Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

After convincing Meryl, Link no longer cared about this matter, mainly because he had no time.

The last time he left Meryl's house, he received a call from Chris Liu, saying that Jennifer Shu was about to give birth.

For this reason, he flew to Hong Kong Island and accompanied Jennifer Shu for two days in a private hospital in Repulse Bay. He once again had a son, a very beautiful mixed-race baby, who weighed 8.6 pounds at birth.

In order to reward Jennifer Shu, he transferred the two properties under his name to her name, and would give her and the child 500,000 pocket money every month in the future. Apart from that, he could not do anything else.

After Jennifer gave birth, he stayed in Hong Kong Island for three days and returned to the United States to accompany Eva Ka and the two children.

At this time, Taylor was busy with the signing event for his new album. If he left the child at home, Taylor would probably not let him take care of the child in the future.

Taylor's fourth album "Begin Again" was released in mid-March, with sales of 1.027 million copies in the United States in the first week.

Although the first week sales were more than 500,000 less than the third album "Last Kiss", the first week sales exceeded one million, which is still a very good result for Taylor, a singer who suffered a huge setback last year.

In addition, six songs in this album entered the Billboard top 10, and all 12 songs entered the top 100 and won the singles chart championship.

The results are very good.

What surprised Link even more was that there were five songs in "Begin Again" that he had never heard before, and they were also very good.

Due to the good first week sales, Taylor put down the big stone in his heart and felt much more relaxed.

By the end of March, "The Hunger Games" was released in 4,137 theaters in North America.

The box office on the first day of the opening of the movie totaled 70.25 million US dollars, exceeding the 68.5 million US dollars of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" and the 67.17 million of "The Dark Knight", ranking second in the North American highest first day box office record list, second only to the 72.7 million US dollars of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon".

The three-day weekend grossed a total of $164 million, setting multiple box office records for the highest first-day box office for a non-sequel film, the highest first weekend box office for a non-sequel film, the highest opening box office in March, and the highest opening box office for Lionsgate.

"The Hunger Games" swept major theaters in North America with a strong attitude, and got an amazing first-day box office record, which also amazed the media.

The film cost 78 million US dollars to produce, and the publicity budget was 30 million US dollars. It was able to recover its investment in three days. The film's reputation was also very good, with a media comprehensive rating of 88 points, and more than half of the media rated more than 90 points.

There is no doubt that Lionsgate produced a very good movie.

Link and Lionsgate will also make a lot of money from this film, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

When Link acquired Lionsgate last year, many people were not optimistic about the deal, believing that Lionsgate would eventually go bankrupt in his hands, and some media predicted that Lionsgate would go bankrupt in about three to five years.

Unfortunately, things did not go as the media predicted. Lionsgate made a profit in the first year after Link took over.

Now that it has produced a series of movies with extremely impressive box office data such as "The Hunger Games", Lionsgate will surely develop better and better in the next few years.

Therefore, after the box office of "The Hunger Games" was a big hit, many media lamented that Link had picked up a big bargain.

When Lionsgate changed hands in March and April last year, the film had already been approved. Link did nothing and picked up a hit series of movies. He was so lucky.

And the original shareholders of Lionsgate seemed to have made a loss-making business.

In the first week of the film's release, the North American box office exceeded 200 million, reaching 212 million US dollars, second only to "The Betrayal of the Half-Blood Prince" with 236 million US dollars, "Spider-Man 3" with 230.5 million, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" with 216 million, becoming one of the fastest movies to break 200 million US dollars in North America.

"The Hunger Games" also won the weekly box office championship with 212 million, and there were several more competitive movies in the same period.

They are "Men in Black 3" released by Sony Pictures, which was released on the 25th and had a box office of 83.35 million US dollars in the first week.

"Wrath of the Titans" released by Warner Pictures was released on March 30 and had a box office of 43.88 million US dollars in the first week.

And "22 Jump Street", which was released for two weeks, had a box office of 27.5 million US dollars this week.

Although the box office results of these movies are good, they are far behind "The Hunger Games".

Also because the box office results of "The Hunger Games" are too enviable, many negative comments inevitably appeared in the media in the second week of the movie's release.

Many comments do not comment on the quality of the movie, but point the criticism at the heroine Jennifer Lawrence.

It is believed that Jennifer has an ambiguous relationship with Link and relies a lot on Link in her career, while the heroine of "The Hunger Games" is an independent and strong woman with a strong inner strength. In this regard, Jennifer is not as good as the heroine Katniss.

Some film critics ignored the facts and said that Link invested in this movie just to promote his lover, that the quality of the movie was average and it was all hype, and that the audience should not pay for it.

Lionsgate and Palm Bay Agency also responded strongly to these unfriendly comments, sending lawyers' letters to many media and film critics, asking them to apologize publicly, while continuing to promote positive news about Jennifer Lawrence.

Thanks to Lionsgate's vigorous promotion, "The Hunger Games" had little impact on the box office. In its second week in North America, it took in US$96.3 million, a drop of 56%. For a popular movie, this number is very good, and it also shows that The movie quality is very high.

In terms of overseas box office, "The Hunger Games" has grossed a total of US$180 million in 31 countries and regions including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

Within 15 days of its release, the film's global box office revenue exceeded US$500 million, making it the first movie in the world in 2012 to gross more than US$500 million.

The media predicts that the global box office of the film will be between 700 million and 800 million, which will be better than the first part of the "Twilight" series.

