NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 74.1
Barry Meyer could sense a headache coming from a mile away. Sometimes he was baffled by the sheer stupidity that some members of Warner’s board of directors showed. Every once in a while, a studio would stumble upon a goldmine of a film that changed 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 we are paying them is too much,” Sherry Peters, one of the most vocal members of the board, said firmly. “We can’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 salary, especially when they already have a favorable contract?”
“There must be something,” said Anthony Wasserman, Sherry’s most vocal supporter.
“I’m open to your suggestions, 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 can’t even get a 13-year-old child to lower his fees for his next film. Everyone in the industry is laughing at us for paying such an exorbitant salary to Troy. Why did you even agree to give him a percentage of the box office when you knew that 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% salary to Tom Cruise for [Magnolia]? And that was in addition to the $20m he was already charging. What happened there? 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 continued, “That said, I agree that this cannot 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. Next, he earned a 5% cut for the second movie, which came out to be $50m. With the way his contract 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 similar amount of money as the second, he would earn $75m. And a hundred million from then on for each film that makes a billion. What I propose is amending his contract and offering him $50m each for every Potter movie we make.”
The board took in all the information that he had already provided them in folders placed 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. “Can’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 negotiating power to make it work. If this was an ensemble film with multiple leads, then I could have done something to lower his salary, but with each book that Jo Rowling releases, it's painfully clear that Harry Potter is the protagonist through and through. Most importantly, we cannot forget that Troy has a very dedicated fan base, so we can’t even replace him. He does bring in the revenue equivalent to a top star as well. His five films to date have an average collection 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 youngest board member, said for the first time. “The counter deal you are offering to Troy isn’t a bad one either. The revenue from the first film to the second 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 money together?”
“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 salary if we’re all in consensus.”
After receiving assent from all the board members, the useless meeting ended. Barry knew that Steve or Troy would never agree to a lower salary. No one in their right mind would. Yet, he had to placate the board that he was trying something. Most of the sensible people there knew that nothing would come out of the meeting with Steve. And even a toddler could see through their useless tactics like delaying the production of the third film only to have some bargaining power over Steve and Troy.
(Break)
Steve walked into the meeting room confidently 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 honest. And a lot of my stress comes from you. The board is being a nightmare for me, and I’m obligated to show you the terms for Troy’s future salary.” 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 upcoming film production?”
Steve skeptically looked down at the folder that Barry had handed him and asked, “What about this? This offer from your company can change my plans for the film.”
“It won’t,” Barry reassured Steve. “Don’t worry about it. When you read it later, you’ll understand. Come on, tell me your plan.”
Steve wasn’t sold on that, but he didn’t argue any further and decided to tell Barry his plan to make [Prisoner of Azkaban] and [Goblet of Fire] back to back. Barry, to give him credit, was a patient listener who was yet to contradict Steve’s words or interrupt in between. Yet, he kept humming and nodding at the right places to let Steve know that he was listening carefully.
When Steve was done, Barry gave him a terse nod, “Done. I’ll approve the production 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. Similarly, you saw something in [Billy Elliot] and have already recouped most of your investment 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 in the last few years had been influenced by Troy either directly or indirectly, so it felt a little bad taking all the credit for it.
__________________________
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. (Blame Scribblehub's algorithm and business model for this decision, not me.) I know some people will not like it, to them I can only advise to stack chapters. My posting schedule on Pat reon will remain the same.