Chapter 122

Chapter 122 - CAA Revelation

BecauseMichael Ovitzinsists onCAAstaying a private company, even after the company has now developed into an industry giant, but it is still not listed. So, although this was a menacing storm, as long as the proper response is made, this storm won't cause too much real harm to CAA, but the company business will still be affected for the next few months. Even the second and third line artists that were poached by other brokerage firms won't have any impact onCAA, The number of artists CAA has reached more than six thousand people, taking a few dozen artists from them won't even make them itch.

But superstars leaving is another thing, especially a star on the level ofTom Cruise, he has a lot of influence among other Hollywood actors, Tom Cruise departure, will definitely give the other superstars a false signal.

Michael Ovitz'sreaction was very fast, the day Cruise left, all of CAA's partners, brokers and signing artists received a letter written byMichael Ovitzhimself, clarifying why Cruise left, and also earnestly added some words to enumerate the brilliant achievements ofCAAover the years, and the tremendous changes CAA brought to the actors, hoping that everyone will not be affected by public opinion and that CAA future will be even brighter.

But this letter didn't prevent the deterioration of the situation, three days afterTom Cruiseleft, several other superstars, leftCAAfor a variety of reasons.

These stars joined CAA because ofMichael Ovitz'sseries of bundling strategy, which led to a substantial increase in their income, but with the general increase in income of Hollywood stars becoming the norm, even if they left to other brokerage firms, they can still get a very high paycheck. Plus when Cruise suddenly left he caused a panic inCAA, so this was the best time to move, with the news of other stars leaving CAA, become known, more and more stars began to falter.

Michael Ovitzwho was badly scorched by the flames of this storm, cursingTom Cruise, he lowered his head and Personally started trying to pursue the big actors who want to leave, he hasn't done this kind of thing for a long time.

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And in the other corner of the city, Eric, who benefited the most was laughing his ass off, he wasn't the instigator of this storm, but he certainly wasn't going to let this chance g

o, this is a good opportunity, to stopCAAfrom dominating Hollywood for the next ten years, like they did in his past life.

"Eric, why are you suddenly looking for me, I declare in advance that my hands are full, four is the limit of my ability, I don't want you to send any more people my way."

Kapoor was in full swing when he appeared in Eric office whenCAAencountered this misfortune, he will be a hypocrite if he said he wasn't happy, he was so happy even his bald head got a bit shinier.

Eric leaned back in his chair and said: "What if it wasTom Hanks?"

"Who?" Kapoor pricked up his ears and leaned slightly forward.

"Tom Hanks," Eric repeated.

Kapoor showed a big smile, and said: "Eric, are you sure, if he accepts, then I'll bite the bullet and take him."

"bite the bullet? if I didn't see the huge smile on your face, I would have pitied you" Eric ridiculed.

Kapoor did not care about Eric's ridicule, and asked, "Eric, are you sure you can digTom Hanks?"

Eric shook his head, "No, but I'm going to try. I've made an appointment with Hanks for dinner tonight, and he agreed."

Kapoor is confidence that Eric can succeed, the young man has brought him too many surprises: "Eric, maybe you can also try head huntingTom Cruiseto UTA, he has no brokerage company now."

"Don't even think about it, Mr. Cruise is a very ambitious person, I heard he want to become a producer. It is expected that he will soon start his own film production company."

Eric didn't expect that because of his appearance in this timeline, will causeTom Cruiseto go solo seven years ahead than in his past life, in that time line Cruise choose to go independent only after he made huge profits from several of his films that sold well.

After leavingCAA, Cruise immediately made his agent Paula Wagner contact Fireflies, to began negotiating his paycheck.

Cruise conditions weren't as outrageous as CAA, he asked for a $5 million fee plus 10% of the profits, way more reasonable than the CAA crazy conditions. However, the profit-sharing model, after all, has just appeared, the terms proposed byCAAwere completely out of mischief, as for the condition Cruise proposed there is still a lot of room for discussion, after thinking about it Eric decided to only give Cruise 5% of the profits.

And he felt that the success rate of this matter is very high, because the latest news he got, is thatTom Hankspromised to give up on the profit sharing model and that he will only take a paycheck like he always did.