In other words, this movie is expected to become another global best-selling novel adaptation after "Harry Potter" and "Twilight".

According to this prediction, Lionsgate Pictures is expected to earn more than 2 billion US dollars from this series.

This time everyone started to envy Link.

His move to trade Twitter shares for Lionsgate last year seemed impulsive and a bad deal.

However, Twitter shares only have a high market value, poor operating conditions, very little annual profit, and last year’s share dividend was also very small, less than 300 million U.S. dollars, like a golden chicken that cannot lay eggs.

Lionsgate Pictures paid more than 100 million in dividends last year, 80% of which belonged to Link. This year the dividends will be even more, even more than Twitter, which has a market capitalization of 10 billion, like a chicken that can lay golden eggs.

With these golden eggs, Link can use them to invest in other projects and make more money than Twitter shares.

For this reason, the Wall Street Journal published a special article praising Link as an "amazingly shrewd and visionary entrepreneur."

At the same time, the newspaper also commented on Link’s current entertainment industry, saying that Lionsgate Pictures + Palm Beach Pictures + Netflix will grow into a giant in the film and television industry in the future, while Link Music Company + SB Projects Entertainment + Spotify Platform will also have I have great hope to become a giant in the music industry, alongside the five major record companies.

The "Wall Street Journal" once again lamented that Link was amazing. He had completed his layout in the entertainment industry inadvertently. "In the future, Link will definitely become a leader who affects the direction of the world's entertainment industry."

"My dear, are you so powerful?"

Ivaca flipped through the newspaper and looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

Link was squatting on the carpet playing with Alexander and Cynthia.

Alexander is relatively quiet. If you give him a pile of blocks, he can sit on the ground and play quietly for two or three hours.

Cynthia, on the other hand, is more lively. After playing with toys for a while, she crawls towards him, steps on his legs, and wants to crawl onto his neck. Her hands and feet are very flexible.

"The news says you will be the overlord of the entertainment industry."

Ivaca read the review of him by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper was full of praise for his layout in Hollywood and the music industry, saying that he has become a little giant walking on two legs and has the opportunity to evolve into Warner, Universal, and Sony. , entertainment giants such as Disney.

"My dear, are these the plans you made after thinking about it?"

Ivaca asked about the acquisition of shares in Spotify and Netflix. If there were only Link Music and Lionsgate Pictures, Link's entertainment industry could only be considered average. With these two entertainment technology companies with good prospects, his name The industry has undergone qualitative changes and has great potential.

Link smiled softly, "Absolutely. I am optimistic about the Internet industry. Internet platform + music, Internet + film and television are the development trends of these two industries in the future. So after entering the music and film circles, I began to look for connections with these two industries. Spotify and Netflix are two of the more closely integrated Internet companies. From now on, this combination is not bad. "

"Yes, very nice, honey, you're amazing."

Ivaca looked at him with a smile, her eyes full of love and admiration.

Although she is also an excellent entrepreneur, her expertise lies in management and operation and lacks pioneering. If she were asked to plan the development of the two companies, she would not invest heavily in Spotify and Netflix and would be more conservative in her approach. .

In comparison, Link is bolder in this regard and has a more long-term vision in his decision-making.

"Hey, Cynthia, you crawled up my neck just to bite my ears?"

Link held the elf in his arms and wiped the little guy's ears that were covered in saliva. Just now, the little guy climbed on his shoulders and nibbled on his ears. The little guy had only grown six deciduous teeth, and it didn't hurt to bite them. .

"Is Cynthia hungry?"

Ivaca asked.

"No, she is just naughty."

Link picked up the cute little girl who was like a ball of pink, and kissed her little pink face. The little guy blinked his big bright eyes, giggled, and stretched out his little fingers like jade seeds to scratch his face.

Jingle Bell!

The mother of the two little guys called on time and asked Alexander and Cynthia what they were doing.

Link talks about having his ear bitten by Cynthia.

Taylor said he deserved it.

Link held the two little guys and walked to the computer to video chat with Taylor.

Alexander and Cynthia watched Taylor calling mommy on the computer. Taylor's eyes were full of the two little guys, and a smile appeared on his face unconsciously.

Link asked her how the album was selling.

Taylor proudly said that it was very good. He signed more than 5,000 records in London today.

Link asked her to take it easy and not get too tired.

Taylor rolled his eyes at him and told him to leave it alone, then took out a bunch of toys to tease the two little ones online and asked which one they liked?

Alexander and Cynthia grabbed the screen and kept babbling.

Link asked Taylor when he would leave London, as the crew of "The Hunger Games" would go to the UK for a roadshow tomorrow.

Taylor said he had received the notice and he didn't need to worry about it.

Link didn't say anything more.

The theme song "Safe \u0026 Sound" and the interlude "Eyes Open" of "The Hunger Games" were written and sung by Taylor, so she occasionally participated in movie promotion activities while promoting her new album.

Link chatted with Taylor for half an hour via video with the two little ones, and then Taylor had to go to work, so he continued to play with the two little ones in the living room.

In the afternoon, Selena brought little Annie over to eat, and the two big ones pushed the two little ones around the house, followed by a few kittens and puppies, and the villa almost broke out.

Originally, Link could barely handle taking care of the two little ones by himself, but with the little round-faced boy who hadn't grown up and the naughty little Annie, he was completely overwhelmed. He could only leave the big and small ones to the nannies to look after them and make sure they didn't do anything dangerous.