Home Alone 2 led the Christmas lineup, and so far, its performance has been quite good, even with a chance to challenge the first film.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back finally ended its theatrical run, grossing $210 million in North America, which is an astounding figure. Seeing the impressive box office numbers of several movies this year, Hollywood believed the movie industry's cold winter was over. As long as good movies were made, audiences would show up.
But, unexpectedly, disaster struck out of the blue. United Artists' Heaven's Gate bombed terribly, pulling in just a few hundred thousand dollars on its first day.
With nearly 2,000 screens, that result was dismal. You could easily average it out and see that the attendance was lackluster.
The problem wasn't about making money anymore. With a $50 million investment, they're probably only going to recoup a few hundred thousand. The depth of the flop doesn't even need further detailing.
The unexpected turn of events put Hollywood bigwigs on high alert; this level of a flop could bankrupt a company outright.
The big hit for European speculative investors was equally disastrous. They had high hopes for this project, and now they're left with the unpleasant task of cutting their losses.
An Oscar-winning director flopped, making everyone wary of investment. Thinking ahead to next year's summer blockbusters, many bigwigs were probably feeling quite dreadful.
Warner Brothers felt conflicted, wondering if Superman could really stand out from the crowd.
Lucas was also a bit anxious. He wasn't confident about beating Johnny English, but at least their release schedules were far enough apart.
...
Whatever concerns they had, William White wasn't worried. With money in hand, he intended to accelerate his stock acquisition process.
Before financing, so-called valuations were not accurate. At least the banks wouldn't evaluate based on that value. But things were different now; the shares being bought were tradeable, and the market's acknowledgment gave the company's worth a tangible figure.
Of course, if you wanted to mortgage it to the bank, they would give a discount based on the actual situation.
The news about United Artists' flop wasn't grabbing much attention anymore because another piece of news stunned everyone: the valuation of William White's three companies reached nearly $5 billion.
A new richest person had emerged, and who cared about the fate of a flopped company?
What's that? You say he has many loans?
So what? The Wall Street elites aren't mere bystanders. William White's loans weren't even used in his own companies; they were all invested in the stock or real estate markets.
People were no longer laughing at his youth. Acquiring NBC? Not a big deal at all. As for those print media outlets, they performed well, and they seemingly held no allegiance to either party. If there was a scandal, they dared to expose it.
...
With the emergence of the new richest person, there was quite a commotion. Not only the upper crust of wealth began noticing the IT industry, but ordinary folks also started paying attention to the sector.
No matter how much economists blathered, no one listened. The power of example is truly tremendous.
Regrettably, while this industry had no significant financial barrier, it still had a serious technical one. Whether venturing into software or hardware, without sufficient knowledge, it was impossible.
So, what do you do? You poach talent from others! After all, everyone was doing it.
Unfortunately, it was tough to poach talent from William White; his core employees would never abandon their current benefits.
When it came down to it, the core personnel knew just how formidable their company was. Even if the Big Blue made a move, they wouldn't necessarily succeed. The rest had better just mind their own business.
This incident made William White a household name. Previously, people knew he was rich, but never in their wildest dreams did they think he could be this wealthy.
"Master, you need to beef up your security team."
"Fulton, didn't I already do that when things got tense a while back?"
Fulton could only shake his head and chuckle bitterly. Now that everyone knew he was rich, keeping a low profile was just asking for trouble.
"Master, if you had done this before, you'd be in a much better situation now."
"Alright, alright, I'll listen to you."
William White felt conflicted, wondering how he could enjoy life if he had to worry about being targeted like a sitting duck.
Paul Getty's grandson was kidnapped by Sicilians for a $20 million ransom. The old man even haggled, and they sent back an ear in response.
America truly wasn't safe, especially for a well-known figure like William White. Moreover, his rivals were lurking, ready to pounce.
...
"Pop, is he already America's richest man? That seems too easy."
"Hah, you really don't get it. Is it truly that easy? He's quite the prodigy, and even in battles with those old geezers, he doesn't lose."
"My brain's a bit scrambled. Sure, that game is good, and the comics aren't bad either, but they can't be worth that much, can they? Might he have pulled some trick to hoodwink those old folks into a frenzy?"
"Yeah, his methods of coaxing those old folks sent the trading center into a frenzy."
After the events of the day were reported, the IT industry buzzed with excitement. They knew computers could connect, but that was the domain of massive mainframe systems. The question was, how did he achieve it on a personal PC?
Most of the individuals present on that day were Wall Street elites. They might tell you what something was, but they had no idea about the specific parameters.
Many were interested, but unfortunately, there was no intention to disclose information. Confidently, he claimed that without three years of technical development, commercialization was impossible.
However, the situation was different now. This guy's company was considered public, and the investment firms had ponied up real money. Naturally, they were accountable to investors, and you couldn't entirely keep things under wraps.
What about the risk of technology being leaked?
Ha, they genuinely didn't care. This was the core difference between founders and investors. The more you reveal, the more their shares are worth, and if nothing else, they could sell them off.
*****
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