Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

"How's business in the store lately?"

After chatting with Taylor, Link video chatted with Fat James who was far away in Miami.

James is still so fat, wearing a large T-shirt, with reddish-brown hair, and holding in his arms a little guy who was just born, his second child. The eldest is a daughter, more than two years old this year, and the second is a son who was born Less than three months.

James was at a dive shop in Miami Beach at this time.

Every summer is the peak season for diving, and Miami is a tourist resort city. There are many tourists from June to September every year, and the business of the diving shop will be very good. In addition, the 'baker's diving shop' is an Internet celebrity shop, and the business will be doubly good.

Because of this, James stays at the beach to manage the diving shop during the peak season, and returns to the city to manage the cafe with his wife Lillian during the off-season.

The annual income is more than 200,000 to 300,000 US dollars, which is higher than the average white-collar income.

"Not very good. Summer vacation is over soon, and business is getting worse day by day. Link, let me show you something interesting."

Fatty James chuckled, took out a thick notebook, and showed him page after page. It was all full of names and contact information.

"What is this? You turned it over too fast."

Link asked.

"Diving reservation register, do you remember that you said before that you will come back to be a diver when you have time? Since 2008, people have come to make reservations every day. Although you don't have time to come back as a diver, there are still people who can make reservations. You Guess how many names are on this register now?"

James chuckled.

"How many?"

"31,831. Ever since you became popular in 2009, sometimes hundreds of fans come in a day to sign autographs, and they even make wishes in the registration book, hoping that one day I can go diving with you."

"You know, I don't have time to come back and be a diver now?"

Link said.

"I know, and the guests who have made reservations also know that everyone just regards this as a more interesting ritual. Guests will habitually sign on it after they come. Now this register is also the treasure of our store. , maybe one day it will be collected by a museum.”

James smiled.

Link felt that it was very possible, just like after MJ passed away, many of his personal belongings were auctioned, and some were sent to art museums.

His fame and influence are not much worse than MJ. Items like the register that record his growth are very likely to be collected by museums or private collectors.

"Hey Daniel, I'm talking to Link, want to come over and say hi?"

James shouted outside.

"Hey Link, why aren't you fat at all?"

After a while, Daniel from the hot dog shop appeared in the video. Daniel was fatter than when he got married in 2009. He was round and had a beer belly. His body shape was slowly approaching that of James. James joked that he ate too much ice cream and hot dogs. reason.

Daniel also left Miami Beach in 2009 and followed his wife Lina to open a barbecue restaurant in the city. Later, he found that the barbecue restaurant business was not easy to do, and the income was not as good as that of the small shops on the beach.

In order to make money, he and Lina would continue to sell hot dogs, ice cream, and barbecue on the beach every summer.

The situation is similar to that of James, and because of his good relationship with Link, his hot dog shop has also become an Internet celebrity shop.

In addition to James and Daniel, Michael from the surfboard shop also returned to Miami last year after spending two or three years in New York and other cities, working in a recording studio as a sound engineer and part-time talent scout.

After Michael came out, Link also contacted him to see if he could help him, but Michael refused and had to work hard on his own.

It's not bad now. James complained that Michael was changing girlfriends every day and was very degenerate. He also said that it was a good thing he didn't go out back then, otherwise he would have become as unruly as Michael.

——

After chatting with James and Daniel for a while, they agreed to go back to Miami Beach for vacation when they had time. Link also chatted with Chris Liu, Jennifer Shu and the children.

Seeing the two cute little guys growing up day by day, but rarely accompanying them, Link felt that he would inevitably be criticized by the children for being an unfit father in the future.

In order to make up for this regret, he decided to retire from the film industry in two or three years, reduce public activities, and spend more time with his family. He would spend at least one month every year with Xiao Shunan, Liu Jiani, and Sasaki Shinmei A little guy.

There are private planes now, so it’s very convenient to come and go.

Turning off the computer, Link stretched and walked out of the villa.

The sun was good outside, and the botanical garden was covered with green grass. Ivaca, wearing a light blue knee-length skirt, took three little ones for a walk on the lawn, followed by seven or eight kittens and puppies.

Link used to laugh at his neighbors, Scott Stuber and his wife, for making a big noise when they went out, but now the situation is the same at home.

