Page Pictures.
Inside the conference room on the third floor of the company, no, to be precise, the third floor of Page Pictures, was packed with people. They were all film merchandise distributors from all over the world.
"Damn it, there are too many people!" a middle-aged woman complained.
"Hehe~"
Hearing this, an old man not far from the middle-aged woman couldn't help but laugh, "You just arrived today, didn't you?"
"Huh! How do you know?" The middle-aged woman was puzzled.
The old man immediately laughed, "If you had come yesterday, you would know that there were far more people yesterday than there are now."
"Really?"
The middle-aged woman raised an eyebrow and said in astonishment, "There are more than 40 people on the entire third floor right now, all of them merchandise distributors. Were there more people than this yesterday?"
The old man nodded heavily.
Not only that, many people in the surrounding crowd who overheard this conversation also nodded vigorously.
The "Spider-Man" movie was simply too popular!
Distributors of merchandise from countries and regions all over the world, including Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Morocco, the United Kingdom, and Thailand, complained quite a bit. Fortunately, Page Pictures was well-prepared and had good customer service; otherwise, things might have exploded.
"Who is the person currently in talks in the conference room?" the middle-aged woman asked again.
She was anxious!
Although she had just arrived, she knew that the person currently negotiating the contract in the conference room had already delayed everyone for a full half hour.
"Who in our industry has such a big ego to make us wait this long?" The middle-aged woman was a little upset.
In fact, it wasn't just the middle-aged woman who was upset; many people were also annoyed.
We are all merchandise distributors from all over the world, so why should we wait, wait, wait!
"Lyman Schweitzer!" the old man replied again.
"What?!"
In an instant, the middle-aged woman's pupils contracted.
"It's actually him?!"
The surrounding crowd also felt a jolt in their hearts and burst into an uproar.
Lyman Schweitzer, a big shot who dominated Europe, was one of the largest distributors of European film merchandise. At the same time, his industries also involved energy and mineral resources such as coal mines, steel, finance, and oil, making him a veritable energy magnate and a distinguished guest of various European governments.
With such a giant figure, among the merchandise distributors waiting on site, every single one of them, who would dare to compare themselves to Lyman Schweitzer?
For a moment, after the uproar, everyone quieted down.
After a long while.
"Old man, who are you? Your information is quite well-informed!" the middle-aged woman couldn't help but ask.
The surrounding crowd also turned their gaze to the hunched old man, wanting to know who this slightly stooped little old man actually was.
The old man: "..."
Pfft~
Just as the hunched old man was about to speak, a burst of laughter came from not far away.
"He's too embarrassed to say, so I'll say it for him. He's from the UK, and locals call him Baron Tobit. He mainly engages in local film distribution, book publishing, and other businesses in the UK. And, he has a good working relationship with local TV stations in the UK, with a net worth of several hundred million dollars."
The person who stepped out to speak was also a man, in his 30s, dressed impeccably.
Baron Tobit?
"I know him! I heard he was one of the earliest people in the UK to collaborate with Page Pictures, and he has a certain reputation in our merchandise retail industry," a Frenchman said.
"But there's one thing you don't know!"
The man continued, and his gaze towards Baron Tobit was full of teasing.
"What thing?" This Frenchman played the role of a hype man very well.
The man sneered, "Although Kyle is cunning, he is extremely honest and a person worth dealing with. As one of the earliest people in the UK to collaborate with Page Pictures, Baron Tobit shared a sweet piece of cake. It can be said that by partnering with Page Pictures, he made a lot of money."
"But!"
"Human nature is greedy, greedy, greedy, and desires are limitless; they urgently want to grasp everything, everything into their arms!"
"Starting in 1998, this esteemed Baron Tobit gathered a group of Page Pictures' partners and extensively profited, profited, profited from films like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "300," and "The Blair Witch Project," severely seizing profits that should have belonged to Page Pictures."
"What was the result?"
"Kyle naturally kicked our Baron Tobit out without hesitation!!!"
As soon as the words fell, there was an uproar at the scene.
Baron Tobit: "..."
Many people were extremely disgusted by Baron Tobit's actions.
"I didn't see that coming! As people get older, their hearts can get quite wicked~" The middle-aged woman couldn't help but laugh.
"Hmm!"
A distributor from France nodded, looking at the old baron with disdain, and said, "You say you did it, and you did it, but... you actually got caught, which is quite foolish!"
In fact, in business cooperation, countless unscrupulous acts occur, and even those at the scene who were denouncing Baron Tobit had done their fair share of such things. But, in their words, if you get caught, you're a failure!
If the matter isn't exposed, you're still a respected baron;
If it's exposed, haha, you're a shameless, despicable loser.
"Huh! Who are you?" Someone suddenly asked.
Immediately, many people at the scene focused their attention on the man who had exposed Baron Tobit's past.
"Me? My name is Cindy, and I work for ITV in the UK," the man said with a smile.
That's right, he was Cindy, one of Kyle's few good friends...
Several days later.
At Kyle's Burbank villa.
"Cindy, welcome. I'm sorry it took a few days to meet with you, old friend!" Kyle apologized first.
Cindy had been there for a few days already.
"It's alright, I know you're busy, and my matter isn't urgent." Cindy waved his hand, being very magnanimous.
Hearing this, Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. He still felt a little bad about inconveniencing his good friend for several days.
Cindy drank a glass of red wine and then smiled, "You've been busy these past few days, but you haven't made any less money, have you?"
"Hehe!"
Speaking of which, Kyle couldn't help but show a proud smile: "I'm not bragging, but you're absolutely right. In the past few days, we've brought in 145 million dollars from merchandise licensing in various countries and regions overseas!"
As the words fell.
Cindy exclaimed in astonishment, "So, with the 60 million dollars in merchandise licensing from the US mainland, you've made 200 million dollars!"
Kyle nodded heavily, unable to hide the smile on his face.
No way, he made so much money!
Cindy suppressed his excitement and said in shock, "The subsequent TV broadcast rights, offline DVD and videotape market, plus licenses for games, books, and so on, and most importantly, film financial derivatives—"Spider-Man" has simply made you a fortune!"
You don't know until you calculate it, and when you do, it's astonishing.
One "Spider-Man" movie could bring Page Pictures at least 400 million dollars in profit!
Actually, Kyle wanted to say "more than that."
In the original timeline, Sony Columbia Pictures earned 500 million dollars from the "Spider-Man" movie in the second half of 2002 alone. If you add the increase in market value since Sony Columbia was a publicly traded company, that's an additional 500 million dollars or more.
Even Kyle couldn't help but exclaim, ""Spider-Man" is really f***ing profitable!"
The profitability of "Spider-Man" was far, far greater than that of Marvel's later "Avengers."
As they chatted, Kyle and Cindy got down to business.
Yes, it was also the purpose of Cindy's trip from the UK to Los Angeles.
It all had to do with one man! This man's name was Bear Grylls!
Yes, a man dubbed "the top of the food chain."