America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz

Because of Warner Bros.' involvement, Martin had been keeping an eye on "Dark Places" since the premiere ended.

In North America, the theater attendance rate was not high.

The market response was mediocre.

In the master bedroom of the villa, Martin got the latest box office data fresh out of the oven.

Elizabeth Olsen asked, "I looked at the online reputation, and it seems not too ideal, how's the box office?"

Martin forwarded the data to her and said, "It's worse than I imagined, only 2.74 million US dollars on the first day in North America."

This wasn't a limited screening, but a wide release across more than 3000 cinemas.

"That little?" Elizabeth was somewhat surprised, a thought popped into her head, then she shook her head and asked, "I remember Warner Bros. set the final production budget at 70 million US dollars, right?"

She was rather familiar with Gillian Flynn, "'Gone Girl' received such good response, but this one is doing so poorly…"

Martin said, "The director's level might be quite a bit lower than David Fincher's."

Elizabeth, having seen the data Martin forwarded, kicked off her slippers, shifted her feet onto the couch, and rested her head on Martin's legs, saying, "The key is missing you as the leading star."

Martin caressed the place that was bulging and said, "I considered that the film might receive a poor response, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."

Elizabeth had just eaten her fill and didn't want anymore, she held back Martin's hand, looking up at him, "When you mentioned the box office figures just now, it suddenly occurred to me, did you deliberately give this adaptation project to Warner Bros.?"

"Warner Bros. snatched the project," Martin moved his hand back and deliberately squeezed, "I'm a good person, how could I do something to set someone up."

Elizabeth felt something rising rapidly below her head, poking like a rod, feeling quite helpless, "Haven't you had enough yet?"

Martin said, "My dear, this shows how attractive you are to me."

Elizabeth felt she couldn't cope, and suddenly remembered something.

Lily had secretly complained before, that he never included her in gaming...

Although they were good friends, Elizabeth knew Lily was hard to please, and she couldn't let her have her way easily – she needed to make her feel grateful.

Elizabeth turned over, feeling that after eating her fill, she could still manage a little more.

If she didn't partake, it would only benefit others outside.

Martin quickly tossed aside his phone, no longer concerned with the situation of "Dark Places."

The old boy and the little witch began researching again the academic topics of protein loss and replenishment.

......

Century City, WMA headquarters.

Sitting at his desk, Ari Emanuel frowned. As the first-day box office came out, the fate of "Dark Places" was pretty much sealed—a box office disaster was inevitable.

But it made no sense.

Warner Bros. had heavily invested in the production, with a budget of 80 million US dollars, and the director had been on a strong upward trajectory.

Bestseller author Gillian Flynn personally adapted her popular work, and the last time she did the same with "Gone Girl," the box office was huge.

The lead actress Natalie Portman was a newly-crowned Oscar winner, a darling of the mainstream media and a representative figure among Hollywood actresses born in the 80s—her reputation had always been solid. Find exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

A movie project with so many factors for success, had somehow failed.

Why?

Ari couldn't figure it out at the moment, and stood up to go to the floor-to-ceiling windows, sighing as he looked out over the Beverly Hills.

There was no chance "Dark Places" could stage a comeback, and his plan to make Natalie Portman Hollywood's top actress was facing bankruptcy right from the start.

Ari thought again about the Oscar-winning actress curse.

But Natalie's predecessor, Sandra Bullock, hadn't been affected.

The failure of "Dark Places" had severe consequences; it would be harder for Natalie to land similar caliber roles and films in the future.

How could this damned Oscar-winning actress curse be lifted?

After some thought, Ari made a call to Thomas.

Thomas arrived at his office promptly.

Ari asked, "Have you been following 'Dark Places'?"

"I've been following it," Thomas thought he wanted Martin's opinion and said, "I sent the relevant statistics to Martin as soon as they came out."

Hearing this, Ari asked, "What did Martin say?"

Thomas shook his head slightly, "He didn't say anything."

Ari sat back down and asked, "What do you think the problem is?"

Thomas thought to himself that he was where he was today only because he had sided with the right person, and he knew all the keys to a movie's success or failure just as much as you did.

But he couldn't say that out loud. Suddenly, he thought of an article he had just read, which seemed somewhat reasonable, and said, "We might have misjudged some situations."

Ari caught his meaning, "About Natalie Portman?"

Thomas reminded, "On the CinemaScore website, where audience scores from theaters are used as a rating basis, there is a professional analysis article you might want to read."

Ali went to check the computer.

Glancing at his watch, Thomas said, "I'll be going now."

Ali nodded.

Thomas left the office, but as he did so, he looked back and thought that the success or failure of "Gone Girl" and "Dark Places" actually hinged on Martin and Natalie Portman.