Over the weekend, Link and Iwaka held a party in the villa, inviting company staff and partners in the film and television industry to come over, mainly to celebrate the successful conclusion of this summer's summer season, but also to prepare for the following autumn and film productions. Prepare for winter vacation.

Lionsgate has released 6 movies this summer, and four of them have exceeded 100 million in North American box office, including "Identity Thief" with 162 million, "Rust and Bone" with 121 million, "Now You See Me" with 132 million, and "Baby" with 159 million. 100 million.

Only the box office results of "Black Mad Woman 3" and "Her" were slightly inferior, but they did not lose money.

The total North American box office of the six films was US$682 million.

This year, a total of 212 movies were released in North America during the summer, with approximately 583 million movie tickets sold and a total box office of 4.76 billion US dollars. This result not only increased by 11% over last year, but also became the highest-grossing summer in history.

Among the 212 movies, 20 movies had a North American box office of over 100 million, with 5 Disney movies ranked first, 4 Lionsgate and Warner ranked second, 2 Universal, Fox, and Paramount, and 1 Sony.

Among them, Disney ranked first among the "New Seven" with a total box office of 823 million US dollars, with representative works "Iron Man 3" and "Monsters University".

Warner Pictures received 695 million in North America with four movies, "Man of Steel", "Pacific Rim", "The Hangover 3" and "The Great Gatsby", ranking second.

Lionsgate ranked third with 682, accounting for 14.5% of the total box office share

Universal Pictures, Fox, Paramount, and Sony ranked 4-7.

Lionsgate continues to maintain its top three position in the summer season. This result puts great pressure on its peers and also makes the company's senior executives and employees excited. The company's movies are selling well and they can get more year-end bonuses. No one doesn't want to see this.

However, because Lionsgate has performed well in the past two years, its peers have poached Lionsgate's talents.

Since April, eight senior executives above the supervisor level have been poached by peer film companies, five producers in the production department have also been poached, and more than ten ordinary employees have changed jobs.

Six of them were poached by Weinstein Pictures.

But this has little impact on Lionsgate. The secret of Lionsgate's movie sales is in Link's hands, not those executives.

With or without them, the movies can sell well, and even these people's job-hopping has many benefits for the company.

The company can take this opportunity to absorb more capable management and producers, implement the survival of the fittest internally, and keep all departments running efficiently.

"Hi, Link, congratulations, Lionsgate's performance is amazing, Link, you are now the person I admire most."

Ryan Kavanaugh of Relativity Pictures came over and said with a complicated look.

"Thank you! I just found a group of very capable partners."

Link smiled modestly.

"No, no matter what others think, I think you are the key to Lionsgate's movie sales. Before you acquired Lionsgate, Lionsgate was doing well, but it was just a small film company with a market value of 700 to 800 million US dollars.

After you took over Lionsgate, in less than three years, Lionsgate's market value quadrupled, and its annual box office performance increased year by year. It was able to suppress the six major film studios and ranked in the top three. This is very, very remarkable."

Ryan Kavanaugh exclaimed.

When Link took over Lionsgate in 2011, he, like all his peers, thought that Link's acquisition of Lionsgate was definitely a very unwise move.

In the future, Lionsgate will only go bankrupt.

But the facts slapped everyone in the face. Under Link's leadership, Lionsgate not only did not go bankrupt, but became the "new seven" in Hollywood.

If Lionsgate had not been established too recently and could not match the "big six" in terms of funds and channels, in the past two years, Lionsgate's films would have had a great chance to surpass Disney, Warner, etc. and become the industry leader.

For a genius like Link, he was envious and admired.

Compared with Lionsgate, the situation of Relativity Pictures has been getting worse year by year in recent years.

Before August, the company had released five films, only two of which had a North American box office of more than 50 million, "Safe Haven" with 73.14 million US dollars, and the animated film "Free Bird" with 55.75 million, while the production cost of "Free Bird" was 55 million US dollars.

In the first half of the year, Relativity Pictures not only did not make money, but also lost 180 million US dollars.

Counting the debts that had not been paid off in the past, the current situation of the company made him black-eyed.

He really didn't understand why Link, an outsider, could make a lot of money by going to Hollywood, while he, who had worked in the industry for more than ten years, would lose money.

This was so unfair.