Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 772 - 559: Joker and Car Accident

These discoveries left him feeling helpless and under immense pressure.

With the rise of Lionsgate Films, executives at the Big Six Studios felt threatened. In order to avoid being fired by the board, they had to figure out how to produce profitable movies for the shareholders.

However, investing in films is akin to gambling; before a movie is released, no one knows whether it will turn a profit.

According to Hollywood's film industry investment rules, less than a quarter of movies make a profit each year. Taking movies released last year as an example, there were 826 films released in the North American Region with an average box office of 13.26 million US Dollars, most of which were unprofitable.

The Big Six Studios couldn't expand movie investment and ensure profitability at the same time, which also prevented them from catching up with Lionsgate in box office earnings.

Therefore, they could only figure out a way to replicate Lionsgate's successful movie investment model, perhaps that could help them outperform Lionsgate at the box office.

Unfortunately, despite employing corporate spies and trying to poach employees, they were unable to learn Lionsgate Films' investment model.

There were also rumors that Link learned how to invest in movies from Ryan Kavanaugh, the president of Relativity Media. After Warner Bros. Pictures studied Kavanaugh's big data investment model, they found it to be ineffective.

Furthermore, according to a former employee of Lionsgate Films, Lionsgate's major box office successes mainly depended on Ivanka and several executives. Link was too busy to get involved in the company's affairs.

This indicated that Lionsgate's box office success had little to do with Link.

Pam Abudi had been investigating for a long time but couldn't discover the core secret of Lionsgate's movie production. When faced with questions from CEO Kevin Tsujihara, she could only remain silent.

"You know the board's attitude. If we still can't find the secret to Lionsgate's movie operations and continue to let Lionsgate lead in box office, our fate will be the same as Jeff's," said Kevin Tsujihara gravely.

He was referring to Jeff Robinov, former CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, who was fired last year due to poor box office performance, along with five other senior executives.

Besides Warner, in the past few months, Universal Pictures, Fox, and Sony Pictures have also seen significant changes in their upper management and production departments. The media has called it a major shake-up within the Big Six Studios.

If the Big Six Studios cannot reverse their declining box office trend, there might be another round of reshuffling in a couple of years.

Pam Abudi understood this but had no good solutions. After contemplating, she said, "It's very difficult to defeat Lionsgate Films with regular methods, so I propose using unconventional methods."

"Unconventional?"

Kevin Tsujihara, a veteran in the film industry, understood her meaning. In Hollywood, there are many unconventional ways to deal with competitors.

Such as contract traps, box office fraud, press suppression, releasing films head-to-head, exposing scandals, etc.

These are the more legal among the unconventional methods.

There are also illegal methods, such as arranging for someone to leak a competitor's script, sending people to disrupt film sets, kidnapping actors and directors, burning film or video equipment, etc.

Among these methods, using media to suppress Lionsgate and exposing Link's scandals are something the Big Six Studios have tried before, but the effects were very ordinary.

Using illegal means has significant drawbacks; getting caught could lead not only to job loss but even imprisonment. As the CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, a senior employee,

Kevin Tsujihara didn't want to take such a huge risk for just a job.

Moreover, among Lionsgate's shareholders are not only Link, ranked 37th by Forbes but also Carl Icahn, ranked 25th. Using these tactics against them was not a good idea.

Kevin Tsujihara shook his head, "The board hopes we defeat Lionsgate Films at the box office through legitimate methods, not unconventional ones. Although unconventional methods are effective, they would damage the film market environment, harm the interests of our competitors, and we would also suffer. Additionally, the shareholders behind the board are still seeking to invest in Lionsgate; they are not keen to see a profitable Lionsgate go bankrupt."

Pam Abudi frowned, feeling stuck, unable to find a suitable method to defeat an increasingly strong Lionsgate.

"Take a look at this document."

Kevin Tsujihara picked up a folder and handed it over.

Pam Abudi opened it and looked surprised. The document was submitted by Lionsgate Films, expressing their desire to acquire the film adaptation rights for the character 'Joker' from the 'Batman' series, offering 20 million US Dollars.

"Lionsgate wants to produce superhero characters too?"

"Yes, in recent years, the most profitable movies are related to superhero characters. Lionsgate also wants to join in," Tsujihara said, lighting a cigarette.

"What does the company think?"

Pam Abudi asked.

"We just finished a meeting, the company plans to agree."

"Agreeing? Lionsgate Films itself has strong production capabilities. If we give them such characters to adapt, producing a blockbuster movie, it could be even more detrimental to us," Pam Abudi expressed with concern.

With the 'Batman' series being a big seller, the Joker character also gained extremely high popularity. In 2012, Warner Bros. Pictures also produced a movie featuring the Joker, which lost more than 60 million US Dollars.