At this timeTom Cruisecan be considered more famous than Hanks, but the difference isn't big, but once the news about Hanks paycheck conditions is exposed, he was sure thatTom Cruisewould back down. Although Cruise has tasted the profit sharing sweetness in his latest film Rain Man, in this era generally no one takes profits from the movies they act in, Rain Man was more like a special case. As mentioned before, Cruise was able to get the profit sharing option in Rain Man because the film budget was insufficient, so Cruise had to drop his paycheck for the film to complete shooting. And because Rain Man was good at the box office, he was able to make more money than if he took just a paycheck.

When Eric heard that Hanks was going to give up the profit sharing plan, he felt that this was the best time to dig upTom Hanks.CAAhas vowed to get him a piece of the film's profits, but suddenly he was told to give up, Eric was sure that Hanks was dissatisfied with CAA. Others may not understand, But Eric knew Hanks's potential, the next ten years will be the beginning of the outbreak ofTom Hanks'sacting career, not only will his movies gross billions of dollars at the box office, he will also win two Best Actor awards in theOscars.

Although he told Kapoor, he wasn't sure he can dig Hanks, but in fact, Eric felt he has a 90% chance to win Hanks, compared toCAA, he has more attractive chips in his hands.

"Well, don't mentionTom Cruise, in fact, I called you because of something else." Eric said, he spent several nights awake writing this manuscript, handing the folder to Kapoor he said: "help me summarize this?"

Kapoor took the file and read the title, CAA Revelation: How the broker giant formed.

Opening the manuscript, Kapoor slowly started reading, page after page he flipped through them, the more he read, the more serious his facial expression got. When Kapoor finished, he slowly raised his head and looked at Eric as if he was staring at a monster.

The manuscript is very long, more than ten full pages, giving a detailed description of what the five founders ofCAAdid after job hopping fromWilliam Morris Agency, how they developed and sold Tv shows like Rhyme and Reason, the Rich Little Show, and The Jackson 5ive. And how they gradually developed a bundling sales system, and how in just the short span of fifteen years, they formed a new and unique business philosophy.

The reason why Kapoor was shocked, was because the manuscripts mentioned things, even he a former CAA gold broker, didn't know was happening, but after reading it on paper, he knows that he experienced most of these practices. However, he didn't have the ability to systematically form a relatively complete management theory of the brokerage firm.

And he was also curious, How did Eric know all those things?.

The reason CAA isn't a listed company is becauseMichael Ovitzdidn't want his personal business philosophy, to get leaked. Once the company is listed, a lot of informationCAAwill have to be giving to their investor, once CAA do that their opponents can easily learn their advanced business philosophy.

You can't apply for a patent for a company business strategy, so once the other brokerage firms study their mode of operation, the advantages CAA had for the last decade will no longer exist.

Unable to restrain his emotions, Kapoor carefully raised the manuscript in his shaking hands, and asked: "Eric, are you the one who wrote this?"

"Well, I want you to help me see if theirs anything wrong with it. And by the way, you won't object to me publishing this article?"

Kapoor quickly shook his head and laughed bitterly, "If I had the ability to sum up these things, I would have personally published them. Eric, I don't understand you anymore, all of the theories you mentioned in this article are true, even me who worked forCAAfor many years didn't know these things were happening, if you had me write them myself, I wouldn't even know from where to start."

Eric just smiled and didn't explain, in the eyes of other companies CAA set of business strategies are full of mystery, even when they stole some brokers from CAA, all they obtained was incomplete information about their business strategy.

But for someone like Eric who lived in the age of the internet,CAAbusiness strategy is not a mysterious thing, remembering his past life, Eric found that in 1996, CAA who has grown into an unshakeable Colossus has attracted the attention of a reporter. The reporter spent more than a year collecting a lot of information about CAA, and finally, he was able to unravel the mystery of CAA, after that the public finally realized why CAA CEOMichael Ovitzwould be named Hollywood's most powerful figure.

But at that time,CAAhas already grown into a huge monster, even if other companies wanted the copy this behemoth strategy, they only end up frustrated.

CAA brokers are just one component of the machine called CAA, they helpCAAkeep going forward, but if you take just a piece of this machine, you won't be able to know how this huge machine works. The only one who can fully explain how CAA works isMichael Ovitz, and of course, Eric who come from the future and can remember every thing.