While "Dark Places" did indeed suffer from some quality issues, Natalie Portman's lack of star power was also key.

Back in the office, Ali logged onto the CinemaScore website and clicked on the "Dark Places" section, where he saw the live audience scoring it only a B, marginally better than "Green Lantern."

However, the latter's losses forced Warner Bros. to scrap the entire DC Extended Universe project.

Ali found the analysis article Thomas was talking about.

It was a column by Ed Mintz, the founder of CinemaScore.

Ed Mintz was known for his sharp market insight, accurate predictions, and thorough analyses.

Ali discovered that this particular column focused on his top female client, Natalie Portman.

He skimmed over the first few paragraphs and quickly got to the core of the article.

"Over the past years, Natalie Portman has been far more popular in mainstream media than among movie fans, and it's no exaggeration to say that she is the most media-favored actress born in the '80s."

"Her carefully crafted image of being a high-educated individual who doesn't care for fame and fortune, and her studies in Jerusalem, all uphold Natalie Portman's high-brow persona, making her a representation of Hollywood's middle-generation actresses."

"Natalie Portman's success in mainstream media has created the illusion that she is incredibly popular among movie fans! Although this has won her a subset of supporters and made her a typical high-grade, refined Hollywood actress, it's not enough to support the market for a larger-scale production."

"Looking through Natalie Portman's career, aside from her breakthrough role in 'Léon: The Professional' and the Star Wars Prequels trilogy, it's hard for the average moviegoer to recall any other works of hers. 'Léon: The Professional' was heavily criticized in North America upon its release and was not mainstream-friendly, and even Natalie herself has publicly criticized this film. The success of the Star Wars Prequels trilogy was largely unrelated to Natalie Portman."

"Perhaps among highly educated demographics, Natalie Portman's refined actress persona has a market, but the lack of recognition from the widest audience and movie fans is Natalie Portman's Achilles' heel, preventing her from carrying the market for films with a slightly larger production scale."

"'Dark Places' itself suffers from less than stellar production, and we cannot overlook the problems with casting..."

Reading this, Ali involuntarily lifted his head from behind the computer and thought carefully about Natalie Portman's situation.

Natalie Portman joined WMA later on; her persona and stylistic approach were established well before she came to WMA.

At first, it seemed quite normal.

But now, Ali thought, maybe there was some truth in Ed Mintz's analysis.

Natalie Portman's persona is not at all appealing to the general audience.

Ali didn't want to give up on his top female client and pondered how to help Natalie break the Oscar winner's curse.

The weekend passed, and although "Dark Places" had a much better reception than last year's "Gods of Egypt" and "Green Lantern," the box office performance was just as disappointing.

In its opening weekend in North America, the film only made 7.21 million US Dollars.

Many market analysis institutions predicted that it would be difficult for the domestic final box office to exceed 15 million US Dollars.

Compared to its production budget of 70 million US Dollars, the term dismal would be an understatement.

In the most spacious office of the Warner Building, Kevin Tsujihara looked at Jon Berg across from him, his brother-in-law.

He asked, "What's the situation with this one?"

Jon Berg replied, "I trusted Gillian Flynn too much and let her participate in the post-production. We respected her opinions in the final cut of the film, and as a result..."

Kevin Tsujihara slowly nodded.

Jon Berg continued, "'Gone Girl' was so successful, I thought Gillian Flynn would bring that success to the new project."

Kevin Tsujihara said, "Women are too emotional in this regard; don't make this kind of mistake again."

In fact, there were very few female producers in Hollywood who held final cut privilege.

Jon Berg said, "I have already adjusted the editing schemes for the other few films, and we won't repeat the same mistake."

Every mid to large-size production company in Hollywood has its share of failures every year, and Kevin Tsujihara didn't hold on to it too much and soon let Jon Berg leave.

Back in his own office, Jon Berg didn't hesitate to blacklist Gillian Flynn and Natalie Portman from Warner Bros. Pictures.

He was concerned because next month he had to present his first report to the corporate board since taking charge.

Jon Berg quickly thought of a strategy, focusing on the success of "Harry Potter 9" and "The Hangover 2" in his upcoming report, while trying to deflect responsibility for the failures.

The failure of "Dark Places," with Gillian Flynn serving as both producer and writer, made her the perfect scapegoat.

Jon Berg sighed, wishing he didn't have to rely on a sequel left over from his predecessor to save the day, but he had no choice at the moment.

He would get past this hurdle first before considering the rest.

Suddenly, Jon Berg realized something – this film, like "Gods of Egypt," was also related to Martin Davis.

"Gods of Egypt" was a project that Daniel had intercepted from Martin, who wanted to collaborate with Warner; "Dark Places" was actively snatched from Martin by his trusted assistant.

Was there a connection between the two?