. Some were keenly going through the numbers while some were not very happy with the proposal.
“50m is too big an amount,” Sherry said. “’t we lower it down to twenty-five or thirty, maybe?”
Barry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he said, “You are saying this based on the assumption that Troy and Steve will even accept this deal. That is a big if and would take all my iating power to make it work. If this was an ensemble film with multiple leads, then I could have done something to lower his sary, but with each book that Jo Rowling releases, it's painfully clear that Harry Potter is the protagonist through and through. Most importantly, we ot fet that Troy has a very dedicated fan base, so we ’t even repce him. He does bring in the revenue equivalent to a top star as well. His five films to date have an average colle exceeding 700m. All his films have exceeded 100m in the US at least, a record held previously by Tom Cruise. If we lowball him too much, Steve Kloves would take the film series and go to Paramount or, heaven forbid, Disney. Would you want that, Sherry? Anthony?”
The two executives were silent and didn’t reply to the question aimed at them.
“But Steve Kloves is already earning a 10% cut of his own,” Danny Thompson, the you board member, said for the first time. “The ter deal you are to Troy isn’t a bad oher. The revenue from the first film to the sed one has decreased by around 10%. It is very costly to market the film, and it’s possible that the third or fourth film may not even be profitable for us if we keep paying them this much money. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if we all earn moogether?”
“I agree,” Barry said. “But Steve Kloves has the advantage here. Not us. I’ll try my best to get him to lower Troy’s sary if we’re all in sensus.”
After receiving assent from all the board members, the useless meeting ended. Barry khat Steve or Troy would never agree to a lower sary. No one in their right mind would. Yet, he had to pcate the board that he was trying something. Most of the sensible people there khat nothing would e out of the meeting with Steve. And even a toddler could see through their useless tactics like deying the produ of the third film only to have some bargaining power over Steve and Troy.
(Break)
Steve walked into the meeting room fidently and shook Barry’s hand.
“How’re you, Barry?” he greeted politely before taking the seat offered by the CEO.
Barry sighed in slight frustration, “Could be a lot better, to be ho. And a lot of my stress es from you. The board is being a nightmare for me, and I’m obligated to show you the terms for Troy’s future sary.” With that, Barry slid a slim folder across the coffee table they were sitting at. “Read the terms at your leisure and shoot me an email whenever you’ve made up your mind. Now, let’s talk some real business. You said you had some ideas for the uping film produ?”
Steve skeptically looked down at the folder that Barry had handed him and asked, “What about this? This offer from your pany ge my pns for the film.”
“It won’t,” Barry reassured Steve. “Don’t worry about it. When you read it ter, you’ll uand. e on, tell me your pn.”
Steve wasn’t sold on that, but he didn’t argue any further and decided to tell Barry his pn to make [Prisoner of Azkaban] and [Goblet of Fire] back to back. Barry, to give him credit, atient listener who was yet to tradict Steve’s words or interrupt iwee, he kept humming and nodding at the right pces to let Steve know that he was listening carefully.
When Steve was done, Barry gave him a terse nod, “Done. I’ll approve the produ of the two films. Have you decided on a director yet?”
Steve was surprised. “Are you sure? Don’t you have to talk to your directors first?”
“That’s my problem,” Barry smiled thinly. “I trust your judgment, Steve. You saw something in [Harry Potter] that no one else did. Simirly, you saw something in [Billy Elliot] and have already recouped most of your iment in the West End in three months. You have a vision for this industry that people rarely have. So believe me when I say this, I trust your judgment. I’m sure you must have thought about it carefully before suggesting it to me. Now, what about the director? Have you decided on whom to get?”
Steve felt a little nervous that Barry viewed him so highly. All his major business decisions i few years had been influenced by Troy either directly or ily, so it felt a little bad taking all the credit for it.
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AN: From now on, I will be splitting the chapters in two parts, and posting them daily rather than on alternate days. So Ch-74 will be divided into 74.1 and 74.2. (Bme Scribblehub's algorithm and business model for this decision, not me.) I know some people will not like it, to them I only advise to stack chapters. My posting schedule on Pat reon will remain the same.