I'm in Hollywood

CHAPTER 25 - PROMOTION IN FULL SWING

CHAPTER 25 – PROMOTION IN FULL SWING
Posted on February 13, 2017 by Elawn

"Yesterday, a shocking gambling agreement was signed at the headquarters of Columbia Pictures, between the recently famous author of Jurassic Park and 17 Again, eighteen-year-old prodigy Eric Williams, and Columbia Pictures of the Coca-Cola Group."

"It was reported that, after Eric Williams completed filming 17 Again, he relied on the paycheck he received as a starring actor, as well as his royalty fee from Jurassic Park, to, in only fifteen days of time, write and direct a low-budget comedy of one hundred and forty minutes titled Home Alone. Leaving aside what the quality of the film will be like, for eighteen-year-old Eric Williams to accomplish this feat makes him worthy of the word 'genius'."

"After seeing Home Alone and deliberating, the Columbia executives became unanimously optimistic. According to insiders, Mr. Blount Cohen, president of Columbia had originally wanted to buy the entirety of the Home Alone copyrights for 10 million $, however, Eric Williams straightforwardly refused this offer, which would have been enough to make him one of the youngest multimillionaires in Hollywood, and instead proposed a completely insane gambling agreement."

The article was detailing the two sides of the bet, and analyzing the possibility of Eric winning it. The author was obviously an insider, he had included a series of data of similar past box office comedies, and estimated that with Home Alone, Eric's chance of losing was more than 80%.

Because Home Alone didn't star a celebrity, and hadn't had any investors, for this type of good but low-budget comedy, only a few could make 2 to 3 millions at the box office, most would just make a million. Therefore, the possibility of Home Alone breaking the 50 million mark was very low. The author even concluded by saying that Columbia would most likely never 'allow' Home Alone to pass that mark.

Most people liked to talk about all kinds of things, but their favorite topics would be; geniuses -the ones that were so out of their reach that they couldn't even feel envy-, tragic heroes, and conspiracy theories.

The Los Angeles Times article, had explicitly or implicitly, more or less broached about these three subjects, stirring the public sentiment. Even before the 20th Century Fox's 17 Again publicity stunt, people had already begun to develop an eagerness towards Eric, this could be seen by the sudden increase in Jurassic Park's sales.

Now, the appearance of Home Alone was like a bomb, the public's interest in Eric had exploded, which meant that sales and the ratings would too, and soon, in a few days of time, he had already received a dozen requests for interviews. Jeff, who hadn't contacted him in a while, suddenly called him to tell him that some people had come to inquire about him at the restaurant. Eric realized that the paparazzi had started to pay attention to him.

Meanwhile, after the publication of The Los Angeles Times article, the 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures seemed to form a tacit understanding as both the promotion of 17 Again and Home Alone started in full swing.

Although Carter Hunt, the head of the Distribution Department on the Fox's side had some regrets about refusing to watch Eric's Home Alone, as a professional, he quickly got over his mood, and after some negotiations with Columbia, launched a simultaneous publicity stunt. With those two giants joining forces, the results could well be imagined.